For Norah

I've been away for a while, but I'm excited to get back to writing!  This week's entry is 175 words.

Trifecta:  Week Eighty-Five

We turn now to our weekly one-word prompt.  This week we are asking for a 33- to 333-word response using the word:

FLY (intransitive verb)
1a : to move in or pass through the air with wings

  b : to move through the air or before the wind or through outer space
  c : to float, wave, or soar in the air
2a : to take flight : flee
  b : to fade and disappear : vanish
3a : to move, pass, or spread quickly   

  b : to be moved with sudden extreme emotion   

  c : to seem to pass quickly

Please note that the above examples of the third definition use various tenses of the verb.  For Trifecta, remember, you must not change the tense.  We need fly, not flying or flew.  

- See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2013/07/trifecta-week-eighty-five.html#sthash.QCKNB5hp.dpuf







The days fly by.  From a baby in frilly pink dresses to wild-haired daredevil:  fearless, careless, brave and adventurous.  A fashion pioneer, you pair sneakers and fancy dresses for playing in the mud.  Velvet in June is no longer a fashion “don't”.  Seven, going on thirty; ready to take on the world.  “I'm all grown up now!” you declare, hands on hips, pointy chin arched defiantly.  You are brilliant.  Way too smart for my good.  You challenge everything I say.

You still enjoy a good snuggle, and you can't cut your own meat yet.  You need reminded to brush your teeth and hair.  There are flashes of the baby I remember, but they quickly disappear when you wow me with how well you read or spell a big word.  You can be manipulative and deceptive at the same time you're being tender and sweet.  You’re a hybrid of innocent little girl and worldly young woman.  You scare the hell out of me.

The days, they certainly do fly by.  And all I did was blink.

In the Barnyard

Trifextra:  Week Sixty-Seven

On to the weekend challenge.  This weekend we want you to give us 33 words (exactly) that include among them at least one example of onomatopoeia.  When looking for a good page to link to in order to help describe the device, we stumbled upon our very own Apoplectic Apostrophes' post on literary devices.  Check it out if you need help remembering how onomatopoeia work.

Cows mooing loudly.

Tails thump, lazily swatting flies.

The bull snorts, spoiling for a fight.

The crunch of hay.

The telltale squish as I forget to watch where I’m walking.



Ahhh, farm life.

"Do you taste like chicken?"

Photo credit:  Me.

In the Blood

Trifecta:  Week Seventy-six

This week's word is blood:

a : lifeblood; broadly : life

b : human stock or lineage; especially : royal lineage blood

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c : relationship by descent from a common ancestor : kinship

d : persons related through common descent : kindred

e (1) : honorable or high birth or descent (2) : descent from parents of recognized breed or pedigree

(Squeaking in just under the wire.  304 words.)

Suzanne sat at the defendants’ table, listening as the prosecutor tried his best to paint a picture of her as nothing more than a common thief.  She mentally rolled her eyes as he used words like “greedy”, “selfish”, and “money-hungry”.  She stifled a laugh as he attempted to convince the jurors that she lived a lifestyle of excess; spending well beyond her means and using company funds to do so.  She knew the truth, and Lord willing, after her attorney was done, the jurors would, too.

She was a fighter.  It was in her blood.

Her parents marched for civil rights with Dr. King.  Her grandfather was a spy in World War II.  Her great-great-grandparents brought slaves to freedom on the underground railroad during the Civil War.  She was just fulfilling her duty in a more modern way:  taking money from rich corporations and using it to buy the freedom of the children upon whose backs (and by whose hands) her greedy employers had earned it.  The truth would come out and she would be vindicated.

The banging of the gavel brought Suzanne back to reality.  Her head popped up as the judge yelled, “Counsel!  In my chambers NOW!”  She looked at Nathan.  “What’s going on?”

Nathan glared at her.  “ Weren't you paying attention at all?  This is not good.”

“What’s not good?” she asked.

