Tea Time Tales - Hayley Black

Trying my hand at "Tea Time Tales."

On Tuesday, In Good Company gives out certain prompts to use in creating a short work to be posted by Friday.

This week's gossip:

Who: Hayley Black
What: camera, discovery, snoop, letter
Where: graveyard
First Line: This isn't where she wanted to be.

So here goes:

This isn't where she wanted to be. The discovery of newly begun construction at the cemetery near her apartment had driven Hayley Black to return to her hometown graveyard for the mausolea shot she needed to complete the client's wall collection.

"Shouldn't there be a representation of death to balance the life shown here?" It was more directive than query. He didn't give specifics. He didn't have to. She would get the shot today and have it on his wall before the weekend. The detour was nothing more than a few extra dollars of fuel cost.

Or was it? This was her first visit to the site since Victoria's funeral. The memory of her childhood neighbor brought a soft smile to her face as she slipped through the line of oaks and made her way to the rows of family vault tombs. Victoria was more than just the elderly next door neighbor who kept an eye on her after school. Victoria had been her confidant and comforter. She was the person Hayley turned to when she needed advice. They'd sit for hours on the back porch swing, sipping freshly squeezed lemonade and talking about anything that popped into their heads. When Hayley was younger, Victoria would let her snoop around the spare room in the attic, searching through boxes of yesteryear's toys. As a teen, Hayley borrowed book after book from her neighbor's impressive home library. When her high school boyfriend left for an out of state university, Victoria listened patiently to the whining and then, with an air of sympathy, showed her a letter that her husband sent while he was off fighting in the war. The treasure box that held the letter was stuffed tightly with many more just like it. "Wherever I am, my heart is with you" was that line that touched Hayley the most that day. Victoria's husband had not returned from the war. After Victoria's death, Hayley comforted herself with the idea that her dear friend was finally back in her beloved's embrace.

The view she sought through her camera grew blurry, but there wasn't anything wrong with the lens. Wiping her wet eyes, she tried again. After capturing the shot, she packed away her equipment then began walking slowly back to her car, stopping to kneel briefly at the the grave of her friend.

No, this wasn't where she wanted to be, but part of her was glad that she'd returned.

Fun Monday - Bible Favorite

For this week's Fun Monday, Roger from A Screed in Time asked: "...with us going through Holy week, why not go with a little religion, makes sense, right? So this week, I am looking for one of three answers (gotta give you choices). Please share with the group one of the following; your favorite book in the Bible, your favorite character in the Bible, or your favorite biblically based movie."

Now you might think that with me being a lover of the written word, I would automatically pick the book category. Not so fast! I'm not sure that I can pick a "favorite" book in the Bible. I'll admit that I will turn to the New Testament more often than I do to the Old. In the NT, I prefer reading the Gospels. Of the Gospels...well, there I'm stuck. How do I choose between the accounts?

Favorite character? Again that's a toughie, but this time it's not because I can't make a choice. It's because my choice is more than a "character" to me. He is my Creator.

Moving on to movies. The first one that came to my mind was the one I saw most recently.

One Night with the King


Then there is the one I grew up watching year after year.

The Ten Commandments


But if I have to pick a very favorite, it's going to have to be the one that not only has an all star cast, including Patrick Stewart (Oh Captain, My Captain!), but is also chock full of amazing songs that I enjoy listening to over and over.

So, :::drum roll please::: here a clip of my favorite song in my favorite Biblically based movie.

The Prince of Egypt

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teasers:

"He watches milk pool in tiny droplets where the straw disappears through her puckered lips until he can't watch anymore, and he has to watch her eyes again. She watches him watch her, no expression at all, until the carton begins to gurgle."

~pg. 26, "Light Always Changes" by Levi Montgomery

Fun Monday

Roger from A Screed in Time is hosting Fun Monday this month. What is Fun Monday? To be honest, I'm not exactly sure, but it looks interesting. Last week Roger gave us this challenge: "For this week I would like you to answer one of the following questions (yes, I am giving you a choice); If you could pick any ten years over again, without changing them, which ten years would you choose and why? These years do not have to be consecutive years, but there should be ten, okay? Your second choice is, explain the wonders of living in orbit over the moon, or any planet of your choosing (not Earth) for ten years, describe what you think life would be like and if so inclined, describe the planet."

