Weekly Blogs: Week 3
Weekly Blogs aka Journals or rambles: April 17, 2008 — it’s actually late and it’s Thursday
I’m not sure but I imagine the rest of the world operates similar to me in that there are times when everything doesn’t work. For whatever reason your cell phone, your car, your passport, your blog, and sometimes even your body just seem to fail you. It all happened to me over the last 2 weeks. It’s no excuse for not showing up to blog, but I’m just keeping you in the loop.
Kinda like my life you have to know that everything turned out positive to keep reading this! And it was positive — the Bermuda International Film Festival was a smashing success on all levels. We almost didn’t make it for a few reasons. First the cell phone! Oh, the cell phone! Sprint does not get service out in the middle of no wher. AT&T does and unfortunately I don’t have AT&T. So when I jumped in my car just before leaving for Bermuda for one last meeting I couldn’t call anyone to say HELP! But that was fine because my car was screaching so loud that it called out for me.
It was something to do with my brake pads once again, and this is a newer car — nothing fancy but new. So my 2006 Honda Civic had to head into the shop and we needed to get to LA. Lucky for me I have amazing in-laws close by that came to the rescue along with AAA and a local towing service.
The car went in for care, and finally at the end of the day Cole and I made it to Los Angeles to catch our flights. In LA both our phones work, but I used his to call Riccardo b/c Ricky has AT&T and mobile-to-mobile…you get the picture. When we stopped by Ricky’s, Cole was starving and I had already said to my new husband that no matter what when you come into their home all Italians will offer you food…even if we’re running late. Ricky did make the offer, but he didn’t have the sauce going yet so we rushed to the airport still hungry.
We made it, parked in long term parking, and took the shuttle to Delta. We were way ahead of my normal schedule and ready for take off. We even had time for dinner and margaritas before our red-eye flight to Boston.
In Boston we transferred as normal. Ricky called a friend and we were off to Bermuda. That’s when the passports didn’t work. Turns out we also needed the name and address of the hotel we were staying at and I probably should have been the one to get that information. I thought it was in one of our emails, but then the cell phones weren’t picking up data signals, so all three of us were sent to immigration for “review.”
Lucky for us a driver was waiting outside and she tracked us down after being paged. We were at the Hampton Princess. A nice hotel without a beach, but the beach wouldn’t be that far.
The screening of the documentary on the first night was amazing. It was so new to have all new, unknown strangers viewing my life. Up until then it had always been friends, loved ones, supporters, and now it was strangers. I waited for their reaction. They gave their hearts over and offered me a very warm welcome. They were full of questions, good ones, some new, and some I have heard before. One that keeps coming up: “How is your relationship with your mother?”
I answer that one a little different almost every time, as my relationship with her continues to change. Even though we have not spoken in some time I suppose that at times being a step mom makes me feel closer to her, and at other times further. At times the love I get from my other moms makes me forget about her. At all times I do think about her. Most recently when I was thinking about my feelings for her I thought “I do love her and I think she deserves to have some redemption.” I hope some day she will be at one of the screenings of the documentary when someone asks that question, then she could maybe answer the question from her perspective. I think that would be fair.
Well…I’ve written so much and really nothing at all. I’ll stop for now and be back when I’m back. Probably soon because we haven’t gotten to how my body stopped working. Just so you know it’s almost back on track. I returned from Bermuda feeling fine, and was ready for a trip to Sacramento (have to tell you all about this in the next blog!).
I could have easily cancelled Sacramento, but the panel was about homeless and runaway youth and law enforcement. I needed to be there, and I had already invited someone from the Fresno PD to be there with me! I made it. I shared one of the most difficult memories in my memory bank. The one about Icey basically walking free after raping and exploiting me, and me going to jail instead of the hospital. That’s a painful memory, and with time it is healing. I think it impacted the audience to hear it directly from someone who had lived it and they felt the urgency when I said it’s the same policy today!
So, the little scratch in the back of my throat I had in Sacramento has now turned into a full fledged sinus infection and my body stopped working. I’ll be ready for t-ball and the Fresno Film Festival — which kicks off tomorrow since I have had a week’s dose of anitibiotics.
See you at the Fresno Film Festival. If you’re curious and going to be in Fresno the documentary is showing on Sunday April 20th at 2PM. You can buy tickets online: http://www.fresnofilmworks.org/f_fest08_shorts2.php
I’m also going to be at Fresno State on May 25th at the “Cultivating Community” conference. I’ll screen the documentary and talk about what it means to be back in Fresno. The entire day looks amazing. Here are the details: Cultivating Community