Idea Flow

Last week towards the end of my work day writing ideas just kept coming to me. They came so fast I didn’t even have time to write them all down. Some I wrote down and others I swore I would make myself remember. Now that I am back at work after a busy weekend I cannot think of a single one. Even the ideas I jotted down in hopes that it would help me remember are not developing into anything beyond that page. While I try to rack my brain for the flow that existed last week, I started exploring some of my old stories.

Some stories I thought were “good,” others are really bad, and some I wonder what professional writer broke onto my computer and wrote a story like that. As I recall the majority of these stories were written during my first two semesters of college back around 2011. That was back before I chose writing as a profession and I just did it for fun.

Some stories made me laugh and note how witty and quick with my words I was, another story even made me tear up a bit. I wrote them so long ago that even I did not know how some of them ended. I was pleasantly surprised by quite a few, and realized that others were never finished. Some take me back to past adventures that I forgot even happened.

My next thought was what do I do with these. Should I try to get them published? But when I looked up places to publish works of fiction, the majority of them are looking for very specific guidelines that none of my stories would fit into. It is relatively disheartening when you sit back and realize the only way to make it big in the fiction writing industry is to write a less than perfect series of novels that teen girls will fall in love with. In order to do that you have to create a rebellious female character who is caught in a love triangle and has to fight to get what she wants (Twilight). Or a rebellious male character who takes 6 books (Harry Potter) to do what Katness did in one. In the adult world, it seems to be the dirtier the better.

Which is interesting when you look at it. For teen girls, their role models are these extremely strong female characters who do not give in to the demands of society (Hunger Games). Then the older women are obsessed with a women of low self-esteem involved in an unconventional abusive relationship (Fifty Shades of Gray). All of these books are less than perfect and are not short of criticism.

I will admit I did read all of these books, starting with Harry Potter, then onto Twilight, Hunger Games, and yes even Fifty Shades of Gray. The Harry Potter series took a very long time to get to where they were going. Twilight had such extremely complex character profiles that even Bella herself was confused. Hunger Games (even though I am still obsessed with this series) has the controversial plot of kids killing kids. Fifty Shades of Gray I only read because of all the media hype and I must say I was VERY disappointed. It was full of awkward sex scenes and terrible writing, not to mention the glorification of an abusive relationship. I read the first book, struggled through the second, then decided not to waste my time on the third.

So all I have to do is write a book that is controversial at best and get a publishing company to advertise the crap out of it until it becomes the talk of the town. Easy enough.

Dear Guy who was rude to my trainee,

I understand the frustration of trying to order food and not having the person understand you, but that does not give you the right to be so rude to a new employee. I know she took your order correctly because I was listening. Then when she went to cash you out, you decided to change the amount of money you gave her after you had already paid. Just so you know, some people are not skilled in math, especially when you put us on the spot like that. I know this because I am terrible at math, that is why I am a writer. I have had six years to memorize the amount of change that needs to go back for certain amounts. But when you are new like my trainee is, you have to try to add and subtract in your head.

When you so rudely pointed out her struggle to her, I had to step in. After looking at the change you handed her after she had typed in the total from the first amount you gave her, I was able to complete the math problem for her. But then when I attempted to explain the solution to her so that she could adjust the next time a rude costumer came in and changed everything, you started trying to talk over me with rude, snipe remarks about people sucking at math.

First of all, you are twice this girls age, with twice the amount of experience. She is not even out of high school, and this is her very first job, and only her 2nd day on front counter. She is not used to the pressure you place on her to get things 100% correct. So, when you talked over my explanation to her about the change problem and said “This is a simple math problem, it is ridiculous that it is that hard for you to figure out,” you are very lucky that I did not jump over that counter and give you a piece of my mind. Instead I gave you the courtesy of ignoring you and raising my voice so my trainee could continue to hear my explanation. Then I shot you the best smile I could muster, which I am sure came across fairly evil considering you were so rude to us.

