Assignment: Three Things That Stopped Me in My Tracks - Part 2 of 4

This morning at 9:40 I got a text from my daughter... a plea for help.  She had forgetten a poster she'd made of the element Flourine that she needed for her 8th grade science class today and wanted me to drop it off at the school.  Now I had a decision to make.... do I take the poster to school or not? I had to think for a moment.  For one thing, I want my kids to learn to responsibility and for another she is not allowed to have her cell phone at school.   I allow each of my kids one moment of forgetfulness each school year and she hadn't had an incident like this in over 2 years, but there was still the cell phone issue.  I decided to take the poster to school and deal with the cell phone later.

I got dressed, trudged out to the car and set off for the school.  This is normally about a 10 minute drive, so I thought I had plenty of time leaving the house at 10:10.  I wanted to get to school at the same time she would be checking the office for her poster so I could take the phone home with me.  Then it happened, I got stopped in my tracks by not one, but two freight trains.  The first was moving at a slow but livable speed, but the second was inching along as if it were losing a race with a snail.  At 10:26, it finally came to a stop right in front of me.  Panic set in and I texted my daughter that I was on my way, but stopped by a couple crazy trains.  As soon as I sent the text message, the train began to move again... ever so slowly.  As it crept by one car at a time, I watched the ticking clock.  I know this doesn't help any, but at least I felt as if I was doing something.  Finally the train passed and I sprinted down the road (if you can call 25 mph sprinting) to get the poster to the school no more than 10 mintues late.  I brought it into the office at exactly 10:39.  My daughter had given up on me and headed to class by then.  When I left, the office assured me they would page her over the intercom so she could come retrieve the bright orange monstrocity.

All ended well.  My daughter did get the poster from the school office in time for her presentation and her grades were saved (and, since I'd forgotten all about it, got to keep the cell phone all day too), no thanks to a couple slow trains that got in the way.

Poem: The Wonder Cat

I wrote this quickly one night while watching my playful kitten.  Her name is Gizmo (after the creature in the movie Gremlins), but we often call her Gizzy.

The Wonder Cat (August 2009)


Green-eyed Gizzy

The wonder cat
Who wonders at this
And wonders at that

She wonders what’s happening
Right over there
And pounces at nothing
And flies through the air

She bats at your hair
And chases a light
Then tries to ignore you
With all of her might

She wonders at sights
Outside the closed door
Then chases some foil
Balled up on the floor

She purrs like a lawnmower
Loud as can be
Then catches a fly
And then sets it free

She teases the dog
And chases his tail
Then dashes and hides
Without leaving a trail

Then slowly she peeks
From under the bed
Then wondering still
She cocks her small head

She’s queen of her castle
And rules her lair
And happiest only
When people are there

But when the day’s done
And the wondering’s through
Her favorite thing
Is to snuggle with you

After flicking her tongue
On the tip of your nose
She wonders again
And away Gizzy goes

Assignment: Three Things That Stopped Me in My Tracks - Part 1 of 4

This is a 4 part assignment.  Each part is supposed to be done about 2-3 days apart.  I'm supposed to describe the specifics of something that happened and why I think it caught my attention.

Baths relax me.  After a long day there is nothing I enjoy more than slipping into a steamy tub with a good book and a cold drink at the ready.  If I'm really in the mood to treat myself, I'll add Lush bath bombs or melts to the tub.  They come in many varieties with different scents, colors and purposes.  I've tried just about all of them, but there was one particular bath melt that really captured my attention... the Karma bath melt!

Karma is one of Lush's signature scents and one of my favorites.  It's deliciously seductive scent combines just the right amounts of patchouli, orange, lemongrass, lavender and pine.  The bath melt combines this long lingering scent with skin-softening cocoa butter, almond oil and (according to their advertising) a hint of glitter.  This sounded like heaven in the shape of small pyramid and I decided to give it a try.

My Karma bath sparkled with a golden glow, inviting me to lounge in its warm, shimmery depths for an eternity... or at least an hour.  With the sultry sounds of Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" playing softly in the background, I slipped into the tub and opened my book.  An hour (ok... maybe two) later, it was time for me to leave my glorious bath and get some sleep.  My muscles had relaxed and I was feeling on top of the world.  I blew out the candles that had surrounded my tub, hit the lights and gasped! 

