week 15 choice 4

I never liked writing much; it was too difficult for me to get my ideas out onto paper. Assignments were often turned in late in school because I would procrastinate and find something else to do. Even if I could get the words I wanted to say out, my ADD brain wouldn’t allow me to sit and write for very long before I had to go do something else.

            Over the years I got better at writing, but my procrastination still slows the process down, even now I keep drumming on the keyboard and have to delete the random letters that appear when I hit the keys. But I have come to enjoy writing, although I don’t do it in my spare time much. I would like to someday write a book and have it published, but that may take a while, I don’t even know what I would like to write a book about.

            I would like to be a bestselling writer and maybe get a house on the edge of town. Write a trilogy or series that lasts a few years. But try and stay out of the spotlight a bit, maybe use a pen name, I don’t like attention much.

            This semester during this class I have learned to look at things that I write about in new, interesting ways. I think my descriptions have improved and I have increased my patience for writing a bit more. Some of the prompts and themes were a bit hard for me but I think that I have learned from them and I have gotten better at writing because of this class.

theme week 14 no 2

The white cat curls up on the end of the bed, sound asleep until she hears the sound of food being dumped into her dish. She doesn’t need to eat any more food, she is already way too heavy for a cat, but she insists on eating more and more until she fills the black hole that is her stomach, before trotting over to the cat door and squeezing her way outside. She rolls around in the dirt, turning her nice white coat gray before coming back inside to eat some more and sleep for the next 18 hours, then begin the cycle all over again.

theme week 14 no1

Choppy, uneven pages that don’t line up. Faded golden letters stamped into the spine. The cover has been bleached by the sun, once a brilliant red, now a soft pink. The text is indented into the paper, making dips and new textures from being pressed against a printing press. The book is old, older than any one still alive today. It’s been read by dozens of people, checked out from the library to be read for pleasure, and later for school reading. Battered and abused until the library didn’t want it anymore and sold it. The new owner kept it for several years until donating selling it to the book store down town, where it sat on the shelf among hundreds of other books, waiting to be picked up again.

unicorns (prompt substitution)

At Best Buy we used to have something called ‘Blue Crew Bucks’ if our store hit budget for an entire year, we got a bonus. Now this meant that we not only had to make our insanely high budget in the holiday season, which wasn’t too difficult, but we also had to make budget in the summer months, when everyone was outside enjoying the weather and there were only 3 customers in the entire store. Because this was an impossible task, the employees nationwide began to refer the Blue Crew Bucks as the ‘Best Buy Unicorn,’ a fictional creature that was rumored to exist, but no one ever saw.

prompt 65

My old red wagon is sitting in the garage, full of tools and collecting dust. I remember my sister pulling me up and down the street in it, hitting a bump and falling out, cracking my head on the pavement. Years later my mom tells me a story of another red wagon, one my uncle had when he was a kid. A few days after my mom’s family moved to yet another new town my uncle, who was only 4 or 5 came home with his little red wagon full of vegetables. My grandmother asked him where he got them all and he replied that he got them from a garden from someone’s house. He could not remember where the house was so he could not return the vegetables. My grandmother scolded him and said that he could never do something like that again, he replied “your right, I can’t, because I took them ALL.” Staring at my little red wagon I can’t help but think my mother must be glad I never pulled a similar stunt.

prompt 64

Snakes, my mom is terrified of them. When she was little she lived in the south. Occasionally snakes would get into the schools and the janitors or staff would have to catch and kill them. They would cut off their heads with shovels and through the headless snakes into the dumpster. My uncle thought this was the coolest thing and wanted to show my mother, who was only 5 or 6 at the time. He lifted her up so she could see into the dumpster, all those dead headless snakes. She can’t so much as look at a picture of a snake without flinching.

prompt 63

I have a tannish orange piece of granite about the size of a water bottle, and the shape of a human heart. This one piece of granite I took from Cadillac Maintain in Acadia National Park. I was a kid at the time and did not know that you weren’t supposed to take granite from the mountain. It looks like it was broken off from another larger piece of granite, possibly a boulder. The bolder may have broken off the mountain, which was created when the earth pushed it up from the ground, leaving behind granite coast lines and Thunder Hole. This one piece of granite could be hundreds of thousands of years old, older than humans or even dinosaurs, and it is now sitting on my desk, being used as a paperweight.

theme week 13

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book of the series. When I was a kid I remember swimming in my pool while my mother decided to read me a book one of her coworkers had suggested to her. I swam around the pool listening to how Harry was left on his aunt and uncles door step and decided I liked it. Camping in the woods my dad read ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ to us as we sat around the camp fire. The same book was read to us in a similar fashion. Than the fourth book came out. Waiting in a long line at Borders at midnight, anticipating getting the new book. The fifth book, borders had a party all night up until midnight until the books release. The same for the next 2 books. Fortune tellers, arts and crafts, wizard duels, crazy crowds fill of people dressed up in wizard robes and carrying broomsticks. Lightning scars painted on their heads and round glasses perched on their noses, a whole store full to bursting of people who were anxiously waiting to find out what happened to the boy who lived, all fans of the series starting the journey with the first book that now sits tattered on my bookshelf.

prompt 57

My summer vacation started with work, twenty plus hours a week standing in one spot, ringing people out and repeating the same questions over and over again. “Hi how are you today? Do you have our membership card? Would you like to add on our protection plan? Do you need a bag for that?” I’ve said these things so many times I don’t even think about it anymore.

All the customers are the same, disinterested in me, being polite but otherwise finishing up their purchases and leaving. Then I get the horrible customers, the ones I want to punch in the face or scream at until my face turns blue. The ones that think that they know everything and I’m just a stupid cashier who doesn’t know any better. “Do you sell beer hear?” no this is an electronics store, why the hell would we sell beer?! “Where is your electronics department?” Um, look around you, your standing in it. “No that was supposed to be $19.99 not $59.99 the sign is just above it on the shelf.” Actually the sign below it not above it, you’re looking at the wrong one. “this was hanging on the peg for ten bucks!” actually if you had bothered to look you would have seen that the peg you grabbed this cable from is actually the peg for an iPhone case, which you would have known if you bothered to read or looked at the 50 cases hanging behind it. Didn’t you think it was strange that the peg for “cables” only had one cable and the rest were all cases? Use your eyes!

