Ever Think About…

Counting today, I have just five more glorious days of being 31. Friday is my birthday. Getting older doesn’t necessarily bother me, we all have to die at some point. Morbid I know. What I think bothers me are questions that I pose to myself. Have I accomplished anything worthwhile? Have I met any new goals? Have I made myself what I want to be? All good questions if you ask me.

So what are my goals? What do I want to be? I think that if I listed them here I would run out of room and you would get bored. Goals get a little more complicated after you get past the regular ones like having a house and starting a family, both of which I did years ago. I think at that point goals tend to switch to other more personal things. For me they really have to do with three things, one is fun and two are more personal.

I will start with the fun one first then move on to the serious ones in a bit. The fun one is seeing more of the world. I have started planning some trips for the upcoming year. I think they will be amazing trips. The first is actually a wedding I plan on attending. However, I hope to spend about a week on the beaches of Puerto Rico. The second is actually a beach too that you think about it. I have never been to the Keys and am planning a week there also. The last is still unknown, that door hasn’t been opened just yes. Fear not though, no beach I promise!

As for my second goal it has to do with my photography. It is my most artistic side of me. I can not measure this by any conventional means. I just want to take more and more pictures. Of anything and everything and even everyone. I want to get better, I want to have my fans say “Wow!” every time they look at one of my photographs. I want to start taking photos of people, those are the hardest really. Plus I need volunteers.

My last major goal is writing. I know that I am not very good as yet, but with everything I write I get a little better. I do get compliments so I know that I am not just bullshitting myself. Plus there is something inside, I know I have a story to tell. I can feel it wanting to get out. Images, names and places, they just pop into my head. Something is there and its big. I just have to get it out.

10:00 am on a Sunday morning.  An odd time to start selling tickets to an event right?  Well I guess an odd time for an odd guy.  This morning at 10:00 am tickets went on sale to see Stephen King at the Van Wezel center in Sarasota, FL and the first 250 people that called in or were at the box office got a voucher to purchase a signed copy of the new book “Under the Dome”.  I wanted to drive down and hang with all the other SK Junkies however I wasn’t able to go.  Thank you “other half”. So that left me with my only other option.  The phone.

I love constantly dialing a number that is ringing busy.  That is just what I did. Twenty five minutes of hitting “Call” then “End” then “Call” again.  Despair began to set in. I know I am not going to get through.  I wanted that voucher for the autographed book damn it!    Since I am just sitting around I go to put in a movie for “number two” and the phone begins to ring. WOOT!  I run out of his room to get my credit card.   Then the hold music starts.  It is now 10:25 am and I sit down to wait.  And wait.  Oh yeah, and wait some more.  Again I start to think “There is no way this going to happen”.  This time thirty five minutes pass, the hold “music” is awesome and consists of advertisements for events I don’t want to see.  I have been glued to my phone for an hour now.  Remember that despair from earlier?  Yeah, its starting to creep back now.  Finally the phone rings and a actual human is on the other line asking what they can do for me!

I almost forget what I’m calling for but finally get out that I want a ticket to the Stephen King event.  She says something in response however I don’t  remember what it was.  The only thing that mattered was the next sentence “And we do still have the vouchers left for the autographed books”.  I could have screamed like a giddy little school girl and well, probably did, I can’t remember.  We then go through making the purchase and she then tells me the row my seats are in.

Now the only better rows in my opinion would be either the first row or the nineteenth row (you go research 19).  However, I get so sit in the 13th row to see Stephen King.   How fitting.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights my friends.

The wind blows off the water into his face.  Water washes over his feet as the waves break against the shore.  He stands there staring at the horizon.  The skies darken as the storm approaches.  Lightning strikes the water, thunder booms in the distance.  He stands there listening.  The wind picks up and pushes harder.  Clouds tower above him as the storm moves closer to the shore.  He stands there as the rain reaches him.  It starts slowly.  The drops barely hitting him at first.   At the edge of his existence, clouds falling onto him, rain beating against his face, thunder burns his ears, waves push and pull him. He stands there, against it all.