Geeking Out at the Tiny House Jamboree, 2016

Photo Credit: Carla Adkins
Photo Image: Bryan Adkins hugging Dee Williams of
"The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memior"

For this DFW Tiny House Enthusiast, the Jamboree was practice in remaining cool in the face of meeting and talking to those who inspired me. And I know I wasn't alone in this. I felt like I was holding it together well when I met, talked with and briefly hung out with Lina Menard of the Niche House. She gave me her freaking card! Unbeknownst to her, the Niche House graced my computer screen saver for several months. You can see why when you click on her website www.nichdesignbuild.com

Several friends were introduced to Jay Shafer by another longtime DFW Tiny House Enthusiast. I admit to feeling mild envy for missing that. (It's okay though because I ending up meeting him anyway. Strangely, we didn't talk about tiny houses but my ability to lip read and eavesdrop on converstations from across the tent.)

At one point I thought I saw Jay Shafer at the ticket tent and nudge my buddy, "Is that Jay Shafer?"
"Who's that?" Cue the bug eyes.
"You don't know Jay Shafer?... Founder of Tumbleweed tiny house company. Now runs Four Lights... One of the founders of the tiny house movement." All I got was a negative shoulder roll. I rolled my eyes. This is a geek out as described by the Urban Dictionary, "an intense excitement and knowledge of specialized nontraditional culture."

Another friend related that she was having breakfast with her family when she saw Deek Diedrickson and Jay Shafer... and they "spoke to her." Now what they said, I don't know but when the people who started a movement you love speak to you, does it matter.

I hesitate to use words like "heroes" or "idols" because the terms are too worshipful and it removes their humaness. I look to these people because in so many ways they are ordinary people who where moved in a direction or commited to a goal that the average society finds counter traditional. Moreover because these are ordinary people, it instills in me a belief that I too can commit to an ideal not readily accepted by society. So instead of "heros" or "idols," I prefer to the term "movers"

Another DFW Tiny House Enthusiast, Bryan, got to meet the person who moved him, Dee Williams (see image above). I've listened to her Ted Talks and found her to be inspiring as well. She wrote a book, The Big Tiny: a Built-It-Myself Memior which highly recommend.

Seeing the tiny houses at the Jamboree was a great experience. All the different designs proved to be fertile ground for new ideas. For me, it doesn't make the Jamboree any more or less special than the Earthday Dallas Exhibit or Tast of Dallas expo; although, there were about 5 x more houses. The Jamboree is special because there is such a large collective gathering of like minded 'movers' mingling amongs us.

When Does a Vacation Start?

Does a vacation start the moment you set out on the road after filling up that first tank of gas? The point of no return. 

Or does it begin when you pull out the suitcase? The pack and load.

Or is it the moment you realized the vacation is 'x' days away? The countdown.

Maybe it's all of the above. Vacations don't have solid start days and times because the anticipation of the vacation produces a sense of excitement and releases positive endorphins. But what happens when the anticipation of a vacation gets interrupted?

I had the not so pleasant experience of having my vacation plans interrupted by car issues. In the course of doing my due diligence before venturing out westward, I got my oil changed. This is two days before my vacation is scheduled to begin. The same evening after the oil change, a series of scary lights lit up my dashboard. My endorphins plummeted and by anxiety skyrocketed. I really tried to focus on the silver lining, "At least the lights came on before the trip and not during," but I was stressing.

Worry #1 - What if there's something really wrong with the car and it cost a lot of money to fix. I won't be able to go on my vacation.

Worry #2 - What if they can fix it but have to wait until after they come back from vacation before the part is put on. I can't go on my vacation.

These two thoughts were cyclones in my brain interrupting my sleep.

I took the car into the my trusted mechanic and since he was planning on going on vacation the following week, I knew I had to wait. The car was dropped off and a friend took me to get a rental. This was the first hit to my vacation budget. 

I called the mechanic later in the afternoon and he did not get a chance to look at the car yet. This meant the vacation schedule was taking a hit now because I didn't have the car to "pack and load." Additionally, I no longer had a sense of anticipation since I didn't know when or if I would be getting the car and leaving, no "countdown."

A few years ago, the New York Times published an article "What a Great Trip! And I'm not Even There Yet"in which the author says, "Taking a vacation won't necessarily make you happier. But anticipating it will." 

To get ready for this trip I built up a playlist on my AmazonPrime Music for the long haul drives. I even put some tracks together specifically for the national parks I was going to visit, lots of Enya and Celtic Women for Arches National Park which ending up being perfect. I improved the design for car camping this summer, such as adding a cargo net to the interior roof of the car and fabric screens for the side windows which allowed me to leave the windows down for ventilation and block out bugs. I mapped and remapped the route for the trip, Skyped with my pals that I planned to visit, and created a new travel journal to record my experiences. Stephanie Rosenbloom says, "Doing this allows us to build up positive expectations, to relish how enjoyable the experience might be."

But what happens to all that anticipation when the much lauded vacation is suddenly in jeopardy? All I can tell you is it's not fun anymore and fraught with disappointment. But there's not much that can be done when stuck in vacation purgatory. I made a Plan A, Plan B, all the way to a Plan G but having a plan does not build the anticipation back up.  

Turns out the car issue was an easy fix. To get it back and save money on the rental, I had to scrabble with my work schedule and a friend's schedule to drop off the rental and pick up the car. Then rush home for the pack and load. All the rushing, scrambling and last minute errands added to my anxiety as I tried to stay as close to my original countdown as possible. The anticipation never fully recovered because it was drowned by the stress.

