WriBlocked No More For a Lifesaver

Well, it's been a while since that blocked post, and I'm careening toward 50,000 words. When I started this thing, I was hopeful. Excited, even. I figured I'd blow it up the first day, then nothing would come. The ink well in my head would dry up like a marathoner's mouth on a lonely stretch at mile 21. But I didn't dry up. This fictional thing going on in my head kept on giving, and I fell over 45,000 words tonight, more concerned with Penn Wallace and his personal struggle than my word count.

And It's almost time to leave the country.

That, combined with NaNoWriMo, combined with all the other things involved in leaving one's country, is keeping me up at night. I make lists all the time. Google Notebook, e-mail, head. They're everywhere, these lists. And then there's Penn. Sleep is lame.

But my impending departure is having another effect. It's forcing me to consider making purchases I've never considered before, and in most cases wouldn't even allow. I was standing in line at the grocery store tonight, preparing to buy a bunch of processed food. And lettuce. Before putting my items on the conveyor belt, I spotted a pack of Gummi Lifesavers. Grape flavor.

I'm not much of a Lifesaver person. The thrill doesn't last long enough, frankly, and contending with the wrapper, which becomes unruly with every unraveled inch, is not worth the hassle for what lies within. I will, however, admit to quite enjoying that butterscotch flavor. Or is it pina colada? I can't remember. There's a peach-colored one, too, and when I was a kid, I simply referred to them as the "cloudy ones." You know the ones. Well, tonight, it wasn't the cloudy ones I noticed, but the gummi ones. This long, thick purple package, much bigger than the standard-issue Lifesaver, was calling to me. I was suddenly overcome with the fear of never having a chance to try one. "Do they have these in Australia," I asked myself as I eyed the package. "Probably not." So I picked it up, and discovered that there are five flavors of Gummi Lifesavers. Five! I even squeezed the package (yeah, I'm one of those) just to make sure they were in fact of the gummi nature. They were.

I wondered if they'd taste anything like the ever-popular Gummi Bear, which I am definitely a fan of. Worms, too. So after giving the package a few good squeezes, I reminded myself that I had never been interested in such variations on old-school candy. And since I'm not a fan of the original, why would I settle on the gummi version?

I put the package back, gummi dents and all, and resigned myself to the fact that I would, indeed, continue living a full life without trying a Gummi Lifesaver. I'm still okay with this decision.