i did accomplish this goal, really i did. i took a month off last year and went to havana to finish my friggin’ novel. it was wonderful. having made the decision to go was the best part. just doing it! the trip itself, oddly, was kind of secondary - wonderful in its own way, of course, and many adventures were had and friends made - i will always remain most proud of simply having done the thing. it did, however, take me about a year and a half to get over the fact that (yay) i finished my friggin’ novel (and took about a thousand amazing - i thought - photographs) but when i returned to east-side living in vancouver my apartment was broken into and my laptop, notebooks, camera, and pretty much every trace of my novel and month-long trip was stolen, probably by a heroin junkie. as you can tell, i’m sooooo over it now. and yeah. i’m ready to do it again.