Happy FN New Year

Well it's 2005. Hoop de do. I had a pretty good birthday considering we didn't go eat at PF Chang's -- there was an hour and a half wait and I neglected to call ahead for reservations. We had a pretty bad Chinese substitute at China Court down the road. Calvin also chose this day to scream at everything. So it wasn't until the kids were with the Grandmother for the evening that the day really picked up. Tamara and I had some pretty good Bar-B-Que at Oklahoma Station and went to see Blade 3. It's a brain candy action movie but still pretty good. So that's what it's like to turn 40.

Today we had the Hodge/Baker tradional New Year's meal -- enchiladas, tacos and black-eyed peas. They were pretty good. I ate too much and then we all played Uno Attack. With 8 players the game took over two hours. That's just too much "spitting" Uno.

After we got home I remembered what I wanted my only New Year's Resolution to be.

To write every day.

I'll worry about guitar, excercise and other things later. I just want to do this. So I had this idea to use the book, "A Writer's Book of Days" by Judy Reeves and see how long I can keep it going. I tried using this book once before a couple of years ago but it didn't work out. She has the normal writing life rah rah stuff but also an idea a day to write about. So I'm going to try to use her "Idea a Day" part of the book if nothing else and write something and post it here in the blog. That way I get writing practice and blog entries. I'm hoping it lasts more than a week.

Today's topic -- Write about Sunday afternoon.

He woke up to a cat licking his face. The wet sandpaper tongue rubbed against the flesh between his nostrils; wrenching him lick by lick from a happy drunk dream to a hung-over wakefulness. The cat stood on his chest and licked and purred and nuzzled and sailed across the bed barely catching her claws on the edge. She climbed back up and licked her paws as if she'd been doing that all day.

Jerry looked at the cat. His head throbbed. He stared at the cat and contemplated throwing up, getting some aspirin or perhaps a large saw and decapitating himself. It would serve the cat right if he threw up on it but then he'd have to clean it up. He stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. The day was too bright and the bathroom had no windows. He left the door cracked and navigated his toilet, aspirin and shower with minimal light.

He felt better after the shower and noticed the smells; bacon and coffee. Was someone cooking in his apartment or did he drink enough last night to have a minor stroke? No, he heard a noise. Someone was moving around in the other part of the apartment.

Jerry thought hard. Did he bring someone home last night? He couldn't remember. He went back to the bedroom to get dressed. He looked around for any signs of someone else's stuff. There was nothing. He had no clue who she was but if she was making breakfast... This could be very bad if he couldn't come up with a name.

He went into the kitchen and hoped for the best. He was not ready for what was there. A skinny guy wearing boxers and a tank top literally pranced around the kitchen putting the finishing touches on a full bacon and eggs breakfast. He noticed Jerry in the doorway and stopped.

"Hey, lover boy," he said. "You were really packing them away last night. Come over here and get some food in you. It'll help you face this glorious afternoon." He then went over and sat down at the table.

Jerry stood in the doorway - stunned. The food smelled good but he didn't know this guys name. He didn't know why a guy would be in his apartment at all. He did a quick mental inventory and nothing seemed out of place; but last night was still primarily a blank.

"Hey, come on over and I can explain it to you," the man at the table said. "As drunk as you were last night, I'd be surprised if you can remember who you are if your mother doesn't write your name in your shorts."

Jerry walked across the room and saw a heaping plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast and a cup of coffee just for him. He sat down and looked at the man next to him. He looked to be about a head shorter and fifty pounds lighter than Jerry.

"Look, before you start doubting anything or going over the top, let me introduce myself and tell you want happened," he said between sips of his coffee. "My name's Mark." He held out his hand but Jerry didn't take it.

"You have some mean friends," Mark said. "You thought I was a girl and they sent you over to pick me up. You did too. We were getting ready to leave when I noticed how drunk you were and how much they seemed to be enjoying it. I got you home and barely got you through the door when you passed out hard. I tucked you in and stuck around to make sure you didn't choke on your own vomit."

"Uh, thanks," Jerry said and continued to stare at Mark.

"Oh, I admit I made you breakfast so I could play with you a bit but when I saw you in the doorway I couldn't. You look pretty hung-over and I imagine your friends are going to give you hell about this for a while."

"Yeah, they'll get some good laughs out of this," Jerry said. "We were celebrating. I got a promotion. They just kept buying me drinks and I kept drinking them. I guess I'm getting too old for that kind of shit." Jerry started on the breakfast slowly. He was relieved that he was the only one being stupid last night.

So there you have it. The idea is to write until you get to a stopping point or you run out of steam. This is a first draft so any problems with tense or viewpoint or anything else is not supposed to be on your mind. I'm putting it up in it's raw form. So please comment if you want but remember the raw, first-draft nature of the posts.