Prompt: Use as many of the following words as you can in today's writing practice. Any form of the word will do:

preview, vending, instant, directory, hospitality, ballpark, portrait, survival, portion, instruction

The survival portion of the instruction has nothing to do with hospitality. It has more to do with selfishness and greed, which would be the signature qualities of my ex's personality portrait. It's so not me. I'd be offering to share every last crumb, every last drop of water with whoever might be in the long haul with me. I think.

At any rate, I can't believe I've landed myself in this group that's about to trek across some rather intimidating countryside. I can tell you that I'm thoroughly tired of the instant mentality of my world, along with the vending machine distribution of "happiness" and "success." Inject enough coins and you'll be rewarded? I think not.

One morning in May, I was feeling particularly out of sorts and decided to run through it. I jogged countless laps around the park, past the empty ballpark, past the empty swimming pool, past the empty playground and I found myself thinking, This is a preview of my future. I'm heading to world that is empty. I'm too busy to hold a marriage together, too busy to fill my world with a true family, too busy to think beyond having my name in some prestigious directory of up-and-coming business people.

So I decided to do something outrageous, to shake up my entire life. I took two weeks vacation and arrived here on the recommendation of someone I barely know (another story in itself), and well--I'm out of my league. I'm beginning to believe I make a much better hostess than survivalist. But it's too late to back out now. I have to walk in and walk out. Unless they carry me out on a stretcher.

I think I'd better get my head back to focusing on this survival information.