Life is One Long Indie Movie

Sometimes when I get a random thought or idea at night I'll scribble it down on a scrap piece of paper and more often than not, forget about it.

Occasionally I'll stumble upon a receipt for frozen yogurt with something like, delays and distractions scratched onto the back and maybe I'll try to remember what I meant but usually I give up, crumple it into a ball and unceremoniously throw it away.  

However, at some point I wrote

life is not an indie movie

on the back of a library receipt.  

And at at some other point in time I drew a line through that sentiment and wrote

but maybe it should be.

And this time, I actually knew what I meant.

I love indie movies and I prefer them over commercial pictures in almost every way. 

The characters seem richer, quirkier, more relatable and more importantly, they're not perfect.

Maybe this is my knocked up 16 year old high school drop out self talking, but a person can only take so much of the gorgeous, successful girl who finds love in the most unlikely (likely) gorgeous, successful man.

I want some substance.  I want something that will make me think, made me wonder, make me smile or cry or do both simultaneously.

And I suppose that's what I meant when I scribbled on the back of the library receipt.  That maybe instead of striving for the happy ending, we should embrace the detours, tragedies and serendipitous moments that we encounter every day.  Treasure the love that you are given and make sure you give it back.  Instead of lamenting over the fact that your family is seven shades of screwed up, try to appreciate that it's that screwed up family that made you who you are.  (In my opinion it takes a certain amount of neglect and ridiculousness to make a well-rounded adult.)  Let go of the expectations you have and embrace what you've got, because it's the weird that's interesting.  It's the weird that makes the mundane not so...unbearable.  
Stuff happens.  People lie and cheat and disappoint. Get over it. There are more important things going on. Those come with the territory.  A good plot has to have the bad to make you appreciate the lovely.

So take the scenic route, don't take bad news so hard and trust that it will all work out, even if it doesn't.