August 12th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Monday! We got a really late start yesterday, but we had several hours at the beach anyway. Yesterday was the lowest percentage of rain forecasted for this whole week, so we thought we should take advantage. Granted, the storms around here usually happen at night, but we didn’t want to take any chances. Sure enough, the storms did roll in, and they were wicked. Here’s a photo my youngest daughter took with her cell phone:

 

 

 

Surprisingly, I slept in late today. I was shocked to see it was after eight when I got up, but then again, I didn’t get to sleep until two this morning. I guess my sleep cycle is still a little messed up from Saturday.

 

Anyway, I’m sure most of my gang will be up shortly, and I really have to get more done on that editing project, so let’s get right to the challenges.

 

Have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

So breathtakingly beautiful, so picturesque, I cannot believe this is the view I get to wake up to in the morning. I have always dreamed of coming here, even made it a goal as a twenty-fifth anniversary trip, but in the back of my mind, I didn’t really think I’d ever be able to afford it. Yet, here I am. Three glorious weeks lie ahead of me so I can take in the sites, frolic in the ocean and laze on the beach. Yes, there will be several days I need to work, but I don’t care, this is worth it.

I toss open the louver doors to the balcony off my bedroom and take my morning coffee with me so I can sit and just enjoy. There is an old man leading a laden burro up the path beneath where I sit. He waves to me and I wave back. In the courtyard of the house across the street, two women are chatting and laughing as they hang their clothes on the line. I wish I could understand what they were saying. Perhaps by the end of my trip I will be able to catch some of it.

 

I still hold out hope that someday I will be able to say this is a true story.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story using the following three words: Lobster, Plastic, Noise

 

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.

August 9th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s FRIDAY!! Ahhh, it’s Friday! I still have so much to do!! I think I was so worried about having an alarm malfunction and not waking up on time to leave Saturday morning, I woke up at 2:30 this morning. Ugh! It took me quite a while to fall back to sleep, so I am REALLY tired right now. But, this may be a good thing. Since I am the one who will be driving, I’m planning on going to bed really early tonight, waking up at 2:30, loading everyone into the car and then pulling out of the driveway by 3:00 am. I’m not 100% sure but I think everyone else is planning on staying up and they will just sleep in the car.

Since I still have so much to do, today’s blog will be really short, and since I will be spending most of the day driving tomorrow, there probably won’t be a blog tomorrow either, and there definitely will not be a writing challenge. So, you’ll have until Sunday to work on today’s writing challenge. If you do not hear from me by Sunday, that means the realtor lied and there is no internet connection at the rental house. (You won’t see a post, but you might be able to hear me yelling because an internet connection was one of the main requirements I had, right after 3 beds and a bathroom.) I won’t borrow trouble and hope for the best.

Have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

There’s a knock on the door. The unfamiliar person on the other side says they grew up in the house and would like to see it. What happens next? (You can be the knocker or the person opening the door.)

That’s it. This time I’m going to do it instead of just sitting here at the curb. I’m going to knock on the door.

It has been thirty-five years since I moved out of the tiny, yellow, bungalow at nineteen Farmhaven. I have driven past countless times since, but never got up the nerve to knock on the door. I had spent the better part of the first twelve years of my life in that house and I am so curious to see how much has changed.

Undoubtedly the avocado kitchen has been redone, as well as the miniscule bathroom with the hole in the wall where the tiles had broken; the hole where my scared cat climbed through on moving day, never to be seen again. 

I wonder if the new owners replaced the heating system which was an open grate which took up the entire hallway in the center of the house. The metal grate which heated up, not caring that a young child’s sock could get caught on its edge, trip and fall, then be branded with its crisscross pattern.

I wonder if my six by eight bedroom with no closet was still being used as a bedroom or if they finally converted the attic to bedroom space as we had always hoped to do.

 

Out of time. I still haven’t gotten up enough nerve to knock on the door. Who knows, maybe someday I will.

 

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.