February 26th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I tried the reverse order thing again yesterday, but as you can see by the lack of a February 25^th blog post, it didn’t turn out so good. I was on track, honest. I had finished the few chores around the house I had intended to do, and I had just sat down at my computer when I received a text from my youngest daughter. It was a picture of her eye. It was all red, and the message said “help”.

After a few texts back and forth, I learned she had no idea what happened, the redness was getting progressively worse, it was starting to hurt, and her vision was blurry. After convincing Dani her Spanish teacher would not kill her for not doing her presentation and it would be ok for her to go to the nurse, she finally went down to the nurse’s office. I waited for the inevitable phone call, convinced the child probably had pink eye and I needed to come get her immediately. While I waited I hunted through the medicine cabinet for the appropriate eye drop.

After fifteen minutes, the phone call came, but the nurse said she didn’t think it was pink eye and she was concerned about the blurry vision. Wonderful. I picked her up and we headed straight to our eye doctor whose office is at Costco. When we get there, there are no lights on in the office but the door is opened a little and the receptionist is still there (she was about to head out for lunch).

I explain the situation and I hear Dr. Mike’s voice come from the other room, “Is it Alyssa?” I poked my head around the door and said, “No, it’s Dani.” He tells us to come right in and has Dani sit down. LONG story short, Dani did not have pink eye, but her eye was red and swollen probably from some type of allergic reaction and she needed steroid drops for a few days to fix it. Dr. Mike felt bad he didn’t have any samples, but assured me the drops weren’t that expensive. THEN, when I asked him how much I owed him for the visit, he said “Nothing.”

How sweet is this guy? He knows we don’t have any insurance and he gives us extra free samples whenever he can. The last time we were there, we had to pay for Lys to get contacts, and the exam was over $150, but when we walked out, she had several months’ worth of sample lenses and all of her supplies to maintain her lenses, so our only expense was the exam itself.

By the time we got home, I didn’t have time to do a blog entry because I had a few other projects which needed my attention. Now, because of all the wonderful snow we are getting at the moment, I’m kicking myself for not adding clean out the car as one of yesterday’s projects. I leave tomorrow morning to go pick up Lys from Vermont. We’re also bringing her friend Sammi home, and at the moment, there is no room in the car for the girls and their stuff. Oh well, whatchya gunna do?

Okay, since I may or may not be posting for the next two days, and it has been forever since I have actually given you a writing challenge, which what this blog is supposedly all about, I had better rectify the situation post haste.

I hope y’all have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following: The moon, a telescope, crickets

“Keep your hands over your eyes. No peaking.”

“I’m not, but so help me Cameron, if you let me fall, I’ll never trust you again.”

“I’d never let you fall Amy.” He assured.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Now if I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it?” Cameron admonished. “We’re almost there. Just a few more steps. There. But don’t open your eyes.”

“Cam!” Amy exclaimed as she let her hands drop to her sides.

“Humor me. Tell me what you hear.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Really? Nothing? Listen harder.”

Amy sighed. She was about to tell him she still couldn’t hear anything when a gentle breeze tickled her ear, “Crickets Cameron, I hear crickets.” She furrowed her brow, “Isn’t it a little early for crickets?”

“Someone forgot to tell them I guess. Without opening your eyes, what else can you tell me?” Sensing she was becoming frustrated, he added, “Please.”

Resigned Amy stood perfectly still and opened her senses. “We’re in a clearing, not too far from the edge of the woods.”

“How can you tell?”

“The last bit we walked I wasn’t crunching over leaves or sticks, and the ground feels soft under my feet.”

“Go on.”

“It’s not dark.”

“How can that be? You know it was night when we left, and you know we’re outside. Have I brought you under a streetlight?”

Amy shook her head, “No. The light is brighter, yet softer somehow. More encompassing. Did the clouds clear Cam? Is the moon out?”

I’m out of practice. I never got to the telescope before my ten minutes were up. Oh well, better luck next time.

Your Next Challenge is:

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.

October 29th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Well, I definitely have more grey hair today than yesterday! My son, I love him to death, but he is such a KLUTZ! Like every other male on both sides of our family, he enjoys tinkering with cars. Last night, he was home alone and adjusting something or not on the used Jeep he purchased two weeks ago. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but somehow a screwdriver fell off of wherever he had it balanced and hit him right in the eye. (I will spare you the photo he sent.)

He drove himself to the emergency room, which was at least ten more grey hairs worth of information. Note to readers: PLEASE do not work on ANY projects – cars, roof, tree branches, etc. – when no one else is home with you. Then I found out he went to a hospital where I wouldn’t bring a stray dog to be saved. They are horrible, and as far as I’m concerned, responsible for killing BOTH of my grandmothers. I hope that after it all turns grey, falling out is not the next step!

Anyway, they did a CAT scan, and his eye is ok, it should heal just fine, but it looks horrible at the moment. They gave him some pain killers and some antibiotic eye drops, and a note that he should stay out of work through Thursday. Knowing my son, he may take a pain killer or two, he’ll do the drops for a few days (I will be riding him daily on this one so he actually completes the cycle of antibiotics this time), and he’ll be back at work tomorrow, if not today already. After being out for several weeks in August because of his back injury, he won’t want to miss any more time.

Yup, I’ll be hitting the Miss Clairol before my gig this weekend. Did your mom ever say, “I hope you get one just like you, then you’ll appreciate what I went through!”? Well, I apparently got three just like me, so my mom must have said it too many times. All of my kids are as accident prone as I was, and they’re not showing any signs yet of getting better. Perhaps it would have been wise of me to buy stock in one of the hair dye companies years ago…

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

Rare for this time of year, but here it comes, and it’s going to be a doozy. The clouds started thickening and darkening about an hour ago, and then they took on an ominous peach glow. As the wind picked up, the sway of the branches dislodged the remaining autumn leaves and blew them into spiraling mini vortexes.

