Take Me Home

I'm always getting recommendations of movies I'm told I just have to see because of how they accomplish similar character arcs or present similar situations to stories I'm working on. Funny thing is: because life inspires some of these stories in the fist place, sometimes the recommendations end up speaking to me personally as much as they do artistically. Case in point: Take Me Home (2011)

Tonight I just felt like a movie & I noticed this film recommended by a consultant who is advising me on one of my original stories was on Netflix Instant View. Since I'm about to dive into a new project for hire, I thought I'd indulge myself and focus on one of my personal projects for a couple hours before shelving it until the new project is finished.

Oh my! 

The theme, which (in the trailer) is boiled down to, sometimes "running from your problems... is the best way to face them," is so timely. This scene where Claire & Thom are stranded in the desert and being brutally honest with each other reminds me of multiple issues I'm dealing with now: 

           CLAIRE 

Whatever those two had when they got married, they gave up on a long time ago. 

           THOM 

Yeah, well... it can’t all be rainbows and chocolate hearts. You know, they had kids, responsibilities, eventually you have to settle down.            

           CLAIRE 

Some people settle down and some people just settle.             

           THOM 

Well, it’s clear which category you fit into.            

           CLAIRE 

What?            

           THOM 

Oh, come off it. You escaped New York faster than Kurt Russell, and then you demand that I take you back once you feel like I’m scamming you, and then you ask me to drop you off at a motel in the middle of nowhere. I mean, make up your mind! You’re like a ping-pong ball. Someone gives you a little tap and you just go flying.             

           CLAIRE 

     (pause) 

I left New York because I caught my husband having an affair.            

           THOM 

Oh.            

           CLAIRE 

Yeah, oh.            

           THOM 

You like, caught him?            

           CLAIRE 

Pretty much.... There was definitely something going on.             

           THOM 

But you didn’t see anything? 

           CLAIRE 

I just, I didn’t need to see something, I just know.             

           THOM 

There was no emails you didn’t find or pictures from the Bahamas or anything? 

           CLAIRE 

I just know.            

           THOM 

     (laughs)            

           CLAIRE 

Why are you laughing?            

           THOM 

When I drove off the road, you caught me. This, this just sounds like someone looking for a way out.

The Issues:

(1) difficulty in clearly explaining why I feel the need to leave Todd, 

(2) recognizing the difference between "settling down" and "just settling," 

(3) being too much like a ping-pong ball (relying on external "taps" to get me rolling, rather than taking control of my own direction and momentum) and 

(4) fearing the accusations that I'm "just someone looking for a way out" (as if that is something that needs to be defended.)

Don't Go Breakin' My Heart (part 3)

So, you may be thinking this is just going to be a Todd-bashing blog... Oh no, that would be shallow, and I don't do shallow. Pointing fingers in blame doesn't help us grow and discover why we do the things we do, especially when they're obviously destructive.

Like I said before, this blog is my cheap form of therapy. I have a friend who is a therapist and he tells me that if I ask the right questions, chances are I'll come up with the right answers. So, I want to explore plenty of questions here, and hopefully some of them will be the "right" questions. Perhaps someone who stumbles upon this blog will have a question. If you do, don't be shy. You may be able to help me discover the questions that will resolve some of my issues, or maybe you'll learn something yourself from the mistakes I'm going to try to openly share here.

Think about this: If Miss Understood believes she has landed with Mr. Wrong, how does that even matter if she doesn't know how to recognize (or wait for) Mr. Right? Good question. If there isn't a change in her, even if she were to move on, who's to say she wouldn't end up with Mr. Wrong II? Finger-pointers and blame-putters are usually inordinately prideful, and as you may have heard, that icky stuff usually leads to a fall. So, in the interest of by-passing that pitfall, I thought I'd start out by pointing a few more fingers at myself in a chapter within the "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" chapter entitled: "Watch out for the Loonies."

"Watch out for the Loonies" is a phrase I often use when sending my kids out onto the big bad streets. When I say that, I'm usually referring to dangerously bad drivers, disgruntled postal workers, and the neighborhood ax-murderer; however, in the context of this blog, I'm referring to guys who are likely to drive a girl's life off a high cliff into disaster. We know they're out there, and we know they're Toonces the Driving Cat wannabes, destined to crash... so who's fault is it if an intelligent girl hops in the passenger seat? The Loony is just being a Loony. That's what Loonies do. I say a girl needs to be mighty careful who she hops in a vehicle with, especially the fast-moving vehicle of life.

How was Bridget about "watching out for the loonies"? I thought I'd make a list of all the lunatic mistakes I've made with guys. Anyone who reads this will probably think it's a wonder that I'm still alive. Yep, I've been pretty stupid.

I hate to leave you hanging, but it's really late, and I'm getting really tired, so I'm afraid I'll have to leave this one a to-be-continued.