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 |   One writer's journey |
 She sat down at her old wooden desk, pen at the ready. Her thoughts raced. What shall I write today? Tilting her head to the side, a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth before enveloping her delicate face. The purple ink began to fill the once blank sheet, each stroke a labor of pure joy as the words flowed from her mind, her heart, her very soul.  My Dreams... to write of romance and endless love to love without boundaries to learn from past mistakes to laugh with all my heart to be the woman I am meant to be  TODAY... I will reach for the stars Will not give up Will give all that I have Dare to dream the impossible dream For anything in this life is possible   <---I am blown away by this    |
| The Wildcard Round! Tell us about a time when something that has basically always been a detriment to you turned out to be really useful. R's friends can be a royal pain in my butt. I get annoyed easily when they all sit around speaking Arabic and exclude me. This happens so often I've learned how to tune out, or play games on my phone until I get to go home. Nothing shocked me more than when R's brother passed away in April 2015. R didn't even want to call and tell them, but I had already done it on my drive to work because I thought he was going to need his friends around. Not only did they come around and let others know of his loss, but they stepped up in a big way. I had no idea how things should go. If it's a Catholic funeral, I know all about that stuff. But Islam? I mean I've been to houses to pay my respects before, but no clue how to go about things. So his friends took over. They brought chairs, and tables, helped rearrange the house, a large coffee machine, the date cookies that are given out, etc. They made it so easy for me. I couldn't even believe it. I've never been more thankful for them stepping in to help. On the third day, they even brought R's closest friends over, ordered take out and we all ate together. It was pretty incredible. I realize that I may not always get along with them, and that their quirks can annoy me, but when big events are happening, they are there to with lots of support, which is really important.
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| War Chest Wednesday! From a previous challenger... We are always learning. What are you learning now? I don't feel like I'm learning new things. Maybe I just don't realize that I am. I know I could learn patience because I totally suck at it. I want what I want and I hate waiting. That's probably my biggest character flaw.  In the house now I suppose I am learning how not to do everything myself. My daughter-in-law is pretty terrific at stepping up and making dinner, cleaning the house, doing dishes. She has a tendency to block me from the sink when I've made dinner and then proceeds to do the clean up. It's strange for me to step back and let someone else do the things I'm so used to doing. Her and my son even do some of the shopping now. They are pretty considerate when they go out, always asking if I need anything. On the writing front, I like to think of it as always learning, growing, becoming a better writer. Learning how to tighten sentences to make them stronger. This I believe will always be an ongoing process. Since the work computer was fried last week, and my laptop has been all messed up, I'm learning two new web browsers. It's funny to me because I love change. I am constantly moving furniture, rearranging things, but when it comes to my web browser I lose my mind. It's the one thing I want to learn to navigate once. Now I've got Edge at work and I'm hating it every time I open it. I had to switch to Firefox from Chrome on my personal pc because Chrome kept crashing. Ah, that patience thing is so needed right now. I'm not liking Firefox either, and it's not like I haven't used it before. I'll probably be happier with Firefox when I can figure out how to make the screen bigger.
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| Talk Tuesday! Keep the conversation going! *Smile* Which musicians, actors or athletes do you wish you could've seen perform live while they were still in their prime? I am so damn thankful I got to see Prince during the Purple Rain tour! And how I wish I had seen George Michael. But there are two big concerts I wish I'd been able to go to. First was The Rolling Stones when they toured in the early 80s after Tattoo You came out. I desperately wanted to go. Begged my uncle to take me with him for weeks, and my mom was even willing to pay for that ticket, but there was no way he was taking some teenager with him and his friends. So I didn't get to go. I was so damn bummed about that. And I admit having a huge crush on Mick Jagger. What can I say? The other concert I really wanted to go to was Bruce Springsteen when they toured after Born in the U.S.A. blew up the charts. What girl at that time didn't want to be Courtney Cox Dancin' in the Dark with Bruce? That was the hard to get ticket. My neighbor was lucky enough to go see that concert. I am still such an 80s girl. I cannot seem to help that. And any time songs from that decade come on, I belt them out as if I'd sung them myself. Though I will say I was a MTV kid, so that seemed to put us closer to artists because we watched them come alive on our tv's through video.Yea, me and music have a very intimate relationship going on. I even have play lists to go with my moods.  I don't think any musicians have topped my love for music like they did when I was a teen. Which brings to mind, Van Morrison. I have claimed Brown Eyed Girl as my own. I cannot help but dance when that song comes on. So I'd have to round out my top three with Van Morrison. If I manage to finish up some of this Quills judging, I may have to put my headphones on and disappear into the 80s before bed tonight.
