Daily creative writing prompt - day 1

Broke up with Stuart in Feb, might write about it someday but probably not. Here to do a daily creative writing blog now. Using http://creativewritingprompts.com/# and randomly generating a number.
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 #45 "In 200 words, what does this metaphore make you think of; 'A garnish of Joy'."
Idea: Woman named Joy making lemonade, talking with someone, cuts her finger, blood drips in glass 'garnish of Joy.' Miscarriage
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    "So, have the two of you decided on a name?"
    Arthritic hands steadily rolled spoon, knife and fork in a cloth napkin and set it to her right. A slow burst of heat from the open oven caused beads of sweat to slowly gather on both their brows. Joy pulled out a tray of lemon squares and set them on the counter with a deep sigh, removed the oven mits, returning them to the drawer, then allowing the hair on her arm to soak up the sweat as she drug her wrist against her forehead. 
    "Mother, we don't even know if I can get pregnant. Why pick out a name for something that may not even exist?" She leaned back against the counter and looked out the window. 
    "Sweetheart," her mother said with a smile on her face and in her voice, "you must learn to think more positively." 
    Outside was a gathering of family enjoying a Summer afternoon, with adults chatting and children running. None of the children came by way of Joy's loins and she watched them play and laugh, longingly. 
    "But you are trying, aren't you?" 
    Joy ripped her gaze from the window and aimed a glare at her mother. 
     "Why are you so set on this!? What is so important about me having a baby anyway? You have grandkids playing in the backyard, why don't you cherish your time with them?" 
    She turned back to the counter, seeking something to occupy her hands and calm her nerves. She grabbed a knife, cutting board and lemon. 
    "I'm making more lemonade. Bring the pitcher from the table, please." 
    Her mother raised herself up slowly, eyes full of hurt for being yelled at. She grasped the pitcher handle with one hand and moved to place the other under to support it, but the large pitcher had slipped through her fingers before she could and it shattered on the ground near her feet. 
    Joy had just plunged the knife into the lemon with extra force from her emotional outburst when the shattered glass caused her nerves to waiver, her thumb slipped under the knife, or the knife jumped towards her thumb. 
    The red looked more brilliant alongside the yellow fruit and the sting was more pronounced due to the citrus. The startled gasp that started in her throat when the glass shattered had manifested to a scream at this point. 
    "Shit!" She dropped the knife on the cutting board, splashing blood and juice further across the cutting board. Joy moved quickly to the sink, red droplets leaving a trail. She turned on the water, shoved her injured member under the stream and looked back at her mother. 
    "Are you alright?" she asked in a panicked voice. Her mother's eyes fell upon the shards of glass. 
    "Mother, are you okay? Did you cut yourself?" 
    The shattered glass seemed to recieve the appology; "I'm sorry." 
    Frustrated, Joy grabbed a kitchen cloth, wrapped it around her thumb and went to her mother's side. 
    "Mom, it's fine. Just a little mess." Joy grabbed her mother's hands to be sure there were no cuts on it. 
    "I'm sorry I keep pushing," her mother said. "I just know you want a child, I want you to be happy." 
    Joy sighed and held her mother's hands fully. 
    "Mom... we have been trying. More than you think. I don't know if I want to try anymore." 
    Her mother's wet gaze met with Joy's. "I don't understand." 
    "I know," Joy said. "I haven't told you. Tom and I felt it wasn't right to burden the rest of the family." Her eyes began to water. 
    "Miscarriage. That's all we get." The kitchen rag wrapped around Joy's thumb no longer matched the rest of the yellow set. It was now mostly red. 
    One less kitchen rag, one less lemonade pitcher and no more grandchildren.


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I realize it's probably over 200 words, it doesn't even use the 'garnish of Joy' phrase NOR does it even use the imagery of the blood dripping into the glass of lemonade, but this is my first one. You get what you get and I had to get something out of me.
I've realized I've forgotten how to organize paragraphs in a story, and I realize this story sucks. Starting point is better when it sucks, I have much room for improvement.

Bars, bags and Sim addiction

Watching: History Channel (Nosradamus: 500 Years Later)

Firstly, I'd like to give a shout out to my peeps; Chantal, Joy, Kevin and Nigga Ray. On Saturday we did a Redlands bar crawl. Started out at Romano's (tried Dirty Bird but I could barely move there were so many people). Bethany was with us and Kevin's cousin Amir was also there. Started off great when a very short drunk woman began chatting with us, assumed Chantal and Amir were dating, Amir corrected her saying that they were engaged to marry in 2 months. I'm sure the conversation got better, but I missed the rest. We had some pizza and more drinks then made our way to the Falconer. Was there for... 15mins?

Moved on to Chucks Nuts for the gals to piss then on to The Underground (we ended up not making it to the Vault). They were having karaoke!!!!! Drank more, sang 'Hot Blooded' because I was pretty drunk and couldn't hold a real note for nothing. Good times.

On to something more current: today! I went to see Candy Glendening (of Candied Fabrics) to discuss the laptop/messenger bag I have commissioned her to do. It's going to cost almost $200 but I've reminded myself that not only is this a laptop bag that is cushioned to protect my laptop, but it has the ability to act like a purse and school bag at the same time. Also, we all know I love to wear/own thing that represent me and that I like to support handmade arts/crafts. One of the strongest convincers is that the quality of the material is great. It is a sturdy bag and it is going to be gorgeous and it is going to be me. And yet it's still a lot. I will get over it. Once I sent that first email letting Candy know that I was ready to have a bag made, I had committed to giving up my money.

On another note, I'm addicted to Sims3 (like I knew I would be). We know the story of me being upset by my aging Sim self and now I have another story to share.

