share the shadows with me
share the night blooms
draw near
like a moth
to the flames of desire
burn, burn in my fire
Author: Mary
Things and such.
First Kiss
Prompt cards from Storymatic this time were “firefighter” and “first kiss.”
I kind of like the idea I came up with, but feel like it was too inexpertly plopped down. With a little research, it could probably be something longer and more touching. But the bare bones of the idea is nice, and as mentioned before, my goal with these was to force myself into flash fiction and quick stories.
Justin stared down the aisle as the music began, feeling himself flush. The heat crept up his neck and was probably turning his ears red. Maggie always made fun of him for that, and when she did he’d call her by her full name – Magdalena – because she hated it. People were shifting to get a look at her as the procession of bridesmaids and grooms slowly made their way to the front.
Their first meeting had been dramatic. He had been a new firefighter at that time, still quite fresh to the job. He could see Jim, her father, walking her down the aisle, and he reminisced over the first time he had seen the man. Soot covered, coughing, screaming that his daughter was still in the house.
Justin hadn’t been the one to save her from the fire, though he had helped bust out the window to the room she was in. She wasn’t breathing when she was passed into his arms through that window, and after carrying her a safe distance away, he had immediately begun CPR. In fact, she had been the first person he had to perform the kiss of life on – he had been that green around the gills, still bumbling and nervous and anxious. But his training always kicked in, thankfully, had kicked in at that moment.
He could remember the way that time seemed to slow down for him. He didn’t think it was working, had a moment of panic wondering if she was too far gone. Her coughing groan, her eyelids fluttering open to reveal those sparkling emerald irises – everything about those few seconds was burned into his brain. The first life he had saved.
The music faded as she stood in front of him. He reached forward, his hands strangely steady despite the thumping of his heart, to lift the veil away. His breath caught as he stared into those vividly green eyes, that knowing smile she always seemed to have. It all blurred from there.
The vows were spoken. The rings exchanged. “You may kiss the bride.”
He leaned forward and kissed her, his mind wheeling back to their first kiss when they started dating, and that first kiss of life when they had met. Here was another important first kiss, the moment emblazoning itself in his mind, as important as any of the others.
The first kiss of their married life.
Sidequests Week 19
This week’s challenges were to take 10 deep, mindful breaths, color for 10 minutes, and to take a cold shower.
The deep mindful breaths were easily done. Coloring for 10 minutes extended into coloring while listening to music for much longer. I have two coloring books that I have received as birthday gifts, and one of them is the Swearing Cats Coloring Book. I flipped through it to find a page I wanted to color and came across this one with one of my favorite sayings:
I even have a bracelet with that saying on it. I don’t color a lot, so the books are mostly not filled in. I’m also really awful at choosing colors for things. But it was a fun way to waste time and daydream while listening to music and still staying occupied with something.
I took a cold shower for all of a minute before I couldn’t stand it. I even waited for a day that I had mowed the lawn so that I’d be a bit overheated after, but the weather isn’t quite hot enough yet. I’ll take the minute, I suppose. I can almost guarantee that later in the year I will willingly take a cold shower – when I’ve mowed the lawn in July in 100 degree weather. Of course, arguably, the water in the pipes when it’s that hot out isn’t very cold either.
On an unrelated note, I also went to the Castle of Muskogee this weekend. It’s a far drive for me, but I was curious what it was like. They have a Renaissance Faire that runs pretty much every weekend of May every year. When you enter, it’s a little village of shops and storefronts, with a few staging areas for performances and special events, a playground area for children, as well as some animal attractions (rides, petting zoo, peacocks). I watched a few of the shows and spent too much money, but it was fun at least.
And as a penpal update, I have been awful in not responding to one yet. But I did respond to the other, and used it as an excuse to play with some of my wax seals.
On top of the dragon seal, I also have a phoenix, a yin/yang, and a Hogwarts houses seal.
Bigfoot Part 2
The Storymatic cards for this week were “bigfoot” and “neighborhood is changing.” One pretty big neighborhood change is someone moving in, and I had written the little stupid bigfoot exchange before, so I decided to do a follow up on that. So here is another stupid conversation between Tim and Greg about Bigfoot.
“Hey, Tim. Remember that time bigfoot left his luggage behind here at the airport?”
“That wasn’t bigfoot. But I remember you bothering me about that, yes.”
“Well, the empty house across the street finally sold. And I’ve seen the guy that bought it recently, and…”
“You’re not going to tell me it’s bigfoot, are you, Greg?”
“Tim, I shit you not. It’s fucking bigfoot.”
“Shut the fuck up, Greg.”
“No, no look at this pic I took. He was walking his dog-“
“Bigfoot has a dog.”
“Yes, but look at the picture. Just look.”
“… Okay, so that is a very hairy dude. But it can’t be bigfoot.”
“Tim, it’s fucking bigfoot. Look at the size of those flip flops! He has to custom order shoes that big. They look like a fucking joke, they’re enormous.”
“That doesn’t mean-“
“And look at how fucking hairy his feet are. If he were tiny, I’d say hobbit, but he’s got to be about 7 or 8 feet tall…”
“Listen, Greg, you can’t go around taking pictures of your neighbors because you think they’re sasquatch.”
“What’s a sasquatch?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Tim… wait, Tim come back! I’ve got more pictures! Look!”
Sidequests Week 18
My sidequests for this week included doing a puzzle, warming up a blanket in the dryer and getting cozy, and evading responsibilities to have a self care day. I will admit to a little shuffling because the weather was quite rainy and cool this weekend, and I originally pulled a cold shower challenge. I didn’t shuffle it too far back though – it’ll be next week. So spoiler alert? I guess?
The warm blanket was easy enough. I have a smaller throw blanket I recently bought and have been keeping on my bed, and I decided to go ahead and wash it. Then as soon as it was out of the dryer, I curled up in it. Of course, the warmth got zapped out pretty quickly, but it was nice and relaxing while it lasted.
The evading responsibilties card wasn’t too bad either – I had asked for this entire weekend off owing to nerdiness (Star Wars day, have to have your nerd holidays off). This week was a little bit of a bummer, owing to a variety of reasons. I had found a baby bird outside and was keeping an eye on it (I left it outside so the parents could watch it) but it still died. Also I had originally planned to drive to a Ren Faire, but the weather got very rainy and overcast, and I didn’t want to spend the day soggy. The weather also messed with my lawncare plans, and Dinnerly’s delivery messed up and didn’t arrive. On top of a couple of other more personal things, spending an entire day moping and indulging in escapism via books seemed in order.
So on Star Wars day, I had a good sleep in, spent most of the day curled up in bed or on the couch reading, and ordered out instead of cooking. It was relaxing, and I do feel recuperated and ready to tackle the next week thanks to it.
The last one was to do a puzzle. I ordered one of the Unidragon wooden puzzles, since they have really fun designs and the pieces are made of wood and have different shapes than a typical puzzle. I’m not really a puzzle person – they actually frustrate me to some degree. I kind of lack the patience to work on them. But I persisted, and managed to finish it! This doesn’t happen a lot, so I’m kind of proud of myself.
I belatedly also ordered an adhesive mat that they make specifically for their puzzles so that they can be hung. That should come in a few days. The adhesive portion can get cut down to size, and from the description of it, there is enough material to fit a few of their puzzles, so if I have a lot left over I might order one more. Because frustration is fun? Or because the designs are really neat? Hmm.
mehryment 