April 11th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Friday! Well, yesterday’s Kohl’s trip was a big flop, for me at least. I did pick up one top, but I saw it as we were about to leave, so I haven’t even tried it on yet. I have no idea if it’s going to fit, look right, or if I’ll be returning it. If I decide to keep it, I’ll be paring it with one of the dozens of pairs of black pants I already own.

Oh well, guess it just wasn’t meant to be. However, I did manage to get stuff for my kids, so Easter Basket shopping is finished. It’s crazy, when all is said and done, it’s over $150 per basket. How did this get so nutz? The sad part is I really scaled down this year. Each kid gets a basket, with candy, a movie, and some little tchotchke. Then the kids each get a dozen eggs to hunt for, and inside of the eggs is either $1 or a slip of paper which tells them to pick a gift. In the past, gifts have been toys, games, clothes, shoes, movies – nothing really over $20, but multiply it times three, and now four because my son’s girlfriend is in the mix, it adds up quickly.

I think it may be time to stop Easter baskets for PJ, then when Lys hits her twenty-fourth Easter or is living too far away that she won’t make it home for Easter, cut her off, and finally Dani whenever she flies to coop. The only reason I’ve kept PJ and Lys in the mix this long, was to be fair to Dani. Having an Easter egg hunt by yourself, isn’t a whole lot of fun. The thing is, I have always been a stickler for treating my kids exactly equal. If I get something for one, I get something for the other two as well. Then again, PJ had eight Easters before Dani was even born. I don’t know. I guess we’ll see if I can actually go through with it when next Easter rolls around.

Today is going to consist or a little running around, packing my stuff for the fair, and hopefully a whole lot of writing. So, I’m off to go make lunches, and then I’m hitting the keys. I hope y’all have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

(S)He was just the gal/guy next door…

In 1978, my mother and I moved to a townhouse, in a sleepy little farm town, in central New Jersey. Two doors down from me, lived Robbie, who was a year older than me, and his sister Mandy, who was a year younger than me. We became friends. I would go over to their house quite often. Their parents were some big-wig executives at some huge company, but other than that, I didn’t know much about them. The mom was always nice to me, and the dad was polite, but a little strange. I didn’t think too much about it, because at twelve years old, there were many adults I thought were a little strange.

Robbie and Mandy only lived next door to me for a few years before they moved to a much snootier town a little further north. After they moved, I never saw or heard from them again. Then, in the early 90s, pictures of Robbie and Mandy’s parents are plastered all over the news. I thought I was going to be sick. I called my mom and yelled at her to turn on the news. There were our old neighbors, people I had sat down to dinner with, being held responsible for the kidnapping and death of an executive.

It still makes me a little ill thinking about it. Sure, the dad was a little odd, but a murderer? They were just the family next door.

Your Next Challenge is – again stolen from my Tuesday writing group. This is a random line, from a random book, selected off the library’s shelf. You must use the line in your story. Bonus points if you can make this the last line in your story. More bonus points if you can identify the line (no fair Googling it):

“There, old gent, there’s a drop of something to cheer you up.”

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.