So guy who was rude to my trainee, I hope you have customers who treat you with respect instead of what you have shown my trainee and myself. Just because we are young and work fast food, does not mean we are your floor mats. This would be a good lesson for those of you who think I create the prices. Please don’t shoot the messenger for goodness sakes, I get just as upset as you do when the prices go up. Every time I see that a prices has gone up, I know I will soon have to deal with angry costumers who decide to take their frustration out on me. Please accept that we cannot change any of these rules, and when we decide to “bend” the rules because you throw a fit, we are actually putting ourselves in a position where we can get into trouble for doing so.

Sincerely,

Fast Food Employees,

and all Service Employees out there

Simple Fun

I crack myself up all the time. Seriously… if laughter is the best medication then I am set for life. I will come up with a joke or a smart response to someone’s statement that will actually get a chuckle out of another person, but I will be the one to laugh my butt off at it for several minutes, and then burst out laughing an hour later because I thought about it again, sometimes even days later. Like with a certain “strong dolly” case from the other day. (and cue the laughter from a certain friend because of mentioning this inside joke).

This fact about me causes several members of my family to roll their eyes. The best part is the majority of the time I am funny simply because I state the obvious. It is a skill my dad and I have developed together and we can go back and fourth stating the obvious about any situation being as sarcastic as possible and quite often we will be the only ones laughing.

Or my sister and I who’s idea of fun is yelling out the title to a Disney movie and saying the first quote or song that comes to mind. We played this game at work the other day and entertained several of our fellow crew members. The next day when I went into work we started playing it again because someone walked up to me and said another title. I strive to find simple ways to entertain people and keep the atmosphere light because when you’re happy work is a little more enjoyable.

I also love entertaining perfect strangers by sitting in the shopping cart holding my list and yelling out the items to my driver who then speeds off to that isle to retrieve it. It is a lot more fun when you read your list so far out of order that by the time you get done shopping you have circled the store several times making sure everyone in there has seen you at least twice. Then the items get scanned, paid for, and loaded into the car with me still in the cart (because I don’t want the people in the parking lot to miss a chance to laugh). Lets face it, it’s hard to keep a straight face when you see a 5 foot 7 girl sitting cross legged in a shopping cart yelling  “hot dog buns!” while the driver zooms off down the isle next to you.

Anything you can do to make someone smile is well worth it. There is enough sadness in this world, we need to fill it with as much happiness as possible.

 

Power of Friends

As I sit here drinking my afternoon coffee (that’s right, afternoon because I have already finished my morning coffee and my eyes decided they needed more to stay open), I started to think about the same thing that I have been thinking about for the past two weeks. How friendships build. The pictures that go along with this post are not in any particular order and some do not match the paragraph they are next to. I wanted to recognize some of my old and new friends.

Some friends I have known all my life, as in I do not remember the day we met, they have just always been there. These friends are always there for you, and even if you don’t see them everyday the bond does not falter. Going through life with them always at your side gives you the confidence to be stable as yourself. Even if we have all gone our separate ways we can still feel each other there across the distance.

Then there are the friends who you meet through a common interest, you promise you will keep in touch with each other, and it works for a while but then it inevitably disappears. You may keep their phone number in your phone, knowing you will most likely never use it again. Or keep them on your Facebook just to see how their life is going from afar. There really is no reason behind keeping their number or Facebook page, but for some reason you don’t want to let go of the friendship.

 

There are friends you make out of necessity, like the ones you sit next to in class or your partner on a project. Once the project is over you go your separate ways never to think about them again. When you come across their name on your phone you at first cannot remember who they are, but slowly it comes back to you. Then you delete it because it means nothing to you now. Sure they were a nice person and a great partner but the connection made was not enough to keep in touch.

 

Then there are the unlikely friends, who came out of nowhere, who you never expected to build a connection with. This connection is so strong that you wonder what you even did before them. This connection runs so deep you can’t even explain it to yourself, let alone other people. You both just understand it without even saying a word. You have more inside jokes between the two of you than a joke book. The list of things you have in common build every time you talk to each other. You can actually be your extremely corny self because both of you understand and appreciate it when you are. And there is never a dull moment.

All of these friendships change us in some way, both big and small. I appreciate all of them. There are people in this world who take their time to get to know you, and those people will always be special to you, and you special to them. Take some time to hug your friends today, from your best friend, to the unlikely ones.