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| Motivational Monday! Musician David Gilmour, born on this day in 1947, once said, "It's a very tempting thing to try and relive your glory days when you get a little older and you worry that people have forgotten all about you." In what way or ways does your writing preserve any kind of legacy? I'm an emotional kind of girl. A lot of my stories have bits and pieces of me in them, and usually relate to what is going on with me. Back in the 90s when I had a borrowed laptop, I wrote my first novel in 24 hours. 50, 000 words. I barely slept that I night. I remember having so much to say and that character wouldn't leave me alone until I got that story written. It turned into a 4 book series. I was big time into V.C. Andrews at the time, and the story followed that route. I tortured poor Toni, and even put her through something that actually happened to me in high school. I had a boyfriend,  and when we broke up, he immediately started dating my best friend. Big OUCH! This wasn't too long after Christmas. I had given him a bracelet with his name engraved on it. After we broke up, I was sitting in the cafeteria with a friend, when someone I didn't even know walked past me and dropped the box the bracelet came in on the table in front of me. I cringed when I saw it because the noise coming from that box told a story. It didn't sound like a link bracelet any longer. You could hear the links clinking together like coins. I picked it up and looked inside to discover that I was right. He had taken the bracelet apart link by link, and returned it to me. I lost my 16 year-old mind. My uncle had the same name. I could've given it to him, but nope.I'll never forget how my anger took over that day. It was like I was having a hot flash because I specifically remember how hot I was. I marched over to their lunch table, stood about 5 feet from them and started yelling. I don't remember what I said, but I took that box and threw it at him, hitting him in the forehead. The box of course opened and the links went all over the cafeteria. I marched out with tears burning my eyes. Funny thing was, so many people actually witnessed it. I was the talk of school for days over that. So Toni's horrible boyfriend in my novel is completely based on Mark. I think a lot of my writing holds information about me, stories from my past, how I feel about people and things happening in my life. Once I heard the saying, write what you know, I guess I took that to heart. If that's a legitimate legacy, I don't know, but there you have it. 
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| The Sunday News! Everyone's favorite category! And so much has happened in the last month+ since we've done one of these! As people who write things that can be seen on the internet, we understand how important grammar is. The real question that remains, however, is how sick are you of this guy?? Pace yourselves, 'cuz there's a lot goin' on in there. If only there were a vomit emoticon.   There it is! Sigh. How sick am I of that idiot? I'm sick and tired. And tired and sick! There are some days when hearing the latest lie spill out of his mouth has me physically ill. Not many people can make me physically ill, but he's right up there. Oh yea, he read off a teleprompter for an hour and looked Presidential.  