My brother Derek and I raced across the gravel entrance to the wooden park. Derek led the way in with me close on his but. We had decided that today we were going to find the mystery room, no matter what.
Derek and I had been coming to the park next to the Rockland Rec building for a few years. Our Dad would bring us here and set us lose so he could talk to any woman that happened to be near by. On one of these such outings, Derek (age 4) and me (age 5) found a room that we had never come across before. Many visits and countless searching since that one day had turned up nothing. Finally, Derek and I were at the end of our young minds rope trying to search for it individually. We decided to combat this together.
We raced across wooden bridges that bowed in the middle, swung hand over hand on the monkey bars, crawled through giant tires all in pursuit of this mystery room. Derek and I took our time as we searched. We looked in every nook and cranny that our small bodies could wiggle through.
"Hey, I found it!" Derek called. I wiggled my body out of a tight spot and hurried back to where I has assigned him to look. I found the opening and crawled through. Derek and I sat in a small open area that resembled a large box. One quick look around and we both new that Derek had called out before investigating throughly.
"This ain't it," I said. "It needs a bench along the side."
Derek and I set out on our pursuit again. We passed Dad talking to some lady on the wooden picnic tables, her kid jumping around on the stadium style sets leading up to the picnic area. I charged up the steps right in front of the picnic tables to race further in the structure. I climbed two sets of steps and stopped. I looked in a hole to my right and found a rectangular room with a bench on the left side. My eyes popped open as I took in the room, the mysterious elusive room.
"Bubby! I found it!" I yelled to Derek. Derek came charging back down the steps I had only gone half up. He stopped beside me and gazed in to. We climbed in the room together and investigated every nook and cranny.
Hours later our Dad called to us that it was time to go home. Derek and I left our discovery with determined minds to remember where the room was next time we came. To this day I believe I have a vauge idea where the room is, if the park is still standing.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Theme 4 rewrite
1. Rene' curls up in her living room chair with one of her favorite book series, Harry Potter. She reads each page like she has never seen it before, soaking in each word. Salem, a black and white cat, slumbers by the door, his front two paws kneading air. Rene' turns the page and sinks further into oblivion.
2. As Rene' curls up in her favorite living room chair Salem saunters to the front door to lay down. Salem the cat likes to sleep in front of the door as a safety measure that no one leaves while he catches his afternoon z's. He flops down and curls up into a ball.
Meanwhile, Rene' wiggles into further comfort with her favorite book series and a glass of strawberry milk. She begins to read the familiar pages as if she is seeing them for the first time. Rene' losses herself in the depth of the character's conflicts, taking them as her own. Salem rolls over on his back, stretching his front feet up to knead the air.
3. Rene' embarks on Stephanie Meyer's love story as Twilight's main character Isabella Swan. Rene' travels the roads of Bella's home town, meets the devilishly handsome Edward Cullen, feel's Bella's love for him, meets the Cullen family, and feel's Bella's fear of losing Edward and everyone she loves.
Outside of Rene's mind the world in calm and peaceful. Rene's body is curled up in the brown living room chair with a glass of strawberry milk on the stand growing warm. Her husband sits two spaces away absorbed in a computer game he has been playing for the last year. Salem the black and white cat sleeps on his back in front of the door, his paws kneading the air. Sun shines through the open window, illuminating everything it touches.
Rene' pays no attention to her surrondings. In her mind she is batteling James, a blood crazed vampire with a passion for a good challenge. James throws her across the balleriana studio, then breaks her leg. Bella let's out a curtling scream inside Rene's head.
2. As Rene' curls up in her favorite living room chair Salem saunters to the front door to lay down. Salem the cat likes to sleep in front of the door as a safety measure that no one leaves while he catches his afternoon z's. He flops down and curls up into a ball.
Meanwhile, Rene' wiggles into further comfort with her favorite book series and a glass of strawberry milk. She begins to read the familiar pages as if she is seeing them for the first time. Rene' losses herself in the depth of the character's conflicts, taking them as her own. Salem rolls over on his back, stretching his front feet up to knead the air.
3. Rene' embarks on Stephanie Meyer's love story as Twilight's main character Isabella Swan. Rene' travels the roads of Bella's home town, meets the devilishly handsome Edward Cullen, feel's Bella's love for him, meets the Cullen family, and feel's Bella's fear of losing Edward and everyone she loves.
