Adios, USA

This time tomorrow I'll be in the middle of a two-layover trip to Puerto Vallarta. Gina and I will be there for a week and we are excited.

I have never done the whole beach vacation where you do nothing but spend days reading and laying on a towel. Part of me thinks it sounds little lazy, but the bigger part of me thinks it sounds fantastic. I need a little time to be lazy and not feel guilty about it.

There will also be a few adventures while we are there. Gina has mentioned snorkeling and that sounds like it could be fun. There are also boat trips that we can take. And swim with dolphins. Lots of options.

But one of the things that I think I am looking forward to most is the chance to do nothing, to lay on a beach and do nothing.

Some inspiration

Trying to fight writer's block? Try looking here for a little inspiration. These characters and creations from sculptor Stephane Halleux could spark something. I know they could for me.

Writer's block?

Stumbled across this idea generator on BoingBoing. May work for you. I actually had a few ideas come from this. A few others were completely awful, but some actually worked.

Our next adventure

Gina and I looked at homes this weekend. It was a draining experience. We have a nice Realtor who we are working with, but moving scares us.

We love where we live. The location is great and convenient to everything. But we have neighbors again. We didn't for a few months. No one lived in the unit above us and no one to the side of us. Actually, no one lived across or down the hall either. We were on our own island. It was quiet at night. It was great.

Then in the matter of what seems like a week every unit around us was filled. Now we have someone stomping around in what sounds like lead shoes above us. And we get to hear the chatting in the hall as the new neighbors next to us walk to their new place. And it's fine to have neighbors, but we are a little annoyed now by all the noise.

So, we spent the day in a black car with black interior and near-100 degree temperatures. We drove over what seemed like most of the eastern part of the Metroplex. We we all over Richardson and Garland. We saw some nice houses for nice prices, but I think all-in-all we left the experience a bit overwhelmed.

Moving is going to be a big deal for us. Neither of us are eager to leave where we are at now, but know that eventually we have to.

Flash fiction exercises: Part 7

Another in our occasional series. This one is from January 16, 2006. It has a very similar prompt to our last entry. That's probably why what I wrote is similar. Very.

Here's the prompt:

HE BOOTED UP THE COMPUTER AND CHECKED THE E MAIL, CASUALLY. HE ALMOST MISSED IT, THE SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR HIM THAT WOULD CHANGE HIS LIFE. JUST ANOTHER LINE IN THE WELTER OF E MAILS AND MEANINGLESS MESSAGES. WAS IT REAL. HOW COULD HE FIND OUT" WHAT THE HELL DOES HE DO NOW?

And here's what I did with it. I actually like what I wrote here better. I am very tempted to edit a few of the sentences here, but that's not the spirit of what I am trying to do, so I won't.

It was only supposed to take a minute. He’d check his email then be out the door. The machine said fifteen new messages and he reminded himself that this had to become a much more regular thing. But it was hard to make yourself check your email when most of the messages you are getting are advertising drugs or available singles.

He nearly missed the message with the asterisk in the subject line, but when he saw it he knew exactly what it was. They’d found him again. He thought he’d run far enough and had taken enough turns to be hidden for good.

Hah, he had to dream.

So it was an email this time, just to let him know they’d figured him out. He’d changed his name again and his occupation again, and for nearly a year he had gotten away with it. Hadn’t talked to the wife or the kids that he had left behind in Dallas. That had been the hardest part, but he had chosen to run guns and drugs for the mob and he knew that these were the consequences of choices he made years ago.

No time to think about that now. He had to get to the job site. He was hanging drywall again, working his way up to foreman. The college education he’d picked up in Dallas was paying off here. Fitting, since it was the only thing he got to take with him from that life.