 But of course I can’t yell at the customers or point out their stupidity, I have to try to calm them down, apologize for something that is not my fault, and try to explain to them why I can’t give them this product for $50 cheaper. And so summer goes on, without school to distract me from work, and I continue to suffer the stupidity of customers.

week 12 theme

Ever notice how all white walls seem to have scuff marks halfway up? Well I have, not the kind of marks you get by knocking over the floor lamp and leaving a big scratch in the paint job, I’m talking about the kinds of black rubber marks left on all gym floors in middle and high schools around the world. Like someone kicked the wall six feet off the floor just to see if they could. But some of these marks are ten feet off the ground or higher, who can kick that high? I look at these marks and think ‘what, is this school full of spider men, climbing the walls for lack of something to do? Are people taking off their shoes and throwing them at the walls, trying to see who can throw theirs the highest?

Or maybe at night when everyone has gone home for the day a troop of monkeys, a whole basketball team of them, come into the room, dressed in jerseys and sneakers, and start a b-ball game. Jumping over desks, dodging attempts form the other team to keep them from scoring, screeching at each other in their own monkey language. Taunting one another and cussing each other out, using the walls as spring boards to slam-dunk the ball, leaving their scuff marks from their shoes behind on the walls. Cleaning up their empty sport drink bottles and banana peels off the floor, before heading out and leaving me to wonder where the mystery marks on the walls came from.

prompt 52

No ads in the pet section for a white cat, the kind I had when I was two, and disappeared when I was around seven. None at the humane society, none in the news paper. Check the photography section for dark room equipment, my sister wanted to start a dark room in the basement. There, in between ads for red lights and developing chemicals was a single misplaced ad, "four pure white kittens for sale". Best 13th birthday ever.

prompt 55

Stacks of sketchbooks half filled out, partially finished drawings, watercolor paintings just started and abandoned. Color pencils scattered around the room, a box full of acrylic paint, trays of watercolor paint, markers, ink pens, folders full of old work. pieces of jewelry, half put together then forgotten, pliers, beads, earring hooks spread everywhere waiting to be put to use. Everything an ADD artist needs to start new projects, now to just finish them... or start on that massive pile of books I need to read... or watch all those movies that have been stacking up.

prompt 53

The comic book store in downtown Bangor, the used book shop on Third Street. Bullmoose music and Books-a-Million, full of stories and unexplored adventures. My own personal heaven, walking down the street seeing these stores, going in and spending hours among the shelves, taking home dozes of new prizes to be kept forever. Keepsakes and adventures for the future

week 11 theme

Books are one of my favorite things in the world. Full of exciting new worlds and adventures that I may never go on, places I dream of visiting, regretting that most of them are not real. Going into book stores and browsing the shelves for hours, bringing home new treasures. I probably own a few hundred books, the three book shelves in my room are all almost full, and those don’t even include all the books a haven’t read yet that I have stored in my sister’s old room, about a hundred more books sitting in boxes, stacked beneath the window sill, waiting to be read and share their worlds with someone. Some so old the lettering is faded and they were written on a typewriter, read and reread hundreds of times and owned by who knows how many people, some brand new and modern, waiting for their spines to be cracked for the first time, maybe to go to new owners someday, and in a few decades become just as well loved and worn as the cracked as the classics on the shelf next to them are, hoping to become classics themselves one day.

prompt 48

Spring in Bangor Maine is the most beautiful time of year [it’s cold and wet and muddy].

The birds are returning from the south to start a new season in the pine and maple trees [chirping at 5 o’clock in the morning, waking you up after only four hours of sleep].

Mice and raccoons and other small animals are coming out of their winter hibernation, venturing into the New Year [getting into the garbage and spreading it all over the front lawn].

The sun is shining, giving life to the dead grass [it’s raining and your basement is flooding].

Flowers are sprouting, creating bright spots of color throughout the city [weeds take over the lawn and guardians, creating more work].

And the on come of spring marks the end of the school year [finals are coming].

theme week 10

Billions of people in the world, thousands of big, metropolitan cities with monuments and markets and museums. And I live in Bangor Maine. To me, Bangor used to be huge, miles of roads and buildings, houses and hundreds of people, I was never a ‘small town girl’, but then I went to Florida, and Boston, and London and suddenly I was one. Suddenly Bangor became this small, out of the way town shoved way up into the corner of the United States. Not even a fraction of the world’s population lives here and our shopping mall is about the size of a big city’s super Wal-Mart. The traffic that always seemed never ending when I was a kid, stretching on forever in a never ending stream of cars and trucks, now seemed like a deserted street compared to the freeways of Boston. But even though I enjoyed Florida, and absolutely loved London, even if I move away to another city, Bangor Maine will always be the place I come home to.

prompt 42

1.       I own about 25 to 35 t-shirts and only four pairs of pants.

2.       Instead of collecting purses, I collect wallets (I have over 20 that I switch out frequently) and messenger bags.

3.       I have 3 bookshelves in my room, two of which go almost to the ceiling, and I still don’t have enough room for all my books and manga.

4.       I love rain more than sunshine.

5.       I want to travel to several different countries but am afraid to go alone, due to my tendency to have panic attacks.

6.       I’m terrified of spiders and once had to call my aunt, who lives across town, to come kill one for me, because my parents were on a cruise and I was home alone.

7.       I have trouble giving up old belongings; my room and attic are full of old toys and books I can’t bring myself to get rid of.

8.       I used to hate reading because I’m dyslexic, but over the years I’ve grown to love it and have more books than I have room for.

