Week 13 Prompt 65

There is a shoebox in the closet that holds some of my most favorite things from when we first moved here. To others they look like little stupid, meaningless things but to me they hold special memories. Inside the box there are seashells, all different shapes and sizes as well as dried starfishes and small pieces of coral. For years my mother would tell me to get rid of the things I don't want or need anymore but for some reason I could ever bring myself to throw them away. I knew they were just shells and things that I could just replace in a heart beat but I couldn't do it. That box and it's contents were a symbol of a significant change in my life. I had picked some of them out on one of our trips to Southern Maine when we were looking for a new house, and some of them I had picked up after we had settled into our new home. They were a reminder of a major turning point in my life. Everything changed for me when we moved, the area we lived in, my friends, life was different. The box was a comfort to me and I was not yet ready to throw away something that brought back such strong and significant memories.

Week 13 Prompt 68

It's almost 1am, I lay in bed wide awake. I have to be up in 7 hours but I cant seem to fall asleep. I don't know if its the two cups of tea I decided to have after 6pm or the fact that I have one million thoughts running through my head. I can't shut them off. I'm thinking about classes, homework, friends, the weekend, boy troubles, friend's boy troubles and more. It's literally exhausting yet I still can't sleep. Sometimes I feel like I think too much. I over analyze situations, over think past and present situations, think of conversations in my head that I want to have with people but probably never will. All these different thoughts fill up my mind, and I think why? Why, am I wasting all this time and energy thinking about all these conversations, situations, and people? Yes, some of it is significant, but a good majority is just random thoughts and daydreams. Then it hits me, thinking like this reminds me of who I am, who I want to be; my personal and sometimes eccentric thoughts, my aspirations and dreams; what important to me. It reminds me that I have a working, intelligent brain capable of having and creating these complex and incredible notions. It reminds me that I am alive, that I am human. I think, therefore I am.

Week 13 prompt 67

They were whispering in the hallway about what had happened the night before. It wasn't much of a whisper though. I could hear the anger and annoyance in their voices as every word slipped out. Her door was only two feet away but they didn't care if she heard them. They wanted her to because they wanted the confrontation. Me? I don't like confrontation so I sat and listened from my bed. However, they tried to involve me. They told me that she let some boy try and kick our door open. How'd that turn out? well the whole door frame broke and needed to be replaced. They wanted me to react but I still stayed neutral. I knew we'd figure it out. Anyway, that's what they had been whispering about.

They continued to talk about the situation throughout the morning as we got ready for the day. The two of them were out eating breakfast in the kitchen when quiet, Roommate B comes flying out of her room and boy was she angry.

"If you have something to say, say it to my ******* face! I've told you that before!" She yelled at them.

"I was drunk and wasn't thinking. It will get fixed. You don't need to sit here and talk about it without me when I can hear every word you're saying!".

I couldn't believe it. She was always so passive and then all of a sudden she found her voice. I was glad that she was standing up for herself. They should've just confronted her in the first place instead of talking bad about her within ear shot, and she definitely let them know that.

Week 12 Prompt 61 A

These are more or less things you could do to make someone want to leave you, not necessarily ways to leave your lover.

1. Being too clingy
2. Lying
3. Cheating
4. Picking a fight about anything and everything
5. Never loosen up, always be uptight
6. Wanting to know every small detail about your partner's day and life for that matter
7. Being self-centered
8. Pushing certain hobbies on your partner
9. Pushing habit's/lifestyle on your partner
9. Pushing your beliefs and/or political views
10. Caring more about your personal gain than your partner's
11. Being too aggressive, always shouting never just talking things out
12. Being too clingy
13. Just break up with them. Just do it like a band-aid.
14. kill them (awful but one way to leave them!)
15. Make them fall in love with someone else
16. Fart, burp, pick your nose, do anything gross/unhygienic in front of them and in public.
17. Never say Thank you or you're welcome
18. Never do anything nice for them
19. Make your problems their problems. If you're troubled they're gonna be too!
20. Bring up past boyfriends/girlfriends
21. Bring up your's and their past mistakes all the time
22. Talk bad about their best friends or people close to them
23. Act like your parents/family hate them
24. Get an online dating account that your partner doesn't know about
25. Get a separate phone and text hookers on it
26. Don't wash your undergarments
27. Never shower or wash up
28. Get a pet your partner absolutely laothes
29. Let yourself go
30. Have bad dental hygiene. Bad breathe is always a good thing. (sarcasm)
31. Chain smoke
32. Binge drink
33. Do drugs on the regular
34. Party and go out all the time
35. Being immature, never act your age
36. Always adding your two-cents to a conversation
37. Let your mommy make all your decisions for you, regardless of your age
38. Be a mommy's boy
39.  Be a prude, never make them feel wanted sexually
40. Let your work consume your life
41. Be lazy, never help out around the house; wash dishes, clean, etc.
42. Never offer to pay or take them out. ever.
43. Ignore him
44. Find someone else
45. Develop a strange addiction
46. Be extremely anal/ Obsessive compulsive
47. Insult/talk about their friends and family to them
48. Point out insecurities and imperfections
49. Criticize how he does household chores
50. Be extremely indecisive and always say I don't know.

