It really doesn't matter what she thinks as it isn't her problem to solve.

That's what he kept trying to convince himself. She was trying to insert her
opinion where it wasn't wanted or welcome. He already had a plan and even though
that plan didn't correspond with what she wanted him to do or what should be
done, it wasn't her decision to make. The question now became whether he would
stick to his convictions and go through with his plan knowing she wouldn't
approve.
"Can I get you anything else?" David asked. It was a question he asked a hundred
times a day and he always received the same answer. It had become such an
ingrained part of his daily routine that he had to step back and actively think
when he heard the little girl's reply. Nobody had before answered the question
the way that she did, and David didn't know how he should respond.
She sat deep in thought. The next word that came out o her mouth would likely be
the most important word of her life. It had to be exact with no possibility of
being misinterpreted. She was ready. She looked deeply into his eyes and said,
"Octopus."
Many people say that life isn't like a bed of roses. I beg to differ. I think
that life is quite like a bed of roses. Just like life, a bed of roses looks
pretty on the outside, but when you're in it, you find that it is nothing but
thorns and pain. I myself have been pricked quite badly.
Housework could be everyone’s work, not just “women’s work”. Why do women enable
men to act oblivious to cleaning, grocery shopping, pet feeding, etc? Somehow
when men live alone they figure out how to do all of those things all on their
own. My friend’s husband claimed he didn’t know that sheets should be washed
more than once a season. He said he didn’t know one had to clean toilets. He
assumed that since you flush toilets they clean themselves. She tried to get him
to help but he did an awful job so she let him off the hook. Wouldn’t it be
better if she spent the time and energy to get him to do it right instead of
letting him claim he is “just bad at it”. My sons were raised to clean toilets
and change their own sheets. Hopefully, in their future homes, the housework
will be equally divided.
His mother had always taught him not to ever think of himself as better than
others. He'd tried to live by this motto. He never looked down on those who were
less fortunate or who had less money than him. But the stupidity of the group of
people he was talking to made him change his mind.
The alarm went off at exactly 6:00 AM as it had every morning for the past five
years. Barbara began her morning and was ready to eat breakfast by 7:00 AM. The
day appeared to be as normal as any other, but that was about to change. In
fact, it was going to change at exactly 7:23 AM.
Eating raw fish didn't sound like a good idea. "It's a delicacy in Japan,"
didn't seem to make it any more appetizing. Raw fish is raw fish, delicacy or
not.
The piano sat silently in the corner of the room. Nobody could remember the last
time it had been played. The little girl walked up to it and hit a few of the
keys. The sound of the piano rang throughout the house for the first time in
years. In the upstairs room, confined to her bed, the owner of the house had
tears in her eyes.
Have you ever wondered about toes? Why 10 toes and not 12. Why are some bigger
than others? Some people can use their toes to pick up things while others can
barely move them on command. Some toes are nice to look at while others are
definitely not something you want to look at. Toes can be stubbed and make us
scream. Toes help us balance and walk. 10 toes are just something to ponder.
The fog was as thick as pea soup. This was a problem. Gary was driving but
couldn't see a thing in front of him. He knew he should stop, but the road was
narrow so if he did, it would be right in the center of the road. He was sure
that another car would end up rear-ending him, so he continued forward despite
the lack of visibility. This was an unwise move.
The bridge spanning a 100-foot gully stood in front of him as the last obstacle
blocking him from reaching his destination. While people may have called it a
"bridge", the reality was it was nothing more than splintered wooden planks held
together by rotting ropes. It was questionable whether it would hold the weight
of a child, let alone the weight of a grown man. The problem was there was no
other way across the gully, and this played into his calculations of whether or
not it was worth the risk of trying to cross it.
Finding the truth wouldn't be easy, that's for sure. Then there was the question
of whether or not Jane really wanted to know the truth. That's the thing that
bothered her most. It wasn't the difficulty of actually finding out what
happened that was the obstacle, but having to live with that information once it
was found.
I recently discovered I could make fudge with just chocolate chips, sweetened
condensed milk, vanilla extract, and a thick pot on slow heat. I tried it with
dark chocolate chunks and I tried it with semi-sweet chocolate chips. It's
better with both kinds. It comes out pretty bad with just the dark chocolate.
The best add-ins are crushed almonds and marshmallows -- what you get from that
is Rocky Road. It takes about twenty minutes from start to fridge, and then it
takes about six months to work off the twenty pounds you gain from eating it.
All things in moderation, friends. All things in moderation.
Patricia's friend who was here hardly had any issues at all, but she wasn't
telling the truth. Yesterday, before she left to go home, she heard that her
husband is in the hospital and pretended to be surprised. It later came out that
she was the person who had put him there.
