Day 12 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s raining. I just asked my husband yesterday if he remembered the last time it rained because I couldn’t. Pretty sure it has been over two weeks; so much for “April showers bring May flowers.” If I recall correctly, we’ve only had three or four days of rain this entire month. So is it a sign we are going to have a long, hot, dry summer OR is May going to be so soggy we’ll start to grow mold? All I know is I wish I was complaining about how hot it is instead of complaining about how cold it is. I am beyond ready for the warm weather.

I’ve said it a million times already and I’m sure I’ll say it a million more; they should never have used the label “Global Warming”, it should have been labeled “Global Unrest”.  The strange weather patterns, the unprecedented storms, the record snow and rain falls, to me, say “unrest” much more than simply “warming”. Wouldn’t “unrest” make more people stand up and take notice, bring more of a sense of urgency to the situation? Our choice of words is a influential tool. When we chose the wrong ones, our impact is greatly diminished. The words we pick need not be “$3” words folks need to look up to know what they mean, they only need to be the ones which pack the most powerful punch in the situation.

After talking to some folks yesterday, I did confirm they are taking up the writing challenges I have posted, but are still not confident enough to post them online. Perhaps in time, after writing day after day, they will gain the confidence. In the meantime, I will continue to toss the prompts out there to fuel their imagination. Did you find yesterday’s prompt fun? Did it bring back some fond memories?

You are a little kid going to the circus for the first time.

It was a day of firsts for me; first train ride, first trip to New York City, first circus and not just any circus, the Ringling Brother and Barnum Bailey Circus, the biggest circus, the circus to end all circuses. All day my anticipation and anxiety level grew. I vacillated between excited to nervous to down right scared. At first the train was fun, but then more and more people started boarding and I started getting nervous. The man who came to take our tickets was a scary giant in a uniform, but then he smiled, crouched down next to me and asked me about the adventure I was having. He told me he had two little girls just my age and he was taking them to the same circus the following week. The giant turned out to be really nice and not so scary after all. When it was time to get off the train, my mom told me to stay close to her and then she held my hand, really hard. I didn’t care though because there were so many people and the train station was so big. I stayed right next to my mom’s side and held on with both hands. We rode a really, really, really long escalator up, up, up. I peeked behind me once, but then turned around quickly. Boy were we high up! The crowd pushed us along and all I could see were peoples backs and butts, but I knew I was safe because I was holding tight to my mom.

We finally broke away from the crowd and went to where they took out tickets. I got to hand mine to the smiling lady. She said she hoped I would enjoy the show and then she started to laugh when I ducked under the turnstile. I thought I had done something wrong, but the bar would have hit me in the head, so I went under it. The nice lady told me it was ok and she turned it by hand when I was on the other side. We made a quick stop at the bathroom and then for popcorn and drinks, before we went and found our seats.

Goodness 10 minutes of writing and I never even got into the big top, never got the chance to describe any of the amazing things I saw, heard, smelled, the lights, the music, the animals and people in sparkly clothes (yes, both the animals and people had sparkly clothes, I did not dangle anything here). Oh well, guess “short” stories are not my forte.

Your Day 12 Challenge is:

You hear your doorbell ring. You go to answer, but there is no one there. You look down and find…

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.