Day: May 5, 2020

The Prom Queen and the Nerd

Fandango8 Comments

AD6DC53B-A605-4C6B-BD30-3899D5FBFB82“Oh honey, look what we got in the mail,” Barbara said. “It’s an invitation to our twentieth class reunion. Can you believe we graduated from high school twenty years ago? What fun it will be to see all of our old classmates.”

“I pass,” Andy said.

“What do you mean you pass?” Barbara asked. “Don’t you want to go back and see all of our high school friends? It will be so much fun!”

“Not for me,” Andy said. “High school was hell for me. I was a tall, skinny, nerdy guy with thick glasses, braces, and a pimply face. All of those wonderful friends you’re referring to tortured me throughout high school. Why would I want to see them again?”

“But I really want to go,” Barbara said.

“Of course you do,” Andy said. “You were in the popular clique, you were the senior prom queen, and you were the class valedictorian. So you go and have a wonderful time. If anyone asks where I am, tell them I’m sick.”

“Andy,” Barbara said, “I’m no longer a prom queen. I’m no longer in with the in-crowd. I’m an overweight, stay-at-home mother of three teenagers who is married to an internet success story. Nobody at the reunion wants to see me. They all want to see that nerdy, pimple-faced guy with glasses and braces that they tortured but who is now a world famous billionaire worth more than all of them combined.”

“You think?” Andy said.

“I know,” Barbara said. “So let’s go together and you can flip the proverbial bird to all of those assholes who made your life miserable twenty years ago.

Written for the Writing Challenge from Sandman Jazz, where the assignment is: “You have been invited to a school reunion by an old school friend. Are you going? If you are, tell us what happens. If not, why not?

The Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

Fandango29 Comments

4859C9CC-7B16-4323-8C84-15F63ACF754EA blogger who goes by the name of Paperkutzs gifted me, among others, with something called The Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award.

Now because I am ever so humble, I have declared my blog to be an award-free blog, but I do really appreciate it when another blogger takes the time to recognize my blog and to give me the gift of an award. And I do love to answer the questions posed to me as part of that recognition. So thank you, Paperkutzs, for the nomination, and thank you Rising Star for having created this award.

Now to the questions Paperkutzs posed.

1. What made you decide to be a blogger?

I’m an opinionated person and I have always enjoyed expressing my opinions. But nobody — my family, friends, or work associates — seemed all that interested in hearing my opinions on, well, this, that, and the other topics. So I decided to start a blog where I could express my opinions and share my perspectives. Then I just kept my fingers crossed that a few people might read my posts.

2. Did you love blogging right away or did it take some time to develop blog love.

It was love at first post.

3. Does blogging feel like a job to you or is it pure delight.

It’s never felt like a burden. I rarely run out of things I want to say on my blog, and I derive a lot of pleasure out of blogging, and the feedback from, and interaction with, the blogging community.

4. What inspires your posts.

I open my eyes, my ears, and my mind and see what’s going on around me. And, of course, there are prompts to inspire me. Word prompts, photo prompts, and other prompts.

5. Do you need something to inspire you to write or can your writing inspire others to write?

As noted above, I do leverage prompts from other bloggers and I do post my own prompts that I hope will give others some inspiration for things to write about.

Okay, questions asked and answered. I’m not going to tag any other bloggers for this award, but if anyone wishes to claim it or to just answer these same questions, consider yourself tagged.

Blogging Insights — The Lockdown

Fandango9 Comments

Blogging insightsFor Dr. Tanya’s latest Blogging Insights question, she wants to know what, during this whole COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandate, we are doing to ‘repair’ (re-vamp or update) ourselves and our blog during the lockdown?

Okay, the truth is that I’ve been retired for three-plus years, so, for the most part, life has not changed all that much for me during the “lockdown.” Sure, over the past two months I haven’t been to a dine-in restaurant, gone to a movie theater, or visited a “non-essential” retail establishment. And I haven’t physically spent any time with my kids and their significant others, although we have been doing a lot of Zoom video calls.

And, sure, there have been some inconveniences, like running low on toilet paper and having add a generous tip in order to find someone to shop for and deliver the groceries I’ve had to order online. And the highlights of my days are when the UPS, FedEx, and Amazon delivery people drop off packages of things I ordered online and when the mailman delivers my mail.

But, as I said, my life has not been significantly different than it was before this pandemic hit. So with respect to my blog, I have made no repairs, done no revamping, and have not updated anything at all. Same theme, same prompts, and maybe fewer posts per day than before. But the fewer posts thing is more due to my January and February focus around the buying of a new house, the selling of my old house, the physical move to the new house, and to getting settled in the new house than to the lockdown.

So now that you’ve read all this, my short answer to Dr. Tanya’s question, “What are you doing to ‘repair’ (re-vamp or update) yourself and your blog during the lockdown?” is:

NOTHING!

FOWC with Fandango — Rage

Fandango34 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 5, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “rage.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.