FFF#5 or Indian Summer

Vanessa stared at the mask before her. She was mesmerized by the bright colors, the way the eye of the creature seemed to gleam and change shades in the light, almost as if it were alive. The mane of the beast was made of cobras all smiling like benevolent gods.
Of all the masks on display this one spoke to her the most. Was it because it was a fertility mask or because of the person who donated the mask to the exhibit, or was it a combination. She wasn’t sure and she did not want to delve deep enough to find out.

She shook her head. ‘Snap out of it girl,’ she thought to herself as she took aim with her camera, ‘get the shot and get out.’
No sooner had she taken the last shot than she heard the voice she had been hoping to avoid.
“I was wondering if they would send you.”

Vanessa slowly lowered the camera, trying to collect herself. She knew, when sent on this assignment, that she might run into him.
“Rob, I thought you weren’t expected until later.” She turned with a smile fixed in place. Rob looked almost exactly as she remembered. She had to take a step back to be able to look at him from a comfortable angle. His hair had a bit more grey peppering it. His polo shirt accented his defined chest, the sleeves hugged his arms. The hours spent in the sun on digs, showed in his tanned skin and fine lines around his eyes.

“When Cathy told me you were working for the paper, I thought they might send you. So I came early, I wanted the chance to say hi.” The familiar grin that graced his mouth sent memories flooding back. Memories Vanessa did not want to dwell on.

“Imagine,” He continued, ”our class gossip, became a newspaper reporter, who’d a thunk it. What made you come back here? I thought you would be traveling, taking pictures around the world. Not here in our home town.”

Vanessa moved to put her camera away. She needed time. She needed to not be here. Damn Cathy for sending her on this assignment. Leave it to her best friend to stick her nose where Vanessa didn’t want it.

“Thanks. Cat’s not a reporter, she’s the editor now. A lot can happen in five years.” Vanessa shrugged trying to appear casual, “As for me, I saw what I wanted of the world, but home kept calling me back. And here I am.”

Picking up her equipment Vanessa prepared to leave. To sail out of the museum as neatly as he had sailed out of her life.
“It was good seeing you Rob. I hope your exhibit goes well.”

“Nessie, can’t we have dinner or something? Old friends catching up and all?” The nickname stopped her. The memories she was trying to hold at bay came flooding back.

The huge crush she had on him in high school when he only saw her as a friend. The dream come true at the reunion, when they had danced “Just for old times’ sake” he had said. Finally in his arms, the weight of his hands as they rested on her hips, his body pressed to hers, and whatever had lead up to that kiss. The first time his lips touched hers, almost as if it was an accident, then they came back for more. His mouth, soft and firm at the same time. Leaving the reunion and finding their way to his room in the hotel. The weeks of passion that followed and just as she was letting herself believe that they would be together, he was gone.

“Nes, please” his voice softer now, caressing. Vanessa closed her eyes willing herself to be strong, not to give into the temptation, even though her body woke when he spoke the first sentence, she knew she was fighting a losing battle. Her body and her heart fighting her mind.

One night, she could say yes to dinner and have one more night to add to her memories. Or she could say no, he would leave in a day or two and her life would continue on as it had been for the past few years.
“Sure, dinner sounds fine.”

“I had forgotten how good a Sal burger is.” Rob held the door open for Vanessa as they left the restaurant, “But I think ate to much. Want to help me walk some of this off?” He pointed to the park across the street.

Rob took her hand and tugged slightly “Come on. Just a small walk?”
“Just a small one.” She said against her better judgement. She expected him to let go of her hand. It felt so natural that she didn’t argue when he didn’t.
They reached the edge of the park, the lights from across the river reflecting on the water. Rob stopped and leaned against the railing. He held on to her hand but he didn’t look at her.

“Thanks for having dinner with me. I was surprised when you agreed.” He stole a glance in her direction,” I really expected you to just slap my face in the museum and keep going.”

“Don’t think, I didn’t think about it, for half a second.” She turned her back to the river, leaning on the rail.
“So you forgive me?”

“What is there to forgive? We had fun, no strings attached remember.” She smiled trying to keep her tone light.

“You’re lying.”

He moved his arm around her pinning her to the rail. He didn’t give her a chance to move, even if she had wanted to. Her stomach tightened into a ball of need as soon as his lips touched hers. Her mind tried to reason to remind her this was a mistake. Her body told her this was just right. Her skin tingled where his body touched hers. Her breast ached with sweet intensity, wanting, needing, to feel his hands on them. For the first time in years, she was fully alive. Every cell in her body telling her brain exactly where it was and what it wanted next.

When they finally broke apart neither spoke, but walked together in complete agreement toward his hotel.

“How did it go yesterday?” Cathy stepped up to Vanessa’s desk and leaned against it.
“Went fine.”
“Well, was he there? Did you talk to him? Come on give. I waited like a good girl all night for you to call me.”
“What’s to tell? We ran into each other, he asked me to dinner, end of story. He’ll leave in a few days and that will be that ” Vanessa moved papers around on her desk, hopping Cathy would drop it.
“No..he..won’t” Cathy stared hard at her friend.
“What..what do you mean ‘he won’t’?”
Cathy put her hand on Vanessa’s shoulders and looked straight into her eyes, “I mean he took the job of principal at the elementary school.” Cathy shook her head.” He won’t be going anywhere for a while.” Cathy pulled off the desk and looked back at it, “I thought you knew that, Ness.” And she walked away.
Vanessa could only stare at her desk. At the picture of the four year old little boy with Robs smile, who was starting kindergarten in two weeks.

AW cooler blog chain #6 is complete

Here is the list of the chain once again..for those that would like to follow all the posts.
Food for Thought

When did you know...?

Becoming a blogger

You wanna be what?

Why do we write?

