September 26th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

I woke this morning to the first light of dawn peeking through my window. It took a moment for this fact to register in my sleep fogged brain, but when it did…AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! The alarm didn’t go off! I jump up and start running around like a chicken on fire, for now it is 6:47 (a full hour and forty-seven minutes beyond when I should have woken up), the exact time my daughter’s bus should be pulling up. I get my daughter up, call the school telling them she’ll be late, make her lunch, shove it into her back pack, then, low and behold, guess who comes down the hall ready to go… my daughter. She managed to get ready in less than fifteen minutes! We jump in the car and I get her to school…and, are you ready for this? Five minutes before the bell!

 

So now that I’m up and three quarters of the way to the grocery store, I decide to go shopping for the things I needed to bring up to my other daughter this weekend.  (She sent me a list.) I get all the food things on her list plus a few extras and I’m back home by 8:15, just in time to wake my hubby up for work. Not exactly how I wanted to start my day, but it has been surprisingly productive thus far.

 

Now all I need to do is make sure I locate the remaining things on my daughter’s list, get the car packed up (the groceries have already been stored in a bin and it is in the car), and then get our own stuff packed for our trip. I’m so excited. I haven’t seen my baby in over a month and I miss her!!

 

The school has a bunch of activities planned for the weekend, but the last thing I want to do is sit in lectures and presentations, so we are going to kidnap her and take her apple picking instead. We will all go to Saturday night’s dinner sponsored by the school, but other than that, I am going to be selfish. We will be getting there around ten on Saturday morning and then we’ll be leaving around three on Sunday, so that’s less than thirty hours. I want her all to ourselves for as many of those hours as possible.

 

It is spirit week at Champlain College, and below is my daughter’s dorm’s entry for the stoop decorating contest. The theme is "America the Beaverful" (they’re the Champlain Beavers). If you look at some of the other photos, many of the other Freshmen dorms only have a few kids participating in the contest. Then when you see the photos of the upper classmen’s entries, you realize what a big deal the event is; something Freshmen probably had not anticipated. Now I’m not saying my daughter had anything to do with this, but after four years of events similar to this at her high school, I think she may have had a part in rallying her dorm mates into action. Another photo showed several more kid participating, but it wasn’t a clear shot, so I chose this one instead. (My baby is right in front with the striped scarf.) They are singing the Star Spangled Banner for the judges.

 

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

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Just one bite…

       

That’s all it took. Just one bite. And now look at me. I’m a mess. But how could I resist? It looked so good. Sitting there looking so luscious and sweet, it was practically calling, “Eat me…eat me.”

I knew I shouldn’t have. I remember what happened the last time. I knew the results could only get worse, but I just had to have a taste, just one little bite. Now I look like a cartoon character! My mouth resembles a plunger. My skin has a brindle effect, and the effort it is taking not to scratch has me practically vibrating.

 

That’s it, I give up. It originally started as a vampire theme, but that didn’t work either, so I deleted it – all three sentences I managed to write. It was more on the lines of “Love at First Bite” as opposed to “Dracula” anyway. Dang, when I posted the challenge yesterday, I thought it would be a good one. Guess I just wasn’t feeling it today. It happens. Better luck tomorrow…

 

Your Next Challenge is (something a little different):

 

Start your story with “Sundays always meant…”

 

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.

July 11th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning all. I spent a good chunk of yesterday on the phone with two financial aid places, the college and the government, because when I checked with the college my daughter will be going to see if there was anything else they needed from me, they looked into my status and our loan came up expired. Not quite sure what happened, no one could explain why it happened, but I’m glad I checked. Long story short, I had to fill out all the loan paperwork again, but it wasn’t terrible. Almost all the information was prefilled from the last time, so all I had to do was check the boxes that I read everything, agree not to be a dirt-bag and repay the loan, then sign and submit. In half an hour I was calling the college back to tell them everything went through and I got a pop-up screen stating the college should be informed with 24 hours. Needless to say, I was relieved everything worked out.

