I’m sleeping in my childhood bedroom tonight. One of them, at least. I had a few. But I am staring at the wall right now where I’d hung all my sports and Star Trek posters when I was 12 – 15.
Lots of good memories in this bedroom, actually. Reading. Listening to music. I wrote three quarters of a novel in this bedroom before reading Simon & Schuster submission guidelines for Trek novels that told me my manuscript didn’t have a chance of getting published. I’d broken one of the rules they’d made 😛
I’m pretty sure now they actually wouldn’t give a shit about that particular rule I’d broken with my story premise, but at the time, Trek books were decently big business, and they were getting more submissions than they could handle, I’m sure. I don’t actually remember learning that fact being all that crushing. It was a learning experience, actually. I just remember thinking, man, I wish I’d found these guidelines earlier on in the writing process.
That all happened in this very room in my parents’ house. The west-facing bedroom. Got tons of sunlight in the afternoons and evening. Rests atop the porch for the house, which means the floor was always cold in the mornings. Shared it with my brother Seth, who had a bunk bed built right above where my head is right now.
Man, I remember when Seth and I both got the flu really bad, and our fevers were bad enough to give us both nightmares, and we talked each other down from each of them when we woke up screaming at alternating times. That’s a good memory, believe it or not. Seth and I were good buds. Read the same books. Talked at night about cool stuff like spaceships and legos.
There’s a big picture of my brother Russell on the wall opposite of our bed tonight that Seth drew of him from a photograph. At least, I think it was Seth. Scott was also quite the artist in the family, so it’s possible he did it, but I’m pretty sure Seth did this one. Russell, the youngest of us four boys, died in a car crash almost 8 years ago, now. I’m not sure if I’ve talked about that much on this blog, but it’s definitely something that I think about a lot. He was a sensitive, shy guy, and I miss him enormously.
He and Scott had the largest of the three bedrooms upstairs, the one facing south, and it was in a perpetual state of disarray. Covered in toys. They had bunkbeds, Russell on the bottom, Scott on the top. They also had more floor space because it was a larger bedroom, so we’d all spend a decent amount of time playing in their room.
The drive today was long, but the Ho and I were able to split it up between the two of us, so it wasn’t too bad, actually. I’ve driven that route many, many times on my own, and it’s pretty freaking long if you’re going solo. But, with two, and with Coops, it wasn’t too bad. We talked, listened to music, some of the game when we had reception. It was a grand old time.
Now Coops is curled up between us, my writing this, and Liz checking the social media feeds. My Aunt and Uncle are here with my cousins in law, and my older cousin Jeremy came in tonight. I haven’t seen him for a few years, so that’s nice. He went with Seth back to his place to sleep for the night since we’re pretty maxed out here bed-wise.
Tomorrow…who knows. We’ll do whatever my mom and aunt want to do 😛 Maybe some walking around outside. Probably pick up some party stuff. We’ll see.
I can tell you this much…I’ma be sleeping in a little bit.
Tonight’s Trek-inspired artwork is from Japanese artist Sushei Nagaoka. A cool twist, huh?