Writing, I Miss You

I realize I took a break from writing after college for about a decade, so this hiatus is nothing in comparison, but now that I've been away from it for a couple of weeks, I'm having pangs of desperation I didn't experience before. Maybe because I didn't realize how important it was to me back then. Suffice it to say, I have a LOT of things floating around in my noggin that I want to share. Hopefully my crazy schedule of three jobs will start to become a routine soon and I can find a time to fit it in. One of the first posts I want to write is about the enormous support system that can be found in the blogosphere/twitterverse. I get choked up thinking about it. For now, it will remain in my heart. Hope to write some this weekend. We'll see.

Heaven

First, I just wanted to let all the Red Dress Club gals know that my reading partner had her twins yesterday! Congrats to Sara from Our Urban Village!

Heaven

The red and white sprinkles rained down from fluffy, cotton candy clouds, catching in her blonde curls. Elvie lifted her face, eyes closed, tongue out to catch them. Her pink dress billowed out in undulating waves as far as she could see. She raised her arms out from her small form, palms up, praising the sugary heavens. 

Yum! she thought. If only Mama could see me now. Sprinkle donuts had been her favorite, especially pink-frosted ones. 

With a mouthful of sprinkles, Elvie dropped her head back down and looked around as she savored the sweetness. She heard music and began to walk toward it. At first she was afraid she would get tripped up in her dress, but it was as if it moved with her, never getting under her feet. Though she'd been timid in preschool, she felt a serenity here that allowed her to indulge her innate curiosity without hesitation. She came upon a large tent, bigger than any building she'd ever seen in her short life. It was filled with kind faces, many singing, most smiling, all peaceful. Everyone wore brightly-colored, loose-fitting clothes like the nurses had been wearing at her hospital. She was surprised that even though there were tons of voices, it wasn't too loud; just a melodic tinkling at a comfortable decibel level. 

A woman was watching her, patiently waiting for Elvie to see her. At first, Elvie just thought she was another of the ephemeral creatures, but when their eyes met, she instantly recognized her and felt a surge of joy. "Grandma?" she asked.

"Hi, Baby Girl!" She scooped Elvie up in her arms. 

"I didn't expect you to be here so soon," she said, brushing a stray curl from Elvie's face. "But it's wonderful to see you."

"It's wonderful to see you, too, Grandma," Elvie replied. "I was missing you."

"I know, Love." 

Grandma set Elvie down after another tight hug. 

"What's everyone doing?" Elvie asked.

"It's praise time!" Grandma said, excitedly. "That was always your favorite part of church, wasn't it?"

"Yes!" Elvie clapped and jumped up and down. She took her grandmother's hand, and they made their way through the crowd to a space that had been left just for them. Elvie sang and twirled and danced. 

After awhile, the crowd slowly quieted. A figure appeared at the doorway. He was non-descript, yet looked exactly as Elvie had pictured him. As she walked to his open arms, she he was filled with awe, wonder, peace and love, and knew she was home.

This week's prompt was to write a piece, fiction or non-fiction, inspired by this picture. Word limit was 600. I did not expect this to take me where it did, so I struggled with how to finish it. But at least I managed to avoid finishing a donut like in the picture!

Trapped

Thank God I'm not stuck in a small space. Not like I could do what my dad does. He got trapped in an elevator once, so to deal with his claustrophobia? He took a nap. Ha! I haven't been able to fall asleep on my own in years. Dammit, I hadn't thought of that til now! Need to start carrying my Lunesta around with me. Good thing I ended up at a Walmart in Missouri where they sell alcohol. Pfft! Never would have expected to hear that phrase from me. "Walmart" and "Missouri" are usually mutually exclusive from "good" in my book. Hell, I consider them downright evil on most days. Not sure I can feel that lucky about being stuck with the kinds of customers that entails, though. Should've kept driving. No, that would've just left me to freeze to death in the white-out. Guess that's looking on the positive side of my post-pregnancy bladder being so small I can't make it 100 miles without stopping. At least I didn't have to stop at one of the adult bookstores this time. Had to do that once. Clearly a squatting-only place, even more so than a bar. How pathetic is it that half the exits off I-70 across this God-forsaken state have only those and gas stations? Ugh. Reason #827 I would never move to "Mis-ery."

Thank you, Jesus, for vodka. Couldn't have gotten even those couple hours of sleep without it. Partly because of my insomnia, but mostly because these hicks keep trying to talk to me. Do I look like I speak white-trash? Please. Which is why I don't feel the least bit bad about snagging the Smirnoff. I'll pay for it later. Not like it was Grey Goose.

Ugh, the stench has started. And now that they're shutting down power at night, it's getting a little scary. Locked myself in a stall in the bathroom for safety's sake. Realized we were going to be stuck more than a couple of days overnight, and all I could think of was the horror stories of rapes and robberies at the Superdome after Katrina. Wasn't going to let Jim Bob and his brother, Darryl and his other brother, Darryl close enough to me to exchange words, much less touch me. Upside is I've taken some photos to upload to PeopleOfWalmart.com when I get home. Which should be tomorrow. Supposed to get a break in the snow today. Plows will be able to get a start anyway.

