Day: December 13, 2022

I turned all the way back to 6.676, which was a free write based on the line, “Something moved in the distance.” I think this was a moment of clarity for me–not the blog be the result of the action to notice this blog. The inciting sentence means different things to me now than it did in the moment of creation. That structure tells me something. It tells me that a writer should revisit prompts and compare those prompts to the past inceptions. I love the idea of seeing where you were and where you are in comparison. Heck, that is what Turnback Tuesday is truly about.

That blog came as part of a week or more of free writes in which I created new things as a way to jump start my writing brain. I always need these jumpstarts and I’m grateful to be able to still create from them. I found myself (and find myself) imagining stories in dreams and in the moments of emerging consciousness and that reminds me that there are stories lurking within–moreover, it encourages me that I may still be connected to the story verse, or what Stephen King once referred to as Boo’ya Moon. I’m excited to still be a writer. Here in Paris I found myself standing at the crypts of Alexander Dumas and Voltaire and thought about the incredible legacy and opportunity and connection being a writer brings. I thought about my life and the narrowness of it, in terms of action and human connection, and I thought about the need–the desperation–for expansion.

I travel to explore and to discover just as much as I travel to escape. However, when I return from the escape the land of the lost that is home descends upon me like darkness. I need to fix that in my own routines and in my own ability to create space in my space–one that has been entirely coopted by purposefully vapid children. They cannot ruin my me-ness any longer. I will not stand for it.

I’ve gone between the phone and the laptop in the blogging and trying to lock in on a rhythm with which to do this. Jet Lag plays a roll. So much so that I am struggling to get this blog out as I lay in bed in the lull before I go out again. Once I muster up the energy to hit the club on a Monday night, I will not have anything left to write with. So here we are.

I’m downing powerberries like their senso beans trying to fight through the strange hours. What bugs is that by the time we’ve gotten this right we will want to go to sleep at the odd time in order to sleep through a significant chunk of the flight home. Nobody wants to be up for 12hrs trapped in a plane.

But until then I need to find the juice to enjoy the stay the way I want to. 

Some Thoughts:

1. We have American neighbors at the hotel. They suck. The most engaging non-locals we met were Greek. The Americans have generally been stand offish and in their own reality. Now they’re listening to what between the walls sounds to be a Whitney Houston documentary. Ahh, Paris. 

Third straight unpublished blog to myself. The situation here in France is difficult on the tech. Even more odd, we blew a circuit breaker in our room and cannot charge devices. That’s rough to deal with. The tech situation here for me Is strange because I blogged on different devices. One blog is on text and another on a dead MacBook. I’m back on the phone which suggests I will need to leave a placeholder for the MacBook blog and work primarily from the phone moving forward–at least I have a portable charge for that. All of this is to say Paris is a new experience on many levels. It isn’t even close to warm so it is a frigid experience on top of everything else. Yet I remain happy. We are starting to deal with the jet lag and the time issue and that is taking a while. We slept till 1pm today and here just before 11pm we aren’t even near tired. When we head back home we will be flying back in time in a sense and will need to deal with that change back. This too will be a lot.

I’m in Paris and I’m having a blast. 

Here is the thing: Paris is a very old city and filled with beautiful architecture that inspired buildings around the world. However, the thing that stands out to me the most thus far is scale. The sheer scale of these buildings is unbelievable. The Louvre can fit the MET and Natural History inside of it. Probably would have room to eat the Guggenheim. Seriously, the scale of these places is beyond what I first imagined and leaves me breathless.

And cold. Paris is very cold. This is probably an exaggeration given my lack of recent familiarity with cold weather locales. At the very least it is a prudent observation of a place that requires a hat and or scarf as a basic survival tool in the winter. 

The other thing I learned about France is that it is a passionate city. I happened upon the place the night of the world cup game vs. England. The streets were filled with fans chanting the national anthem and cheering all the way to the victory. Then they danced through the streets in celebration. 

This is France. This is day one. Crazy to try and imagine what comes next.

This is a bit of a strange one. I’m losing a day. Not entirely but I’m dying towards tomorrow, each stop pushing me closer to the time meridian. As such this blog on a plane is taking place sometime before tomorrow but the next one… well this may be a two on one situation. I’m headed to France and I’m geeked about it. The classes have ended and now I’m out in the world resetting myself in a very romantic place with my very romantic partner. I’m going to write some stuff too. I need to. I’m excited about diving in and exploring and being romantic and even about braving the cold. All of it is definitely different from the daily meh and its those meh rituals that are killing me.

This is living.