If anyone has been following, they would correctly assume by the date of my last entry (exactly 24 hours before my first day of my MFA program) that I have been sucked into the vortex of deadlines, facebook, and, oh yeah, parenthood?  At the moment, I’ve been spit out long enough to say hello. I’m alive and well and working my ass off.

Everything I have to say about the residency and subsequent semester- how I like it, love it, manage my time is sure to sound like I’m stringing every cliche about love and fulfillment into a single paragraph. Cliches are my enemy and I root them out while I attempt to produce up to 40 pages of fiction, 2 critical essays, and a 10 page letter to my amazing faculty advisor every three weeks. I’m not known for my skills in on demand creativity and it appears I have a lot to remember about time management.  But I’m working on it. ….And I feel fine…..

This audition was for an interactive voice response (IVR) phone system. Nothing too glamorous, nothing that will make me famous. But hey, someone who has never met me liked my work.  I believe his exact words were, “your voice was definitely the best.”

I’ll take that any day.

Obviously, this set-up is not necessarily the cream of the crop for audio recording — no sturdy, sound-proof walls with glass windows allowing me to communicate noise-free with a director who’s listening from the outside – but it does do a very nice job with the type of recordings that I do at home right now (mostly auditions and custom demos).

It was super simple – a collapsible storage cube, some acoustic foam tiles, a low-profile microphone stand and pop filter connected to my condenser microphone and USB MobilePre preamp/audio interface. Plug it all into my laptop and presto! It’s time for take one.

My kids had that honor. Here’s my youngest trying twinkle twinkle.

And here’s my 5 year old with his own creation.

Hopefully I’ll be able to turn this portable sound booth into a little more than a fun and expensive toy.

Typically, all I can squeeze into a day – before melting on the couch after my kids go to bed and the dishes are done and the laundry is folded and the cat is fed and the house is clean – is a few articles from the magazines on my coffee table that expired months ago.

But this Christmas, things were different.

When my kids were out of school, I sort of went on vacation too.

I stopped worrying about being on time — to class, to activities, to play dates. I didn’t plan anything. I didn’t worry whether by boys were fully engaged and entertained throughout the day. And I must admit, I barely even cleaned the house (other than dishes and keeping things tidy). Instead, I jumped at every free moment to finish books about the field of voice acting that I’ve been wanting to read.

The heftiest of the bunch was The Art of Voice Actingby James Alburger.. actually, I’m still trying to finish this one. It has been referred to as “the bible of voice acting” and the author is someone I’m considering as a voice instructor.

I also read Voice for Hire: Launch and Maintain a Lucrative Career in Voice-Oversby Randy Thomas and Peter Rofe – a much quicker read that gives a great breakdown of the VO business. And then, VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-Over Actorby Harlan Hogan. This was recommended to me by another voice coach out of Salt Lake City with whom I’m also considering doing telecourse work.

It’s inspiring to get answers to the questions I’ve wanted to ask but didn’t know who could reply. I’ve been taking baby steps in my career the last few years while devoting all my time to raising my children. I feel ready to move my career into a higher gear. I like to think this new, insatiable appetite for reading is a sign that, this year, I WILL make the time to make it happen.

This morning began at 4:30am.  My husband was up with my first movement offering to brew me a cappuccino and holding my hand as I struggled to stay confident saying goodbye.  My six year old daughter woke with my kiss and I had to walk out the door to the sound of her weeping. Can you say broken nerves? I’ve never been away from my girls for more than 2 nights ever!

Off to the airport for the first time flying without children in over five years! I never thought crowed terminals and crammed planes could feel like a spa vacation.  A 5am phone call assured me that all was well at the home front.  During the flights I managed to critique 4 manuscripts and finish The Island of Dr. Moreau and an additional short story.  

As my plane descended over Asheville, NC, I was surprised by the mountains and rivers.  This place is so peaceful and beautiful. I felt a great calm.  

Now I’m in my hotel room having just devoured a bbq sandwich,  glass of Shiraz, and a chocolate torte.  My luggage isn’t getting here until midnight (Thank you Delta) though I’ll be well into my sleep- two earplugs as I have no need to listen for night cries.

Tomorrow I get a leisurely morning before heading ten miles into the mountains of the Warren Wilson campus. Stay tuned…..

I love choosing fabric combinations and watching as things I think about in the shower come to life. I just realized yesterday that this is my new medium. Now I’m trying to figure out how I can fuse my love of politics, the environment, and sewing into a career?? This Christmas I made reusable shopping bags of American-made, organic cotton. Maybe this could be my little contribution? It just seems so insignificant.  hmmm… stay tuned…

 May your holiday wishes come true.

