The Ballroom

So a big part of me getting on here and writing about things is because, well... I like to write.  I've been doing it since I was a kid, crafting tales of adventure, exploration, and mystery.  Some sci-fi, some thriller, some romance, and everything in between.  Between the time I got married (22 years ago) and the time my son was born (15 years ago), I did lots of "writing exercises" where I basically got an idea, a picture in my head if you will, of a situation... something happening.  It may be just a fleeting picture, or possibly a predicament, or even a feeling of some kind -- and my goal was to write it - write a description of it that someone else could read and get the same picture painted within their mind.  If I accomplish that, then I have succeeded in the exercise.  I have dozens upon dozens of these in my writing archives, basically a way to "flex my writing muscles" in a page or two of prose.  Life got busy and I haven't done this in a long time - but I have some ideas and I'm about to start up again.  So look for some new pages to get posted here in the very near future...

In the meantime, how about a little sample of something I did a long time ago.... enjoy.

The Ballroom

           

When she walked into the ballroom, Tim did not immediately see her.  He was standing near the center of the enormous room among a group of men and women in black-tie tuxedos and brightly colored cocktail dresses.  The loud resonance of muffled conversations nearly drowned out the soft jazz from the band.  He stood, arms folded across his chest, trying to appear interested in the boring story being told for the fourth time in an hour by his boss, Richard Chaney.  Tim laughed on cue and smiled, and attempted to keep eye contact with his boss and the circle of clients gathered around him. However, his gaze drifted off between outbursts of laughter, searching for any kind of distraction from the boredom.  That was when he saw her.  And everything changed.

~~~

She stood near the front entrance, her back to him, being introduced to a small group of clients, when she glanced over her shoulder with the most beautiful smile he could ever remember seeing.  She wore a simple, elegant red dress, fitted very well, all the way to the floor.  It was open in the back, revealing perfectly smooth and tanned shoulders and a curving shadow running down the middle of her back.  Her lips flashed the same color as her dress for the briefest of instants until she turned back towards the group in front of her.  Her hair was light brown, flowing just over her shoulders as she turned her head.  The soft lights from the chandeliers reflected softly from her hair and back.  Tim’s gaze was instantly locked onto her as the manufactured smile on his face melted away slowly, like a sunset.  His face was frozen in utter amazement; lips parted the slightest bit, and his eyes opened wide taking in her every move.

“Tim!”  A hand slapped him on the back, jarring his teeth, and breaking the trance. 

“How’ve you been son?”

Mr. Chaney had finished telling his story, and his audience had started prowling for other opportunities to mingle.  Ralph Mendor stood with his arm draped around Tim’s back reaching for Tim’s free right hand.

Startled, Tim leaned away saying, “Good, uh, Mr. Mendor...”

“Looks like you forgot where you was there for a second, Timmy.”  He roared with laughter at his own attempt at humor, while vigorously shaking Tim’s hand.

Ralph Mendor was Tim’s former boss, and the man who had hired him to come to work for Campbell and Locke.  For that, Tim owed Mr. Mendor a great deal, and tried his best to be cordial to the behemoth of a man.  Ralph Mendor, in turn, acted like Tim’s mentor even though he had not taught him a darn thing.  And it belittled Tim to no end when Mendor called him Timmy, or son.  It was just Mendor’s way of showing his level of power in their organization, and at this point, Tim could do little about it.

“Yes sir,” Tim replied, “I did lose track there for a second.”  Tim stared at the Jack Daniels spilling out of Mr. Mendor’s glass as he turned from side to side, greeting people as they passed by.

“Well, son, you’d better pay attention to Chaney,” he said pointing in the general direction of Tim’s boss, “cause he’s your ticket to the big game.”  He winked at Tim and leaned in close to Tim and whispered loudly, “But you didn’t hear that from me!”  Again he roared with laughter, obviously influenced greatly by Mr. Jack Daniels.  Slapping Tim on the back once again, he strolled off into the crowd, spilling his drink from side to side.  Tim shook his head in disgust as he watched the slovenly man slap his next victim on the back, spilling their drink.  Immediately, he spun back towards the front of the ballroom, looking for her. 

Gone.