Week 12 Prompt 57

"Hey, hows it going?"

"Rough, I need a drink after the day we've had today".

"How has your section been today?"

"Eh, not wonderful. I havehad some good tables and some bad but I have made quite a few tips!"

"Ugh same but right now I have the worst table EVER. The woman on the end of 24 if freaking AWFUL. She literally had a question about everything on the menu and I answered all of them but she still does not seem satisfied or happy no matter how kind I am to her or how quick my service is. God, I hate people that aren't understanding".

"That's so stupid! Does she not realize we are wicked busy today? Things are running as smoothyl as possible and she can clearly see your section is packed full!"

"I know right! I'm not a robot, I am a human and I absolutely cannot do ten things at once, especially not for people like her".

"Just try the best you can, and if it's not good enough for her just remind yourself of all the people that you have made happy today. You're doing an amazing job, just keep your head up!"

 "Aw well thank you! But I just don't even want to go over there anymore.. I hope they finish their food very soon and leave".

I've worked for the past five years as a waitress on York Beach. There are times when it gets so busy and things start to get a little stressful for the waitstaff. I start to feel unwanted and not appreciated by costumers when they do not fully understand how a restaurant runs. There are so many factors that play into the service our customers gets. A restaurant is like a factory, it is a working system, and all the parts fit together to provide excellent service to a costumer. There are the servers, the cooks, the managers, the bus boys and more, and if one of these parts fails or falters it affect the whole system.

It is the most discouraging and annoying thing to put it bluntly when a customer does not consider every part of the restaurant and doesn't take into consideration their waitresses efforts it's very frustrating. I work very hard and try to be as quick and as friendly as I possibly can and it is always so rewarding to have someone completely enjoy your service. However, sometimes my attitude gets a little negative when I encounter some not so pleasant and inconsiderate people.

Week 12 Prompt 58

I've been on my own for a few weeks now. I am sad but happy; and confused but sure of myself and the decision I had made to leave him. I was lonely but hoping that it wouldn't be for long. Then I met you. We weren't meeting for the first time, but it was so different than before. Nevertheless, there had always something about you that caught my attention. I don't know what exactly but I knew you were my "type" of guy (sounds cheesy I know). I wasn't looking to settle for someone again. I wanted to find someone I really wanted to be with, that I sincerely liked, and someone that would give me the same amount of love and trust that I gave to them. For some reason, I was sure from the very beginning that that person could be you.

You came into my life when I needed someone most, and you were so understanding. I knew it was kind of wrong how fast things were going or at least it felt that way at first, but it was so right and more real than anything I had experienced. Real in the sense that we talked about things that were actually important in a growing relationship. We put our feelings for each other right out in the open and made it clear what we wanted in a relationship. There was nothing to keep from you, and I didn't feel like I had to hide away and neither did you. We were 100% ourselves and it was perfect.

Week 11 Theme

It was small-talk, she hated that. She didn't talk over messages the way she would in person. She felt there was so much to say but she didn't know how to say it. Would she come on to strong or was it just what he was waiting to hear? She didn't like squishing things down into a tiny text message. It didn't say how she truly felt or what was really on her mind.

Some days go by and she wont hear anything until the afternoon.
"Just got back home. Hope your day is going good."
"Mines going pretty well, kind of busy. How was the ride?" She replied.
"Long. I'm glad its over".
"Yeah I bet".

Simple questions replied to with simple answers. It could go on like this for hours or days even. It was a little boring at times but she didn't want to bug him so she followed his lead. Although there was some lull in conversation there were times where they talked about what was really on their minds and didn't beat around the bush with mundane questions and chat. She said what she felt and so did he.

"I've really never felt this way about being with a girl. It's just easy to be me around you and you let me be myself. I really like how relaxed things are between us".

He let her know what he really thought of her. He was a true gentleman in his words and in his actions as well. He always made sure she was comfortable and had what she needed when they were together and she did the same for him. He made her feel special. They saw each other a few times a week, and stayed in touch when they weren't together. They decided not to rush things and that was absolutely fine with her.  She needed some time to find herself and to figure out what exactly she wanted. Nothing was stressful or tense and she felt she could be herself. She knew good things take time and she was sure this was going to be a very good thing. Even if it they were moving slow, it was only just the beginning.

