July 8th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I hit the 10K mark for Camp NaNoWriMo! It’s amazing how productive I can be when no one is at home to distract me. Actually, I probably would have gotten even more done, but I did have a distraction which threw me off, and it took over an hour to get back into the flow.

Normally I could care less when folks pop by unannounced or call to chat, but when I’m writing, it frustrates me to no end. If it’s a quick two second thing, I can usually recover, but if the person insists on more than a few minutes, I can’t hold on to the image in my mind.

Picture a soap bubble floating through the air. Inside is a complete and magical world. A gentle breeze may alter the bubble slightly, but it remains intact. However, if the bubble is forced to land, it pops. Sure, you can blow a new bubble, but it will never be the same as the first one.

I confess, when it happens, I come off less than congenial, because I’m fighting desperately to hold on. I know I have hurt some people’s feelings when it has happened, but I can’t seem to make them understand.

If I were a surgeon, would they pop into an operating room to tell me their dog learned a new trick or their manicurist’s daughter was pregnant with triplets? No, they would wait until I was done. However, if they need to tell me something urgent, life threatening, or time sensitive, fine; but someone best be in peril and specifically need my help. Otherwise, it can wait until after 3:00 pm when I usually call it quits. (When you start around 5:00 am, you’re allowed to end your day at 3:00.)

Something strange happened to me yesterday, and I would like to hear your take on it. When Lys came home, we went to ShopRite to pick up something for dinner. While I was shopping, Lys ran over to the Dollar Store, because she wanted to get a water bottle to bring with her to camp, and she did not want to pay $9 for the ones they had at ShopRite (she got my frugal gene).

I finished shopping, and went to the car to wait for her. I was sitting there, windows rolled down, when a young woman walked up to me, with her three year old daughter in tow, and said she needed help. She had picked up her daughter from the baby’s father’s house, and was headed home to Philipsburg (an hour north west). The baby was thirsty, and she needed gas, so she stopped at the ATM to get money. That’s when she discovered she lost her debit card. The bank was closed, so they couldn’t help her. She couldn’t call the baby’s father, because he lost his license and couldn’t get to her to help. She asked if I had any money. All I had was about a $1.25 in change, because I very rarely if ever carry cash on me. I gave it to her. At least she could get the baby something cold to drink.

She thanked me and left, but I felt bad for her. If she was legit, then she needed help. Of course this all happened right around seven, which is when our officers are changing shifts, so there wasn’t a cop to be found. The police station is a couple of blocks from my house, so I made a detour on my way home. See, in my brain I figured if she needed help, our police would help her, but if she was scamming folks, or police needed to know.

So I go in, bump into one of my old high school buddies and tell him what happened. He was going off shift and asked if I would wait for a few minutes for someone who was just coming on duty to talk to me. No problem, end of the day, he worked twelve hours and he wanted to go home, I get it.

Less than five minutes later, I get this officer I have never seen before - which I thought was strange, because our officers are a pretty hands on group, they are always around town, they interact with the public constantly, you bump into them everywhere; so even if you don’t necessarily know them by name, you know them by site.

Anyway, he wasn’t exactly rude, but he was abrupt – again, not typical of our police force – especially since I didn’t do anything wrong. I tell him what happened, and he basically tells me what he’s going to do if he finds this girl is call social services and have her kid taken away because she obviously can’t provide for the child. Are you freaking kidding me? Okay fine, if she’s scamming folks and using the kid in the process, that’s one thing, but what if this poor girl really lost her debit card and is only trying to get home?

He said it wasn’t his job to figure that out. Really? What part of “To serve and protect” is he missing? He even admitted he wasn’t a very compassionate person. Well, I’m sorry, compassion is pretty much a requirement for a civil servant. I can just about guarantee, if I had gotten ANY other officer, this would have been a different experience. They at least would have given the girl the a chance to explain her situation, where this guy deemed her guilty, sight unseen. What, is he so insecure in his ability to read people, he just automatically thinks the worst until proven otherwise?

I have the utmost respect for our police department. You have heard me sing their praises many a time, and I firmly believe one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch; but this dude need to go back and take a refresher course in humanity.

Was I wrong to think police would be able to help? Do you think there’s a chance the girl was telling the truth? Should I have just turned a blind eye to someone in need like most of society does? Here I wanted to help this girl, but because luck drew me the one jerk we apparently have, I may have gotten her kid taken away from her. I seriously lost sleep over this last night. So what do you think?

Okay, two “heavies” in one blog is too many, so I am going to escape into a HEA ending for a few hours. I hope you have a terrific day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Left, right, left…

“Left…Left…Left, Right, Left!”

For hours on end. My voice is going to give out soon. Why is this so difficult? Eight steps to ten yards, it’s not rocket science for God’s sake. It’s walking people, the only difference is you need to do it together. You’re just walking now, what are you going to do when you have to play while you’re walking? Oh ho, and just wait until you have to make actual formations and not just straight lines.

Oh no, there he goes. Every year there’s always one. A drummer trips over his pontoon feet, rolls over his base drum, ends up flat on his back, then resembles a turtle while he tries to regain his feet. I’m getting too old for this.

“Much better that time. Let’s try it again, from the top.”

Your Next Challenge is:

“You can’t marry him/her!”

(The love of your life is about to marry someone else.)

You have ten 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.