All America Redemption

This is my first entry for the Flash Fiction challenge. My assignment of genre/location/object was Romance/a restaurant kitchen/a ladder. I'm not too crazy about the title, but I AM crazy about my synopsis, which I will write here, and then the actual story. I clocked in at 985 words and submitted with an amazing 6 hrs to spare. I figured if I had fiddled with it any more, it would have gotten worse. I DID make a switch in action that I am very happy about so I'll leave my own comments at that and let you, my readers (huh?) decide for yourself.

"After dishing out the worst mistake of his life, can Scott fix it when served a second chance?"

       Scott punched in, on time as usual, and headed toward the kitchen of All America Food to start prepping for lunch.  He gave the requisite nods to the wait staff as he passed by.

      “Hey, Ashley, Kim, Jorge,” he forced out, not feeling in the mood to be cheerful, though he received more smiles and waves than normal in return.

      “Hi, Scott,” Kim grinned back, grabbing his arm and strolling along side him to the back of the restaurant.  “Don’t have a heart attack when you go in there, and don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” She let go and veered toward the bar just before they reached the shiny silver swinging doors of the kitchen. Scott paused and scratched his head, but didn’t think too long before entering. What met his eyes as the doors swung open, though, he could not have prepared for despite Kim’s warning.

      “Charlotte! What the hell are you doing here?” Scott’s face cycled through a spectrum of pinks and reds until it finally settled on maroon. He wasn’t sure whether to feel angry or ecstatic. He did know that his heart was perilously close to exploding in his chest.

      “And I thought you’d be happy to see me,” Charlotte crooned from her provocative perch on the step ladder. Scott was frozen in place as he stared at the impossible vision of his ex. She wore a t-shirt with Chuck Norris on it, jean shorts, and what were probably $5 Old Navy flip flops. Her long dark hair hung loose down her back, the ends just touching the top of the ladder where she sat, and the burgundy frames of her glasses glinted in the harsh lights hanging over the deep fryers.

      “No, I am not happy, I’m - What would possibly make you think that I’d be happy to see you? After what you - after we - argh!” Scott regained control of his muscles and he stalked over to the fryers and jerkily flipped the switch to “on.” Charlotte abandoned the seductive angle and slid off the ladder to wriggle her way between the fryer and Scott, the top of her head barely reaching his chest. Scott took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his heart rate as he stepped back from the petite woman.

      “Scott, please, I -”

      “Don’t play with me, Charlotte. What are you doing here? I have work to do.”

      “Listen, I know I said ‘no,’ but that’s only because you caught me off guard.” Charlotte matched Scott’s steps and placed her hands on his chest, her head tilted up to meet his alluring green eyes, the look in her own blue beauties positively supplicant.

      “You didn’t just say no. You burst into tears and ran out,” Scott added, hating how comfortable his hands felt resting on her shoulders. “And last I checked, I thought a proposal was supposed to be unexpected.”

      “Unexpected, yes, but not totally horrifying! You know how I get in front of crowds like that, and you -” she had to pause to regain composure, “you had the whole place staring at me, and I freaked out...”

      Scott heard her snuffle loudly, knowing she was trying in vain to hold back tears. But she, strong woman that she was, stood firm. He felt like a jerk. How could he have been so stupid? He should have known better. It must have been terrible for her to get put on the spot like that.

      “That was a week ago today, Scott. You didn’t even try to call or anything.”

      Scott’s heart sank, watching silent tears leak reluctantly from her eyes. She was right. He was an idiot. “I am so sorry. I was crushed after you left that night, and I was afraid you’d say no again.” All he could do was bow his head in shame, until a commotion by the doors distracted him. He looked up and saw Kim, Jorge, and Ashley spying through the small round window. He looked back at Charlotte, who was now smiling. She nodded to the peeping toms and they pushed into the kitchen, each holding a bouquet of at least two dozen roses each.

      “What is going on here?” Scott reeled in amazement as his friends surrounded him and Charlotte. Confused, he looked at who he had obviously mistaken as his ex for the past week. “Charlotte?”

      “Scott, I love you so much. I don’t want to have to run out on you again, so you better ask again quick.”

      “You all were...How did you?...” Scott glanced at Kim and the eager expression in her eyes goaded him on. He pulled the velvet box out of his pocket, he remembered telling Kim that he kept it on him for some reason, bent down on one knee, and presented the one karat solitaire to Charlotte.

      He looked straight into her eyes and took a deep breath. “Charlotte, will you marry me?” The moment of silence that followed was almost too long and he started to worry that she really would run out again. But then he heard the words he so longed to hear.

