The Pink Journal

Diane looked out the window at the clouds. It had been a tough couple of days with her family but she was on her way home finally.

Holidays are hell especially when you don't get along with the people you are spending them with. She really didn't get along with her family.

This time her sister was even worse than usual. Diane never got along with Laura when they were kids and now they were worse.

Laura started in on her as soon as she was through the front door of her Mom's house. Laura didn't like her hairstyle or her clothes. Laura called her shoes cheap. Laura was nitpicky about everything.

It didn't help that she was still single and Laura kept waving her new engagement ring around. Diane wondered if Laura really had a fiancé. He wasn't with her and Mom had never seen him either. He sounded too perfect to be real.

Diane smiled. She knew that even though Laura had a good job she was always broke. Laura stayed in debt.

Diane began to wonder if Laura had bought the engagement ring for herself and just made up the fiancé. It wasn't hard to believe considering Laura also had a huge imagination and a habit of lying.

Diane made a mental note to google her soon to be brother in law when she got home. She wondered what she would find. She wondered if he even existed.

An announcement came over the speakers to fasten the seat belt and gave information on the temperature on the ground.  

Diane cinched up her seat belt and got ready to land. All she had was her carry-on so she would be home soon.

Hundreds of miles away Laura walked into her small studio apartment and looked around. She laid her keys and mail on the counter. She plopped on the nearby sofa.

She took off her engagement ring and looked at it before dropping it on the table in front of her. It had served its purpose. She didn't need to wear it anymore. She would return it to her divorced friend in the morning.

Laura didn't have a fiancé. She lied so her mother wouldn't bug her about being single again. It was a perk that it annoyed her sister.

Laura was jealous of Diane. She always had been even when she was a kid. Diane was older and seemed to always have it together. Now Diane had the life that Laura wanted. She didn’t think it was fair at all.

Laura was a mess. The stack of mail on the counter was all bills. She barely made it month to month. Her job was low paying and dead end. She had lied about it to her family too.

Diane unlocked the door of her apartment and went inside. She put her stack of mostly junk mail on the table and dropped her keys in the bowl next to it. She looked around and sighed. It felt good to be home.

She plopped on the sofa and turned on the television. She contemplated a glass of wine and a hot bath while flipping through the channels. She finally turned off the television and got up to do just that.

Her phone ringing in her purse stopped her. She went to answer it. She saw the caller ID and sent the call to voice mail. It was her mother and she had already had enough of her.

An hour later she came back to find five missed calls from her mother. She listened to the messages in horror.

Laura was dead. She had committed suicide.   

Celebrate With Me

Throw the confetti

Throw the party

Come celebrate with me

Pass the wine

Pass the cake

Come celebrate with me

Mark the day

Mark the hour

Come celebrate with me

Life is full

Life is passing

Come celebrate with me

X
A Perfect Princess Day 

Pink was the color of the day

Pink was the color of the balloons

Pink was the color of the streamers

Pink was the color of the wrapped packages

Pink was the color of the ice cream

Pink was even the color of the cake

It was a perfect pink princess day   

Happy Birthday to All the Princesses!

(Mw27)

Prompt: Mwps23

Word Count: 137

Summary: The virtues of tea and books.

 X

Good To The Last Word

Pleasures can be as simple as a good book and a nice cup of tea. It is no more complicated than that.

The question then becomes why we must make pleasure so complicated. This distraction or that distraction designed for pleasure only makes us more unsatisfied. The more complicated the distraction the more unsatisfied we become.

What has happened to this world? We have become forgetful of the simple things. We have forgotten that a good cup of tea and a good book has more satisfaction than most other things designed to give us pleasure.

Bells, whistles and perfect pixel games are no match for true pleasure. It is all a matter of desire to be pleased by the simple things. So boil the water and select a book and remember what true pleasure is all about.   

Music full of color and life

Captured for the ages

Pressed flat

Shoved into a sleeve

Inserted between two slices of colored pasteboard

Stacked layer upon layer

Never touching each other

Only touching the one who listens

The one who dares to be moved

Each one has a story

Waiting to be found

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SHORT OBSERVATION

RATING: G

PROMPT: (musewrite prompt set 4 photo prompt b)

WORD COUNT: 122

BLAZE OF COLOR

Summer’s heat has cooled but the blaze of another sort is just beginning. Autumn has its own blaze not of heat but of color. The blaze of color is inspiring. It gives one hope that winter will be but a memory soon.

The colors themselves are flame-like. Crimson, gold and orange mix as they do in the fire pit to dance and wave in the wind. It is almost as if Mother Nature wants one last bonfire before the starkness of winter.  

The blaze of autumn is best seen in a quiet peaceful place. The edge of a clear lake can give one a double show. This pristine beauty is slipping from this world but the memory of it will last forever.

Character: Byrdie (original character)

A/N: This is a conversation with an old mountain woman.

Prompt: (musewrite prompt set 2 photo c)

Word count: 251

It’s beautiful isn’t it? Those mountains over there are treasures. I hope they don’t disappear. How does a mountain disappear? Well they get exploded.

The polite people call it ‘Mountain Top Removal’. Daddy called it ‘Strip Mining’. That’s what they do. They strip off the top of the mountain to get to the seam of coal inside. They take all the dirt and shale and pour it into the hollers. It changes the land and not always for the good.

Didn’t you ever wonder why that pretty golf course up north is so flat? That was a strip mine. It sure was. That’s what they call ‘reclaiming’. I don’t care what they say mountains are treasures and can’t be reclaimed as a golf course. 

A mountain is more than a pile of rocks and dirt. It’s a living thing. It has creatures on it and springs coming out of it. Things grow on it.

Haven’t you ever wondered why we don’t get the bad storms from the ocean? The mountains block them. They keep us from harm. Both sides. We don’t get all those tornadoes either.

But no one cares about all that anymore. They just want cheap coal. They say it’s safer than underground mines. Either way it still costs us our treasures.

Remember what they look like because someday they may all be gone. That will be a sad day indeed.

Well I know you have to go so I won’t keep you. I’m sure I’ll see you around.