Nathan sighed.  “You are really something, aren't you?  Apparently, the prosecution has dug up a witness that is going to testify that you confided to him that you were planning to run away to Qatar and live on the money you stole.  He even had a plane ticket in your name.  What the hell is going on?”

Suzanne shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts.  She knew exactly what was going on.

She was being framed. 

Robyn Hood

Trifextra Week Sixty-Four

This weekend we're asking for exactly 33 of your own words plus the following three words:

• charge
• century
• lost

So 33 of yours plus 3 of ours means that everyone will have a 36 word response this time around.

Three extra words this week?  Huzzah!

“ You've lost your damn mind.  They’re calling this ‘the crime of the century’!”

Suzanne shrugged.  “I don’t care.  Let them charge me.  I helped those kids and I have no regrets.  I wouldn't change a thing.”

Great expectations

Trifecta:  Week Seventy-three

color (noun)
1a : a phenomenon of light (as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects
  b (1) : the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources

     (2) : a color other than and as contrasted with black, white, or gray
2a : an outward often deceptive show : appearance
  b : a legal claim to or appearance of a right, authority, or office
  c : a pretense offered as justification : pretext
  d : an appearance of authenticity : plausibility
3: complexion tint:

  a : the tint characteristic of good health

  b : blush

I don’t think my feet touched the floor that entire day.  I know I didn't actually levitate, but it would have taken a lot to convince me that I was actually earthbound, because I felt like I was floating.  There was a smile plastered on my face you couldn't have scraped off with a hammer and a chisel.  It felt like my insides were going to just burst through my abdomen from the excitement and anticipation.

I knew I had to do something special for him, so I drove to the store and bought all of the ingredients for his favorite meal.  Cooking would keep me busy; cooking would keep me focused and stop me from bouncing around the house like a rubber ball on speed.  He’d be home at 5:30.  I just had to hold on until then.

Hours felt like aeons as I chopped and sauteed and boiled and baked.  It was a veritable feast, and a total departure from my cooking habits of late.  Surely, a meal like this would give my secret away before I was ready.  But it was too late to stop now.  I knew he would be thrilled to see a cheesecake chilling in the refrigerator.  And the smell of chicken wafting through the house was divine; it would grab him the moment he walked through the door.

Finally, I heard the front door open.  He came into the kitchen, and I turned to greet him.  I probably looked like a madwoman--hair wild and curly from the steam, face flushed, color in my cheeks from the heat and my excitement, a Mona Lisa smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

Before I ever said a word, he knew.  “Yes?” he asked.  “Yes,” I whispered, tears now rolling freely down my cheeks.  

Crossing fingers

Trifextra:  Week Sixty-three

This weekend we're asking for exactly 33 of your own words inspired by the following quote from the book you could win in the WBN giveaway. Good luck!

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” ― Paulo Coelho, Alchemist

Anxiety overflowing.
Fingers drum nervously.
Good news or bad news?

Afraid to hope.
Desperate to dream,
To plan, to believe.

Enter the doctor.
The future begins to clear.
Finally the words…

 “Cancer free”.

For Sam

Trifextra:  Week 62:  We want you to give us thirty-three words of advice.  Your advice can be to anyone or about anything.  We only ask that you make it uniquely yours.  

Love your differences; embrace that which sets you apart from the rest.  Stay true to yourself and don't ever give up the things you love because they’re not “cool”.

Love yourself.  Be awesome.

This is for my nine-year old son, Sam.  Sam was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in kindergarten and the past five years have been challenging, not just for him, but for his teachers, my husband and me.  I know he's the "weird" kid in his class, but what sets him apart is also what makes him amazing.  He is brilliant (No, seriously, he tested at the "brilliant" level.  Okay, I made that up, but he tests very high--in third grade he tested at an eleventh grade reading level.) and creative and imaginative and while his energy can make him absolutely exhausting to deal with, I wouldn't change anything about him.  He writes stories that are smart and funny and intriguing, each illustrated with beautifully detailed drawings.  Sam is going to do incredible things someday.  We just need to get him through the oh-so-fun school years first.  Once he gets through the torturous years of school where anything that makes you different also makes you a pariah, he is going to blossom into something so spectacular the world won't know what hit it.