Letters to a Young Poet

Vin Diesel Makes Unlikely Muse

Stop or Kindergarten Nanny Will Pacify

Reel-istically Funny

Indian Cinema at it's Craziest

Feedback Pretty Please

Ten Things You Didn't Know

No One Will Really Be Free

To Boldly Go

AW Chain Six

The AW Chain, The Sixth

AW Blogchain #6

A Walk Down the Hall of Fame

AW Blogchain #6

Sharing What's Important

What I'm Supposed To Be Doing

__________________

Veggie tales or I failed as a parent again...

All things being relative (and all that) David and Ashley have a social studies test tomorrow on the Assyrian Empire. Funny how I'm reading a book that takes place in that part of the world just a few hundred years later...but that is not the point of this post.

We are quizzing David, asking questions pertaining to battle tatics and such(of interest to me on several levels lol), when I decide to try and cross referance David's head. For me this makes it easier when I need to recall info. I relate it to another subject. He was having problems remembering names like Nebuchadnezzer, Nineveh, and Hittites; dates where not being kind either. He said he was becoming confused because the numbers moved in the wrong direction. This I understood. I explained dates use BC and AD the same way numbers use negative and positive. When looking at a number line negative moves from greater to smaller until reaching 0. A time line does the same with christ's life as 0. You could see the light come on, his face actually did brighten as he understood. "Oh, so BC is negative and AD is postive..that explains it. I was always confused how we got to the 1900s!" Task one down.

Now for the name issue: David, where have you heard of Nineveh before? "uh, veggie tales?" Doh slap self to the forehead. "you know the guy gotten eaten by the whale 'cause he tried to hide from God?" Signs I've spent to much time on the New Testement and not enough on the Old. Yet it gets worse..David connects the dots with Nineveh and the name sticks. Now Nebuchadnezzer have you heard of him? "Don't think so." So I threw out a few names..Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego(one of my all time favorite stories..not for the fire or even the 4th body in the fire, but I just love the sound of their names..it's like a movie title or adventure story..maybe even a ballad..) I got a blank stare. I say Daniel? "Uncle Daniel?" uh, no ..I try Daniel and lions.."oh the guy who God closed the lions mouths for and it shocked the king?" Thank God he remembered one. "That's it" I said, "Now, who was the king?" Ding lightbulb.."Nebuchadnesser?"
Houston we have lift off! Second light bulb; "All these people are in the bible? I don't believe you." Mwhaahhhhaa So I showed him. Chris, looking over my shoulder, says "Wow, I didn't know Daniel lived until King Cyrus of Persia showed up..that's cool that's what we are studying now." Bang, Bang goes my head.

There are times when I doubt myself as a parent and as a christian..this is one of those times. Not that my faith isn't strong enough, but that I don't show them enough, instruct them enough, equip them correctly to face the world with their faith and beliefs, to know why I hold them, or why they hold what beliefs they hold. That in this sence I have failed them and God with what I was instructed to do. Bring them up in the ways of the Lord and it will sustain them all of their lives..
I am so thankful that God understands and knows my limits and loves me despite them.
Now I'm going back to reread Daniel..I forgot how much I love this book of the Bible and all the hidden pieces of meat betweens it's pages....

I love dots..I'm reading a book, where part of the story takes place in the same time/area as my children are studying in school..What a sense of humor HE has.

Buffet style

I've had several ideas for posts lately, but trying to wait between entries. Not an easy task for me. I want to brag on my friend Kappa to start. She went and got her story published: Mrs. Misak's Eyes Kappa's story .

I have decided that the dictionary is my worst enemy. I am a weak speller, have been most of my life. As I am writing more for 'general consumption' and not just my own entertainment, I've started keeping a dictionary at my fingertips. Instead of making me a stronger speller, it has made me weaker. If I type out a word that I know, but do not use often, I find myself rushing to the dictionary to double check instead of trusting myself. Then, when I discover I did spell it correctly, doh, slap to the forehead.

I am going to take a moment and give a shout out to my 9th grade(not to be confused with my freshman year) history teacher. On myspace(tm) I found my highschool has a page. One of the boards is about favorite and least favorite teachers. Ms. Hudson grabbed me in a profound way. I have always been a reader and always liked history. Well I liked history in that it wasn't the most boring subject in school, but that was about it. The day I met Ms. Hudson she walked into class and said "I'm going to tell you a story." That had my attention. "The story has murder, plots, take overs, incest; everything a good story should have. You are going to read along." And she started handing out textbooks." The best thing about this story is it's still being written and you are a part of it." I fell in love. Introduced to me in that way History and I developed a whole new relationship. One that has lasted even up until today. So thank you Ms. Hudson for touching my life in such a way.

I am reading Servant of the Bones right now. The story is told in such a manner that I am having a hard time 'getting into it' and staying there. Mrs. Rice is a talented writer and usually I don't have this issue with her work. The story is interesting, so I keep reading, but the way she pulls out of the story in the story, pushes me straight back into reality. I find I don't care so much for the outer story, which is a writer in a cabin by himself suffering from a fever when a long comes this being. The being wishes to tell the writer his story. Yes, like what happened in Interview with a Vampire. So, wait, I did have this issue before. She made me crazy with the same deal then. I really don't care about the tool being used to tell the creatures story..I just want the creatures tale. And the creatures tale is fascinating, He lived in Babylon after King Nebaknezzer, but right as the Persians are invading. Her descriptions of the city, plant you right there walking the same dirt roads as the character. Comming back to modern times after that..sucks. I don't get or understand the writer at all, other than at this point in the story maybe he is just delusional and his character has come out of his head and manafested itself. If that turns out to be the case..I swear, I will, for the first time in my life..throw a book across the room.

It's funny really. As many books as I have read, as much as I may not like a book, I can not throw one. Oh I've wanted to. I've cocked my arm back ready to let fly my deadly inaccurate aim, only to stop mid release and set it roughly down. usually a rude noise will follow to show my displeasure, but actually throw one? sacrilege!

