1. He scolded himself for being so tentative.

He knew he shouldn't be so cautious, but there

was a sixth sense telling him that things weren't exactly as they appeared. It was that weird
chill that rolls up your neck and makes the hair stand on end. He knew that being so tentative
could end up costing him the job, but he learned that listening to his sixth sense usually kept
him from getting into a lot of trouble.

3. Dave found joy in the daily routine of life. He awoke at the same time, ate the same breakfast
and drove the same commute. He worked at a job that never seemed to change and he got
home at 6 pm sharp every night. It was who he had been for the last ten years and he had no
idea that was all about to change.

5. It was supposed to be a dream vacation. They had planned it over a year in advance so that it
would be perfect in every way. It had been what they had been looking forward to through all
the turmoil and negativity around them. It had been the light at the end of both their tunnels.
Now that the dream vacation was only a week away, the virus had stopped all air travel.

7. It went through such rapid contortions that the little bear was forced to change his hold on it
so many times he became confused in the darkness, and could not, for the life of him, tell
whether he held the sheep right side up, or upside down. But that point was decided for him a
moment later by the animal itself, who, with a sudden twist, jabbed its horns so hard into his
lowest ribs that he gave a grunt of anger and disgust.

9. Sometimes there isn't a good answer. No matter how you try to rationalize the outcome, it
doesn't make sense. And instead of an answer, you are simply left with a question. Why?

11. It's an unfortunate reality that we don't teach people how to make money (beyond getting a 9
to 5 job) as part of our education system. The truth is there are a lot of different, legitimate
ways to make money. That doesn't mean they are easy and that you won't have to work hard
to succeed, but it does mean that if you're willing to open your mind a bit you don't have to be
stuck in an office from 9 to 5 for the next fifty years o your life.

13. It was the best compliment that he'd ever received although the person who gave it likely
never knew. It had been an off-hand observation on his ability to hold a conversation and
actually add pertinent information to it on practically any topic. Although he hadn't
consciously strived to be able to do so, he'd started to voraciously read the news when he
couldn't keep up on topics his friends discussed because their conversations went above his
head. The fact that someone had noticed enough to compliment him that he could talk
intelligently about many topics meant that he had succeeded in his quest to be better
informed.

15. Frank knew there was a correct time and place to reveal his secret and this wasn't it. The
issue was that the secret might be revealed despite his best attempt to keep it from coming
out. At this point, it was out of his control and completely dependant on those around him
who also knew the secret. They wouldn't purposely reveal it, or at least he believed that, but
they could easily inadvertently expose it. It was going to be a long hour as he nervously eyed
everyone around the table hoping they would keep their mouths shut.
17. 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.

19. It had been her dream for years but Dana had failed to take any action toward making it come
true. There had always been a good excuse to delay or prioritize another project. As she
woke, she realized she was once again at a crossroads. Would it be another excuse or would
she finally find the courage to pursue her dream? Dana rose and took her first step.

21. 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.

23. Twenty seconds were all that was left and Richard could hear each one tick by. Fifteen
seconds now remained and the panic began to fully set in. Ten seconds and he wasn't sure
he had enough time. Five seconds, four, three, two, one...

25. She was infatuated with color. She didn't have a favorite color per se, but she did have a
fondness for teals and sea greens. You could see it in the clothes she wore that color was an
important part of her overall style. She took great pride that color flowed from her and that
color was always all around her. That is why, she explained to her date sitting across the
table, that she could never have a serious relationship with him due to the fact that he was
colorblind.

27. The chair sat in the corner where it had been for over 25 years. The only difference was there
was someone actually sitting in it. How long had it been since someone had done that? Ten
years or more he imagined. Yet there was no denying the presence in the chair now.

29. "So, what do you think?" he asked nervously. He wanted to know the answer, but at the same
time, he didn't. He'd put his heart and soul into the project and he wasn't sure he'd be able to
recover if they didn't like what he produced. The silence from the others in the room seemed
to last a lifetime even though it had only been a moment since he asked the question. "So,
what do you think?" he asked again.

31. He ordered his regular breakfast. Two eggs sunnyside up, hash browns, and two strips of
bacon. He continued to look at the menu wondering if this would be the day he added
something new. This was also part of the routine. A few seconds of hesitation to see if
something else would be added to the order before demuring and saying that would be all. It
was the same exact meal that he had ordered every day for the past two years.

33. They told her that this was her once chance to show the world what she was made of. She
believed them at the time. It was the big stage and she knew the world would be there to see.
The only one who had disagreed with this sentiment was her brother. He had told her that you
don't show the world what you're made of when they are all watching, you show that in your
actions when nobody was looking. It was looking more and more like her brother was correct.
35. She tried not to judge him. His ratty clothes and unkempt hair made him look homeless. Was
he really the next Einstein as she had been told? On the off chance it was true, she continued
to try not to judge him.

37. 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.

39. The house was located at the top of the hill at the end of a winding road. It wasn't obvious
that the house was there, but everyone in town knew that it existed. They were just all too
afraid to ever go and see it in person.

41. He knew what he was supposed to do. That had been apparent from the beginning. That was
what made the choice so difficult. What he was supposed to do and what he would do were
not the same. This would have been fine if he were willing to face the inevitable
consequences, but he wasn't.

43. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. The man walking down the street in a banana suit.
The llama standing in the middle of the road. The fairies dancing in front of the car window.
The fact that all of this was actually happening and wasn't a dream.

