Sad

Echo 

2006 - June 28, 2011

Beloved friend.I'll miss you.

This Cat's Life

Tell a story, with an animal as the main character.

This weeks II Challenge came from Seeking Elevation. It was fun to try and imagine what my cat thinks. My roommate spoils him outrageously.


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"Not again," Oscar grumbled slitting open one eye as he heard the familiar call coming from the front of the house.

"Osc-y! Where are you boy?" a high pitched voice, that was getting closer, called out. "I have a treat for you!"

"Treat?" Oscar popped his head up. "Now we're talking." He stretched his long white legs, arching his back and baring his tummy.

"There you are!" A tall dark haired woman came in to the room and gathered him up in her arms. Nuzzling his belly. "Did you miss me?"

"Like a hairball," he muttered, to her ears it sounded like something nicer. His automatic purr kept anything he said from sounding too mean. He wouldn't want to stop the treat train.

"Do you want your treat?"

He made the face that melted her every time: ducked his head and shoved it into her palm while mewing piteously. He had no pride when it came to treats. Especially from this lady. She gave the good stuff.

She set him back down on her bed and pulled a crinkly plastic bag out of her purse. By now The Dog had heard the commotion and come to investigate.

"Back off, Buster," Oscar hissed. He hated sharing with The Dog.

"Shoo Buster," the woman said pushing The Dog out of the room. "You"ll get yours in a minute." She turned back to Oscar who was waiting patiently, his tail wrapped around his feet. She opened the bag and the delightful smell of dried turkey drifted down to him.

"Yes!" it was his favorite. He knew that putting up with all the petting and cuddles would pay off.

It's nothing a fresh coat of paint won't hide.

When I bought my house three years ago every wall was beige. It was one of the things that sealed the deal for me. That and the pool. I had been looking for about three months when we found this place and I had seen some really scary houses. We (my parents and I - they were helping me) would only consider foreclosed homes and lucky us, the market was full of them. 

I was so happy to find a house that was in almost perfect shape: no missing walls or broken windows, the previous owners even left behind their washer and dryer while not new worked well for a couple of years. I was ecstatic that everything was so uniform in color. It meant I could take my time in deciding what I was going to do. Also beige pretty much goes with everything. 

It took a while to get the keys to my house so I had moved in wiht my parents when my lease ended and was able to paint the common areas while they were empty. 

I started in the kitchen:

Pardon the during photo, I'm terrible about getting befores and afters.

 The cabinets were a dull medium colored wood and the counter tops were black marble tile. Black and brown? Eww. First order of business: cover the nasty brown wood with a nice bright white. It was a monster pain in the ass. First I had to meticulously wipe everything down with TSP, then wipe away the TSP, prime inside and out and then paint. It took several coats to get the finish just right.

Once the cabinets were done it was onto the walls and chair rail. My first impulse had been bright green:

Thank goodness for those little sample bottles at Lowe's. My dad calls this color "What you see in the toilet bowl after a night of hard drinking. So yeah, I didn't go with green.

 Then I thought, how about a Tiffany's blue? Neither of the above were right, but I persevered and finally found the right shade. Not bad right? Also the blue is echoed in the color of the pool when you look out at it from those windows.

 

Then I moved onto the living room. I had been wanting a peacock blue and again it took forever to find the right shade. These days I see my colors everywhere... of course. Here's a handy tip: don't think you will be saving time by using one roller for two different paints. Especially when the second color is a lot darker than the first this is the result:

 It took an entire gallon of paint to do that one wall. I still find spots that could use some touching up every time I look at the wall.

It took my two years to finally get to my bedroom. I had planned on painting one wall black and the rest white. I was going to use hot pink as my accent color and planned to use it liberally in all sorts of silly knock-knacks. Luckily, I came to my senses and went with a more mature black/gray/green scheme. I think it turned out wonderfully. 

My mom made the headboard (ignore the clashing sheets please).

My mom also made these memo boards that I use to pin my jewelry to. 

The absloute latest paint project was this buffet.

It started out a deep periwinkle but my talented (and retired) mom used the same color paint from the kitchen cabinets to transform it so I could have some extra storage in the kitchen & dining room.