I created a Sim Chantal. My goal with her was to find a rich man with a nice house, marry him, move in and have children. I moved her into the cheapest house and she began gardening in the backyard which eventually allowed her to quit her business job because 1. the bills are cheap 2. she can sell/eat what she grows 3. she has the ability to go out to eat for free at any time. So Sim Chanie found a guy, spent a lot of time with him and then one day I noticed it said he had a wife! He didn't have one before so during the time Parker and Chantal were considered in her relationship bar to be 'romantic interest,' Parker had gone off and gotten married to Holly! I was pretty pissed. (I finally went online to look up how to make a sim date/engage, so on to the next step). Parker came to Chantal's house, she romanced him until 'ask Parker to leave Holly' came up, his response was 'I guess you're right, it's not really working out for us.' Then they agreed to go steady. When Chantal proposed to Parker the next day, she was given the option to move. The default was for Parker to come live in her dinky place. Instead, I chose to move his parents out into Chantal's house, and move Chantal in with Parker (and 2 other people who already lived there). So yes, in only 2 days Sim Chantal ruined people's lives. HAHA! IRL Chantal says I made her a homewrecker... but whatever.

On a final note, I'm super excited to finally get a book from on of the Kickstarter projects I backed; The Word Project. Of course, photos will be posted when it arrives.

The Holidays - Pt I

Watching: Hoarders

Stuart was more excited than I was about me getting my gifts. It was so cute. So when I finally opened my gifts from him I could see why. He got me a large hookah that I named Loch Ness aka Nessy because it's green. I can buy a different color bowl later if I want. He also got me Sims 3 for my laptop. I've played the game for a few hours and our characters have only 'woohoo'd once. :( Sorry Stuart, there just isn't enough time in the Sim day!

I got Stuart a zombie book, a phone charger/holder for his car, I'm going to buy him some new clothes that aren't plain black t-shirt and black dickies and also the 1-year gym membership that we can start using in January when the place opens. I'm very excited about that one. I feel like I need help in getting him clothes, but I haven't tried to buy him anything yet, so we will see how that goes. One day we'll go shopping together and I'll get to play boyfriend-dress up. :D

Stuart wasn't able to go to the family Christmas Eve party because he had to work, but he didn't make it to his family party either. :( And it turns out that the Domino's he works out got robbed that night! He was in the store getting ready to step out the door with some deliveries and a man came in with a gun and asked for the money. Stuart says if he would have left 5 seconds sooner, he wouldn't be caught up in there and it took 15 seconds to be over. As horrible as it is to be in a robbery (I have no experience, so I'm assuming), I'm glad Stuart was there. It seems it was just him and one other girl in the store and she had no experience with being robbed. Him being there was good for her.

So at the Christmas Eve party with my family everyone was saying how great I look (I was wearing the new shirt I bought the day before and it definitely did look really good on me) and how much slimmer I look. That was a wonderful gift. It is a gift that can last longer than it took to say those words because I am really fueled to continue with my progress. Did I mention I got my hurr did?

I really can't believe how well I've done. I started at 175lbs when I started my gym class in July. It's the end of December and I've weighed in at 149lbs. I feel like I've gotten better eating habits. In the last few months I've had maybe 3 hamburgers. I stick to chicken. I've been eating a lot of soup and since I was counting calories for a few months, I know what items are lower calories at fast food places so I take that into account. Every time I go to Wendy's I get the grilled chicken sandwich that is less than 400cal.

So I was invited to Chantal's mother's house for Christmas morning but because I wasn't going to be able to go to Stuart's family Christmas Eve party, I had to cancel and go to Stuart's parents brunch. I really wanted to go to Chantal's because her mother and brother just sound so interesting, but I did want to give Stuart's parents their presents and I really like them and love feeling like I'm working on our relationship.

Tangent: Cuddling up with Stuart recently, I asked him if he would take care of me. He asked me why wouldn't I want to take care of myself. The next day I watched a comedian say that women only want someone to take care of them. So while I was a little hurt that Stuart's reply wasn't "I want to take care of you," I came to realize that Stuart doesn't see it from my angle. By 'take care of me' I don't mean that I want him to pay for everything and stay at home and do nothing. I want to work, I want to be accomplished but I can't help thinking about how nice it would be to living alone with Stuart, Stryker and a puppy in our own 2bdrm/1ba house, him taking me out to dinner on a whim, being married... it's just a girl thing! I think that's it. It just must be a woman thing to want to 'be taken care of.'

Christmas morning I enjoyed brunch with Stuart's parents and sold my old laptop to my brother Brandon. He apparently broke my mom's laptop so my previous quote of '$50, I'm just kidding' came to be a reality because it wasn't just for my brother. I found out later that my brother Andrew, who got a new laptop last Christmas, hasn't been using his because it's broken! If I was my mother I'd be pissed (and I'm sure she was pissed when she found out).

On the day after Christmas 'the group' (Chantal, Joy, Kevin) and I went to Chanie's house for our holiday meal. She made beef boul... stew, some goopy chocolate desert :P and I brought some broccoli casserole. We exchanged gifts. I got the necklace I had my eye on (and had told Chantal) and a purple flower clip from Chantal, I got some stickers from Joy AND an awesome Tom Petty tour shirt.

So there's those gifts and here's some stuff I got from other folks over the weekend: striped toe socks with a monkey on it, Forever 21 giftcard, $125, soaps/perfumes and a bracelet.

I'm really excited for New Year's Day. My friend Charlie is down from Vegas and he says he'll come to Brandin' Iron (I kinda think he's gunna flake) and Joy and her dancing friends will be there too. I have nothing planned for New Year Eve, but I kinda want to do something with Stuart since our anniversary is the next day and I won't really be spending it with him. It sounds weird but we really don't do anything on our anniversary. I think it has to do with the fact that we already spent so much on presents. We will see, now won't we?