April 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Greeting on a rainy day, but hey, at least it’s Friday right?

Sorry I was MIA yesterday, but after only fifteen minutes or so on the internet, my computer rebooted itself. After that, I couldn’t get back. First it was saying it couldn’t connect to the proxy server, which I have confirmed we do not have, then my husband got it switched back to LAN, but it still wouldn’t connect, and he had to leave for work. So there I was, stuck all day with no internet access. (Well, not really all day, because I worked from 11:30 – 4:30, so I didn’t need it then.) Hubby got it fixed last night, but I was too tired to deal with the computer by then.

Since I was unable to post my blog yesterday, I have included it at the bottom of this short post. I will not be posting a new writing challenge, since you haven’t had time to respond to yesterday’s challenge yet.

So lickety split, here are my updates: Dani’s still sick but getting better, love working for RV, have to get to the store at some point today to pick up supplies for the Progressive Dinner (I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow), have to straighten up the house because we are having company two days in a row.

Okay, this post is way too long, since it’s two days’ worth, so I should wrap it up. I hope you have a glorious day, and happy writing.

Hi, it’s Christina -

Happy Thursday! Is it just me, or is this week flying by?

Today marks day four of Dani being home from school. It appears she has contracted that norovirus which is plaguing the schools right now. A huge percentage of kids are out sick. So many, in fact, it warranted an instant alert message. The notice was very specific in telling us our children needed to be symptom free, for two days, before they would be allowed back into the school. This does however put me in a bit of a quandary. Usually, a week’s absence from school would require a doctor’s note, but honestly, I don’t feel, with this ailment, the doctor can do anything. It simply needs to run its course. Hopefully the powers that be realize this, and won’t hold the lack of a doctor’s note against her.

I feel so bad for Dani. She’s feeling absolutely miserable. I also feel guilty, because she needs comforting hugs from me, which I readily give; but when I’m done, I immediately go and wash my hands. The last thing I need right now is to get sick, and I certainly do not need to bring any bug over to RV! She has enough to contend with without being sick on top of it.

Okay, I’m not exactly sure when this will actually get posted because I’m having connectivity issues this morning. I keep getting an error message saying my proxy server is down. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t have a “proxy server”. I’m going to have my husband take a look when he wakes up.

In the interim, I will use the time wisely, and work on Faerie Tale Queen. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

You’re stuck in an elevator…

Oh S#$T! Lights! Aren’t there supposed to be emergency lights? Emergency lights always come on when this happens on TV. Maybe it takes a few seconds. Oh God. Take a breath. Please start, please start, please start. S#$T!  S#$T!  S#$T! Damn TV, guess those are camera lights, not emergency generator lights.

People are starting to talk. Okay, who’s on the elevator with me. Crap, I was too busy checking my phone to notice. Close your eyes and think. What are you closing your eyes for? It’s pitch black in here. Knock it off and focus. Okay, okay, okay, I remember seeing Mabel. Mothers Always Bring Extra Love. OMG, will you focus? OK, Mabel, Mr. Harris’ secretary, but she’s tiny. Who else? Two starched suits from twelve, don’t know their names, but I’ve seen them around. They could be useful. There were two more. Think, think, think. Jim from Marketing. He’s pretty buff. Oh no! That creepy guy from the Print Pool is in here too. He was in the back corner. Let’s hope he stays there.

Alarm! Every elevator has an alarm. Where is it? Where is it? Need to stop my hands from shaking. Just don’t hit the wrong button genius. S#$T! that was loud. Loud is good, right? Should I hit it again?

OMG, it’s getting hard to breathe. What if we run out of oxygen before they can rescue us? Don’t be an ass, that won’t happen. Just breathe, slow measured breaths. Panic won’t solve anything. There, that’s better, in and out, nice and slow.

Could you tell, getting trapped in an elevator is one of my phobias?

Your Next Challenge is (random quote, chosen from a random page, from a random book on my shelf – closed my eyes, reached in, grabbed one, opened to a page, pointed, and opened my eyes – then found the closest dialogue):

Write your own story around the following – “Get out of your wet things and into those. Don’t worry, you’ll be decently covered.” (KayHooper, Enemy Mine)

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 17th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

I gave myself a heart attack yesterday. I was trying to be a good girl and actually turn my computer off for a little while so it could do whatever updates it needed to do. About half an hour after I shut it down, I remembered there were some bills I needed to pay, so I try to fire it up again, AND IT WON’T TURN ON!!! All I get is a black screen and by little white arrow cursor. I turn it off again, and back on. Nothing. I hold the button down for like ten seconds so all the flashing lights go out. I wait, then turn it on again. NOTHING. I repeat this process several times, and then give up, pack up my computer and head to Staples where I had purchased it. I tell the manager what happened. He puts the computer on the counter, pushes the button, and up pops my stuff.

What the?? I don’t know and I don’t care, I was grateful; and always one to learn from my mistakes, I promptly purchase discs so I can burn all my novels and research on to them. This way, if something ever does happen, at least I have another soft copy. I really didn’t think this would have been an issue with a new computer, but I was not going to take any chances. I lost a bunch of stuff when my old computer crashed and I was not going to let it happen again.

