My WWBH Story - June 26, 2013: Quaint Little Coffee Shop

 Words used in this story are: Imprint, Careworn, Crescent, head-on, satin  

Quaint Little Coffee Shop

Janet stopped in front of the quaint little coffee shop in the small town of Flagstaff, near where she had grown up, the imprint of the train catching her eye.  Apparently the coffee shop was fairly new, because she didn't remember it being there when she moved away several years ago, but then a lot had changed.  Still, it was a far cry from the busy city of Dallas, TX where she now lived.  For a moment Janet debated going in.  She was still wearing the same satin blouse and tweed skirt she had worn to work the day before.  The skirt had survived okay, but the the blouse was all wrinkled from the long drive/

As she opened the door to go inside, Janet's thoughts went to her brother, Jason.  Jason had loved trains, jokingly calling himself a ferroequinologist.  She tried to remember if he had ever mentioned coming here.  After all, it combined his two loves Coffee and Trains.  Sadly he had just died a couple days ago  after being in a coma as a result of a head-on collision.

After Jason's accident, Janet had been unable to get away from work and had to rely on daily phone calls to her parents who sounded careworn.  When her parents had called with news of Jason's death, Janet immediately requested (more like demanded) time off work.  She had pretty much driven straight through except for a stop at one of the rest areas along the way to catch a few ZZZs.  The crescent moon had  still been in the sky when  Janet  pulled out of the rest area.

After ordering a coffee and pastry, Janet found a seat in a quiet corner.  Her thoughts once again returning to her brother.  She had a feeling he would have loved this place, simply because of the name.  Well that and because of his second love - Coffee!!  He always use to say that you could never have enough coffee.  He was always sending her pictures of the latest coffee mugs (and other coffee related gadgets) that he had picked up from various places that he travelled to.  It was funny, Janet had moved away to a bustling, busy city because she wanted to get out of what she had considered to be a boring place to live and yet she hardly ever ever went anywhere, while Jason (who had stayed in there home town) was constantly traveling all over the world, seeing new places and meeting new people.

WWBH Blog Hop June 26, 2013

Looks like we got another stab at last weeks WWBH. Big shout out to Leanne for getting the linky to work right ****************************************** Hi Friends! Last week we experienced some technical difficulties with getting the submission link to work correctly, but it looks like we’ve fixed the problem! Since the prompt went up late (and […]



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WWBH Blog Hop June 19, 2013

It’s that Time of week. Time for this week’s Blog Hop. I decided to use one of the pictures that I took while on a little camping/train swap meet getaway the weekend before last. A cute little coffee shop with (I think) a cute and unique name. The rules are simple: The story must be […]



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My #WWBH story: June 12, 2013 - A nice day for a jog

 

A Nice Day For A Jog

It was a beautiful day out and Jeannie was enjoying one of those rare moments when she was able to get out and go for jog.  Work kept her so busy much of the time that she rarely found the time to get out.  The cough variant asthma that plagued her made it that much more difficult to get out (even though she knew the exercise would do her good). The path along side the woods. not too far from where she lived, felt like the perfect spot to relax and get a way from all the stress and worries of every day life and just let her mind go numb.

The day promised to be so gorgeous that she had decided to treat herself  to a picnic lunch at a small park nearby the trail's start/end. A small lunch, as well as a food magazine that she had gotten in the mail a couple weeks ago (but hadn't had a chance to really read yet) waited for her in her car.  One thing Jeannie loved to do was cook and was always interested in trying out new things, especially ways to bring variety to boring bland foods.  This particular magazine was all about ways to "bring spice and life to the boring potato"

After she finished her jog, Jeannie took a big long swig of water from her water bottle before retrieving her lunch from the car.  After finishing the sandwich she had made earlier, Jennie picked up the magazine and opened it.  Nibbling on a carrot from her lunch she began to read, her mind formulating new ideas from those that she gleaned from the magazine as she read.

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I believe there's a little bit of time left (if you hurry) before this weeks Blog Hop Photo Prompt goes up.   Just a few quick rules: Must be related to photo and include the 5 random words (as seen in bold in my story - or click here) and be under 500 words Click on the linky thing below and link your own creative short story to the "hop"  

I'm a Man?? Huhhh?? When did that happen (Rant)

Warning:  First of all this is a rant.  Second of all, while it I will the post will (should) not be crude or pornographic in nature it is not necessarily meant for the sensitive (or young) eyes....  Read on at own discretion.

Decided to take a quick gander at the emails in one of my "boxes" this morning.  I was actually looking for something specific and figured it was a good time to weed through them and delete the junk and such.

Terrible at estimating percentages, but it does appear that a large percentage of the junk emails (most of the emails seemed to be junk by the way) all had a common theme......  Are you ready for this.......

"How to increase the size of your penis".......  Ummmmm WTF????  Did I miss something somewhere?  When did I get the necessary appendage to "increase size"

Then there are the eMails offering "HOT Girls"  (once again WTF) - so either I've turned into guy and didn't know it OR  I'm lesbian (btw I'm not making any judgements of those with different sexual orientations - just saying that I am not).

The rant?  Having to weed through these eMails that end up in my inbox (junk-mail doesn't necessarily catch them all) and make sure I don't miss important stuff in the middle of all that.