He glanced around in all directions in the ballroom scanning the crowd quickly hoping to find her not far away.  Not a trace of red anywhere.  Up on the second tier of the bi-level ball room, Tim saw Chandler Stevens, his best friend from school.  Quickly, he made his way through the crowd to the steps connecting the two levels of the ballroom. 

“Chandler!”  Tim waved to his friend as he saw him finishing a conversation with a junior partner from Campbell and Locke.  He trotted up the few steps towards the huge second tier of the ballroom.  It was not a second story, but merely a raised section near the windows with French doors leading to the outside garden area. 

“Hey Tim, how’s life treating you at C and L?”  Chandler hugged Tim and shook his hand.

“Aw man, it’s going great.  Staying really busy right now,” replied Tim.

Just a year earlier, Tim had been Chandler’s best man in his wedding to Rachel.  Tim was sometimes jealous of the two, having met at school and getting married just a year after graduating.  It was really great to be such good friends with them both, since they had all been in school together.  Tim had been with Chandler the night when they had met.  And he had seen their relationship grow during their junior and senior years.  Rachel had become a great friend of Tim’s as well. 

“So how’s Rachel?  Is she excited about this move you’re making?”

“Hmm.  Let’s see, what do you think?”

They both laughed, knowing she’d be thrilled with the new responsibility and huge increase in pay. 

Composing himself, Tim said, “Listen, did you see the girl in red that came in about ten minutes ago?”

Chandler flinched in mock surprise. “Uh oh.”  He grinned.  “Tim Riker’s in love again!” he said, laughing at Tim.

Tim smiled and shook his head.  “Alright, alright, calm down.  I’m just asking if you saw her.”  His face flushed slightly with embarrassment.

“Well, well, you’re really serious aren’t you?” asked Chandler, becoming slightly more serious. 

“Yeah,” said Tim, shaking his head again and looking around the ballroom, “She got here about ten minutes ago, and...” he sighed, “... and I almost stopped breathing when I saw her.”  He looked back at Chandler.  “I didn’t even get a good look at her, Chandler.”  He paused.  “I only saw her from the back.”

Chandler regarded Tim like a museum patron analyzing an intricate painting.  Tim seemed nervous and excited at the same time, with a sense of urgency that he’d seen in his friend very rarely.  Tim continued scanning the room turning his head back and forth.  “Well,” Chandler’s gaze hung on Tim for just another moment before turning towards the crowd below, “we’d better find her.”

Tim looked back at Chandler and then dropped his eyes to the floor and chuckled under his breath.  “This is crazy,” he said shaking his head.  “What am I doing?”

“What do you mean, crazy?  This is definitely not crazy.”  Chandler paused for Tim to look up.  “In fact, this is as real as it gets buddy.  You have no choice but to act on something like this.”

Tim rubbed his clean-shaven face and looked out over the ballroom full of Campbell and Locke associates mingling with clients.  “She’s gone.”

Chandler threw his head back and laughed.  “Oh ye of little faith my friend.  Dare you give up so easily?” asked Chandler in his best theatrical voice. 

Tim laughed and replied, “Alright, so what do you suggest?”

Looking over Tim’s shoulder toward the open French doors, Chandler lifted his glass of wine and half pointed with the glass.  “Well, I suppose you could go over and talk to her.”

Tim stared blankly at Chandler.  Slowly, he asked “She’s behind me?”

“Well, a beautiful girl in a red dress just walked in from out in the garden area.”  He looked back at Tim.  “And…” he paused, smiled a huge grin, and looked back at her, “I see what you mean.”

~~~

When Tim turned around, she was walking near the large glass windows separating the garden area from the inside of the ballroom.  She was holding onto the arm of Carl Redmond, President and CEO of Redmond International, one of Campbell and Locke’s most prestigious clients.  Carl Redmond was speaking to Richard Locke, one of the two senior partners in their small consulting firm.  Tim and Chandler watched as the three strolled directly towards them for a few steps and then turned and began walking down the steps to the first level. 

She was gorgeous.  No doubt.  Tim’s heart raced and his thoughts ran together.  For those precious few steps, she had been facing him directly.  She wore a single strand of pearls around her neck, just above the high neckline of the amazing red dress he had seen earlier.  When she walked, it reminded him of warm honey oozing from a jar.  She was fluid and graceful, and he could not take his eyes off of her.

Tim heard Chandler’s distant voice and it brought him back to reality.  He broke his gaze for an instant and turned back towards Chandler.

