* Saturday Centus Week 5 *

Welcome to the fifth week of Saturday Centus. (This is my 2nd time to participate.)

This is a themed writing meme. Come on and join the fun!!

Each Saturday Jenny Matlock will be giving a new "prompt" for the week and you have the entire week to link your work to the meme and you can link more than one story if you like.

Each linked essay must be 100 words or less, not including the "prompt" words. No pictures should be used. No profanity. The prompt words can be used in any place within your story but must be left intact.

Please display link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

Jenny would suggest that since these are so short, if you can't think of a title just use your blog name as the title in the Linky.

Jenny also says it would be great if you would try and visit the rest of the links. Actually, it will be fun for you because they were wonderful last week for sure!

This link will be live until next Saturday morning around 7 am. And please, remember to link to your SC URL...not your main blog.

Here's mine for this week's prompt.....(coming in at exactly 100 words) Prompt is in italics.

I settled into the comfortable movie theater seat with awkward 3D glasses perched on my nose, a small tub of popcorn on my lap, and a bottle of water lodged into the seat holder. Then anxiety kicked in. Why did I come here? Being alone in a theater always makes you look…lonely. Oh well. I can't help that.


A few people strolled in and sat down. Another thing I didn't like….a bunch of empty seats, especially during a comedy. My laughter would echo as if in a cave!

I snorted, cackled, and hooted, all through the movie, and seemed to be the only one doing so.

As the lights came up, I realized why no one else appreciated the hilarious movie. Those few people were members of the PWNSOH Club. Ah, that explained it!

** Time To Be Realistic **

Time is flying by......and I'm having a heck of a time holding on! Thus, the title of this post. I've decided to be realistic in terms of my book deadline. It was a self-imposed one, anyway, and I was kind of worried from the beginning that I wouldn't pay much attention to it! I hoped, though, by posting the Countdown Gadget on my blog, it would motivate me and scare away the old Writer's Sabotage. Hmmm...that didn't seem to work.

So, I have removed that bad old clock that ticked away and made me nervous and stressed, therefore causing more writer's block and angst!

My decision was based on the fact that I want my book to be FABULOUS, rather than mediocre!  Duh!

Ahhhhh....Freedom! I felt better the moment the clock was gone.

This also gives me permission to blog more, enter more contests, send more submissions, keep in better touch with my friends......and basically keep my sanity.

I have a feeling I'll get a lot accomplished this weekend.....in all the areas of my home and life that need to be worked on!

“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”-- Amanda Bradley

** You've Got a Friend **

Hey Everyone! Thank you all SO much for all your wonderful comments!

Gosh, You Like Me! You Really, Really Like Me!   << said in my best Sally Field voice!!

I'll be back later today.......but just know that all is well!! I'm not wearing myself out, etc!


"Nothing is worth more than this day". -- Goethe

* It Can't Be Almost Wednesday Already *

My apologies to friends I owe e-mails to.....

To friends I owe comments to....

My day began around 4:30am and hasn't stopped yet......no time wasting, and no nap, either!

And it appears the rest of the week will be very similar.

But it's all good. No problems. Just Busy!

I'm sure I'll be back to post something tomorrow. You know I can't stay away!

Somewhere during those precious 24 Hours I'm given each and every new day.....I must get going on the June birthday cards, and devote much more time to my book!! Please send me good vibes, good karma, cosmic encouragement, well wishes, whatever!

I cut this headline out of the newspaper some time ago. Although I think the situation in the Gulf is very tragic and sad, I couldn't help but use this for my blog.

See. I'm BP. Get it?? And I really need to be urged to work harder on those cards and on my book!

"I am definitely going to take a course on time management...just as soon as I can work it into my schedule" -- Louis E. Boone

* Memorial Day - Vox Magazine - Math Skills? *

Due to the very unorganized way I've been handling things lately, I have not been able to find the photos I wanted to post today. (They weren't taken on a digital camera, and are soundly sleeping in one of my many photo boxes.) Maybe by the 4th of July, I will have located them and can share them then. Until then, I just wanted to say that every Memorial Day I honestly remember why we celebrate this day, which used to be known as Decoration Day, back in The Old Days.

"Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?" -- Holly Near
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While going through my various little piles of papers, notes, doodles, etc....looking for photos.... something pretty cool did happen. I came across my note about Vox Magazine, which interviewed me by telephone a few months ago. I had written "sometime in mid June" on my note, but thought What the heck, I'll go online and see what I can find out. WELL, the interview is posted right there, dated May 27th!

Taken directly from their website: "Vox Magazine is published by the Columbia Missourian and produced by magazine students at the world's oldest (and we'd like to think best) journalism school." (that school is the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri.....best known as "Mizzou".)

The article can be found here. It will also be in the print edition, which I intend to get a "few" of!
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My math skills....or lack there of. Anyone who's known me very long, knows that I joke about my math abilities. My dad was a brilliant man with "The Math Brain". I am NOT brilliant, nor do I have "The Math Brain". I have "The Literary Brain". I can do basic math, of course. (I'm reminded of Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies. He could cipher up a storm!)

ANYWAY....I was looking over my list of birthday cards I need to make for the months of June and July. I didn't have a calculator handy, but I knew I could add up a few little numbers without the help of a machine!

Well, I added them up two times, just to make sure of the total. The first time I came up with 95 cards. The second time I came up with 74 cards. Now I ask you....HOW THE HECK DID THAT HAPPEN?!

So, I got out my trusty calculator and the correct answer is: 72 cards! Ta-Dahhhhh!

I may have to round up some helpers to get all these babies made! They have to be at the location by the 3rd Wednesday of each month, which means I have about 2 weeks to make and send 29 cards...that's how many there are for June. (Most months have been 10 or less cards.)

If you haven't been a follower very long, you are probably scratching your head, saying, "What cards? And who are they for?" Long story short: I found out about some St. Louis inner city kids that sometimes do not receive a birthday card at home, due to financial or other reasons.

I know the phrase "it is so rewarding" can be overused sometimes or seem pretentious....but that's how I truly feel.

I just do some "fancy" printing and use birthday stickers, plus some motivational sayings. I've heard the kids love receiving them, from the youngest to the oldest teens. I have a stamper for the backs of all the cards I make. On theirs, instead of saying it was made by Becky, I write: Made by Someone Who Cares.
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

* Thoughts on a Sunday Night...uh Monday a.m. *

(photo courtesy: creative writing degree abroad jpg)

Yesterday I attended the monthly meeting of Saturday Writers. We had a bit of an "Open Mic" session and I read one of my short newspaper columns from a couple of years ago. It was well received which obviously made me happy.

I also belong to Coffee & Critique, which meets every Tuesday morning. Most times, we stick around and have lunch, thus more "writer talk".

Being around other writers is a big piece of the pie that makes up my life. Listening to them read their writing...listening to others read my writing, receiving helpful suggestions and wonderful compliments.....Just talking about everything in the writing and publishing world... That's what helps motivate me to keep at it. I come away from these get-togethers all charged up and ready to take on the world.....ready to finish my book....my Best Seller!! Hey, it's MY dream.....and I'm reaching for the stars!

I've wondered off and on....what the heck did I used to think about....before my passion for writing presented itself and took over? Well, one big thing person, was Mark, my youngest son! Now that he is a grown man.....no, that can't be right.....my child-rearing days are gone, and I can focus on other things.

Ah...I'm beginning to ramble. Anyway, I just want to say how much all my writer friends mean to me, whether near or far. The wonderful people I've met through my blog this past year, also mean the world to me. It's fun and heartwarming knowing you're "out there" and we're sharing our thoughts and dreams, talents and treasures.

"Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance." - Sir Rabindranath Tagore

** Saturday Centus - Week 4 **

Welcome to the fourth week of Saturday Centus. ** Although this is the 4th Week, this is my first time to participate. **

This is a themed writing meme.