Week 11 Prompt 54

After handling the perfume bottle, he smelled of old woman from decades ago, a woman who had to be dead.

He set the perfume back on the night stand as he took in the elegant design on the outside of the bottle. She always did have good taste, he thought.

The smell of her perfume comforted him. He walked around her bedroom stopping here and there to reminisce and to go through some of her things. He and some of his family had come for the day to go through her belongings that she had left behind.

She had been in a nursing home for a year now and her home looked just as she left it, like she hadn't even gone away.

There were clothes still in the closet, necklaces and rings in her jewelry box, candles placed here and there with little black wicks looking like they had just been burned. There were pictures of her grandkids in frames on the walls and on side tables and the furniture was just as it always had been. Nothing had changed here, but so much had changed for him.

He gazed at all the little things that she had left behind in this world and he sighed. "What am I going to do without you?" He asked aloud, in the quiet of the home.

He was very close with her throughout his childhood and as an adult as well. She practically had raised him along side his mother. It was hard for him to be in her home and go through her things. He couldn't face that she was passed, not yet. She was no longer just a short drive away, she had left him forever.

Week 11 Prompt 53

There is a flat stretch of blacktop out in front of me. There are signs on either side of the road for the D.O.T station, speed limit, and business' around town. The cars speed by going at least ten over the speed limit, always. There is no side walk, only a break down lane. I don't like to walk here but I have no choice at least for a while until I reach one of the side roads branching off. Normally, I run on my road instead of walking. I hate running on it because it is very busy and I feel like everyone and their brother that passes by is staring at me to see who I am. However, I only think this because I do it to others when they are running so it would only make sense that someone else must do it too.

I don't feel at home here. Once I leave my driveway there is nothing that draws me in or gives me a feeling that I am where I belong. If I died and went to heaven I would hope i wouldn't live on such a bore of a street. Although my road doesn't provide me the feelings I would like it to, there is a side road I love to run on just down the street from my house.

When I run, I use it as a time to clear my head and to take in the beauty of the scenes around me. It is so much better and safer to run on than the busy street I live on. Everything is so peaceful, and mostly quite besides the house a ways down on the right with the two Great Danes that like to bark at passerby's. I like to run down to the little stream where I stop to take a break. It is gorgeous. The green colors of the foliage, the moss on the tree's hanging over the water, the pebbles at the bottom, and the old bobber hanging in the tree from fishermen in years past. It's the little things that please me and make me feel at peace.

This stream and other things I pass while on this street, like the color of the leaves, the old hunters tape on the trees, the four-wheeling trails, and the calmness of the road reminds me of the street I grew up on before I moved here. That place is home in my mind, and when I come down to this place it brings me back there. It may not be my actual road, or exactly like the one I grew up on but it's nice to feel content just for a moment when I am here.

Week 11 Prompt 52

http://unclehenrys.com/init/classifieds/ad_detail/4053105/?_next=http%3A%2F%2Funclehenrys.com%2Finit%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2F5%234053105
Harley Davidson Stool.

This ad probably came from a women trying to clean out her house of junk from the past. If she's anything like my mother she's constantly organizing things and trying to find stuff to throw or give away. I'd say she's getting rid of old junk that she and her husband don't use anymore. This stool was probably sat on a total of 3 times by the looks of it. It belonged to a whole slew of Harley Davidson Memorabilia that was shoved into one tiny section of the basement that her husband liked to refer to as the bar or his "man cave". She thinks it was part of some mid-life crisis he had where he thought he needed to feel like a young fella again. He spent more time building this little man cave and finding stuff to add to it than he did actually using it. He had high hopes of his buddies coming over, watching the game, getting a little buzzed, and talking about the good old days when he actually had a Harley. However, it turns out he didn't use the cave as much as he would've liked. He wasn't actually young anymore; he didn't have a bike, and he went to bed by 7 (even on the weekends) so there wasn't much excitement happening down there. So, regardless of whether he still wanted to use the room and his favorite Harley stool or not, his wife thinks it's necessary to fill the space with something they will actually make use of on a regular basis. Hence why she put up this ad for the Harley Davidson bar stool, just one item on her list of things to sell.

Theme Week 10

When I'm out there the rush I feel is bigger than any other. I'm not a professional or a trickster but I'm good. Just being plain good if fine with me because I like to play it a little on the safe side. I'm not a baby but I wouldn't like to get hurt either. It may seem a little contradictory but I do not like to wear a helmet even though I'm afraid of crashing and burning I have enough confidence in myself that I'm sure I will not fall. Regardless of my worry and small fears it is easily one of my top 3 favorite things to do.