My daughter brought home the scholastic book catalog the other day. I was like a kid in the candy store, trying to pick just one or two titles..I really need to get a freaken library card here lol.

I'm off to defend the realm and to get Kal to 3L9! Here hibbie, hibbie, hibbie......

FFF#4

The Day I Joined the Circus.

I ran and I ran as fast and as far as my feet would take me.
Thoughts pounding in my head. “Where is dinner?” “Did you do laundry?” “Clean this!”. I couldn’t take it anymore. I yelled and stamped my foot. “You do it, why is it always me!” that only got me sent to my room to take a nap. A nap? Me? I’m to big for naps.
I went to my room all right. I slammed the door. I stomped to the bed. No one ever listens. It’s always about them and responsibility. They don’t appreciate me. They don’t love me. I’ll show them, I thought, I’ll run away!

I took my pillow case and stuffed it full of clothes. I went to the door, but could hear them talking in the living room. I climbed out the window instead.
I didn’t know where I was going to go yet. I thought maybe I would find a new family in pink house. I looked and looked, but didn’t see a pink house to live in. I was starting to get hungry. I had not taken any food with me. I checked my pockets, but I only had five dollars.
I kept walking and finally found a small diner. I sat in the back corner facing the door. I didn’t want them to sneak up on me. I knew they would be looking soon. As I finished my food and was about to leave; I saw the sign.
The circus was in town. I had always wanted to join the circus. I wanted to be one of the bareback riders. To fly around the ring on horseback doing tricks. People cheering and clapping. I decided right then that was where I would go. I would join the circus and travel and be a bareback rider. Yep, that was the life for me.
It was night before I finally found the circus camp. The last show was already over. Nobody was around, so it was easy to sneak on to the grounds. I could hear the lions roaring. The chimps and the monkeys screamed every time the lions roared. The smell of hay and animals mixed in the night air.
I was so tired. I had been running all afternoon. I was hungry again, but had spent all my money at the diner. I just wanted to find a place to sleep. I came to the big cats area first. I slipped into the tent. Huge cages held the cats. Lions and tigers and leopards all pacing in their pens. I looked for a place to sleep. Nothing.
The next tent was the primates. It smelled to bad to sleep in there. I left quickly. I was hoping to find the tent with the horses. I knew they would have hay, I could sleep on that.
I didn’t think I could stay awake much longer. My legs were so heavy. My stomach kept growling. I missed my family, but when I started to cry I reminded myself how mean they were to me.
Finally I found a stack of hay. I didn’t even look around the tent. I lifted the flap and, there it was, a huge pile of hay in the middle of the tent. I dug a hole into the hay, crawled in and pulled some back over me. I don’t remember falling asleep.
The elephant found me. I woke up to something breathing on me and it stunk. I didn’t know what it was at first. I was to scared to scream. A long grey thing that looked like a snake was moving around my face. I lay as still as I could, trying very hard not to breath. Then I heard voices. It sounded like Cindy. That was Cindy’s voice, and the next voice was Paul. I listened a little harder. I heard Dale’s voice too. I had been listening so hard I didn’t notice the hay being pulled off of me by the grey snake thing.
I didn’t know what had happened until I felt cool air on me. I was able to see that the grey snake thing was a trunk, attached to an elephant. Then Cindy came into my view.
“MOM!” she said, “Where have you been? We looked all over for you. Why did you run away?”

And in keeping with the theme of pets....

This weeks Flash Fiction promt is this picture (picture of elephant leading a parade; would not load..stupid puter). Along with the sentence..the elephant found me.
There is a second sentence that can be added for extra points. What Per doesn't know is that my favorite 'pet' is an elephant. Yes, ladies and gents my husband is a dasterdly Alabama fan, and I am an Auburn Tiger fan. Many people who know us, know this, some don't. Some do not understand how a house so divided can stand. It is very simple...we have rules.

My husband was not the first man I loved to have this serious affliction either. No, my poor father also suffers from this . I have spent my life surrounded by people with this problem.
This issue does not affect only my husband or my father, it is deeper than that. It strikes through my extended family on my fathers side. We are truely a house divided, especially on the third Saturday of November, the Iron Bowl.

The #1 rule when living with someone who is a Bama fan, is you can not change their minds, they live in the past. They stay locked in a time warp remembering when the greatest of all coaches was at the helm. My Dad, at times, went so far as to wear his "Bear Bryant" hat when he felt the team needed to be reminded(until something happened to the hat..but no one is talking). These people must be shown pity and helped through their grief.

That's not the real rule. The rule is Which ever team wins the Iron Bowl has bragging rights for a year, until such time as the next Iron Bowl. In the weeks preceeding the game, the afflicted will start to 'forget' who really won last year, and the year before, and the year before that..but I digress. As they forget they will start to make snide remarks..just repeat the score and move on, eventually they are reminded of their defeat and will slink back in to the dark abyss they emerged from.

Here is an example of that rule in action. Our last family reunion happened to fall on Iron Bowl saturday. My Grandparents living room was quickly divided in half. Alabama fans on one side Auburn on the other. In years when we have not been able to all be together we call each other constently, with updates on the score or comments on the lame brain move someone just did.
Another way of keeping the peace..we do not speak to members of the opposite side on that day.
Well we don't speak, but we sure yell a lot.

The Iron Bowl, in my family, is more important than the presidental election or the super bowl.
In a strange way though instead of pulling us apart...the Iron Bowl keeps us together.

The things our pets do....

