10.28.2010

I'm starting to think maybe I should just post assignments on here.

In the spirit of Halloween I made my latest assignment a little creepy.

Let me know what you think.


The Neighbor


“While you guys are out of town do you think Megan can stay with me, so I’m not alone,” Rachel asks her parents as they load up their car to leave.

“I guess that would be ok, but absolutely no boys or parties. I mean it Rachel, we will find out,” her mom warns.

“Of course not Mom, you can trust me. Have a fun trip, I love you guys!”

“I know you wouldn’t, but Megan… oh well, never mind. We love you too! See you on Sunday,” her mom yells out of the window.

After watching her parents drive off into the fading sun light, Rachel turns to go back in the house and sees her neighbor John standing in his driveway watching her. He has always made Rachel feel uncomfortable and today was no different. John was a single man in his mid 40’s, Rachel has never seen him with a woman despite the fact that he was a mildly attractive older man. Honestly, she has never seen anyone come to visit him. To be polite Rachel waves to John and smiles as she opens her door to go inside and call Megan.

“Good morning, Rachel. Did I hear that your parents are going out of town for the weekend?”

“Yeah, umm they’ll be back on Sunday, night,” Rachel tells John, surprised that he heard what she was saying to her parents.

“Well, you know I’ll be here if you need anything. Don’t be afraid to knock on my door at anytime if you need something. A young girl staying home by herself isn’t safe, you know.”

“I’ll be fine. Thank you, John. I gotta get going though, have a good day,” Rachel says as she quickly goes inside and shuts the door, making sure to lock it behind her.

Rachel picks up her phone to call her best friend, Megan and starts checking all of the doors and windows to be sure they are locked, also. She doesn’t like staying home alone, it makes her very nervous.

“Hey Megan, it’s me. Guess what, my mom said you can come and stay while they are out of town for the weekend,” she blurts out as soon as her friend answers the phone. The two girls have been best friends since they were three years old, even though they have some very obvious differences. Rachel is a very quiet and polite girl, while Megan is loud and extremely flirtatious. They differ in looks as well; Rachel is plain with long chestnut brown hair and doesn’t need to ever wear make-up. Rachel has shorter multi colored hair that is always changing and wears lots of eye make-up.

“Really? That’s so awesome! Oh my God, party at your house this weekend! Rachel, it will be epic, the best party ever. We could invite Josh, Brad-“

“Megan, stop. We can’t have a party, and… no boys. I promised my mom.”

“WHAT? Are you serious? Then what are we going to do?”

“Umm, what we always do. Hang out and watch scary movies, or do our nails. We could go to the mall too, my mom left her car here.”

“But… ugh, ok. We are watching what I want to watch then. I hope you are ready to be so scared you pee your pants.”

Rachel wasn’t hearing a word her friend was saying. She was standing in the kitchen, which her mother overly decorated in apples, watching as her neighbor John was staring at her from his kitchen.

“Hello? Earth to Rachel, are you listening to me?”

“Huh? Oh yeah sorry. So, are you coming over or not?”

“Yeah, if you had been listening to me when I was talking, you would know this.”

“Good. Hurry up. You know I hate being alone.”

“Yeah, I know you’re a wimp. I’ll be there in an hour.”

Rachel hangs up her phone and goes back to the window to close the blinds, but John was gone. I’m just over reacting, she thinks.

I know, I will go and watch the episode of One Tree Hill on the DVR, Megan will be here by the time it’s over.

Rachel settles into the overstuffed beige sofa and starts to watch her show. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a shadow in the hallway. Rachel presses pause on the remote and watches the hallway.

It’s just my imagination; I’m the only one here. Stop freaking out, she reassures herself.

She turns her show on and lies down so she can’t see the dimly lit hallway anymore.



BANG, BANG, BANG!

“Rachel! HELLO??” Megan yells into the living room window.

Rachel sits up from the couch groggily and looks around. It is now dark outside and the tv is set to the DVR guide.

“Oh my gosh, Megan I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep watching One Tree Hill. How long have you been out here?” Rachel asks as she opens the front door.

“I don’t know like 5 minutes. Well, at least now you will be able to stay awake when we watch movies.”

Megan comes inside and throws her stuff on the freshly mopped tile and heads straight to the refrigerator.

“Do you have snacks? If not we can go to the store first, my mom gave us money for the weekend.”

“Yeah, my mom bought some food for before she left,” Rachel says as she walks into the kitchen.

“Uh, hey Megan, why’d you open the back door?”

“I didn’t it was like that. I thought maybe you wanted some fresh air,” Megan shrugs and closes the refrigerator door to move to the pantry.

“What? It was like that when you came in? I locked that while I was on the phone with you earlier. I remember because my creepy neighbor was staring at me while I did it."

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Maybe he opened it then,” Megan said looking wide eyed down the hallway at the man staring back at them.

