Time

Walking past the glass store front, my eyes caught hold of my new Louboutin shoes. Shoes: better than a martini, better than chocolate, and most definitely better than Steve and his election.

I quickly slid my shopping bags under my desk, all except one. Pulling out the tissue wrapped box, I opened it to see my new Michael Kors watch. It’s classic and simply beautiful. I was smiling when I looked up and saw Suzanne staring at me.

“Isn’t this perfect?”

“What? A watch? That’s what you left for? That’s why I had to cancel my date tonight? A watch? So, is that to remind you what time you are supposed to be back here for a lunch you were never supposed to take today?”

“Suz, I never promised I’d cover for you. I think I would remember that. I had a date myself today. It was going to be divine. Except…” There was no way I was going to admit Steve cancelled on me.

“Except what, Liz? Except that you did promise to cover for me today. Except that I only asked you a week ago and reminded you yesterday. Except that it’s my anniversary tonight and now I have to go stand in line to vote instead.” Suzanne’s face was changing colors again.

And then suddenly, it wasn’t. She was reading something on her computer. Well, whatever it is, at least she’s distracted. I wrapped my new watch around my left wrist and settled in to finish today’s work so I could get out of here.

Martinis with the girls tonight sounds about right. Maybe we’ll hit that new restaurant everyone’s raving about.

Suzanne brusquely pushed back her chair and walked to Dianne’s office. She can’t really be that pissed at me. What is this, the third grade and she’s off to tell on me?

I kept trying to focus on my work. I couldn’t help but look up and see Suz, through the glass walls of our boss’s office. She was smiling, a lot. Someone really ought to tell her she looks like a horse, showing that many teeth. Maybe I’ll do her a favor and let her know later.

It wasn't long before Suz returned to her desk looking like she had swallowed that proverbial canary. She didn’t say a word.

I was curious. “Suz, do you wanna come out with me and the girls tonight?”

She rolled her eyes.

Ugh. What now?!

“No, I have a date tonight…and we’re celebrating.”

“Thought you said you had to cancel that?” Though why anyone would cancel a date to stand in a long line and vote is beyond me.

“Well, I did when you bailed, but Dianne just told me I could wrap things up and get out of here early. So, I’m off to vote and then to celebrate with Jeff.”

“Okay."  I still didn’t understand. Dianne rarely let us take off early, unless she was out of town and didn’t know any better.  "Happy Anniversary!”

“Thanks, Liz. I’ll see you in the morning!”

I went back to work when Dianne stopped by my desk and quickly explained Suz’s cat grin. She gave the promotion that we were both up for to Suzanne. And just to make this day even worse, I realized I would be reporting to her.

I glanced down at my watch, hoping the day was over already. It was still beautiful, but apparently lacked the ability to alter time. And there was no cab waiting to whisk me off.


In case you haven't already read it, the first part of this story, Lunch Date, was written for another Red Writing Hood prompt about a person who drives you crazy.

I was kind of surprised to write more about these fictional characters, especially from Liz's perspective.  But, when I saw the prompt to write about an argument, it just seemed natural to pick up where Liz and Suzanne left off.  Liz is the kind of gal who would drive me up the wall, but she seems to have gotten in my head a bit.

Even the Easter Bunny Gets Creative

Last year, the Easter Bunny hid an Easter egg under a kidlet's Bionicle. And this year, they remembered that and zipped out to the living room with some toys for that ol' Bunny to get his tricks on in the wee hours of Easter morning.

And get his tricks on, that Bunny certainly did!  Hero City William Furno heaved the egg high.

And Preston Stormer wasn't about to let this egg get away!

Those Hero City dudes from Lego weren't the only toys to get in on the Great Easter Bunny Act.  And no wonder the truck drove up on the pink egg, what with no driver at the wheel?!

Oh no!  The Thunderbird's windshield and hard top didn't survive.  Into the body shop, that car will have to go.

That ol' Easter Bunny sure did have fun hiding eggs this year...to the kidlets' absolute delight!

If you celebrated Easter last weekend, were you able to hunt those eggs outside or did someone get creative hiding eggs indoors?

I Heart Faces ~ Kitty Clyde

Wowza! This month has blown by. Doing our taxes ate my mojo a couple weeks ago and then this last week, I've enjoyed spending time with my kidlets as my son has been on his Spring Break.  But, I've missed this ever fun online world!

I Heart Faces' current photo challenge is Pets and I'm linking up our favorite photo of one spunky cat!  (If you've been reading here for awhile, then you may have seen this, but I've never linked it up with I Heart Faces....and it truly is our favorite! :>)  He's no longer with us, but our whole family has some mighty fine memories of Kitty Clyde.

If you want to check out oodles of cute critters that have captured hearts, head over to I Heart Faces and have a look!

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana & SITS

Last month, when I read that SITStas would be reading The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, for the SITSGirls Book Club, I sat straight up, excited and devoured the post.

This book appears to be one that I will love reading.  It is a true story about a woman, living in Afghanistan, under Taliban rule who manages to create a way to support herself and family against numerous odds.