9.       All my friends talk about leaving Maine as soon as they get the chance, but I would gladly live here for the rest of my life. (If I can’t move to London that is.)

10.   I desperately want to live in London for a year, if not forever.

11.   My taste in music is all over the place, from rock, to pop, to classic.

12.   I have no idea what I want to do for a living and don’t know if I ever will.

prompt 41

An old classic Gameboy, the original black and white kind with the batteries door missing, so we had to use a piece of cardboard taped to the back to keep the batteries in. I spent hours playing Super Mario Land, trying and failing to get past level 4.

***

New Gameboy, this time an Advance, with the buttons on either side of the screen rather than below it, and a batteries door that actually holds in the batteries. Color screen, better graphics, and better games. Pokémon Blue, which I found in a snow bank on my way home from school and found it still worked, Lord of the Rings, Mario Cart. It even plays the old Gameboy original games so I can play Super Mario Land on it, but I still play that game on the old, beaten Original.

***

Have a 3DS now; the graphics are amazing compared to the pixilated black and white of the Original. It connects to the internet and can play music as well as games. Nintendo even rereleased some old games from the ‘90s for it with updated graphics; Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64, but it can’t read old game cartridges and they haven’t remade Super Mario Land for it. I sold or lost the Original Gameboy long ago, and can no longer play Super Mario Land.

prompt 39, Conquering my science book

Studding for my biology test. Trying to read the necessary chapters of the text book. Reading about veins and capillaries, red blood cells and white blood cells. Things that may be interesting to others or even to me at a different time, but right now are just keeping me from playing with my new MacBook.

**

Check the clock; it’s only been 2 minutes, though it feels like hours. Still reading the same page, bored out of my mind. I’ve had to read the same paragraph several times because I’m not taking in any of the information. My eyes keep wandering to my MacBook, but I know if I start setting it up I won’t finish studding, and I can’t fail this test.

**

Another agenizing 2 minutes, finally on another page, though I’m not sure I remember anything I just read. The book is talking about viruses and infections now, vaguely interesting but not as interesting as my mac. I really want to set it up and try it out, but I still have 50 pages to read.

theme week 9

Woke up 2 hours before my alarm went off, 5 am, way too early. I tossed about for an hour, worrying about school and friends, stressing myself out over nothing.

**

Woke up again, this time when my alarm went off. Tired from too little sleep, and got ready for school. My old dog, Matilda, wouldn’t get up to go outside until I gave her a dog treat as a bribe. Wishing I could stay home and sleep longer, I left for my biology class, dreading the test I had that I was not ready to take.

**

Got home from class early, I think the test went ok but I’m not sure. Remembering the money my mom left on the table for me to buy food, I went to McDonalds for lunch. Then I got out my brand new MacBook and started setting it up. I got the display model because it was $300 cheaper than a new one, but I need to get it reset because it’s still on demo mode from Best Buy.

prompt 31

Scrolling through Best Buy's website. Which macbook should I get? The 13" screens are cheaper, but i'm used to a bigger screen and such a smaller one would drive me crazy. On the other hand if I get a 13" screen I can get one with retina display for cheaper than a regular display 15". But I don't need the retina display, and that isent enugh to make up for the smaller screen, plus the ones with retina display don't have a built in disk drive so I would have to buy an external one. Which one should I buy?

prompt 36

June 13^th 2007, the day I had my driving test. I was in junior year of high school, it was the week before finals, and I got to miss the first 30 minutes of art class to take my driver’s test. My parents drove me down Union St., I familiar street I drive on every day. I was very nervous, but when I got started the instructor was very nice and chatted away, making me feel more relaxed. The parallel parking was the worst, I got two chances, the first time I completely screwed up, the second time I did it perfectly. Then we set out down Union St. I remember driving around for about 20 minutes, turning down smaller streets, but always returning to Union. The familiar buildings helped reassure me, the McDonalds I had been going to since I was a kid, the Hannaford’s we did all our grocery shopping, the gas stations, all places I passed on a regular basis and were comfortable with.  Then the instructor told me to go back to the DMV. I drove back down Union St. one final time and pulled into the parking lot, waiting while he checked things off on his clipboard, wondering if I passed.

prompt 35

That night, after we get to my sister’s apartment. We set up beds in the computer room for the three of us, me on the futon, them on the floor side by side, and go to bed. The room is dead quiet, except for the fan spinning overhead. Dead silent.  I remember spending the night at both of their houses when we were little, talking about our favorite shows or boys until the sun came up.  

theme week 8

I had the car for a week, my first car, the one that has taken me to Boston, New Hampshire, and Portland more times than I can count. Driving home from grandmas, I stopped at an intersection. Another car right next to me, parked facing the wrong way on the wrong side of the street. He started backing up, not seeing me. I only had time to think ‘oh crap, he’s gonna hit me’ before his car scraped against the passenger side of mine. My first car now had a scar.

prompt 32

The last person I want to remember before I die is my mother. She is the most caring person I know and I want to remeber that before I die, once she is long gone. When my grandmother started to get dementia my mother started to do whatever she could to make it easier on her. My mom and her siblings would take turns watching their mother, making sure she had food, and taking her to doctor’s appointments. As my grandmother got worse my mom started looking for a live in caretaker for her, interviewing people and taking care of all of the paperwork. Even after my grandmother moved in with my aunt, who is a certified nurse, my mother and her brother put her old house up for sale and figured out all the finances. And even though my grandmother is forgetting who her grandkids are and sometimes forgets who my mother is, my mom still goes to my aunt’s house to cook dinner and take care of my grandmother when my aunt needs a break.

theme week 7

My mother is always willing to help others. She works full time, and a lot of weeks she works overtime, and still finds time to volunteer for various organizations. When I was little she volunteered to teach illiterate adults how to read, and when her student read ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ own her own for the first time they both cried, because she could now read her kids a bed time story. She volunteered at the Girl Scout office when I was in the troop and offered to sort all of my troop’s cookies at our house, then separate them into each girls order and drop them off. Even after a busy week at work she still volunteers for the hospital on weekends when she is not too busy. My mother will do anything for her family, no matter how much her sisters annoy her. When her mother started getting dementia my mom would spend nights at her house and drive her to daycare until she moved in with my aunt.