10.24.2010

Stop and Smell Some Flowers, or Eat Some Chocolate.

Too many people sit and plan their lives, schedule every breath, pencil in appointments with their kids and live by that plan. I do that a lot. We over schedule our lives. We fill every second of every day. With this mentality we are convinced that our life isn't complete until we reach that big goal, the end result is all that matters. Whether it's our career goal, having the perfect family with the white picket fence and 2.5 kids, or the Ken and Barbie marriage. Whatever that goal is, that is all that matters.

But with that in mind.. you miss all the things that make life worth being here for. You miss the cute smiles, the tasty cookies, beautiful flowers, the clouds shifting and changing shapes and so much more.

This is it, you only get once chance. So take it one minute at a time, don't schedule things that aren't necessary, like dr's appointments, you can't just show up for those. I want to slow down, enjoy my life. I think if I do that then maybe the end goal will be that much sweeter.

10.22.2010

The Post About Annoying Grammatical Errors

I totally get it. Some people aren't that good at English, but seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY.

Where was the proper usage of words like Their, There and They're lost? How do you not know when to use the correct spelling?

How about Your and You're? Then and Than? Effect and Affect? Except and Accept? Here and Hear? Yea and Yeah?

I'll break down for you the ones that bother me the most... in case you are one of the people that commonly misuse one of these words.

There, Their and They're; I know those words can be confusing.. really I do. Except (correct usage if you are wondering except is an exception to accept something is to receive a gift for example), I remember learning it this way.

There: to state where something or someone is. Example: "She is over there."
Their: possessive, meaning someone owns something. Example: "That is their house."
They're: Compound of two words THEY and ARE. Example: "They're coming to the game."

It's not that hard, if you think about that fact that it has to make sense. "She is over they are." DOES NOT make sense. Stop and think people.

Your: possessive... again, something you own Example: "This is your book."
You're: Again compound of two words YOU and ARE Example: "You're welcome" (this is a COMMON mistake, that drives me insane. You can't possess welcome. DO NOT SAY YOUR WELCOME. It makes NO sense what so ever.) If you aren't sure which one to use, break it down. "Is that you are car?" Nope doesn't sound right, it must be the other YOUR.

Yea: DOES NOT mean the slang form of yes. It means a yes vote when voting.
Yeah: the slang form of yes (or a lazy yes). Example: "Yeah, I'll go."

Here: location. Example: "They're here." (you like how I did that, don't you? I used two words that are commonly misused in one sentence!)
Hear: it's one of your five senses, when you're listening to something. Example: "Can you hear the music?"

For this one, just remember if you are HEARING a noise with your EAR, add an H to ear. :-)
Another trick like that I remember from grade school was for desert and dessert. You always want a second helping of your dessert but don't want to visit the desert more than once. :-) You don't want to lose the game more than once and add an extra O to make it more loose. They are kinda corny tricks but it helps to remember to spell things correctly.

I think what happened is that over the years people have stopped appreciating the written word. It's so important to use proper spelling and grammar when that is how you are communicating. It bothers me a great deal to see how much people don't care, or are too lazy to take the time to learn.

10.18.2010

Another Creative Writing Assignment

So, I had to write my very first short story. We had to incorporate everything that we have learned so far. I have really been enjoying this class, so without further ado...

Here is my short story... please save all criticism til I can handle it, which very well may be never.


My Happiness




Doctor’s offices are always cold, Mary thought as she sits waiting in her son’s pediatrician’s office. She looks around the sunshine yellow room with paintings of happy trees and deer on the walls impatiently. She has been frequenting these offices a lot lately. Bradley caught some kind of virus a couple weeks ago and can’t seem to shake it. Only now it seems like it is getting worse; he started out with just the sniffles and a cough, now he is very weak, pale and extremely tired.

Mary is a single mom with just her one six year old son, Bradley. He is a very active boy, she takes him to soccer practice on Monday and Wednesdays and piano lessons on Thursdays he normally keeps her very busy but lately he hasn’t been doing any of these things. Mary is the librarian at Bradley’s school, it seems as though her life revolves around him, because it does. He is her happiness, the reason she gets up every morning. Without Bradley, there would be no Mary. She has no other family to speak of and very few friends.

Mary goes to help Bradley up on the table as Dr. Robins knocks on the door to enter the exam room.

“Hello again, Bradley, I would say nice to see you but not under these circumstances, huh?” Dr Robins smiles at Mary.

“Hi Dr. Robins,” Bradley whispers as he looks up. His brown hair looks even darker against his powder white skin. He has dark circles under his once bright blue eyes, but they have lost their sparkle since he has become so sick.

“How are we doing? Still not feeling any better?

“No, not yet, we are hoping you can help with that. Aren’t we, Bradley?”

“Yes, Momma,” Bradley whimpers again.