      “Yes, Scott, I will!”

      Scott stood and gathered his fiancee in his arms and kissed her long and hard until the cheers of the three rose bearers broke them apart. “How did you manage to -” Scott started to ask, but Kim answered before he could finish.

      “Charlotte called the other day wondering how you were doing, and I told her how depressed you were, so we planned it all to make sure you got to do it right this time.”

      Scott slipped the ring onto Charlotte’s finger and kissed her again. “How can I ever thank you?”

      Kim grinned before leaving the kitchen. “Just make sure we’re invited to the wedding!”

Santa and Flash Fiction

No, Santa is not writing Flash Fiction. At least he's not as far as I know. He may be moonlighting as an author, but I think I'd be dead tired after a hard day of eating cookies and having kids sit on my lap...

At any rate! I took Caelyn to Santa's Workshop in North Pole, NY today. I've taken her the past 2 years as well, and well, she loves it! It is such a run down little place, but it's magical, especially when you're still young enough to believe in Santa. Santa is real! He's right there in his house! Caelyn even told me last year, after seeing Santa at the mall, that she knows that that's not the real Santa, just a helper, because she's MET the real Santa, and he lives at the North Pole! How awesome is that? She is so smart.

So we (me and my brother, Dave) followed her around for nearly 4 hours until the park closed, and then had some amazing dinner at the A&W that's right down the street from "Santa Land." A bacon cheeseburger never tastes so good as it does next to a helping of deep fried cheese curds and a huge mug of the world's best root beer.

Now onto flash fiction. The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Contest officially starts at midnight tonight, at which time I find out my 'assignment.' What genre I have to write in, where it's taking place, and an object that has to be in the story somewhere. I kind of want to stay up to see what I get to write, but I'm also kind of really tired and want to sleep.

Well my blogging is being cut short. I've just been informed by a very persuasive 5 year old that we need to go to a dark place to look at the stars. And so we will.

Dreams

I don't normally put much stock in dreams because PMS causes me to have very vivid ones. Most of which I don't remember, but the ones I do remember stick with me. Last night I had 2 very distinct dreams. I wish I had gotten up and written them down right away because now they are only fuzzy blurs, but enough that it still kind of disturbs me because they both involve anger and yelling.

The first one involved someone I am friends with on Facebook, have never met in person but are friends through a mutual friend. I was tied up in a chair, like a hostage, but not in a scary location. It was in a well-lit house, furnished living room and stuff, like I was at home, but it wasn't my home. And this person I think was questioning me, or yelling accusations at me. Or maybe it was more like excited jabbering. He was smiling. and acting excited, or crazed. Or it was about being lost; we couldn't find the way out (of a house?), which still doesn't explain the reason for me being tied up in a chair.

This is also strange because this is the second time that this person has appeared in a dream of mine. The first time he was narrating what was going on, like a blog-writer. Which is even more strange since I have never heard his voice before.

The second dream was me yelling at my daughter. And I mean really yelling. Not obscenities or anything, but flat out screaming stuff like, "DON'T DO THAT" "WOULD YOU STOP THAT, I MEAN IT" and stuff like that, that I am always telling her, but this time it was angry and very loud. And she didn't seem overly perturbed by it either. She was just going along her business and I'd yell at her to stop. I think this dream happened because I was hyper-aware of how extremely moody I was the last time I was PMS'ing. I would get frustrated, irritated, and angry at stupid little things, and yell at her, but then feel bad about it, but I still felt angry so I couldn't even apologize properly. I guess I felt a little guilty.

At any rate, that is it for now. We are going to take a trip to Kmart or Walmart and pick up some small Lego sets, because Caelyn has a Lego table in the play room and no Legos to play with on it.

A Few Thoughts

I'm going to start with this one: "Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you'll land among the stars." This does not make astronomical sense. Number one, the stars are WAY farther away than the moon. If you shoot for the moon and miss, most likely you'll burn up in Earth's atmosphere. If you're lucky. More than likely you'll wind up floating in the vacuum of space where no one can hear you scream. So, a better phrase would be to shoot for the stars, and if you miss you may land on the moon. In either case, though, I think I'd rather hold onto my position here on Earth. Where I can breath.

My second thought is: It's really bright outside today. Bright and a little bit warm. I've got my window fan and my ceiling fan going so it's at least comfortable here inside. Yes, I'm in Malone, NY again until the 15th when I will be making the depressing drive back to Jersey. It's not really that I hate Jersey, it's more that I like the mountains better. I do have to work while I am here, though, brought my computer and everything, but it's just nice to be here.

