A notebook, of sorts

Where I'll be sharing what I've been prompted to write. Perhaps more.

[dandelionsfluff]

Jewelry

Ok so the idea is that there's a jewelry appraiser who can touch a thing and see info about it - like who made it, and who has owned it throughout the years, which means she can also see how old it is and this makes her a great jewelry appraiser. It also makes her an excellent consultant for the popo, one of whom is an old classmate and friend of hers.

Riiing.

Her hand shot out automatically and fumbled over her night stand. The side of hand connected with something, then she heard a thunk on the floor.

Riiing.

Well, now she knew where her phone was. She leaned over the edge and cracked open her eyes. Yep, there it was - right over the air vent, where it always landed.

Riiing.

She reached to grab it and brought it close to her face so she could see the caller I.D. Heroic Harold. His calling at this hour meant business and she had to answer.

"What?"

No one said she had to be nice about it.

"Good morning, Sunshine." He always used her full name, no matter how many times she told him she goes by "Sunny" now - because "Sunny" sometimes gets mistaken for a man, which is better for business.

"What do you want, Harold?"

[dandelionsfluff]

Rewrite

For this one, I'm to take a poem or short story and rewrite it in my own words. Do you know this one?

I'll always have a light for you shining by my door

To welcome you into my home, whatever you're here for.

To rest your weary head a bit? To come and play a game?

You want to sit and talk a while? It's really all the same.

It doesn't matter who you are, how big of tales you spin.

I'll welcome you into my home, so please, do come on in!

[dandelionsfluff]

The Professor

There are undoubtedly a bunch of little things I do that were taken from my different teachers throughout my school life, but one of them is that when I'm making a large batch of something I "line them up like little soldiers" like one of my chefs at the votech always said to do.

[dandelionsfluff]

Good Vibes

You know those career plans we had to fill out in our last year of high school - the ones that had us list 3 possible choices, and where we saw ourselves in 5 and 10 years? I did not like that paper. I had zero ambition, and a great love of the beach, so my first choice was "Beach Bum". Because that's my good vibe place - the beach. Give me a large body of water and the shore where that water meets the land, and the vibes will be good. Make that water warm and the sky mostly sunny, and the vibes will be just about the best vibes there could be.

[dandelionsfluff]

Handle With Care

My heart belongs to you alone.

I hope you are aware

Of all the power that you hold.

So please, handle with care.

[dandelionsfluff]

Refreshed

Being able to place the burden(s) down, and instead being able to be filled by the opposite, of sorts.

Like a cold glass of your favorite beverage or an ice cream after getting too hot.

Like sitting after standing/walking/running.

Like letting someone make you laugh after having to speak on serious things.

Like being in nature and looking at the varied beauty there after being in an office and looking at the screens and cubical/office/bathroom/break room walls. Perhaps there could be some variety, but nothing compared to nature.

Like a new city after the same town for years.

Like a different adventure than the one you started six years ago.

Like just thinking about and taking care of yourself after taking care of (prioritizing?) another.

Like doing something you like to do instead of something that needs to get done.

Opposites attract because opposites refresh.

[dandelionsfluff]

Shopping

Kat burst into my room and yelled, "Are you ready?!" like one of those wrestling announcers who drag out each of the words.

I closed my laptop and spun in my chair to face her, laughing at her very on brand entrance.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said, and I sobered my face so that she knows I had been laughing at her, and not the idea of the hours I'm about to suffer through at her hand.

"Oh come on! Exuberance is necessary. You finally have a reason to come shopping with me! These times are few and precious, Dee. I must savor every moment." She had her hands on her heart and her eyes closed, like she really was having a tender moment and not just being dramatic.

"You said that yesterday to explain why you spent twenty-seven minutes taking pictures of your can napping in a box instead of studying Ethics."

"How very dare you! That was a rare and precious moment - she's never slept that way in that box before! She usually sleeps like a loaf when in that box, not showing her fuzzy little tummy with her paws bent at the end and that bit of pink tongue sticking out for me to schloop. I had to savor it. Ethics will always be there, but she could have moved at any moment."

I couldn't keep a straight face through this, and had to laugh as I got up and grabbed the small backpack purse Kat had given me for my birthday last week. It had shimmery green, blue, and purple scales all over it. And because she knows that I'm obsessed with siren lore, she had "engage at your own peril" embroidered on it. Commissioned embroidery. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever been given.

"Ok, if you say so. Let's go so we can get this over and done."

She hopped up from my bed, where she had been demonstrating the heretofore unheard of positioning of her cat.

"Yeah bebe! Let's go shopping!"

"I just need a dress, Kat. Let's not make this into a huge thing." I said as we headed out of my room in the apartment we shared with our friend Cecelia. Kat leveled me with a serious look.

