Rodney Dodig

Have you ever had moments of discord within your own mind? This week other than the small amount of editing I did on the book, my mind seemed unable to put words together in a coherent thought process. Words and pieces of words floated around like so much flotsam tossed about by an ocean tide. I could almost feel them banging against the inside of my skull, repelled at the thought of joining together and forming a cogent sentence. I still feel somewhat discombobulated, unable to sit at this desk and work on the pieces that need working on. I’ve been calling myself lazy for the last couple of days, a cop out in a sense. I feel tired for no reason, wrung out. I’ve pushed myself away from the keyboard more than once, only to let my mind go blank, to think no other thought than why can’t I think? I’ve heard others say they go through phases like this, I can only hope it passes quickly. I want the energy to return, the obsession with entering words and dialog into my computer. I have stories to tell, characters who want a life, victims who need saving and heroes who want to save them. I need to dream and put those dreams on paper. I’m clogged, where’s the drano?

I got one long walk in this week, a jaunt up to the Pentagonito and back. It takes a little over an hour unless I’m taking photos, which I was. Other than the nice pictures I took,which are in this article, there was an interesting little incident. I stopped and took several pictures of the building as well as the entrance. I’ve done this many times in the past; it’s an interesting piece of architecture. It got its name from being the CIA’s headquarters in the old days, now it’s the Peruvian Army’s headquarters. On this particular walk a gentleman in a suit came over and asked me to erase all the photos I had taken. He actually stood and watched me do it. Not having the skills in Spanish, I couldn’t find out the reason why. I wondered if there were some important visitors there that day and it was supposed to be a secret of some type. Wonder who it could have been?

We had our regular writers’ group meeting on Thursday. It was my turn to submit a piece. Since I hadn’t written any type of short story in several months, I sent them an older piece, one of those I haven’t been able to finish. There were a few good suggestions but in the end, I doubt that I will ever finish that piece. It seems that there are some stories never meant to be finished. Then, on Friday I met with Larry for coffee again. We had our usual chat, nothing serious, just the state of politics in the US and Peru. Today I met Tim and Lourdes for breakfast. Tim is looking for a new apartment and is still trying to find a job teaching in a school. He’s tired of the private student routine, too much traveling. Lourdes, sweetheart that she is, is doing fine.

I also had my first visit with the dentist this week to fix my teeth. I will receive 26 crowns and four bridges when it’s all over. I’ve asked for one of those Hollywood smiles so get your sunglasses out. So far the process has been painless. I have the upper temporary in place now and will go for final color selection on Monday. The final crowns will be put in on Friday. It’ll be nice having a good smile again, not that the old teeth ever kept me from it.

I went to the movies with Steve and Antonio again last night. We saw “Tower Heist,” with an assortment of stars. I was all set to not like this movie. Imagine my surprise when I caught myself laughing out loud at several scenes in the movie. The audience loved it too, they laughed far more than I did. It always surprises me when Peruvians get American humor in the movies. I give it 4 Llamas. Go see it, some of the scenes are better on big screen.

That’s it for this entry. Hope all of you had a good week and weekend. I did despite that first paragraph. After all, I am living the good life now!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Living in Lima, Peru. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.