I have had pets for most of my life. I have been around animals all of my life. I could probably write a book about some of the odd things I have seen animals do. Rickyticky, my Grandmother Connies cat. He sat on top of the fridge, waiting for some hapless victim to walk by, in order to launch himself at them, claws fully extended.
My Aunt Toot's horse fruitloops(yep crazy as his name) who loved to chew ice. He would run at me full gallop and stop right in front of me, taking a cube of ice right out of the cup. I have had a dog that climbed trees. A dog and cat that took turns watching each others babies, while the other went outside to take care of buisness. I have even had a cat that went swimming, on purpose.

However the current cats in residence do something that completely baffles me. I say cats, because we are uncertain which of the four is doing the deed. One of them is stealing cigarettes. Not one at a time or even two out of a pack. No they are taking the entire pack off of the bedside table while I sleep and hiding it. The first time this happened, the oldest child got blamed. He denied it, but we did not believe him; Until the pack was found, under my bed, in the back corner, with teethmarks.

I have seen dogs that steal cigarettes, usually they will lay right out in the open and chew on the pack til it is demolished. Leaving little pieces of cigarette laying around, the top of the box ripped off and with dogs it is usually the box pack that gets it. I have seen them chew cigarette cases as well, mostly leather ones. So from a dog I can undestand this behavior, but a cat?

This has occured three times now. Max has been elemenated as a suspect for the most part. He has never exhibited any signs of this nature before and has taken to sleeping with the girl, instead of in our room. That leaves Maal, Slappy, and Zoey. I f the packs were just slightly battered I might believe that Slappy did it and that the teeth marks where really claw marks. The state of the cigarettes themselves end that theory. The animal in question is biting through the box and into the cigarettes hard enough to leave holes. There is no sign of repetative chewing, but multiple bite wounds. Once the pack has been suitably ravaged, it is then drug into the den of this murdering beast. So now not only do I have to keep my eye on my oldest, I must be on my guard against the felines of this house....

And the winner is.....

Neither of mine. That's right, the results for class secretary are in and neither of the Phillips clan won. David is very cool with it, says he just ran to tick off his sister(and I believe it). Ashley took it in stride. She moped for a day. Doesn't care that she can run again next year, because then she can only run for President or VP and she only wanted Secretary. She has now set her eyes on year book staff.... we are rooting for her to get picked for that.

Did you know that writing requires math? I didn't, and I sure wish someone had informed me, before I got bitten by this darn bug! I was working out a timeline for my WIP(work in progress), and discovered that my people where not lining up the way I wanted them to. While trying to figure out approximate ages, so I knew what character did what and when, I realized someone would be 12 when they had given birth. I realized my error, got paper and pencil, and did some math. All fixed now, the person would have been an acceptable 17 yrs old. I know someone, somewhere, is screaming that 17 is to young..to bad, it was acceptable at the time :) Not to mention, I was 17 when my oldest was born. Actually it must be a family thing. In doing my math I used my family as the model. My great grandma Morgan was 17 when she had my Grandmother; unless someone lied about Grandma's age. As she is a true southern lady if she was gonna lie, she would make herself younger not older..so that shoots that theroy. Don't you love it when I type as the thoughts enter my head? Scary in here isn't it.

What I am reading now (or at least lately)

I just finished STOP the train! by Geraldine McCaughrean. I wasn't really sure I was going to like this book based on the first chapter or so. I almost put the book down, I'm glad I didn't.
Somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd chapter this book became a run away train. Full of characters you love to hate, adventure, a bit of mystery, and even some romance. This is a middle grade book, even says on the inside flap 10 and up. I truely enjoyed it though. I almost woke Allen up once I was laughing so hard at one point. The main plot of the book is Cissy and her Ma and Pa move from the east to Oklahoma in the big land grab. The town they have chosen to settle in is right on the rail line and set up to be a railroad town. That is until, the townspeople refuse to sell their land back to the railroad, now the train refuses to stop in Florence. Not to be beaten( the pioneering spirit really shows in this group of misfits) they band together to stop the train and put their town on the map.

I finished that and dove right into another Agatha Christie. This time I am reading Spider's Web, one of her plays that has been adapted as a novel by Charles Osborne. I am only a third of the way in, but I can not tell where Christie's prose ends and Osborne's takes over. A mark of excellent writing in that regard, or it could be that I haven't read enough of her work to know the difference.
**
Hubby did receive and accept the offer from Burger King that we where waiting on. Pay rate was a bit of a haggle, but they agreed to his requested amount per year with the option of a raise in 6 months. Once assigned a store of his own, he will only work day shift and will only work one saturday a month. This is a win win situation as far as I'm concerned. Hubby is happy because when he left BackYard he was leaving several people that he liked working with and surprise, surprise they are now with BK as well. For those that just saw the humor in where my husband is working and my screen name, I've been chuckling over it for days.

FFF 3

The assignment this week is a little different than weeks past. There is no photo promt. There is only a written promt, or rather a contest prompt.Bulwer-Lytton is the inspiration for this weeks literary prose of mental refuse. There are a list of words you should look for as you move along from piece to piece: Putrefy, jewellery(yes spelled that way), encephalogram, aardvark, banana, zombie, and the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night"(which should appear in the opening lines if the author used it). Please remember to comment on each piece, we love comments, even if it's just a groan of pain.

“It was a dark and stormy night…” Sandy, reading out loud to herself, never noticed when
Anna shuffled into the room.
“My goodness, your scent becomes more repulsive every day.”
Anna gingerly picked her way around the space that was littered with debris.
“Uh?”

“You’re going to putrefy your brain if you keep reading that drivel. Read something worthwhile, I myself prefer Melville or Dickens. The literary style which they use to paint eloquent pictures on the scenery of my mind, quiet up lifts the soul”
Anna, trying to find a place to sit attempted to clear a spot off, on the chair opposite her friend, moved: a stuffed aardvark, a half eaten banana, a pair of socks that seemed to have the ability to carry themselves across the room, and various other things, that her dear friend seemed to need to keep in easy reach.
“What is wrong with the comics?”
Sandy grabbed a tissue to wipe her eyes as they once again sent tears running down her cheeks like rain on a window pane.
”They make me laugh.” Her body was racked with sobs, that caused her entire being to shake, as if by a 6.0 earthquake that was only felt by her.