“...know who the young woman in the red dress is walking with Carl Redmond?”   Chandler had turned around and was talking to Gary Simms, another junior partner at Campbell and Locke. 

“Oh yeah, that’s Sarah Redmond, Mr. Redmond’s daughter.”

“Oh really?”  Chandler grinned watching her and her father on the lower level now. 

“Thanks.”  He turned back to Tim and put a hand on Tim’s shoulder.

“Sarah Redmond?”  Tim repeated.

“Oh yes my friend.”  Chandler looked back down to the lower level and grinned ear to ear, “You certainly know how to pick’em.”

2016 New Year

Time to kick off the new year with the goal of writing daily (or at least several times a week).  Looking forward to a great year...

"Think of something that you would do today if you knew you wouldn't fail.  Now go out and do it."

Turtles All the Way Down

I heard this phrase just the other day, and was intrigued by its implications. It was popularized by Stephen Hawking years ago in a book. It refers to the problem of "infinite regression" - meaning one proposition requires the support of a second proposition to be true; and the second requires support of a third... and so on, and so on. Another, more simple way to say it is "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Here is the opening paragraph of Stephen Hawking's book, with the story of the phrase's origin:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

The Human Brain

I read a really interesting article about the Human Brain last week. I'm always so fascinated by how we work and what's happening in the proverbial grey matter. An aside, a few years back I was accepted into a PhD program at Baylor in Neuroscience, and I was really excited about it... I really didn't want to change career paths in the middle of life to something so incredibly different than what I do now.... so, sad to say, I ultimately decided against going back to school for too many years... (but I still love to read about it).

In Discover Magazine's May 2009 issue, Carl Zimmer wrote a fascinating article about the nature of "twin hemispheres in the brain." You can read the article in its entirety here: The Brain, by Carl Zimmer.

I won't go into too much detail, but it really delves into right-brained vs. left-brained people, and how the two halves work together. Symmetry of the human body (2 eyes, ears, arms, legs...) although we aren't perfectly symetrical (heart on left, appendix on right...) And the two halves of the brain work together to make us who we are.

My wife was bored to tears by the end of the first sentence of this post... but I know she loves the fact that I love this stuff... hope you do too.

Skater Dude

Peter decked out in the knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmet

Peter got a skateboard for his birthday... he's been wanting one for a while. His Aunt Jes and Uncle Matthew delivered it and now he is determined to learn this new mode of transportation, and maybe a trick or two along the way.

Posing with the new board

Derby's not too sure about Peter on wheels...

Finished a book a few weeks ago called One Second After by William R. Forstchen... it's about the threat of something called an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) used as a weapon. Basically, nuclear detonations always give off an EMP, and can be tweaked to make them more powerful, and if one is detonated high up in the atmosphere where it won't cause any physical damage or radiation problems, it can still send out an EMP that makes anything electronic stop working. It more or less fries circuit boards...

So, I know at first thought that doesn't sound so bad, but just think about it. It's like losing your electricity plus losing all transportation and communication (cars, planes, radios, tv, etc.) For a day or two its no big deal. A month or year is quite different. It was fascination to see modern civilization basically revert to medieval times. Fighting for food, not knowing what happened and no way to get new information, dying from basic health issues that typically are no big deal, etc.

And the scary part is that it is a very real threat... and much more likely because even the most archaic, crazy nations of this planet that might possibly obtain nuclear weapons, most know that detonating one on the ground anywhere on the Earth will cause problems all over.

All in all, a good read. Natalie and I talked about a "game plan" on what to do if one day all the electricity goes out AND all the cars stop running at the same time...

Sunday Afternoon

So here we go...

Never had a personal blog before, and this is my first post. I have to give my wife Natalie the credit for the name... she often uses the phrase "jack taco" when the situation arises for one to measure the amount of knowledge another has on a given subject. So the conversation might sound something like this:

A random piece of information is dispersed carelessly in a conversation about an important subject...

Me (whispering to Natalie after the said person has left earshot) - "Do you think he knows what he's talking about?"

Natalie (with the standard eye roll that all females learn perfectly by the age of 6) - "He doesn't know Jack Taco."

So there you have it. I thought I'd disperse some random information as it befalls upon me that I deem worthy to pass on... not that you'll find it interesting in any way - so take it for what it's worth.

Talk to you soon...