When I was younger I used to take photos of my dolls and pose them.

For me, it was having them in any position I wanted that gave me visual power. (Yeah, for a little kid I was on my “Pinky and the Brain” motives).

Still now I am able to make real images. I’m able to bask in the arts, and as an adult I still get “only child syndrome.”

I realize more and more that alone time is key.  

Since I’ve been writing this column, I have found a nice corner spot at the local Starbucks, tucked away into the smell of coffee beans and softly playing radio music above my head. I finally get a chance to get out of my lab. I get a chance to breathe.

I like being around strangers. I feel more alone around them, though I’m not really alone. I am at peace. I get to be in my own little world.  

Life is funny. Sometimes things seem as if they are the best things and you will get no better things. Then months later after the smoke has cleared you forget there was even a need for whatever it was.

That is how I feel this week.

The whirlwind of life has swooshed through my small Hyattsville community and continued to spin around me. 

Swirling around in that tempest is the film I am now making. “Banana Pudding” just may be one of the most off beat films I have made to date. (It is a very vulgar film that is completely different from the rest of my works and yet I find myself completely relaxed in making it. I wonder why. Maybe it’s because I need a vacation and this is my only release therapy).

Making films can be mind blowing so I accept the alone time I have and appreciate it. I don't want to be an old woman in solitude but at the same time I have a low tolerance for pointless chatter and meaningless motives.

Everyone should have at least one hour of alone time a day.