Dreaming in California – Not Yet the California Dream

40th Trial: Totally separate from my writing. San Francisco Housing. Enough said.

Weekly Hours Spent Writing or in the Pursuit of Plot: 1 hour for plot – you would think with a 5 day drive to California with nothing to do much change CDs and ignore strange sounds coming from tired tires, I would have more time to consider the project and product our leading lady will immerse herself in.

Weekly Choice of Tea: Peach Tranquility

Biggest Success: Making it to San Francisco. Through all of the chaos of moving to a new city, I have been able to save some energy to consider a schedule for writing, swimming, and travel planning.

All of it is true. Jamie and I packed our cars just two weeks ago and came to the west in the same desperate desire for a next adventure. In our own way we pioneered a new life;  passing through the green crops that filled the rolling hills of  Iowa, the snow capped mountain ranges and deep canyon lined roads of Colorado, the vast red desert lands of Utah, Las Vegas, and the immensity of Arizona canyons. The road to California was primarily heat, dust, and desert. There were exit signs that were nameless, as if the roads that came from it went nowhere. The stars at night were as impenetrable and clear as they were in Indonesia. America is no longer a land without differing landscapes and cultures to me, and is just as vibrant as the countries that make up many other continents. It takes a drive across country to see it as such!

The next three years in San Francisco will be the most momentous of my life. Here I will finish my novel, gain all the experience to create my own business, and discover further the west coast of our wonderful nation. Something More British will document the entire process, and in turn create a network of aspiring writers (and anyone else!), so that we may all continue to pursue what seems impossible to us. You always have time to pursue your dreams, no matter how hard driving 14 hours a day across the desert can be. Or finding a new place to live in a city filled of chaotic opportunities. Or even when we allow careers to exhaust us. You only thrive when you are being who you love. How we look at our circumstances make our reality what it is, and you can change your reality in the same regard. That is the true plot of my novel, and in its own way it will show that our reality can bend in the way we accept nature, self, and love.

Advertisement

A Concieted Sort of…Independence

34th Trial: The only issue I have is carrying around a backpack already filled to the seam-breaking-point.

Weekly Hours Spent Writing or in the Pusuit of Plot: 1hr for plot brainstorming, 30min for travel journal

Weekly Choice of Tea:  Jasmine Tea, Cambodia

Success: Exploring Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Also, getting lost in a jungle in Koh Rong was an experience, and I consider a success that we found a beach after 2 hours of trekking!

Currently, as I write to you all, I am sitting on my hammock outside of a bungalow, perfectly perched and overlooking Koh Rong Island, Cambodia. It overlooks the beach and the islands in the distance, as its location is at the beginning of the jungle and a slight hike from the beach. It is 7am, and the local music has been playing since it woke me up earlier, a welcomed alarm clock for me to witness a very cloudy sunrise. We arrived here yesterday, and it was like an ice cold refreshment after the dust and dirt that becomes the air in Phnom Penh. Going from city to city, one must break the journey with the indulgence of beach life to sustain calm composer with the sometimes grueling forms of travel.

The beauty here comes in all forms. It is exactly what I anticipated it to show me—that there are areas of true paradise, but also there are areas where poverty creates hard labor and exhaustive effort. It is easy for one who has come from where I have, to see some frivolities of my life as truly pointless. However, a hot shower is not something I shall ever take for granted again!

When I look around, I see many people that look as I do with a heaping backpack and the look of travel in the frizz of their hair. I have been hearing over and over again in my head a line from the movie “Pride and Prejudice”, where Mr. Bingley’s sister describes Elizabeth Bennet as being “wild”. She states that her eyes displayed:

“A conceited sort of, independence.”

And her petticoat! Six inches deep with mud. Anyways, it humors me in the fact that we all look the same. We all rely on that independence to guide us through unknown cultures and lands, and each takes pride in where they are and what they are doing. Whether it be conceit or not, I am happily reminded of the book, and illustrate my demeanor now to be only conceited independence! Naturally!

I have been documenting more and more of this trip in my journal and our travel blog. On the flight over here I created another journal to brainstorm on a central theme that is to propel my novel forward, one that is inspired by my girlfriend, Jamie. She is an Industrial Designer, and when it comes to competitions or product development, one must solve a problem. To solve a problem—which is such a fun opportunity to create around, however it is as open as the universe. So while I sit on this hammock, I revitalize my purpose to seek a topic that can work in the background as the story line progresses, one that focuses on an issue, brainstorming, redesign, and a solution. This topic too has potential to illustrate the evolving characters and the social interaction that inevitably occurs.

This area is highly diverting. But I shall not allow it to persuade me too much to think little of my novel!

DSC_0718 DSC_0790 DSC_1037 DSC_0845

Happy Christmas!

28th Trial:  Balance. I have said goodbye to the office that has up to this point become like-family to me, and am now balancing a life on the road and a purpose to substitute.

Weekly Hours Spent Writing or in the Pursuit of Plot: 2hr at a wonderful new coffee shop near home. The Greene shall now become a Room of my Own to escape and write.

Weekly Choice of Tea:  Green Macha Latte

Biggest Success:  I am making a  move from Charlotte! Together Jamie and I are devising a travel scheme and our official move out to California. AND I am now a licensed chiropractor in California!!!

 

Happy Christmas to everyone!!! Here are a few photos from my travels home so far, a few staples that must be visited and enjoyed. In the literary regard– no deep thoughts to unveil there. I am happily content with playing ball with my dog in my parent’s home, watching Christmas movies one right after another, and sleeping in till 10am. Minimal progress has been made on my novel, much to my dismay, but I fully plan that next week you shall hear a different tune.

How exciting. To wake up every morning and approach a blank, white sheet of paper! I realize that I cannot do this forever, however, knowing that the next month will be this way is easy to accept.

Skyline

Skyline in Cincinnati

Painting

My Painting hung at my Aunt’s Practice

Dublin Pub

Dublin Pub Birthday Toast

Coke

Stockings