Sacrificial Fries

This post has nothing to do with fries...yet. Have you ever had one of those days when you just want to strip to your skivvies and go play in the warm summer rain? Ok, maybe not as an adult, there are some serious moral and public nudity issues we have to deal with if we did, but have you ever felt like it?

We went to Lagoon last Friday and it was fun outside of the heat. On the way home I had some fun dips on the memory pool about Lagoon and one of them was a time the summer I turned 16. My friend Ryan R. worked at Lagoon and he was going to try and sneak me into an employee only pool party by giving me his badge and him getting in on knowing the people. Alas, a storm blew in and they cancelled the party just as we got there due to lightning. Major bummer. But he had planned to meet up with a group of other employees so we all headed to a park in Centerville, changed into our swimsuits and played in the rain at the park.

The next time that I remember was at my orientation for SUU. Being into theater in high school, I'd come out of my shell more...yes, it really was more. So I got to talking with several of the other freshman hanging out waiting for something...I don't remember what. But it started raining. And I couldn't help it. I excused myself and went out and sang and danced in the rain. I totally blame it on choir and theater. :) The other freshman thought I was a little odd (at least that's as much as they told me when I came back in).

This summer we have had some wonderful summer rains and I've watched them all from the comfort of my cube or my house but never revelled in the freedom found getting soaked and not caring. So the next time it rains this summer, I encourage you to go out and enjoy it no matter how old you are.

Inspiration

What a fickle thing inspiration is. Where it comes from is a mystery. Why it chooses one person out of a group and not another is baffling. But come it does and what you do with it is the ultimate decision.

And so it is that I've embarked on yet another writing project. But first let me give some background. I've joined a writing club started by my friend Ryan. One of the first things we did was an activity where we drew 3 slips of paper that had random words written on them. Then we were to write roughly two pages of a story using those 3 words. The next month we switched stories (round-robin) and drew 3 new words and so forth until it came back to the original writer and that person was to finish it. Well, I completely forgot so I wrote about a page or so during the next meeting just on the fly. When it came back to me, I cut out pretty much everything the other two had written but I liked the ideas that they had introduced. So I started re-writing. I'm now 40 8.5x11, single-spaced, 11 point font pages into it and only on chapter 5 of 16 planned. I have some work to do.

Then as I drove to work, inspiration hit. The story wasn't new but I started seeing it. I'm a big movie fan. I love to watch movies. Many times I get ideas that I 'see' in my head like I'm watching a movie. And so it was with this. And because of that I decided to make this a screenplay. A straight to movie script. It's the story of the sword in the stone...good old King Arthur. So while the basic plot that Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and becomes king is just like the Disney version, the only other similarity is that Merlin is there and a wizard. But I'm hoping that the story around that is what will draw you in. Only time will tell.

I'm glad I didn't ignore inspiration as I think this may be one of my favorite projects ever. Kind of crazy for me though. In high school I was a poet. Prose frustrated and eluded me. Now, while I can still write a good poem, my ideas have grown to more epic proportions.