prompt 34 part 2

Minnow, my day care sitter from when I was little. I remember you watching us watch movies while you leaned against the half wall that divided the kitchen from the living room, bare foot and chewing on a toothpick, standing on one leg, while you rested your other foot on your knee. Driving us to Nicky’s to buy us ice-cream in your old station wagon with the very back row facing the wrong way, your small dog Sasha always riding shotgun; or to the movie rental place, that is now a flower shop, to get us more movies. I remember running up and down the hill in your back yard playing tag and the walks through the forest and trails at Bass Park, feeding an entire loaf of bread to the seagulls.

prompt 34

My grandmother Barbara. I remember going to your house with my sister and my cousins. Going into the carpeted, finished basement and digging out all the old toys you kept for us down there. Barbie dolls from the ‘70s or ‘80s, the ‘stilts’ we walked around on made of hard plastic yellow cups with blue cords we had to hold up to keep them on our feet. I remember you buying us cheap wicker baskets that you had us decorate for Easter and send us off parading down the street. You always had those vanilla sandwich cookies, that weren’t very sweet, because grandpa has diabetes, that you would give to me every time I came over. And when you started losing your memory to Alzheimer’s you told me the same story about you dad and his dogs, always named the same thing, and the big elaborate doghouse he built them in his back yard.

prompt 29

Whenever I go to a new place I never rely think about what it will be like before I get there. Sure I may think
'this place seems like it might be fun' or 'what should I do when I get there?' but other than that I don't rely have a set expectation of what it will be like. Whenever I go somewhere new I let myself explore and enjoy it the way it is, not compare it to what I thought it might be. When I went to Europe I was expecting to have fun and see some places that I had only read about, but I did not go in with the mindset that it was going to be a certain way and if it was not that way then I would be disapointed.

prompt 26

I havent been to my elementary school since I was a kid. Back then the one story building seemed huge. The two main hallways seemed to streach on forever and it took what felt like hours to walk from one end of the school to the other. The gym was gigantic, running around it was exausting, and the lunch tables were built into the walls that rolled up into them to clear the way for gym class. The kindergarden class room had a sand box table that I could hardly reach when I was a kid and the desks were too large.
Now, as I walk around the school it seems tiny. I can walk from one end of the building to the other in less then three minutes and the gym is a fraction of the size of the high school gym. The sand box table is so short it hardly comes past my knees, and I can even fit in the desk chairs anymore.

old house (prompt substitution)

                A house in the center of the street. The house my mom lived in when she was a little girl and the house I live in now, on and the same. Fake wood paneling along the stairs and upstairs hallway that is starting to warp and crack from age. Uneven floors that have sunk into the ground over time so things roll across the floor.

Outside next to the house is an old garage, old wood that has been there for decades, some of it rotting away. The upstairs of the garage has missing boards in the floor and there are lots of large gaps in the flooring, allowing you to see the items stored up there, nothing too heavy or the floor might come crashing down. Big cracks in the concrete floor due to extreme temperature changes and frost heaves. Old and new tools scattered all over every surface in sight. No room to park a car, just table saws and tool boxes, lawn furniture and an old couch, insulation that never got put up and probably never will. The lights hum overhead, casting a flickering light that’s just enough to navigate your way through the mess and try not to trip and break your neck.

Ricochet

A small white house outside of town with a garage on the side holds two small bedrooms. The celling of the bedroom is slanted at an angle with off white walls, with what appears to be a blood stain on one side. There is one small bathroom in the entire house and a small living room. The two small storage rooms in the house have doors that are just as small. The kitchen is full of the basics, a white counter, small sink and white fridge, along with the other necessary appliances.

The stain on the wall looks suspiciously like blood. What’s the history of this house and its past tenants? Was there a bloody fistfight? Did someone get shot in this house? Has anyone died here? The house is small with one bathroom, if someone was living here with too many roommates and constantly had to share such small space tempers may run high. Maybe two roommates got into a fight one day and took it too far, staining the walls with blood. Maybe if you go dig in the backyard enough you will eventually find a body berried there, rotten and decayed, the bones poking through the flesh. Or maybe someone just accidently tripped and spilled their tomato soup all over the wall.

prompt 27

The safest place in the world for me is my dad’s big bear hugs, very cliché I know, but it’s true. Ever since I was little and I was upset or scared my dad would always be there to give me one of his big, warm, strong hugs and I would know I was safe. When I would have nightmares and go crying to my parents room, or there was a thunder storm that would make me want to hide under the bed.

 When I came home from school one day to see both my parents cars in the driveway even though they were supposed to be at work, and got the news that we had to put our dog down because she couldn’t stand up on her own anymore. The same dog we had had since I was 3 and had a big pink bow tied around her neck, my dad was waiting for me in my room and hugged me until I stopped crying. When my grandmother passed away from a stroke, after years of Alzheimer’s and slowly forgetting who I was. My dad’s mother, the one who would have all the grandkids over Easter morning to decorate Easter baskets and send us on a parade up and down the street to show them off and had a big box of dress up clothes in the basement for us to play with. My dad was there to hug me and make it just a little bit better.

                 No matter where I am or what happens to me I know I will always feel better once my dad gets there and gives me one of his big bear hugs.

theme week 6

The Bangor Public Library was one of my favorite places to go as a child. My mother would drive my sister and me there and park across the street, and then we would get out of the car and enter through the downstairs level directly into the children’s section. Shelves upon shelves stacked with books. Fairy tales, fantasy, the American Girls section that was my favorite spot. None of the shelves, except the ones lining the back wall of the large room that made up the children’s section, were more than four feet tall, so small children had an easier time reaching the books they wanted. Next to the door sat the librarians desk, where she would help kids find books and check them out, occasionally signing them up for their own library card.

