your stories have gone stale

Glad you had fun, kids, but Saturday night's over.

Emeline is back in the country!!!

Emeline's mom: "Tell Brittany not to fall on her ass."
Tanya: "OMG! I have to call Brittany!" ::calls Brittany about three times and yells this to her. It is questionable if Brittany has even answered her phone::
Emeline: "My mom is going on the wall!"

"I reallllllly need to pee!" she calls.

"I'm almost done!" I say calmly.

My teeth, of course, need to be thoroughly brushed. The water certainly needs to be turned on. Hot and cold. A little stronger. There we go.

I listen to the stream and smile a foamy, devious smirk.

"You make that look effortless,"

and if only the thought process could follow in the same way.

It always gets better. It just doesn't seem so at the time.

. . .

She is not impressed.

!!!

Dear Diana,

This letter is to inform you that your submission to Toasted Cheese has made it past first reading and will be read by the full editorial board this month. It is not an acceptance letter. You will be notified of our final decision in early February.

In the meantime, keep writing!

This picture is awesome

10:10 pm

A sweet cop-out: I've ended this story by using a line previously appearing in the story. Oooh, yeah.

The stars flickered gently in the windows. So many stars.

(Fun with italics!)

There's a bit of a fog about me. I could call it a dream, but if it were so, I would not be here.

[He] had always seen himself floating above the aurora borealis, above the ice caps, in soundless serenity.

in transit

"It was always like that: she was gone and other people were where they belonged. She was going up or down stairs; other people seemed to be settled somewhere." - Toni Morrison

99 Bananas

Why not one more to make it one hundred?

Happy New Year!

There is no end of the world.

Only the wind feels like winter.

Foam fizzes and flies, sun breaks against gray clouds and blue crests, I raise my camera, and suddenly this all ceases. This becomes nothing on a tiny digital screen.

My bare hands hold steady against the wind as my hair flies in front of the flash. Flash, flash, do I even need one? The old man in the gray car holds his camera, a real camera, an artistic one. His luck will be the same as mine. The lens mutes and diminishes, except for the very talented or the very lucky.

But I focus and capture anyway. The Sound leaps, shatters, and recedes.

All is as it should be. There is no end of the world.

I step down from the cement to leave. The old man's face is in his hands.

Does he agree?

As she walks across the dark yard

and I turn on the music that reminds me of long drives for one person, I wonder how it is that two people who love each other can hurt one another so deeply.

And, yet, continue to love. Unceasingly.

Will that be me? I wonder now and then.

nervous

And what if my words were to fail me?

Bright nights and quiet noises.

And my goodness, am I really about to be twenty-one tomorrow?!

Sure, she'll tear up, but she's a fighter.

They'll pull you apart and rebuild you. But they will never break you.

I don't always like when my dreams come true.

Matchbox Twenty comes through, again.

I'd forgotten how much I liked this song or how emblematic it was until 105.1 played it today during practice. My head went up. I listened intently, waiting to hear "shit" bleeped out. Nobody else noticed.

It's sitting by the overcoat
the second shelf, the note she wrote
that I can't bring myself to throw away
and my soul reaches out for no one else but you,
cuz you won't turn away
when someone else is gone
I'm sorry 'bout the attitude
I need to give when I'm with you
but no one else would take this shit from me
and I'm so terrified of no one else but me
I'm here all the time
I won't go away
It's me, yeah I can't get myself to go away
Hey, it's me, and I can't get myself to go away
Oh, God, I shouldn't feel this way, no
Reach down your hand in your pocket
Pull out some hope for me
It's been a long day, always ain't that right
And no, Lord, your hand won't stop it
just keep you trembling
It's been a long day, always ain't that right
Well, I'm surprised that you'd believe
in any thing that comes from me
I didn't hear from you or from someone else
and you're so set in life man, a pisser they're waiting
too damn bad you get so far so fast
So what, so long...

And somehow, sexy.

whisper

There's only one question I'd really like to answer.

Eventually. Eventually.