1. When I was little I wanted to be a marine biologist. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I had followed that path.
2. I feel like I can identify more with little kids than I can with most adults.
3. One day in March 2007, I suddenly felt the need to shave my head completely bald and pierce my lip. Later that week I found out I was pregnant.
4. This past year has been the hardest year of my life.
5. I feel more optimistic about the future right now than I probably ever have.
6. Once I swallowed a tadpole on a dare. For weeks afterward I would wake in the middle of the night, convinced I could feel something trying to crawl back up my throat.
7. I have never had the chicken pox. But, as I found out when I was pregnant and getting all kinds of blood work done, I have the antibodies for chicken pox.
8. The summer I turned 14 I went to Russia for three weeks. When I came back everything was different- I felt like I had a new pair of eyes.
9. People who talk a lot make me nervous.
10. My favorite dessert is graham crackers with frozen Cool Whip.
11. I am obsessed with the original Star Trek series.
12. I lived alone in the woods for four months to make a film that I’ve only shown once.
13. I have a recurring dream where I’m either burning everything I own or throwing it all into a lake.
14. I’ve made more art in the year since Pema was born than I did during the five years after I graduated from art school.
15. I hate ferris wheels. I went on one recently with a friend, thinking surely I had outgrown my hatred, but I was wrong. I’m OK with roller coasters, though.
16. I often feel failed by language. I am trying to find alternatives.
17. I won a film grant through the Princess Grace Foundation when I was still in school. I was flown to New York for the awards ceremony, which was in the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria. Rene Fleming sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” to the awards recipients. I met Prince Albert of Monaco. We were allowed to bring one guest, and I asked my boyfriend at the time if he would go. He didn’t want to miss any school. My mom had indicated that she wanted to go, but I told her it would make me nervous to have her there. I went alone. If I could change any one thing about my past, this would be it. I would have taken my mom to New York to see me get my award.
18. I used to spend a lot of time in my closet when I was little, looking for secret doors to parallel dimensions. I tried every combination of secret knocks and words that I could think of.
19. I love Jay more than he knows.
20. Sometimes it seems like before I can move toward something, first I have to violently oppose it.
21. If I ever have a son I would love to name him “Zephram”.
22. I just gave my two weeks notice at my job- I’m going to stay home with Pema, make art, and cook delicious things to eat. I realize this is an opportunity to be treasured.
23. My love for unicorns is not based in any kind of irony.
24. My biggest hope as far as being a mom is that I can show Pema that it’s OK to be different and that only she can know what her life should look like.
25. Breakfast will always be my favorite meal.