As the distant rumbles of thunder began, we scurried about the yard to ensure every possible projectile was secured. When the outside was as safe as we could make it, we moved indoors, and as we prepared for the worst, we continued to hope for the best. Flashlight batteries we checked, candles and matches were unearthed, the tub was filled with water, and a hasty dinner was prepared as the thunder grew progressively closer and it was joined by brachial flashes of lightening.

The deafening sound had us cover our ears and close our eyes. The house shook. The lights flickered …once…twice…then went out, plunging us into near total darkness. The storm was upon us. The wind howled and the distinctive ping on the windows announced hail had accompanied the now torrential downpour. With the threat this rogue autumn storm was more than predicted, we elected to ride it out in the basement, just in case.

 

Your Next Challenge is (this is the challenge I offered as homework while I was covering the class for Keith, but the group mutinied and would not do it):

Write you own obituary 

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.

September 16th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

Well, it was bound to happen, and it only took 24 days. My daughter calls me from college yesterday and I could instantly tell something was wrong. She scratched her eye taking out her contact lens. It wouldn’t stop tearing, she couldn’t open it, she had a bad headache, she can’t see to do her homework, it hurts, etc. I tell her to put on sunglasses, borrow a baseball cap, and have her roommate walk her down to the infirmary.

It’s a small college, the infirmary is not staffed on the weekends. Let’s visit this bit of logic first shall we? When do you think the possibility of the kids getting sick or injured is greater, during the week while they are sitting in class or during the weekends when they have 48 hours of free time? Hmm…

So, Campus Police drive my daughter over to UVM because their infirmary is open 24/7. The on-call puts drops into my daughter’s eye and numbs it, then put in drops of dye so he could see what happened. Sure enough she has a “paper cut” on her eye. They write her a script for antibiotic drops and send her on her merry way.

Somehow she gets to a pharmacy and gets the drops - $111 for 0.25 ounces. Good Lord in Heaven! What could possibly justify that price? And, of course, there is no generic equivalent. Convenient, no? She could have probably driven the half hour up to Canada and got the EXACT SAME THING for under $10. I’ll be bringing her passport up with us next weekend so she has it, just in case. There is something seriously screwed up with our system here!

We had a nice treat last night. My mother-in-law invited everyone over for dinner. She roasted a pork and a chicken, had mashed potatoes and a ton of veggies. It was delicious, but that is nothing unusual. My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook. It was nice having everyone together, well almost everyone. We were missing three, and their lack of presence was really felt. Obviously one was my oldest daughter, but also my youngest didn’t come because she was not feeling well and my brother-in-law was away on business.

For many, many years, we used to do this every single Sunday. It was an unspoken requirement. Making sure you had nothing else planned for Sunday nights at six became very stressful for everyone, so what should have been a fun and happy event, wasn’t. I’m not sure exactly how or when the Sunday night dinners stopped, but it has been at least ten years. Now, when we can actually get everyone together and have one of these dinners, it is exciting. We look forward to it for days in advance. We laugh over how it keeps getting more and more difficult to squish us all around the table. There are multiple conversations going on at the same time, lots of laughing, catching up, and of course, wonderful food in large quantities.

Please don’t think I’m a horrible mom, leaving my sick kid at home while I went out to dinner. My daughter’s old enough to stay by herself, we were gone for less than two hours and we were less than ten minutes away, it was not the kind of sick which required coddling or even much concern, and we brought her back a plate. Before we left, we asked her if she wanted one or both of us to stay home with her, and she looked at us like we were crazy. We always offer (this is not the first family dinner she’s missed) and she almost always says ‘No’. On the rare occasions she says ‘Yes’, I know she’s really sick and I’ll more than likely be calling the doctor in the morning.

Today I am planning on getting several things cooked so we have them for the week. Yesterday I steamed some cabbage and today I will be making stuffed cabbage and since the filling is the same, some stuffed peppers. I also got another package of plums, so I will be making (an unprecedented) second batch of the dumplings. Everything I will be making makes rather large quantities, so I will be able to portion things out and freeze them for meals in the future. I LOVE when I can do that because, let’s face it, there are some nights when I just don’t feel like cooking. With meals stockpiled in the freezer, I just have to thaw and heat up. No muss, no fuss, no thought required.

On that note, I should get going. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

The fever was so high…

Christmas morning, 1972

My mother had to come and wake me, which concerned her. What young child sleeps in on Christmas morning? With some effort, she cajoled me to get out of bed. I padded the fifteen feet from my bed to the living room couch, (we lived in an old bungalow which would neatly fit in my current kitchen, living room and family room area) curled up in the corner and burrowed under the afghan.

My mom placed a present on my lap and looked at me expectantly. Not wanting to disappoint her, I unwrapped the package, but the effort it took left me too weak to open the lid. I just couldn’t do it. I apologized, handed the gift back to her, slunk back to my bed and crawled under the covers, shivering. She was right there, pressing her hand to my forehead, checking for fever. Sure enough, I was roasting.

In the time it took her to get the baby aspirin and a glass of water I had fallen asleep. Over the next several hours, my fever continued to rise and I drifted between sleep and semi-consciousness. I can recall snippets of memories: a cool cloth covering my eyes, the weight of more blankets being piled on me because I was shivering so hard, my head feeling like it was full of cement, the doll on my dresser waving to me causing me to start screaming. Eventually my fever got so high, they took me to the hospital, but I have absolutely no recollection.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

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.