OUaT Journal: Add to first journal

So I'm part of an online community of crafters and creative people. I recently signed up for a writing swap which requires us to all get a notebook with at least 80 pages, start a story (about 5 pages) with the sentence "once upon a time" and end it with a portion of a sentence for the next person to play off of. I was so excited to get my first one sent off, I forgot to type it up (so I really hope I get it back in the future) and hope that my partner will type it up and send it to me as I've asked of future writers in my notebook via the front page.

Below is the story started by my partner and my addition to it.

CHAPTER ONE

"Once upon a time," Ellie started, "there was a little old woman who lived in a pumpkin."

Thunder clapped and there was a flash of lightening. Marky cuddled closer to Ellie.

Ellie continued, "She had a donut tree growing in the back and a cotton candy tree."

"And when it wained, it wained Nerds candy, wight?" Marky asked.

"Ellie chuckled and said "of course."

But before Ellie could continue, Kimberly stood in the door and shouted, "That's not how the story goes!"

Marky looked up at Kimberly and said "You mean wady, get out!"

Ellie laughed and agreed with Marky. She finished telling the tyke the story, kissed him  goodnight and tucked him into bed with his stuffed zebra. Before she turned off the light she told him not to worry about Kimberly, she would take care of it.

When Ellie got downstairs, Kimberly was sitting on the couch looking bitter.

"You shouldn't have agreed with him - he's never going to respect me."

"Kim, shove it. No one in this house respects you, not even the hamster! You're a mean 'wady' and how ever you convinced my father that you were a good catch is beyond me. He obviously wasn't thinking with the right head!"

Ellie grabbed her keys and sweat shirt and left.

She walked across the road to her boyfriend's house. It was raining, but the rain felt good - it brought her peach. She opened the door and walked into the garage.

"Hey."

"Hey baby," Cory said as he peaked his head out from under the hood of the car he was working on.

Ellie turned on the tv and put on a channel that was monitoring Marky's room.

Ellie was 17 and about to be a senior in high school. Marky was five and her half brother. Her parents divorced when she was younger and her mom remarried.

Tragically when Marky was four, their parents were in an accident and ddin't make it. Upon hearing the news, Ellie's dad moved her and Marky in to care for them. He treated Marky like he was his own child, Ellie admired that.

Cory kept messing with the car and Ellie just sat on the old couch staring into space.

Ellie and Cory had always been friends and were just recently trying to take it to the next level.

About an hour pased and Ellie kissed Cory goodnight and went back to her house. When she got home, she checked on Marky and went to bed. Kimberly was in her room and their dad would be home in a few hours.

As she layed in bed listening to the rain fall outside her window, she couldn't help but think of happier times. How she wished she could go back to her grandparents farm and play with her cousins.

Suddenly, she felt a wet nose on her cheek, she opened her eyes and it was her kitty, Pudding.

Pudding was a silly cat. Beautiful long-haired orange cat, who hissed everytime she was around Kimberly.

Pudding loved to have her tail twirled, and Ellie nestled closer to Pudding and curled her tail as she fell asleep.

When suddenly...

Now, I get to continue the story. Shannon wrote pretty big and I have a tendency to write more squished together, so my portion is longer. At first reading, I wanted to continue the story by blowing up her boyfriend's car, but I thought that was too much, too soon. So instead, here is my continuation.

When suddenly Ellie jolted out of bed. Her heart was pounding and her breath was speedy. She stared at the wall in front of her, mindfully coaching her breathing back to normal while trying to figure out what woke her so violently.

While this was a common reaction to some nightmares she had, she was not covered in sweat (which always accompanied the nightmares) nor could she recall the night's images.

She stood at the edge of her bed. Finding no answers internally, she decided to check on Marky.

Ellied slowly creaked down the hallway, hearing low-growling snores from her father from behind the door on the right, continuing to slowly open Marky's door on the left.

She peaked her head in to the tyke's room to discover nothing out of the ordinary, and became entranced in the doorway watching the subtle rhythm of his chest taking in small, sleepy breaths.

Ellie's eyes widened with initial fear as she felt something foriegn and sudden upon her calf, but relaxed when she decided how silly that was. She looked down to see Pudding begging for attention.

