It’s cliche to say, but this week was one of those weeks where I found myself by spending time in nature. I’m kinda like a poor man’s Thoreau.

Amongst the winding trails in the Sonoran Desert, I came to an acute realization that I over-complicate my stories. I make them more complex than they need to be. I add a bunch of shit that doesn’t belong. In short, I let my ego tell my stories instead of me.

Last night while I was working on my pilot I fell asleep on my computer’s keyboard. My eyes got REALLY heavy and WHAM! my head hit the computer. Out cold.

I think the best habit a person can do with their life is just to let things play out as they may. Speaking from personal experience, I get angry, depressed, frustrated when I can’t change my circumstances by mentally willing situations and relationships into existence.

The toughest part about any creative endeavor - writing, painting, music - is to not get stuck in your head. It’s so damn easy to over-analyze the shit out of what you’re trying to create that you lose sight of what you’re trying to express.

To create something is to express something that lies deep inside, something beyond words (intellect) and into the world of symbols and action (emotions).

Basically my only two blog posts this week are weekly reviews? Fine, it is what it is. But I promise to post more this week - however crappy the posts may be.

Yeah, I know. It’s weird to write a weekly review blog post almost two weeks late. But, dammit, I’m going to do it anyways.

Meant to post this last night, but after a full day of work, zoom school, and seemingly eight hours of my youngest screaming and throwing plastic trucks, I was drained.

But…

Yup, just as the title suggests: sometimes you just gotta quit.

Good news for the week is that I got my first does of the Pfizer Covid 19 vaccine. Felt a little sluggish for the day, but overall no adverse reactions/symptoms. Feels good to know there’s some kind of resolution to this year of mess.

Alright, let’s get started with what’s been going on in our tiny ass apartment the last 36 hours or so…

Last night around 9:30 pm I was in our bedroom watching THE WALKING DEAD when I heard my wife scream my name at the top of her lungs.

Naturally I was absorbed in my show, so I didn’t respond right away…which prompted a second scream.

Really busy week behind the scenes - my wife had to report to work, which left me balancing between our kids’ school and my work; and, I did a lot of work on the website that I look forward to revealing in a few weeks. Just want to give a quick update about what I’ve been doing lately.

Quick jot of what I did today. Going to keep this post short, sweet, and to the point. Got a lot of stuff I’m reading/viewing and taking notes on that I want to write up soon.

Sometimes an imbalanced week of competing priorities can offer just enough clarity as to what your next steps should be. For me I think this week was a good cleansing of the mind. I still got some stuff done (not as much as I wanted).

I’ve been writing pretty hard lately. Every night I start at 8/8:30 pm and work until midnight/1:00 am, only to get up at 6:30 am with my kids. To say I’m exhausted is an understatement. To say that I’m pushing myself to the max is, well, right on point. Luckily, I’m in the brainstorming phase of my latest project, so I don’t feel pressure in making sure every word is perfect. In fact, when I’m actually writing I feel the most relaxed and at peace.

Our first week back from vacation and we’re already in the think of misery - balancing working from home, helping two rambunctious boys with online school, looking for jobs, searching for a new place to live, and trying to write something that makes sense and that people would want to read.

I think it was Joyce Carol Oates who said the greatest enemy to writing is interruption. I can definitely attest to the truth of that observation. This week was cray.

Got up ridiculously early because my youngest son literally gets up before the birds. Add to that a healthy mix of work and teaching and helping both boys with school and working on my new pilot…I’m blurry-eyed as I write this post. But, dammit, I’m going to keep writing.

The most challenging thing about traveling, in my opinion, is maintaining some type of routine or schedule that supports your writing or creative endeavors. My week’s been a mess. The time change - AZ is an hour ahead of LA - is still something I can’t remember. I don’t know how many times I’ve logged into Zoom an hour before a meeting was supposed to start.

Cloudy day in Arizona. A rarity for sure. Otherwise a normal Monday while living under Covid - kids on Zoom for school, wife on Zoom for work, I’m on Zoom for work, too. Hell, we even put my in-laws in another room and ate dinner via Zoom just to be consistent.

I’m not going to start this post off with my usual observation about writing, creativity, and life. Instead, I’m going to blurt out an interesting idea I had while my family and I were driving to Arizona.