August 31st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s Saturday! First and foremost, I want to wish my Godmother a very Happy 78^th Birthday. Love you!

I spent the first few hours today completely unproductive. I read articles online about how Costco gave a mentally challenged man an opportunity for a career with their company, giving him a sense of pride and worth. It was truly heartwarming. Another article was about a growing trend toward childlessness – I couldn’t even imagine. I checked out the weather for this weekend and was distracted by various weather stories, like a man’s van getting hit by lightning, holy crow. Commented on a few friends’ posts, and before I knew it, two hours had slipped by. The internet can be a dangerous thing!

Now it’s time to be more productive! My neighbors are hosting their annual church picnic this weekend, so I want to get some yard work done so we are not an embarrassment to them and I’ve been bugging my hubby about cleaning out the garage, so hopefully we’ll be able to tackle it this weekend as well. We have an older house, and our attached garage is too small for our car (we can pull it in, but if we do, we can’t open the doors to get out of the car), so we use it for storage; Aka: the black hole, the garbage dump, hoarder’s heaven. It’s a holy mess and in desperate need of a serious purge.

I need to run to the post office again. B&N delivered yet another of my daughter’s school books here instead of shipping it directly to her school. The money I saved by ordering the books through them has been sucked up by having to turn around and mail them up to her. If their screens would show the actual delivery date BEFORE the order is finalized, this would save a whole lot of problems. Even still, I contacted them MINUTES after the order was placed and was told they would be able to correct the shipping address. One book was supposed to arrive on 8/21 and the other on 8/22. When I received a book on 8/21, it didn’t dawn on me it wasn’t the one from B&N but from Amazon (I thought I had cancelled it). When we returned home from dropping my daughter off at school, one of her books was waiting here for us, which I assumed was the one that was supposed to arrive on 8/22. Then another book was delivered yesterday – 8 days after they said it would arrive. I will think twice before I order books from B&N in the future.

OK, off to be more productive…hopefully. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

  

Your Last Challenge was:

 

If I continue to sit here, will I hold Autumn at bay? I’m at the beach, so it must be summer; and if I stay right here forever, that means summer never has to end, right? Don’t call the men with the butterfly nets, I haven’t completely lost it. It’s just wishful thinking on my part. Although Autumn holds a certain charm, colorful foliage, apple picking, crisp clear days; I am not looking forward to the drop in temperature. I don’t want to think about snow and slush, nor the pain the cold weather causes both mentally and physically.

If it’s not summer anymore, that means the holidays are right around the corner. That’s right, only sixteen weeks left in the year. If I keep sitting here, then year end is far away in the future. There is no need to reflect on what was or wasn’t accomplished over the past year. I can just close my eyes, lean my head back, soak in the warm rays of the sun and think about nothing – no back-to-school, no cold, no holidays, no end of year, nothing.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

I can’t seem to get that song out of my head…

 

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 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! To say I was unproductive yesterday would be a gross understatement. I did NOTHING. At around eleven yesterday morning I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I went to bed, then proceeded to sleep for six hours. Now, I have been known to take naps. Because of a really bad back, I usually only sleep for a few hours during the night. It just becomes too uncomfortable to lie in bed, so I get up. (Hence the periodic four am posts you might see from me.) But when I take a nap, it is only for an hour, two tops. Yesterday however, I think my body just shut down, saying enough is enough.

I have been running at top speed for quite a while now, and I think I just needed the rest. Today I feel much better. I think I will start making my lists of all the things that need to be accomplished in the next few weeks as well as my “to pack” list for vacation. This way, as I check things off, I will feel I actually accomplished something, and I will also have less chance of getting distracted by shiny objects. Number one on the “to do” list, daily writing challenge, so let’s go.

  

Your Last Challenge was:

 I remember the first time I…

 

I remember the first time I saw a ghost. It was the day after Father’s Day and I was ten years old. It was around two in the morning and I awoke when my grandfather sat down on the edge of my bed. He brushed the hair out of my eye, like he did whenever he woke me up. I sat up and asked him if it was time for breakfast and he told me no, he just wanted to talk to me. He told me he was sorry that he wouldn’t be able to see me for a while, but for me to remember how much he loved me and how special I was to him. I told him I loved him too and I didn’t want him to go anywhere and I didn’t understand. He said I would understand real soon.

I heard the phone in the kitchen ring, my mother get up to answer it and a mumbled conversation through my closed bedroom door. My grandfather gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead and said he had to go, and he was gone. I hugged my knees to my chest and started to cry. That was how my mother found me a few minutes later. She came into my room to tell me my grandfather had died, and I told her I already knew; he came to say goodbye.

 

True story, and since that night, let’s just say, I’ve had some interesting experiences in my life. My grandfather was my most favorite person in the world. Still, almost forty years later, I miss him terribly.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing these three words: Light, Cave & Shell.

 

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.