/end mushy mommy moment.

Someone please pass me a tissue.  My uh, allergies, are acting up.  *sniffle*

Payback

For this week's Trifecta challenge...

rain (transitive verb)
3: to take a lot of money in bill form and toss it up in the air. This is most effectively done at a strip club for the effect of raining one dollar bills on the dancers (and it makes them feel so pretty), or to snub a hater by throwing money into their face that then falls to the floor like rain (use this when paying a debt to a punk bitch who keeps asking for their money to the point that they are ruining your friendship or when dumping someone who has been bankrolling you for a while now that you're making money).

The phone kept ringing.  Day after day, she was tired of it being her alarm clock, waking her to remind her failure, telling her what a loser she was.  She didn't buy the car with the intention of not paying for it.  She had a good job, a comfortable apartment, and disposable income for impractical things like shoes that only matched one outfit.  Then everything fell apart.  She found herself jobless; sleepless, worrying day and night how she would pay the bills.  Being unemployed wouldn't allow her to maintain her fabulous lifestyle. Eventually, the bank took the car and she was forced to move back in with her parents.  But still, the phone calls continued.

She took a job doing the most degrading thing she could ever imagine:  counter girl in a fast food restaurant.  The indignity of having to ask, “Would you like fries with that?  Super-mega size it?” was offset by the fact that she was bringing home a steady paycheck.  Over time, she rose from counter girl to shift manager, then to general manager, each ascension bringing with it a small pay raise.  It would never make her rich, but it allowed her to set aside a bit of money every week.

Finally there was enough.  She went to her bank, and withdrew the money. She drove her old clunker to the loan company’s office.  Her purse pulled her shoulder down under the burden of all the money inside.  Requesting an audience with the collection agent who had made her life a living hell, she waited.  Finally, her name was called and she was face to face with her tormentor.  She looked him in the eye, fighting the urge to make it rain in his office when she hurled the money in his face.  Instead, she took a Post-It, wrote down her account number, then slapped the bundle of cash on his desk. She turned and with head held high, walked out without saying a word. 

She was finally free.

Sunburn

This weekend we're asking for exactly 33 words including an idiom somewhere within.  Examples of idioms include - add fuel to the fire or wear your heart on your sleeve.  You can find more examples and a definition of idiom here.  Good luck!

Check Trifecta out HERE.


Sunny day.
Beach chair.
Lazy hours dreaming of castles in the sand.
Later that night,
Slathered in aloe.
Regretful,
Painful,
Cherry red.
An ounce of prevention
Is worth a pound of cure.

Meet the Trifectan: Allow me to introduce myself...

1. What is your name (real or otherwise)?
   Government name:  Jennifer.  Preferred name:  Nenna, adopted in order to distinguish myself among the eleventy-million-and-six other Jennifers born in the '70s.  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for being completely unoriginal.
2. Describe your writing style in three words.
   Scatterbrained, snarky, sporadic.  
3. How long have you been writing online?
   4 years?  5?  Oh wait, it's actually almost 7.  I forgot about the Cafemom years.  And of course, the THREE neglected blogs I'm currently ignoring.
4. Which, if any, other writing challenges do you participate in?
   None.  I'm lazy and too scared to put myself out there.
5. Describe one way in which you could improve your writing.
   Only one way?  Probably to just be more dedicated.  I have a tendency to lose interest and motivation easily, and I know that good ideas are wasted (or forgotten) way too often.
6. What is the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
   Shut up, stop whining, and just write.  Doesn't matter what the topic is, just write.  Then write some more.
7. Who is your favorite author?
   Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Maeve Binchy, Michael Crichton, Rosamund Pilcher, Barbara Delinsky, Beverly Lewis, to name but a few...  
8. How do you make time to write?
   I don't.  Which is why there isn't a whole lot for me to draw upon for Trifecta entries.
9. Give us one word we should consider using as a prompt. Remember--it must have a third definition.
   Live.
10. Direct us to one blog post of yours that we shouldn't miss reading.
    This one is silly, but it's definitely one of my favorites.  It also reminds me of my dad, who passed away almost 3 years ago.
    Ode to a Coffeemaker
    