Since they are still preserved in the rocks for us to see, they must have been
formed quite recently, that is, geologically speaking. What can explain these
striations and their common orientation? Did you ever hear about the Great Ice
Age or the Pleistocene Epoch? Less than one million years ago, in fact, some
12,000 years ago, an ice sheet many thousands of feet thick rode over Burke
Mountain in a southeastward direction. The many boulders frozen to the underside
of the ice sheet tended to scratch the rocks over which they rode. The scratches
or striations seen in the park rocks were caused by these attached boulders. The
ice sheet also plucked and rounded Burke Mountain into the shape it possesses
today.
The alarm went off and Jake rose awake. Rising early had become a daily ritual,
one that he could not fully explain. From the outside, it was a wonder that he
was able to get up so early each morning for someone who had absolutely no plans
to be productive during the entire day.
It had been a simple realization that had changed Debra's life perspective. It
was really so simple that she was embarrassed that she had lived the previous
five years with the way she measured her worth. Now that she saw what she had
been doing, she could see how sad it was. That made her all the more relieved
she had made the change. The number of hearts her Instagram posts received
wasn't any longer the indication of her own self-worth.
He had three simple rules by which he lived. The first was to never eat blue
food. There was nothing in nature that was edible that was blue. People often
asked about blueberries, but everyone knows those are actually purple. He
understood it was one of the stranger rules to live by, but it had served him
well thus far in the 50+ years of his life.
Greg understood that this situation would make Michael terribly uncomfortable.
Michael simply had no idea what was about to come and even though Greg could
prevent it from happening, he opted to let it happen. It was quite ironic,
really. It was something Greg had said he would never wish upon anyone a million
times, yet here he was knowingly letting it happen to one of his best friends.
He rationalized that it would ultimately make Michael a better person and that
no matter how uncomfortable, everyone should experience racism at least once in
their lifetime.
A two-inch layer of freshly fallen snow covered the yard. Stacey peeked outside.
To most, it would have been a beautiful sight worthy of taking a photo to put on
Instagram. For Stacey, it meant something different. The first snow of the year
brought back the witches as the fairies in the yard had to seek shelter to avoid
the cold.
At that moment, she realized that she had created her current life. It wasn't
the life she wanted, but she took responsibility for how it currently stood.
Something clicked and she saw that every choice she made to this point in her
life had led to where her life stood at this very moment even if she knew this
wasn't where she wanted to be. She determined to choose to change it.
"What is the best way to get what you want?" she asked. He looked down at the
ground knowing that she wouldn't like his answer. He hesitated, knowing that the
truth would only hurt. How was he going to tell her that the best way for him to
get what he wanted was to leave her?
She had a terrible habit o comparing her life to others. She realized that their
life experiences were completely different than her own and that she saw only
what they wanted her to see, but that didn't matter. She still compared herself
and yearned for what she thought they had and she didn't.
MaryLou wore the tiara with pride. There was something that made doing anything
she didn't really want to do a bit easier when she wore it. She really didn't
care what those staring through the window were thinking as she vacuumed her
apartment.
All he could think about was how it would all end. There was still a bit of
uncertainty in the equation, but the basics were there for anyone to see. No
matter how much he tried to see the positive, it wasn't anywhere to be seen. The
end was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty.
The tree missed the days the kids used to come by and play. It still wore the
tire swing the kids had put up in its branches years ago although both the tire
and the rope had seen better days. The tree had watched all the kids in the
neighborhood grow up and leave, and it wondered if there would ever be a time
when another child played and laughed again under its branches. That was the
hope that the tree wished every day as the swing gently swung empty in the wind.
The bowl was filled with fruit. It seemed to be an overabundance of
strawberries, but it also included blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and banana
slices. This was the meal Sarah had every morning to start her day since she
could remember. Why she decided to add chocolate as an option today was still a
bit of a surprise, but she had been in the process of deciding she wanted to
change her routine. This was a baby step to begin that start.
The amber droplet hung from the branch, reaching fullness and ready to drop. It
waited. While many of the other droplets were satisfied to form as big as they
could and release, this droplet had other plans. It wanted to be part of
history. It wanted to be remembered long after all the other droplets had
dissolved into history. So it waited for the perfect specimen to fly by to trap
and capture that it hoped would eventually be discovered hundreds of years in
the future.
It really shouldn't have mattered to Betty. That's what she kept trying to
convince herself even if she knew it mattered to Betty more than practically
anything else. Why was she trying to convince herself otherwise? As she stepped
forward to knock on Betty's door, she still didn't have a convincing answer to
this question that she'd been asking herself for more than two years now.
