January 23rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I got very little sleep last night because of my back which doesn’t bode well for a seven hour drive to Vermont. For the first time, I’m really dreading this trip. That and the fact that it’s -13 in Burlington right now, but there is no snow (other than flurries) in the forecast for today, tomorrow, Sunday or Monday, so I don’t have to worry about that at least.

It is a little strange not leaving at the crack of dark though. Since I’m planning on hitting the last ferry of the day, which is at four, I don’t have to leave home until nine. This will give me time to get everyone out of the house and on their way before I have to leave – translation, no repeated phone calls from the road asking, “Are you up? Did you have everything you need?”, etc.

I will be bringing my computer with me because Lys’ last class doesn’t let out until 10:15 tomorrow, so I will have several hours to kill in the morning. However, I’m not really sure what kind of shape I’ll be in after today’s drive, so you may or may not have a writing challenge tomorrow. I will try my best.

Unfortunately, not being able to sit at my computer for more than short spurts has put me behind on the novel I’m editing. I feel bad, because I have been sending the author chunks of chapters so he can work on revisions as I go, and with the SC trip last week, my back all this week, and then two trips to VT this weekend, I won’t be sending him anything for several more days.

Needless to say, I haven’t even touched my own writing. I know that if I try right now, and get into one of my writing whirl winds, I’ll look up and it will be four or five hours later and I physically won’t be able to get out of my chair. That wouldn’t be a good thing, so I’m not even going to temp myself by opening one of my stories right now.

Hopefully by the end of next week, my back will be back to a tolerable level, and I will be able to resume both editing and my own writing. I would REALLY like to finish Faerie Tale Queen and get several more chapters of Simply By Chance finished before April’s NaNoWriMo, but I don’t think that is a realistic goal. Oh well, I can only get done what I can get done, and that will have to be good enough. Right?

Okay, I have to go make lunches. I hope you all have a fabulous day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Tell us about a toy you still have from your childhood

I don’t remember exactly when I got them, but for as long as I can remember, I have had handmade Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy dolls. I used to take one or the other with me everywhere, always making sure I alternated who I took, so the other wouldn’t feel left out. They have been in my bedroom for decades, either on my head board or on the bed itself. That is until a few years ago, when I decided to purge some of the clutter, and I moved Raggedy Ann & Andy to the basement along with several other stuffed animals.

It was a decision I would soon regret. A few years ago, when hurricane Irene unleashed her wrath, our basement flooded, and the container Raggedy Ann & Andy were in toppled over and fell into the flood water. They got soaked and quickly began growing mold. I was crushed, but then the local dry cleaner told me to bring them and he would try to get them clean.

I had dropped them as well as thousands of other flood damaged items off to him, so it was several months before the items were done. When the first batch of things were delivered (yes, because there was so much stuff, the cleaner brought everything to my house), I anxiously opened the stuffed animal container, and there was Andy, looking better than he had in a quarter of a century. After hugging him, I rummaged through the bin in search of Anne, but I couldn’t find her. I asked the dry cleaner and he said not to worry, all of my things didn’t fit into one van and he would schedule a time for another drop off.

I ran out of time, but to bring a long story to a close, here’s the rest, the cleaner never managed to schedule the next drop off. After several phone calls, I went to the shop and demanded he return my stuff considering it had all been paid for, and I find out the shop is under new ownership. The new owner is very nice and he said there are tons of things sitting in their warehouse which need to be delivered, and they were sorting through them. He called me a few days later and asked if he could drop the stuff off. He brings the items he found, but no Ann. I show him Andy and said Ann was somewhere in his warehouse. He tells me he will look again. Weeks go by with no word. I go back to the shop and ask. The owner tells me he has been searching this whole time, and as of that day, all the items which were stored have been delivered to their owners, so the warehouse was now empty…and there was no sign of Ann. L (My Ann had a green gingham dress.)

Your Next Challenge is:

Write a story containing the following: Pineapple, Chipmunk & Burrito (you can blame Dani for this one)

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.