Ellie scooped up Pudding, closed Marky's door and went back to her room. Petting the furry purr-machine, she went to her window to find that it was no longer raining, but that it hadn't stopped too long ago, made obvious by the still glistening blacktop under the watch of the streetlights.

Just then, she noticed a figure make it's way out from Cory's front door. The figure was making it's way down the driveway steadily when Cory whisked out the door as well.

Ellie's face contorted with confusion as Cory stalked up to the figure whom she now noticed was unbalanced due to alcohol or injury. Cory's mouth was moving, his fists in massive clenched balls.

Pudding jumped from Ellie's non-petting, nervious-gripping hold, but no attention was paid to that as Ellie reached out to open her window. Curiosity had got the best of her. Who was this stranger, what were they fighting about, and why at this hour?

The window slid open slowly, a burst of freshly-rained air filling Ellie's nostrils. Her ears were less satisfied with the results. While she could make out Cory's voice, she couldn't decipher the words. The tone of his voice confirmed his body language - Anger.

Ellie had not seen Cory angry too many times besides in sport competition and bad mess-ups when working on his car, but Ellie was used to seeing this explosion of emotion quelched as soon as he set eyes on her. In the current situation, this would not be his saving grace.

Fear had built up inside of her, but curiosity cemented her feet where they were. The stranger had been shaking his or her sweatshirt-hooded head periodically, but even with the window inviting the stranger to be identified by voice, Ellie heard none.

Ellie heard a mew behind her but paid no mind. Cory took another step toward the figure, unraveled his knotted fist and before the stranger or Ellie could react, Cory's hand had clasped to the neck in front of it.

Ellie gasped. What would drive Cory to do this to a person? What is he going to do to this person? Maybe Ellie should yell out for him to stop? All these questions flooded her head, her mind trying hard to find answers.

"Ewwie?"

"Ellie spun around fast, horror and confusion still plastered on her face as her eyes focused on Marky rubbing his sleepy eyes. Ellie bagged her facial expression and put on her smile as Marky walked toward her with his arms out.

"Oh what is it sweetie? What are you doing up at this hour?"

"I had a bad dweam." Marky buried his head in the crook of Ellie's neck as she made her way from the open window and toward Marky's room.

"Me too, buddy." Ellie's curiosity was upset with the break of intensity going on across the street but she let out a heavy sigh, her heart thankful for the interruption.

Ellie lay Marky in bed and sat in the chair at his bedside.

"Now, you get to sleep. I'll stay right here," Ellie assured.

Marky smiled, yawned and put his head on the pillow. He watched Ellie, slowing his blinking, eyes opening at half-mast, until moments later, Mr. Sandman won the battle and Ellie watched the rhythm of his chest as it lulled her to sleep.

Creativity Alley - 1

(from the 'Creativity Alley Jumpstart' program) http://writingbliss.com/
Possible Uses For...
This is one of the simplest block busting methods. It stimulates the mind and helps you break out of a functionally fixated mindset. This method involves thinking of an ordinary object and listing all possible uses for that object within a specified length of time. When you use this creative thinking method, you do not think about what that object is normally used for or how it is usually thought of.
For your first creative activity, list at least 20 original uses for tons of punched paper holes. Do this in 10 minutes or less. Describe each use in a sentence or two.
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1. Confetti, multi-colored would be best. Cheaper than buying pre-made confetti, and a hastle to clean up!
2. Colorful mulch! Maybe, I don't actually know what mulch does.
3. Use along-side bubble stone thingies as decorative filling for vases
4. Can create the illusion of sprinkles on a paper-art cupcake.
5. Can be used to create the illusion of cobble stone in a miniature town structure.
6. Can be used to fill clear balloons to spice them up.
7. Can be used to pad something. Perhaps put them all in a plastic bag with something fragile.
8. Can be used to make a trail to the bedroom, preferably use white, red and pink. :)
9. Can be used as bedding for a small animal (ex: reptile, rodent)
10. Can be used to annoy the shit out of a friend, surprise bomb the inside of their car if they have a habit of leaving the window down! That will teach them a lesson.
11. Can be used in monster make-up to create the illusion of peeling skin or scales.
12. Can be used to make children laugh. Pretend to sneeze and blow it all over the place!
13. Align punches in forms of letters, glue them down, laminate and you have a bookmark!
14. Use them when painting to create a bubbly/raised illusion. (It will probably look shitty though)
15. Make a shit-ton and blow them in front of a fan to create the illusion of SNOW!!!
16. Annoy your friends by sending these in a letter, so while they're happy they got a letter, now they're upset that they have to clean it up and that possibly their animals are at their feet trying to eat it.
17. Create a game where contestants choose a balloon (but cannot touch, just from a distance) and all at once everyone pops their balloon over their head and the one with the hole punches/confetti/big mess all over them, wins! Game of chance.
18. Use them to help teach a child to count or basic math skills.
19. Use them to create snowglobes (probably without the water).
20. Stuff a bunch in a bag for a make-shift pillow.

