Character Needed

So here is the prompt from a magazine to which I subscribe - Writing prompt No. 9


A weekly writing exercise to get you started
By Heather Wright
Published: August 26, 2011

What is your character’s greatest fear? If your character doesn’t have one, create one and make sure that he has to face that fear at a critical time in your story. Think Indiana Jones and the snakes.

Heather Wright's work has been published in local and national publications and on the Web. Her column “Write Angles,” published in What If? Canada’s Creative Magazine for Teens, became the basis of her book, Writing Fiction: A Hands-On Guide for Teens.

500 words

Guess I have an assignment.

Old Photographs, New Memories

Old photographs of familiar scenes - just the way my son and I are spending the summer...thirty years later - friends on the beach.

   

Celebrate

Turning 70.

Turning 95.

Parties.  People gathered.  Memories shared, gained, and captured.
The lost remembered.  The missing mentioned.
The air filled with flash, chatter, and aromas.

Birthdays saying, 'I am one year wiser.'
And, 'Thanks for noticing.
Now go on with the everyday.'

Living.

Advice

Monday's advice was on a fortune cookie, yesterday's was doled out at Starbucks with an otherwise forgettable Skinny Vanilla Latte.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Plant a garden.

Both unsolicited.  Will there be advice today?

Frigid

Yesterday's soggy surface is today's frozen tundra. 

3-3-11

As you can see my blog-a-day pledge has fallen short.  To say the very least. 

I must say I had the very best intentions, but then I fell short.  I did take this picture with the intention of this blog.  But I also intended for it to be posted on 3-3-11.

That didn't happen.

Well.

Twister?

Feel like a game of Twister?

This has been a weekend of old photographs.  My mom is turning 70 and everyone is reminiscing. 

Who invented this game anyway?

Sorry Kristen!

In a Word: Spring-like

A Bit Like Spring

For the past several years - over a decade - I haven't had to worry about Spring.  It was, or became, a season that simply followed Winter because as everyone knows Winter in Tampa is just another word. 

It doesn't have the same connotation as it does in the northeast.  It isn't the reward - or glimpse of the reward - after months and months of (damp, cold) punishment.  The groundhog's activity in Tampa is inconsequential. 

But not here.  Not here.  Here Spring is like Santa, waiting for Christmas, or a fairy tale. 

From under the heavy white bows of Winter's snow the coming of Spring seems as fanciful as stepping into a wardrobe and coming out in another land. 

That is why soggy, unfrozen ground beneath my boots is a comfort.  For a Spring-like day to don the front steps of March says, "Spring is on its way!"

I welcome my newfound friend.


** A bit of a personal note

This month I decided to participate in NaBloPoMo, which basically means I vow to write a blog a day for the month, adhering to the theme, which I have done, though a bit unconventionally.

If you are a detail person, you will discover that this very first blog was not posted on the very first day of March, but I will have you know that it WAS written on the first of March, in the Starbucks in Mashpee between the hours of 5 and 6 as I waited for my son to be done with kung fu.  (Alibi submitted.)

It was also not a well-planned-out blog as you can tell from the above photograph.  It was written on the only piece of paper in my purse to be deemed writeable.  Sure I could have brought my laptop, but what's the fun in that?  I thought we should start out this little introduction in full on me mode.  (I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of girl.)

So there you have it, my guilty little disclaimer.

In a Word

Just one word - to sum up your day.  This one word acts as the theme of sorts, a platform from which other words will follow.

It's a part of NaBloPoMo, if you'd like you can visit NaBloPoMo at: http://www.nablopomo.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Feel inspired?  Then get to it and write.

Blog it: Little Princes

Blog it: Little Princes: "Yesterday I finished reading Little Princes, a book I learned about on The Nate Show. Two years ago, Charlie and I were approached by a man..."

Study Abroad, Volunteer, Intern, Teach and Jobs Abroad | GoAbroad.com

Study Abroad, Volunteer, Intern, Teach and Jobs Abroad GoAbroad.com

When Is Enough, Enough?

About three weeks ago, I responsibly decided - after the peer pressure of my family - to snort up a near dead strain of the flu.  Within a few days I full-on had the flu, which lasted for a week and was basically an obnoxious head cold aggravated by the fact that taking cold medicine may bring on a flash migraine, which is a redundant way to describe a migraine seeing as freight train is really their only speed.