"Sweet Dee. You don't just need a dress." She started ticking off the points on her fingers. "You need proper underthings, shoes, and you need a purse to match. You cannot bring a siren backpack to a black tie event, no matter how fantastic the person who gave it to you is."

[dandelionsfluff]

Shadow

Silent silhouette

Though dark, it is not darkness

Surrounded by light

An echo of one

An imitation, a ruse

Not what it seems

Layers of shadow

Stacked on up on one another

Making what you see

Seen from one angle

It can look like nothing known

Dependent on you

Shifting perspective

The ambiguous now known

Or so it would seem

Still a lie, a ruse

To know the truth look elsewhere

At the one in light

[dandelionsfluff]

Closed Doors

There is a seemingly endless hallway. The walls are dove gray, and the floor is silver veined marble. Lining the walls are doors. Endless doors down an endless hallway. The doors are each unique, though occasionally there will be two or more that look identical. Upon closer inspection, though, there are slight differences to mark each as their own.

What lies behind each door? Lives. The lives of everyone who has ever lived. Some are closed and locked forever. Some, whose writing has been salvaged or preserved, have glass paneling for us to glimpse in - depending on who they were and how much of their lives they shared through their writing. But we can not go in those doors to actually know all that lies within. The doors are closed, opened for us when we are invited in. We could break in, either for ill or with good intent. Some are locked up tight (for varying reasons) and the owners give no one the key - or give the key to very few. Some owners give keys out freely (those extroverts). Some, when you go in, seem like a cozy place...but there's a door (hidden, sometimes) that is locked and if you gained entry to there, you would not find comfort or care - perhaps you would even find discomfort.

We can't know all that is inside from looking at the door, but sometimes we can guess from what the door looks like (but not always, and definitely not fully), and sometimes we can see a bit if they have some glass. To know fully though, we must be invited in - and then we must explore. It takes effort; it takes care; and sometimes, a keen eye.

What does your door look like?

[dandelionsfluff]

Fear

The wound needed to be cleaned, and I was the only one who could do it, so I started in on it. I'd dealt with blood since puberty; I'd seen wounds before; I'd never had any issues. But it was my little boy's head we were talking about here. I just had to remind myself to clean away the blood, one swipe at a time. But even one swipe at a time was hard to do when I was getting hot and feeling like I was going to throw up. Why? I did not have time for this! I had to clean his head wound! I had to get him to a hospital if it went too deep, so I had to know if it was too deep! I had to step away. I had to breathe. I had to stop being hot. Go back and clean a few swipes. Step away. Go back and try to see how deep the wound went. The blood was all I could see. I couldn't see past it to what I needed to be able to assess whether or not I needed to take him to get stiches. So I had to cover the wound and go ask my neighbor (who is a doctor) to look for me. It was hard to get through. I was kind of surprised by this sudden weakness; I didn't know I had it in me.

[dandelionsfluff]

Dread

I used to dread the possible reaction I would have to foods. I grew up lactose intolerant, so I knew the reaction I would have to pizza, ice cream, etc. Then when I was a preteen, I was healed of that and didn't have to worry about those reactions anymore. Sometime in my life I discovered a severe intolerance to seafood, which was hard to maneuver in an extremely coastal State. Even cooking my food on the same grill as seafood, or frying it in the same oil would trigger my body's exit strategy. Teenage years brought the consumption of Mt. Dew Baja Blast with every Taco Bell purchase, and I discovered an intolerance to caffeine (it runs in my family).

I could refrain from the caffeine, and I could ask restaurants if they take cross contamination precautions, but there would always be a time when I forgot to ask and ate something that would put me in the bathroom. Sometimes, I would ask and STILL end up in the bathroom. I would get a certain feeling, and then I knew I would be in a bathroom in the next 15 minutes or less - but I could never gauge the severity. Those were the times I would dread. The not knowing what I would have to go through, so I couldn't mentally prepare myself.

In my late teens, I had an appendectomy. After that, there was no rhyme or reason to when I would be throwing up. I was always dreading the time I would inevitable be forced to remove the contents of my stomach. It all came to a head on a road trip, 6 months after the appendectomy, in New Mexico with an emergency 7day hospital stay. Now that I think about it, even though all of that is behind me and I'm much better than I used to be, I still have a measure of dread about my body's digestive reactions; it's just lessened, because I've been dealing with this for a long time now, and I've experienced the worst possible reaction. Even the worst reaction didn't kill me, and I'm still here and able to live a good life. So I can be fairly certain that, no matter the reaction, I'll be able to get through it and it's probably not going to be as bad as that [worst] time.

[dandelionsfluff]

Numbers

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four

I just need a few lines more

Three, two, one, and back again

On my way back up to ten

Numbers make my brain go blank

So this assignment's gonna tank.