I know they're just babies and can't help it, but someone PLEASE make them shut the hell up! It's like reliving giving birth and being in the hospital. Hearing all those babies crying. Except my Emma. Never a sound. I knew before then, of course. A mother knows these things. Though I guess technically I was never a mother. Just can't think from all the noise. Need a drink. Should wait til lights out to get more vodka from my stash; don't want to risk someone finding it. When the manager locked all the food and firearms in the break room and his office so he could ration it, I followed suit and got most of the vodka before the rest of the trailer-trash figured out what was going on. Most people were more worried about their families than themselves. Guess I finally found the benefit to being solo. I'd be worried, too. It's not looking good. Can't believe the snow only stopped for thirty minutes.

Wishing I'd watched more "Survivorman". We're almost out of food. There are about 165 people in this damn place. Luckily I'm used to drinking my dinner. Been giving some girl my nighttime ration. Looks about the same age I was when I got knocked up. She'll be due around the same time I was, too. But doesn't sound like she's married. Parents kicked her out. A loner like me. For another couple of months anyway.

If we ever get out of here.

This post was inspired by the prompt "You are trapped (alone or with others) in a single location during the fury and/or aftermath of a blizzard of historic proportions." Constructive criticism welcome.

Update

Well, I thought I would be including my next installment of the Red Dress Club today, but unfortunately, life got in the way! :) I am going to try to keep posting a few times a week, but things may slow down here for a bit. For one thing, we're going to St. Louis this weekend to visit my sister. But that's just temporary, of course. The bigger issue is that Mom's memory problems seem to be intensifying. It's causing times of paranoia. My dad is trying hard to be patient with her, but he's worried, and he's a man, so his way to react is by being a butt head. To be fair, though, in the last few weeks Dad found out he's probably going to have to have a Pacemaker put in, he got laid off again, has been having trouble getting unemployment set up and his car died. Babysitting the kids tests his patience when things are running smoothly, but right now it's too much for him.

So we could really use some prayers right now. For my parents, mostly. Dad is really struggling to keep it together. I'm afraid he's going to have another heart attack from the stress. And for Mom because I think she's scared and worried and stressed, too. Also for our kids. They have seen Dad lose his temper a couple of times in the past week, and it's been pretty ugly. And for DH and me to figure out what to do. The girls are finally adjusted to their new schedules and care providers, and I really don't want to move them to another place, but our current provider can't take them full-time. Plus it's expensive to switch them to full-time. I'm looking for support groups for Dad to help him deal with Mom, and I'm going to see if I can adjust my hours at work some to limit the time Mom and Dad watch the girls, temporarily.


Anyway, all that to say that though I love my blog, it's going to have to take a back seat for awhile til we get things sorted out. I will probably sacrifice tweeting to stay up on it, so I will miss you all in that respect, but hope to be back soon!

Changes

Changes

 

"Stupid New Year's resolutions," Katy thought.

She had decided to be hard-core this time. She usually just let herself run out of "bad" food, but 1/1/11 was different. She was pitching everything in her house that was unhealthy. Any unopened items would be donated to charity, but everything else was going in the trash. Her frugal side was struggling with this decision. "Really? The case of Frappacinos I just bought at Costco? They're so expensive!" So was her indulgent side. "How can I throw out this half-eaten box of Godiva chocolates my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas? It's madness!"

But toss them she did.

And she took a closer look at the everyday items she needed but knew were probably available in a healthier version. Like the canned vegetables. "Fresh or frozen is better," she said out loud with conviction, as she added them to the giveaway pile.

"What, honey?" her husband, Joe, called from the living room.

"Oh, nothing," Katy blushed. "Just cleaning out the cabinet like I talked about last night."

"Uh-huh."

Katy rolled her eyes at his clearly automatic response. Joe was watching football. He tried to pay attention, God love him, but he was in bowl-game heaven. She could have told him she was practicing a striptease and gotten the same reaction. She smiled as she thought to herself, "Enjoy it now, sweetie, 'cause there won't be much time for football next season. Assuming all goes as planned."

She turned her attention back to the pantry. It was one of her favorite elements of their new house. She knew that seemed silly, but their starter home had had a galley kitchen with so few cabinets she had to store her Crock Pot and baking pans in the basement. She actually had empty cabinets at the new house, there were so many of them. And the pantry... well, suffice it to say that the people who had built the home must have known that someday she would live here, because it's exactly how she would have designed it herself. The pantry's front double doors had shelves on the backs. Inside, there was a second set of hung shelves that swung open in front of the main, grounded shelving area. It had all the space of slide-out shelving, but without the frustration of items falling off behind or getting lost in the expansive depth. She loved it. And it was chock-full of items that needed to be health-ified.

"Let's see, what's next..." she mumbled under her breath. Bread. She knew that was safe. She'd stopped buying food with high-fructose corn syrup in it awhile ago. Though Joe grumbled about the whole wheat kind, she had persuaded him that he would get used to it. He wasn't a big bread-eater anyway. One of those people who are unaffected by the addictive power of carbs. He could buy a bag of cookies and only eat one. One. She could do that, too. One bag, anyway.

