If you think Camp Grandma is run by said grandma – you would be wrong.
The Drill Sergeant makes me get up at 0630 every morning, and do things. All. Day. Long.
Things like baking, starting craft projects, making Lego cruise ships and castles. Pretending she’s a dentist and I’m the patient. Watching G rated movies and the occasional spooky PG (Pre-screened by Grandma) movies. Munching on snacks.
Oh yeah, and shopping. For more snacks, of course. You just can’t have enough snacks.
Then, when it’s homework time, Drill Sergeant makes me do my homework with her. My homework is income tax returns. I don’t know how hubby can snooze through homework time with all the obnoxious whining going on. I am praying we are able to get a refund for once. I owe money. I got a bill from the ‘dentist’ today. For $3,000.00.
After homework time I have free-time while Drill Sergeant (now known as DS because I’m tired of typing it), goes with hubby to his shop and plays quarter slots and video poker. Yesterday she lost all her winnings and tonight she won the top jackpot. I hope she isn’t headed for a gambling problem. Good thing she’s not allowed in casinos for another 12-years.
In my “free” time I do laundry, dishes, grocery shop, etc.. DS will sometimes be in a mood to help, which is great because she really is a help. She wowed the entire grocery store today with her perfect manners. She wowed me too – for someone who doesn’t practice good manners, she is awesome.
Tomorrow we declared a play day. No errands, no homework. Left-overs on the menu. There is serious quilting and crocheting to get to. Maybe a card game or two and a couple shows on TV. And if we get tired of that, we might paint our nails dark purple with sparkles on top.
Daily Prompt: Ghostwriter If you could have any author –living or dead – write your biography, who would you choose?
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No decision was even necessary!
I choose Stephen King.
He could make my life sound interesting, and elaborate about the spooky things. I could ship him all of my journals (since junior high) and we could Skype regularly about the details & other stuff…
Daily Prompt: Silver Screen Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your post. Now, write!
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Tony held tightly to his grudge for 15-years and counting. He could not let it go. Some things that Ralph did annoyed him, but nothing caused any bitterness and ill-will toward Ralph, until he stabbed Tony in the back.
He would almost understand if Ralph’s betrayal was over money, or a woman. But not an old musty book. He and Ralph were browsing at the county flea-market, when Tony discovered what he believed to be a family heirloom. A diary, dated in 1892, when the author was 16-years old. He couldn’t wait to get home and compare the handwriting to an old scrap-book he inherited.
Tony was 99% sure that 16-year old Cassie, was his great-great-grandmother, Cassandra.
Ralph was uncharacteristically bitchy about Tony’s insisting they leave, grumbling all the way to the parking lot.
“This thing can wait another hour or so, can’t it?”
“I feel like I need to get this diary home, now,” Tony explained. “Aren’t you even a bit curious?”
“No. Just drop me off at my place, OK?”
“Well – OK”. Tony was hurt that his friend did not want to be part of his discovery, but he said nothing when Ralph hopped out of the car and said, “See ya later!”
Tony dug out the old family Bible, scrapbooks and photo albums and piled them on his dining room table. His hunch was right! Great-great-grandmother Cassandra, and the 16-year old Cassie that wrote the diary, were the same girl. He was so excited, he stayed up all night reading her diary. It was a fascinating and entertaining book. He also learned a lot about his other family members as he read.
When he woke up, the sun was shining brightly through the kitchen window, on his head. It took him a minute to figure out why he was sleeping at the dining-room table, and not in his bed. Cassie’s diary was nowhere to be found among the pile of books on the table. He knew he fell asleep with the diary in his hands. What the Hell could have happened to it?
Two days later, Tony was having a beer at Ralph’s, when he noticed the spine of a book burned up in the fireplace. He took a closer look. It was Cassie’s diary!
“What have you done?” Tony demanded, pointing at the fire-place. Ralph shrugged. “I got a real bad feeling about that book you found,” Ralph told him. “It felt haunted.”
“Then you should have talked to me about it! Not go behind my back and destroy it!” he yelled. That was the last time he spoke to Ralph, 15-years ago.
As if his grandmother was standing close, whispering to him, Tony heard “Fester, Fester, Fester. Rot. Rot. Rot.” He tried to remember the section in the diary where she wrote those very words. Oh yes – it was when she wrote about her brother, Ethan, who hated their cousin Lloyd for reasons she did not know. She worried about Ethan because she saw what his bitterness toward Lloyd was doing to him.
“Ethan’s soul is being devoured by his hatred,” she wrote. “His bitterness is spreading into all aspects of his personality, turning him into an old man before his time.”
Later (only a few pages in the dairy), she wrote about confronting Ethan and telling him he was “festering and rotting” his life away. She teasingly punched his arm, and mimicking his gruff voice, said,” Fester, Fester, Fester. Rot. Rot. Rot.” Ethan and she laughed together for a long while. Then he told Cassie he would try to let go of his festering grudge, making her happy and hopeful that she would “have her normal brother back”. She drew two red hearts, ending the day’s entry in her diary.
Tony shivered as goosebumps crawled up his arms. His great-great grandma was trying to tell him he behaved like Ethan. Was he going to make his whole life rotten over what Ralph did to her diary? Or was he going to let it go back into the past where it belonged?
He was certain he knew what his great-great-grandma wanted him to do.
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BTW…
The quote, said by Meg Ryan’s character “Kate”, was in the film French Kiss. If you haven’t seen this film – you should 😉
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