About A Stepdad

I didn’t realize how far I’d walked until I had to walk back.  I kept to the shade as best I could, looking at all the sights, avoiding buying bottles of water from street vendors for $1 and stepping around vast piles of dried vomit.

I loved the mini Eifel Tower.  And the Parisian-looking rooftop of their hotel.  Didn’t make it as far as the NY NY area but that was mostly due to the fact I kept wandering into the casinos to see what was what.

In one, I stopped long enough to buy a water, watch a beautiful young woman look incredibly bored while hanging out with 2 guys who were 80, if they were a day, and took a picture of my sunglasses.  🙂

But when I got back, I got back to writing.  All sorts of frustrating things popped up but those are the things I need to fix so I did my best to fix them.  Again, it took way longer than I would have guessed.

Whew.  When I was done, I ordered room service again.  I was mentally exhausted.   Time for a burger.  Then time for bed.

Thanks for everyone who sent me a message.  It means a lot to me.

350 odd pages to go.

Took a bit longer to finish my 2^nd 50 pages than I thought.  However, with a new name for one of my characters came a whole new personality and that needed to be incorporated.  Funny how important a name can be.

But I needed a break.

So I went walkabout.

A lot of people seemed to have the same idea.  Maybe they needed a break from writing, too.

It was perfect weather for a walk.  Took lots of pictures.

Walked into a Louis Vuitton store.  It smelled glorious.  A bit of leather smell, a bit of something sweet.  I didn’t buy a bag, though.  But I could have sniffed that store forever.

However, the highlight was watching the Bellagio Water Display.  No pictures.  It has to be with sound and movement.

With all of the excesses of Vegas, the heat, the expensive stores, the $8 bottles of water, this was free and simply magnificent.  The video is not my own, mine is way more awesome, but it gives you an idea.  It’s something magical.  Water ballet and music.  Andrea Bocilli.   “Time to Say Goodbye”, a song that could bring tears to your eyes at the best of times.

1) I will not eat a $42 can of nuts not matter how hungry I get.

2) I will not go to watch elite midget wrestling.

3) I will not watch the lights on the slot machines.  They are flashing and pretty and bright and blue and yellow sometimes and oh, the pretty lights, they call to me, they call to me…

4) I will not throw any money into any fountains.  Hey, this place will hoover enough cash out of my pockets.

5) I will not drink before 5pm (and certainly not at 7am, (though here I totally could.)

6) I will not stare at the girls who walk around in bikinis and high heels, though I have to say, that’s an awesome thing to behold.  (Hey, I said I wouldn’t stare, I didn’t say I wouldn’t look.)

7) I will not wear my pants around my nipples no matter how old I get.  Nor will I wear my pants around my ankles so that everyone can see my underwear.  I come for the generation that thought pants should hang from the right part of the body.

8) I will not look around in restaurants to see if I’m the only one dining alone.  Usually I am and that’s just depressing.

9) I will not go on a romantic gondola ride

10)I will not leave until I finish my novel

Felt good about getting some writing done yesterday.

But today, I had to drag my sorry ass out of bed.  I thought 3 TVs would be my undoing.  But no, it was the super comfy bed with pillows made from angel’s feathers.

When I finally did get up, what do I see in the mirror but a huge sleepy crease on my face, like someone folded up my skin and ironed it (note to self, look up if skin can be ironed.)

Well, that’s what I get for not drinking enough water.  But here’s the thing, I just couldn’t pay $8 for a bottle of water in my room.  Odd that I have an attack of cheap here, it’s like the last place in the universe where being cheap is a good idea.  Now I tried the tap water but it’s, well, it’s green and tastes like green water.  Yuck.

So today, I would find cheap(er) water and stock up a bit.

After ironing my face, I went down for breakfast.  Menu was interesting.  First page of menu.  Drinks.  Second page.  Drinks.

That’s Vegas, baby.