She had been told time and time again that the most important steps were the
first and the last. It was something that she carried within her in everything
she did, but then he showed up and disrupted everything. He told her that she
had it wrong. The first step wasn't the most important. The last step wasn't the
most important. It was the next step that was the most important.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't give her a good explanation about what
had happened. It didn't even really make sense to him. All he knew was that he
froze at the moment and no matter how hard he tried to react, nothing in his
body allowed him to move. It was as if he had instantly become a statue and
although he could see what was taking place, he couldn't move to intervene. He
knew that wasn't a satisfactory explanation even though it was the truth.
It was that terrifying feeling you have as you tightly hold the covers over you
with the knowledge that there is something hiding under your bed. You want to
look, but you don't at the same time. You're frozen with fear and unable to act.
That's where she found herself and she didn't know what to do next
I recollect that my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall
walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at
noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of
my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and
reverberated by the angry echoes.
Barbara had been waiting at the table for twenty minutes. it had been twenty
long and excruciating minutes. David had promised that he would be on time
today. He never was, but he had promised this one time. She had made him repeat
the promise multiple times over the last week until she'd believed his promise.
Now she was paying the price.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in
pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the
vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent
imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. One dollar and eighty-
seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas...
There were two things that were important to Tracey. The first was her dog.
Anyone that had ever met Tracey knew how much she loved her dog. Most would say
that she treated it as her child. The dog went everywhere with her and it had
been her best friend for the past five years. The second thing that was
important to Tracey, however, would be a lot more surprising to most people.
The young man wanted a role model. He looked long and hard in his youth, but
that role model never materialized. His only choice was to embrace all the
people in his life he didn't want to be like.
It was a good idea. At least, they all thought it was a good idea at the time.
Hindsight would reveal that in reality, it was an unbelievably terrible idea,
but it would take another week for them to understand that. Right now, at this
very moment. they all agreed that it was the perfect course of action for the
current situation.
It was a concerning development that he couldn't get out of his mind. He'd had
many friends throughout his early years and had fond memories of playing with
them, but he couldn't understand how it had all stopped. There was some point as
he grew up that he played with each of his friends for the very last time, and
he had no idea that it would be the last.
Debbie had taken George for granted for more than fifteen years now. He wasn't
sure what exactly had made him choose this time and place to address the issue,
but he decided that now was the time. He looked straight into her eyes and just
as she was about to speak, turned away and walked out the door.
It was their first date and she had been looking forward to it the entire week.
She had her eyes on him for months, and it had taken a convoluted scheme with
several friends to make it happen, but he'd finally taken the hint and asked her
out. After all the time and effort she'd invested into it, she never thought
that it would be anything but wonderful. It goes without saying that things
didn't work out quite as she expected.
She needed glasses. It wasn't that she couldn't see without them, but what she
could see with them. When she wore glasses, her eyes focused so deeply that she
could see not only the physical but also beyond. It was like a superpower. But
she needed glasses.
There was a time in his life when her rudeness would have set him over the edge.
He would have raised his voice and demanded to speak to the manager. That was no
longer the case. He barely reacted at all, letting the rudeness melt away
without saying a word back to her. He had been around long enough to know where
rudeness came from and how unhappy the person must be to act in that way. All he
could do was feel pity and be happy that he didn't feel the way she did to lash
out like that.
Don't forget that gifts often come with costs that go beyond their purchase
price. When you purchase a child the latest smartphone, you're also committing
to a monthly phone bill. When you purchase the latest gaming system, you're
likely not going to be satisfied with the games that come with it for long and
want to purchase new titles to play. When you buy gifts it's important to
remember that some come with additional costs down the road that can be much
more expensive than the initial gift itself.
The computer wouldn't start. She banged on the side and tried again. Nothing.
She lifted it up and dropped it to the table. Still nothing. She banged her
closed fist against the top. It was at this moment she saw the irony of trying
to fix the machine with violence.
Josh had spent year and year accumulating the information. He knew it inside out
and if there was ever anyone looking for an expert in the field, Josh would be
the one to call. The problem was that there was nobody interested in the
information besides him and he knew it. Years of information painstakingly
memorized and sorted with not a sole giving even an ounce of interest in the
topic.
Brock would have never dared to do it on his own he thought to himself. That is
why Kenneth and he had become such good friends. Kenneth forced Brock out of his
comfort zone and made him try new things he'd never imagine doing otherwise. Up
to this point, this had been a good thing. It had expanded Brock's experiences
and given him a new appreciation for life. Now that both of them were in the
back of a police car, all Brock could think was that he would have never dared
do it except for the influence of Kenneth.
The headache wouldn't go away. She's taken medicine but even that didn't help.
The monstrous throbbing in her head continued. She had this happen to her only
once before in her life and she realized that only one thing could be happening.
He wandered down the stairs and into the basement. The damp, musty smell of
unuse hung in the air. A single, small window let in a glimmer of light, but
this simply made the shadows in the basement deeper. He inhaled deeply and
looked around at a mess that had been accumulating for over 25 years. He was
positive that this was the place he wanted to live.