Friday, June 05, 2009

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 66

This is week 66 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I have no idea why the type face changes between paragraphs. Blogger is strange.


The words for this week's ten word challenge were: swashbuckler, heads-up, dry martini, recovery, jungle gym, whiskers, bathing suit, spade, circular reasoning, abrasive and for the Mini Challenge: butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, stagnation, chart, star crossed lovers, apricot brandy



My 10-word offering for today:


Mary Sue watched her two young children in their bright-colored bathing suits happily running in circles, alternately playing on the jungle gym her husband had set up for them a month earlier while she had been "away" in rehab and chasing poor Whiskers-cat, whose speed and kittenhood were now long behind him.. She sat by the flower bed, spade in hand, wishing very much that she was not in recovery and could dim the abrasive noise of her boisterous children with a large dry martini. She knew this was wrong of her, but the siren song of the drink was calling her to the path of twisted and circular reasoning by which she could rationalize a fall from grace. The call of addiction was so strong. It seemed impossible that anything could make her want to turn aside from the wonder of her beautiful children. Time, she thought to call in to her sponsor. Swashbuckler she called him, because he reminded her of Errol Flynn and she if she called him when temptation became strong - gave him a heads up he called it - he would ply the sword of logic and reason and remind her what the drink really did, not what it whispered that it would do. With an eye on her children and a shaking hand, she dialed the number and breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice.



For the mini:


Mandi had loathed Jennifer. She was beautiful and smart and she could cook better than any other wife in the neighborhood. Everyone buzzed with praise for hostessing skills and her cornish hens and strawberry tarts and apricot brandy. And she could do astrological charts besides everything else. And that fake friendliness. Hah. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Or that's what Mandi had thought.. tried to think. In more rational moments she looked at the stagnation of her own life and knew that the problem wasn't with Jennifer but her own insecurity and jealousy. In truth she admired Jennifer, wanted to be like her and hovered at the edge of conversations like a star-crossed lover. Luckily for Mandi, Jennifer was as kind as she was gifted. She had seen past the frosty shyness and nurtured Mandi's confidence and gifts, taught her cooking and dress-making and even astrology. She had become that best of things... a true friend.




And for the mega challenge:


Note to self. No more apricot brandy. Ever. Another Jeopardy nightmare. Don't know why I always dream about Jeopardy. The name, maybe. Anyway, I'm standing on stage in a bathing suit. Wearing a bathing suit alone is a nightmare. But it goes on. The other contestants are dressed in formal wear. She's one of those "butter wouldn't melt in her mouth," sugary types. Gorgeous and wearing a bright yellow gown and and a crown. She's a former Miss Kansas. Name's Amber or some such thing. The guy next to her is named Freddy Spade. He manufactures jungle gyms for a living. Nasty, abrasive person. You'd think someone who made a children's toy would be kind. Not this guy. Alex Trebec was sporting a beard very jaunty whiskers for some reason and was sipping a dry martini... He actually had a pitcher of them and seemed a touch drunk. As he read off the categories: Famous Swashbucklers, Circular Reasoning, Star-Crossed lovers, Maps and Charts, and something called Stag-Nation. "I'd give you a heads up on what that's about," he slurred, but I don't want to ruin the fun. "I'll take Stag-Nation for $1,000, Alex," I heard myself say. "If the shoe fits," he replied. And then Amber said something about it being time for me to go into recovery in a voice that sounded a lot like my husband's." That last part, I think, wasn't a dream. I'm not sure where I am but I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore. And now I see Danny's concerned face. No dear. You're not in Kansas. You're out of jeopardy now... you're in rehab... Don't be afraid, baby. It's going to ok.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Afraid these worlds reflect my state of mind. Sorry.


Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: nausea, everything is on sale, expect great things, frying pan, pledge, birds of a feather, stick, Saturday morning, liver and bacon, caterpillars


For the mini challenge: aggravation, protective, bargain basement, take me out to the ballgame, break a leg




Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.



Enjoy! See you next week.




Don't Forget to Add Your Name to Mr. Linky



13 comments:

MommyWizdom said...

OOoh, ooh, I liked the last one... Alex Trebec drunk and Stag-Nation was great!! Nicely done!

Great job, Raven. I hope you're feeling better.

MommyWizdom

ForestJane said...

Nice set of three this week, Raven!

I think I liked the third one best too, the segue from playing Jeopardy to waking up and being out of jeopardy. ;)

Akelamalu said...

I'm so pleased Mary Sue didn't succumb to temptation in your 10 word.

I loved your mini and the fact that Jennifer's not just perfect she turned out to be a good friend too - that's nice. :)

Using some of the words as categories for Jeopardy in your mega was just genius! :)

Dr.John said...

All three stories were great.
The first one certainly is true for those alcoholics I worked with who were staying sober a day at a time they had learned to lean on a sponsor.
I really liked Stag-Nation. That was clever.

bettygram said...

They were all good again.
I am glad that Mary Sue got help.
I like the fact that Jennifer was a friend even when rejected.
Stag-Nation for a category was very good.

Dianne said...

I'm really glad Mary Sue made the call

Hope you're feeling better

Batteson.Ind said...

Your writing is a true pleasure to read... I really enjoyed the mega challenge today, nice angle on the story.. cheers!

Richard said...

Running way late today as well.

Too much dancing, too much booze and then there was that midnight cigar and cocktail under the almost full moon on the patio last night to finish off the evening.

Woke up with a hangover and regrets for imbibing too much and sampling food while out on the town.

Recovered just enough to finish my story and read yours. Will get to all the others at some point.

Liked your Mega, though to me, any dream with Alex Trebec in it would be classified as a nightmare.

Hope you're feeling better today.

I'm healing with Coffee and Cantaloupe. Wow, Gastronomic alliteration, I must be hungover.

Feel Better,

Rich

Stephen said...

I liked the Whiskers name for the cat in the first story and the two women becoming friends in the second story. I liked the third story the best, with the dream about Jeopardy and Alex Trebec and the names for the categories, and then the twist at the end. I thought the words were worked in well in all the stories.

I have my own stories up now.

Stephen from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
http://stephen-has-spoken.blogspot.com/

CJ said...

All three were great, but I loved the Jeopardy one. My husband and I are big Jeopardy fans. I used to be a teacher and sometimes dreamed I was in front of a class, naked. (It's actually a pretty common dream for teachers.) I used to think i'd love to be a Jeopardy contestant, but I read that you have to pay your own way, pay for food and lodging, and they won't pay you a cent until you've coughed up the taxes out of your own funds. So, if you don't win much, you could be in negative territory, so to speak, even without the apricot brandy.

Carletta said...

Hope you're feeling better!
You did a great job as always and I can't wait for the appropriate time to use 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.' - Loved that!

Nessa said...

I hope you are feeling better, too.

Three very different but very good stories. I found the first one very poignant.

allee kat said...

I just joined your word challenge for the first time and signed up with Mr. Linky. I look forward to being a weekly participant. Although I bent the rules a bit and went over a paragraph, I had a blast with it!

Loved your stories, Raven! You are a talented and witty wordsmithess!

(=^;^=)