And I finally have my copy in my hands today!  The clock cannot tick fast enough 'til I can start reading it later tonight!  What a perfect way to start our Spring Break here, don't you think?! :>

Obviously, I'm not able to review what I have yet to read, but thankfully, SITSta, Andrea of Great Thoughts has written a review that you can check out to see if this is something you might like.

And guess what?!  It gets even better.  The SITSGirls are having a Book Club Twitter party on May 5th, using the hashtag #SITSBooks and.....wait for it.....the author, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, will be participating.  Now, how cool is that?!  (And if you're not a SITSGirl yet, what are you waiting for? It's a great group of women bloggers! :>)

Okay, if you'll excuse me now, I'm off to try to get the clock to tick tock a little faster (hmmm...usually I'm trying to slow time down, trying to speed it up is a new one for me!).  The fact that my boy has a minimum day, leading into the arrival of Spring Break....finally (!!!), should help.

What are you reading right now?  Are you fan of crisp paper pages to thumb as you read or have you made the switch to an e-reader?

Disclosure:  I purchased The Dressmaker of Khair Khana myself.  All opinions are my own.  And yes, the links to the book are affiliate links.  All other links are informational and great sites!

It's a Birthday Blog Hop!

It's a birthday bloghop for an uber special blogger, my in real life friend, Elise of Mamacow Creations!

She rocks the creative span, ranging from oodles of papercrafts (card making to scrapbooking to home dec to food art...you should see what she does come pumpkin time!) and on down the line, to gorgeous fine art paintings (the first one here is  my current fav).  Elise is known to tickle a funny bone, get silly in the wee hours, write and sing an ode to the creative man, Tim Holtz, and make so many of us smile with her sweet heart.

Thanks to the gals at the Just Us Girls challenge site, I'm thrilled to be able to wish her a Happy Birthday!!!

And the birthday gal needs a birthday card, right?!

Elise had been begging for spring not too long ago and when I walked by a few of my Dew Drop ink pads, they whispered to me.  (No, really, they did!)

Well, their shape awoke some slumbering inky card making mojo and so I had to run with it!  I started with the orchid and then filled in with the purple.

A birthday needs sparkle, so after adding a piece of chunky purple bling for the flower's center, spica glitter pens went to work, laying on oodles of sparkle onto the vine ribbon used for the flower's stem. (It doesn't show fabulously in the photo, but it really does sparkle!)

Happy Happy Birthday, Elise!!

I'm grateful for your friendship and
hope your day is wonderful, launching an awesome new year! :>

I hope you'll hop along, visit the partiers, and most of all, stop by Elise's Mamacow Creations blog and leave her some birthday love (even if you're not a papercrafter, we know how fantastic the community of bloggers can be and would love if you stopped by to wish her Happy Birthday! :>)!!!

Supplies:Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Dew Drops
Ribbon: May Arts
Bling: rhinestone - stash;  Spica Glitter Pens - Copic
Other:  FabriTac, foam tape, ScorPal

In Concert

Sunlight dances through the canopy of woven branches,

Partnering dust motes as they flit and float by,

Tapping its toes on the carpeted forest floor.

Underfoot, rust colored needles, grind with each sneakered step.

Birds trill and chat, branches whoosh and crack,

Insects whizz, whir, and chirp, water trickles by.

An orchestrated concert erupts from the forests’ walls,

A sweet serene hush unites their song.

Together, they create a comforting softness that blankets a soul.

I wrap myself in its memories, its peace, its tranquility

And simply breathe.

It's RemembeRED time again!  This week we were prompted to write about a sound or scent that brings you right back to your past.

I've spent time camping on both sides of this country (from the Cascades to the Adirondacks and back to the Seirras) and some of my favorite individual memories are from those trips.  But, the feeling I get inside the forest is always the same regardless of who I'm with, what I'm doing, or which forest I'm in.  And so that's the direction I took for this.

We had a 700 word limit.  And while I am usually quite a wordy gal, I'm here with 88...hope I put them to good use! :>

World Autism Awareness Day 2011

While the whole month of April is dedicated to Autism Awareness, today is World Autism Awareness Day.

As some of you might already know, we have been affected by autism in our family.  And we have found it to be everything from an adventure to a challenge, from which we continue to learn daily.

In the first year or two after diagnosis, I lived on Google, sought advice from other parents with a child living with autism, read and learned from 'the experts'.

Now, while I am still learning and seeking information from a variety of sources (at the top of that list are my kidlet's words, actions, and behaviors...they will tell a lot if we'll just try to understand), one resource that I'm learning quite a bit from is the growing community of adults living with autism, who are sharing from their perspectives.

So, I thought it quite appropriate today to share with you a piece I read yesterday (thanks again to the tweeps tweeting away on twitter for sharing!), written by an adult living with high functioning autism, asking people to move beyond simply being aware of autism and learning more about what autism actually is.

Awareness, understanding, acceptance at Normal is Overrated

Please take a few moments to click over and read.  And if you have a story to tell, something insightful to share, or a resource you want to spread the word about in regards to autism, please do!