“Just what is it you’re trying to accomplish?,” my friend asked.

“For me…” I replied, “It’s about getting support from friends who are going through the same thing. By writing down what we’re doing, we’re forcing ourselves to take action. We can’t get away with just dreaming about it anymore. We have to hunker down and make a move. Plus, we’re writing this blog together –- so we’re encouraging each other emotionally along the way.”

“That all sounds great,” he said,”but what happens when the blog becomes the focus? When all you think about is what you’ll write next? Isn’t it, then, steering you away from what you’re really trying to accomplish?”

Good question.. But I hope that’s now how it goes.

I tried to explain that we, the writers at Blog of the Butterfly, remind ourselves not to worry about what to write. Instead, we should just jot down what’s truly going on in our daily lives – the steps we’re taking towards new, more meaningful careers – even if it means writing about the distractions that keep us from it.

“Then it’s just a journal,” he said. “Personally, I would get bored with that.”

Well, OK. Maybe it is a journal. This blog certainly isn’t a how-to manual. I don’t even know how to get from point A to point B! And if I did, this probably wouldn’t be such a huge journey for me.

This particular blog – The Blog of the Butterfly – is about four women transitioning from one phase of life to another.

We’ve already gone through one transition, from successful career women to stay-at-home mothers. Now, fully focused on our families and raising our children, we can see another phase coming. A phase that welcomes the opportunity to create new work with meaning. And even though we don’t know exactly know how to get there, we hope that writing about our processes will help us achieve our goals (with a few toddler tantrums, spills, laughs, and sleepless nights mixed in). And maybe, just maybe, our stories will help some other women along the way.

Isn’t that what a blog is about? A place to take time to enjoy life’s minutia that you won’t find in a how-to manual? To relate to a subject in a way that no other medium allows? I may be a newbie at this, but I thought a blog was whatever you wanted it to be. And that makes it a more personal, more true to life kind of communication.

That’s what I thought anyway. How would you define it?

Just spent five delicious (I mean five extra pounds delicious) days with my family at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, Canada.  If I was feeling proud of my regular bikram yoga practice, trail runs, and Moosewood cookbook eating habits, I am now feeling equally horrendous having drunk several mochas per day, stuffed myself with english butter tarts, and eaten decadent restaurant food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  What was supposed to be about holiday lights and cozy christmas shopping somehow turned into a glutton’s fiesta.

Now, satiated and back home (loads of laundry later) I turn all my attention to getting last minute presents, packing for our Christmas trip, packing for our post Christmas trip, making sure my daughter’s birthday party is ready to go by the time we return, oh- and packing for Asheville.  Place your bets ladies and gentlemen, can I do it?  Stay tuned as the countdown to Christmas, a birthday, and being prepared for my first semester of graduate school moves into single digits.

And just for kicks, here are my rug rats on the same trail in winter.

Now, I know not everyone likes to run, or even exercise. But really, to clear your mind and let the creative juices flow, I believe you need to get your body moving, in total isolation, somewhere in nature. I’ve noticed I need all three criteria to make this process work.

When I’m running, walking, hiking, biking, whatever… my body somehow moves my thinking into a higher gear. It’s like a stimulant. My brain gets more creative, in a more positive flow.

Being in nature is innately uplifting. You’re free from distractions of human conversation, manmade sounds, advertisements, phones, TV, email, chores — anything that easily pulls you away from the thought process you need to follow. In nature, you begin to feel a gentle encouragement from waving grass, fluttering leaves, the twittering birds, or a gurgling creek.

And isolation is a given. Your brain can’t flow freely while someone else is interrupting your thoughts. Even if they’re not talking, their presence impacts your thinking. Maybe you’re watching their rhythm, or thinking about how they’d react to your thoughts, or just mumbling under your breath, “man, they’re moving too fast today!”

With all three factors there, simple ideas for resolution come to me every time. I may not always find the answer, but I do get a head start.

It’s how I chip away writers block or settle business strategies and negotiations. It’s where penelopyfly felt encouraged about her upcoming writer’s program. Heck, it’s where we came up with the idea for this blog (ok, that time I wasn’t alone, but penelopyfly and I were bouncing creative juices off each other on the same topic).

Get your body moving, alone, in nature. And I swear, you’ll start to hear the creative juices flowing.