Tag: writing

• Memories of Route 66, Anxieties, and Word Choices – Thoughts from October 12 and 20, 2024

  

  October 12, 2024 I haven’t written a Thoughts paper in a while. Actually, that’s not true. Why am I lying to you? Because I can. I should say I haven’t written anything unplanned. Patti and I took a Route 66 trip that I wrote about, but I didn’t write the entries on the date I…

  Brian Kirwan

  October 14, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, a picture is worth a thousand words, airports, anxiety, anxious thoughts, arbitrary word choices, awkward, Couples Sans Souci, damaged emotions, dash cam, dash cam footage, easily triggered anxiety, electric bill, emotions, financial crisis, flying in a plane, heat of summer, images lead to memories, Jamaica, knowledge always wins over belief, only flying first class, Patti, Petrified Forest, realizing my error, Route 66 trip, snobbish rule, taking pictures, taking pictures throughout the day, thoughts, Thoughts paper, visual thinking, Wordscapes, wounded emotions, writing

• Route 66, Dreams, and Second Breakfast – Thoughts from September 19, 2024

  

  My last morning in the Roswell hotel began with a dream. I was walking up a cluttered stairwell with my mom and a cousin of ours. The cousin and I were kids. My mom was younger and could walk up and down the stairs easily. This was not the reality for my mom, especially in…

  Brian Kirwan

  September 16, 2025

  Uncategorized

  1938, 2024, albuquerque, bad dream, box of Lego, breakfast, businessperson, Californian, collecting Lego, cowboy hat and lasso, dad, defying expectations, desert lizard, dream mom, dream yelling, dreams, El Rancho hotel, eye mask, finding a channel to sleep to, freeway, Gallop New Mexico, home of the movie stars, Jack Oakie, Lego, Lego pieces, Lucille Ball, mom, New Mexico, old Hollywood, old-fashioned metal key, Patti, Petrified Forest, petrified tree, Roswell New Mexico, Route 66, second breakfast, sit anywhere, sleeping in hotels, stairs, state motto, steakhouse, tepee hotel, The Affairs of Annabel, thoughts, toys, travels, vacation foods, Waffle House, waffles butter and syrup, writing, yelling

• Creativity and Shyness – Thoughts from August 19 and 31, 2024

  

  August 19, 2024 I’ve talked with several people about my throat. I told them about the polyp on my vocal cords. The singer I talked to said she has had them on her vocal cords. She had them removed with surgery. A former nurse said trying the dietary changes made sense before going right for…

  Brian Kirwan

  July 29, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, animations, autism, autobiographies, balsa wood, being gay, being shy, building things, creating candles, creating crap, creating songs, creative pursuits, creative skills, depression, dietary changes, drawings, encouraging environment, encouraging parents, encouraging people, experimental ideas, hippies, introduced myself, LGBTQ, musical creations, new person at work, new situations, painting ceramics, polyp on my vocal cord, shyness bubble, signs of autism, singing, singing too much, surgery, thinking is my favorite hobby, thoughts, Thoughts paper, throat problems, vocal cords, Wordscapes, Wordscapes tournament, writing, writings

• My Fantastical Reality – Thoughts from August 12, 2024

  

  This Thursday, August 15, is my appointment to see a throat specialist. I mostly just want to find out what is wrong with my throat. After that, I want to find out what they can do to fix it. I’ve been experimenting with different toothpastes to see if they could be irritating my throat. My…

  Brian Kirwan

  July 15, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, acting properly, acting rude, Alice in Wonderland, anti-hero, boring story, characters, contrariwise, Disney version, doctor appointment, fantastical things happen, fantasy stories, griffins, history teachers, how magic works, magic and magical creatures, magic is reality, magical creatures evolution, metaphors, new to this world, rules of your universe, science fiction, slapping together existing animals, stories, stuck-up English girl, the reality of the story, thoughts, Thoughts from Life, throat problem, throat specialist, whitening toothpaste, writing

• White Lineage, Personal Planners, and Shoe Racks – Thoughts from July 21, 2024

  

  Yesterday, I was coming into work, and I saw a personalized license plate on a white Ford truck in front of me. I stared at it and figured out the weird combination of letters. It could only be one thing. I couldn’t think of anything else it could be. The license was as close to…

  Brian Kirwan

  June 17, 2025

  Uncategorized

  “white lineage”, 2024, acting, birthday, building, built a shoe rack, bumper stickers, collaboration, cordless drill, embarrassment, focusing, Ford truck, happy wife, I need a manager, making doctor’s appointments, music, Patti, personal assistant, personalized license plate, phone calls, planning skills, planning vacations, race cars, racist phrase, rage, recent obsession, speedway bumper sticker, tennis shoes, thickness of the wood, thoughts, vague memory, white lightning, white racists, writing, writing details

• Writing Thoughts and Me – Thoughts from July 8 to 14, 2024

  

