Another Year Older: Happy Birthday to Me!

This weekend I will celebrate another birthday. YEAH for me. I consider it a blessing to be on planet earth another year and look forward to the different birthday activities. I have fond memories of having birthday parties up until around the age of 11. After I turned 12 my mom told me I was too old for birthday parties. That news was a blow to me, but I eventually got over it and started a tradition of celebrating my birthday in different ways. 

This year I'm looking forward to a day in New York City with my sister Dawn and best friends, minus one because she lives out of state. Wish you could be there Nat. 

The original mean girls.

I'm going to see the Broadway show Heathers, which is based off of the film with the same name. I'm big fan of the film and watched it numerous times with Dawn growing up. Back in 2004, people loved Tina Fey's Mean Girls. If you watch Heathers and then Mean Girls, you can see that Tina Fey refreshed the story concept for a new generation. Somethings never get old – high school cliques and teenage girl drama/trauma is one of them. It makes for a good story when executed well. In my opinion, Heathers is one of the last well-written and classic 1980s high school films released toward the end of the decade. The film helped propel Winona Ryder and Christian Slater's young Hollywood star power, although they had a number of films to their credit at the time. 

I love musicals and am looking forward to seeing how the producers adapt the story for the stage. After the show I'll have dinner at Via Della Pace. It's going to be nice catching up with my friends who I don't get to see everyday. The older I get, the more complicated life gets and making time for family, friends, work, hobbies and goals can be a challenge. There aren't enough hours in the day, so I have to make the time to stay connected. Even in a world that is more social online, nothing beats face-to-face. 

Since June marks the half-way point of the year, celebrating my birthday this month also allows me the opportunity to check-in with my personal and professional goals. While I don't want to think about the year being half over, I do need to evaluate where I'm at and think about where I want to be by the end of 2014.

This week I submitted my master's thesis through ProQuest Dissertation Publishing. Hitting that submit button felt very good, so good I decided to tweet about it and enjoyed a nice tweet chat. When I get my diploma in the mail in late August or early September I'll have complete closure, but in the meantime, now I begin my search to get my thesis published. I have a couple of publications on my short list. Stay tuned.

With my masters behind me, I'm ready to return to the world of screenwriting. Like Stella, I need to get my groove back. My goal is to finish two if I'm on a roll, maybe three draft scripts by the end of this year. I have my work cut out for me. I've deactivated my Facebook account to help me shift my focus of being social and get back to the craft. 

Thus far it's been a busy year and I have quite a few things a head of me, but this weekend I will take the time to celebrate me with my friends, family and husband.