“I can see I will need to telephone Dr. Halfway and schedule another appointment for you sooner than I thought.” Anna having finally cleared the chair of the last of its inhabitants settled her rear into the chair, with a prim twist to each side to make sure her slacks didn’t pick up any extra wrinkles.
“oh!” Anna lept to her feet with an agility that any cat would admire. “I seem to have found the broach Ted gave you.” Handing the piece of offending jewellery to Sandy.
Sandy of course only cried harder at the sight of the gaudy pin.

Anna checked the chair again to make sure she didn’t miss any other surprises and settled back once more. She smoothed her raven locks to make sure none leaned against the furniture, not wanting to pick up any unwanted company that may be residing in the filth that surrounded her. She smoothed her well manicured hands over her designer slacks, to whisk away any offending creases that may have appeared, in her hurry to remove the pin from her posterior. Having made sure that everything was in place she continued on,

“ Dear heart, didn’t we discuss this when I was here the other day, that you can not go on like this. You simply must accept that Ted is gone, and move on with your life. There are so many men out there you can’t let one little set back stop you. Now, I will call Dr. Halfway and see if he can work you in more quickly. I will also call Bernard, and see if he has an opening, you will never attract someone of the opposite sex looking as you do now, or at least not one with a full set of teeth and a decent car.”

“I can’t” Sandy wailed erupting into another bout of sobs.

“Pish! You can and you will. You were doing so much better, what happened dear? You had taken a shower and actually managed to eat something that didn’t get delivered by an acne covered youth in cheap polyester. Tell me what set you back.”

Sandy started to answer her friend and comforter, but Anna cut her off before the first syllable ever escaped betwixt her lips.
“I mean really, darhling, it has been 3 weeks. I think that is more than enough time to grieve for this little relationship. You did nothing wrong it really was all his fault. I mean really, to expect you to go to such a place, did he not know you at all?”

Sandy shook her head, trying to interrupt, but Anna simply waved her hand and continued.

“And then to get murdered, while trying to acquisition tickets to such an event. Utterly reprehensible, did he give no thought to how this would reflect on you.?” Anna got up and began pacing the room,like a tiger in a cage, ignoring the guttural sounds coming from across the room.

She grabbed the floor length curtains that where closed holding the sun at bay from the apartment like gates of a city shut to keep out roving marauders. Yanking the material back to allow the sunlight to pour into the room, its beams crossing the floor and illuminating everything to its harsh reality.
“ Did he not give thought to the way his death would reflect to the rest of the world? Thank God it was a short marriage anything over two years and it might have reflected poorly on you, but you had just reached your one year anniversary hadn’t you? So no reflection on you, just him. It’s time to stop this silly weeping and get on with your life.” Anna turned back to face her friend, her hands poised so elegantly on her hips, in a move she had practiced a thousand times to show off her lithel form to its best advantage.

“He’s back!” Sandy finally got out as Anna stopped for the pregnant pause. Anna looked at her quizzically for a moment.
“Dear heart, I know this has been harder than it should have been, but really. Maybe I should call Dr. Fritz and schedule an encephalogram instead of having you see Dr. Halfway.”

Sandy just shook her head at her friend. “He’s back. I really need you to close the blinds please.” Said so quietly that Anna almost didn’t hear the words as they made their way into the room. Anna grabbed the draperies intending to close them to appease her friend, who seemed to her to have finally been broken by the grief she refused to let go of.

As darkness slowly crept over the room again Anna was made aware that some of the groans she assumed came from her grief stricken friend were actually coming from the other room.

"Dear Anna, you have been so good to me these past few weeks, trying to get me to come to grips with Teds passing.” Sandy moved across the room and took her friends well manicured hands into her own chapped and callused hands.
” But Ted came home last night, and we had a long talk. That’s why I called you. I wasn’t crying for Ted when you came through the door. I was crying for you.”
Anna looked at her friend truly at loss to understand the verbal messages coming from her mouth.
A groan sounded in the bedroom doorway, Anna looked up.
There stood Ted a zombie.
“See, dear Anna, your lunch.”

>

This is sibling love....

I am an aracnophobic, yep show me a spider and I'm outta there faster than you can say "Where'd she go" "Where'd who go?". My family knows this. They laugh at the story of how I was stuck on a toilet for 30 minutes, held hostage by a tiny black spider the size of the end of a standard pen. It wasn't big at all really, but I was still frozen unable to move or call for help. This fear has gotten better over time. I seriously thank DAoC for that. One of the tasks given sometimes is to kill these huge, ugly, hairy, spiders. Most of them are the same size as a bear if not larger. Pretty impowering to hack the beast to pieces with me sword! However the fear of these little buggers is still there. So when my sister sent out a bulletin on Myspace(tm), about spiders hiding under toilet seat lids, I was not amused. I was horrorfied, now I have to look under every seat before I sit down? Thank god for my grandmother making me fear germs and public toilets while I was small, I don't sit in public restrooms. Never the less the info is there to sit and fester in my mind, the place where I live. I have a very active imagination(big shocker I know). Over time I'm sure that this would have all gone away but no, my sister sent me this lovely e-mail this morning:

6:37 AM Subject: Fwd: spider bite>> A spider bite...please read...........
And you thought the brown recluse was bad!!! Three women in North Florida , turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death.

There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same Restaurant within days of their deaths. The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.

The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom. That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider.

The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.

Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia , changing planes in Singapore , before returning home. He did not visit the resteraunt, while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.

Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India , and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes! It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life! And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

Now I understand that this is most likely another hoax, to spread fear and panic(and probably a few laughs, with toilet seats slamming down all across the country), but this is just cruel!
You don't send something like this to someone you love. Let alone TWICE in one week, that's not love...that's mean. I think she is waiting for the next time I come over to hear the sound of her toilet seat comming down so she can laugh her fool head off.

But just to be safe......

B-chain#6/ You wanna be a what?

razibahmed showed us where writing wasn't just a dream, but a part of him. In order to be whole/complete and still do his duty he found a way to accomidate both. There must be a geneitc code or chemical imbalance in some of us, that Doctors and Scientist just haven't found yet. Think about it.

Why else would a teacher at a university give up their position and comfy life style to pursue writing full time? To face rejection over and over, to wonder how the bills are going to get paid, or where the next meal is comming from. To subject themselves over and over again to being told "not now", "not good enough", this affliction does not just apply to writers alone though.

Why would a housewife start to go to open mike nite at the local comedy club?

Why would a person leave work everynight to attend dance class?

A firefighter or postal worker by day, rush to the local theatre to be in a play, or audition for a commerical, or sing Opera?

Why would someone with a quick mind and good buisness sense race cars or only feel alive on the field playing a sport?

To those that don't understand this is just a hobby. To the person doing it, it is a need, a hunger, a pressure that you can not ignore no matter how hard you try.

Sure some of them achieve fame and fortune, but it isn't usually that which drives the person to these actions in the first place. It is that these things are part of who they are, it is what they are. They are writers, dancers, actors, musicians, photographers, painters, poets, sportsmen, and the like.

Yes it must truely be a genetic or chemical thing. No one in their right mind would subject themselves to this affliction on a regular basis. To be belittled, or scoffed at, to see people smirk when you tell them what you are. It is why most keep it quiet or a secret until such time as they have accomplished enough to prove the "right" to call themselves what they truely are.

Guess what...I'm not in my right mind

A view from the waterfront is next.

Sorry Mr. Pitt, I'm not that stupid....

Wow. I can only hope that Ms. Jolie isn't really this dumb and is in on the whole statement.
Mr. Pitt annouced in an interview with Esquire magazine that he will not get married until everyone in the united states has the right to marry whomever they choose. Article

I applaud Mr. Pitts efforts in human rights issues, but in this instance I call bullshit!
You've already tried to convince us that you never cheated on your wife, or left her for another woman. Now you want us to believe that your decision, to not marry the woman who gave birth to your child, is out of a feeling of "equality for all"?

This just sounds like hollow reasoning, or one you hope she, and we, will buy.
I would have been more inclined to listen, had you married her and issued a statement in the lines of how you wish everyone could make the same kind of public commitment.

Now what I'm thinking is that your a sleazy, want your cake and eat it too, schmuck!

The list for Blog chain#6

For those of you who like to follow along, Blog Chain #6 is up and rolling.
TaliaMana

Peregrinas

IndianRaj

Just a Small Town Girl

A View From the Waterfront

Southern Expressions

Mad Scientist Matt

Organized Chaos

At Home, Writing

Writing From Within

Pass the Torch

BCOM

Fireflies in the Cloud

Sounds of Serenity

Kappa no He

Infinite Vanity

Gillian Polack

Of Chapters and Reels

Curiouser and curiouser

The Road Less Traveled

Livien

awchain

OY! Technology

Okay, sidebar is finally hanging where it is supposed to. I still do not know what caused it to fall in the first place. I removed the flash fiction signs and rehung them, no change. I went into everypost I had made and studied the HTML code til I thought I would go blind. I even went so far as to copy the orginal template on to notepad and run it side by side my current template, to see if anything was out of place. Nothing, zilp, zitch, zero could I find. I post the final list to blogchain#5 with all it's permalinks and what happens? Sidebar comes back up. My best guess is that what ever was causing the glitch went away when the pages hosted on my main page changed.

Man I so wanted to find and fix the problem just so I could say I had..but at least it's resolved.

Progress reports for the younger two are in. Ashley is gonna earn her $20.00 if she's not careful.
Her current grades stand as: A-english/language arts, B-world cultures/history,A-gym,C-science,B-math,A-reading.

David is sliding back into old patterns though. F-english/language arts,D-reading,B-world cultures/history,B-science,B-gym,D-math.
David has lost TV until the report card. He has been doing his homework, mainly goofing off in class instead of doing his work. After a full year of C's or better from him, I can not accept these grades as him trying his best. Sorry that bird don't fly, dog don't hunt, or what ever other popular saying you wish to use here.

The older boys are maintaining that they have not received such reports yet...I give them 5 days or I told them I'm calling the school.

The race for school secretary is still going..that ends on Monday. Results to be posted as soon as I find out anything. This does not seem to be causing any more rifts in homelife than normal. So that is a good thing.

Sent out my first query letter, got my first rejection this week. I knew/know that they are more common than acceptance letters so little sting. When you are working on needlework and you stab yourself with the needle, just a little prick..knowing that the finished product will be well worth the effort,you keep going. I will keep going.

AW Blog Chain #5: has come to a close.

Well folks we finished this round of the chain. For those that would like to follow along in order I am reposting all the links.
A View From the Waterfront

Curiouser and curiouser

South Asia Biz

The Road Less Travelled

Fireflies in the Cloud

Infinite Vanity

The Secret Government EGGO Project

Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Even in a Little Thing

Beyond the Great Chimney Production Log

Kappa no He

Tiffany's Smorgasbord

Just a Small town girl

At Home, Writing

Southern Expressions

BCom

earthshoes

Peregrinas

Writing From Within

Sounds of Serenity in Mayhem

awchain
Don't fret though since #5 is done, you know what is right around the corner...yep, #6 LOL

online communities.

What makes a community? Is it close physical proximety to others? or is it sharing, day in and day out, your life?

