Vampiros

Maddie got to visit Tacos-N-Todo tonight, and we tried some vampiros, which seems like an appropriate Mexican food to eat in October.  It's basically a flat crunchy tortilla sandwich with lots of cheese and grilled chicken and all the toppings you want in there.  The food bar over there has onions, sauce, pickles, radishes, cilantro, and a lot of different sauces.  Maddie believes she may have added a bit too much of the hotter sauce.  It sort of kept her from finishing things tonight, but we took some of it to go.  She'll have the leftovers tomorrow.

Right next door, tonight we had taekwondo.  This involved sparring, leadership classes, and a lot of fun.  She's been pretty glad to be there at Edge a few nights a week.  We have a lot of friends there.  It's a happy place for Maddie.

The football team is playing elsewhere, so we came home and we started our Fall Movie series a little early tonight because we were feeling ready for it.  Tonight's feature was "Men in Black," one of those movies that has become a perennial favorite of ours at fall time.

Earlier today, we were prepping for the weekend at KidPak, and there's a new skit that I wrote this morning, part of the sometimes painful process of writing where you have to basically toss everything and anything you had out the window, and just write what you want to write and see what happens from there... I had this entire alternate thing written, and just had to get rid of it because in my mind it wasn't working.  I wasn't released on it, even though I could have just finished it up and walked away.  So I started fresh, and soon enough, something started to emerge with a story.  And now I'm content.  This happens more often than I'd like, as it's an excruciating process with stress and banging your head against the wall trying to come up with something when the clock is counting down.  In the movie, "The Man Who Invented Christmas," John Dickens has this amazing line:  "We must not disturb the poet when the divine frenzy is upon him."  I love this line, because while this is more of an informal place to post thoughts and memories, the other material I write has people depending on it weekly, and there is a resulting pressure to be sure of its content and excellence.  That said, I am frequently not satisfied with something until after a good bit of soul-searching, struggles and travails, and yelling at inanimate objects as we see Charles Dickens do in that movie.  While some may look upon that portrayal as odd, I completely get it.  I can't just write something and be done with it - no, I re-read it time and again, and judge myself harshly even when all is said and done.  Fortunately, this blog here is an outlet of sorts where there is no pressure.  In fact, I think no one reads this but Maddie and myself for the time being.  Perhaps later when it is understood how much of a great American author I am, these daily conversations will be printed in book form and studied carefully in advanced literary courses at colleges.  But I shall not write them with the same process I write elsewhere, which can be immensely frustrating.  Again, there is great reward in the satisfaction of a finished script after days upon days of emotional battles with the keyboard.  And today, I feel that satisfaction, as I know I have done my best and this weekend will be a great one at KidPak.  Furthermore, the "Call of Duty" messages that I am writing will be to my satisfaction too.  I could have just went with what we did previous, but in my gut I know we needed something new there.

Okay, moving on.  Maddie didn't do as well on her math quiz, but hopes to do better with her test upcoming.  She's studying this weekend.  I picked her up early from school, and what a difference the senior makes with the car line.  There is no car line anymore.  I was not prepared for that.  I was used to waiting for a half-hour in a car, bringing along a trusty book or whatever.  Now I have more time elsewhere, and that's pretty amazing.  I just pull up, and in ten minutes Maddie is walking out, and there we go.

The rest of our day was pretty typical.  The weather is still nice outside, so much so we were tempted to eat it outside tonight at the restaurant.  Mom and I love the porch time in the morning, although the mosquitos are a little annoying.  We have diffusers with citronella and some insect repellent.  Amazing that with this increase of juro spiders here, there are still mosquitos flitting about.

We read tonight, and we're getting close to the end of "From a Certain Point of View" for the "Return of the Jedi" book.  This latest story is about someone who never forgets, someone who chronicles the memories and lives of the characters in the story, some more legendary and others more obscure.  And that's the general theme of this book series, of course.  And again, it's nothing new - the celebration of obscure stories goes way back to early "legends" books in the Star Wars series.  There is a famous one about the characters in the Mos Eisley cantina, and of course we all grew up reading about the continuing adventures of the bounty hunters.  Interestingly enough, these obscure characters - particularly the bounty hunters that only appear for maybe a minute of screen time in the original trilogy - have taken off and become such larger characters that they appear in further books and episodes.  

Anyway, we read tonight, and tomorrow night we should be done with the three-book series.  We'll move on in a different direction after that, including a viewing of "Return of the Jedi" to celebrate.  I saw that in theaters a long time ago.  And even at a drive-in theater in White County.  And of course in theaters again many years later.  It'll be fun seeing it again.

We closed out the day with prayer, and a good night's rest.  We have taekwondo practice in the morning, so we all got to bed on time, ready for a good sleep.