One more proofread coming up

I'm tired.  Exhausted, really.

It's about 4:30 AM here.  PST.

But I've cut the script to my stated goal.

                       *     *     *

The last 2/5 of the script now sits at 48 pages.

I started with 138 pages of rough draft.

I cut 90 pages away.

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Altogether, I wrote 471 pages for the first draft. 

I cut that to 135 pages.

Once Steven is done with his edits, we'll cut the first readable draft to 119 pages. 

                       *     *     *

I worry, you know.  In making my cuts, I hope I've thrown out the skim milk and kept the cream.  Panned away the rocks and saved the gold. 

Go ahead.  Make up another metaphor.  I dare you.  Am I being silly?

                       *     *     *

A friend once told me how Michelangelo created the David.

He started with a big hunk of marble.

He chipped everything away that wasn't the David.

                       *     *     *

Today, after sleeping, I do a final proofread.

Then email the result to my writing partner.

                       *     *     *

Sandra is taking me to a church called Agape here in LA.  She claims I'll love it.

I think she's just trying to hook me up with one of the women she's met there. 

Sneaky woman, that Sandra.  Good friend.

She says people who go there are smart, talented, and creative.  Not afraid to express themselves emotionally.

A blend of theologies with a Pentecostal surface.

Sandra's Jewish, and she felt completely comfortable. 

                       *     *     *

"Your creativity," my friend Sandra told me,  "comes out of your spirituality."

                       *     *     *

I'm listening to music of the 80s on AOL radio.  Great stuff.  The music, that is.

                       *     *     *

My thoughts now bend towards home.  I fly out of LAX on Wednesday, July 27.

I'll be attending my parents' 50th anniversary celebration.

Sunday, July 31, from 2:30 - 4:30 PM at my alma mater:  Hartville Christian School.

                       *     *     *

One more job before I pack.

I've got to get my tax stuff to David, my accountant.

Yeah.  I've been avoiding this.

But there's an August 15 deadline that all tax procrastinators know.

I have to send out the stuff to David before I fly out tomorrow.

                       *     *     *

I'm making plans to connect with old friends while I'm in North Canton.

By the way, if you're free at 6 PM on Monday, August 1, email me. 

I'd love to see you. 

I'll send you directions to a little get-together my producer, Dick Gotschall, is throwing.  I would be honored to see any of my friends who choose to show up.

Especially if I haven't seen you for a long time.

                       *     *     *

I won't get much sleep the first night I arrive in Ohio.  Not just because I'm on my own time schedule. 

I'm hanging out with Anneliis in Kent.  She's just returned from eight weeks of studying art and language in Italy.  And she's wired.  I can tell.

She'll have some stories. 

If you want to know what her trip was like, take a look at Liv Tyler's role in the film Stealing Beauty.

                       *     *     *

I'm preparing to write my second project this summer:  Franchising Independent Girls.

Girls will contain my personal teaching philosophy:  I'm a coach who happens to be a teacher. 

Lots of personal stories.  20 years of teaching students how to lead.  Yearbook.  Drama.  Student store.

Coaches build skills.  Inculcate character.  Develop life-long relationships.

A coach who can teach?  Kids will tell you it's rare.  And they'll sign up in droves.

                       *     *     *

The finest coaches learn the secret to coaching early in their careers. 

I learned it from the best in 1993.  Big Red.  Steubenville, Ohio. 

Franchising Independent Girls will pass on that secret.  The way I was taught it down in the Ohio River Valley.

And if this bores you, you're reading the wrong blog.

                       *     *     *

Speaking of mentors...

I spent some time today with Jim Bellows.  At 82, he's still going strong. 

He's already a great friend.

I kept running into him walking his dog:  Blanco.  She's a smart, intelligent dog..

We enjoyed talking, so I finally got his telephone number.  We got together for a drink yesterday.

He tells good stories from his days as a navy pilot in WWII. 

He signed for me a copy of his new book:  The Last Editor:  How I Saved The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times from Dullness and Complacency (see link).

                       *     *     *

Know why I value Mr. Bellows?

Because he understands how to be a teacher.  How to be a mentor.  And he's honored to fill that role in others' lives.

I hope that when I'm his age, I'm still doing that.