Bellatrix Lestrange Tee makes its debut. I tried to get the hubby to take a photo of me doing the Tree Pose (aka Whomping Willow Pose) in this outfit. I think that was too much nerd for him to handle.
T - minus 40 minutes until epic finale commences. Feeling some mixed emotions about the end. Emotions also include my desire to sip on a milkshake.
Prompt: That was the last time he would say that to anyone. (From Adammaxwell.com)
Exercise: Write a short fictional story with a beginning, middle and end in 15-20 minutes. Take 5-10 minutes to edit after the timer goes off.
Want to join me in this prompt? Write your short story, copy it in the comment OR post it on your blog and link back to me. If I get any takers on linking back to me, I’ll give you a shout out.
Fiction On!
Corey Maxwell Jamison is a lot like other 13 year old boys in his school. He reads for hours up in his room about fantasy, Sci-Fi, the animal kingdom and physics. He draws characters in knight’s armor and sometimes stays late at his school’s biology lab to dissect the worms and frogs the cheerleaders won’t touch. Ok, so he’s not like other kids at all.
One day in the biology lab he ate his Saturn shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich (made with love by his mama) while cutting open a particularly juicy worm. He opened his biology notebook and began to draw a diagram of the worm’s insides: its heart and tiny organs. He moved his face closely towards the worm to get a better look. As he did so, he felt an incredible force on the back of his head. Nick Wilson, the captain of the junior high football team slammed his face into the worm.
“Eat worm, you freaking weirdo,” Nick said. His groupies laughed and followed him out of the room.
Corey lifted his head and just stared at his biology notebook. The worm dangled off his face and the smell of formaldehyde lingered in his nostrils. All throughout fourth, fifth and sixth periods Corey dreamed up his revenge.
“Worm sandwich?” he thought. Too juvenile. “Death by light saber?” No, it would take much too long to construct a functioning light saber.
On his way home from school, Corey passed the football field. “Hey worm face.” The cheerleaders and football team yelled in unison. That’s when it hit him. Corey could taste sweet vindication as he ran home. “It could just be the formaldehyde,” he thought.
Twenty minutes later Corey showed up on the football field wearing his knight suit, holding a padded sword. He is a master LARPer (that’s live action role player). He stood on the field and faced down his enemy.
“Is that worm face?” Nick asked out loud. Just then, Nick got into a line backer stance and began to charge Corey. The cheerleaders yelled “Yeah! Go Nick.”
Corey stepped to the side as Nick was only inches from knocking him senseless. Corey smacked Nick on his back with his sword. Nick turned around and began to charge again. Corey gave a battle yell, turned and swung his sword over head. This time he struck Nick in the helmet. Nick’s face turned the color of beet innards. He charged again. Corey kneeled onto the ground, tripping Nick and flipping him onto the grass.
Winded, Nick rolled over onto his back and peered up at Corey.
“I’ll kill you worm face.”
Corey placed his foot on Nick’s chest to pin him down. He pulled a handful of worms out of his pocket and squished the wiggling specimen inside Nick’s helmet. Corey raised his sword into the air in triumph. The football players and cheerleaders applauded.
And that was the last time Nick would ever call Corey worm face. In fact, it was the last time Nick would even look at Corey.
Copyright: Shawnee Randolph. 7/11/2011
I strayed a little from the prompt. But I love where the story ended. I heart fiction. 
Side note: I won the Creative Writing Award for my senior class in high school. I forget that sometimes.
Because peanut butter and jelly sandwich come in more than just heart shapes.
Check out these super cute Bobba Fet Peanut Butter and Jeally Sandwiches from Wendolonia.com. Her blog is adorable and she puts together the most clever bento boxes for her kids. What an awesome and unique blog idea. She’s inspired me to get some bento boxes. I wonder if gluten free bread would cooperate with cookie cutters. hmmmm…
*Image from Wendolonia.com
Because this weekend is opening weekend of Harry Potter and because yoga, Starwars and Harry Potter always belong in the same blog post.
Check out Starwars vs. Harry Potter vs. Anusara Yoga from YogaDork.com. bahahahaha I have to laugh. I love Starwars and Harry, and my yoga teacher studied under John Friend. Too cool.
A word about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Okay, so more than one word: I’m excited for the epic battle scene and I am sad this is the final movie in the series. With all of these emotions I am feeling, it is a good thing I don’t have the emotional range of a teaspoon, otherwise I’d need some serious counseling. BTW, I so bought my Bellatrix Lestrange graphic tee. WOOHOO.
Have a wonderfully Nerdy rest of the week.
Today’s writing prompt from writingfix.com, using their awesome random writing prompt generator.
The prompt: “What SHOULD Heaven be like? Everyone has an image of Heaven, even those who aren’t religious. Write about yours.”
The assignment: 15 minute free write. 5 minutes to edit.
Set a timer. GO.
My prompt:
Heaven. When I get there, I imagine, I’ll walk on streets of gold and surf on the crystal sea. At least this is what I’m told. I’ve also heard we won’t really have bodies, we’ll just be more like floating energetic presences. Most people believe, however, we will bodies, brand new ones. We’ll be able to fly like Superman, and disapparate like Harry Potter. We’ll even get a mansion with our name on it. All for ourselves.