 Just around the corner of the desk was the card catalog, where you could look up the book you wanted, old small square wooden drawers full of cards, a mix of new and old, all smelling like that old papery book smell. Shelves created multiple corners all over the room, most with their own child sized arm chair to curl up in and read. A few tables and chairs for adult sized people sat about the room for the parents or reading sessions. And on top of one book case sat an old Mother Goose stuffed animal that never left the children’s section, following it to the temporary location they had to move to while the old building was fixed up, welcoming the children in to read.

theme week 5

An employee goes outside to help load a TV in a customer's car. Once he is done the customer acidently slammed the employees head with the trunk of their car when they tried to close it before he was out of the way. The customer says sorry and then goes home and the employee comes in saying his vision had blacked out for a few seconds. A manager gets on the phone with whoever deals with workplace injuries and sends the employee to the hospital just in case. The manager offers to get the licence plate of the car from the security camera in he parking lot but the employee says no, he keeps saying it was an accident and he does not want to press charges. I would if it had been me, he ended up having a bad cuncussion and had to take a  few days off work because he was slurring his speach and losses his cordination. Best Buy pays for all his hospital bills and meds, still offering to help him contact the customer, but the employee still refuses. His dad wants to sue the customer but the employee still says no.

theme week 3

Standing behind the check out counter at work I watch customers rushing in and out of the store. Mothers trying to calm crying babies. Children in too big winter coats demanding video games, movies, and candy. Young couples shopping for new appliances for their just bought homes. Employees in blue shirts wheel big screen TVs up from out back and take them outside into the snow with no jackets, to load them in to the customers cars. The customers drive home with their new items and the employees come back into the store, happy to get out of the cold.

prompt 25

Doctor Who was described to me as a British sci-fi show about an alien man who traveled through space and time going on adventures. Every synopsis I could find of it online all seemed to be the same, a cheesy sci-fi show with bad effects and ridiculous stories, but I decided to check it out any way. I expected to watch a few episodes and be mildly entertained and then move on to something else. Well I got the cheesy sci-fi stories and bad effects but there was so much more.

Instead of stereotypical aliens and plot lines there were completely imaginative designs for each alien and the stories, although some average, were incredibly complex and forced you to follow each episode to find each clue that would form up the arc for the season. Little things like words spray-painted on the wall in the background of one episode seemed like nothing important, but then turned out to tie the whole season together. Characters that seemed to be one time cameos or minor to the plot turned out to be some of the most important ones in the show. Nothing was as I expected it to be. Instead of generic sci-fi I got an imaginative series that I love and cannot wait to see more of.

20. The battle begins! best buy bills.

At Best Buy customers can pay their credit card bills in store. You can have someone else pay your bill for you if they use cash, but if you want to pay with check you must have a valid photo ID on you or we can’t take it. Last November I had a young woman in her twenties who wanted to pay her mother’s bill with her mother’s check but her mother was not in the store, she was waiting in the car. I told the young women that I was sorry but I could not accept the check unless her mother was present. The woman was upset but went to the car to get her mother, who was very angry about the whole situation and went to a different cashier.

                A month later the same woman came in again to pay for her bill and when the cashier, thankfully not me, asked her for her license she freaked out. She insisted that she did not need to show her ID to pay her bill and demanded to see a manager. Once the manager came over he insisted that we did in fact need an ID so the customer angrily pulled it out, insisting that she would be paying online from now on.

                Now a week or two ago the same woman came in again, apparently deciding not to pay online like she said she would, to pay her bill for the month. She handed me her check and before I could even open my mouth she forcefully stated that an employee told her that she would no longer have to show her ID to pay her bill. I told her that I would have to check with a manager before I could take the check and called on over.

When the manager arrived the woman informed her that she was told she did not need an ID but the manager insisted that she did. The customer got extremely angry and insisted that she had talked to a red haired manager a few weeks before who told her she did not need one. The problem is that we have no red haired managers at best buy, the only red heads we have are employees.

When my manager told the customer this she insisted that it was in fact a manager, and she wanted to speak to him immediately. My manager said again that whoever she had talked to was not a manager so the customer demanded to speak to our general manager instead. He was not in the store at the time and in the end we told her that the GM, named Darin, would call her the next time he was working and took down her phone number. As soon as she heard the name Darin she insisted that he was the manager who had told her she would no longer need an ID, but Darin looks nothing like the original employee she had described to us, and she could not name the employee until we had said Darin’s name. After that the customer paid her bill and left the store. I haven’t seen her since, but I’m sure she will be back soon.

prompt 21, journey to get a puppy

Sitting in the back seat of an old, brown car with brown interior that matched the driver’s hair. A girl with the same brown hair as the man, sitting in the back seat, looking excited, sitting next to a younger girl with blonde hair like the woman in the front passenger seat. Pulling up a long driveway to an old white house with a huge white garage. There is a man in blue jeans standing at the end of the driveway, waiting for the brown haired man to get out and talk to him. The blonde woman gets out of the car and walks to the back door to let the two girls out. Suddenly the man in blue jeans is flinging the door to the garage open and a whole litter of golden retriever puppies comes running out. At least five or six puppies, all with bows tied around their necks, barking excitedly. All of the bows were blue for boys, except one. One puppy had a pink bow tied around its neck, the only girl, jumping around with her brothers just as excited to meet new people. The two men keep talking and the two girls continue to play with the puppies.

prompt 16

I love Doctor Who, the BBC sci-fi show that is turning 50 this year. Normally I'm not big on Sci-fi, but this show is one of the big exceptions. I have mostly only watched the new series that picked up again in 2005 as a continuation of the original series, but I plan on watching the original series as well. If you ask any fan of the show what it's about, you will probably just get more confused by their explanation. The show is very hard to describe and do it justice, and with 50 years of continuity it is very easy to get lost. The basic premiss of the show is easy enough to explain, an alien man who calls himself 'The Doctor' has a spaceship/time machine that can travel anywhere in space or time. Along the way he picks up many companions to travel with him and keep him company. This sounds relatively simple but there are so many characters and aliens, details and stories that this explanation cant even begin to cover it. The show is so complex and huge that the only way to really understand it is to watch it yourself.

