Desert Rose

When I first moved out from Sacramento to this desert I live in now, I had a really hard time seeing anything but the brown, dead grass and the stark treeless hills. It seemed so ugly and drab to me.

In time, I came to see that I was wrong. Like any place, there is beauty here. My example:

It's a thistle flower. From this spiny jagged thorny, nightmare of a plant comes a flower whose beauty is enough to take your breath away.

Now sure, I like lush green forests better. Who wouldn't really? But just because something is different, doesn't make it not worthwhile. And I think that goes for a lot of things besides deserts too.

Long Run/New Story Idea

This morning I went out for a long jog. My normal jog is about 1.5 miles. I figured that out by driving it in my car last night, and resetting the trip counter. While I was doing that, I figured I'd check to see where I needed to go to run the equivalent of a 5K race.

I mapped that run out, and this morning I went out and jogged it. It took me 37:51 to get all the way through it. That's five minutes slower than the last time I ran a 5K race back in September. It doesn't surprise me that I've slipped, but I'm hoping to get back to that time, and even improve on it. So, I'll be doing that run many more times over the coming months.

Along with my long run came a new story idea. A song that I was listening to sparked an idea for horror story that I think will be really good. Now I just have to get my act together and get writing, because I haven't finished the last new story idea I came up with...or the one before it either.

At least this time it wasn't a paranormal romance story. That's all I've been coming up with lately. No idea why. This time around it'll be my usual creepy horror. The kind of stuff that Rish complains about because it proves that I'm a monster instead of a person. The child in the story will probably die once again...