Monday, March 25, 2013

Mondays Are Made For...


I usually roll into Mondays without much issue. They’re just like any other day of the week except with more “any other day”s strung behind it. Mondays are good days for fresh starts.

Appearing as a vision of an organized home last night, I decided this particular Monday would be the beginning of closet cleaning. It’s true that things are bursting out of them, stuff is falling off shelves, and the doors don’t fully close. It’s overdue.

So the first thing I intended to do after brushing my teeth was to hit up the hardware store for gigantic, black trash bags. That would get me started.

But I got a call at 7:00am from a kid (one of mine). There's only one worse and that's the middle of the night call. Calling from the campus medical center, my son informed me of his fresh diagnosis of mononucleosis. And that he felt like doggie doo doo. And that he had a test in an hour.

When your kids are sick, it’s difficult to concentrate on spring-cleaning because you’re worried and feel powerless especially when they are away at school. (I should probably put together a care package.)

Instead of buying gigantic, black trash bags at the hardware store and digging right into those closets, I decided to go to yoga. I’d have the rest of the day to fill gigantic, black trash bags, right?

But if I wasn’t going to fill gigantic, black trash bags, I should do some “real” work.

Except that after yoga, I really felt like writing. Just a few words about cleaning out closets, I promised myself. The gigantic, black trash bags and my “real” work could wait because it’s only noon and I have the rest of the afternoon, right?

Now that I’m finished writing, I’d really like to finish the book I’m reading. It’s called Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. It is one of the funnier books I have read in a long time. There are only 50 pages left which won’t take long. That would still leave me the rest of the afternoon to fill gigantic, black trash bags and do some “real” work, right?

I have a habit of not getting much done on Mondays.


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Trifextra: Hopelessness



Unfortunately this entry is inspired by an incident this past Monday involving someone who lived 13 houses down the street from me. In just under three weeks, we have had three such occurrences encompassing only a two-mile stretch of tracks on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train line, which carries commuters twenty miles from the city to the western suburbs. This is one man’s story…

**************************

They’ll call it selfish rebellion.

The truth...

hopelessness and desperation.

Timing the whistle precisely, 

I sprinted alongside rails in the freezing rain.

Cigarette lit. 

I stepped onto the tracks.

You’re only nine

but

please remember me.

**************************

This weekend’s Trifextra challenge is revisiting a prompt we've done before.  They are giving us three words and asking us to add another 33 to them to make a complete 36-word response.  We may use the words in any order you choose.

The three words are:

remember
rain
rebellion

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Be Honest! You'd Be Grumpy Too!


Are you tired of hearing me say I’m grumpy?


Can you now understand why I say, “I’m grumpy”?

This picture pretty much sums up what it’s like here on March 21st.

Actually, I’ll correct that a bit.

It was like that last night as I watched gigantic flakes fall outside my window. Today it’s 17 degrees but sunny.

The only problem I see with 17 degrees and sunny besides that it’s 17 degrees, is that your sunglasses immediately fog up making it extremely difficult to see while driving.

I want warm weather.

Excessive and elongated spells of cold weather make me grumpy.

Therefore, I am!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

It's a Small World and Other Overused Cliches


It may be clichĂ© but the older I get, the truer it seems. Is it because I have “been around the block”? "The past is catching up with me"?

Generally speaking, “it’s a small world” is viewed positively.

Take today’s job market, for instance. I have a college kid who’s looking for a summer internship. It’s nearly impossible to get a job after school these days without having a notable, successful internship. In days past, you sent a resume, had an interview and got the job based purely on your skill set and personality.

Not so these days.

The world revolves, good or bad, around whom you know. So living in a small community and having parents who went to large schools can make a big world seem a teensy bit smaller. That is definitely the positive side of “it’s a small world.”

My daughter previously refused to “use” anyone so she stubbornly made the job fair circuit. I admire her determination. However, there are times when people are pleased to help you like those who’ve bowled with you every New Year’s Eve while growing up and lived across the street for years. They’d rather hire a kid with whom they have history, a known commodity, instead of someone they’ve just met.

As days towards summer tick off the calendar and possibly a little applied pressure, we encouraged her to send her resume to a few dear friends who have successful businesses. Within an hour she received a reply. 


“Hello Miss Amanda-

It is very ironic, but we are looking for a marketing / advertising intern for the summer. The potential candidate must have the following skill set:



                Female
                Big Ten Conference
                Young, energetic, outgoing personality
                Creative
                Family history of good athletic genes

Let me know when you are available to interview with my sales manager, Tom Johnson.

Steve”


(Note: I went to college with him and we were very good (platonic!) friends. I swear.)

“Mom, it sounds like he’s joking!”

“He’s not joking. Just having fun with you. That’s what he thinks of you. Cool, right? Follow up with a date to meet his sales manager.”

It’s a small world.

Recently I had a conversation with “Steve” and he told me he hired T.J. Johnson, a guy from college.

While in the end, we ultimately became friends,T.J. and I weren’t just "friends" for several months our sophomore year. And the reason we stopped hanging out was that he wasn’t a good kisser. Very shallow of me, I know. 

There’re times when the phrase “it’s a small world” is awkward. This is one of those times.

By now, T.J. knows Gina’s daughter is coming in for an interview, which makes it necessary to tell her that I know him. Details will be conveniently left out. Hopefully he has a poor memory.

“You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince” is a great clichĂ© as well.

************************

If you aren't hanging out at Yeah Write, you should be. It's more fun than...a barrel of monkeys (they're fun, aren't they?).  Awesome writers!!!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Trifecta: It's Sad


It’s sad.

I never want to be like them.

It’s none of my business.

But I want to shake each and every one of them anyway.

Surrounding us, table upon table, are couples not much older than us sitting directly across from each other on a Sunday evening. Women silently eat looking a few inches over their husbands’ left shoulder at nothing in particular. Men mutely guide pizza to their mouths gazing not at their wives but mindlessly towards whatever game is playing on the bar's television.

No words are exchanged except, “Check please.”

Not that I hear.

Or intimate smiles.

Or angry eyes even.

Not that I see.

I speak though no one hears me. 

“Don’t you notice it too? Do you even care? Is this what it becomes?”

As if I my thoughts can somehow infect them with the ardor, passion, and intensity they once had. For each other. For something. For anything it seems. 

I turn away from the room when I feel my attention being pulled back.

He smiles.

“But I want to shake each one of them.”

“It’s none of our business.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

Sunday, March 17, 2013

My Unlikely Look-a-like


I’m participating in 'KETCHUP WITH US' - Prompt #14 with Mel and Michele.
In 57 words or less, tell us about your doppelgänger.

*****************************

“You look exactly like her,” he said with a wink.

“Really?!?!”

It was the only time I’d cut my hair short.

“A guy told me I looked like Princess Diana! Must be the haircut.” I repeated to hubby.

“What guy?”

“Victor at the high school.”

“Who’s Victor?”

“Well, the night janitor if you must know.”



Don't I freaking wish...............................

Ketchup With Us

Friday, March 15, 2013

Trifextra: Taken



Photo credit: BĂ©renger ZYLA / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

33 words for this picture…

***************************

(release mysterious fog)

"Ce qui est votre nom?" 

Pivot.

(cue mesmerizing reflections)

"Touchez ma main."

Beguiling.
Reaching. 
Tickling.

fingertips at first…

Gently

working their way up

To slender wrists.

it’s already too late...



*********************************

Because the picture is French.
"Ce qui est votre nom?"  What is your name?
"Touchez ma main." Touch my hand.