Friday, July 6, 2007

My Baby's Birth Photos


So my baby just turned two, and I got to thinking about how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday he was born. His birth was different than any of the others. This time, I was going for the ultimate earthy birth. I had a water birth at a little house that was a birth center. Since this was my last birth, I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted to document everything. For all the other births, all the pictures were tastefully posed: me smiling pregnant in my hospital gown and robe, me all freshened up holding my baby, you get the picture. This time, I got some video of my labor, and photos all through the process. I even got exit photos! Those were really embarrassing to have developed. I was at Walmart using one of those machines, hunched over it and looking furtively around. But I ended up with my awesome birth, just how I was hoping it would be, and the photos to remember it by. Only a few people ended up seeing them, but they were for me, you know? Alas, and woe, they didn't stay just with me. About a year ago, we were sitting at the dinner table, Lewis clears his throat and says, "Jon over at (My husband's old job) was cleaning out a cupboard and found a strange CD." His eyes dart to me and look away quickly. "He put it in, and when he recognized who it was, he took it out immediately (yeah right!)." Blood leaves my face, my heart contracts, and I ask with numb and tingling lips "What disk was it?" "Um, your birth photos." My heart actually stops beating at this point, and I lay there on the bench beside the table in an agony so exquisite it can not be described. Jon, who was just at our house, seeing me like that. Down there! My husband was quick to reassure me, don't worry, he didn't look at them all, just until he recognized who it was! After my heart began restoring blood to my head again, I asked for the offending cd, and investigated exactly how exposed I was. There was a little good news. There weren't any photos of a gynecological nature at all, just ones of a, ahem, mammary nature- which is almost as bad. I guess it serves me right, having those pictures around. It does beg the question though, How in the world did those pictures get left in a cupboard at my husband's work!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

A Sneek Peek at Henry


After I finished the script, I got pretty overwhelmed at all the things that needed to be done to get ready to start filming. The thought of costumes made me want to crawl in bed and hide. One day my mom offered to come over to help me figure out who needed what. We went through each scene and got a rough idea of casting and costume needs. We made diagrams of different tunics, capes and cloaks. I got to work yesterday, and found, to my surprise, that many costumes didn't need to be sewn at all! All I need for a tunic is a rectangle with a hole cut in it for the head! This was very freeing, and we made a ton of progress. In the next day or so, I anticipate most of the costume work will be done.