The problem with picking out years to relive is that I don’t think I am strong enough to resist trying to change things. The fact that I love my life now and feel extraordinary loved and blessed should be pull enough to help me resist the urge, but I know myself and well, I just don’t think I could handle the temptation. So going back in time just isn’t an option for me! Right about now you are thinking, “Wait, you wouldn’t really be going back in time silly. You are just supposed to write about it.” My response to that is “Apparently you are still unaware of how powerful my writing can really be!”

Yeah. Right.

Um...anyway. Since I decided against writing about my past, I was left with the task of writing about 10 years of orbiting around another planet. At first I relished the idea of writing about ten Rhonia years. It’s been weeks (months?) since I’ve allowed myself to become immersed in my fictional world and I am missing it. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that I am simply not ready to share MY Rhonia with the rest of this world quite yet. In fact, I may need another 10 years before I am ready for that. So since I couldn’t complete either parts of the challenge there is nothing left for me but to apologize for skipping the first week. Forgive me?

The topic for this week's Fun Monday is Bugs Bunny vs Mikey Mouse. This is an easy one. I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, but it wasn’t because I really LIKED Bugs. He was pretty much the only game in town back then. If there were weekly Mickey Mouse cartoons, I didn’t know about them. To me, Mickey wasn’t a TV character. Mickey was the host of Disney World! Is there a more magical place on earth? I think not.

My Anna disagrees. Oh, don't let this smiling face fool you.

Or this one.

She did have tons of fun at parks, but apparently the awful trip home was enough to tarnish the whole Disney experience for her. So much so that around the midway point in the drive she declared that "next time we want to go to Disney World, we should just stay at the beach hotel instead!" <-referring to our previous vacations at Orange Beach, AL, a mere four hour drive from our home. The rest of the gang readily agreed and I have to admit that my heart sank a little hearing them voice their preference for the beach over Disney.

When I was growing up, my family did not take vacation trips. I am the oldest of seven children and while my parents both worked hard to feed, clothe and educate us, luxuries like family vacations just weren't an option. At least not all together. My grandparents, OTOH, did travel often and nearly every summer, they would bring along several grandchildren with them. When I was 13 or 14, I was lucky enough to accompany them to Disney World the year Epcot first opened. The wonder of that trip will never leave me.

Even if you take theme parks out of the equation, I'm still going to have to choose Mickey over Bugs. The Bugs Bunny cartoons are filled with wisecracks, tricks and insults. I've never been a big fan of that. Yeah, yeah, it's funny...but it's also kinda mean. Tune in to an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and you'll find interactive education! Come on...I'm a preschool teacher. Of COURSE I'm going to prefer that over "What's up doc?"

Sorry Bugs, while I total respect your rap abilities, I'm sticking with the Mouse.

Gotta get a new idea

I'm sorry that I've been away. There was just so much procrastination to do that it overwhelmed me. Thankfully I seem to be caught up with it...for now anyway. Maybe. Actually my past week was fairly full. I've been subbing for a wonderful teacher who is on maternity leave. Getting back into "teacher" mood was an easy gear switch, but that's probably only because I know that this is a temporary position.

Life at home has had a few bumps...and bruises...and swelling. Most of it in hubby's knee. Doesn't this look fun?

The same day my husband received that lovely accessory, my son received two shots for a horrid ear infection. Of my four children, only one of them doesn't really mind shots. Derek isn't that one. To lessen the sting (read:bribe) we promised him ice cream. I think that was when hubby realized that if getting a couple of measly shots warranted a treat as wonderful as ice cream, then having to wear a leg immobilizer for an indefinite period time should be worth an even bigger indulgence. So he ordered an iPad 2.

I'm not upset that he made that purchase. After all, he is the main provider for this family. And besides it was paid for with the money that Uncle Sam just recently gave back to us after so kindly holding it, interest free, throughout last year. The thing is, after 20 years of never knowing what to give my guy for birthdays or Christmas, I FINALLY had a great birthday gift lined up for him. I knew what he wanted and I had set the funds aside to get it.

:::sigh::: Although his birthday isn't until September, it may take another 20 years for me to come up with another idea as awesome as that was.

Freaky Friday

I have some silly dreams.