So bloody what? Those who can't see through that sham are either:1) blind 2)in denial 3)I don't even know what you'd call it at this point The mere fact that the President of the United States has so much free time to be jumping on Twitter with every whim that floats through this tiny little brain is mind boggling. Any speech he has that goes off script is a nightmare and has me scratching my head or screaming out in disgust. His address to Congress was a disgusting display and showed exactly why this man has NO BUSINESS being in the White House. Oh yes, we are all crying, and heartbroken for the widow of our soldier who shouldn't have died, but please let's talk about the applause meter because that's what it's really about right? EVERYTHING has to be centered around him. How great he is. How amazing this is going to be. How huge that is. If he went to college and actually passed I'd be stunned. By now someone should've bought his ass a Thesaurus because the way he recycles the same words and phrases constantly is so predictable we can't even poke fun of them anymore. Someone needs to tell him this is NOT The Apprentice. It's NOT a fucking television show. This is people's lives he's playing with. He toned down Hombres. What a challenge that must have been for him. ~Here by? Wait, he must mean hear by? Wrong. Oh, hereby. Get it? ~Dems save still not approved? umm, not sure that makes a lick of sense, but yes, let's go with it! ~Make America Great Again. Yo, dumbass, it has always been great. Until you took office, that is. Watch how America becomes a laughing stock by the time you leave office. Other priceless tweet: ~He called both a CNN report about the matter and fake news “rediculous.” It was removed and replaced with the correct spelling. ~In March 2016, shortly before the Arizona state primary, Trump misspelled the name of the state’s capital city. Phoneix instead of Phoenix. ~In late January 2016, Trump claimed that Ted Cruz would “loose” to Hillary Clinton. Oh but it's not just this moron. Check this out: President Donald Trump's pick for Education secretary Betsy DeVos is coming under criticism on Twitter for a tweet that incorrectly used the word "historical." In a tweet that was later deleted, DeVos wrote, "Honored to witness the historical inauguration and swearing-in ceremony for the 45th President of the United States." Other tweets quickly pointed out that "historical" is meant to refer to past events, while "historic" refers to important events. Before Chrome crashes on me again, I need to wrap this post up. Damn I was only halfway there too. What a pita. And now, somehow my blog is all in italics. WTF Chrome? Why? Why? Why? Are you doing this to me?
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| Creation Saturday! Who hears you when you scream? The walls, the windows, the vibrant picture frame. The floor, the ceiling, the flickering candle flame. Our silent house ~ my screams echo and blare. From the mirror ~ my reflection. You're not there. "30-Day Blogging Challenge"  by Fivesixer (Halloween version)  It's Plug Time...Please come help. There are good packages up for grabs!
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| Prompt: Fun Fact Friday! On this day in 1903, Barney Gilmore of St. Louis, Missouri was arrested for spitting. What's one of the dumbest things you've ever gotten in trouble for? I still maintain to this day that I didn't deserve to be spanked. And we are talking 39 years later! Yes, I'm still bitter about it. So my sister and I were like 10 & 8 if memory serves. It was right after the 4th of July, so any sparklers were 50% off. We took our allowance up to the store and bought a few boxes. Out in the bright afternoon sun, sparklers are really no damn fun. At All!  The garage is empty and dark. We go into the garage and light them off, still thinking it's a cool thing. You can't just pick them up and toss them in the trash right away, so the evidence laid on the CEMENT floor while we headed up to the park to play. My Grandfather, who lived next door, came over to get something from the garage, saw all the sparklers lying on the ground and ratted us out to my mom. When she came home from work we were in trouble. Why? Because we could've burned the garage down. Say What? We were nowhere near the walls. Our skinny asses were doing circles in the middle of the garage.  Anyway, got in trouble for that. And I still say we didn't deserve it. It was dumb to be punished for it. We were responsible about the whole damn thing!