Also saw fried chicken and waffles.  For breakfast?  Really?  Hmmm.  This I may have to try.

Waitress was efficient and served with machine-like politeness.  Angelina was like that.  I miss her. I hope whoever she is driving around appreciates her as much as I did.

Fed and full, it was time to write.

Not a tub guy.  Just saying.

But when my computer crashed and I couldn’t get it to reconnect to the internet, I decided, hey, why not relax and have a bath.

Oh, it was so lovely and hot and soothing.

I had forgotten how good it feels.

Normally, I’m all about speed and efficiency.  Pre-rinse.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat as needed.  Scrub hard, scrub fast, get in and get out.

A bath, though, is not so much about the scrubbing as the letting of hot water seep into your bones.

It was so relaxing, I almost feel asleep.

But I still had to write, so no sleepies.  Checked and corrected 50 pages.  Took me about 3 hours.  Fixed the ‘Ma’ problem.  Fixed spelling errors and grammar errors.  Fixed all those annoying little errors.  Cut about 2 pages worth of excesss crap.  A good start.

I returned Angelina to her owners.  I will miss her.  She was very nice to me.

However, I got one last ride in her.  Another nice girl took me back to the hotel, the Venetian.  She was a pre-med student, and I found out it’ll cost her about $500k for her to become a doctor!  Good lord.  She said, though, that she should make about 200k a year when she graduates so maybe 500k isn’t so bad.

I have to say I was so impressed by this girl. She’s holding down 2 jobs so she doesn’t go too deep in debt and has organized her life so that she spends as little money as possible, which also means she doesn’t drink or smoke or shop in great, bloody outlet malls.

She dropped me off successfully and I wished her luck on her career.

Then, with my bag of books, my backpack and my luggage, I entered paradise.

Oh sure I stood in line for a bit but it was so worth it.  The room, well, she is better than Angelina.

I have 3 TVs for goodness sake.  I have a huge soaker tub.  I have a high-end bed and free robe and a desk to write at and a comfy chair to siteth my ass upon.

OMG I am going to be so spoiled!

Ordered room service and ate a spectacular meal.  Not a cheap meal but it was worth the price.  Plus, I didn’t have to leave my room and get distracted by all the lights, breasts, beeping machines and sights to see.

It would be great if someone was here to share this with but, hey, it’s a good life for me.

Ok, here’s the deal…

No blogging until I get my writing done.  Blogging could become another crutch.  Another excuse not to get back to the novel.

So, write first, blog later.

First up.  It’s was a driving day, today.

Woke up at 6.  A night of bad dreams.  Probably shouldn’t have eaten choc cream pie before going to bed.

Packed everything then repacked and repacked until I realized that I didn’t have enough room.  17 books take up a bit of space.

Packed the books in a plastic laundry bag and checked out.  Man, were those clerks nice.  Smiley, polite sweeties.  I will miss them.

But I had miles to go before I sleep.

Weather was fine, roads were unhindered by traffic jams and I made great time.  Drove past a road called “Zzyzx.”  I kid you not.  Also drove by some huge black towers that made me wonder, what the f&%@ are these?  Hmmm.  Must find out.

Got into Vegas about 1, after stopping for a brief breakfast.  Phoned rental car dudes and found out I didn’t have to have the car back until about 3, later if I didn’t need a ride back to my hotel.

So what did I do?

I went shopping.  At an outlet mall.

Now for my shopping friends, let me tell you there was a Nike store the size of a Zellers.  There were more shoe stores than I had fingers and toes.  There were men’s wear stores, women’s wear, child’s wear store, a Greg Norman store, outerwear, innerwear, large luggage stores, small luggage stores, stores that carried kitchen gadgets and stores that sold personalized perfume.  Even a Every 5 feet there seemed to be someone wanting to give me something for free.  Every 10 feet there was someone wanting to give me hair extensions or a foot massage or something deep fried.

It was too much.

At least for me.

The great outlet mall defeated me.

