It all started with the computer.

Had he known what was to follow, he would have never

logged on that day. But the truth was there was no way to know what was about to
happen. So Dave pressed the start button, the computer booted up, the screen came
alive, and everything Dave knew to be true no longer was.
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.
There was no time. He ran out of the door without half the stuff he needed for work, but
it didn't matter. He was late and if he didn't make this meeting on time, someone's life
may be in danger.
She asked the question even though she didn't really want to hear the answer. It was a
no-win situation since she already knew. If he told the truth, she'd get confirmation of
her worst fears. If he lied, she'd know that he wasn't who she thought he was which
would be almost as bad. Yet she asked the question anyway and waited for his answer.
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.
I inadvertently went to See's Candy last week (I was in the mall looking for phone
repair), and as it turns out, See's Candy now charges a dollar -- a full dollar -- for even
the simplest of their wee confection offerings. I bought two chocolate lollipops and two
chocolate-caramel-almond things. The total cost was four-something. I mean, the
candies were tasty and all, but let's be real: A Snickers bar is fifty cents. After this dollar-
per-candy revelation, I may not find myself wandering dreamily back into a See's Candy
any time soon.
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.
Mary had to make a decision and she knew that whatever decision she made, it would
upset someone. It seemed like such a silly reason for people to get upset but she knew
the minute that she began to consider doing it that there was no way everyone in her life
would be pleased with what she ultimately decided to do. It was simply a question of
who she would rather displease most. While this had always been her parents, and
especially her mom, in the past that she tried to keep from upsetting, she decided that
this time the person she was going to please the most with her decision was herself.
Where do they get a random paragraph?" he wondered as he clicked the generate
button. Do they just write a random paragraph or do they get it somewhere? At that
moment he read the random paragraph and realized it was about random paragraphs
and his world would never be the same.
Sometimes that's just the way it has to be. Sure, there were probably other options, but
he didn't let them enter his mind. It was done and that was that. It was just the way it
had to be.
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.
She had come to the conclusion that you could tell a lot about a person by their ears.
The way they stuck out and the size of the earlobes could give you wonderful insights
into the person. Of course, she couldn't scientifically prove any of this, but that didn't
matter to her. Before anything else, she would size up the ears of the person she was
talking to.
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.
Welcome to my world. You will be greeted by the unexpected here and your mind will
be challenged and expanded in ways that you never thought possible. That is if you are
able to survive...
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 coin hovered in the air, spinning over and over again. It reached its peak and began
to descend. Both boys were pleading with it to land a certain way but the coin had
already made up its mind on what it was going to do.
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.
"It's never good to give them details," Janice told her sister. "Always be a little vague
and keep them guessing." Her sister listened intently and nodded in agreement. She
didn't fully understand what her sister was saying but that didn't matter. She loved her
so much that she would have agreed to whatever came out of her mouth.
Spending time at national parks can be an exciting adventure, but this wasn't the type of
excitement she was hoping to experience. As she contemplated the situation she found
herself in, she knew she'd gotten herself in a little more than she bargained for. It wasn't
often that she found herself in a tree staring down at a pack of wolves that were looking
to make her their next meal.
Was it a whisper or was it the wind? He wasn't quite sure. He thought he heard a voice
but at this moment all he could hear was the wind rustling the leaves of the trees all
around him. He stopped and listened more intently to see if he could hear the voice
 again. Nothing but the wind rustling the leaves could be heard. He was about to
continue his walk when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he quickly turned to see who
it was. There was nobody there, but he heard the voice again.
There was only half a worm in the apple. At first, Judy didn't quite comprehend what this
meant. "Why would only half a worm be living in an apple?" she wondered. And then it
dawned on her. Judy quickly spit out the bite she had just taken expecting to see the
other half of the worm. It ended up being much worse than that.
He stepped away from the mic. This was the best take he had done so far, but
something seemed missing. Then it struck him all at once. Visuals ran in front of his
eyes and music rang in his ears. His eager fingers went to work in an attempt to capture
his thoughts hoping the results would produce something that was at least half their
glory.
I guess we could discuss the implications of the phrase "meant to be." That is if we
wanted to drown ourselves in a sea of backwardly referential semantics and other
mumbo-jumbo. Maybe such a discussion would result in the determination that "meant
to be" is exactly as meaningless a phrase as it seems to be, and that none of us is
actually meant to be doing anything at all. But that's my existential underpants
underpinnings showing. It's the way the cookie crumbles. And now I want a cookie.
She has seen this scene before. It had come to her in dreams many times before. She
had to pinch herself to make sure it wasn't a dream again. As her fingers squeezed
against her arm, she felt the pain. It was this pain that immediately woke her up.
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.
It had been a late night. To be more correct, it had been an early morning. It was now
3:00 AM and George was just getting home. He wasn't sure if it had been worth it. He
was supposed to have been finished by 10:00 PM, but his boss had implored him to
stay and help when it was clear they weren't going to meet the 10:00 PM target time.
So, he had stayed an extra 5 hours and lost a good night's sleep for something he didn't
really believe in, but he did anyway because he was afraid if he refused he might lose
his job.