Thank goodness the moderator/curator/hostess of Thursday’s Six Sentence Story blog hop keeps the link open until the following Tuesday. Oh, wait! That’d be me lol But! I did not originate the hop so the late link availability credit should go where credit is due. Oh, yoo-hoo! Is that you Josie Two Shoes? 🙂 I’m thinkin’ so. This may be sounding like a Ten Things of Thankful post (it’s not) but I’d better thank you as well Zoe as you were the last administratrix of this hop. (good op to ask you where you’ve been, young lady lol where’s your 6?!)
I looked, I stared, stood in utter amazement, my eyes fixated.
The process had been difficult, at times, even painful.
Throughout the journey though, I’d felt deep down, in my gut, I was doing the right thing.
They say there’s a price attached to everything, and we are our own broker.
Years upon years the damage had been done, tolerated and I looked the other way, making the choices, or not, that may have made a difference.
Aren’t you pleased you invested in yourself, your teeth look as white as freshly fallen snow, polished smooth as glass and looking absolutely flawless.
I had intended to post a Ten Things of Thankful post this weekend. Thank you Clark for a great TToT and for reminding us of the origins of this hop. Seeing as this is the last week the TToT will be hosted by Josie, how could I even think of not posting! Thanks to Lizzi for bringing it to us 🙂 Many thanks to Kristi for being the new administratrix, curator, overseer. We are in wonderfully capable hands 🙂
It’s 8:48 pm. Just got off the phone with Clark of the Wakefield Doctrine. He’s been hosting a call in show, the Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Call in Show for…a long time! Good convo. Had a little bit of everything, talked about writing, flash fiction, raccoons, rogers, Ted radio talk.
Don’t know about you and where you live but here, in the DC area? Gorgeous weather lately. Warm, sunny, n-i-c-e. Cool, huh Kristi? About time, eh? lol Hey Kristi! Guess who Alexa cued up just now? Oh yea, our favorite band and an oldie but goodie. Of course, Fade to Black. Never too old. Never.
I feel like just writing but I realize there is protocol to follow and so without further delay and/or rambling, my thankfuls are as follows:
Metallica! At this moment, because it’s playing right now, the instrumental in Fade to Black.
The 1980’s. The music. The heavy, glorious metal and the fact that life for me was all about bands and musicians. I was fortunate my circle of friends were musicians. Life revolved around music. It was good.
A visit to my hair stylist. Nothing better to lift your spirits (if you are of the female persuasion) than getting a haircut and highlights on a beautiful Saturday morning.
House sitting. So this house sitting gig comes with Alexa in the kitchen. Luckily for me, my niece and nephew in law have good taste in music…that’s right. They dig 80’s metal. Alexa’s got all the right stations cued. I can sit and write this post to Motley Crue, Cinderella, the aforementioned Metallica, Skid Row… 😀
My car.
The love of driving.
I am thankful for getting a damned hold of myself after my first night house sitting. I know I have company in my almost phobia/fear of dolls. The big ones. The ones that are 3′ or taller. With faces. Damned straight. No good. None of ’em! My first night, Thursday, it was late, I went to the lowest level, the family room, to get something. Wtf! Youngest nephew had left his oversized, stuffed Superman doll laying across the sofa cushions. Painted face and all. I’m sleeping up on the 4th level. Not a huge house but still, 4 levels. No carpeting on the stairs. See where I’m going with this? lol The bed faces the door which of course, duh, opens to the hallway. The stairs are to the right past a bedroom and the upstairs bathroom. I could not stop my imagination. What if I looked over and saw Superman standing in the doorway? No. Not a great night sleep lol
Thankful I remembered Superman was a positive role model. If he decided to walk up 3 flights of stairs to see me in the middle of the dark night, why, surely that was a good thing. Right?
Positive examples of practice. Positive examples of people developing their craft. New writers showing up at Six Sentence Stories. Hey Marti! Deepa! See you next round! And old friends. Good to see you May 🙂
I am thankful each day gifted. What can I gift in return….
