For this weeks weekly photo challenge (Growth) I chose a plant. I’ve watched this Asian Jasmine make its way up the oak tree beside my porch for some time now. This type of plant is usually considered to be an invasive species but that’s not the case for mine. Nope, my little darling has been inching its way outward and struggling upward for over twenty years now. I love the slow growing, non-blooming persistent little pest because it reminds me of myself somehow.
Old plant – New growth
The last quiz on Between the Rage and Grace was so much fun I couldn’t wait to do one on Behind the Rage which is the 2nd book in the series. This title was released in March of this year. So without further adieu…
A Joint Effort
The wine was my husband’s idea. When I told him what this week’s photo challenge was he promptly replied “this wine looks purple to me” and poured me a smidgen from his 32 ounce mug.
Withering Blooms & Wine
It was my idea to sit the glass on the linen napkin beneath the Crepe Myrtle tree and shake the limbs. It doesn’t matter that more blooms and twigs landed in my hair than in the photo, this was fun and something we could do together.
P.S. If you want napkins in that lovely shade of pale blue just toss them in with the next load of blue jeans.
Cotton, peas, your friends, your seat, your nose… There are a lot of things you can pick. Family isn’t one of them. Disclaimer: Life is crazy, people are crazier and my family… well they get the crazy award if there is one. This is a work of ‘true fiction’ inspired by family. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. CAUTION: They cuss.
Teddy: Let’s hurry and order. I’m having my hair colored in an hour.
Beth: Are you kidding? You look fabulous with gray hair Teddy. Don’t you dare dye it! You’re one of the rare few who can gray naturally and look so good. It’s beautiful dear, be proud of it – you can’t get that color in a bottle you know.
Gene: You can’t get shit in a bottle either.
Beth: Did you just say your wife’s hair looks like shit Gene?
Gene: No, I said you can’t get shit in a bottle. That’s all I said.
Beth: Sure you can. Of course you can. You can get shit in a bottle, can’t you Teddy?
Teddy: I think I’ll have a double martini.
Gene: No you can’t. Well maybe you could put it in there yourself if you wanted to but you can not buy it.
Beth: I know darn well you can. You can buy anything you want in a bottle. You can buy deer and coyote urine… I imagine you could buy duck pee if the urge struck you.
Gene: Yeah but you can’t buy shit Beth and you know that’s the truth!
Beth: Baloney! That is not the truth. And what do you know about the truth you dumb son of a bitch.
Gene: Come now, you’re being ridiculous. You surely know you can’t buy a container of feces.
Beth: Don’t you speak condescending to me you lying little maggot. I’ll buy you a bottle of shit just to prove it can be done.
Gene: Why would I want a bottle of shit?
Beth: How would I know? You’re a pervert – what you do with it is your business.
Gene: I don’t want to do anything with it.
Beth: Then what do you want it for? Just so you can say you have a bottle of shit in your pantry? That’s crazy.
Gene: I’m not crazy and I do not appreciate your wisecrack. I’m on an antidepressant Beth, I am not insane.
Beth: Oh really? How many other people do you know that want a bottle of shit in their kitchen cupboard?
Gene: I don’t want a bottle of shit!
Beth: My heavens man then tell me what is it that you want?
Gene: I don’t want anything.
Teddy: Are you sure dear? I think I’ll have the chowder.
For this weeks photo challenge I went immediately to an old jewelry box and looked inside. I recall rummaging through my grandmothers costume jewelry like a pirate with precious booty.
Inside the Jewelry Box
Mine is filled with trinkets of cheap metals, faux pearls and inexpensive stones but they are treasures to me and every piece holds a dear memory of the bestower. This weeks theme also inspired me to share a prose from Interior Verse (which is free via kindle right now) titled The Chest of Hope.
The Chest of Hope
The Chest of Hope
It’s just a small brown wicker basket not built to hold much and a bit tattered from over handling.
Its beautiful warm browns have dulled and faded with age on the outside but inside the natural luster still shines. Its top is held in place by make do leather ties because the first woody hasps were worn in two and now dangle loosely without purpose.
What hands made the airy coffer? I wonder as I stroke the thin smooth fibers.
Was it one as handsome as the tight weaves frayed by time?
Though dust has long since claimed his finger prints-
I know that he was a weaver; I imagine that he was a dream weaver…
Diligently intertwining each cane thread with my hopes in mind…
A place to store my breathing dreams so that they could be kept safe and close at hand, amassed in a beautiful fibrous reminder.
A quaint little chest of hope I will one day hand down to a child, a grand child or perhaps even a great grand child when I have used up its contents.
When I have taken the dusty lid off one last time and felt deep into the corners to make certain I haven’t left any ideas untouched.
I imagine when I offer it up to him or her they will look at me like I’m crazy (and I may well be) then they’ll tear the lid off expecting to find a treasure of sorts before saying with disappointment, “It’s just an empty old basket.” It is then I will share with them the wishes and ideas that were stored and later born of that basket. How they were kept safe till I could see them come to fruition. And one more time I will imagine the handsome dark skinned man who meticulously weaved the wonderful piece…a place to store my dreams because dreams need room to breathe.
