Jay jay jay

​ I haven't bailed on writing. Look, I'm generating a

random paragraph at this very moment in an
attempt to get my writing back on track. I am
making an effort. I will start writing consistently
again!
​
​ Sometimes that's just the way it has to be. Sure,
there were probably other options, but he didn't let
them enter his mind. It was done and that was that.
It was just the way it had to be.
​
​ Stranded. Yes, she was now the first person ever to
land on Venus, but that was of little consequence.
Her name would be read by millions in school as
the first to land here, but that celebrity would never
actually be seen by her. She looked at the control
panel and knew there was nothing that would ever
get it back into working order. She was the first and
it was not clear this would also be her last.
​
​ There was something special about this little
creature. Donna couldn't quite pinpoint what it
 was, but she knew with all her heart that it was
true. It wasn't a matter of if she was going to try and
save it, but a matter of how she was going to save it.
She went back to the car to get a blanket and when
she returned the creature was gone.
​
​ There were little things that she simply could not
stand. The sound of someone tapping their nails on
the table. A person chewing with their mouth open.
Another human imposing themselves into her
space. She couldn't stand any of these things, but
none of them compared to the number one thing
she couldn't stand which topped all of them
combined.
​
​ There are only three ways to make this work. The
first is to let me take care of everything. The second
is for you to take care of everything. The third is to
split everything 50 / 50. I think the last option is the
most preferable, but I'm certain it'll also mean the
end of our marriage.
​
​ I inadvertently went to See's Candy last week (I was
in the mall looking for phone repair), and as it turns
out, See's Candy now charges a dollar -- a full dollar
 -- for even the simplest of their wee confection
offerings. I bought two chocolate lollipops and two
chocolate-caramel-almond things. The total cost
was four-something. I mean, the candies were tasty
and all, but let's be real: A Snickers bar is fifty cents.
After this dollar-per-candy revelation, I may not find
myself wandering dreamily back into a See's Candy
any time soon.
​
​ It had become a far too common an event in her
life. She has specifically placed the key to the box in
a special place so that she wouldn't lose it and
know exactly where it was when the key was
needed. Now that she needed to open the box, she
had absolutely no idea where that special spot she
placed the key might be.
​
​ He heard the loud impact before he ever saw the
result. It had been so loud that it had actually made
him jump back in his seat. As soon as he recovered
from the surprise, he saw the crack in the
windshield. It seemed to be an analogy of the
current condition of his life.
​
​ The time to take action was now. All three men
knew in their hearts this was the case, yet none of
them moved a muscle to try. They were all
watching and waiting for one of the others to make
the first move so they could follow a step or two
behind and help. The situation demanded a leader
and all three men were followers.
​
​ Her mom had warned her. She had been warned
time and again, but she had refused to believe her.
She had done everything right and she knew she
would be rewarded for doing so with the
promotion. So when the promotion was given to
her main rival, it not only stung, it threw her belief
system into disarray. It was her first big lesson in life,
but not the last.
​
​ He picked up the burnt end of the branch and
made a mark on the stone. Day 52 if the marks on
the stone were accurate. He couldn't be sure. Day
and nights had begun to blend together creating
confusion, but he knew it was a long time. Much
too long.
​
​ Hopes and dreams were dashed that day. It should
have been expected, but it still came as a shock.
The warning signs had been ignored in favor of the
possibility, however remote, that it could actually
happen. That possibility had grown from hope to an
undeniable belief it must be destiny. That was until
it wasn't and the hopes and dreams came crashing
down.
​
​ "It doesn't take much to touch someone's heart,"
Daisy said with a smile on her face. "It's often just
the little things you do that can change a person's
day for the better." Daisy truly believed this to be
the way the world worked, but she didn't
understand that she was merely a robot that had
been programmed to believe this.
​
​ He heard the crack echo in the late afternoon about
a mile away. His heart started racing and he bolted
into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a
gunshot," he repeated under his breathlessness as
he continued to sprint.
​
​ The irony of the situation hadn't escaped her. She
had taken years to sculpt the perfect persona with
 the perfect look that she shared on Instagram. She
knew her hundreds of thousands of followers
envied that life she showed and stayed engaged
with her because they wanted that life too. The
truth was that she wanted the perfect life she
portrayed more than any of her fans. The fact was
that despite all the perfection she shared on social
media, her life was actually more of a mess than
most.