Hey. Was clearing out my phone and ran across a picture of myself from November 2015. It was a Friday, day after Thanksgiving. What in the world was I thinking? In this day and age of selfies (thank goodness it appears to have died down…right??), does anyone stop to reflect on why. Why the obsession with pictures of oneself. As a clark, I’ve avoided having pictures taken of myself. In recent years, especially these last few with the increasing quality of the phone camera, it seems I too got caught up in the selfie, videos. Posterity? Was I concerned I’d forget who I was at the time? Was I fearful I’d already lost who I was to circumstance and challenge? Was I trying to capture, in the flash of a picture, a little of who I truly was/am/might become? Thank you for this self indulgence. This morning has been spent inside my head thinking of all sorts of things. Thinking. Thinking about doing. But not doing. Except for this. This post is a “doing” this weekend, engaging in the hop known as Ten Things of Thankful. The successor curator of this blog hop is the wonderful Josie Two Shoes. She is so-o- on top of providing every means and access for those of us of a mind, to share in our thoughts of thankful/grateful/hypo-thankful each and every week. #1 spot? Here’s to you Josie. Thank you. So’s on with this list. I will forewarn you – seems I’m rambling a bit today so word count may be in the millions hundreds 🙂
…2 I was standing at the printer the other day at work, it is on a table against an east facing wall. In fact, the entire east wall of the large auditors area is window. I looked out and down from the second floor and noticed a woman standing at the bus stop across the street. Thing is, I’d noticed her standing waiting for at least 20 minutes. She may have been waiting for the George Mason University shuttle bus. GMU is down the street less than 1/2 mile from my office. It hit me, while not opposed to public transportation, in fact I enjoy taking the metro, enjoy riding a train at times, I was extremely thankful to own a reliable car. Very thankful for being able to get in trusty blue anytime I want/need.
…3 This is where I slip in a hypo-grat. Was up and down all night long with horrendous cramps in my shins, feet, both legs below the knees. I was exhausted this morning. The thing is, I’m extremely thankful that I’m able to get up and out of bed every 45 minutes or so to try and walk out the pain, bring my pretzelized legs back to some kind of human shape. It means I can walk, am mobile, have the ability to walk, run, dance.
…4 I’m thankful for everyone who participates in Six Sentence Stories each week. Historians will tell you that the hop began as the brainchild of none other than Josie who then turned over the reins to, missing in 6 action, zoe, or ivywalker if you prefer, of Uncharted infamy. Yo! zoe -ee! Where ya be girl?? 😀 who in turn passed the hop baton to moi. Thank you!
…5 Wisdom I’m able to have access to by virtue of my participation in this virtual world. A few sources of this wisdom? Mimi, Pat, Kristi. The other ones? You guys know who you are. I know you do. Hey! Combo-thanks – I’m thankful to be part of this world because everyone I’ve come into contact has been beneficial to me in some way. Huge thanks.
…6Geese. Sounds of summer. Breezes on a hot day. Coffee in the am.
…7 Public radio.
…8 The Ramones.
…9 Music, film, art, literature and the internet that can bring them to me with the click of a mouse.
10… this overcast, looks like rain, I’ve got to go to a nephew’s soccer game in an hour (probably in the rain) then his brother’s birthday party at 4, day. I woke up to opportunity and challenge and wonder. Is there anything better than that?
Hello all. Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. I’d invite you to join me for a morning breakfast beverage but well, you know, have to be served up virtual like. OK? Well, alright! Let’s coordinate the Mr. C’s, the Keurig warriors and lest anyone think I don’t remember that some of you are tea drinkers, let’s put on the kettle. (yes, I know you can prepare tea in a Keurig but let’s stick to tradition, eh?)
The more things change, the more they stay the same or as Jean-Baptiste originally said “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”— Got to give credit where credit is due. Hey! coolio segue! Thank you Josie for coordinating, facilitating, administering this blog hop, Ten Things of Thankful. If you guys have been over to Clark’s house already then you have the backstory, the origin of the TToT. Kindred spirits all.
I am thankful everyday and yet, I find that reminders are necessary to keep perspective fresh and current. It also has become apparent to me that reminders are needed for a slew of “things” but this morning, let’s touch on some highlights of recent days.
1 Always a thankful, the hospitality of my sister-in-law and brother. I am home with them.
2 My 1st TToT could not be without the pre-requisite safe travels on the roadways. A hearty TY for that!
3 The auditory sounds of brewing coffee. Not the burping whir of a Keurig machine but the aromatic sputtering from a good old fashioned Mr. Coffee (or other like machine!) 🙂
4 This very exact moment!!!! The sun (no, it did not go all super nova last week. yeah, yeah, I know, the sun doesn’t have enough mass to go super nova. dontcha love the internet!!!). It attempts to break free of the cumulus nimbo stradivarius whatever chains and it’s…it’s almost shining through 😀
5 The beautiful weather today. Not quite. And yet, it is. It’s the attitude, right? Sure, I wanted to wake up to a gorgeous, spring like day with blazing sun but I didn’t. But! I did wake up and that’s a good enough start to the day for me.
