And The Challenge Begins

My best friend Marie and I enjoy writing about anything that strikes our fancy.  We will often inspire each other.  A while back, a funny picture that I sent her sparked a short story where she wrote the first half (http://eclecticthe.blogspot.com/2016/08/until-cows-come-home.html) and I wrote the second half (http://thehookandthepen.blogspot.com/2016/08/until-cows-come-home.html).

One day, many years ago, I was at an art museum and found a really cute book in the gift shop.  It was shaped like a cube and titled The Writer's Block by Jason Rekulak.  This particular book is full of different writing prompts for the stuck writer and it has 786 different prompts in it.  This particular book is what has sparked our current challenge.

So, here's the deal.  Each week that has a date in September, which there are five of them, Marie and I will randomly select a page from The Writer's Block for the other to write.  We will get a prompt every Sunday and the piece has to be posted to our blog by Saturday night.  Each of us is only allowed one veto of a prompt during this entire time.

Hopefully, this challenge will help open up some new creative paths.  At the very least, it will create five interesting short stories.  Let the challenge begin!!

The beginnings of all 5 pieces lay hidden within this book

Dude, Listen To Me

There are very few words in the English language that have such versatility in sentence structure.  No, I am not referring to common Anglo Saxon word that starts with the letter F, although that one has a lot of versatility too.  I am referring to a word that people  associate mostly with surfers.  The word that I am referring to is dude.  Now, before you try to tell me that it isn't a versatile word, allow me to educate you.

I am a child of the West Coast and I grew up using this word a lot so it is a part of my internal lexicon.  As a noun, dude can refer to a person of either sex, any animal, or object.  And while it doesn't really work as a verb or an adjective, it does work to express feelings.  When said with a lot of excitement, dude becomes a word to show how happy you are about something.  When said sadly, it can show disappointment.  With a touch of wounded pride, it can show being offended.

One other note to mention about the word dude is that it is considered one of the gender neutral words.  And before you try to tell me that dude is for guys and dudette is for girls, about 95% of all the generations that use the word dude, use it for everyone.  They also do not use the word dudette.

Dude!



















(Photo from https://i.pinimg.com/736x/74/4c/78/744c785bf0cbd75e42a210352cbde282---kids.jpg)

The Day That Hell Froze Over

I have been an outcast my entire life.  Now that I am an adult, I don't mind so much.  I have people who like me for me and I don't have to pretend.  Now, this has not always been the case.

Many people would agree that high school wasn`'t the greatest time for them and I would be one of them.  I went to high school in the late 90's and it was a very dark time in my life.  I have often said that there is not enough money in the world to get me to go back through that experience again.  There wasn't a lot of talking about anti-bullying, especially at my high school.  I was bullied a great deal during that time period.

The interesting thing about my bullying was that it wasn't the popular girls that tortured me.  In fact, they were friendly and treated me nicely.  It was the popular boys that made my high school life hell, four of them being the main culprits.  I had my hair pulled, things taken off my desk, but the verbal abuse was the worst part.

In my moments of logical thinking, I went to my English teacher to ask to be moved, which was denied simply because he didn't want to mess up his seating chart.  I went to my vice principal to report the abuse (my school was very big so we had four VPs and you went to a certain one based on your last name) and she reprimanded me for kissing my boyfriend off school property before school started.  It got so bad, that I contemplated suicide several times, getting to the point where I was holding a knife to my wrist.  I was luckier than most people suffering from bullies and I escaped high school with my life intact and some mid-level scarring to the psyche.

The reason why I share this painful part of my past with you is something happened last week that brought a lot of these memories of abuse to my mind.  I received a letter, addressed to me but under my maiden name.  I didn't recognize the name or the return address but curiosity got the best of me.  After reading it, the shock was so great that I felt weak in the knees and had to sit down.  It was a letter from one of my bullies, one of the main ones in fact.

The letter went like this (edited for privacy reasons):
I am writing this letter in the hope that it reaches (my name).  You and I were classmates together at (my high school) in the late 90's.  The intent of this letter is not to reconnect with you, we were not close.  I more accurately terrorized you in school.  I said all kinds of hurtful and insensitive things about your family.  I am writing to you now not to revisit that pain and suffering, but to ask for  forgiveness.  The way I acted towards you was solely my inability to behave and act appropriately.  You were completely innocent of any of the negative attention that was directed towards you.  If there is ever anything I can do to make it up to you please do not hesitate to ask.
Sincerely,
(my bully)

You hear of things like this happening, especially in this age of mass media, but it is something that you never expect to happen to you.  My first thought was "why now?" but then it hit me.  It doesn't matter that it happened now.  The point is that he was taking responsibility for what he had done to me in the past and was apologizing for it.  I do plan on writing him back, to let him know that his letter was received and that his apology was accepted.  It takes a lot to admit a mistake and even more to admit that mistake to another person & seek them out for forgiveness.






(Picture credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3f/59/57/3f5957c800df66f4383fe691457eb235.jpg)

Then the Darkness Comes

As I sit here writing this now, I feel that I must explain that I do not write it for sympathy.  I write it simply to purge myself of the feelings that are attempting to swallow me whole.  