Outside of Rene's mind the world in calm and peaceful. Rene's body is curled up in the brown living room chair with a glass of strawberry milk on the stand growing warm. Her husband sits two spaces away absorbed in a computer game he has been playing for the last year. Salem the black and white cat sleeps on his back in front of the door, his paws kneading the air. Sun shines through the open window, illuminating everything it touches.
Rene' pays no attention to her surrondings. In her mind she is batteling James, a blood crazed vampire with a passion for a good challenge. James throws her across the balleriana studio, then breaks her leg. Bella let's out a curtling scream inside Rene's head.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Theme 4
1. I read one to two books a week. The genre I usually read is fantasy, but I'm not overall picky. The story has to catch my interest and drag me away. If a book doesn't interest me then I discard it and try again.
2. I have a love of reading that usually averages one to two book a week to keep it in hand. A usual book choice for me is in the fantasy genre like Wheel of Time or Pendragon. I have been known to dip into other genres though. If a romance, mystery, horror, etc. has a good story, I'll read it. I'm not to hard to please.
3. I sit curled up in my brown living room chair with a book propped open on my knees. The sun shines on the pages of my second book this week. I'm rereading Breaking Dawn from the Twilight Saga again; my latest addiction.
The previous book I had devoured with my eyes was When the Stars Collid, a murder suspense novel. It was a fair read, kept my attention, but not well enough to keep me away from Twilight. A book has to have a good story to keep me away from the fantasy genre. But once I find I like the book a lot I tend to reread them often.
I turn the page, and slowly read. The light from outside casts shapes of clouds across the pages. I read the last phrase this book contains. A sense of accomplishment and dread fills me as I shut the book with gentle hands. My thirst for a good story flares, and I am off to the library to find another book.
2. I have a love of reading that usually averages one to two book a week to keep it in hand. A usual book choice for me is in the fantasy genre like Wheel of Time or Pendragon. I have been known to dip into other genres though. If a romance, mystery, horror, etc. has a good story, I'll read it. I'm not to hard to please.
3. I sit curled up in my brown living room chair with a book propped open on my knees. The sun shines on the pages of my second book this week. I'm rereading Breaking Dawn from the Twilight Saga again; my latest addiction.
The previous book I had devoured with my eyes was When the Stars Collid, a murder suspense novel. It was a fair read, kept my attention, but not well enough to keep me away from Twilight. A book has to have a good story to keep me away from the fantasy genre. But once I find I like the book a lot I tend to reread them often.
I turn the page, and slowly read. The light from outside casts shapes of clouds across the pages. I read the last phrase this book contains. A sense of accomplishment and dread fills me as I shut the book with gentle hands. My thirst for a good story flares, and I am off to the library to find another book.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Theme 3
Every Christmas Eve my mom's half of the family holds a get together. We all travel the decrepit back roads into the woods to find my Grandmother's house in the tiny town of Medford. Grams house is set out in a blanket of trees at the end of a dead end road. Her little house use to be a fishing cabin back in the 70's for its easy access to the river. She has not done much with the house since she bought it in the early 80's so it's falling down around the edges. Also it is very small!
My mom, my brother Derek, and I are almost always the first to arrive with our gifts and food to pass around. We always bring a cheese and cracker plate with summer sausage. We pile into Grammy's house with her usuall greeting, "Hi! Don't let the cats out!" Derek immediantly vacates to the darkest corner out of the way behind the yellow table. It's usually safer behing the table once eveyone else gets there. While he does that, Mom and I enter our usuall christmas-present-stacking-jig. Mom grabbs a bag of presents to place somewhere near the sparse christmas tree with me right behind her. We usually get trapped between the coffee table, T.V., and couch on our retreat from the tree which makes us lose our balance and step on each others toes. This jig is repeated everytime someone new shows up, but the pace gets faster as the floor space decresses.
I always join my brother in the corner behind Grammy's kitchen table. It's a tight squeeze between the wall and the table, but it is better than sitting on the other end in the middle of traffic. Gram's house is so small that there is only a two foot wide path in between all the furniture. Tht makes it hard to move around, but what makes it even worse is that all the rooms are extra small. Derek and I always get the best seats to save our toes, or knee caps.
The next person to arrive at our christmas eve party is always a toss up between my Aunt Dawn and her gang, and my Aunt Carol and her husband. Both my aunts like to take their own sweet time about showing up. The usuall wait time for either one of them is as short as an hour. "When can we eat?" my brother always complains. "We have to wait for Dawn and Carol," is my Mom's response.
