When friends and family ask if I think we’ll win, I’ve found myself giving the cliche response, “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”  I used to laugh at people who said that, because we all know everybody wants to win.  Who cares about the nomination, right?  Winning is everything.  Living in LA means practicing your acceptance speech while you’re stuck on the 405.

But facing the experience of sitting in the audience tonight, waiting for someone to open the envelope that might say WordGirl, I honestly…don’t care if we win.  Sure, it would be cool, but it’s not like I have any power over the result.  This nomination is for scripts I wrote over two years ago, that aired in 2009, being chosen by people I don’t know.  It’s in the past and out of our hands.

So I’m not worried about winning.  I am, however, ridiculously proud of my nomination, because it means something very specific: I was paid to write over 20% of a season of a television show that earned an Emmy nomination. Let’s break that sentence down.

I was paid… I am a professional.  I pay my bills with money from writing.  This is not a hobby.

…to writer over 20% of a season… To get your name on the nomination, you have to write more than one-fifth of the episodes that aired the previous year–no small feat!  To date I’ve written over twenty episodes of WordGirl.  That’s almost 400 pages of produced, scripted material, or about the length of the Star Wars trilogy.  This is ammunition against my inner-critic:  Proof that my career isn’t a fluke and I am not a fraud.

…of a television show that earned an Emmy nomination. Since age 12, the thing that makes me the happiest is to be surrounded by talented people, working together on awesome creative projects.  Theatre, improv, playing in bands–they’re all pretty much the same thing–and it’s reassuring to know that, even at age 34, those creative group experiences aren’t disappearing any time soon. WordGirl is funny, smart, and entertaining for kids and their parents, and I am lucky as hell to get to do this every day.

So whatever happens with that envelope tonight, I look forward to celebrating our nomination with the rest of the WordGirl team.   The tux is rented.  There is an after party.  There will be pictures.  Word up.

But that’s not all.  Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, a PBS web series I helped write, is nominated in the curiously named “New Approaches” category. Good times all around.

The ceremony is at the end of June.  I am determined to attend.  This is awesome.

*The whole moon colony thing might not happen.**

**I put it at 50/50.***

***Due to the economy.