My third thought is: PCOS. I was recently diagnosed with this disorder, and for those who don't know the acronym, it stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome. It sounds much worse than it is, but I suppose for a lot of women it IS really bad. There are many manifestations of this disorder, and so far I'm thinking that mine is very mild since it hasn't disrupted anything major yet. Most women with pcos hate it because they are trying to get pregnant, and pcos basically is a "no baby for you" sentence. (pcos=no released egg=no ovulation=no fertilization=no baby. get it?) Fortunately, I am NOT trying to get pregnant. And without getting into too many details, pcos also can disrupt...womanly cycles. Mine have not been irregular to the point of saying "oh my gosh what the heck is going on?" so my body is still on some level of normal in that regard.

My fourth and final thought of the day: I have recently signed up for the next Get Sparked! round happening at the end of this month. I am also looking forward to the first round of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction challenge, happening next weekend. What I'm NOT looking forward to is the fact that that is the weekend we will be packing and heading back to Jersey. At least it's only 1,000 words, right? I can knock that out in no time. But still, it will be one more thing to fit into the schedule. I would love to get past the first round in this one, so I'm really going to try hard. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be up to participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I didn't do it last year, but the year before I actually broke 50,000 words which I was so proud of even though I didn't get close to the end of my story. I'd like to try and actually finish something this year.

Back at Home

As the title states, I have made it back home after spending the last 2 weeks at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. I did start writing a play-by-play of sorts while I was there, but didn't get very far. I realized that there were certain things I want to talk about, and the every day stuff isn't really that important. I'm going to have to brainstorm a bit before I remember everything I wanted to put down in words, but for now I'll just give a brief overview of my trip, as exciting as it was .

Compared to our usual 319th chaos and mayhem, this AT went pretty smooth. There were no major blow outs or fights or planning errors. Of course there was the usual training schedule confusion (i.e. not having a training schedule), and the usual break-down of communication between the upper echelon and the lower enlisted, but overall there was very little to complain about. There was one instance at the very end, the last weekend we were there, where our "free day" happened but shouldn't have. In the 11 years I've been with the band, I have never witnessed our Chief  so upset. It culminated in an hour sectional rehearsal, about an hour MPT rehearsal, and then we went outside to have a marching band rehearsal which was held in the Commissary parking lot due to the fact that it was 10PM (or should I say 2200?) and it was the only area that was lit.

Other than that, though, like I already said, compared to our usual cluster, the entire trip was pretty smooth sailing. I'm sure individuals had their own personal gripes, but for me, I was ok with the whole experience. Our day off out in Oklahoma City was superb. I really enjoyed myself at the Oklahoma History Center and then the Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. We ended the day having the most fantastic meal at the Bricktown Brewery in Bricktown, Oklahoma City. I also enjoyed being the driver for the trip; I got to drive a 2011 Toyota Sienna and if I were in the market for a bigger car, that would probably be on my top 5 list. It was a fantastic drive, and it was nice to go fast through the flat countryside of OK. The speed limit averaged about 70mph!

That's all about the trip for now. I also just want to mention the upcoming Flash Fiction contest and the fact that I entered it. First round is August 13-15. Given a genre, location, and object. 1,000 word maximum. I can't wait to get my write on!

And one more thing.

Instead of editing and adding onto the other post (it's long enough to begin with), I'll just write a bonus one for y'all. (who?) I said goodbye to my baby at around 4:45 this evening. She stayed home with my parents while I was in Maine, which was ok, but I still missed her like crazy. It really breaks your heart when a conversation happens like this:

Me- I heard you saw some fireworks tonight.
Caelyn- Yeah!... But.. it was sad without you.

I was only gone a day at that point! But now she's gone with her dad while I'm in OK. I told her I'd call her as often as I could (sometimes I just get caught up in the mayhem and don't remember until too late at night). I am going to have to try really hard to keep myself busy. She's been super clingy lately, and wanting to go everywhere with me, so it will be very lonely without my little shadow around. But we will be able to spend the entire rest of the summer together. We just have to get through this little departure from each other and all will be well. But god, I am going to miss her like crazy. I know I said that already, and I usually try not to repeat myself on things like that, but I really am. Like Crazy. With a capital "C."

At any rate, I got a new Micro SD for the R4 card for my DS, hopefully will be able to put some decent games on it tonight, otherwise I have Pokemon Heart Gold to play. My yarn for crocheting, I'm bringing two books (The Hour of the Star and Moby Dick which I started reading last year in Kansas, but never picked up again after I got home) and my net book. All that, and the little bit of socializing I will do, should serve to keep me busy enough. I hope.