Crackers. Three kinds - half of sleeve of buttery Ritz, and brand-new boxes of original Wheat Thins and Wasa crackers. Trash, donate, keep.

Peanut butter. Sigh. Katy knew this was going to be painful. She loved extra-crunchy Jif. She knew she should switch to the organic stuff, but dang it, she liked that hydrogenated oil. That sounded gross, but really, if that's all that was in there, maybe it wasn't so bad. She checked the label. "Made from roasted peanuts and sugar." So far, so good. Well, at least straight-up sugar's better than HFCS. "Contains 2% or less of: molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils (rapeseed and soybean), mono- and diglycerides, salt." Two percent or less? That's nothing, really. How many ounces are in this thing - 28? Two percent of that is only... half an ounce. Which is about half a serving. Ok, well yeah, that's a bit much.  She chucked it in the trash with a sigh.

Surprisingly, it only took about 30 minutes to go through the cabinets and refrigerator. Katy was just finishing up when half-time started. Joe whistled his way toward the kitchen.

"What the...?" He stopped at the doorway when he saw the stack of food in a box on the table. "Why is my brand new bag of Cheetos over here?" he asked, suspiciously.

"Because, baby," Katy replied, carrying the last of the junk food to the garbage. "We're going to start making healthier choices about what we eat." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. 

"We are, huh? I don't remember agreeing to that. That was all you last night in your 'We've got to make some small changes now, so we're ready for the big change next year' mood. I'm not changing anything, woman." The twinkle in his eye belied the mocking tone he'd taken.

Katy giggled. "Don't worry, babe. You don't have to do anything. Just don't go grocery shopping without me."

He flashed her an impish smile, snatched the Cheetos bag and ran around the corner toward the staircase.

"Joe!" Katy called after him, incredulous. "Joseph Martin Stephenson, you get back here right this minute with those Cheetos!"

Cackling, he leapt up the steps two at a time. He paused at the landing and looked at her tenderly. "Well, there's one thing you don't need to change. You've already perfected your 'Mommy' voice."

Katy's frown softened with the anticipation of answering to a new name this year.

This post was inspired by the prompt to grab something out of your pantry and write a short piece - using all the words in the ingredients.

  

Antagonistic Zach

 

I'm excited to offer my first link to the Red Riding Hood. I love Nichole's blog, In These Small Moments, and Cheryl's blog, Mommypants, and we've become Twitter buddies as well. So it was only a matter of time before I discovered their Red Dress Club last fall and wanted to get in on the fun, but kind of had a lot of other things going on. I was surprised how well this went considering my creative writing skillz are quite rusty, and the prompt seemed pretty challenging. I had no idea where this story was going to go and it changed directions several times even though it's really short. So much fun!!

•  •  •  •  •  •  •

Antagonistic Zach

Awash in fear, Xandra's face was pallid in the rare winter Seattle sunlight. "Back away slowly," she thought to herself as the Doberman approached her with a throaty growl. "Could this really be happening?"

Dogs excite fear in many people, but not to the extreme degree they affected Xandra. Even as a baby, she had inherently sensed they were a nemesis. Fortunately, her family hadn't owned any pets, so as long as she could claim allergies as a reason not to love them, she didn't find it difficult to avoid them. Given that she had never told a soul about this heart-wrenching phobia, it was quite a shock to find that her only enemy in human form had deduced her secret.

"Help!" she screamed hopelessly, her voice getting lost in the wind whipping off the waves. "I need help!!"

Just as she reached the edge of the pier (that had only hours ago teemed with fisherman) and had nowhere to go but the hypothermia-inducing Pacific ocean, the sun reflected off of something in her peripheral vision. "Knife the dog with the fish blade!" she thought. "Let me see if I can reach it without encouraging an attack. Maybe my luck hasn't completely run out after all."

Near enough to touch it now, she slowly reached out and picked up the knife, holding it in front of her to keep the dog at bay while she tried to calm her nerves and draw upon her Navy S.E.A.L. training. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the boat. Proudly, Zach stood at the helm watching his carefully orchestrated scenario unfold.

"Question for ya, Zach. Red or blue?" Xandra asked, a possible escape plan developing in her mind.

"Sorry?" he replied.

Then before he could figure out what she meant, Xandra turned and threw the knife with the precision that one expects from an assassin of her caliber. Unprepared, Zach only had time to slightly shift to the side, avoiding a deadly hit, but still sustaining a serious injury. Vexed by the turn of events, the Dobie wasn't sure if he should attack Xandra or assist his beloved owner. Water sprayed up from the sea startling him to action, but it was too late. Xandra had stealthily crept around his blind side and was almost to her car. Yelping in frustrating, the dog could only watch as Xandra sped away, her quick reflexes and MacGyver-like ability to resolve a perilous situation having saved her yet again. Zach gripped his bleeding shoulder and vowed that next time she wouldn't be so lucky.

This post was inspired by the prompt to write a 26-sentence piece in which each sentence starts with sequential letter of the alphabet, starting with "A."