…I've been gone for a week. In the interim, I've had a lot of writing published:
--"Summer on the Dock," at Poetry Addicts
--"Related," at 52/250 A Year of Flash
--"Slasher Film," "Moving On," "The Divorce Attorney," and "Aquatic," at Eunoia Review
--"Things I Know About Rabbit Holes," at Necessary Fiction
--"The New Boyfriend,"@ twenty20 Journal
--"Cherry Picking," @ Real Time
All of these are also included here under "Words in Print."

…Hawaii was a nice break from everything. I saw some unusual things: a man with one of those wood-paneled stationwagons pulled off to the side of the road with a black boar roped to the hood of the vehicle (I actually think the animal was alive); a bikinied woman next to the ocean reading "Jaws"; "Donkey Crossing" signs on the highway; miles and miles of black lava rock that resembled fields of hotfudge brownies; real lava spilling molten into the ocean; a rainforest; seven four-foot-five Japanese women getting into the elevator with me (I'm six three) and not saying a word the whole ride.

…I read a lot--nine books. Here were my favorites:
--"I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down," William Gay
--"And Then We Came to the End," Joshua Ferris
--"The Coast of Chicago," Stuart Dybek
--"The Black Tickets," Jayne Anne Phillips
--"Lean On Pete," Willy Vlautin

…One of the restaurants/bars in Hawaii is littered with dollar bills pinned to the walls and ceiling, hundreds and hundreds of them, all with cryptic messages. Here are some samples:

--"Jeff Craig RIP"
--"Been there and wrecked that."
--"Thx for nothing, you damn hippies."
--"I don't want to leave."
--"Seattle sucks."
--"If I were sober I'd write something clever."
--"It wasn't a shark that bit me."
--"Live and Let die."
--"Love like you'll never get hurt."
--"It hurt when she left."
--"Marriage isn't a word, it's a sentence."
--"Barry and Hannah 4evah"