Saturday I went to the First Ever Ninth Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade in Hot Springs. It was a literal blast (not figuratively). In the middle of the parade a transformer BLEW UP about 40 feet away from me. It was absolute chaos. Only one person was seriously injured and they were taken away in an ambulance right in front of me. I could have reached out and touched the stretcher.
After the parade my dad and I went to the 38 Special concert. I had forgotten how much I adore going to legit concerts. Except for dealing with the drunks it was an incredible concert. The smoke and the lights and the music were only half of it. Watching the band have fun and interact with the crowd and dance around stage and mess with each other made the whole concert. You could see they truly love what they do. I was so close to the stage I could see the sweat dripping off their faces and could read the labels on the drum set. When I got home that night my heart was still pounding, my hearing still half gone, and my face still smiling. You know it was a great concert if that happens.
Sunday was kind of blah.
Today was the kicker. I am at my parent house in Benton. I had only been away for about 15 minutes when all this happened. I woke up to my aunt calling me to say that my cousin's water had broke. She lives in Fayetteville. This is probably the closest I will ever some to having a nephew. My cousin Kevin and I are the only children in the family. We are 14 years apart but we are extremely close to each other. He is the closest thing to a sibling I have ever had. His son is being born today and I will be up there as soon as my dentist appointment is over this afternoon.
The second thing today was a total shock. It happened about an hour ago and I am still shaking and my heart is still pounding, but not in the way the concert made it pound on Saturday. The concert brought life into it. This about killed me. I had just gotten off the phone with my aunt (remember this all happened within 15 minutes of each other) and someone starts beating on my door. I thought it was UPS with a wedding package and wanted a signature. I changed into some proper clothes (as I was in my pjs since I had just woken up) and I answered the door. Standing on my driveway was a man I had not seen in about 5 years and did not even recognize until he told me his name. It was another cousin of mine who had basically dropped off the face of the earth. We have heard from him once in my entire life and that was 5 years ago. He asked where my parents were (at work!) and said he would drop back by this evening. I closed the door and literally collapsed in shock. I just laid on the floor for about 20 minutes trying to calm down.
So why do you care? You probably don't but I had to tell someone. My brain is absolutely going crazy with everything that has happened. I feel like I am in a work of fiction. One of these episodes will probably end up somewhere in something I write. You can't make this stuff up! I guess, in short, my advice today is take scenes from your life. There are somethings that will happen to you that you would have never imagined in your wildest dreams. Tweak your stories to fit your fiction. I think I have said this before, but I passionately believe it. If you don't put some of yourself into your stories then they aren't really your stories. Your thoughts, beliefs, loves, hates, life will come through regardless. I believe that is what makes every story unique. You can write the same story as someone else, but you will have your own viewpoints, ideas, and insight. Start there.
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