prompt 14

Writing for me is a bit like drawing, I enjoy it when i'm in the mood to write, and when it wont come out right I get frustrated. Starting with a new, clean sheet of paper, thinking of every thing I want to do. putting pencil to the page and drawing the first lines. Erasing a piece that doesn't look right and re-drawing it. Getting irritated and scrapping the whole thing, only to start all over again. And finally, when I get what I want I proudly put it in my art book to keep forever.

prompt 13

If my cat could talk I think she would have a lot to say, mostly about food.
"Feed me, feed me!! I'm wasting away! Is that ham? I love ham!"
 Or sleep.
"I'm so tired. I spent all day napping and then I had to go outside for five whole minutes! I need another nap."
Complaining about my dad.
"Stop picking on me! I want to sleep! Stop picking me up and poking me in the belly, I'm not fat!"
Whining when I'm not home.
"Where is she? She's supposed to be right here to pet me! Where did she go?!"
As it is she already talks a lot, in mews and purrs, saying things we can only guess at. But if she could talk our language I think she would have a lot to say, mostly about food or sleep.

library (prompt substitution)

At the library there are certain rules you follow. Certain edicate you adhere to least you get yelled at or kicked out by the librarian. When in a library the most important rule is to be silent, read your book in peace without disturbing the other patrons. If you absolutely need to speak to someone whisper quietly and be conscious to others around you who are trying to work or read their own things, and never talk on the phone in the library, all calls should be taken outside. Never disturb someone who is preoccupied and never spy on others and what they are reading or working on. Another big rule is no food or drink around the books least you spill something on them and damage the pages. Violation of any of these rules often leads to the librarian’s wrath and possibly being thrown out.

Working in the library on my statistics homework, I can’t figure out how to make the math program work on the computer. I look around at others people’s computers to try and see if they happen to be working on the same thing. Of course no one is and I give up completely. I go to find I silent corner where  I can call my mom but before I find one I see my friend waving at me from a table. She is sitting at a table working on her laptop, trying to come up with a design for one of her classes. I go sit with her and we begin to talk, trying to keep it to a whisper, but occasionally falling and having to be reminded by my friend to keep it down. Soon we decide to go and get lunch before we start eating in the library and incur the librarian’s wrath.

theme week 4

Looking around the school café I see a young man in blue jeans and a black t-shirt and glasses sitting on one of the tan armchairs with a black laptop in his lap, typing. Occasionally he looks sideways and talks to the girl sitting in the tan armchair to his left.  She also is wearing glasses and blue jeans. She has a black and grey t-shirt on and has a smaller silver laptop sitting in her lap. An old fashioned looking lamppost sits between their chairs and a fake tree sits in a square plant pot to the left of the girl. Across the room a woman sits at one of the tall round bar tables, wearing blue jeans and a grey jacket and a blue and grey striped hat. There is a laptop sitting in front of her and she is typing away. A pile of papers sits next to the computer and a barely drunk from bottle of cherry coke sits behind it. There is a blue and grey backpack sitting in the chair to the left of the woman and a red winter coat thrown over the back.

Looking around the school café I see a young man in blue jeans and a black t-shirt and glasses sitting on one of the tan armchairs with a black laptop in his lap, typing, and studding for a class. Occasionally he looks sideways and talks to the girl sitting in the tan armchair to his left, perhaps studding for the same class.  She also is wearing glasses and blue jeans. She has a black and grey striped t-shirt on and has a smaller silver laptop sitting in her lap, headphones hang around her neck blasting music as she studies. An old fashioned looking lamppost sits between their chairs and a fake tree sits in a square plant pot to the left of the girl. Across the room a woman sits at one of the tall round bar tables, wearing blue jeans and a grey jacket and a blue and grey striped hat. There is a laptop sitting in front of her and she is typing away. A pile of papers and a red folder of school work sits next to the computer and a barely drunk from bottle of cherry coke sits behind it, just bought. There is a blue and grey backpack sitting in the chair to the left of the woman and a red winter coat thrown over the back.

prompt 9

"I want to buy a MacBook."
"There too expensive."
"But I have a credit card that will give me no interest for 18 months, I can pay that."
"I just paid that card off and need to finish paying off my other card. Besides, the computer I have still works fine, there is no need to get a new one."
"But its not new, its almost four years old and runs on Windows Vista, and its not a MacBook."
"I don't need a new computer."
"But I want one! Mom, Dad and Gabby just got new computers! why cant I get a new one to?
"Gabby got a new computer because her old one was stolen, Dad bought Mom one for Christmas because hers was full of viruses, and Dad bought a new one because his was old and slowing down. My computer still works great and its too expensive to buy a new one."
".....I still want a MacBook."

prompt 12

Saturday, the day before the big game. I watch customers crowding the store, heading for the TVs. Vheicles fill the parking lot, giant pickup trucks, vans full of screaming kids, and multi-colored cars. Customers bundled up in bright winter jackets, hats and scarves rush toward the doors. The home theater department is busy, people are everywhere demanding TV from employees, and the employees are trying to tell the customers to please wait until its their turn to be helped. Dozens of TVs go out the door, ranging from 19 inch screens to 60 inch screens. People head back to their cars and try to cram their new televisions into their too small cars, eager to get them home and set them up to watch the Superbowl, only to take them back down the day after the game and return them so they can get their money back.

town (prompt substitution)

The road stretched out for miles ahead, full of cracks and pot holes, weeds struggling to grow up between the gaps between the pavement. The dusty sidewalk ran alongside the road, more grass and weeds growing on it as well. The Mint bar stood to one side, looming over all surrounding buildings. The outside was in bad need of touching up, paint chipped off the door, cracks in the brick walls, the windows covered in grime. Other, nicer buildings surrounded the bar, colorful houses and apartment buildings, old mom and pop stores that still sold soda for less than a buck. A shiny new convenience store on the corner, looking out of place with its shiny new sliding glass doors and sleek modern paneling. A few cars were parked on the street. Old beaten trucks with rusting stains on the hoods, small family cars filled with car seats and toys. Not a single person outside to enjoy the midday sun, just an empty road, filled with silence.

