Daily Word Count: 0
Cumulative Words Written: 49,619
Total Words Discarded: 6,100
Total Chapters Drafted: 20
Time Spent Writing Today: 0 hours
MTM and I had this stupid dream. For our tenth wedding anniversary, we wound up on a first class flight to Australia. (Totally DID NOT pay first class prices.) IT. WAS. HEAVEN. Chef-prepared meals. Open bar. Custom pajamas. Flat beds with high thread count sheets. My own bathroom.
For our fifteenth anniversary, we swore we’d pay whatever the price to fly Virgin Australia to New Zealand for two weeks.
The price? Over $10,000. Per ticket.
No matter. This was 2014. My first book, To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis, had just come out. I walked the whole Natchez Trace mere months before. Any second, I was going to be discovered by Oprah, vaulting my novel into the stratosphere. I just KNEW I’d be set financially by 2019, with several successful books selling hundreds of thousands of copies a year.
I was STUPID.
But I’m also lucky. I’m still married to MTM. This weekend, I took a break from my Messejana residency. I hopped an Easy Jet flight (price $75 with no leg room, no food, practically no bathroom, and no service) from Lisbon to Madrid.
MTM met me at the airport. We took a bus (5 euro each) to Atocha station and walked (free) fifteen minutes to our Air BnB (much, much less than the over thousand dollar per night place we planned for New Zealand.)
Holding hands, we took in the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid’s palace of contemporary art. And I needed someone to hold my hand for all the Dali. Plus Guernica. We walked onto the reflective addition by Jean Nouvel, and I even tried my ankle with some yoga in the Richard Serra room.
From there, we enjoyed a very Spanish lunch at Ganz. Almost three hours. Three courses. Plus a bottle of cold Spanish wine.
I bought a cheap pair of zapatas. And though I wasn’t hungry, I murdered this pile of churros.
This anniversary, our lives are far from where we planned. But we’re together, despite how stupid I am. Right where we’re supposed to be.
To follow my residency at Buinho Creative Hub from the beginning, CLICK HERE and read forward.
6 Comments
Perspective. Ah, yes…
Laugh at me. Ah yes. I deserve it. ??
You are far from stupid Andra. Sometimes…..a lot of times….our plans do not work out. We try and try and wind up where we are due to no fault of our own. You do what you can with what you have. Stuff does not matter. Our relationships with our loved ones are much more valuable. You and MTM have something that is more valuable than gold. Cherish the moments each of you have while you can.
We are. Thank you.
Lovely time together! Sounds perfect to me. Life is interesting and each leg of it unique. I’m smiling thinking of you together! ❤️
Lovely so far. Thank you.
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