It's a gnome, baby.

Yesterday was a very full day. It started off sort of slow, like most Thursdays do, but it picked up by late afternoon. Let me start from the bottom up. Last night I met some friends for beers at Lee Harvey's. We sat outside in the cool Dallas night and talked about all sorts of things. The most interesting was that my girl Laura is starting her own law firm. How cool is that? We celebrated with a round of Shiners and talked about the possibilities. I can't wait for her to get the chance to quote Pacino: "I'm out of order?! You're out of order! This whole court is out of order!" Earlier that night I went by Shambhala to get my quarterly spoils and some price tags for my second round of jewelry pieces. I was amazed at how well my stuff sold and how empty my jewelry cases are. Yikes! But this is good news. I'll be pulling together oodles more to take over there tonite. Also on the horizon: I was invited by the guys at Shambhala to be the Featured Artist for Bishop Arts District's First Thursday shebang in July. More details to come... Even earlier that night I went to my second kung fu class of the week. I've been going since March and only tonite did I officially meet some of my kung fu brothers. It's not a very conducive place for socializing as we are all respectful of the academy (read: minimal chit chat) and serious about studying the art. But for some reason three brothers introduced themselves to me last night and I was pleased as punch to meet them. In fact, one of them told me about his sister who is learning to be a metalsmith and jeweler, and another brother joined us for beers at Lee Harvey's last night. Keeee-yah! Yesterday afternoon, a short film got the ball rolling on what turned out to be a great Thursday. Reminiscent of Raymond Carver's writing, the film is called Gnome. It stars my uber favorite woman-I-don't-personally-know, Lauren Graham and a travelling garden gnome. I could give you a synopsis or a critical take on it, but I think it's best that you watch it for yourself. The film runs about 12 minutes (the end credits run a good 3 minutes) and it's worth every second. Here's what I told some friends I showed it to: "When I was in college this was the sort of story/film I aspired to write. I like to think I came close a time or two. Whatever happens to our dreams?"