    
    Thanks, Trifecta community, for having me!  I'm excited (and terrified) to be part of this writing adventure.  I'm hoping this will get me out of the writing slump I'm in and help me bring forth something fantastic.  Though at this point, I'd settle for something mediocre as long as it means I'm writing!

Winning at life

This is my first Trifecta entry.  Please, oh please, be kind and gentle.  I'm a fragile soul.  *wink*

LUCKY (adjective)

1: having good luck
2: happening by chance : fortuitous
3: producing or resulting in good by chance : favorable

333 words.  Exactly.  Booyah!





The lure of fast, easy money was too tempting.  Millions of dollars in my pocket, no effort required.  Ignoring the odds--170,000,000:1--I bought a ticket.  That ten dollar investment was going to bring me $350 million, I just knew it.  I went to bed that night dreaming of all the ways I’d spend my loot.  A huge house, fancy cars, European vacations, and a wardrobe to die for were just a few of the ways I was going to spoil myself.

The next morning, I eagerly turned on the news to see if I had won the jackpot.  Imagine my surprise when the announcer said the winning ticket had been sold in the exact store from which I’d bought my ticket!  I started to tingle in anticipation.  I sat down with my laptop, my hands shaking as I typed in the address of the lottery website.  “This is it!”, I thought excitedly.  “All of my dreams are coming true!”

I didn’t have one correct number.

Later that day, my phone rang.  It was my best friend, and she was shouting with glee.

“I won!  I won!  I had all the right numbers!”, she crowed.

Shocked, I stuttered, “I’m…s-s-so…h-h-happy…for you.”  I can’t even tell you how the rest of the conversation went; I had tuned out after her announcement and was wallowing in misery at the thought of someone else winning.

I wouldn’t be building a huge house.  I wouldn’t be buying fancy cars or taking incredible European vacations while wearing designer clothes.  She would.

She had stolen my dream.  That lucky bitch.

Three months later, I got a call from a mutual friend, who told me that our lottery-winning friend had been found, dead, in her penthouse.  Her new home, the one with amazing city views.  Brutally murdered, at the hands of her handsome new boyfriend, who ran off to Brazil with all of her money after convincing her to put everything in a joint account.

I guess I’m the lucky one after all.

Day 6: A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet

A photo of an animal I'd love to keep as a pet, eh?  (Geez, this blog challenge is all photos.  Not a whole lot of writing to do.)  Okay, I'll play along.  I live on a farm, so saying cow or horse or goat would be silly since we already have those animals.  Pigs stink.  (Okay, their poop stinks.  But still.)  Unicorns are hard to find and when you do, they're ridiculously expensive.  (Ha!  Gotcha!)  Rodents...not so much.  (They are incredible poop factories.  We've had rabbits and guinea pigs and all. they. do. is poop.  Pooppooppooppoop!)  I'd love to have chickens, but I don't really consider them pets.  They're not really all that cuddly.

So what would I love to keep as a pet?  Behold...

(Photo from Noozhawk)

Alpacas!  They are adorable, they're useful (alpaca fiber is ahhh-mazing) and they're adorable.  I know I said adorable twice, but look at those faces!  How can you resist that face?  But seriously, click the link under the picture to read a very interesting article about how "green" alpacas are.  As a crocheter, I would la-la-la-LOVE to have access to all the alpaca fiber I could want.

But mostly I want one because they're superduper cute.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for an adorable widdle alpaca punim.

Day 5: A photo of yourself two years ago

It is so hard to find a picture of myself (well, one that doesn't make me cringe, anyway) because I'm always the one behind the camera.  But here's one from my birthday two years ago.  39 years young.  The last year of my thirties.  Almost the end of an era.