That's why I'm making the most of my vacation journey experience, because, contrary to the New York Times article, this vacation will make me happier. It started the moment I filled up the tank and reached "the point of no return."  

* Fun Information. NPR did a talk about vacations, "The History of the Vacation Examined," that's worth listening to or reading. 

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO

Climbing Access - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Leaning Rock - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Leaning Rock and Formation - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

White Prairie Thistle - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Rock Formation and Mountains - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Round Rock Formation - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Flower Meadow - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Sunflower - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Sunflowers - Color - Samsung Galaxy s6

Tree Roots - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Facebook Page now Live

Due to the number of people asking about my blog or Facebook or contact information at the Tiny House Jamboree, I've created a Facebook page the public can follow and use to contact me. Apparantly, I should have business cards with this information. Lesson learned.

Travel Frames from Texas to Colorado

70mph Scenic Frame - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

70mph Scenic Frame - Color - Samsung Galaxy s6

Coal Train & Wind Power - Color - Samsung Galaxy s6

Freedom School - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Freedom School & Storm - Color - Samsung Galaxy s6

Road Construction - B&W - Samsung Galaxy s6

Road Construction - Color - Samsung Galaxy s6

Ranch and Storm Front - BW - Samsung Galaxy s6

#2 Postcard - Modern Magic

Tyrone’s sister watched shocked as he slipped into their boss’s office towards the gated computer. Getting through the password guards was a matter of understanding resources, standard company IT password protocols (word length, caps, numbers and special characters) and his boss’s phobic forgetfulness.  Shaking the mouse bared a screen image of orange and black butterflies. Easy. “Manoarch100.” 

Tyrone opened Outlook for the second shield. Chewing his lip, he spotted an old email queued to the top. The subject: “Town on Friday. 2 nights stay. Back on Friday?" I know this one. “Fr1day1sH0rse!” 

Skin tight, Tyrone searched the emails for proof. The file labeled “Originals” was sealed with a bizarre riddle. Tyrone blanked. As a professional journalist, he knew writers would always find help with an O.W.L. (the Online Writing Lab). Tyrone opened a chat and typed, “What's the shortest sentence in the Eng lang?”

“Go.” pinged back. 

Tyrone entered capital ‘g’, zero, period. His original email with the attached article, “Magic Mirrors – Revealing True Selves,” and a headshot of himself in drag was the latest in a host of pirated articles. Determined, Tyrone composed an email to the editor and attached the file as the door thrust open.

“Move away and your sister goes free.”

"It's done.”

“Doesn’t matter. I won't get fired for one article. But you will.”

"Will they for 28?"

~JRogers

7.27.2016

***

Prompt from Fairytale Plot Generator on Springhole.net:

"The story is about a brave queen who must defeat a tyrant, find a magic mirror and solve 3 riddles to save the kingdom. Things are complicated by the villain kidnapping the main character’s sister. Assistance comes in the form of a magic owl.”

This prompt made me question my ability to write anything on an adult level. Then I remembered the fairy tale writers I enjoy now are Jasper Fforde of the Thursday Next series and Seanan McGuire of Indexing series. These authors and others like them take literary/fairy tale tropes and turn them into something excitingly new. Using some tips from Miss Literati's blog Write, Share & Shine!, I took a stroke at modern day fairy tale writing. 

Miss Literati's first suggestion is to bring the fairy tale into the modern world which meant I had to change the way I defined things in the prompt.

"brave queen" = "Drag Queen"

"tyrant" and "villain" = "boss"

"magic mirror" = "reflection of true self"

"magic owl" = "O.W.L. (Online Writing Lab)"

Word Count: 219

#1 Postcard - Unnecessary Reminder

Starting in the early hours of high school days, Mom grouched into her coffee while I awoke with a smile. I'd check my math homework or practice a piano tune, waiting for her brain to hum along. Why not start the day smiling? Like I told her, nothing bad has happened yet.

Today I rolled to the edge of the bed opening Facebook notification on my phone. My mother turned 53. Would I like to wish her Happy Birthday? Scripted platitudes fanned her wall.

The stunted glazed urn next to the bed held my mother’s ashes.  I do not want your thoughts and prayers; our grief is not the same. Why won’t you all leave me alone? I curled fetal into the sheets and tasted the sea on my pillow. 

~JRogers 

7.26.2016

***

Once I decided on the project for my 72 postcards, I blanked on what to write. I have books which suggest different writing prompts, but they were at home and I was eager to start NOW! Instead, I turned to Google for writing prompt generators and found page after page of suggestions.

The first Writing Prompt Generator came from Adam Maxwell's Fiction Lounge. The generator kicked out: "I was sad to see in the phonebook that he still existed."

I had trouble with this prompt because a) phonebook, who uses that today? b) I can't relate to being sad that someone is still alive. So I changed it around to: "I was sad to see on Facebook that he/she had died." That I could write about.

Since I'm doing this postcard fiction challenge, I thought it would help me to sample some of the advice the internet offered. Here's one I enjoyed: Stories in Your Pocket: How to Write Flash Fiction - the author described postcard fiction as "stories that took less time to read than to suppress a sneeze."

After I finished writing the rough story about grief, I realized I had an outline. Not a story. I turned back to the internet for more advice and found Writer's Digest "Writing Effective Grief in Fiction."

1. Make the reader care. "Help the reader get to know the character before you rip their hearts apart." => Provide some background to the mother/daughter relationship.
2. Grief has conflict because those grieving desire isolation and often can't get it. => Use Facebook notice to break the isolation and provide a grief trigger.
3. Additional conflict arises when grieving occurs at the worst possible times or places.
4. The story doesn't need to end when the character stops grieving.

Word Count: 131