Then about a week later - give or take a few days - I came down with another fabulous new form of the flu which incapacitates you so entirely you become a slave to the bathroom - one pot beneath you and one sitting squarely in your lap.  This then lasts for about 12 hours before you entirely lose your appetite for 24 hours, followed by a feverish 48 hours set to about 101 degrees - just a little hatha - esque. 

But then you get to thinking, 'Hey, I must be feeling better.'  And you seem to be on the mend.

Until...

You cough.

Then you cough a bit more.

Then you realize the noise purring you to sleep at night is you.  Your body has become an orchestra of instruments, wind I guess.  In, one noise.  Out, another.   Varying degrees of sounds all depending on the position of your instrument and, of course, if your mouth is open or closed.

Your musical talent is accompanied by another few feverish days where you wait for the doctor's office to confirm that you are in fact - sick.

With what?  Pneumonia, of course.  With this stomach crunching antibiotic threathening to send me back to those bathroom days of yore.

Can you see my little white flag flying?

New Hair

Jeez - sure does seem like I am posting a lot of pictures of myself - and nothing else.

Here's another.

For news - bettter see Charlie Bean's Blog.  :)

Me and the Monk

October 7th and 8th I took pictures of the Shaolin Monk Shi De Cheng for USA Kung Fu Academy.  Here I am...

Waiting for Charlie

Every afternoon Rude and I find ways to entertain ourselves while we wait for Charlie.  We go out at 3:40...he's been getting off the bus at 4:10.  This was one of our pass times.  I also made a video of Rudy singing - though I seem to be doing more of the singing.

Here Comes the Rain Again

Update - more rain...

According to the Weather Channel, the hurricane's center is off the North Carolina coast presently a category 3.  The beater bands are reaching up to the Cape.  What we feel - the rain and the lull.  This morning the ocean was a flat as glass. 

The Rain Started

and stopped.

Hurricane Earl what you gonna do?

When I hear the name Earl - this is what comes to mind:

My Name is Earl

My brain consists pictures nearly exclusively.

Stand Still

Lately I've been in a creative lull - more like stand still.  Not sure what I need to get my motor running but something - for sure.

Maybe I'm headed for a rush of creativity - full tilt.

Though I'd settle for moderation.

Who am I kidding? I have NEVER been that girl. Not even once.

All or nothing - that's how I roll. Get ready for a tidal wave.

Ah the Sounds of Summer

Crisp cool night air in through the screen,
Sounds carry in with fresh wafts of air -

The neighbor's rental's kids swing and cry.
Loud and high.

Now and then a crash! a scream,
Thinking maybe the moms and dads - drunk on the kitchen floor.

Go to sleep.
Go to sleep.

So maybe this - is -
Summer's loud raucous lullaby.

Raw Bar, Boat House - you ain't got squat on this rowdy crew.
The remaining days of summer grow few.

                                               --is that phew?

Mooring 21

Who wouldn't be at peace?

I do kung fu

I know - right!  I can hardly believe it myself.  And like with everything else in my life it was kind of by accident.  I mean it wasn't like I set out to learn a martial art, but here I am blogging in my kung fu uniform sans white sash - which I have not yet earned - my son likes to point out.

But I am having fun.

I have always been fairly athletic starting early with ballet but then switching to horses - after maybe 10 years? - throw in a little swim team, diving team, weight training, which eventually turned into a combination of walking, biking, pilates, yoga - and now kung fu.

I don't run.  Well, I did run once.  See my mom sat on the committee for the Falmouth Road Race, she thought it might be "Fun" for me and a friend to run in it - and we did. 

Not so fun mom, not so fun.

Especially when, red-faced and drenched, I overheard bored onlookers who were packing up their cheering section sorrowfully say, 'Maybe we should stay - these are the people who really need our encouragement.'

Thanks. A lot.

Perhaps training would have been a smart move - but it makes a great story.  Who cares that I didn't quailfy for the Boston Marathon?

So I am thinking Baby Elle isn't going to be starting up in the next few years, but...her big cousin does kung fu too!