And NOW that's it. Peace out!

See you all in 2 weeks!

Ok, so on my last post I said that that may be my last one. Well, THIS is my last post for at least 2 weeks. I will be off and away to Ft. Sill, OK tomorrow morning with my illustrious Army Reserve unit. This most recent trip to Maine with them was actually more enjoyable than most other trips we've taken. We actually got free time to chill, and relax, and sleep! Sleeeeep...

After an 8 hour bus ride, could have been 9 or more but for some reason I stop keeping track of time when I'm with the 319th, we made it to the hotel. They tried to threaten us with a "practice" when we got there, but once we were there, room keys handed out, they set us free. Hooray! Me and Veronica went out and sat in the hot tub for about an hour, then made our way back up to our room, showered (not together!), and then slept. It was good!

Then there was a 0830 formation time; we got ready early enough to eat breakfast. Bowl of cereal and fruit-on-the-bottom pineapple yogurt. Hooray! (There will be many hoorays throughout this post. Just bear with me. There usually aren't that many in regards to a trip with the 319th). Then it was off to the park for our concert. We played, then got fed huge amounts of grilled chicken (and fries and cake). Then I looked around the park at all the other food vendors. Homemade apple crisp (with a wooden sign shaped like an apple core that said "You'll feel rotten to the core if you don't try some of our a-peel-ing crisp!"). Homemade ice cream. Funnel cakes. Cakes. Fresh squeezed lemon aide. I was stuffed full of chicken, but I HAD to try the ice cream. Just one scoop. SSG Gerber (such a gentleman) treated me and Veronica to a one-scoop cone. She got mint explosion, and I went with the black raspberry. SO GOOD! I did drip some on my uniform, but thank goodness for bleach stain remover pens!

Back to the hotel, where they gave us the entire rest of the evening off! Aside from dinner. Army pays up to $10 for a meal, so they bused us to Applebees. The move theater was right next door, so most of us were going to walk over for a movie after dinner and then cab back to the hotel (Yes, cab is now a verb). Me, Gerber, Veronica, and Azabache decided we wanted to try and make the 7:05 show of The Last Airbender. We asked the waitress how long it would take for the food to come out, we were the first ones sat so she said about 10 minutes. We check our watches. Good. That should be enough time. As we're sitting there waiting for our meals, we ask another dude how much movie tickets are, hoping they'd be cheaper than in NYC and surrounding area. He says, "$7 if you get them here, $9.50 if you get them over at the theater." What! They sell cheaper vouchers at Applebees, so we went for the deal, ate mad quick, and left before most everyone else even got their food. Loney joined us soon after we made it into the theater.

It was a good movie! I did not like the casting they did for Zuko or Iro, but I was able to live with the rest of the movie. It was reasonably acceptable, even having seen most of the cartoon episodes. We call for a cab to get back to the hotel (which cost all of $4), then Veronica says, "let's have dessert!" So we go in to Governor's, the little restaurant attached to the hotel, and ask for the dessert menu. HOLY COW. I ordered "The Dough Boy." Best dessert EVER. It was a pancake of fried dough (like a zepole), covered in hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, all layered with cinnamon and sugar. It was a little piece of heaven. And hell. All in one. I could not finish the monstrosity, although I tried my very hardest. It was sad leaving the last bit that I couldn't swallow. I was so full from chicken, and ice cream, and dinner at Applebees.... and then that. That hellishly heavenly dessert. I will definitely be looking forward to Governor's next year! Then we all chilled in Azabache's room and dude, his room had a freakin' fireplace! And a 40-in flat screen! We drank beer and chatted and just had a really good time hanging out.

The rest of the trip was ho-hum. We got to the parade 3 hours early (as per 310th M.O.), marched the parade, then got on the bus to head for home. OH WAIT. Yeah, not ho-hum. We stopped at Big G's Deli. They have the hugest sandwiches ever. I got a Reuben and sweet potato fries. The website does not do it justice; they should have actual pictures of their food there, but let's say it is the BEST Reuben I have ever had. I got a whole sandwich, stupidly, because I figured I could save half for the bus ride. No bueno. I was stuffed, once again, of delicious food. I should throw it out, because it sat through a 9 hr bus ride, but it's still sitting in my fridge because I do not have the heart to toss it. My mom will have to do it after I leave tomorrow.

And that is all. As the title says, See you all in two weeks!