I returned the car in shame.

Found a games store in Lancaster.  Now for anyone who does not know I’m a huge geek stop reading so that you may still think of me as awesome.

The store wasn’t that big but it was full of people, many of them gaming their little brains out in the back room.  Girls too!

Ended up having a nice chat with the owners.  All geeky warhammer stuff.  Kinda fun to get my geek on.

Then up and down the main street I drove, stopping to take pictures of this and that.  On one stop, a black women in a car leaned out the window and asked what I was taking a picture of.  Like it was just something you don’t see every day.  In fact, after I told her I was taking a picture of the post office, she said just that.  Now that’s something you don’t see every day.

I had to laugh.

First, that she would ask that question.  Then that she would offer up her observation. So very un-Canadian.

Then I decided to check out the Palmdale sheriff station and oh, momma, was that ever different.

It was new inside and out.  Clean.  Uncluttered by the unwashed masses.  Like the station on Main st in Vancouver, it was right across from a pretty iffy looking housing development, the type where people have their couches outside, right beside their rusty old cars and mangy-looking dogs.

Bravely, I went inside and there, hiding behind a homemade cardboard sunscreen was a nice deputy.  I asked if I could take pictures but she said, no.  Too bad, there were a lot of neat little details, not the least of which was the damn screen she’d made so that she wouldn’t be blinded when the late afternoon sun baked the entire entrance area.  She was nice enough to give me some information as well, so screw you, Lancaster, Palmdale rocks!

In some ways, it would make more sense to change the setting but I probably won’t.  Likely the Lancaster station in my book will be an amalgam of the two stations.

I loved finding that station, though. It was so much more like what I imagined a new LASD station would look like.

So, tomorrow, a long, long drive back to Las Vegas.  Must get rid of car, must check in and must start writing my book.

Not sure I’ll be able to post like crazy.  Novel comes first.

Wish me luck.

Sadly, that which I’d come to see had largely been destroyed.  I took a picture of the old factory, which was kinda neat and drove all around the property but they were in the process of demolishing pretty much everything but the production studio, and they weren’t letting nice chubby Canadians in.

I won’t deny it, I was a little disappointed.  It’s probably on valuable property (right next to a new mall) or maybe the production studio is expanding but nearly all of the buildings I’d come to see were no more.

Sadface.

I ended up marching around the perimeter as best I could, taking a few pictures of what was left but spending much more time there was pretty pointless so I left.

Driving back was a lot easier.  Made it in about 90 min.

Now it was off to find a location that inspired the airfield in my story.  Although no longer an working airfield itself, it still had some wonderful buildings, a few good hangars and one giant hangar that had been transformed into production studio (the largest independent production studio in california, where they shot things like Spiderman 2).  Used to be a huge airplane factory back in the day (1940s) but I wasn’t sure how much of that would be left.

I got onto the main freeway, had Angelina play more Reacher for me and my GPS said it would be about a 90 min drive.  Perfect.  That would give me tons of time to do a few other things.

But damn, I was on the 1-5, a 5 lane highway when it slowed to a crawl and then that crawl stopped altogether.

ACK!!!

I ended up spending 2 ½ hours moving 4 miles.  I kid you not.  Luckily I had Reacher or I would have gotten quite grumpy.  But hey, Reacher was trying to figure out what was going on, he was having sex with a hot FBI agent and the serial killer was planning all manner of horrible thing so it was all good.  Sure I lost a ton of time but it was kind of relaxing.

I finally passed the problem, a car-semi accident that had blocked 3 whole lanes and then I made good time.  I got off in an area called Downey (which didn’t look too sketchy) and found something I didn’t expect.

That was Margot’s way of thinking.  Things may not always go right but if you kept your eyes open, you could be surprised what you found.

I found the world’s oldest McDonalds!!!

I didn’t know it was the oldest until I got back but even looking at it, hey, it looks really, really old.

Cool.