So I get the discs and my now functioning computer home and I get to work. I burn each individual story with all of its research to their own discs. Then, for some reason, I have my daughter put the discs in her computer to check and make sure everything worked. The discs are all blank! AAARRRGGGGHHH! I have no I idea what I did wrong. From my computer, it looked like everything was working. Now I just have to pray the computer doesn’t crash before my hubby can burn the discs for me this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, I wanted to tell you, I will not be posting a blog tomorrow, but I can’t tell you why. I’ll tell you on Sunday. This also means you have until Saturday to finish today’s challenge. So, I hope you have a great two days and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

If I didn’t get out of the house, I was positive my head would have exploded and flew around the room. I felt like I was being pecked to death by chickens; so I hopped into my car and drove with no particular destination in mind.

After about twenty minutes, I found myself pulling into a park I used to frequent in my younger days. Convinced a walk along the path and some fresh air were just the ticket I needed to clear my head, I parked the car and got out. It had been many years since my last visit, so it took me a moment to get my bearings. If I remembered correctly, the path to the right lead up to the rose garden and the path to the left lead down to the lake. Reasoning the chances of encountering people was far less by the lake, I turned left and started to stomp down the path.

What possessed me to put an office into my home? Your home should be your sanctuary, your refuge, not a source of stress and frustration. Publishing, marketing, signings, appearances, scheduling conflicts, interviews; I’m a writer dammit, not a PR specialist. Why did I hire an assistant if I’m still the one dealing with all this junk? All I want to do is write! Can’t they just leave me alone so I can write?  I grumbled under my breath as I tromped my way to the lake, still waiting for nature to spread its magical balm on my frazzled nerves.

 

There wasn’t enough time for me to actually make it to the spot in the photo. I had it all planned out in my brain. I was going to sit under one of the willows when an old Chinese man, in traditional apparel, approached me and offered up some Confucius-like advise to set my world back in balance like ‘The victory is always sweeter if the battle is hard fought.’  

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You have a job interview, but you do not recognize the address they give you, so you plug it into your GPS. The directions the GPS give you, lead you to a strange area you never knew existed.

 

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 14th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

I’ve been up for an hour and I’m already frustrated!

 

My husband yells at me all the time because I rarely shut down my laptop completely so it can do the required updates. So last night, actually early this morning, I was a good girl and shut the computer off. When I booted up this morning, it was still going through the updates. I don’t think it was due to the fact there were so many because the last screen I remember last night was saying the updates were at 35% DO NOT SHUT OFF YOUR COMPUTER; the computer went into sleep mode on its own and so did I. When I booted it up this morning, I got the same message. Well if Toshiba requires the computer to be left on, then they shouldn’t have made a machine where the sleep mode actually turns it off!

 

Anyway, it took less than ten minutes for the updates to finish, so it was no big deal. The next hurdle was putting in the password, but I’m willing to chock that up to lack of caffeine in my system making me forget that when you reboot the computer the number lock key turns off.

 

The last spinny thingy things happen and I’m ready to go. I pull up yesterday’s blog page – I always pull up the prior days and use it as a template, and it’s easier to erase words than go hunting for a picture – I’ll admit it, I’m lazy. Next I pull up my email and my Facebook page, because today’s blog was going to be about a blog hop I am going to participate in and I needed to get the details correct so I could share them with you, a book I finished reading last night (note the early morning comment above) which I wanted to share the link to the book, and finally the details about my book signing next weekend at Canterbury Tales in Lahaska, PA and I wanted to give you the link to the driving directions.

 

Instead I get PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. UGH!! This always happens after I reboot the computer and I’m not sure why. The little pyramid thingy showed five bars, but I click on it, tell it to disconnect from my network, click it again and tell it to reconnect with my network and try again. PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. Really? So I go and unplug the modem, count to thirty, plug the modem back in and try again. PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. SERIOUSLY??

 

Now, while I’m writing this, my modem remains unplugged. It is before eight in the morning, but Lord only knows when I will be able to get this blog posted. It may have to wait until my husband gets up and looks at it, but I’m not sure if there is anything he can do different than what I’ve done already. So, if what I’m doing now doesn’t fix the connection, then you’ll probably be reading this sometime this afternoon. (Hubby likes to sleep in on the weekend, I mean REALLY sleep in. I think the last time I was able to sleep until noon was when I had the flu really bad about eighteen years ago!)

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

Beautiful isn’t it? Majestic even. When I see the sun streaming through the clouds like this I can only think of one thing, Heaven. Whether through some adult telling me a tale as a young child, or through my own overactive imagination, to me, the beams of sun were the illuminated paths bringing folks up to Heaven. God’s own version of “Beam me up Scottie”.

 

Over the years, the story evolved in my brain to incorporate the different scenarios for the cloud/light patterns. Beams here and there, normal, people die every day. Only one single beam, someone really kindhearted and loving has passed and they are getting to fly first class as a little reward. A cluster of light like you see above, were the ones that made me sad, because they meant several people died in an area, like a plane crash or a fire.

 

Well what about the people who die at night, you ask? It’s ok, they’re covered too. Moonbeams work just as well. What about a day with cloudless blue skies? Simple, they were taken at dawn or will be taken during sunset, where, even on a clear day, you get rays.

 

I ran out of time, as usual. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was how it really worked? The floating and the light people who have had near death experiences talk about is actually a ray coming down and gently carrying you up to Heaven. For as long as I can remember, this was the way I viewed the cloud/light formations. Where there publicized accountings of near death experiences 45+ years ago?

 

I’ll give you the blog hop and book review information tomorrow since they are related and the book signing information during the week. OK, keep your fingers crossed for me. I’m going to tackle the challenge and then attempt to get on the internet.

 

I hope you have a glorious day, and happy writing!

  

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You are driving when something off the side of the road catches your eye and intrigues you enough you feel compelled to stop.

 

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.