Okay, Rant over....  Back to my normal, every day, boring posts :-)

"Moment of Truth" Part 3 of a collaboration challenge story

Before you read my part of this "Collaboration Challenge" story, be sure and read Part One by Carrie Sorenson of Chasing Revery and Part Two by Nicole Pyles of The World of My Imagination. Also, my apologies.  I had a hard time finding the right pic then when I did find something that would work I couldn't get it to post correctly. 

"Let the games begin".... such innocent sounding words but in light of past events where people had ended up being hurt by the so called "innocent little fun & games" they sounded ominous to Kips ears.  "I must be loosing my touch," Kip thought to himself as he hesitated in the doorway, again trying to decide what to do.  What was wrong with him, he wondered.  He never had trouble with making decisions to do something and then jumping in and doing it.

"You planning on coming in dude" Mick asked.

Kip gulped, "Yeah, I'm coming in"

He followed Mick down to the basement where the "game" room was.  He had been down here a gazillion times, but this time, he felt as if a noose was tightening around his neck as he walked down the steps.

In the game room, the others were lounging around on the couch.  A table was set up across the room with a variety of alcoholic drinks, several shot glasses, a die, a sheet of paper, and what looked like a stack of blank business cards.

"We're all here" Mick spoke to the group,  "We can finally begin".  A cheer went up in the group and Kip cheered right along with them though his heart wasn't really in it.  In fact his palms were getting sweaty and his heart felt like it was racing.

"Here's the rules," Mick continued on after motioning for everyone to be quiet, "I have a sheet of paper here with the names of the six drinks you see on the table.  Each drink has a number by it,  We each take turns rolling the die and taking a shot of the drink that we roll.  After you drink your 'shot' you pick a card and have to do whatever the card instructs you too.  If you are unable to then you fail and have to wait till your turn again to try again.  If you decline your shot then you automatically fail and sit out the rest of the game. The winner is the last man standing!"

Kip listened to the rules as he eyed the drinks sitting on the table.  He was liking this game less & less with each passing second.  Sure he drank booze with his buds, no biggy but the drinks here were hard liqueur and they were talking about mixing drinks - NEVER a good thing.  He had seen the results once when his father had inadvertently drunken a different drink than the one he'd been drinking during a small dinner party he had had at their house.  His girlfriend had been smart to quit.  Of course she had given the excuse that she was going to take some sort of college prep courses and "make something of herself", but the truth was she looked at these parties as "stupid and childish"  She had told him more than once that he needed to grow up and get a life ( a REAL life). Kip knew he should have quit too, but he was in too deep now.  If he left "the party" early he'd have to make up some sort of excuse (something he was terrible at) or tell the truth and risk being ridiculed by the others.

They all took a turn shaking the die to determine order.  Kip was relieved to see he had the smallest number, which meant he would get to go last.  One by one everyone in the group took their turns all of them passing their "test" as instructed on the cards.   No one had declined their turn.  Then it was Kip's turn.  No way he could chicken out now not when he'd be the only one to do so and he had a rep to uphold.

Kip  stepped forward and rolled the die, then picked up the shot glass that correlated with the number he had rolled.  The drink burned going down, landing heavily on his churning stomach.  He then took the top card off the pile, turned it over and read it aloud to the rest of the guys.

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Be sure and tune in next week at Confessions of a Pixel and ink-stained wretch as Leonard Suskin takes over the story.

WWBH Blog Hop Photo Prompt: June 12, 2013

I have to apologize #1 for not posting last weeks Blog Hop and #2 Not keeping up with my blogging in general. This last weekend Hubby and I took a short weekend trip up to Flagstaff (We currently live in the Tucson area) for a train swap meet. You wouldn't think that preparing for such a short trip would be such a big deal as to need tons of planning but we were planning on staying at a campground and (because of hubby being disabled, needed to have our pop-up tent trailer in usable condition. Said trailer needed to have some work done on it. Not to mention the stuff that needed to be done to prepare for swap meet itself.... Seems things are always getting done at last minute around here.... But you didn't come to this post to hear about our little trip - So, without further ado, here's Leanne with this weeks Blog Hop:

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5 words, 1 picture, and a whole lotta talent-- it's blog hop photo reveal day!I'm going to get right to it, my friends! First up? David Bastiani was our blog hop ad winner! Here is his button to display on your site so people can hop on over to his blog after they've hopped over to yours (see what I did there? ;)). Congratulations, David! Okay, here are the stories from last week's photograph. Be sure to hop over to each blog and read the stories ( ;)) and show some love to the authors in the comments! Hop vs. Prompt? by JP Climb by Carrie K. Sorensen Ice Drop by Leanne Sype J'Sharn's World--Episode II Where's your Stick? by Scott Taylor The Birthday Treat by Sally Stackhouse Here is a reminder of this works

1) Use the photo and the 5 words provided in your story

2) Keep your word count 500 words or less.

3) You have until next Tuesday to link up your post.

4) Link up with your blog hostess (Nicole, Carrie, Tena or Leanne) when you’re done via the inLinkz linky below.

5) Have fun, don’t stress, let those creative juices flow.

And drumroll please for this week's photo-- badadadadadadadadaaaa

(randomly generated) Mandatory words

potato

magazine

carrot

day

cough