I usually start out in only a few layers, like a long sleeve shirt and I sweatshirt. By the end of the day I've put on all the layers I've brought. I'm probably sweating on my top half, but my feet and toes are almost always frozen at the end of the day. The sun doesn't help when you're out because your cold but the bright sun beating down kind of makes you hot, it confuses your body temperature a little. The chilled breeze on my face is refreshing though as I cruise down along the trail finding the perfect path to travel. I don't like the ice particularly and I don't like too much powder either. My favorite time to go out is right in the morning when it's just starting to warm up but the sun hasn't had a chance to change the condition of the trails and make the sticky or crunchy. When the conditions are perfect it is amazing but I still have fun when they aren't because I enjoy a little bit of a challenge when it comes to maneuvering around a trail. I also like to go with friends, especially ones that push me to try new things. We can race or start together, split up and then meet at the bottom to talk about our run. However, I do not mind going out on my own because it's a time to think and also take in the beautiful surroundings that the mountain has to offer. It is my most favorite winter past time and I can not wait until I take my first trip this season.

Week 10 Prompt 43

We all sat in a circle around the living room. The room was usually quite spacious but so many of us had piled in there it didn't seem so large anymore. Our tight-knit group of friends came together in support of our friend and her family. They had planned for us to tell stories and reminisce on some of our happier times and our favorite memories of her. We wrote our memories and thoughts on little pieces of paper and put them in a little box her father had put out. The outside of the box was decorated with some of her favorite things, or things that represented her in some way. We all took turns telling stories and mostly laughed, there wasn't much crying. This was a time to remember a wonderful life and a wonderful mother. We all needed to be positive for ourselves, and for Courtney most of all. To lose the person you had looked up to your entire life, who raised you, who was your best friend is almost too much to bear. However, it was soothing to have this time to be happy or try to be at least. She was the type of woman who would not want people to be sitting around crying over her all day. We had spent a few hours at their house talking amongst ourselves and with some of her family as well. Then we decided to give her some space and time to herself.

Although we left Courtney's house we did not split up, we all wanted to stay together. From the second we walked out the door there was a different feeling about us. We weren't giggling and talking anymore and we could no longer hide the fact that we were aching inside. I do not think any one of us realized how big of an affect her mother had on us and how awful it was to think that we would never see her again in this life.

 That night the majority of us sat together and we cried. We shared our true feelings about what was going on and tried to console each other. It was a confusing an sad time but we would get through it together. LeAnne would want us to be strong for Courtney and that's what we were gong to do. Even though we would never be able to fill such a large void in her life we were going to come together and do whatever we could for her.

Week 10 Prompt 51

I remember it clear as day. My sister and I were racing down the gravel road from the house my grandparents were building. We were riding without hands, swerving in and out around each other, and singing out loud. We were having so much fun.
***

The road was mostly flat for the first quarter mile or so. Then it started to slant more down hill and just up ahead the gravel was going to meet the tarred road. Jade and I slowed down over the bump where they meet. We knew the rules of the road, we wore our helmets, and we watched out for each other; we were safe riders. After we made it on to the tar we cruised smoothly down the hill.
***


We started gaining speed much faster than we wanted to, but we had it under control or so we thought. There was a sharp right corner up ahead and I yelled to Jade who was slightly behind me so she'd know to start slowing down. We were nearing the turn and I rounded it, shakily but unharmed. I turned back to look for Jade but I didn't see her at first.
***

I'm pedaling back up the hill alone. I had to leave jade down at the bottom. It wasn't extremely serious, but she couldn't ride back up by herself. She was hurt pretty bad, and I'm hysterical, can't breathe, trying to run what just happened through my mind. I needed to get back to the house quick. I didn't know how to help her on my own. All I could do was ride back up the hill as fast as I could to tell my family and get help.
***

Tired and out of breathe I reached my grandparents house. I was trying to talk, trying to make sense of what had happened but I couldn't find the words. They said "Just calm down, slow down and tell us what happened", and I tried. I took a few deep breaths, just enough to spit out that Jade was down at the corner and she needed help. My dad and my uncle immediately took of in the truck to go to her. I wanted to go and I still wanted to help. I was exhausted but I knew I had done a good job. My mother made me stay but I knew everything would be fine. My dad would race her right back there and bandage her up. Now it was just a matter of waiting til she got back. I knew she was OK, but I was scared and I wanted to see her to make sure.