I’m fond of the new bodies and the super powers. That can stay in my heaven.
I picture heaven being the place I am most comfortable. I don’t want a mansion, I want a Victorian/craftsman style Bed and Breakfast. I want a front porch with big southern rocking chairs and a swing. I’ll have an endless supply of strawberry lemonade and eggs and cheese. I’ll even do the cooking and the serving, as in heaven there is no such thing as time. I’m not sure if guests would actually stay at my B&B, since everyone else has their own mansion, but maybe. Perhaps I could serve Jesus.
Down the street from my B&B there is a quaint little brick coffee shop ran by John the Baptist. I imagine the man who ate locusts and wore camel hair would make a mean cup of coffee. Above St. John’s Coffee Mecca is my yoga studio. When I’m not serving B&B guests, I’d teach yoga. Because in my heaven we do have bodies. Though, now that I think about handstand would not be challenging if we had super powers. Perhaps yoga would be recreational in heaven.
Even further down the road from my B&B, yoga shop and St. John’s Coffee Mecca sits a gigantic Roman looking library, with people in togas and olive branches in their hair reading on the one thousand steps. Below the library steps is a large grassy field. There is a group practicing tae chi, another group in a drum circle and there’s Jesus, all fresh from staying at the B&B explaining to a some listeners what he was actually talking about in Matthew.
This street opens up to the famous Crystal Sea. But it’s not like real crystal, there is nothing better than warm ocean water, glistening in the sun. People are surfing on the backs of dolphins. And you should see the size of some of these sandcastles. My humble B&B could fit inside of one of those things.
In my heaven everyone gets along, there is no discrimination, we worship together, share food together, exercise together and serve each other. Plus we have B&Bs with southern hospitality, coffee, books and yoga.
Join me in this writting prompt. Share your prompt in the comments or post it on your blog, link back to me and comment letting me know you did so.
Picture from cheeseslave.com
Heavenly Brownies. Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Brownies! From cheeseslave.com: Serve warm with a tall glass of coconut milk or almond milk (homemade if you are on GAPS). Or cut up the brownies and add to some homemade coconut milk ice cream (vanilla, or even better, chocolate) — heavenly.”
Seriously? I haven’t had much luck with coconut flour, but I have to give this one a try.
Geeks in Yoga Heaven
Image from Odditycentral.com
Read more about yoga for geeks here: “Starwars Yoga, Because Geeks Need to Exercise too.”
Happy Prompting! I’d love to see your prompts. If you don’t want to join the prompt comment with this: Heaven in 10 words or less.
Fiction holds a special place in my heart and be verbs are like toe nails on pavement.
If you were an English major or took writing classes, you probably remember the “no be verb” writing exercises. It’s one of my favorites. Not to mention after reading yesterday’s post…Let’s just say I needed the practice.
Writing prompt: Station.
My goal: fiction and no be verbs.
I left Oregon on a train and watched as the early 1900s style station faded away into the distance. Just me, my backpack and my notebook. Traveling to observe and write with no distractions.
A violent cough emerged from the man to my left and he elbowed me repeatedly. I shifted my upper body to the right as to try to avoid his unintentional abuse. I swear he leaned in closer.
“Sir, do you need some water?” I asked.
With his face as red as the flesh of a watermelon and his bulging fist covering his mouth he shook his head no. “I [cough, cough, hack, weeze] just [weeze, weeze, hack]…sometimes I cough [flem]”
Shudders.
After a moment his throat relaxed and the red melted away from his face like a thermometer.
“How far are you going?” He asked.
“South Dakota.”
“How splendid! Me as well.”
Great.
What do you think?
I think this heroine is going to have a very long train ride. Maybe I should continue the story using more one word writing prompts. Interesting…
To enhance your South Dakotan experience:
Image from allrecipes.com
South Dakota Sunflower Seed Cookies. Coconut and sunflower seeds? Sounds almost healthy. Substitute the margarine for coconut oil, the all-purpose flour for gluten free flour, and the white sugar for agave and it will be extremely nutritious!
Image from ur.umich.edu
I hear South Dakotan’s like to dance! “Dance has always played an important role in Native American culture, and it’s still true in South Dakota today. For visitors who’d like to soak up the sights and sounds of traditional Native American dance, powwows are the perfect destination” (Quoted from southdakota-guide.com).
No powwows groups available to join near you? Why not take up Zumba? It’s high energy and semi-cultural. Plus, I hope to be certified to teach it within the next year or so. Therefore it’s got to be good. Right?
Questions: Ever do the “be verb” exercise or been to a powwow?
–Shawnee, The Ex-Perfectionist
On the commute to work this morning I found myself making a mental list of things to do at home tonight. I ended my to-do with the dreaded dishes. “But it won’t be that bad,” I thought. “I can prop up my iTouch and watch Grey’s Anatomy. I could even deep clean the whole kitchen!”
