Mr. Jen and I were talking about daydreaming today, about how I like to sit in the chair near the window and just think. Sometimes it's about how if I had a million dollars, I'd redo my kitchen in hickory cabinets and finally have a dishwasher, saving my poor little dry and cracked hands from hard labor.

Other times it's about a book that I'm writing or want to write. About what sort of shenanigans the characters will get into. Or maybe it's about what the love interest will look like and whether or not I would have crushed on him when I was in high school (always the answer is yes, otherwise, why would he be the love interest created by my imagination?).

And sometimes I just sit there and think about nothing. I sit there and watch the sunlight or the rain or the darkness. And it feels good clearing my head. 

Mr. Jen, on the other hand, cannot sit in complete silence for more than five minutes and three seconds before he's saying (quite annoyingly), "I"m bored."

"Thanks for ruining my daydream about meeting Jensen Ackles's Dean Winchester character!" I say.

"Thanks for ruining my daydream about plotting my next book!" I say.

It drives me insane that Mr. Jen cannot stop for long periods of time just to look at or appreciate something. Our hikes at the state park are hurry-up-let's-keep-going-I'm-bored. And maybe that's why he's not a writer or an artist or anything having to do with the creative arts. Mr. Jen likes science and storms and volcanoes. He would rather chase a storm cloud than stop to look at it and memorize the curve of it or the dark, bruised color. 

It amazes me how different we are or how differently we see things. But it makes him who he is and I appreciate that. Probably two daydreamers in one house would be too many. Because somebody has to do the dishes while I'm daydreaming.

What about you? Do you daydream?
 

1. I'm quitting energy drinks tomorrow! I binged all weekend, cut back yesterday, only had one today, and tomorrow I'll have none. Seriously, if I quit smoking, I can quit energy drinks and stick with it!

2. Allow me a moment to be a crabby bank teller: Don't bring eight deposits and two tax payments to the drive-thru thereby holding everyone else up because you couldn't get off your butt and walk inside to the lobby! ESPECIALLY when the business you own is a health club!!!! 

3. I miss The Hills. ;( August cannot come fast enough. 

4. Did anyone see the Supernatural finale on Thursday? What did you think?

5. Has anyone read The Host? I'm having a hard time getting into it. Does it get better?

6. I read Holly Black's Ironside and Melissa Marr's Ink Exchange both within the last week. I loved them and I'm sad there won't be another story with Kaye and Roiben, but at least there will be more Marr books! Yeah!

7. Possession is almost finished! (And I'm afraid it sucks!)

 

I cleaned out the closet today and found a whole bag of stuff my mother had given me. It was full of school projects, report cards, teacher letters, etc.

I found a poem that supposedly I wrote in 4th grade. My mother insists I wrote it. I would have been ten, but I don't remember writing it. I have to wonder if some other cool kid wrote it and I just took the credit. Or maybe it was published somewhere and I just copied it?

Anyways, here it is: (If this sounds familiar let me know!)

Found and Lost
A wizard's hating pet.
Rather shortish.
Somewhat slimy.
May be hungry or angry.
Please feed nightly.
P.S. No Reward.

A dragon breathing spu(?)
Flails his slimy feet.
Would eat 100 small children nightly if we let him.
Please come get him.
P.S. Reward.

And then, when we were younger, my best friend Lacy and I used to send each other greeting cards all the time. We'd try to be the one who found the funniest. Lacy sent me this one:

"I quit jogging because it was bad for my health...(open card )
My thighs rubbed together so much, my underwear caught on fire."

That was us! We hated gym class. We hated running the mile. I should send her a greeting card tomorrow. I think she'd love it. We haven't done this in forever. I've already planned to send a card to her older sister. Both of their parents have passed and my parents "adopted" the girls years ago so they both come to our family Christmas party. The older sister, Crystal, doesn't like making plans so when Lacy asked her if she was coming she said, "I don't know." But she has to come! It's a tradition that we all buy each other gag gifts. Last year I bought two boxes of chocolates and took a bite out of every single one then rewrapped the boxes. And my gifts this year will be equally fun!

Anyway, I told Lacy I was going to send Crystal a ransom card using magazine clippings to write my message. 

At Walmart today I picked the card out. On the front it says, "Just a friendly hello!" And on the inside I'm going to paste a picture of Lacy with a note that says, "You better be at the Christmas party or your sister gets it!" Crystal has a twisted sense of humor. She'll love it. (I hope!)

Other Funny Thing: Mr. Jen went to Walmart today wearing two different boots!

I fell asleep this afternoon while Mr. Jen and I were watching a movie and I had a dream. There wasn't anything particularly fantastical about this dream, but it was the person who I met that made it so amazing.

I was walking along the street, the beach running close off to my left. I slowed at a house. It felt familiar to me and through the window I saw a man, early twenties, in full military uniform sitting at the kitchen table.

"Jordan!" I yelled. He looked up and smiled. I ran inside and we hugged. I remember clutching to him as if I hadn't seen him in years. I asked him where he was going and he said he was leaving in an hour to join the military.

"I'm glad I caught you then."

"Me too," he said, arms still wrapped around me tightly.

"You're a good man. You mean a lot to me."

And that was the end of the dream. I've never met anyone named Jordan. And he didn't look familiar, but I knew in the dream that we were best friends and we hadn't seen each other in years. And I also felt the fear of letting him go after having just found him.

This dream has been with me all day. And Jordan feels so important to me that I miss him right now. I can't get him out of my head.

He seems incredibly real to me. Maybe I met him in a past life, or maybe it's my writer's brain cooking up a new character and a relationship. All I know is he's going to make an appearance in a future WIP.

What would I do with him, if I wasn't a writer? It seems a shameful waste not to use him. So it makes me wonder, do non-writers have dreams like this? Do non-writers have characters in their heads that seem more real, more important to them then some people they've actually meet?