(photo from the interwebs)
We watched the movie in a custom-built outdoor theater, which proved to be the perfect 4D experience, complete with wind in your face while Merida rides through the woods and a couple of shooting stars. I seriously recommend watching this movie outdoors if possible.
There were all sorts of themed activities (archery, wood carving, scottish dancing, scotch tasting), themed food (turkey leg, roasted whole pigs, meat dumplings), and a dungeon dance party. Seriously, you walked down a series of tunnels into the cellar, past the torture room, and voila... full-on rave going on. Oh, and most of my male friends and coworkers wore kilts. AWESOME. I would post more photos, but according to HR, apparently it's a deep dark Pixar secret that we have fun sometimes.
Nadim and Dave at the villa, in my obligatory "let's take awkward prom photos" pics.
The girls' outfits for the night were very varied. Some women were wearing tartan cocktail dresses and shawls, some were in LARPing costumes, some just wore something lovely. I was opting for modern with a touch of medieval.
We had rented a villa in Calistoga to spend the night, and I fell asleep
under the stars because the night was so warm. Needless to say, it was
amazing.
This has been my life for the last three and a half years. It's hard to believe that much time has passed. I look back and see how much I've learned, and yet I don't feel like I've accomplished nearly as much as I would have liked. In many ways, things are awesome beyond belief and I'd be a fool to question them, but sometimes I still feel like I'm floundering, trying to find a greater meaning.
Certain <ahem> events of the past year have set me on a trajectory that I had never anticipated. I still find myself with a big question mark above my head, kind of like that game where you stick a note card to your forehead and ask, "Who am I?" The things that I had thought for so long defined me, I'm no longer sure if they are features or bugs. Lazy weekends powering through an entire TV series make me anxious now, like I'm wasting my time on pursuits that lead to nowhere. And I spend too much brain power analyzing people, trying to understand how and why people act and interact the way they do. Life is confusing.
I've been spending a lot of my extracurricular time on assorted interests of mine: dancing, learning languages, playing instruments. I like them because I'm good at them, at least to the extent that they provide me with some level of instant gratification. There's certainly nothing wrong with this, and dancing will always be my first and foremost love. However, I'm starting to feel like I need something more.
I keep seeing these projects at work and feeling like I want to tell my own stories, but I don't have the skill sets of some of my coworkers to be able to pull it off. Well, why not? Because I'm scared. Because it's hard, and I don't know where to start. Because it takes work and discipline. Because I want someone to push me along and root me on and help me when I've fallen down. But in life, you can only ever truly count on yourself.
This has been my life for the last three and a half years. It's hard to believe that much time has passed. I look back and see how much I've learned, and yet I don't feel like I've accomplished nearly as much as I would have liked. In many ways, things are awesome beyond belief and I'd be a fool to question them, but sometimes I still feel like I'm floundering, trying to find a greater meaning.
Certain <ahem> events of the past year have set me on a trajectory that I had never anticipated. I still find myself with a big question mark above my head, kind of like that game where you stick a note card to your forehead and ask, "Who am I?" The things that I had thought for so long defined me, I'm no longer sure if they are features or bugs. Lazy weekends powering through an entire TV series make me anxious now, like I'm wasting my time on pursuits that lead to nowhere. And I spend too much brain power analyzing people, trying to understand how and why people act and interact the way they do. Life is confusing.
So, in the spirit of Brave, I'm embracing the theme of the movie, "Change your fate."
I've been spending a lot of my extracurricular time on assorted interests of mine: dancing, learning languages, playing instruments. I like them because I'm good at them, at least to the extent that they provide me with some level of instant gratification. There's certainly nothing wrong with this, and dancing will always be my first and foremost love. However, I'm starting to feel like I need something more.
I keep seeing these projects at work and feeling like I want to tell my own stories, but I don't have the skill sets of some of my coworkers to be able to pull it off. Well, why not? Because I'm scared. Because it's hard, and I don't know where to start. Because it takes work and discipline. Because I want someone to push me along and root me on and help me when I've fallen down. But in life, you can only ever truly count on yourself.
I've never really started a project where I was unsure as to my ability to finish it. Even now, it's rather nondescript, and I don't even know what the project will be. I don't know where all this energy will lead me. But I know that I've been comfortable for too long, and I'm starting to sink into the black hole, the inertia. I'm certainly hoping that I'll walk along this path and then one day turn around and realize that all the questions have finally disappeared, and everything seems makes sense again. But even if they don't, I guess part of me just needs to know that I can challenge myself and become more of the person that I would like to be.