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| Prompt: Tell us about a time that you failed hilariously at something. Well I definitely wouldn't call it hilarious, but all of my friends who were there still bring it up to this day and laugh their asses off. So it was my 22nd birthday, and I was meeting my friends at a bar called Lucy's. I'd never been there before, but hey, it was my birthday, so we had to take advantage of that. I got all dressed up, was excited and ready to get smashed. I got there early with my date. Another couple had arrived when we did. So me and my girlfriend hit the dance floor while the guys were talking at the tables. That's when Pegster and few others showed up. They start screaming "T", and singing. I turn around and start running from the middle of the dance floor to them. All excited seeing the balloons and knowing we were going to have so much that night. Did I mention that to get to the dance floor it requires a step down? Yep. Picture the scene. Me all decked out for my date, running like an idiot, both feet hit the edge and I went smack down onto the ground. I didn't even manage to get my hands out to brace myself. I pushed up and my friends, who I thought were going to save my ass and at least help me up were laughing hysterically. I started laughing, so embarrassed, praying my date missed all of it. Finally, I'm up on my feet, they are still cracking up saying it looked like I was swimming on the ground. Bitches! Mind you I hadn't even had one drink at that point!30 minutes later Pegster and I are in the bathroom, and I hear two girls talking. "Did you see that girl fall?" "Oh God I'd be so embarrassed." "That was me. And I am. And damn if I didn't ruin my new, cool fishnet stockings!" The night went on. The next morning I could hardly get out of bed. When I went to the bathroom to see why, I had bruises everywhere. Arms, hips, thigh, ankle, chest. Never run to greet your friends. Walk people! You'll thank me for this later.
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| Yooooooouuuuuuuuuuu guessed it. It's time for another rant about.... Prompt: Tell us about something/someone that fucked you off this week. That would be that bitch Mother Nature, that dumb ass on the phone from HP, and the prick at Staples. And all in one fucking, long ass day! So yesterday I was up early, worked on my blog for the 30D challenge, all excited, it's birthday month, and St. Patrick's Day month, and I  March month. Some of my best friends have birthday's this month too. I mean hell they bring back the Shamrock Shake every March. It's time to be teased that spring is just around the corner. Oh but I digress.So I shower when R leaves, am drying my hair when I miss his call. If he calls not long after he heads to work, something is wrong. Alrighty. Computer not working. We had really bad storms the night before. I tell him to shut down. He says he has. I say no, hard shut down and open it in safe mode. It will tell you what wrong. I finish getting ready, and head out to pick up a few things for dinner I will need later. I haven't it even made it to Target and my phone is going off. . Computer on, no internet. Fine, shut down the router and modem. Problem solved, right? Wrong!I'm trying to check out and he's calling me again, still not working. Fucks sake I cannot diagnose the computer issue and run my shit through the U-Scan, bag my shit and talk on my cell phone at the same time. I'm good damn it, but not that good! Ditch R and tell him I'll call him back. Check out, run across the street to the meat market. Come home. Call R. Need to hit work before anything else. So I toss the food into the fridge and head off to work. No breakfast. No second cup of coffee. You see where this is going right? Get to work. I look at it. The hard drive is noisy as fuck. I tell R that I think its fried. He says it's not. The modem and router are plugged into the same surge protector. I call our carrier, tell them no net, it's not detecting net. They check, all is fine on their end, they detect our router. So I start moving the ethernet wire from one port to the next. Nothing. Call HP. You know how this goes when you're out of warranty. PC from 2014, need to either pay $99 for fixing it today, one time charge. Or $35 one time fee, plus $14 a month. Gotta stay in the program for a month. They tell me that someone shut the pc down during an update and it corrupted the bios. I tell him we haven't had an update. He explains again. Fine, whatever just get my pc on line. So they have me do a few things, send me to another guy, he has me change settings, and then has me restart. Guess what?? The pc will not restart! Did I not already mention I thought the pc got fried? Damn it no one EVER listens to me. Hard restart. Hit Escape, okay no we're making progress. Hit F11. Nothing. Over, and over, and fuck me over again. This guy was the one damn phone with me for two hours. Finally he says he will call me back in 15 minutes. Did he? Nope I'm still waiting. I finally convince R the pc is fried. It's almost 3 years old now and all we need is the tower, [like last time ]. So