Each Saturday Jenny Matlock will be giving a new "prompt" for the week and you have the entire week to link your work to the meme and you can link more than one story if you like.

Each linked essay must be 100 words or less, not including the "prompt" words. No pictures should be used. No profanity. The prompt words can be used in any place within your story but must be left intact.

Please display link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

Jenny would suggest that since these are so short, if you can't think of a title just use your blog name as the title in the Linky.

Jenny also says it would be great if you would try and visit the rest of the links. Actually, it will be fun for you because they were wonderful last week for sure!

WEEK 4 PROMPT
“May I help you, miss? You look puzzled.”
“Mmmm… thank you, I’m just looking for my father. We came in together a moment ago, but he seems to have wandered off.”

This link will be live until next Saturday morning around 7 am. And please, remember to link to your SC URL...not your main blog.

Okay.....here's my attempt at this, coming in at 99 words!

“May I help you, miss? You look puzzled.”

“Mmmm… thank you, I’m just looking for my father. We came in together a moment ago, but he seems to have wandered off.”

Darn that father of mine! How was I supposed to know it wasn't safe taking him anywhere. How did I get myself into this? We'd barely spoken in decades and then, out of nowhere, he wants to come and visit?!

I stroll up and down the aisles, my eyes darting in all directions. As minutes tick by, my anger changes to uneasiness, then to alarm. Where is he?

I hear commotion in the biography and memoir aisle. My heart breaks as I see my father slumped on the floor, grasping my memoir, with pride in his tearful, dying eyes.

** This 'n That on a Friday Night **

It's  been a busy, but productive week. I'd have to say that yesterday was THE busiest and THE productiviest! <<  is that even a word?! I do like to make up words sometimes!

Yesterday, I got up early and decided I really needed and wanted to walk on one of "my trails". There are a couple near my home that I rather drive to, and walk along the path, than to just stay home and walk in the neighborhood. So...whatever works, right? I usually never remember to take my camera, but I made sure I took that, too. It's just very beautiful and peaceful. I love to walk alone, and be in my own thoughts, etc.

One of these days, as soon as possible, I really have to get a better camera. Mine is fine for "normal" pictures, but not for distance or really close-up shots. Anyway.....here's two.

This is a rather large pond and pretty waterfall in the back. And right behind it, just on the other side of the tiny bushes, is a fairly busy street. There is also a cute gazebo, where many weddings are held. I couldn't get close enough to take a picture of it, though.

(I should send a shout-out to Daisy at Dancing With Daisy, because she always posts pretty photos from her walks, too. I was just thinking about all those snowy and icy pictures we all posted this past winter. How far away that all seems now, but we thought spring and summer would never arrive!)

Before I left the house, I called and made an appointment for Tiger to get groomed. She was shedding really badly and also needed her nails "done"! They were able to take her right away, so I dropped her off on the way to the trail.

After my walk, I decided I really needed the inside of my car cleaned, since it was full of old dog hairs...so on to the car wash...inside and out. They did a fantastic job.

I came home and did some vacuuming......old dog hairs! I also washed the 2 little quilts that are used for Tiger's bed.....and her pillow cover...because they had....you guessed it: dog hairs.

I slightly edited and submitted a story to Guideposts that I'd worked on a year or so ago, and had even submitted elsewhere. I feel really good about it, although, I always feel very optimistic about my writing!! Their guidelines said it can take two months to hear from them, which is quite normal. I'm not going to divulge what it's about at this time. I'm kind of funny sometimes about that!

Somewhere in there, I stopped by my chiropractor's to get an adjustment!

AND, somewhere in there, I had lunch, worked some in my office, watched a little TV, etc.

Here's Tiger's "after" photo! She actually looked a lot thinner with so much hair brushed and washed out!

I love it, too, that Kennelwood always puts an appropriate bandana on her when she's all finished. This one is red, white and blue and says USA on it....obviously for Memorial Day.

This weekend, let's all remember what Memorial Day is really all about.

Have a safe and happy one.....looks like Tiger definitely will.

"For in acceptance lieth peace". -- Amy Carmichael