I survived!

Yes, I know you were worried about SLM - Shy Lil' Me - but I did it, I made it through the first class, complete with exercises where she gave us cues and then we had to write the first thing that came to mind and THEN when she was done, we had to break into groups of 2 or 3 and SHARE. This is thing I don't do well with strangers. So I have a feeling this is going to be good medicine for me - it may taste bad - but will end up doing me a world of good, because guess what? We had to do this 3 times and each time, I did not die. I did not turn to jelly like Simon in Airplane 2 (although I'm jello-like - go on, squeeze me!), nor did I melt into a puddle like Amelie did when she can't find the courage to talk to Nino. I was fine. Okay, maybe I melted a bit on the inside, but my candy shell remained intact and the two people I HAD to talk to and discuss with seemed nice and at the very least, interesting. And - just as unsure/nervous as me. So there. Most of it was listening to her speak about writing and the creative process and what the course would entail - she used to be married to Martin Scorsese by the way and she only referred to him once as her "ex-husband who lives in Pasadena" but apparently they still have a good friendship, which I think speaks well of both of them. But I gathered most of the class knew this little gossipy tidbit and knew who she was referring to, without name dropping. Good for her.

One thing is - as she put it - non-negotiable. The first thing you have to do when you wake up in the morning is write 3 pages in a notebook, longhand. You have to. Now I've had this lady's book for like 7 years (without getting past chapter 2) and she mentions this right off the bat and its REALLY really really really really really REALLY hard to do and to keep doing, no matter what. But she swears amazing things shall come to pass if we keep up with it and since I'm actually paying money for this class, then I figure I better do what she says for the duration.

Needless to say, today was my first day at it and I did 2.5 pages. Close enough. I think when I get home, I should finish the rest even though that's not really how it works but the one lady I spoke to in the second "cluster" told me that she started doing them a week ago in anticipation of the class and said that the first day or so, it was difficult to force herself to do them but then she found herself looking forward to them, like a luxury, because the idea is to get all that crap out of your head, the dust bunnies, so it's really a bit like meditation and then she felt her day went along on a better note because she swept her mind clean, leaving you to focus on what you should/need to be focusing on. I'm hopeful that I will come to enjoy it too - it wasn't awful but you know, I sort of would have rather just laid there for 40 minutes, drifting in and out of sleep listening to 1010WINS until I can no longer hide, it's creeping closer to 9am and I must get up, as per my usual.

But as I said before, good medicine...I just need a spoonful of sugar to assist me as my other role model (the primary one is still Fraulein Maria) Mary Poppins sang so luverly...

And other tasks were given to us as well, so I've got my work cut out for me - and we have to check in with her each week as to what we've worked on, how many mornings we did or did not do the 3 pages - so we are being held accountable to an extent - as she said, she teaches Grown Ups. How much we choose to use this is up to us.

Looks like after a 12 year absence, Little Miss Me finds herself back in school...I have homework!!