DCW prompt - Day 7

#211 - "Write from the point of view of a clean sock that was mistakenly placed in the hamper."
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 I know she probably didn't do it on purpose, it was a mistake. She's been very stressed lately with finals and her boyfriend is being consistent in making it difficult for her to study while he plays his video games at volumes that cause her dorm mates to bang on the door to 'keep it down.' Yes, I realize this, and I recognize that I shouldn't feel personally attacked by her slip up, but it's hard to fight those feelings. While I'm grateful for the towel and pair of pants that separates me from her boyfriends dingy drawers, I still feel a tinge of sorrow for being banished to the dirty clothes hamper.

And really, I don't blame her. I realize my anger is with her roommate. I see him sneak in here every so often when she's not around, he opens the drawer I share with my fellow 'undergarments,' usually to rifle through her underwear; sometimes he sniffs them and a few times I've even seen him try them on. Of course he looks silly in them - Jessica is a slim woman with a shapely rear end and her roommate does not share these qualities. Thankfully, the one's he tries on are also the one's he steals so we aren't cooped up with tainted panties. That doesn't happen often though, and the top drawer (that's us - the undergarments) hadn't seen him in a while, but this afternoon he struck again.


His dirty little pleasure was cut short though because Jessica and her boyfriend could be heard coming up the hall. Her roommate frantically tried to put everything back in order. He turned to make his exit, clumsily dragging his hand towards where I sat on top of the other socks, separating me from my partner and landing us both at the base of the dirty clothes hamper atop a towel I assume she had used that morning for her shower before she darted off to class.


So while Jessica did pick the lot of us up and throw us in the hamper to feel shamed, it's not entirely her fault. I suppose if I was a Jessica, I might do the same thing.

Daily creative writing (DCW) prompt - day 6

#239 "Write about a bucket of distaste."
I think I did a pretty good job on this one.
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    The horizon was blurred. It was a mix of the tears that collected on the brim of her lower eyelids and the warbly heat rising from the flames in front of her. Darlene ran the back of her hand across her eyes, smearing the mascara that was at risk of staining her cheeks across the bridge of her nose where the trail ended just before her temple.
    A pile of items was stacked to her right. A large bucket was in front of her, positioned in the middle of a firepit which was used every Summer, but never in this way. Darlene grabbed at the top of the pile, bringing it closer to her face. A photograph of three smiling faces looked back at her, no tears in their eyes. A rush of emotion inspired her silent cries to volumize and tears poured out over the brim and mascara trickled down her cheeks. She clutched the photo in her fist and threw it into the bucket where the flames were licking at previously discarded memories, black smoke adding to her impaired vision.
    Darlene continued to grab items from the pile and throw them into the hungry fire, the warmth of the flames devoured the bucket of distaste. Despite watching the photos warp under the intense heat, in the back of her mind she knew that burning physical evidence of memories would not burn them from her mind. She would never forget the overwhelming love and trust she had in Trevor, the love and trust she felt in return. And as wonderful as that feeling was, it would never be remembered on its own. It would forever be tainted by the memory which turned her stomach - her best friend Sharon draped over Trevor, her body trembling and covered by nothing but sweat conceived by passion, and that devious smile she aimed at Darlene who stood petrified in the doorway.
    Darlene, enfuriated by the memory that begun to loop in her mind's eye, began to grab at the pile and throw it into the flames. Concert tickets, wrist bands, more photos, keychains and love letters - all burning together, more black smoke billowing into the sky accompanied by her cries.