“Alright, well let’s take a look. Why don’t you lift up your shirt so I can hear that chest and heart,” Dr. Robins says as he puts his stethoscope in his ears.

Bradley lifts his shirt and reveals a dark purple bruise on his ribs the size of a grapefruit.

Dr. Robins looks at Mary,

“How long has he had that bruise? Do you know where he got it?”

Stunned by the bruise Mary shakes her head.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t there this morning.”

“Have you noticed any other bruises appearing?”

“Just one on his leg, he hit his shin on the coffee table the other day. I didn’t think it was that hard until I saw the bruise later that night.”

Dr. Robins lifted Bradley’s pant leg to expose the now greenish yellow bruise on his leg. He put his pant leg back down and walked over to the counter and started scribbling in Bradley’s file.

“Mary, I want to have some blood tests done, do you think you could take him over to the lab today and have those done for me?”

“Of course, is everything ok? Will this tell you why he has been so sick? Do the bruises have something to do with it?”

“I want to check his white blood cell count. I won’t know anything more until I get the results back. Head over there right now, and Mary, don’t worry.”



Mary sat in her dimly lit living room watching her son sleep on their old sagging sofa. She spent a lot of time doing that these days, as she anxiously waits to hear back from Dr. Robins with the test results. It has been two days since they took his blood; she thought for sure she would hear something by now. What worries her more is that Bradley still wasn’t feeling any better. If anything, he’s getting worse. He has been complaining of a stomach ache and won’t eat.

As Mary started to doze off in the rocking chair that she used to rock Bradley asleep in the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, can I please speak to Mary Thomas?”

“Yes, this is her.”

“Hi Mary, this is Jessica calling from Dr. Robins office. We have received the test results for Bradley, Dr. Robins would like to see you in his office, would tomorrow morning be ok?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

He wants to see us in his office right away, this can’t be good, Mary thought as she put the phone down. She looked over at Bradley sleeping so peacefully and started to cry. He is everything to her and all she wants is for him to be ok. She can remember sitting in this chair when he was a baby singing and rocking him to sleep, and now she feels so helpless that she can’t do anything when he needs her the most.



Another cold brightly painted room, only this time it’s blue with jungle animals on the wall. Mary and Bradley didn’t have to wait long before the knock on the door came. Dr. Robins came in looking as crisp as always in his white coat and blue tie.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today, Bradley?”

“Tired,” Bradley said.

“I have the results of the blood work, Mary; do you think we could speak privately? I can have Nurse Jessica take Bradley to get a sucker and a sticker, if that is ok with you?”

“Of course,” Mary smiles at Bradley to let him know its ok.

As Bradley leaves the room Dr. Robins sits in his stool and opens Bradley’s file.

“Mary, I’m afraid we have some not so good news. Bradley has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood. I’m going to refer you to the best pediatric oncologist, but I feel like we caught this early enough and that treatment will be more than likely successful.”

Mary slouched into the stool next her and started to cry.

My baby has cancer; she thought to herself and put her head in her lap.

“I will take him where ever I need to, please give me the referral. He needs to get better, he has to be ok.”

“He will,” Dr. Robins assured her.



Well, that was it. 1000 words from me. Again, this was my first short story, hopefully over time they will get better. :-)

10.04.2010

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

So far I have really enjoyed my creative writing class. I have only done 2 assignments but I'm liking it.

We are supposed to keep a writer's notebook and write down converstations we over hear, things we think about, a song lyric you like, a list of things you think of, pretty much anything that sparks you. You might not use it now but later it could come in handy. I have been trying to do this. One of our writer's notebook assignments was to write a list of things in a woman's purse. I don't know if any of you have seen the size of my purse or the contents in it.. but I don't think they would be considered the regular conents of a woman's purse. lol I have just about everything you can think of in my purse on any given day. However it was a good exercise to get the brain moving.

October is finally here! I can't wait to get decorating for Halloween. This is by far my favorite time of year. I love fall.. I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall. I just wish I lived somewhere that had enough trees to turn colors and see leaves actually fall from trees. I know one day I will, when is the question.

So, Monster is doing the TBall thing. He had his first game on Saturday it was so fun! The kids were adorable and he had a blast. His actual words were, "Mommy, this was the best morning of my life!" Kids are so cute.

I have lost almost 20lbs.. I'm so close I can almost taste it. I want to work out so bad to get to that 20lbs, but I have a horrendous chest cold that is preventing me from walking from my couch to the bathroom without coughing. I really don't think that the treadmill or Jillian "the bitch" Michaels would be good for it either. I have a dr's appointment on Wednesday so I'm hoping to be back in work out shape by Monday! It's on, look out 20lbs I'm coming for you!

In 1 month and 3 days I will have been married for a year... :-)

Other than that.. life has been pretty normal. Hope you are all having a good week. Happy October!