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.