Anne’s Diary (Page 61)

Years ago, I interviewed a researcher who made a scientific study of what makes some people lucky. When you get into the film and TV biz, you find out that luck plays a major part in it. You have to have talent, good ideas, and good sense of timing. You have to know what’s been done recently that’s been successful?and what hasn’t. You need to have lots of energy and a willingness to learn, as well as good representation, but there’s an additional, magic ingredient that’s hard to quantify. Sometimes you have to admit to yourself that it’s just plain luck.
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Two years ago I wrote about the problem I have recognizing faces since my stroke. This problem is so subtle that I’m not always sure I actually have it, but it has given me some interesting realizations about what is considered “attractive” in today’s society. I have another strange legacy as well: I find that the interior of almost every building seems to resemble a maze. But I suspect this may be due more to the inadequacy of modern architects than to problems in my brain.
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Last year’s Christmas consisted of an unexpected dinner party. This year’s Christmas was like a New Year’s Eve celebration–and New Year’s was like Christmas. But at this Christmas dinner, just like last Christmas, what might be called a miracle occurred.

In December, I received another surprise email from the same old friend who contacted me around the same time last year, except this year, he was writing from an airport in Ethiopia, so I couldn’t invite him to Christmas dinner again. I couldn’t have invited him anyway, since we were planning to go to Texas to celebrate because our goddaughter was going to be there for her first Christmas without her mother.
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Over the years, I’ve been amused by the fact that we are spied on from time to time. These spies seem to be from government agencies, either foreign or domestic, and they seem to think they are going to discover something clandestine that we hold close to our chests, while the truth is, as I keep telling these folks, we have NO secrets. We don’t hide ANYTHING: we post information about everything that happens to us?whether it’s alien contact, “drone” sightings or (in my case) meeting up with an angel in a Kinko’s copy shop?on our website, and Whitley often writes a book about these things too.
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