​
​ There were only two ways to get out of this mess if
they all worked together. The problem was that
neither was all that appealing. One would likely
cause everyone a huge amount of physical pain
while the other would likely end up with everyone
in jail. In Sam's mind, there was only one thing to
do. He threw everyone else under the bus and he
secretly sprinted away leaving the others to take
the fall without him.
​
​ Her hair was a tangled mess which she tried to
make presentable by putting in a lump on the top
of her head. It didn't really work although it was a
valiant attempt. While most people simply noticed
the tangled mess on top of her head, what most
 people failed to understand that within the tangles
mess was an entirely new year. That was her secret.
She kept worlds on top of her head.
​
​ The trail to the left had a "Danger! Do Not Pass" sign
telling people to take the trail to the right. This
wasn't the way Zeke approached his hiking. Rather
than a warning, Zeke read the sign as an invitation
to explore an area that would be adventurous and
exciting. As the others in the group all shited to the
right, Zeke slipped past the danger sign to begin an
adventure he would later regret.
​
​ Debbie put her hand into the hole, sliding her hand
down as far as her arm could reach. She wiggled
her fingers hoping to touch something, but all she
felt was air. She shifted the weight of her body to
try and reach an inch or two more down the hole.
Her fingers still touched nothing but air.
​
​ What have you noticed today? I noticed that if you
outline the eyes, nose, and mouth on your face with
your finger, you make an "I" which makes perfect
sense, but is something I never noticed before.
What have you noticed today?
​
​ She wanted rainbow hair. That's what she told the
hairdresser. It should be deep rainbow colors, too.
She wasn't interested in pastel rainbow hair. She
wanted it deep and vibrant so there was no doubt
that she had done this on purpose.
​
​ Dave found joy in the daily routine of life. He awoke
at the same time, ate the same breakfast and drove
the same commute. He worked at a job that never
seemed to change and he got home at 6 pm sharp
every night. It was who he had been for the last ten
years and he had no idea that was all about to
change.
​
​ Green vines attached to the trunk of the tree had
wound themselves toward the top of the canopy.
Ants used the vine as their private highway,
avoiding all the creases and crags of the bark, to
freely move at top speed from top to bottom or
bottom to top depending on their current chore. At
least this was the way it was supposed to be.
Something had damaged the vine overnight
halfway up the tree leaving a gap in the once
pristine ant highway.
​
​ She had come to the conclusion that you could tell
a lot about a person by their ears. The way they
stuck out and the size of the earlobes could give
you wonderful insights into the person. Of course,
she couldn't scientifically prove any of this, but that
didn't matter to her. Before anything else, she
would size up the ears of the person she was
talking to.
​
​ It's not his fault. I know you're going to want to, but
you can't blame him. He really has no idea how it
happened. I kept trying to come up with excuses I
could say to mom that would keep her calm when
she found out what happened, but the more I tried,
the more I could see none of them would work. He
was going to get her wrath and there was nothing I
could say to prevent it.
​
​ I've rented a car in Las Vegas and have reserved a
hotel in Twentynine Palms which is just north of
Joshua Tree. We'll drive from Las Vegas through
Mojave National Preserve and possibly do a short
hike on our way down. Then spend all day on
Monday at Joshua Tree. We can decide the next
 morning if we want to do more in Joshua Tree or
Mojave before we head back.
​
​ Life isn't always beautiful. That was a lesson that
Dan was learning. He also realized that life wasn't
easy. This had come as a shock since he had lived a
charmed life. He hated that this was the truth and
he struggled to be happy knowing that his
assumptions weren't correct. He wouldn't realize
until much later in life that the difficult obstacles he
was facing that were taking away the beauty in his
life at this moment would ultimately make his life
much more beautiful. All he knew was that at this
moment was that life isn't always beautiful.
​
​ The young man wanted a role model. He looked
long and hard in his youth, but that role model
never materialized. His only choice was to embrace
all the people in his life he didn't want to be like.
​
​ Trees. It was something about the trees. The way
they swayed with the wind in unison. The way they
shaded the area around them. The sounds of their
leaves in the wind and the creaks from the
 branches as they sway, The trees were making a
statement that I just couldn't understand.