Prompt 10

“When I got AT&T it was ‘dropped call, dropped call, dropped call.’”

“Yah they suck, didn’t they just get the iPhone?”

“They have the iPhone 4, 4s, and 5.”

“I want one so bad.”

“I have one and their nice. I use it when I travel. I have the 4 so it doesn’t have Siri, but I’m not too worried. I think if I had Siri I would just turn it off because I think it talks by itself.”

“Actually I think it’s an app you have to open to use.”

“So it doesn’t talk by itself?”

 “No, it acts like a real person, you can ask how she is doing and she will say ‘I’m fine, how are you?’ and she will help you with anything on the phone. Don’t iPhones have face time?”

“Yah but I don’t thing mine does, and everyone I know who has it doesn’t use it, and I don’t know why, it’s the best feature.”

Prompt 6

Unlike some other women I don't collect purses, I collect wallets. I have a whole shelf full of them and I use a different one every few weeks, at last count I had over twenty all together. The oldest I have is a leather wallet from my trip to Florida when I was in third grade. I got it at the Epcot Center, it has horses embossed on the front, a saddle on the back, and a deer in the center. At the time I loved horseback riding and had to get the wallet. Another wallet made of cheep black vinyl covered in different colored skulls. I bought it at Borders, my favorite book store, a few years before it went out of business. Several wallets are ones I have gotten from anime conventions over the past few years, each one with a different video game character or anime that I was currently obsessing over. Many more wallets were ordered online, mostly anime, or bought in the mall. Some are checkered or stripped, some long others short. Some made of paper, some leather, others cloth or vinyl. Some have my favorite super hero logos on them or characters from one of my favorite movies The Nightmare Before Christmas. The last wallet I bought was last Monday. I actually bought two, one small one with a fairy on the front, and another long black one with the logo from the Legend Of Zelda video games. Over the next few years I'm sure that I'll buy many more wallets from various places, and they will all end up on that shelf, overflowing and falling off until I reorganize them.

prompt 7

My trip to Europe 2010. A red telephone box with people walking by it without a second glance. Magnificent Horse statues rearing up on their hind legs tossing their mains in the middle of a fountain. Giant fish wrapped around the base of a lamppost. Another fountain, this one topped with an angel firing an arrow from a bow, with construction going on in the background, giant sheets covering the buildings being worked on. The London Eye rising hundreds of feet into the air, taking passengers on a ariel tour of the city. Photos taken on the London Eye of old buildings. Big Ben, the giant clock tower, the House of Parlliament, the Palace of Westminster, and the Thames river directly below. I was only in London for a day but the sights and shops fascinated me. I hope to go back someday and explore the city more. Just that one day and I fell in love.

prompt 8

The first book I read all on my own as a kid was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. This was the first book I read all the way through with no help from a grownup. Since then I have read hundreds of other books. Longer, more detailed, more complex books from How to Eat Fried Worms to Harry Potter to The Lord of The Rings. The books I read in later life had more issues and story behind them that were much better and more entertaining than Green Eggs and Ham. I read fantasy and drama, Shakespeare and Arthur Conan Doyle, science fiction and non-fiction. All of these books could be considered better than Green Eggs and Ham. But Green Eggs and Ham was my first, the book I read all on my own, and it will always be one of my favorite books.

theme week 2

A black brown and white tiger cat hiding underneath the Christmas tree. A pine branch is blocking the lower part of his face and one eye but you can still see the whiskers and white splotch on the left side of his face. The only part of the tree that is visible in the photo are a few small branches at the top of the picture and at the bottom you can see the bright red and blue tree skirt covered with pictures of horns, pine, and drums. The cat is lying on the skirt staring at something out of view with eyes that if you look closely enough at you can see cataracts in. he is an old cat, I got him in 1998 when I was 8 or 9 and even then he was several months old when we got him. I remember not being able to name him for the longest time, so my dad called him Snot and called his brother, my sister’s cat, Booger. After a while my sister named her cat Ferret, because she wanted a pet ferret but was denied one. At 8 I copied everything my sister did so I called my cat, the one in this photo, Weasel. Ferret and Weasel, our tiger cat twins. The first Christmas we had these cats Weasel tried to run up the Christmas tree, he never tried it again. I remember him escaping outside before he had all of his shots and attempting to outrun us and enjoy the outside air. When I got my other cat, Lily, on my thirteenth birthday Ferret and Weasel would chase her around the house and terrorize her. Now that Ferret is gone Weasel dose this less then he used to and Lily has started to fight back.

 Weasel would bring us presents to show his love, such as dead mice, birds that were still alive enough to fly around the house, and on one occasion, a half live mole that my sister and I found on the kitchen floor when we got home from school, that one we had to have a neighbor come over and get rid of. After a while once he realized that we did not appreciate these gifts as much as he thought we would, he began to mostly leave them outside.

 He only drinks water directly from the faucet if he can get his way, and sits at the sink for minutes, waiting for one of us to turn on the water. He is beginning to slow down now because of age, but he still runs around the house full of energy at times. He is getting skinner and less inclined to go outside in cold weather. Thirteen or fourteen years old now, I’ve had him more than half my life. My dad did the math and found out that in cat years he is over eighty years old, an old man, but he still acts like the child he was when we got him and he attemted to climb the christmas tree.