In one particularly wacky dream, my mom asked me to purchase a ticket to The Louvre – which, for some odd reason, was located on a yacht in New York City. I was going to have to fly to New York to get the tickets and ordinarily that would pose a problem considering how I feel about flying (I'm not afraid of being in an airplane high above the earth. It’s the idea of being fondled by some icky TSA agent that terrifies me.) For some reason, in the dream, I forgot all about my fear and readily agreed to the task. A few minutes later my boss (who looked very much like my former director) walked into the room and told me that I had to go to Europe as well as New York. Please don't ask me why a preschool teacher would have to jet off to Europe for her job. These things can't be questioned!

Because it was only going to be a simple day trip, I knew that I would only need one carry on bag. I first seriously considered a brown paper grocery bag, but then decided that my son’s backpack would be a better choice. What to put IN the bag was a little more challenging. The only item that seemed to make sense was a breast pump. After all, you never know when you might meet a starving baby as you are traveling. Never mind that lactation was halted here almost 5 years ago. Somehow, someway I was going to nourish a starving infant!

Only after packing was complete, did I realize that I should find out what my boss wanted me to pick up for her in NYC and Europe. I grabbed a pen and an old receipt to scribble on and then asked for specific instructions. In reply she began singing a nursery rhyme- one that I wasn’t familiar with. I tried my best to write the words of the song, but the pen kept going out.

That’s all I remember. What would Freud say about such a dream? Are there any hidden meanings in there? Naw, I don’t think so. It was just silly.

I have had dreams that were more than a succession of nonsense images without purpose. There were several dreams that were, beyond doubt, screaming signs. After experiencing the consequences of ignoring the forewarnings, I eventually learned to pay heed to those types of dreams. Thankfully they are rare.

Then there have been a smattering of dreams that gave just enough of a glimpse of future events to thoroughly freak me out. The following is a recent example.

One Friday night, not very long ago, I did something colossally stupid. I flipped on my alarm clock. I guess it was just force of habit. Saturday morning, I was roused from a very nice nonsense dream when the alarm did its job and yelled at me. Annoyed, I turned it off. I was determined to go back to sleep, but my bladder demanded that I get out of bed for a little bit first. Then before getting all snuggly again, I took a moment to check my email (oh yeah, I do love my iPhone now that I’ve learned how to use it!!!) There wasn’t anything of interest in either my email or facebook, so I put the phone back on the nightstand and let myself drift off to sleep again. That’s when it happened. I dreamed that I was standing near my closet, with my phone in my hand. In the dream, I noticed that there was a new email from a friend in my inbox. I read the email and smiled.

That’s it. That was all there was to the dream. Nothing special, right?

At 7:30ish, I woke a second time, grabbed my phone from the nightstand and went about my morning routine. With the dream still fresh in my head, I clicked open my email. Sure enough, there was a new one waiting for me…from the same friend that I dreamed had sent me an email. My hand shook ever so slightly as I opened the message and read nearly the exact same wording that I’d already read in my dream.

Cue twilight zone music. <- I was going to insert a video of the theme music right there, but it totally creeped me out. Sorry, you will just have to hum it to yourself instead.

So, does this mean that I’m officially psychic? Or was that dream as random as the one where my mom asked me to get tickets for the New York Louvre on a Yacht?

I don't suppose it matters. Getting mystical previews of emails won't help make the world a better place. OTOH, I can't see how it would hurt anyone either. So let's try an experiment. After I post this, I will go to off to dreamland. After you read this, leave a comment. That will cause an email to be sent to my inbox. If I dream about the email before I actually get online to open it, I'll let you know!

If I dream about feeding starving infants...I'll schedule a mammogram.

Throwback Thursday

It's been a while since I've writing much of anything. Since I don't want to leave my poor blog space too unattended for too long... here is bit of musing that I concocted a while back.

Not the shoes that I wear
Not the style of my hair
Not the tears that I hide
Not the leaps that I’ve tried
More than this…I’m undefined.

Not the pigment in my skin
Not the shape that I am in
Not the careless phrase I say
Not the compliment I pay
More than this…I’m undefined.

Not the foods I consume
Not the contents of my room
Not the lessons that I choose
Not the battles that I lose
More than this…I’m undefined.

Not my path with all its turns
Not the way my heart still yearns
Not achievements, not defeats
Not the goals I strive to meet
More than this…I’m undefined.