  July 8, 2024 There’s been a rumor that this is my last Thoughts paper. I just want to state for the record that I still have thoughts I write down and I don’t see an end to them anytime soon. Who started the rumor is not important. Why they started the rumor is more relevant…

  Brian Kirwan

  June 3, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, autobiagraphy, average height, average looks, average white man, big nose, blind without glasses, camera down my throat, curious what authors look like, deaf dumb and blind kid, deaf in one ear, ears stick out, graying hair, inner thoughts, interesting paragraphs, laughing at my flesh, life experience, living in the past, meeting expectations, midlife, motives, my surface level self, near sighted, outer appearance, paragraphs, Patti, Pete Townsend, point of living, product of the times, questioning your purpose, reading, receding hair, Roger Daltrey, rumor free, rumors, sentences, shampoo with dye, sore throat, The Who, thoughts, Thoughts from Life, Thoughts paper, throat cancer, throat problems, throat specialist, unprecedented times, wearing glasses, weight, Wordscapes, writing, you can only live in the present

• Being Tired, Poop Schedules, and Genuine Friendships – Thoughts from June 4 and 8, 2024

  

  June 4, 2024 This is one of those entries that most people wouldn’t start. If you have nothing to write about, why would you start writing? I’m at the point that many people would call writer’s block. That doesn’t stop me. It just means you have nothing structured to write about, but there’s always a…

  Brian Kirwan

  April 22, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, being tired, best man, breathing cat hair, casual and informal friends, cats, close friends, deep discussions, earplugs, eye mask, Facebook, follow-up questions, friends, genuine friends, getting married, Good friends talk about poop, Nerd Mouse calendar, normal questions, Patti, poop questions, poop schedule, poop schedule discussion, profound thought, Sebastian Bach autobiography, sore throat, spouses, surface level descussions, thoughts, tired, typing, wearing two masks to bed, weird questions, writer’s block, writing

• Cinco de Mayo, Retirement, and Seeing Cubs – Thoughts from May 5 and 11, 2024

  

  May 5, 2024 As I mentioned yesterday, today is Cinco de Mayo. Someone joked that no one knows what it’s about. I could use my research I did yesterday to inform him that everyone knows it’s about the victory of Mexico over France in 1862. My heart would grow three times larger if he thought…

  Brian Kirwan

  March 4, 2025

  Uncategorized

  1862, 2024, additional destinations, babies, baby boy, cats, Cinco de Mayo, clever, cold water, disgusted by fast food, enjoying vacuuming, extra errands, falling, freaking out the cats, humor, just watching me, knowing stuff, knowledge off the top of my head, nephew, non-refrigerated water, not eating, Patti, pizza eating, research, retirement, retiring, roasting people, sleeping baby, The Lion King, thoughts, Thoughts paper, tiger cubs, tiger documentary, tigers, tigers hunt kill and eat, trimming bushes, tv shows, vacuuming, Walmart, watch tv, workshopping ideas, writing, writing in retirement card

• Birth, Falling, and Our Stories – Thoughts from April 27, 2024

  

  The biggest thing that happened today is the birth of our nephew and his wife’s baby boy. I’m really hoping I can reword that first sentence when I edit this Thoughts paper. Now that I’ve mentioned wanting to edit it, I’ll have to leave it as it is so you can see what I’m talking…

  Brian Kirwan

  February 18, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, addiction, baby birth, baby boy, bad-ass look, behavior to avoid, being a good person, being clumsy, birthmark, black eye, brighter news, competition, cooperation, dad, developing my writing, diabetes, dreams, dying of alcoholism, dying of smoking, falling, falling on stairs, grandfather, group pride, labor, memoirs and autobiographies, mom, my story, nephew, no cigarettes, non-presence, not smoking, Patti, people’s stories, permanent markings, pride and shame, probing, publishing a blog, quiting smoking, quitting for good, religion, see a doctor, serious falls, seven deadly sins, the word pride, thoughts, Thoughts paper, trimming the bushes, writing

• Vegas from Fremont Street – Thoughts from April 14, 2024

  

  Patti and I went to Vegas for five days and I didn’t write one word while I was there. Many things happened, but I was too busy eating, drinking, and gambling. Now, I’ll try to think back on the days and write about them. The first thing was leaving the cats knowing we wouldn’t be…

  Brian Kirwan

  January 28, 2025

  Uncategorized

  2024, buffet, carpool raffle, cats, comedians, daily routine with cats, demanding a wheelchair, drag show, driving to Vegas, eating drinking and gambling, falling asleep, forgetting drivers license, Fremont Street, going to puke, half-naked people, Handsome podcast, Las Vegas, lesbians, liberal views, licking my hair, Long Island iced teas, loudspeakers, older server, oldest hotel in Vegas, Patti, people screaming, players club card, pure alcohol, several drinks past the limit, slurring words, smell of marjuana, stretching, themed slot machine, thoughts, Tig Notaro, truly big money, vacations, Vegas, Vegas at night, winning big money, writing, young women dancing on the bar