 

 

Unintentional Revenge

For those of us who are horse owners, we know that the smell of horse dander and manure stays on our cloths and boots, and this smell does not bother us at all. In fact we are sort of immune to it. We do not really smell it on ourselves when we walk around in non-horse environments. Once in a while we will catch the occasional whiff of it, but that’s about it. But for city people the smell of horse dander and manure is very offensive to the nose.

Normally at school I wear my “school cloths” but today, on account that I had to go work with the horses directly after school I wore my “barn cloths” and thought nothing about it. Little did I know that in doing this I would get sweet unintentional revenge.

Now if you have read the story about the guy who sits behind me in class making my life miserable, then keep reading, if you have not, stop and go read Mission to Disgust before continuing. Trust me the story is a lot funnier if you do.

Barn Cloths!

So here I am sitting in class like I normally do and I noticed I was actually paying attention to the teacher and not being distracted by the guy who sits behind me for once. I did not feel any breathing down my neck or hear any slobbering in my ear. When I looked over my shoulder I saw him sitting as far back in his chair as he could, holding his breath, with a look of disgust on his face. Then I caught a whiff of horse dander and manure. I faced the front again realizing that the smell of horse disgusted him so much that he could not stand to lean forward like he normally does. It put a smile on my face for the rest of the class period. If I would have known that was the solution to this problem I would have done it a long time ago. I do not mind the smell of horse at all, but apparently he cannot stand it. Ahhh… Sweet, sweet unintentional revenge.

Mission to Disgust

Every Monday Wednesday and Friday I enter the classroom where my communication class is healed and every time I do the same thing. I pull my desk forward a foot and push the desk behind me back a foot. The reason for this is because there is a guy who sits behind me in one of my classes whose aim in life is to make me both uncomfortable and miserable.

Now I do not think he actually does it on purpose or is even aware that what he does drives me absolutely insane! I swear he must sit down and pull his desk as close as he can behind me so he can breathe down the back of my neck and slobber in my ear. He makes me uncomfortable enough that I lean as far forward as I possibly can for the entire class period to get away from him. To make matters worse he appears to be sick right now and has the sniffles. Just imagine trying to listen to an already boring communication lecture, when all you can hear is that nasty sucking of snot sound right in your ear.

The expression says it all

He is also sucking on a cough drop right now. Know how I can tell? Every time he coughs I get drowned by the horrific stench of hot cough drop air. If his mission is to utterly disgust me he is succeeding. It appears that he also thinks the room under my chair is his to do with as he pleases. I have to either have my feet up on my chair or put them so far ahead of my own desk that they are extended all the way.

So here I am leaning as far over my desk as possible, holding my breath, with my feet as far forward as I can put them. If it sounds uncomfortable, that’s because it is. I feel sorry for the girl who sits in front of me because she probably thinks I am a creeper too.

Others May Not

Our society makes assumptions biased on how people look. We all know it is something that we do, but how do we fix it?

A good place to start would be by making everyone aware of some of the problems we see that others may not.

I will start with a problem I see that our society deems as okay behavior.

Why is it people do not understand skinny jokes hurt just as bad as fat ones do? Our society finds it socially acceptable to say “you are too skinny, you need to eat more,” but not socially acceptable to say “you are too fat, you need to eat less.” Aren’t both statements saying the same thing, that there is something wrong with the way a specific person is and they need to change it before society will accept them?

The reason I bring this up is because I happen to be the skinny one who gets the butt of these jokes. I am 5’7 and 120 pounds soaking wet with all my clothes on, so I am tall and skinny. The problem is my metabolism is so fast that no matter what I try I cannot gain weight.

So if we examine this problem from both sides of the spectrum we will see the same thing. My metabolism is too fast to gain weight easily; other metabolisms are too slow to lose weight easily. Both groups have a similar problem, we are not happy with our bodies and we find it very hard to change. The real problem here is our society not understanding that both groups are unhappy where they are, and both want to make a change. These skinny comments and jokes do not do anything constructive for us in terms of gaining weight, they only tare us down. So keep that in mind next time you feel like making a comment about someone needing to eat more, because if you really think about it you would not say to someone they need to stop eating because they are overweight.

That is one of the problems I see. What problems do you see that others may not?