Then I will show them how to place their own aspirations into the old auburn chest with caution to keep them safe, to nurture their hopes and give them time to mature.
And if my last wish were to come true I will see them realize the birth of their visions.
Fantabulous! I am so verklempt :`
Staci Troilo nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blog Award. Thank you Staci
Recipients of this award are asked to do the following:
1. Display the award logo on your blog. (check)
2. Link back to the person who nominated you. (check)
3. State 7 things about yourself. (check)
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them. (check)
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements. (4 out of 5 aint bad)
Seven things about myself
1. I laugh at my own jokes
2. I can throw a rock with my toes
3. When I try to lie I giggle
4. I was once a juvenile delinquent
5. I don’t like to shop
6. Algebra confuses me
7. Men’s jeans fit me better than women’s
The blogs that inspire me usually pertain to writing, reading, photography and journeys. Of course humor is always good.
Here are my 15 (I hope the copy/paste method worked. FYI #8- I am lazy when it comes to typing). I’m not going to tell them I’ve nominated them because they’ve probably already got it and the 9th thing about me is I break rules.
The Daily Post at WordPress.com
Everyone who is anyone has a twitter account, right? Well that’s what the promotional experts say. I want to be somebody, after all I am trying to sell books. But (for me) it’s not just about the selling I actually like people. I like to interact with them from time to time. I understand that is an outdated concept so call me old fashioned.
Anyway I opened a twitter account and for the most part I have met some interesting people and enjoyed getting to know a little bit about them and the work they do. A few of them just run naked down the twitter isles yelling buy my_____.
I suppose I am like any other tweeter who wants to be famous; I get a warm fuzzy feeling over new followers. As a matter of fact I check my mail first thing every morning to see if I have a new follower. This morning low and behold I do and there is more than one!
Yippee! I am pumped. From their profile [at least what shows up in my inbox] they look interesting. They’re acclaimed authors, bloggers, writers, photographers, anchormen, comedians, media moguls etc… so I hurry over to twitter to have a better look. I could click follow from the inbox but that would be too impersonal. I must go over in person and say hello, make them feel welcome and thank them. I mean, my gosh! These awesome upper echelons with thousands of followers want to follow a nobody like me?
My fingers are trembling against the keyboard as I log in. I nervously wait those 2.2 seconds for the page to load and all the while thinking Yes! Oh lardy yes, I already know I am going to follow them too!
Then the ‘hmm’ moment. I glance to the left at the double digit numbers that are the same as they were a week ago. That can’t be right so I hit the follower’s tab and guess what? They’re not there!? I’m devastated! My awesome followers have disappeared. How can that be? How could I have offended them before even saying hello? Is this a cruel joke? Should I search them out and ask them what changed their mind? Should go back to my inbox and hit follow???
I seriously consider laying my head on the desk and crying but I can’t stop laughing long enough.
The numbers game that is being played to make one look important just strikes me as funny. To look good on twitter, to seem ‘sought after’ the number of people following you must be significantly higher than the number you follow. So how do you do that? You follow someone just long enough for the notification to be sent and then you un-follow them. Most of them will never notice because they’re too busy running naked down the twitter isles hoping you will buy something and follow them to fame.
[heavy sigh]
In closing let me say, thank you for that beautiful millisecond we shared but sorry Joe, Jim, Lisa, Dianne and all of you other fabulous, possibly famous, most popular peeps on the world wide web. I’m gonna sit this one out.
There will be no red markers or downward adjustments to your GPA I promise. There will be no raising of hands and no roll call, you shall remain carefree and nameless. This quiz is just for fun.
Of course if you score well feel free to brag 🙂
Here are ten questions from the first book in the series Between the Rage and Grace.
Clickers ready? Go!
I’ve been perusing various blogs and looking at some pretty awesome takes on the weekly photo challenge titled Movement all the while fighting my sick sense of humor to catch someone on the toilet and post that movement. I know, ewwww. Relax, my decent side won out [thank goodness] and I chose a photo of my son tossing skeet.
Two Fisted Skeet Toss
It has been brought to my attention that I did say I would offer a consolation prize for those not winning the giveaway of Behind the Rage in trade paperback by running a free kindle promo of said title. I realize [now] that the giveaway was over in May and I have had more than a month to list the free kindle version. I won’t insult you by saying I thought I did or with excuses of how busy I’ve been or that I’ve had a debilitating sinus infection although I do have a doctor’s excuse and receipts for Kleenex to prove it. I won’t bore you with my short term memory problems or the possible onset of dementia…
I’ll just say Oops, my bad, I’m sorry and I’m gonna do it right now. It should be showing up on Amazon as $0.00 starting Tuesday July 10th – Saturday July 14th. If not then just go ahead and shoot me with your nerf gun.
And seriously I want to say, Thank you all for your support and patience.
The Real Janna Hill in 