What does one do when something becomes to unbearable to deal with any longer?  Do you walk away, leaving behind all that you know so that you can be free of the burden?  I hate to say this but walking away does nothing but make it harder for you to face because you then have to walk back to the issue to face it head on. 

But what if the issue is one that doesn't cause you physical pain, but spiritual and emotional?  The only physical pain is the pain you give yourself, trying to fight the feelings the issue raises.  Sadly, the physical pain that you give yourself can only override the internal pain for so long.  Soon it returns, more painful and damaging than ever.

How does one cope with it all?  Do you surrender to the darkness, letting it consume everything that you worked so hard for or do you continue to fight back against it, knowing that it will continue to cause you pain?

I ask these questions, not looking for an answer, merely to speak them aloud since they are running so strongly within my head right now.  The darkness has arrived and I'm not sure if the small spot of light in the distance is the pure light that I so desperately need or if it is the train coming to take me out of this existence known as this life by hitting me head on.

When the Book is Not Better Than the Movie

 As an avid reader, I love getting lost in a good book.  I'll even get excited when a favorite of mine is being made into a movie.  Even if the movie is done well, I will still favor the book over the movie.  Very rarely will there be a time that I like the movie more than the book.  I believe, at the current count, there is only four movies that I like better than the book.

 The first book is The Princess Bride.  Now I will admit that I saw the movie first before I read the book, but like any good reader, I approached the text like I had never seen the movie. (Plus, it came with the anniversary edition of the dvd and how could I say no to a free book?) No offense to the author, but oh dear lord was the text boring.  I struggled to finish it.  It was very dry and I felt myself getting distracted every time I went to read it.

This is another book where I saw the movie before reading the text.  Now, while the text was enjoyable, for the most part, there are certain things that just put me off the text.  I won't go into all of them here, but the main one was the zombie "sex" scene.  I understand that it was to make R jealous but the visual that it evokes is one that sticks in your head for years to come (and not in a pleasant way).

Now, the movie had come out by the time that I had heard of the book.  I had seen previews of the movie, which seemed interesting, but I was determined to read the book before I watched the movie.  This particular book barely made this list since I did like it but not enough to keep in in my personal collection and reread it again and again. The movie, on the other hand, I could watch multiple times and still be amused by it.

The last book was a book I read in college for a reading course.  It was cute but it felt flat to me.  It read more like someone's thought process rather than an adventure.  There is one part I liked in the book that I felt should have been placed into the book.  Ella's fairy godmother finally realizes the error in the "gifts" she had given to Ella and others in the past and punishes herself by going through the same experiences.











Picture credits
book w/ glasses: http://cdn-media-2.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2015/08/Reading-Glasses-On-Book-With-Hot-Tea-Drink1.jpg
The Help: https://coilycrowns.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/the-help.jpg
The Princess Bride: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0345348036.jpg
Warm Bodies: http://thebooksmugglers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Warm+Bodies.jpg
Ella Enchanted: http://cdn.skim.gs/images/x03qencqew1tnghz76xa/books-for-girls-em-ella-enchanted-em-1

In Comes The Babysitter

I have some great friends who went on a went on a week long trip.  They have lots of very cute pets, including cats, ferrets, and rats.  Since it was going to be rather hot out during the week they were gone & their A/C was trying to give out on them, Resha asked if I would be so kind to babysit her 3 little rat babies.  With Lee's okay, I said yes.  The week of rat sitting had begun.

Okay, to start off with, I had a pet rat when I was a teenager.  Her name was Spot and she was a beautiful rat.  Her markings are what they call a hooded rat, with the body being white and  their head another color.  Spot had a caramel colored head with one little spot of the same color in the center of her back, hence her name Spot.  She was an amazing little friend who would often be the only one I could talk to when I was going through rough times, saying rat words of comfort back to me.  It broke my heart when I had to let her go but I never forgot what a great friend and companion she was.

Now, for those of you who think that rats are dirty creatures, allow me to clarify a few things.  Yes, they do have a distinct aroma, but it isn't bad as long at you replace the bedding on a regular basis and wipe down their cage each time you do.  They are very good at keeping themselves clean.

Camilla (the dark one), Corrin (the one with the white markings on her side), and Elise(the one under Camilla)

Meet my little guests.  They cracked me up with their antics and I spoiled them rotten.  They got lots of fresh veggies & they loved the carrots the best.  Fresh green apples were okay but fresh strawberries were well received.  Since they were still young, I didn't want to pick them up but I was able to pet them from time to time.  I made friends with them quickly by giving them treats every day.   

When Resha came to pick them up, she swore that they had gotten a lot bigger and that they seemed very happy.  She even laughed when I told her that my cats didn't bother them at all.  In fact, Oscar seemed rather spooked of them and Gabby liked to watch them without approaching the cage.  Resha said that her cats liked to watch "Rat TV" as she called it.  It was a lot of fun watching after these funny, little girls and I look forward to visiting them when I visit Resha and her family.

Tomorrow is a New Day

I work hard every day

I do my best to help others

But on days like today

You make me lose hope in humanity

Harsh words said

Not caring if what you want will cost me my job

It is all about you

And what you want

I am human

Just like you

I am not a doormat for you to trample

Nor am I less than you

The sun rises again

A new day begins

Your negativity is in my past

While it continues to drown you

(picture from http://planetxnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/rising-sun.jpg)