Category: writing prompts

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How many countries have you traveled to?

Not counting the one I live in 🙂 I've been to three countries. In 1989 I went to Germany & Austria with a local youth orchestra, which was an amazing experience. In 1999 or thereabouts I went to Whistler, BC for a United Way conference, carpooling with several of my co-workers. I wish we'd been able to stop in Vancouver; it looked really interesting.

Bonus answer: I've been to these states:
* California, Oregon & Washington, obvs.
* Arizona, several times visiting grandparents
* New Mexico, on one of those visits, just for a one-day trip when Grandpa was filling in for another minister.
* Texas for SXSW.
* Massachusetts for training when I worked at United Way.
* Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota & Wisconsin when we drove out to the Madeline Islands to stay with a friend's family. (In July/August in a car with no air conditioning. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.)
* As an infant, I was taken on a vacation that included a visit to the Four Corners, so also Colorado & Utah, although I generally don't count that.

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What's your favorite drink?

non-alcoholic, hot: nonfat mocha, esp from the Cherry St Cafe. second choice is Good Earth Chai with sugar and half & half.

non-alcoholic, cold: sparkling water with a bit of juice or juice concentrate. oddly enough, second is iced chai or thai iced tea. (mmmmm, chai.)

alcoholic: spire pear cider, very very cold. no strong second choice…I'm not much of a drinker.

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on the sparkling beach

I used to be in a writer’s group, about 10 years ago. One fall we decided to have our own little writers’ retreat and rented a suite in a rundown motel in Long Beach. There were eight of us, IIRC, crammed into the two rooms (plus kitchenette) for a long weekend of lots and lots of writing. We did some exercises and some reading. It was all great fun.

But at night Kat, Joe and I walked out to the beach, which really is a “long beach” — an amazing expanse of long flat sand. It was a clear night, and the sky was glittering with stars. Strangely, the sand was glittering as well: lit up with some sort of luminescent something.

We stayed up late, walking and talking, but what I remember most is the feeling of a vast and fascinating universe. I don’t think I really have words for it. I’m not even remotely a religious person. But this was an ineffable experience.

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to help a headache

I tend to get the occasional sinus headache, and in the main it seems to be an issue of hydration. Counter-intuitively, headache formulas that include caffeine seem to be the only thing that works. And even better on top of that is a coffee-based beverage, like a mocha. Just opens my head right up again.

Several years ago, I suffered from excruciating and frequent headaches, including the worst of my entire life, one that sent me home from work in a freaking cab. I was given some medication that knocked out the headaches, but knocked me out too. Massage helped, chiropractic not so much.

And then they went away. I don’t really know what happened. (Well, I have a reasonably good idea, but it’s just a wild hunch.)

So I’m happy to just get ordinary headaches that I can deal with in ordinary ways.

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Abandoned on my birthday

I was nuts about J…as was my roommate. I think we’d worked out a reasonable accommodation. 😉 They and another friend organized a “surprise” birthday party for my 19th birthday. I got home from my awful, awful job to what was supposed to be a fun evening, with cake. But J never showed up. Never.

And I never heard what happened; neither did my roommate. J was never heard from again.

That turned out to be the start of a really. complicated. year.

(There is, of course, a lot more detail than that, but most of it isn’t suitable for the intertubes.)