7 My health. In particular my brain, that by all accounts, is functioning normally.
8 A renewed sense of self, short term purpose. Roadtrips are good for that. (Wait! does this count as 8 & 9?) Righty, right it does. The SBOR/BOSR 1.3, can’t remember chapter (ask Clark or zoe), says this is permissible. Which brings me to number…
10 Today, this day. The potential of it. The awareness that it is mine to celebrate. Whatsay, celebrate today regardless of sun or clouds or rain? See you out there people.
Good morning everyone and welcome to my humble abode, GirlieOnTheEdge. Seems I don’t quite have a handle on the time thing yet. Thankfully, both the Six Sentence Stories and Ten Things of Thankful blog hops allow for those who oversleep and such. Thank you and thank you Josie! she who is on vacation at….the beach.
Jealous I am of Ms. Two Shoes as the beach is like the air to me. I’ve been suffocating a long time but luckily I have some tanks filled with other, substitute like things, that keep me going 🙂 So, in no particular order of happening or priority, forward ho!
TToT I am most thankful that I am not bedridden. I am thankful that I have acknowledged the wake up call and confident I will act upon it. As a clark, all things are of the future. Oh, we mean well and all and we can be quite spontaneous and in the moment but….there is a tendency to indulge a tad too much in the concept of our own mortality. See, being forever young, we often forget that there is an end date. An end date unknown. That unknown date must be remembered.
TToT You ask about the bedridden? Friday, as I was putting on my jeans (thank goodness it was casual Friday at the office), the spring located in the lower lumbar region of my back (is there a lower lumbar region? or is it all the lumbar region?) broke, popped, and otherwise put me on my knees. Dammit! I’ll be late to work.
TToT I’m thankful that yesterday was so beautiful. Was booked from morning to early afternoon. Hair appointment, lunch with a friend and former co-worker.
TToT Speaking of hair. I’m pretty fortunate my hair stylist is a clark. Sometimes she’s chatty, sometimes I am and sometimes we’re both pretty quiet. Yesterday? Yesterday, we both had our secondary scottian aspects flailing about the salon. I guess I don’t have to tell you that my hair came out a little…different lol
TToT Small, kind gestures from strangers. The gestures of which I speak occurred in the same location, in 2 consecutive weeks. I buy my fruits and vegetables from a Korean market not far from where I live. Most of the folks who patronize this particular market speak English as a second language or not at all. Korean and Spanish are their first languages. Why is this important? Because it’s a reminder that gestures transcend words, language. (damn, here’s another long assed thankful. did you grab a beverage? good) In both instances, I was standing in front of the apple bins having just taken a plastic bag off the roll so I could fill it with Fuji and Honey Crisp goodness. Well, the bag would not separate at the top! I tried rubbing it between my palms – nothing. I tried and tried, standing semi-patiently but knowing in retrospect my face was telling a different story. Totally oblivious to my surroundings, I looked up to see one of the store workers who had been across the aisle unloading a pallet of bananas, standing in front of me, hand outstretched, a plastic bag open and at the ready. No words except a smile and thank you from me. The following week, same damn thing in the same place only this time? I was well aware of frowning and may even have been muttering to myself lol. A few minutes earlier, I had noticed a couple and their son who I guessed to be about 20 shopping together. They were speaking Spanish. It’s kind of a cramped market, not a lot of room in the aisles so I smiled and squeezed by them to get to the apples. Once again, oblivious to the world around me, focusing solely on getting a stupid plastic bag open so I could load it with said apples, I look up to see the young man. He’d come around from the other side of the bins. He stood there silently, smiling, holding an open plastic bag for me. I returned his smile and thanked him. Kindness. It doesn’t need translation.
TToT That I’ve found a suitable spot to place my laptop to that I may type standing up. You who’ve had the back thing know – it’s either standing, walking or lying flat on the floor, however it takes to feel better. I’m typing tall today, people 😀
TToT While an oft cited thankful, I’m very thankful for the internet, for having a laptop, for having access to so much more of the world than I could ever imagine.
Welcome everyone to GirlieOnTheEdge and another edition of Six Sentence Stories. It’s a fun blohop, cool people, excellent writing. I hope you’ll join in this week! Cue word this week is: WAKE.
Hop rules are as follows:
Write 6 sentences. No more. No less.
Use the week’s cue word.
Genre is writer’s choice, as is form – story, poem, prose..whatever your muse feeds you!
Link up via Blue Frog Man below and begin your journey.
Don’t worry about linking the first day. Take it from me, you’re not late until 11:00 pm US EST next Tuesday! Have fun everyone! I’ll see you on the circuit 🙂
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
—Elmore Leonard
Yo people! It’s me, Girlie. It’s Sunday and I’m going to post a Ten Things of Thankful post. That’s right. I may be showing up days after opening day but hey, Josie leaves the door open for any stragglers who still want to join in. Thank you Josie!