I did get quite a bit of quiet time to write yesterday as well. I guess all the activities had caught up to the girls and they crashed. I had been up since 5 am writing, then after the whole student loan fiasco, I had a horrible headache, so at 1:30 pm, I took some aspirin and went to lay down for a bit. A little before 2:00 pm, I finally hear the girls start to stir. If you don’t count the times I was violently ill, I don’t think I have EVER even slept until noon let alone two in the afternoon, and it wasn’t just one kid, it was all three of them! Whatever, they are on vacation, it’s not like they had anything pressing to do.

Last night the girl’s all slept over my sister-in-law’s house, but they will be back here by eleven, because we are bringing the cousin back home today. We’re meeting her mom just over the Verrazano, so at least I don’t have to go all the way to Long Island! I already told the mom and daughter that she is welcome here any time and we are even planning on a two week visit next summer.

OK, enough chit-chat, on to the challenge and then to camp. I only hit 22K yesterday, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m way behind and I’m starting to stress!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story using the following three words, Cabin, Fire, and Vampire.

 

I peeked open my eyes and saw it was a chilly, rainy, Autumn Saturday. I had nowhere I had to go, and nothing I had to do. Yippee! I yawned, stretched, slid out of bed and yelped as my feet hit the cold floor. First order of business, build a fire, then coffee, fire first, coffee next. I grabbed my robe, rummaged around for slippers but had to settle for a pair of socks, then carefully padded down the stairs to the living room. The living room’s fireplace was the cabin’s focal point and one of its prettier features, along with the wall of glass overlooking the forest and lake, and the completely appointed gourmet kitchen, the fireplace was a work of art. It stood right in the center of the room and it was more of a fire pit than a fire place.

Since my teeth had actually started to chatter, I stopped admiring the room and went to work building the fire. When it was roaring and the room started to warm, I headed to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. I guess I’ll have to turn the heat on tonight. I hate doing that so early in the season, but I hate freezing in the morning more! I spread my hands on the counter and stared at the coffee maker, willing it to drip faster. So what am I going to do today? I squinted at the dreary dripping mess outside the window. Well, I’m definitely not going out in that. Perhaps a book. Coffee in hand, I shuffled back to the living room and over to the bookcase to peruse the selection when a book caught my eye. What a perfect day to read a vampire story, I thought, but not one of those modern day mushy vampire love stories. They would not do on a day like today. I reached up and gently removed a very old copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, walked over to the couch, put down my coffee then settled in for a good scare.

 

Your Next Challenge is (thanks Beth):

 

Would you change if you won the lottery?

 

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.

July 10th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

The beach was lovely yesterday. Not that the weather was perfect, yes it was sunny, but there was no breeze for the first few hours, so it was sweltering hot. Not that the water was perfect, it was cold still, and for some reason there were zillions of dead sand fleas in it, YUCK. It was lovely because I got to sit near the ocean, watching and listening to the waves, which is something I would do every day if I could.

I did bring my laptop with me with the intentions of going to camp while sitting on the sand, but it was an epic fail. I wrote maybe 500 words, half of which I’m going to be deleting, and gave up. The sun was so bright, I was straining to see the screen. When I started getting a headache, I close the computer and opened Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James. The day got much more enjoyable after that.

We left the beach early because there were clouds forming on the horizon which started to worry me and I’m glad we did. Roughly fifteen minutes after we left, supposedly they got hit by a wicked storm. We missed everything and had a sunny ride the whole way home.

I have noticed something interesting going on. I have increased my Twitter followers by 25% in the past week or so, but I have no idea why that is. I would love to find out so I can keep doing whatever I’m doing!

OK, got to get going. Somehow I need to pull an extra 2,500 to get caught up. Don’t think I’ll be able to do it today, I already hear critters stirring.

Your Last Challenge was:

 

I round the corner, see the spot and for a moment I’m six years old again; fishing pole in one hand, my grandfather’s hand in the other. I sit on the edge of the wall, dangle my feet. I notice how much closer to the water they are, and my red, perpetually dirty and untied Keds have been replaced by sandals with polished toes peaking through. I skip a rock over the water’s surface – one, two, three, plop – and sit back and watch the ripples grow until they lap beneath my dangling feet. My hands begin to itch for a fishing pole when I see a fish jump out of the water, but mostly my heart aches for the companion who is no longer sitting by my side.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story using the following three words, Cabin, Fire, and Vampire.

 

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.