45. The song came from the bathroom belting over the sound of the shower's running water. It
was the same way each day began since he could remember. It listened intently and
concluded that the singing today was as terrible as it had ever been.

47. 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.

49. 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.

51. 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.

53. It was a question of which of the two she preferred. On the one hand, the choice seemed
simple. The more expensive one with a brand name would be the choice of most. It was the
easy choice. The safe choice. But she wasn't sure she actually preferred it.

55. It was just a burger. Why couldn't she understand that? She knew he'd completely changed
 his life around her eating habits, so why couldn't she give him a break this one time? She
wasn't even supposed to have found out. Yes, he had promised her and yes, he had broken
that promise, but still in his mind, all it had been was just a burger.

57. Her hand was balled into a fist with her keys protruding out from between her fingers. This
was the weapon her father had shown her how to make when she walked alone to her car
after work. She wished that she had something a little more potent than keys between her
fingers. It would have been nice to have some mace or pepper spray. He had been meaning
to buy some but had never gotten around to it. As the mother bear took another step forward
with her cubs in tow, she knew her fist with keys wasn't going to be an adequate defense for
this situation.

59. She was aware that things could go wrong. In fact, she had trained her entire life in
anticipation that things would go wrong one day. She had quiet confidence as she started to
see that this was the day that all her training would be worthwhile and useful. At this point,
she had no idea just how wrong everything would go that day.

61. There once lived an old man and an old woman who were peasants and had to work hard to
earn their daily bread. The old man used to go to fix fences and do other odd jobs for the
farmers around, and while he was gone the old woman, his wife, did the work of the house
and worked in their own little plot of land.

63. 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.

65. "It was so great to hear from you today and it was such weird timing," he said. "This is going
to sound funny and a little strange, but you were in a dream I had just a couple of days ago.
I'd love to get together and tell you about it if you're up for a cup of coffee," he continued,
laying the trap he'd been planning for years.

67. I'm heading back to Colorado tomorrow after being down in Santa Barbara over the weekend
for the festival there. I will be making October plans once there and will try to arrange so I'm
back here for the birthday if possible. I'll let you know as soon as I know the doctor's
appointment schedule and my flight plans.

69. The towels had been hanging from the rod for years. They were stained and worn, and quite
frankly, just plain ugly. Debra didn't want to touch them but she really didn't have a choice. It
was important for her to see what was living within them.

71. He heard the song coming from a distance, lightly floating over the air to his ears. Although it
was soft and calming, he was wary. It seemed a little too soft and a little too calming for
everything that was going on. He wanted it to be nothing more than beautiful music coming
from the innocent and pure joy of singing, but in the back of his mind, he knew it was likely
some type of trap.
73. The cab arrived late. The inside was in as bad of shape as the outside which was concerning,
and it didn't appear that it had been cleaned in months. The green tree air-freshener hanging
from the rearview mirror was either exhausted of its scent or not strong enough to overcome
the other odors emitting from the cab. The correct decision, in this case, was to get the hell
out of it and to call another cab, but she was late and didn't have a choice.

75. 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.

77. She didn't understand how changed worked. When she looked at today compared to
yesterday, there was nothing that she could see that was different. Yet, when she looked at
today compared to last year, she couldn't see how anything was ever the same.

79. 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.

81. They had no proof. He knew that they knew he had done it but they didn't have any proof. It
was a huge distinction and it was the difference between him keeping his freedom or being
locked away for decades. They continued to question him, probing him for information that
they could use against him or find the proof they needed to put him away. He smiled and
continued to block their every inquiry by feigning his innocence for a crime they all knew he
committed.

83. 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.

85. He lifted the bottle to his lips and took a sip of the drink. He had tasted this before, but he
couldn't quite remember the time and place it had happened. He desperately searched his
mind trying to locate and remember where he had tasted this when the bicycle ran over his
foot.

87. 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.
89. She looked at her student wondering if she could ever get through. "You need to learn to think
for yourself," she wanted to tell him. "Your friends are holding you back and bringing you
down." But she didn't because she knew his friends were all that he had and even if that
meant a life of misery, he would never give them up.

91. The answer was within her reach. It was hidden in a box and now that box sat directly in front
of her. She'd spent years searching for it and could hardly believe she'd finally managed to
find it. She turned the key to unlock the box and then gently lifted the top. She held her breath
in anticipation of finally knowing the answer she had spent so much of her time in search of.
As the lid came off she could see that the box was empty.

93. It was a weird concept. Why would I really need to generate a random paragraph? Could I
actually learn something from doing so? All these questions were running through her head
as she pressed the generate button. To her surprise, she found what she least expected to
see.

95. The red line moved across the page. With each millimeter it advanced forward, something
changed in the room. The actual change taking place was difficult to perceive, but the change
was real. The red line continued relentlessly across the page and the room would never be
the same.

97. Green vines attached to the trunk of the tree had wound themselves toward the top of the
canopy. Ants used the vine as their private highway, avoiding all the creases and crags of the
bark, to freely move at top speed from top to bottom or bottom to top depending on their
current chore. At least this was the way it was supposed to be. Something had damaged the
vine overnight halfway up the tree leaving a gap in the once pristine ant highway.

99. "Are you getting my texts???" she texted to him. He glanced at it and chuckled under his
breath. Of course he was getting them, but if he wasn't getting them, how would he ever be
able to answer? He put the phone down and continued on his project. He was ignoring her
texts and he planned to continue to do so.