Homesick in Denver

Tired and ready to head home. I guess I really am good for about 7 days away from home, and then I start getting homesick. Been this way almost all of my life. There's just no other place I love as much as my home, wherever it may be. In my adult life I have moved a total of 24 times. Some of those places never really became home. Wasn't there long enough, particularly in the Air Force years with my second ex. But just about any time I park myself somewhere for more than a few months, my internal homing instinct kicks in, and that place becomes the place where I belong. When I go away from it, after about 7 days I start to feel like a fish out of water, and begin to get testy.

That's where I am today. Testy and ready to depart. I think the dog feels just about the same way as I do. And really, I know the SO is also ready to go home. He's tired, not enjoying the market this morning, and was already talking about leaving as soon as it closes tomorrow, which is noonish. We will check out of this hotel in the morning before we go over to the Trade Mart, and leave from there as soon as humanly possible.

We stayed out too late last night. And I had one too many glasses of wine. My stomach's upset from it today, so I left before noon and brought the dog back to the room. We also ran into one of his "old buddies" -- yet another one I don't particularly like -- and got the same old "stories I could tell" routine. I'm just not sure what people are thinking when they make those sorts of statements. Certainly not about the way it makes the person it's directed at feel. It seems to be more of one-upsman-thing, like they're saying, "I know things you don't, nany nany boo-boo." I just said, "I've heard the old stories," and let it go at that, but it does get tiresome.

Still dealing with issues with this script of LILY. I have found some things in it that really are unacceptable to me. At the present moment I'm of the mindset that if some particulars cannot be changed, then I would rather not have my name attached. And of course, that would mean that a good bit of this thing would have to be changed or else they will have to just forget it altogether. The bait they dangle is $$$$ -- and I will admit that I'm not immune to it completely. But money has never been my primary motivator, and I don't want it to be now either. I would hate for there to have been a movie made of any one of my books that would make me feel ashamed. The way this script is right now, I think I would feel that way. So there it is. Probably the same dilemma all writers face when dealing with Hollywood. They just don't think the same way we do. In fact, it's such a huge disconnect that I don't even know if it can be bridged.

Yesterday, I went to a local mall here. I'd been there on other trips up here for market. While I was there, I found an Apple store. Needed a replacement battery for this laptop. The old battery has got to where it will not hold a charge for more than about 30 minutes. So I bought a new one, and while I was waiting for the ticket to be rang up, I perused the software shelf. There was a new version of Final Draft, which is a screenwriting program for Mac. I had an old version back before USB ports, etc. It's kind of pricey so I didn't buy it but I certainly was tempted. I really would love to try my hand at doing the LILY screenplay. I've read two different ones by two different screenwriters, now, and I just really think I could do a better job, stay truer to the book, and still have a slicker version of the story than either one of these writers have managed to do. I do understand how difficult it is to get something made, especially a story like this one that is historical in nature, has animals, and no CG! But I still don't think it has to be necessary to sell out the story. Sigh!

Onward ....