I have been surfing the net since 1999. I have been in chat rooms, message boards, and now blog sites. I have seen communities build and fall. I have seen friendships start that last years and some that only last a month or so. I have witnessed people who don't physically know each other support each other through times where the physical friends have all jumped ship.

People scoff and laugh when you refer to your 'friend'. You don't really know that person, they could be feeding you a line of bull. This is true and false. The person in your office or class room could be full of bull as well.

I once had a friend I made on line come and stay in my home, with my family. You know what, from the moment she got of the plane, it was like she had always been a physical part of my world.

In my game or on the boards I go to, I watch these people, fuss with each other, support each other, and love one another. It is one of the true examples of agape love I have ever seen by everyday folks.

I have seen others try to help those out of work find employment across thousands of miles. I have seen love and support for those touched by loss. I have seen true joy in someone's cause for celebration. Encouraging words for those struggling physically, mentally, or emotionally.

Just as I have seen people tear others apart with careless words. These hurt no less than if the person had been sitting in the same room with them. Sometimes crushing the one person so badly that they disappear off the radar.

My point is this; on line communities are just as real as the one in your church, your office, your school, or the friends you have over for BBQ on the weekends.

I am blessed to be involved in two on-line communities full of awesome people who truly care about each other.

Isn't it funny...

I learned how to put a picture in my post, but I still can't figure out my side bar issue. I just don't care any more. I have found a few templates I like the look of, but am terrified that if I use one of them, I will lose all my previous posts.

I spent the weekend reading Miss Snarks crap-o-meter. I have a new appreciation for what agents, editors,and publishers go through. It is easy to read queries when they only post a few up for review. When they drop 25 in a day, your eyes start to glaze over and your mind goes numb. They do this every day, for hours. All I can say is 'YOU GO GUYS'. I think I'll stick to the writing side of things.

I also have a better understanding of why the query letter is so important. Reading that many in a row, I found myself not wanting to read the story because the letter was boring. Miss Snark does the entire writer/agent/editor/publishing community a great service with this marathon of query prose. Do not misunderstand, it is fun. Just fun in the way that you enjoy a round or two of 20 questions, but 3 days in a car cross country and the next person that says.."I'm thinking of a mineral" is walking.

The crap-o-meter also helps in understanding why you pitch to so many agents/publishers at once. Everyone 'knows' that everyone's taste is different. This puts it out there in your face though. Several of the stories she passed on, I would have liked to read the whole thing. Others she liked and all I could say was "why?"

So does this mean I don't want her to do the crap-o-meter any more or that I won't read the rest that she posts? Hell no, I'm upset that she already quit for the day and I have to wait for tomorrow to read more.

Flash Fiction Friday#2

Here is my entry for this week. This is the picture we used.

Flash Fiction #2. CAMP: WANNAHOMGBAK (or I can’t believe my mother sent me to summer camp)


Dear Diary: June 15th
I can’t believe my mother! God sending me away to camp for the summer like some little kid. I had plans! Did that come into consideration? No! Even when I told her what I wanted to do this summer, she just said “No dear. Camp will be good for you; you’ll see”
Augh! Whatever! Chelz and I were going to spend the summer hanging out at the pool in her apartment complex. We had everything worked out. I would hang out during the day with Chelz and that way I’d have ‘adult supervision’ while mom worked. Did she care? No! I even did my best not to whine, but sound very calm and mature while I made my argument, for all the good it did me. Now I’ll never get to meet that guy that just moved in over by Chelz. What a way to spend my 8th grade summer vacation. At camp! OMG!

Dear Diary: June 20th
Well I’m here. In the middle of nowhere! Mom left about 2hrs ago. We had a ‘cabin’ meeting, after all the parents left, so we could ‘meet’ our cabin mates. Lame! We are all stuck together anyway; don’t they think we’ll figure out each other’s names? Geez! They went over the rules, which is why I’m writing this dumb journal in the first place. No one keeps a diary anymore! It’s part of the ‘experience’. We have to write down our impressions and what we see and feel. This place is so stupid. The cabins are dumb. Each cabin has a low covered porch with a few chairs on it. Inside are two rooms. The main room has four metal bunk beds, like you would see in movie for a boot camp or something. These thin mattresses were rolled up like sleeping bags and held together by bungee straps, we’re supposed to sleep on those? Who knows what kind of bugs are in them! There is no glass on the ‘windows’ just screen, they have these little roofs over each window to keep the rain out. A table sits in the middle of the floor for our ‘cabin meetings’, most of us just sat on the bunks anyway. Oh and two twin beds for the counselors Jenna and Michelle. The other room is a bathroom. My god it’s like the showers at school for P.E. and it smells about the same. Stall toilets and standing showers. A stack of cubbies are by the door to hold our bath stuff. Each cubby has our name taped on the top of it. Gotta go, the drill sergeants, I mean counselors say it’s time to head to the ‘mess hall’. I hate this!

Dear Diary: June 21st
It was so hard trying to go to sleep last night. I could feel the metal coils through the mattress. I ended up sleeping on top of my sleeping bag and my blanket. The stupid crickets or frogs or whatever would not shut up all night. Lanna, has the bunk under me, snores. We took a tour of the camp yesterday. The main building is called ‘The Lodge’, whatever! It’s an overgrown cafeteria. There is a T.V. and a few couches and chairs and some video games. The other side is where the tables are. We eat by cabin number so it’s not like the whole camp is there at once.
I was shocked when I saw guys there. Mom didn’t say anything about it being a co-ed camp. All of the different areas are linked by paths and there are woods everywhere. Serve mom right if I catch lime disease or west Nile virus or something. The mess hall is in the middle of the whole camp. Boys cabins on one side and girls on the other. There is a pool, a lake, tennis court, stables, basketball court, volleyball area and horseshoe pit. After dinner the whole camp went to ‘The Pit’. It’s supposed to be like an outdoor theatre. There are these bleacher type benches made out of wood and they lead down into this cleared out area. Rocks form a ring close to the seats and they had a fire going in the middle of it. Behind the ring of rocks is another cleared area that goes out toward more woods. Just before the woods, but to like mark the end of the cleared out area, there is a Totem pole. It was okay I guess. We made smores and learned the camp song, it’s pretty corny.