​
​ He sat across from her trying to imagine it was the
first time. It wasn't. Had it been a hundred? It quite
possibly could have been. Two hundred? Probably
not. His mind wandered until he caught himself
and again tried to imagine it was the first time.
​
​ It was that terrifying feeling you have as you tightly
hold the covers over you with the knowledge that
there is something hiding under your bed. You
want to look, but you don't at the same time. You're
frozen with fear and unable to act. That's where she
found herself and she didn't know what to do next
​
​ After hunting for several hours, we finally saw a
large seal sunning itself on a flat rock. I took one of
the wooden clubs while Larry took the longer one.
We slowly snuck up behind the seal until we were
close enough to club it over its head. The seal
slumped over and died. This seal would help us
survive. We could eat the meat and fat. The fat
could be burned in a shell for light and the fur
 could be used to make a blanket. We declared our
first day of hunting a great success.
​
​ There was something in the tree. It was difficult to
tell from the ground, but Rachael could see
movement. She squinted her eyes and peered in
the direction of the movement, trying to decipher
exactly what she had spied. The more she peered,
however, the more she thought it might be a
figment of her imagination. Nothing seemed to
move until the moment she began to take her eyes
off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye, she
would see the movement again and begin the
process of staring again.
​
​ There was nothing else to do. The deed had already
been done and there was no going back. It now
had been become a question of how they were
going to be able to get out of this situation and
escape.
​
​ It was a good idea. At least, they all thought it was a
good idea at the time. Hindsight would reveal that
in reality, it was an unbelievably terrible idea, but it
would take another week for them to understand
 that. Right now, at this very moment. they all
agreed that it was the perfect course of action for
the current situation.
​
​ There once lived an old man and an old woman
who were peasants and had to work hard to earn
their daily bread. The old man used to go to fix
fences and do other odd jobs for the farmers
around, and while he was gone the old woman, his
wife, did the work of the house and worked in their
own little plot of land.
​
​ It was difficult to explain to them how the diagnosis
of certain death had actually given him life. While
everyone around him was in tears and upset, he
actually felt more at ease. The doctor said it would
be less than a year. That gave him a year to live,
something he'd failed to do with his daily drudgery
of a routine that had passed as life until then.
​
​ She sat down with her notebook in her hand, her
mind wandering to faraway places. She paused and
considered all that had happened. It hadn't gone as
expected. When the day began she thought it was
going to be a bad one, but as she sat recalling the
 day's events to write them down, she had to admit,
it had been a rather marvelous day.
​
​ There weren't supposed to be dragons flying in the
sky. First and foremost, dragons didn't exist. They
were mythical creatures from fantasy books like
unicorns. This was something that Pete knew in his
heart to be true so he was having a difficult time
acknowledging that there were actually
fire-breathing dragons flying in the sky above him.
​
​ She sat in the darkened room waiting. It was now a
standoff. He had the power to put her in the room,
but not the power to make her repent. It wasn't fair
and no matter how long she had to endure the
darkness, she wouldn't change her attitude. At
three years old, Sandy's stubborn personality had
already bloomed into full view.
​
​ The tree missed the days the kids used to come by
and play. It still wore the tire swing the kids had put
up in its branches years ago although both the tire
and the rope had seen better days. The tree had
watched all the kids in the neighborhood grow up
and leave, and it wondered if there would ever be a
 time when another child played and laughed again
under its branches. That was the hope that the tree
wished every day as the swing gently swung empty
in the wind.
​
​ Her eyebrows were a shade darker than her hair.
They were thick and almost horizontal,
emphasizing the depth of her eyes. She was rather
handsome than beautiful. Her face was captivating
by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a
contradictory subtle play of features. Her manner
was engaging.
​
​ It was a simple tip of the hat. Grace didn't think that
anyone else besides her had even noticed it. It
wasn't anything that the average person would
notice, let alone remember at the end of the day.
That's why it seemed so unbelievable that this little
gesture would ultimately change the course of the
world.
​
​ "So, what do you think?" he asked nervously. He
wanted to know the answer, but at the same time,
he didn't. He'd put his heart and soul into the
project and he wasn't sure he'd be able to recover if
they didn't like what he produced. The silence from
the others in the room seemed to last a lifetime
even though it had only been a moment since he
asked the question. "So, what do you think?" he
asked again.