"I have always liked... Cowabunga."

It's Monday again but you aren't allowed to ask where the weekend went, you're a writer.  You have to remember because that's the source of your inspiration for writing.  You don't have to remember silly little details, like what you had for breakfast or the license plate number of the van you are just absolutely convinced is being driven by a terrorist (full size cargo style according to Jack Bauer).  I'm talking about anecdotal memories and since you will be drawing on them for material later, try to remember them as entire scenes.  You'll want more than just the smell of fresh baked bread, what about the feeling?  The words people were using around you?  What did it make you remember?

I was running with my wife on Saturday and we passed the paddock where my daughter's horse lives.  He was standing in the corner, very still.  She called to him and his eyes suddenly fluttered, he shook a bit, and then came trotting over.  It was pretty funny.  He was sleeping.  Standing up.  I always thought that was a joke.  It isn't.  I continue to be amazed by the personality of this animal too.  He is very smart and has an incredible memory.  You should always be very polite when you meet a horse.  It will remember you forever.

We also went hiking this weekend.  Had the choice of a new trail or one we'd been on before.  The conversation was really interesting for me to listen to.  One of my children was immediately arguing on behalf of the unknown.  There was resistance.  We ultimately decided on the unknown with the promise that if it wasn't fun we'd go to the other one.  What struck me was that, once committed to the adventuring course, when we were confronted with forks in the trail, Robert Frost was quoted and I was advised to take the road less traveled.  Oh, how free we are when fear no longer binds us.  We encountered a tortoise hidden in the leaves (we could tell because of his direction of travel - had he been going the other way he'd have been an awayfromoise instead of a twoardoise).

The final bit of adventuring was at the big box hardware store.  I  wrote up five clues for a scavenger hunt so while all we needed was paint, we still got the fun of wandering all over the store looking at neat things.  Usually this is not something my children enjoy (the trip to the store) but with this twist it was - even though there was a bit of complaining that, "If we've guessed the clue, why do we have to walk all the way across the store?"  Well, it was a scavenger hunt!  The quote of the night came from my youngest however, who was on his hundredth trip to the store.  "WOW!  They sell everything here."  He'd never been looking for anything before so he'd never taken the time to see anything.

What about you?  Where did you weekend go?  Were you looking?  Did you see anything?