I have not smoked in eleven days.  I have absolutely zero cravings for a cigarette.  Do they still look delicious, dangled precariously off the lips of the aloof painting smoke dance in the sky before them?  Yes.  But I don’t want one, at all.  The idea of smoking a cigarette for me is akin to dying.  I haven’t forgotten how I felt that Friday morning and I won’t forget for quite some time.

What I am struggling with is an abundance of time that has been freed where I would normally be smoking cigarettes, particularly at work.  Hence the current blog post.  I have started reading more, and in this I hope to position myself to write more.  I’ve been thinking about my screenplay idea, and I still very much want to write it, but I don’t believe that I’m ready to write a screenplay by myself just now.  Coming up with all of the characters, their names, backstories, the minutiae that make them real for the viewer, the differences in opinions and world views, the twists of plot that keep the viewer enthralled.  I don’t know that I have what it takes to do all of that at this time.    So what I would like to do in the meantime to prepare myself is to offer my services as a comedy writer through my networking connections.  Though I don’t think I could write a marketable screenplay myself at this time, I could help others flesh out ideas by contributing dialogue and plot points in a teleplay or short film.  We’ll see what, if anything, comes of that.

The band is headed to Las Vegas this Friday, then two shows in Tempe, Arizona on Saturday and Sunday.  I am excited to take the music on the road again, not to mention putting my non-smoking to the test with two very tempting obstacles: road tripping and Las Vegas.  More than anything, though, I’m looking forward to performing again.

I watched “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” last week, starring the incomparable Gary Oldman.  I had misinterpreted its plot before going in, so the movie delivered something completely unexpected, and not entirely welcome, for me.  But Gary Oldman was astounding, once again.  He had little in the way of powerful dialogue, and presented some of his finest acting through his face, alone.  He seriously didn’t speak for the first twenty minutes of the movie.

The first recipient of my charitable donations in 2012 will be Cancer for College.