A Sign Pointing Firmly to the Future

Still not ready to write about a weekend that could rival any of my future weekends in Las Vegas and Henderson. Tentacles of pain are still reaching inward from the sides of my feet, the result of basically walking for three days straight (Friday was work, remember), and after I'm done compiling job listings for that freelance writing newsletter, I don't want to move until at least mid-morning tomorrow. I've got three episodes of Jeopardy! Tivo'd (Two from Game Show Network, Saturday and today at 6 in the morning that originally aired a few years ago, and a rerun on my local ABC station last night) and I'm looking forward to vegging out while calling out answers I'm surprised I knew. But this I must mention.

Before going to IKEA, we stopped at Fry's, where Mom and Meridith wanted to look at waffle makers. I thought only about the DVD section, which is a lot of fun to go through because they stock DVDs that you'll never find at Best Buy, such as The Straight Story, and the Ethan Hawke Hamlet for $6. I stood where that DVD was, with that in my left hand, and the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, released by the BBC, and therefore $14.27, though for a three-hour production, it was somewhat understandable. But if I was to buy either of these, and possibly not like them (I'm nuts for the Kenneth Branagh-directed version, though that wouldn't color my view of either of the other two), then I'm out $20. I can take that risk with books because that's who I am. But for DVDs right now, until I have a library card again, I prefer to only buy DVDs I know I can benefit from because they tap into some interest or that I need back in my DVD collection, such as Dick Tracy, the Warren Beatty one, which I bought. I'll wait for those versions of Hamlet, when I can also have the resource of finding other Shakespearean productions on DVD wherever those libraries have DVDs available.

I stopped in the documentary section of DVDs, finding one called Over Florida that's entirely of footage shot from the air. I was born and happily raised there, with much in the state that fired my imagination and led me to who I am now, who I'm looking to be as a writer. Perhaps it would be nice to watch that footage and remember those landmarks that were so important to me.

That didn't happen. As I always do, I slightly shook the DVD case up and down to make sure the DVD was securely in place and this one wasn't. It rattled. At the same time I decided not to risk $9.95 on a DVD that may be completely scratched up, I found a two-disc DVD set called Vegas: The City the Mob Made, 10 episodes about the history of Las Vegas. Shaking that DVD case, I found that those DVDs didn't move.

I bought it, because from this comes everything else I'd want to read about Las Vegas history. I want to know everything. I will leave nothing out. And it was definitely a sign, not to forget Florida entirely, but to leave it behind now and focus on what will come and make me happy every day. It's like my favorite song from the '90s: Runaway by Janet Jackson. The memories it evokes of growing up in the '90s are still active in my mind, but the impact has faded. I think it's to make room for what's ahead, to be where I truly want to be, and what it can fan out to include, such as my desire to travel to New Mexico, and my eventual presidential library travels. By finally having a home base again, I can add more to what I am in reading, writing, and in living.