Friendly advice: Never ever produce a documentary that you are also in. It might make you have a mental breakdown. I’m fine (for now), but I can’t really tell if the crazy cracks have always been there or they are just now showing up… Life is absolutely insane now in all the right ways. I mean, how lucky am I that I get to be making a documentary I’m passionate about with people I love and a team that is incredible? The tricky thing becomes that real life doesn’t stop in the midst of all that awesomeness, not even a little. I want to be honest about that because I’d hate for people reading along (hi Chalkboard fans, how cool is this site?) to think, “I could do that if…” There is no if around here, y’all. As my roommates can surely chime in, this experience is absolutely crazy-making but it’s worth every second.
Most of my days start off with emails and green juice. I hold tightly to this desperate hope that one day I will be the kind of person who springs out of bed at 6am and does the Ashtanga Primary Series. So far, no dice. It’s more like a dull lunge for the computer. I’m a screenwriter and indie producer, right now I’m busy with three films (aside from the Raw Doc!). It’s a bit like I imagine having triplets would be: I love you all so much but I wish you’d come out one at a time… My days are filled with the movie business equivalent of diaper changing: emails, phone calls, meetings.
Four days a week I spend my afternoons in Pico Union mentoring urban teenagers. They’re awesome and keep me grounded. Here’s a photo I snapped with one of them yesterday. She looks like an angel, which she is, until I try to make her go to Biology on time.
Next week, I’ll be teaching the kids how to make green smoothies. It’s going to be a party. They think the color green is inappropriate for food, but you should see them go to town on bright orange hot cheetoes…? Work with the kids wraps up around 7. Tonight I rushed to meet a producing partner/friend for dinner. It’s amazing how willing people are to work around “the raw thing” when it’s explained to them. Most people even get super into it. After a long day of feeling kind of worn down, I started off dinner with another green juice.
But then I dove right in to a huge plate of kelp-pasta. Even though we’re not doing raw gourmet, tonight was a chance to splurge on an amazing raw chocolate pie. The kind of thing i’d never take the time to make for myself.
We worked right through dinner and now I’m home again, working from bed (terrible habit) and will probably pull another late night.
It’s been a long day. I’m totally worn out. But when you’re working towards something you love, you find a way to do it. You just make it work. It’s the same thing with the diet really. Here’s to life without “ifs”.
Ashleigh