You

You were never a fan of writing, you even hated reading when you were a kid because of your dyslexia. words always switched themselves around and flipped themselves over, making it impossible to concentrate on the pages. Coming up with topics was also hard, you always had thousands of half formed ideas in your head but you could never decide which one to write about. Even when you did settle on a subject, you somehow could never put the words onto the page. No matter what you wrote the words never sounded right or did not describe what you were trying to portray. After reading classes you started enjoying reading more, but writing was still a pain. The increase in reading only gave you more ideas to right about that you could not put into words. School eventually forced you to write more and more and over time you found that it was becoming easier. Writing is still difficult for you but it is much more enjoyable for you than it once was.

She

She used to hate writing. She could never come up with anything to write about and it frustrated her. Whenever the teacher assigned writing homework she would dread doing it more than any of her other homework, besides math. Often as a result she would turn in writing assignments a day late because she would either put off doing it or simply stare at the computer with no idea how to start. Over time, as it got less and less acceptable to turn in homework late, she was forced to turn assignments in on time. this made her try harder to come up with ideas and write them down. Eventually she realized that writing was not as bad as she had thought and actually came to enjoy it more, though she still struggles with it sometimes.

Jan 19

Today I helped my mom clean the house then had lunch. After that I went to work and stayed there for seven hours. I went home and had dinner. After dinner I watched more Supernatural, I'm halfway through season seven now and when its over I will have to wait for season eight to come out on DVD unless I can find all the episodes on Hulu. Once I finish the current seasons of the show I will probably start re-reading the Hobbit.

I

When I was a kid I did not like writing much. I could never think of anything to write and would sit in class for what seemed like hours, wishing that I could be outside on the playground instead. As I got older I got more tolerant of writing and started to enjoy it more, I still struggled finding things to write but it was getting easier. Writing assignments got a bit better to do and as long as the teacher gave me a topic to write about I could come up with a piece. Eventually I got better at writing without being given a set topic and found new things to write about. Today writing still can be difficult for me but I have more fun doing it and am glad I never gave up on it entirely.

What do you see?

Sitting in my room I see the posters on my walls, bright vibrant colors. video game characters looking back at me through the cloth the are sown into. Stacks of movies piled up behind the door waiting to be watched. An old Nintendo 64 game console sitting on my desk telling me to relive the games of my childhood. I see book shelves reaching toward the sealing crammed with hundreds of books, old and new. All of my favorites like Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings. Figures of more video game characters standing on the shelves, filling every surface not covered in books. My TV is on the desk projecting more Supernatural, casting lights and shadows across the room. An overweight white cat curled up on the end of the bed, sound asleep, surrounded by rumpled blankets. Last I see my computer in my lap open to my blog as I type this for class.

Jan 18

Today I got up at 8am and went to science class and sat through lecture. Then I went home and had lunch before going to Best Buy to work 12 to 7. After work I went home and had dinner. Started season seven of Supernatural. And did homework.

Jan 17

Slept in again then got up and ate. Went to classes then back home and did my science lab. For dinner my parents took me to the Long horn Stake House. After dinner we went home and I finished season six of Supernatural, (six seasons in three weeks, I love this show) then I set my alarm and went to bed

Jan 16

Went to science lab then went to the cafeteria to have lunch. Went to the book store and spent another $70 on a book for classes. After that I went to Writing and math. Then I went home and did homework. Made dinner then watched more Supernatural. Went to bed.

journal Jan 15

Slept in today. Had chicken pot pie for lunch. Went to my first Human Relations and Sociology class. After class I went to work and cashed people out all night. When I got out of work I went home and had dinner, then watched Supernatural, my latest obsession. After that I set my alarm and went to bed.

blurbs (prompt substitution)

Scrapping snow off my car so I can see where I’m going. Drive down the slippery highway to get to school on time. Its barely snowing but the roads are slick with water and ice. Traffic is backed up, two cars in the breakdown lane surrounded by flashing blue lights, pass them by. Traffic speeds up a bit. Two more cars pulled over not three hundred feet down the road, also surrounded by the lights. Police officer talking to one driver through their window, pass them too. Traffic slows again and another three hundred feet down there are two more cars but no lights yet, both drivers talking to each other. Pass them and look in the rear view mirror. The blue lights are just pulling up to the scene and traffic picks up again.

What do you hear? prompt one

The clicking of keys on the keyboards surrounds the room. The fan is humming, blowing air into the room to cool it down. There are voices talking back and forth, discussing assignments and how to make a blog. The door clicks as it opens and bangs when it closes. Restless students move their chairs around the room, wheels squeaking. There are noises coming from the room next to this one, chairs without wheels scrapping across tile floors. The voice in my head reading this as I write it to make sure it sounds okay. Listening closer I hear the ringing in my ears. It’s always there, never stopping, since I was nineteen, I’m twenty two now. Tinnitus, it runs in the family, my dad and grandfather both have it too. No matter how quiet a room is, the ringing is always there, it’s never silent for me. I’ve forgotten what silence sounds like.

How did you get here? prompt 3

Samantha Nasberg

How did you get here?

            After eating lunch at home I convinced myself to get off the internet and climb into my car. Setting my iPod to one of my new favorite songs I put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway and headed to EMCC. Originally I had been going to school at the University of Maine in Orono. After a year and a half attending classes there I dropped out and took a semester off. The classes were too large for me at UMaine and I could not concentrate in them. My mind would drift off to faraway lands of books and television. I would get distracted by other things, what should I read next? Which episode am I on of that TV show I’ve been obsessing over? Do I work tonight? This caused my grades to drop and me to have horrible anxiety attacks. After a semester off I took a computer class at EMCC and found that the smaller classes made it easier for me to pay attention to and the instructor had more time to interact with the students individually. After that computer class I began to take more and more classes at the school, including writing, history, and Korean, things that actually interested me, not pointless classes I could care less about. One year ago I enrolled in the school full time in order to finish a degree in liberal studies, finishing what I had started at UMaine back in 2008. After I complete five more classes, including this one, I will achieve my goal of getting a college degree and that is how I ended up in my car, driving to this school, in this room, writing this piece.