When my Aunt's decide to grace us with their presences is when the party starts. Everyone gathers around the kitchen table with their trays of food. Aunt Dawn, her boyfriend Randy, and Randy's son Cody always bring left overs from their other christmas party. The usual contents are sandwhiches and left over pie wrapped in aluminum foil. Aunt Carol and Uncle Johnny usually bring nothing for food and eat everyone elses, but last year she decided to bring baked scallops wrapped in bacon with bar-b-q sauce. It would have been nice is she hadn't brought anything because she gave us all food poisoning from under cooked seafood. Grammy always makes a small container of dip to pass around with chips.
The food never lasts long, and the talk of the old days begin. Derek and I sit in our little corner chewing the left overs while we listen to the same stories about our Mom, aunts, and uncle Ty's childhood.
"I can remember that time I went snowmobiling with Debbie, and lost her off the back," my Aunt Dawn roars across the room. "I got that snowmobile off that ice and headed down the path, went through this small space between the trees, and heard a 'poof'. I looked back and there was Debbie sitting in the snow between the trees!"
"Yeah, and she didn't come back and get me!" my Mom roared back with a smile on her face.
"Of course I wasn't! I knew you were going to hit me!" Aunt Dawn laughed back.
"Daddy had to take the snowmobile to come get me, and then beat me bloddy black and blue for it!" Mom retorted.
Story such as these are shot back and forth between the living room and kitchen for atleast an hour. Then comes Derek and mine favorite part, gifts! Passing out presents takes a while in my family because as soon as one person has a gift we all must stop what we are doing to see what that person gets. This process builds the excitment for our own presents.
Once everyone has their gifts open and have evaluated everything, the trading begins. Yeah, I said trading. My family is cheap this way. If they see something they like that someone else has they get the oppurtunity to trade.
"Hey," Aunt Dawns says to my mother, "you want to trade this orange ginger body lotion set for your lavendar set?"
"Sure," Mom replies, "I'm allergic to lavendar."
"Dawn?" Carol calls, "Do you want to trade this rooster towel set for that chickadee set?"
"Yep, the rooster towels go better with my kitchen."
Once all is settled, we pack up our stuff to head home. We usually leave in the order we came in in reverse. Aunt Carol and Aunt Dawn leave first and second, then my Mom, brother, and me. Uncle Ty lives with Grammy so he doesn't leave. We all tell each other to have a good night, to drive safe, and to not get to drunk later that evening. Then we all go back to hateing each other in a few days.
My mom, my brother Derek, and I are almost always the first to arrive with our gifts and food to pass around. We always bring a cheese and cracker plate with summer sausage. We pile into Grammy's house with her usuall greeting, "Hi! Don't let the cats out!" Derek immediantly vacates to the darkest corner out of the way behind the yellow table. It's usually safer behing the table once eveyone else gets there. While he does that, Mom and I enter our usuall christmas-present-stacking-jig. Mom grabbs a bag of presents to place somewhere near the sparse christmas tree with me right behind her. We usually get trapped between the coffee table, T.V., and couch on our retreat from the tree which makes us lose our balance and step on each others toes. This jig is repeated everytime someone new shows up, but the pace gets faster as the floor space decresses.
I always join my brother in the corner behind Grammy's kitchen table. It's a tight squeeze between the wall and the table, but it is better than sitting on the other end in the middle of traffic. Gram's house is so small that there is only a two foot wide path in between all the furniture. Tht makes it hard to move around, but what makes it even worse is that all the rooms are extra small. Derek and I always get the best seats to save our toes, or knee caps.
The next person to arrive at our christmas eve party is always a toss up between my Aunt Dawn and her gang, and my Aunt Carol and her husband. Both my aunts like to take their own sweet time about showing up. The usuall wait time for either one of them is as short as an hour. "When can we eat?" my brother always complains. "We have to wait for Dawn and Carol," is my Mom's response.
When my Aunt's decide to grace us with their presences is when the party starts. Everyone gathers around the kitchen table with their trays of food. Aunt Dawn, her boyfriend Randy, and Randy's son Cody always bring left overs from their other christmas party. The usual contents are sandwhiches and left over pie wrapped in aluminum foil. Aunt Carol and Uncle Johnny usually bring nothing for food and eat everyone elses, but last year she decided to bring baked scallops wrapped in bacon with bar-b-q sauce. It would have been nice is she hadn't brought anything because she gave us all food poisoning from under cooked seafood. Grammy always makes a small container of dip to pass around with chips.
