Conversations with Annie Beth

This weekend Annie Beth came to visit. It was so wonderful to catch up with her! We know one another from good old Little Washington, where we ran cross country together. Annie Beth is a firecracker, I tell ya what!

She came to stay with me on Friday. We spent some time catching up, and then she watched the edited footage. It was great to hear her laugh when I laugh. The more people watch the footage, the more nervous I get about sharing it with a big audience.

One of my friends, Chris Moore, showed a film of his once at a film festival. It was a really great short film, which starred some of my fellow improvisers. I remember watching it with him at the film festival, in a room full of people laughing simultaneously. It was very surreal. (What a cliche word to use, eh?) I was so excited to see my friends in the film, sitting with beside my fellow filmmaker as his work played on the big screen.

Watching Annie Beth watch my few minutes of edited footage brought me to that moment instantly. Yikes! I can't imagine showing my film in front of a big audience. It'll be so exciting!

Annie Beth has been gathering music for the film, getting samples from various independent artists. As she played some of the samples for me, I visualized where they might fit within our film. What a fun experience. Each time one played, I thought about the clips and how to put them all together. I am so excited about adding music to the film. It brings so much to it.

My parents are to thank for my love of music. My dad was in a three-person band in college. Our families would visit, and the kids sat on the floor listening and singing along to the parents playing things like "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Blowin' in the Wind" or any other Peter, Paul and Mary song.

We were very surrounded by music, even before I was born. My mom says that she played music for me in the womb! Haha. I think that's pretty cool. They also helped me learn to play the violin and guitar. My aunt plays the piano.

I digress.

Having Annie Beth on the team is such a treat. Annie Beth, like so many of our volunteers, is interested in a great number of things. She studied music therapy, sings, plays the guitar, has FOUR children, home schools her eldest son, and started a website for people living with Spina Bifida. She's, in one word, fearless. She sees a need and does something about it, even if she doesn't know how to do it all. When starting her website, for example, she taught herself HTML so she could make the site.

It was an amazing weekend, and I feel so grateful to have such a power team. I am in awe at the talented people helping with this film such as Annie Beth.