Then I heard the voice of my yoga teacher interrupt this bliss-filled thought. “What would happen if you tried just being with the dishes and just being with the emotions the dishes bring up for you?”
Ugh. She’s so right.
Dishes are the chore I despise the most. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a dishwasher. Mom would make me and my step sister scrub the dishes each night (well realistically, probably not every night). Oh how I despised scrubbing the nasty food mixed with water. The worst part was the silverware. I had to feel around in the bottom of the sink, usually touching slime and goo, which would no doubt contaminate me.
Even worse than fishing around in the revolting river of ectoplasm, was the time it took to wash by hand the dinner dishes of four people.
When it comes to time and the dishes, I’ve had some pretty traumatic experiences. Of course there were the early years between the ages 7-12 previously mentioned. From ages 12-21ish our dishwashers were old and decrepit. We still had to scrub the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
From 21-26ish my husband and I had an older and more decrepitter dishwasher. Again, the dishes required scrubbing first. But that wasn’t the worst part, the last two years of enduring with that machine we literally had a trickle of water from our faucet to rinse the dishes. I had to tote the dishes to the bathroom or truck the water to the kitchen. Believe me, we complained to the landlords.
Now, we have no dishwasher and I am back to where I started my dishwashing career.
As I walked into my office building this morning, I asked myself why I hate doing dishes so much. I decide it’s all about the time. Then I asked myself why I hate doing things that take away from my time. The answer: because I don’t have much. Then, “why don’t you have much time?” Because I am busy. “Are you really too busy to do the dishes?” No! “So why do you feel like you don’t have enough time?” Because I procrastinate, ok? Sheesh.
This, for me, is the process of just being. Now, I am not saying I won’t watch Grey’s Anatomy while I clean my kitchen. But this is an exercise I may try to build into my yoga practice more frequently: Finding a problem and just being with it.
Clipart found on YogaMonkeyKids.com
The Yogic Practice of Just Eating: One of the problems I have with just being is just eating. The TV comes on almost instantly. In the practice of mindfulness, mindful eating is the area I need the most focus. Try this ancient yogic practice with me: clear the dining room table off, make dinner and don’t turn on the TV. Whoah. Life altering.
Question: What are some areas you need to work on “just being”?
–Shawnee, The Ex-Perfectionist
I’m transitioning my blog into more of a writing blog (with plans of moving my blog to an entirely different website in about 6 months or so). For those of you who don’t like to read and only want to scroll through and look at food pictures… so sorry. I miss writing.
Have you heard of the website OneWord? It’s a writing prompt website that provides writers with one word and a 30 second timer. The writers objective is to write and then stop when the 30 seconds are up. It’s a very helpful exercise to get the creative juices flowing. Here is my most recent prompt.
The word was Rise
Rise.
Of the heat moving from my belly to the rest of my limbs.
Of power squelching the weak.
Of my Christmas dinner. The mashed potatoes didn’t settle so well.
Of the sun revealing the early morning dew.
Of my head, shoulders and chest as I flow into upward facing dog.
Rise.
I am not usually one for poetry, but apparently I was a poet yesterday.
Image from Gluten Free Goddess
A Gluten Free bread recipe that actually rises
I’ve been dreaming about this recipe from the moment I saw the Gluten Free Goddess’ Facebook status proclaiming a whole grain gluten free bread –one with no white starches.
I have yet to make this recipe, but I know in all my heart it will be the soft, fluffy, wonderfull-ness that sandwich bread is supposed to be.
Image found on Tumbler.com
Yoga poses to connect to the rise of energy/heat from the core to the rest of the body…
Question: What is your favorite core-strengthening exercise or your favorite sandwich recipe?
–Shawnee, The Ex-Perfectionist
P.S. The spacing is all weird today. :S
I wrote a clause in my “about” section stating my blog is:
Ok. So I haven’t decided never to blog again. I may have decided to delete this blog though, but not any time soon.
I have an idea. From what my web designer friend tells me, it’s a big idea and will take some work.
I don’t know if I’ll get the bug to post on this blog again, or if the next time I’m blogging it will be on my monumental website.
The reason for my idea: I am finding myself wanting to write. I went through a stage for a while. It wasn’t pretty. I wanted to be a nutritionist, a personal trainer, a life coach and a naturopathic doctor. I also wanted to blog about every facinating meal, every girls night out, product reviews and recipes — oh, I wanted to create the best recipes.
Now that’s all out of my system.
I am still attending yoga teacher training and I still want to teach zumba. And I still want to write about yoga…or rather yoga and life. But I really want to write. Just write. I want my blog to be a writing blog. No, not instructions on writing. Just my musings. Plain and simple. If I make a super special salad, perhaps I will muse on that. Or I’ll write about this one time in band camp…
Speaking of band camp. Ours were day camps and were not nearly exciting as Michelle and her flute. Some of our band trips got rather juicy, however.
So what’s new with me?
Thyroid meds; new motivation at work; still don’t know what the H to eat; tried going paleo; yoga teacher training; children’s book is coming close to the editing stages; gardening, lots of gardening; and looking forward to GF pizza tonight at my ma and grandma’s b-day party.