Now that summer is (kinda) here the projects will be put on hold as it gets a mite bit hot in the garage and there is no way I'm spray painting in the house. But I did just score a beautiful mirrored dresser that is begging to be painted black and white.


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Thanks to Brad for inspiring this post as part of the Indie Ink Writing Challenge.

Drama! Suspense! Fiction!

"Lila, my dear,  I just don't think you understand the gravity of your situation," Geoffrey Matthews IV, drawled, peering over his Gucci sunglasses at his ward. He took a moment to study her as she stood at attention in front of him where he reclined on a chaise by the pool.

"I mean, really darling," he sighed. "I've made sure you wanted for nothing these last eight years and this is how you repay me?"

Lila stiffened at his tone, but managed to hold her tongue. She knew from experience that it did no good to point out that as her guardian it was her trust fund that kept him from doing any wanting.

"You will attend the benefit tonight. You will be all that is lovely and charming. You will convince Henry Dominic that he should donate to my campaign. You know it won't go well for your brother and sister if I am displeased..."

"I. Hate. You." Lila bit out still not looking at her uncle.

"Be that as it may, I'm the only family you have and until you come into your majority, I make all decision regarding those brats. Your brother is starting to become quite a handful isn't he? I'm sure a strict boarding school would do him wonders..."

"I'll do it," Lila said shortly. She would be 21 in a few months. Getting her uncle elected as Governor of California would keep him too busy to figure out a way to keep her family together until she could take over as legal guardian of her brother and sister.

"I knew I could count on you," Geoffrey smiled leaning back against the lounge and flicking a hand in dismissal. "I've invested far too much time to fail at this juncture. You make sure the younger Dominic develops and interest in you and his father's money and influence will be mine."