Good grief.  I'm getting old!

Day 4: Your favorite photograph of your best friend

So this post has been vexing me greatly since last night.  I've been tearing my house apart trying to find my favorite photo of my best friend, and it's MISSING.  You'd think a friendship that's spanned nearly 30 years would have produced more photos, but for the life of me, I cannot find what I'm looking for!

I'm going to dig for an old picture to compare, but for now, here's a photo of us from August when we did Color Me Rad.

And just in case you wanted to see the "after":

That's Kim.  My best friend since 1984.  7th grade.  Ms. Saveikis' class.  We've been through it all together-middle school, high school, our weddings, the births of our kids, the loss of our fathers, and all of the everyday stuff in between.  She's the first person I call when something happens.  I don't know what I'd do without her--she's the sister I never had.  And yes, I'm totally getting sloppy and sentimental here.  That's how I roll!

Edited to add:  I found an old picture!  It's not the one I was looking for, but it's actually even older.  This is from my confirmation party.  We were in 8th grade, so that would make it 1986.  And yes, those are Mr. Potato Head accessories on our faces.  We were soooo awesomely cool.

Day 3: Your favorite store

Well, this is certainly a broad topic.  What store is my favorite depends on what I'm shopping for.  Shopping is serious business, and I like to patronize places where I'm gonna get the most bang for my buck, because that's usually all I have to spend:  a buck.

For groceries, I love Aldi.  For craft supplies, I like Joann Fabric.  For home improvement stuff, I like Home Depot.  For clothes, it's Lane Bryant.  For home stuff and pretty much everything else, I like Target, but only if I pronounce it Tar-zhay, because I'm fancy like that.

I also go to The Big Evil (aka Walmart, aka Hellmart), though I feel dirty and ashamed of myself while I shop.  Unfortunately, they usually are the ones who have the things I can't get at the other places.  And they do have really low prices, which is good when you're poor folk like us.

And when I have disposable income (you know, the one time a year that happens), I love to hit the outlets.  You have to be a savvy shopper to tell the difference between a good deal and when you're getting swindled, but that's a challenge I'll take any day.  I'm kooky--I like to brag about how little I spent on something.  The cheaper the better!

Day 2: The picture of health

Today's post is supposed to be a picture of something I ate today.  Heh heh...here it is:

Guess which week of the month it is?  *grins*

Day 1: Dun dun DUN...and so it begins.

Oh hi.  It's me, Jen.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life my latest 30-day blog challenge.  I'm supposed to post a picture of myself and a description of how my day was.  Should be easy enough!  

So that's me up there.  All chubby cheeks and freckles.  Taken at Disney World on October 9th.  Pure serendipity that someone aimed the camera at me and actually captured a photo that didn't make me cringe.

Today is Thursday, November 1, 2012.  At some point today, I woke up.  I don't remember specifically when that was, but I know it was earlier than I wanted because I didn't get to bed until 3:30 (don't judge me!) and didn't fall asleep until 5:30ish.  At 7:30 I made a deal with the devil (aka my husband) and promised something I'll regret in order to convince him he was the one who wanted to get the kids up and ready for school.  My wake up call was literally a phone call from my mom.  We talked for about 46 seconds then she gave me the bum's rush because my brother was at the door.  Fine.  Wake me for nothing, whydontcha.  I bopped around on Facebook (after I peed, because that always comes first) for a while, then got up and made coffee.  Mmmm...coffee.  Yummy.  Took a shower at some point because I couldn't remember if I had one of those yesterday (I'm 76.4% sure I didn't) and put on clothes.  Spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning up other people's crap and complaining about it the whole time.  (My semi-internal monologue sounds something like this:  "Freaking kids.  Are they allergic to the freaking hamper?  Or flushing the toilet?  Or swishing their icky toothpaste down the drain?  Why are their dirty socks in my clean bedroom?  Ack!  What is this sticky spot on the floor?  Pleaseohplease don't let it be cat hoark.  Oh good, it's only a semi-eaten, half-melted, gooey pile of lollipop.  I swear by all that's good and holy, if their rooms aren't clean by tomorrow, they're gonna get 7 pair of undies and socks, one outfit and one pair of jammies and THAT'S IT!  I don't care if the other kids call them names.  I'm sick of finding dirty underwear IN THE LIVING ROOM!"