Holy glitter fairy Batman!  I was covered head-to-toe with golden glitter.  Not just a little glitter either; I looked like a cross between an Oscar statue and a vampire from the Twilight books who'd stumbled into the sun.  "Oh well," I thought to myself, "it will brush off me when I dry off."  I then turned to face my tub... now looking as though it had been dipped in a golden pond.  This was definately more than a "hint" of glitter.  After drying off, I began to notice that there was glitter everywhere... the tub, the towel, the cat who had inadvertently rubbed against my leg, the floor, the walls and well... just everywhere! 

The household glitter explosion lasted for months.  When I tried to wash it off, it got on my body wash pouf.  When I wore clothes it coated every outfit.  Gold sparkly glitter ended up in the food I cooked, the carpet, and even on the tires of my car!  There was shockingly a never-ending supply of glitter in places I couldn't see.  All I can say is, it's a good thing I didn't have to visit my gynocologist for a while... he might have thought I was trying a little too hard to impress him.  I was afraid to have sex, for fear that afterwards my boyfriend would be forced to stand next to another man in a public bathroom with a glittery golden penis!

You might think that all this glitter would cause me avoid that particular bath melt like the plague, however... when I'm feeling down in the dumps and in the mood to brighten up my life... I know just how to make it all sparkle.  I just add a little Karma!

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Assignment: Wedding Pictures

Susan fidgeted as the priest droned on through the exceptionally long list of vows.  Could she really go through with this?  This marriage had disaster written all over it from the beginning, but it was the only way out for her.  At least it was the only way she could think to get out of the drab, dreariness of Seattle and on to the beautiful sun-kissed beaches of Hawaii.  She'd dreamed of Hawaii since she was a little girl playing with barbies dressed in string bikinis.  Tad didn't know he would be coming back from his honeymoon alone.  At times she thought she was being mean, marrying him for the plane ticket; but Tad would survive and she couldn't afford to get there any other way.  Tad was a strong man... he would be fine.  But now as she looked at him, his eyes glistening with the tears he so obviously held back, she wasn't really so sure.  Susan's veil started to itch and she fought the urge to scratch her aching head as she wondered if these vows would actually take longer for the priest to spit out than the marriage would actually last?  The Vera Wang dress her mother insisted she wear was tight and she almost felt as if she couldn't breathe; and yet, perhaps the dress really wasn't the problem; perhaps she was feeling guilty for tricking an innocent man? 

Tad didn't actually love Susan; she was certain he didn't.  He was simply looking for someone to look nice on his arm at the office dinner parties and complain to the guys at the golf course about.  That was why she had said yes when he proposed.  She would have felt awful if she thought he had actually given his heart to her.  He'd never told her he loved her, after all... not the actual words.  He had affectionate sayings that he equated with, "I love you," but would never actually put those three words together in a sentence in her presence.

Susan wondered at the expression on Tad's face though.  He was looking at her... well, the only word for it was "lovingly".  Oh God!  She was losing her nerve.  What if she actually got married and then lost her nerve?  She'd end up stuck with a relatively nice (but boring) man in the cloudy, wet of Seattle for the rest of her life.  She'd never break free!  She had to say something now... call it off before it was too late.  She had to get out of this, but she suddenly found herself unable to breathe.  She opened her mouth to protest but the words wouldn't come out.  That damn designer dress was cutting off her oxygen.  Pockets of light began to dance around Tad's eyes as her vision began to blur.  "I can't faint now," she thought, "I have to call off the wedding first!"

Susan felt her last breathe leave her and found herself floating on a cloud... of what, she couldn't be sure.  It felt like a dream, but she was aware of people around her, saying things, calling out, crying.  If only she could tell them she just didn't want to get married!  She tried desperately to speak, but even in her head the words sounded like a mushy, incomprehensible mess.  This was not how this day was supposed to go! 

Finally, the pressure to escape was too great and she let herself drift away from it all.  As she drifted she heard Tad's voice and began to dream of him.  They were standing alone on a sandy beach in Hawaii, newly married, kissing passionately.  She loved him.  She actually loved him and even more astonishingly, he loved her!  How could she not have seen it before?  The little things they always did for eachother, the ease they felt when they were together, the common interests they shared, had all been beacons of love that she had been too preoccupied to notice.  She had to find a way back!  She had to get back to Tad and tell him how she felt.

Tad found himself back in that same church the next week, but this time he let the tears flow freely from his eyes.  It was his Susan, his one true love, why had he not told her before that dreadful day?  He watched her casket rolled slowly passed him as it left the church to find her final resting place.  The agony of this moment was filling the place in his heart where her love had been and he knew he would never be able to love again.