we head up to Best Buy, find a computer. R thinks that the tower must be heavy to be worth a damn. We had an HP Slimline. I even asked the tech guy at Best Buy and smiled sweetly..."Would you please tell him that?" I fucking couldn't help myself. You don't want to buy HP again, just say so. But the issues with the pc at work have always been weather related and I believe from the fucking roof leaking. We got through pc like clockwork every couple of years. Oh, and before we bought the new tower, I had my kid bring me my old laptop as a temporary fix to get us up and running, and because that piece of shit was Vista, it wasn't compatible with the program we run for work. Son of a Bitch! At this point I really knew I wasn't going to win this war of Hump Day! Okay, new pc booting up. I'm all excited and damn the luck when I realize that the fucking printer is also fried.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Damn it all to hell. I call the tech guy for the software we use for work, get them to take over the pc and install. Oh and R says fuck it, we will use Edge this time. Wait. What? Stop the presses. I have no fucking clue how Edge works. I saw it, didn't like it. Ran back to Google on my laptop. UGH shoot me. Fine, we will use Edge. Do you know I cannot for the life of me figure out how to bookmark things and find the fucking favorites bar. Does that even exist? Hell if I know. Once the pc is working, he send me home to go online at Staples and see if I can find a printer that uses the 3 cartridges of toner that we have. Damn the luck, there is only one, but it's online only. So the lovely chat feature at Staples pops up. He wants to help. I tell him my issue. He says buy online, take the 3 cartridges I can no longer use and pick up in the store in a hour and they will buy the cartridges from me. AWESOME! Right? I buy the printer, two toners and wait for my email to pick up in an hour. Toss a shit dinner together and we head out. The asshole at Staples says I need a receipt for the toner. R starts yelling at him. They argue back and forth. Long story short. Too late I know. We leave empty handed with our 3 toners. We head to Office Max. He says no printer there. No good deals. Head to Best Buy. Again, no printers that use that toner, and he says we should try Staples. So we head a different Staples. It's already 8:30 and the store closes at 9. Oh, and I didn't get my after dinner coffee, so I'm not in a chipper mood. Well Mr. Helpful at THIS location, buys 2 toners back giving us store credit. We grab a printer, and then he says if you apply for a credit card you can get $50 off as well on this purchase. Awesome, it's almost free at this point. R decides to get a new screen to go with everything else that's new. I'm not complaining. We go back to work, set up the printer, and the new screen, have to rearrange the desk because a 24" screen takes up a lot of room. I get home at 10:30 pm. Whew what a fucking day. And I forgot to call that idiot at HP back to make them give me my damn money back because they didn't do shit for me to begin with. R just left and I'm wondering how long before my phone rings because I highly doubt he will be able to figure out how to use Edge. I'm still exhausted. And hoping my day off will be one where I can just relax. Doubtful though the way this week is going. March has surely started off with a bang. Must be the Ides.
Don't forget about this: "March Madness Auction ~ CLOSED" by Petrified in Purple  |
| Prompt: War Chest Wednesday! From a previous challenger... Is trying to colonize other planets for human settlement a good or bad idea and why? If it's good, what steps would you see having to take to go into something so big? If bad, what should we do with space programs besides replacing satellites every few years? Oh Puh Leeze! We don't even take care of the planet we're already on. Why go and ruin another? The USA in so much debt, I don't even see why we need to be dumping money into the space program at the moment either. Hmm, I feel a rant coming on. Wrong blogging group. Don't get me wrong, I think the space program is necessary, and seeing the images that come back are fascinating. Trappist-1, the new group of planets discovered last week blew my mind, and I get it. We really have no idea how vast space is, what's still out there waiting to be discovered, if we are alone, etc. But right now I fear that if we don't get our shit together on Planet Earth, and soon, there won't be much of a planet left and everything will be a moot point. "30-Day Blogging Challenge" by Fivesixer (Halloween version) It's almost 11. I've had a shit day. The storms last night fried the work computer. By the time we went out and bought one, we realized it fried the printer as well. So now I have a new pc and printer at work. That's my excuse for not having a better response. I'm tired. I'm cranky. And my inner bitch is dying to be let out. |
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Keep strong!
And good point about the COVIDiots and their "my body my choice" bullshit. Oh, now they're all about controlling your own body? Okay then.
