Concerning Contests, Cute Clothes, Chocolate Chips and "Completion"

Yeah! "C" day!

I am loving this A-Z challenge so far... it's making me post about things I normally wouldn't take the time to and I'm finding it highly addictive.

First up: Contests! I love contests! Blogging has won me some wonderful things ... like these:

I won Hooked and The Writer's Book of Matches from Sarah's contest over at Falen Formulates Fiction (you should go follow her now, because she is awesomesauce) and I won Sneezy Louise (AUTOGRAPHED thank you very much) from Clara Gillow Clark's blog (and you should go follow her too - she's one of our many fabulous local authors and she interviews people and gives away free books!)

And there are more contests every day! I can barely keep up with them... so here are some that are coming up soon...

Christine is having a 100 followers contest! Whee! Congratulations. Cute prizes and fun blog, so go check it out!

Roxy at a woman's write is having a a Blogging Buddies Giveback Contest with super fun ways to enter!

Christina at Chocolate for Inspiration is having a gorgeous Shopping in Korea Contest! I want to win, so stay away!

Shannon at ramblings of a wannabe scribe got an agent! Woohoo! She's having an Agent Signing Contest!

Noelle is having a contest to get to 150 followers so, go here and follow her and get entered for a gift card, cause book gift cards are mah-velous, darling!

I think that's the lot for now. I love meeting new people this way :D

Now for the clothes - cute, cute, cute!

On that fabulous shopping trip I had to buy pants, because my wardrobe conspires together and every single pair of pants I own decided to fall apart, get randomly stained by highlighter (when I hadn't been anywhere near one - totes weird), and/or otherwise become unwearable. So we went to my all time favorite clothing store, which starts with a K and ends with an ohl's. AND I had that extra 30% off! Fabulous!

So I bought pants, but you CAN'T just buy pants when you get an extra 30% off - that would be wrong on SO many levels! So I bought these adorable tops.

I needed some new stuff for grad school and for casual wear. Sweet!

Then I found these adorable brown shoes

and I have desperately been needing brown shoes and these were $50 shoes on sale for like $19, plus the extra off! That is even better than Sweet Muffins. I don't even have words for the wondernous of it.

THEN I found this gorgeous ring (and maybe I will post the full story behind it later this month).

The picture is horrible, but it is sterling silver and cubic zirconium - nothing too fancy, but it's a $25 ring - on sale - with the extra discount - only $7. Could life GET any better? I think not!

Whee for new clothes and accessories!

Random story:

Tonight I was having some chocolate chips and this fell out of the package:

Isn't it' a cute little bunch of chocolate chips! I love it.

And finally, I wanted to share another short story - I originally wrote this for Falen's writing contest, but then tried a different writing prompt, which I like better - it was funnier, anyway. So I submitted that one, but I love this story too, so I shall share it here: (and if you want to read the other one you can go here.)

Completion

It was such a shock, discovering my brother’s charred, deformed body in the middle of my yard. Now, a week later, I stare out the window at the place he was found. Yellow tape, like morbid streamers, still hangs between the trees.

The cops poked through everything – under the porch, through the flowerbeds. As though the cause of his combustion could be found in my azaleas.

I close the shade, allowing the house to swallow me again. I haven’t left since that night.

With excruciating care I open the door to the basement. In utter darkness, I feel my way down the almost ladder-steep stairs. I don’t realize I’m holding my breath until my lungs ache.

A glow begins in the far corner and I let my breath out in a slow release. Moving toward the illumination I take inventory. The worktable, the drawers filled with materials, the locked chest, and the obelisk emitting that soft, enticing glow.

I pull the key out from under my shirt where it hangs on a chain and open the chest. My brother’s journal seems to give off a glow of its own, but maybe that’s because I know what it contains. Every brilliant thought George had, he transcribed here. There are scientific notes that even I do not understand, but I comprehend enough to know he was not the crackpot everyone considered him.

I reach out a finger and it trembles as I press it against a diamond symbol on the obelisk. The diamond glows against my fingertip. Heat builds and a surge of energy pours through my body. If I had any hair left it would be standing on end. Goosebumps rise like a tide, sweeping across my skin.

Then the obelisk goes dark and cold, but I feel alive. Vibrant, ecstatic and full of such energy I can barely hold still. I flip on the light over the worktable and thumb through the journal to find the sketch of the obelisk and the instructions in George’s maddening shorthand. I lay the obelisk down.

Already the energy is fading. Cold begins to creep into my bones. The feeling of life is almost gone.

With a tiny screwdriver I remove the base. Something is wrong. Something is keeping it from producing the power George intended. I trace my fingers across his notes and carefully begin to work.

I have done this every day now for seven days. Ever since I found the box with the journal and the obelisk in my basement. The night after my brother died.

I have been on the cusp of victory for two days. I feel as though I am just missing the solution. I move a wire, tweak a connection, breathe a curse as my fingers slip and I have to start over.

Then suddenly I know I have done it. Adrenaline fills my veins and I have the entire thing reassembled and standing almost before I can think.

I reach to the top and tap a circle. There is a low hum. The ground vibrates, the obelisk pulses. With my thumb I touch a wavy line about midway down the obelisk and stretch my pinky over to reach a matching line on the opposite side.

There is a high, sweet noise. My heart pounds. The obelisk begins to glow and I turn off the incandescent bulb, the light seeming sacrilegious next to the purity of the obelisk’s radiance. My breath comes in short gasps as I reach out one last time to touch that diamond.

The heat is beyond words, the energy so intense my entire body arches upward and suddenly I am floating, flying. A beam of light stabs through me, then another and another as each symbol etched on the mysterious surface of the obelisk glows white hot. The light carries me. Through the ceiling into the living room and then through that ceiling into the bedroom.

I see it all in vivid colors, experience it as I never have before. Then I am through the roof and the sky is blue and cool and clear and the sun is growing closer and then I am no longer me. Far below, on the vague form of the earth I see my body, charred and twisted like my brother’s, but that is not what I truly am. I am more alive than I have ever been as the blaze of the sun shimmers out to call me home.

(c) 2010 Rebecca Thompson

All Rights Reserved