Here’s the funny thing. And, a thankful that will show up on this list today. No wait. Am I getting ahead of myself? How shall I explain? Oh, never mind. Let’s start at the beginning. Feeling a bit long winded today. Perhaps, it is autosuggestion from the howling that is going on outside my window 😀
I used to write “morning words” and they were just that. Each and every day. Somewhere along, oh, months ago, I stopped. The practice turned into more or less a “weekend day, maybe both days words”. The reasons are varied. One of the less consequential (or not) reasons is that the file for those words remains on “the original laptop”. The laptop I often refer to as “lapbaby”. Sure, I can transfer everything over to my new laptop but somehow, I feel that a betrayal. And now, today, more than ever, I will not betray lapbaby by even thinking about transferring that file to the “other place”.
I posted a Six Sentence Story today. The link for that hop is still open and, while it opened last Wednesday night for opening day Thursday, I still posted. Better late than never, yeah? Consider my 1st TToT.
A certain thankful supreme today is the illusion of time. Being lost in…incorrect time. Found out only after the fact. So. Time is first, a concept? Or is that more properly, a construct? What is the advantage of knowing the correct time? In the practical world there are valid, useful reasons for knowing the correct time, the time by which everyone in your timezone adheres. But in the, shall we say magical realm, time is what we believe it is and so all else shall follow. Explanation to follow. Consider my 2nd TToT.
Electronics. Vexing at times. Frustrating. I posit that what at first appears as frustration can reveal itself as gift, given the proper frame of mind. I was able to find the path that led from frustration to gift. Consider my 3rd TToT.
Better grab a beverage or snack for this one. Going to be a long one lol
I am surely thankful for my new laptop. As an individual who historically has difficulty letting go of objects of sentimentality, I did not hesitate turning on lapbaby this morning. As I mentioned in my intro, lapbaby is accessed 1x, maybe 2x a weekend. Functionality has been spotty, hence the new ‘top. Yesterday morning, I noticed that lapbaby was showing the incorrect time. And so I made the adjustment. I thought it odd, but hey, no biggie. This morning, as I wrote morning words, I happened to notice that the date was incorrect. It was still showing yesterday’s date. I tried to make the adjustment. I was convinced I was completing the proper steps and yet it kept giving me an error message. I switched to fixing the time. Kinda the same thing. Aha! I told myself that I was being distracted unnecessarily and that it wasn’t important to fix these things right this very moment. I proceeded with the morning. Consider this my 4th TToT.
As I went about my morning, I would glance at the time and see that I must be working quicker than I thought as it was still early. I even prepared breakfast, the one I used to eat during the weekdays once upon a time. It was good. It was healthy. The sun was shining and I thought, alright…I’m going to the gym next! Consider that my 5th TToT (at that moment)
When oatmeal delight was finished, and I’d replied to a couple of texts, I decided to check the time and see how I was doing. Lots to do today and only so many hours in which to do it. Sure. Maybe there’s as much time as we need but for our own self-limitation. But no! I looked down at lapbaby and the time was showing….barely after 8. Damn. I’m cruising today. And I believed that. Consider my TToT #6.
I had decided yesterday, that beside posting a 6, I would also post at Josie’s TToT. I mean. Why not? I seemed to have gotten on a tiny roll-ette this morning so no use stemming that tide. But first, I thought I’d get ready to go to the gym (my next destination) and then before heading out see if I actually had a TToT in me. I gathered my stuff, glanced at the clock on the wall and….you saw this coming right ‘cuz I sure didn’t lol. I looked at the clock and instead of still being a little after 8:00 it was 10:10! I had forgotten that lapbaby’s time had been incorrect and that I had decided not to bother trying to fix it lest I get distracted away from my task, my enjoyment of writing this morning. Consider this TToT #7.
Like a hockey puck slamming into the side of my face, I reeled at the notion that I was happy in the illusion of time that didn’t exist, as I was able to proceed through it, enjoy what I was doing and not stress that I wouldn’t have enough of it. Time that is. What a gift I was given today. Consider TToT #8.
I usually state this in the number 10 spot but today, let’s switch it up a bit. Consider my #9. I am grateful, I am thankful to wake up today. Why not? The sun returned, there is howling outside my window. I managed to write some words. I got lost in the morning and hey! wouldja look at that. It’s still only 8:20 am 🙂
Consider last, but never least, my TToT #10. The opportunity to venture out into the day regardless of the time, actual or otherwise. To engage, participate, share and be present.