January 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I’m the biggest idiot ever! The last big snow we got was over Christmas break, and when my husband came home from work, he was annoyed that he had to go and shovel snow after working all day when the girls and I were home all day. I didn’t want a repeat of that whole scene, so I started to shovel yesterday afternoon. We only had about five inches at the time and it was a very dry, light, fluffy snow, so it wasn’t very hard to move. I made one path (so I wasn’t standing in snow) by pushing the shovel across the driveway and then I tossed small shoves of snow from the edge of the path out of the way. The first two path/toss sections went very well, but when I was pushing my third path, I hit a crack in the driveway, my shovel got caught, it jostled my back and sent it into spasms all over again. I spent the rest of the day in bed, on a heating pad, in agony. WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN??

Now it’s Wednesday. The house is still a disaster. My back is still killing me. I have a house full of people coming on Saturday, and I’m debating about driving to Vermont tomorrow and spending the night because I don’t know if my back would be able to handle a round trip on Friday. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I’m going to pick up Lys for the weekend so she can see Kyle. If I don’t, they may miss seeing each other in August because he doesn’t know when his leave is going to be and she may be back at school already. Since they were born, I don’t think they have spent more than ten days apart, and this separation has been tough on both of them. So off to Vermont I go so Lys can see him at the dinner I’m having for him on Saturday. Then we leave early Sunday morning to bring her back because she has class on Monday. (Fair warning, there may not be any writing prompts this weekend.)

At around six last night the township emergency alert called to say there would be a delayed opening for the schools today. They said they would be monitoring the roads in the morning to determine if school will be cancelled. I woke Dani up at 7:00 so she could start getting ready for school. She was in the shower by 7:10, and at 7:15 the call came saying school was cancelled. Boy was she happy when she got out of the shower and I told her to go back to bed. I got the “well, I’m up now” glare. Whether she actually goes back to sleep or not is still to be determined, but she is in her room being quiet, so I can continue to write.

Although it’s hard to tell because the wind has been blowing a bit, I’m pretty sure we got at least a foot of snow yesterday. Remember back in October I told you about the old wives’ tale my grandmother had told me about when we see the first snow and it’s correlation to how many times we’ll see snow during the season? I’m sure most of you thought I was crazy predicting such a high number, but here it is January 22^nd, only one month into winter, and we’ve already seen snow twenty-one times. Baba’s tale isn’t sounding so far-fetched any more is it?

Okay, my back is cramping up so I need to get up and move around for a little while. I hope you all have a wonderful day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

I’ve never seen a (insert animal here) do that!

I was laughing so hard, I had tears rolling down my cheeks. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought I was either dreaming or had stepped into a cartoon, because I have never seen a squirrel do that except in a cartoon.

It was a beautiful spring day and the kids had the day off from school, so I suggested we have a picnic lunch in the park. We gathered our food, a huge blanket, a Frisbee and a ball and headed off for a carefree afternoon. We spread our blanket on a sunny patch of grass near the edge of the woods. After we finished eating, the kids grabbed the Frisbee and headed up the hill to play and I elected to stay on the blanket and enjoy a little peace and quiet.

I had just finished packing up the remains of our lunch, and was sitting on the blanket watching the squirrels’ antics. It was apparent they were enjoying the beautiful day as well. They were chasing each other around the grounds, up the tree, then around the grounds again.

Then I noticed one squirrel not playing with the others. He was off to the side, near the base of a tree, and he looked like he was trying to get something unstuck. He pulled, released, backed up and looked at the object, then went back and started scratching the ground around the object and tried pulling again. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t budge, and the squirrel repeated the whole process.

No big deal, right? You’ve probably seen animals do this hundreds of times, but here’s where it gets funny. After four or five attempts to dislodge the object, the squirrel backs away again, stands up on his hind legs, scratches his head, and then puts his hands on his hips. It honestly looked like he was puzzling out his dilemma. I laughed myself silly.

  

Your Next Challenge is:

Tell us about a toy you still have from your childhood

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.