As Lila escaped to the children's wing of the mansion she kept repeating in her head: 85 days. Just 85 more days and we'll be free.

~~~~~
The above was a work of fiction inspired by this week's Indie Ink Challenge issued to me by Alyssa. Go check her out and tell her she's awesome!

My prompt was: a good investment.

Meanwhile in an alternate universe...

I'm back on the horse after diving off it headfirst a few weeks ago. My Indie Ink challenge this week comes from Jules at Mean Girl Garage. Thanks for the opportunity to venture into Fantasyland. It was fun.

"It should be."


If my life were to follow the conventional plot lines of an ABC family movie this is what it would look like:

Naive farm-girl goes to college at the beach. She charms all she meets with her down-home wisdom and innate sweetness. Over the next few years she works hard, earns the respect of her professors and peers and finds she has a knack for writing. She gets a few short stories published and works on writing a novel while developing her instincts and prose as she studies journalism in the hopes of writing for a large newspaper or magazine.

Along with all of the hard work and learning she manages to find time to meet "The One" and they develop a healthy relationship that perfectly balances time for schoolwork, friends and each other. She graduates with honors getting a B.A. Journalism with a minor in creative writing as well as the coveted (by some) Mrs. degree.

She was headhunted months before graduation and gets time to explore Europe with her fiancee before they both move to San Francisco to begin their fabulous post-college lives. The dot-bomb doesn't affect them and within 5 years of their wedding she's pregnant with twins and working from home having sold two movie scripts and her first novel.

And in this perfect world, they lived happily...ever...after. 

While we're there in the perfect world she wins a Nobel prize for literature and a MegaMillions jackpot of over $300 million dollars which she uses to rescue animals all over the world. Shut-up! It's my fantasy!

Today's post brought to you by the color Blue.

I had no clue where to go with my prompt for this week's Indie Ink Writing Challenge  from Trish: Blue.  I have nothing against the color, it's not my current favorite (gray) nor do I hate it (chartreuse). I just didn't know what to write about it. I've decided to take the easy way out and create a meme. Cause I'm stumped/lazy/coming up on the deadline.

When I type the word "blue" into the search bar on my iTunes library I am left with 208 songs. That's kind of  a lot so how about we divide that number by my favoite number, 12 = 17.333. OK 17. That's still too many. Let's just do 12. Mmm 'kay?

1. Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes - I'd like to see the Blue Ridge Mountains. They're in Virginia right? Part of the Appalachians? 
2. I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe - OKGO - from their Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky - Right now I really want peace of mind. My poor cat is having health issues and the bills are getting kind of high. I just want him to be OK. 
3. Blue Trail of Sorrow - Alison Krauss & Union Station - For some reason this makes me think of  Native Americans on their way to reservations back in the 1800's.
4. Ocean Size Love - Leigh Nash - Blue on Blue album - A few years ago I was "in love" with this guy. He saw me as nothing more than a friend/doormat. This was one of the songs I used to listen to on repeat just imagining that someday he would realize how much he loved me and finally, finally love me back. Yeah. Never happened. Moving on.
5. Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash - I grew up (an still live) about an hour away from Folsom. As a kid my parents sometimes took our ski-boat to Folsom lake to water ski. I was always terrified that the boat was going to cap-size and insisted on laying on the floor of the boat so that if the boat did flip over I'd be able to swim out from under it. Don't ask. I was (still am) kind of a fraidy-cat with far too active an imagination.
6. Milk Cow Blues - Tyler Hilton - This is from the Walk the Line soundtrack. Tyler Hilton played Elvis Presley, my childhood crush. Yes, I knew he was dead. He died a few months before I was born. I've always secretly wondered if I was Elvis reincarnated? But I would have to believe in reincarnation.... Maybe I just like to sing.
7. Just Blue - The Weepies - How I've been feeling lately. There seems to be this gray cloud hanging over me the last few weeks. Like I'm waiting for something bad to happen. I can't seem to shake it.
8. Seven Year Blues - Charlie Haden With Family & Friends - I just love Terry Gross. I wish I knew about her when I was growing up cause I think I would have loved to have a job like hers had I known it existed. This was one of the first interviews I remember hearing when I started listening to different NPR podcasts. If you like Bluegrass and cool old men. Give it a listen. 
9. One Blue Sky - Sugarland - We get a lot of blue skies here in California's Central Valley. I appreciate them as they help bring the temperature of my pool to swimming levels sooner than cloudy days. Which is why I don't swim in Winter.
10. Never Saw Blue - Hayley Westenra - When my nephew was born last year, I swore his eyes were going to be blue. I swore that they were a lighter and brighter blue than most newborns so he was sure to have blue eyes. He eventually decided to prove me wrong by developing light brown/hazel eyes. But I still love him to bits and pieces.
11. Liquor Store Blues (feat. Damian Marley) - Bruno Mars - I don't really drink. I can't see the point in wasting the money on something that doesn't taste good. In college I was far more willing to waste a lot, A LOT of money. As soon as I had to start paying my own way, drinking seemed to loose it's appeal.
12. She's Trying - Dance Hall Crashers - Blue Plate Special album - Now that I've gotten more into swing danging (East Coast) I really wish we still had places like dance halls. I really should have been born about 50 years earlier.

SAVE THE CHILDREN!

It's Indie Ink Writing Challenge time again! Thanks so much, Random Girl, for the inspiration. I hope you like it!

I have so many things running through my head right now.  Perhaps I’m taking this exercise too seriously? Don’t do drugs. Guns are bad. Don’t forget to spay or neuter your pets. Recycle! Love your neighbor. Which one do I pick to focus on for 60 seconds?

Ok I have it.

Turn off the television.

Look, I’m as big a pop-culture/TV/Movie/Video Game junkie as the next person. But I also like to read.  I know some of the Jersey Shore morons have “written” books so you can start there (please don’t unless you absolutely have too, it would only encourage them).

Get outside! Plant some vegetables or flowers! Get your hands dirty instead of your mind. While you’re at it, put down the cellphone. Will the world end if you don’t forward that funny chain text message? Probably not.

Since we’re talking about the end of the world, get your hands on the movie Idiocracy. Watch it and realize that it is happening: society is getting exponentially dumber with every generation*.

Please. For the sake of your children’s children’s children. Unless the volcano under Yellowstone blows before then, ‘cause we’re all toast if that happens.

P.S. I am not a crackpot.

P.P.S. A crackteacup maybe, but not a full-on pot.

*Claims not verified by any authoritative agency.


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Oops! I forgot tell you what the prompt was:

You have just been offered the world stage for 1 minute. Everyone will hear and see you. How do you use your 1 minute with the world's attention?

Maybe I need to cut down my TV time even more?