Weekly email prompts - Day 3

I'm actually behind and skipped the actual Day 3 prompts but will come back to them when I feel like writing about them. Yesterday I wrote this one, so this prompt is a little late. And yes, I already screwed up daily writing exercises within the first week.
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Reflect on yesterday's events and identify moments that happened spontaneously. Explore how you felt during those moments.


Yesterday I was at a Memorial Day BBQ with Stuart's family. One spontaneous moment that comes to mind is when his aunt Judy was telling me that I'm going to the lake trip this year, that she needs me to go and that she had a wonderful time with me last year, "more than you'll ever know." My eyes started to water. She wanted to know why I was against going, and I told her it was because it's expensive and I have no way to help pay. She said that she understands that I'm not a person who expects others to pay for me, she knows I'm a good person and wants me to be involved in the family vacation. I felt so loved. This is a woman I've spent one week with at the lake trip last year and have seen not many times other than that, and she is willing to pay my way on the trip because she values my company. It makes me happy to know that my personality is so valued and that, even though she barely knows me, she realizes it's hard for me to allow others to pay such an amount of money on me. I truly love Stuart's family and I am happy I get to go on this year's trip, despite still wanting to figure out a way to help financially. I will most definitely be helping with clean up and everything like that, but of course I would have done that anyway even if I paid for myself, as I did last year.

Weekly email prompts - Day 2

I chose one writing prompt to feature for this blog. Ode to mom.
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What is the greatest intangible gift given you?
I don't recall if it was a graduation card or just a birthday card, but there is one particular card my mother gave me that I had on display in my room for a while (until I packed it up, moved and am unsure of where it is now) of which I held dear to me because of the message held inside. While I'd like to find that card again to display, I don't need the tangible item because the message is in my heart.
    My mother expressed in written words that she was proud of me. I have not really done anything note-worthy in my life, no outrageous achievements, no overwhelming success and for some reason I find it hard to say "I love you" to my family even though I truly do and appreciate all the support and love they've given to me. Despite all that, my mother is still proud of me. This means a lot to me because I try to be a good person and I try not to be a horrible daughter.
    At one point in our relationship, my mother had told me that she thought she did a bad job being a mother. My response was to feel that I'd let her down. I don't know what changed her mind or what made her feel so strongly to say that in the first place, but reading that card a few years later made me cry happy tears. I hope I can continue to make her proud. I know it is because of her that I am the nice, strong, generous person I am today. She set examples for me, and while she may not think I took notice, I did and do my best to follow them.
    Now if only I wrote this in time for Mother's Day.

Weekly email prompts - Day 1

On days like this, when I get the email course I signed up for, I will do them instead of the random daily ones I do from the website previously mentioned
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Inner Journey Dip, Module 1: 5-minute glide
Spend 5 minutes writing about and exploring any of these questions/statements. Choose 1 for today's 5-minute glide and do the others when you have free time.

1. What past deed defines Nichole Owens?
I think one thing in my past that continues to shape who I am today would be 'the cheater.' I had cheated on every boyfriend I had before I was 22. I came to the conclusion that the reason I did it was lack of communication. I didn't know how to communicate with my significant others that there were problems in our relationship, so instead of confronting them, I participated in an action that would cause me to have to break up with them. With Stuart, I prided myself in not cheating. And it's silly because that should just be a given, something not even noteworthy, yet every so often I'd pat myself on the back for being a loyal and open girlfriend. It's like an alcoholic who gets rewarded with a chip for sobriety.
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2. What is that one question whose answer continues to elude you?
"What job do you want to do for the rest of your life?" I have no answer for that. I've never really had an answer for that and yet I spent lots of money on random classes in community college. Prices have gone up considerably and I can't just take random classes anymore, I have to have a goal, but I don't have one. People keep saying that since I'm unemployed that I should go back to school, but it's pointless if I don't know what I want to do with my life. I think I'd enjoy any job I did if I knew it was for a good cause. I want to be able to help people. I was able to land a volunteer gig at Camp Ronald McDonald as a councilor and am so excited I've been given this opportunity. Throughout my life camp has been a constant thing. After I was too old to attend camp, I still tried to help by raising awareness and raising money for their fundraisers. I want to continue to do so. They have been and always will be a big part of my life and if I could turn that into a career, I think I'd be incredibly happy.
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If you want to know where I got these or any of the other prompts, let me know. Also, feel free to do the prompt yourself and share it with me via entry comment.