[dandelionsfluff]

Sugar

I did not come up with this recipe; it's from Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network's website (the parentheses are mine).

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat(w/ paddle attachment) until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

1 hour, 50 minutes later....

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

3. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment(my preference), or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

These cookies are delicious! I make them with my children for my son's birthday. I've forgotten to give myself time for the TWO HOURS of chill time, so I put them in the freezer for, like, 30min and they were good to go; so don't sweat it if you find yourself in that same predicament. I've also adapted them into lemon cookies and orange cookies, but the first time I did it was lemon and either the lemon crystals I used were salty or I messed up on the salt measurement (not the first time THAT'S happened), but I served them to kids who were decorating the cookies themselves, which means LOADS of sugar...so I think that actually worked out in a good balance, and don't sweat it if you find yourself in that same situation, too. I have since used lemon oil and lemon zest, and orange extract and ground dried orange peel to delicious effects - but I don't have any measurements for you, because I'm one of those people who just wing it when I feel like I can get away with doing so. It's just mathematics - the potency of whatever you're adding multiplied by the amount of dish(/dough) it has to flavor equals how much you should put in.

[dandelionsfluff]

Fog

There is a cove in Swan's Island, Maine where I sat when I was young. I was on the island to be in a small production where I had a small part. This gave me a lot of free time to explore. I was old enough to drive the car and so I took it all over the island - a very small feat, because the island is small. In my exploration, I found this one particular cove where I parked and started walking along the shore. The sand turned into rocks, so I climbed along the rocks. I found a large rock, big enough to stretch out my legs - a small feat, because I am small. I sat and looked at the beauty around; at the tall trees against the blue sky, the birds flying overhead, and the calm water with the fog in the distance. The fog didn't stay in the distance, though. I'd never seen rolling fog before, so I had a vague idea of what that term meant. That day, I saw it. Fog rolling over the water on it's way to the land. It happened faster than I imagined in my mind. I imagined fog to move slowly, sludge-like. This fog did not meander, it did not poke along; it moved with determination over the surface of the water. I've never seen an avalanche in real life, but I've seen videos of them. This fog cloud looked like a completely horizontal avalanche, the top falling over the front, getting caught on the water, and pulled under, starting the cycle again...not so much like a tire as a tank track/belt/forward-motion-thing, because the top and bottom of the cloud were flat. It was mesmerizing, and soon I was engulfed in a clouded world; caught in the spell of the hazy view and the feeling of a million dots of water all around me, brushing past and paying me absolutely no mind. I was no different to the fog than a tree or a rock. It was amazing and beautiful, humbling and invigorating.

[dandelionsfluff]

Foreclosure

I wanted to write a story about a man going through foreclosure, and the decisions he makes to get his family out of it/to be able to keep the house, but I cannot seem to find the right way to actually write it. I have the premise, and I have some snippets of conversations; I know how he was feeling, and I know how his actions made her (his wife) feel, but I cannot seem to get it out of my head and into a story for you to read. It's a sad story, so maybe that's why? Because I would have to sit in the sadness for a while and embrace it enough to tell the story, and I just have no emotional capacity for that right now? I want to laugh, not cry...so it's hard for me to come up with how to tell a sad story...because I would probably cry. Sorry for not delivering on this one - I guess I'm just not willing to sacrifice myself right now. Maybe another time, after I have the capacity (read: after I've rested and recharged).

[dandelionsfluff]

Missed Connections

Phone, keys, and wallet are all in my purse. I grab the wrapper for the same kind of part I need, and head for the doors of The Hardware Dopot. I see him out the corner of my eye. Man, he is reeeaaally good looking. Ok, play it cool. We're just walking in at the same time, looking like a couple. No big deal. Then I notice we're in front of the check-outs. Great. Now I look like a ditz, walking in the out door. Wait, he did too! I look over and he's looking at me with a little smile. "Afraid you'll lose it?" he says with a little laugh, as he motions to my hand. I look down at the plastic packaging I have in a death grip. I give a little laugh and say, "Yeah, it's a very important replacement part." He laughs a little, and I feel a little warm in my face so I head to where I need to go. I find the exact replacement I need, check out, and leave. I didn't see him again in any part of the store. I get in my car and start heading home. I should have asked for his number. Or his name. Or asked him if he knew where to find the part. Or continued the conversation in any way! What a missed opportunity.

When I get home, I'm still having serious FOMO. An idea pops into my head. I open up my laptop and pull up Craigslist. Ok, let's try this and see if it works. I go to the Missed Connections page and start looking through, but see nothing recent from The Hardware Depot. So I make one. I hope he sees it.

[dandelionsfluff]

Great minds

Great minds maybe think alike But they don't think the same They do not have the same tone And never the same name They reach the same conclusion But not in the same way So can we include ev'ryone? I really could not say