Pause ranting long enough to make lunch.  Decide the heck with it, the house is clean enough that if someone showed up unannounced I'd only be partially humiliated, and went in to hibernate on my bed with a good movie and my crocheting.  And a pile of cats.  Who wanted to play with the yarn, but would settle for "making biscuits" on the finished project, thereby pulling a zillion threads loose and making it look like poo.  Thanks, cats.  Maybe we need a little refresher about how much better it is to live in a "forever" home versus the animal shelter?

After perusing the contents of the fridge, I decided today would be Eat all the Leftovers Day, which works for me because we have all those leftovers thanks to me cooking my little heart out all week.  The kids were happy because they each got a nice plateful of their favorite meal from this week.  I was happy because I didn't have to cook.  It was win-win!

So how was my day?  On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 5.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful.  It was a Thursday.  Though it may be creeping up toward a six, because there's a new episode of Project Runway All-Stars on tonight.  Backstabbing and weird looking clothes?  Yes, please!

I challenge myself!

Tomorrow seems like the perfect day to start a new blog challenge.  I'm going against my better judgement and doing a 30-day challenge again, but this time, it's lighter and fluffier and has half the calories and one-third less fat than last year's 30-day challenge.  (I have no idea what that even means.  I'm feeling giddy from all the gravy I had at dinner tonight.)

November is also NaNoWriMo (aka. National Novel Writing Month), which seems kind of fitting for a blog challenge.  And while I'll probably never write a novel (Or maybe I will, you never know.  I'll probably start ten, if I know myself, and I'm pretty sure I do), I can at least pump out a few paragraphs a day on some silly topics, right?  That last sentence alone, with all of its asides and parenthetical thoughts, would probably drive any editor to drink.  Maybe I'll write a novel just so I can watch members of the publishing field descend into madness.  Sounds like my idea of fun!

It's that time again...

...to resurrect the ol' blog.  Looking back at my last entries, I see I failed miserably at the 30-day blog challenge.  Not surprising, since I can't seem to focus my attention on anything for 30 seconds, let alone 30 days.

Today's activities include purging/cleaning/organizing my bedroom and laundry.  Mounds and mounds and mounds of laundry.  And just when I think all the laundry is done, I'll find more laundry!  If only laundry was a finite task, eh?  Wouldn't that just be the bee's knees?

Saturday night/Sunday morning marks the end of Daylight Savings Time.  I can feel the seasonal affective disorder kicking in already.  It doesn't help that Hurricane Sandy has blessed (ha!) us with rain for 5 days now, so we're going into the shorter days with a deficit of sunlight.  Maybe blogging will help me get through these dark days of winter.  Perhaps I should go a-Googling to find a blog challenge.  And maybe this time I'll actually finish it!  I should look for a shorter challenge so as not to set the bar quite so high.

I guess I should get back to cleaning my room.  I always feel like such a teenager when I say that.  And I'm pretty sure if my mom saw the state of my bedroom right now, I'd be grounded for a really, really, REALLY long time!

Day 18: Your beliefs

I believe in God.  I always have.  I've seen too many things and had too many experiences with Him to be able to deny His existence.  I believe there is a Heaven and I believe I will be reunited with my loved ones when I get there.  I believe people have used God and the Bible to justify war and hate and all sorts of other awful things for hundreds of years and that God is probably really unhappy about that.  I believe Jesus was on to something with that whole "Love one another" thing.  I believe if we did more of that "love one another" thing and less of the "judge/harass/bully/hurt one another" thing, the world would be a better place.

That's the Cliffs Notes version of what I believe.  The later it gets, the less I remember.