Diary: June 24th
We had to cook for the camp tonight. We thought we had done a good job too. We voted a few days ago to make chili and corn muffins. Julie came in took one look at it and was all “gross, this looks nasty.” And then she went to get a muffin and she’s all “This is over done” and starts banging it on her tray. She made this nasty look at Lanna, and flounces off. Lanna just rolled her eyes and I busted out laughing. Julie is still ticked that our cabin beat hers in the canoe race. Even though she tried to cheat and tip over the one Lanna and I were in. What makes it even funnier, is that she likes Josh. Josh’s cabin helped us cook tonight. She insulted his cooking and didn’t even know it. She thinks she’s all that and a bag of chips, just because she’s been coming here every summer since she was like eight. I bet her family is glad when it’s her turn at camp.
Josh walked me back to my cabin after dinner. He is so cool. This is his third time here. He said they hold a dance the last night and asked me if I want to go with him. I was blown away, I didn’t even know he liked me back cause he doesn’t talk that much. I told him “yeah, sounds fun.” I can’t believe I said that! Guess Mom was right..camp is sorta cool.
See ya.

Commercials and what they 'expect' us to believe.

I was minding my own business, watching tv with the kids, when I saw a new Dominos Pizza commerical. They are now offering 10 warm brownie bites with fudge dipping sauce as a dessert. This in and of itself is a good thing. My problem came with the comerical's believabilty. The delivery guy walks up to the door and rings the bell he has 'fudg'ems' with him to promote this new dessert. Fudg'ems is a 4 foot by 2 foot brownie, he is chocolate and apparently warm. Mom pats his cute little head, and says how nice it is to meet him, getting warm brownie all over her hand. Daughter hugs Fudg'em, and smears chocolate all over her face and sweater.
You mean to tell me that these Ad ex's think that we are about to believe that a 4 foot brownie is going to walk up to our door, ring the bell to deliver the "pizza", and we are going to just let it waltz back down the side walk? I don't think so! You show me one female that would let a 4 foot brownie walk away from her...and I'll show you a LIAR!

David is thinking of breaking up with his girlfriend. "Cause she always wants me to sit with her and her friends at lunch." Ashley broke up with her boyfriend, before he had a chance to break up with her. Justin is still seeing his girlfriend, but she is grounded for the weekend. So Justin is doing community service for JROTC. Tonight he helped direct traffic for the football game, and tomorrow morning he is going up to the school to help clean up the stadium. Chris is in rehearsals twice a week for the school play.

I do appreciate that, for once, we live close enough to the kids schools that they are able to walk to and from. This gives them more independence and allows them the chance to participate in more activities. Not to mention how much more relaxed the morning is. No more rushing and around in a tisy if we over sleep a bit, because there is no bus to catch.

Hubby has been doing job interviews all this week. We have a few prospects and as soon as something is concrete I will let you know.

I hope those of you that read the flash fiction pieces this week enjoyed it. I also hope you got a chance to read several of the pieces and commented on them. If you didn't please scroll down the page till you find the flash fiction post. They are all listed with links so just click and go :)
I'm going to keep doing it for a while. This event is open to anyone who wants to join in. Peregrinas is hosting the event and all instructions are listed at her site.

Small Bookstores...

I want to own a book store or at least work in one. Own would be better I think. I have wanted this off and on for years. I hate when I go to a bookstore and the person behind the counter is watching tv. I would not have a tv in my bookstore, or a radio. My kids could sit behind the counter and do homework, I could take my dogs to work with me. I could read anything and everything. I could sell some of my cross stich or my friends candles and crafts, my sisters jewelry. I could stock all my favorite authors. Maybe I'm a reader not a writer? I don't know. It's just a dream, a thought that lingers at the back of my mind..people ask what you would do with a million dollars that is always one of my answers.

When I have to show a setting in one of my plots I access that file cabniet in my mind that stores all of my 'dream' spots. My dream house, my dream book store, my dream vacation, my dream farm...there are tons of layouts in there. I blame the blue print books my parents had laying around the house when I was younger. That and my friend Julie and I found this wonderful use for graph paper one spring break. We discovered that though we couldn't draw we could use the graph paper to design some awesome houses.

One house looked perfectly normal from the outside, but from the air you could see that the bottom level was a square, the second level was a triangle, and the third level was a circle. I think we made the circle into a ballroom/skating ring. I don't remember exactly. Another house was made completely of pvc pipe and stained glass. It would only work on an island, where there was no threat of a hurricane..so basicly no where.

Julie had an energy that fed creativity. Be it trying to track down our favorite group and running up her parents phone bill to call New York city, or Orlando to how we would run away to New York and become famous models. Our signiture was going to be that we would always be in the same picture with one another (kind of like the sandler/schnider thing before they did it).

Even now when I write sometimes I hear her in the back of my mind..oh and then they can find this and it leads to that and my mind responds great idea, but what if ...I wonder will I have to pay her royalties when I get published?

It has been 15 years since I last saw her, actually I think it's more like 16 and yet she is still a big part of my life and who I am. She and Caron. I miss them both or at least what they are/were to me. I often wonder where they are and what paths their lives have taken. I have tried off and on over the years to find them but so far the fates aren't leaning in that direction.

But I can picture the afternoon where the three of us get to meet up ...for lunch..at the rainbow room..nah the Russian Tea room?...nope..where shall we meet....in my dreams

Pr. E. M. for ever