The food never lasts long, and the talk of the old days begin. Derek and I sit in our little corner chewing the left overs while we listen to the same stories about our Mom, aunts, and uncle Ty's childhood.
"I can remember that time I went snowmobiling with Debbie, and lost her off the back," my Aunt Dawn roars across the room. "I got that snowmobile off that ice and headed down the path, went through this small space between the trees, and heard a 'poof'. I looked back and there was Debbie sitting in the snow between the trees!"
"Yeah, and she didn't come back and get me!" my Mom roared back with a smile on her face.
"Of course I wasn't! I knew you were going to hit me!" Aunt Dawn laughed back.
"Daddy had to take the snowmobile to come get me, and then beat me bloddy black and blue for it!" Mom retorted.
Story such as these are shot back and forth between the living room and kitchen for atleast an hour. Then comes Derek and mine favorite part, gifts! Passing out presents takes a while in my family because as soon as one person has a gift we all must stop what we are doing to see what that person gets. This process builds the excitment for our own presents.
Once everyone has their gifts open and have evaluated everything, the trading begins. Yeah, I said trading. My family is cheap this way. If they see something they like that someone else has they get the oppurtunity to trade.
"Hey," Aunt Dawns says to my mother, "you want to trade this orange ginger body lotion set for your lavendar set?"
"Sure," Mom replies, "I'm allergic to lavendar."
"Dawn?" Carol calls, "Do you want to trade this rooster towel set for that chickadee set?"
"Yep, the rooster towels go better with my kitchen."
Once all is settled, we pack up our stuff to head home. We usually leave in the order we came in in reverse. Aunt Carol and Aunt Dawn leave first and second, then my Mom, brother, and me. Uncle Ty lives with Grammy so he doesn't leave. We all tell each other to have a good night, to drive safe, and to not get to drunk later that evening. Then we all go back to hateing each other in a few days.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Theme 2, History
Since I reached the age of 14 I have tried to avoid watching the news. I don't know if it has always been my luck to tune into the T.V at the wrong time, but I always seem to watch depressing news. To me, depressing news is: rising gas prices, war, economy, robbery's, murder, and most every thing else on the news. Once in a while I'll catch a good piece like, so and so is celebrating their 100th birthday.
For me, ignoring the news is a way for me to tune out the rest of the world. I don't like being bogged down with everyone else's woes. I am very easily upset by other people's emotions, and if I watch that someone lost their child in this pointless war, then I am depressed for the rest of the day. I am affected very easily. Because I'm affected easily by others emotions I was on anti-depressant drugs to help with handling the news and teenage issues for a few years.
There are some things from the news I can't ignore though. Like food prices or gas prices. Paying for gas is my hardest out of the two. Living on $216 a month makes buying this one necessity very difficult. Well, a necessity if you actually want to go somewhere. I'm dealing with the food prices, but that does where on me.
The biggest thing I avoid from the news is the death and hardships that people are going through. I know I am not the only person that is affected by listening to such broadcastings and probably not the only person who chooses to stay ignorant about what is going on. I have come across more than one person who thinks I'm an idiot for not watching the news, but I this is how I feel about it; watch the news, know whats going on, and be on anti-depressants, or not watch the news, stay ignorant, and not take anti-depressants. Hum, such a hard decision.
For me, ignoring the news is a way for me to tune out the rest of the world. I don't like being bogged down with everyone else's woes. I am very easily upset by other people's emotions, and if I watch that someone lost their child in this pointless war, then I am depressed for the rest of the day. I am affected very easily. Because I'm affected easily by others emotions I was on anti-depressant drugs to help with handling the news and teenage issues for a few years.
There are some things from the news I can't ignore though. Like food prices or gas prices. Paying for gas is my hardest out of the two. Living on $216 a month makes buying this one necessity very difficult. Well, a necessity if you actually want to go somewhere. I'm dealing with the food prices, but that does where on me.
The biggest thing I avoid from the news is the death and hardships that people are going through. I know I am not the only person that is affected by listening to such broadcastings and probably not the only person who chooses to stay ignorant about what is going on. I have come across more than one person who thinks I'm an idiot for not watching the news, but I this is how I feel about it; watch the news, know whats going on, and be on anti-depressants, or not watch the news, stay ignorant, and not take anti-depressants. Hum, such a hard decision.
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