I know I'm punking out because I only have Y and Z, but you know what?  I'm just done.  I'm at the point where I don't give a rat's if it gets finished.  This year's A to Z is over for me.  I'm taking a blog vacation.

X is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Just so you know, Miranda Lambert is freaking awesome and I love this song.  Didn't have any actual X songs so I went with a song that has an X in the title.  So I bring you a story inspired by "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" by Miranda Lambert.

The door slammed back against the wall with a bang.  “She’s on the war path!”  Chad laughed, his momentum sending him sliding across the floor.  He grunted when he made contact with the rail around the bar.  He ducked under the pass-through and grinned at me.
“Oh man.  Is she actually here yet?”  I shoved the tip jar into his waiting hand.  Everything that could be turned into ammunition had to be removed from where she could reach it.  
He shook his head.  “Travis called and said he saw her heading this way.  We got about a minute.”
“Shit.  Keep hold of your drink this time, Bob.”  I gave our resident barfly a look.
“It was funny though,” he frowned into his beer.
I swatted his shoulder with my towel.  “I had to mop it up.  Get the pool cues for us will you?”  I handed him the keys to office.  Chad was securing the bottles of liquor in the cabinet so I began yanking the glassware from the racks.  I put the in the crates we used to transport them to and from the dishwasher in the back kitchen.  I couldn’t save them from her wrath but I had to get what I could.  I shoved the filled crates at Chad when I heard the door bang open again.

W is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Still trying to get caught up.  Hopefully today.  Here's my W story.  Inspired by Brad Paisley's "Waitin' On A Woman."

The man looked around.  He gave a nod to the gatekeeper before settling himself on a bench.  After a few minutes, the keeper came over.  “You can go right in.”
“I know.  I’m waiting for my wife.”  The man nodded and watched people stream towards the gate.  He smiled and waved at a few friends.  He would have to find them once inside; it had been a few months since they’d spoken and he wanted to catch up.
The keeper smiled kindly.  “Are you sure?  It might be a while before she’s here.”
“Very sure.  I don’t want to go in without her.  I’ll just wait here if that’s okay.”
Nodding, the keeper stood.  “It’s okay.”
Silently, the man sat.  The time blurred and he was unsure how long he sat there.  It could have been decades.  Finally, he recognized his wife’s grin amongst the masses.  He stood and straightened his tie, still as in love with her as he had been their first date.
“You waited!”  She exclaimed and hurried towards him, her stride lengthening and back straightening.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed their cheeks together.  
He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent.  She had never changed it.  He let her step back and took her hands in his own.  Her hair was darkening back to the warm chesnutt of her youth.  “Always.  I’ll always wait for you.”  He touched her freshly smooth cheek.
“You won’t have to anymore,” she squeezed his hand as they turned towards the gatekeeper together.  

V is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

I kind of veered off course a bit with this story.  I was thinking about the story, listening to the song and then because it was a Doris Day started thinking about her movies.  Which led to my mental crabbing about all the dud movies I've gotten from Netflix lately.  So I started thinking maybe I should dumped my existing Netflix queue and just fill it up with Doris Day.  And somewhere in all of that, this story formed.  Inspired by her version of "The Very Thought of You."  It's a little rambling and could probably use some editing but you know... Time's short.  I'd like to pretend that I'm keeping up with the challenge.

Audrey shook her head and blew out a breath.  If she didn’t know better she would say that she had stepped into an old movie.  One of the ones that had a sequence of mishaps that were comically timed to perfection, all leading up to a funny and sweet romantic climax.  Like Pillow Talk or maybe Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.  Or pretty much any movie that Doris Day made.  Except she didn’t feel very Doris Day like.  She wasn’t blond or perky.  There were no fabulous dresses.  No handsome leading man to splash mud on her and be her rescuer like Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink.

Disgusted with herself, she knelt down and began shoving everything that had tumbled out back into her purse.  The broken purse strap was just the latest in all the things that had happened that day.  The hot water heater had decided to die that morning followed by a dead car battery.  Just before lunch she had walked into the storage room only to discover two co-workers doing very non-professional activities.  It still made her want to gag.

Part way through the afternoon, she had accidentally hung up on a client.  The client had been understanding about it but her new boss, whose favorite pastime was lurking over her all the time, hadn’t.  The five minute lecture in front of the entire office had been humiliating.

Nope.  Her life was the farthest thing from a Doris Day movie.  Her life was a nightmare.  She grimaced and kept her head down when she heard someone running up the street.  She groaned when they stopped.  “Hey, want some help?” her newest neighbor, a man that had moved into the corner house, asked.

“No, I’m fine,” she snapped and lunged for her tampon case when he reached for it.

He squatted, picking up a few scattered items and held them out.  “Here,” he smiled.

“Thanks, sorry.  It’s been one of those days where everything goes wrong.”  She shoved everything into her purse and looked at him, forcing herself to smile.

He nodded. “I’ve been there.  You know what would make you feel better?  Come over for beer and burger in an hour.  I just got a new grill and you can be my test subject.”  He stood and offered a hand to help her up.

“Okay...” she nodded.

“Great.  See you then.”  He grinned.

U is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Not much to say since I'm posting this a day late.  The inspiration was Carrie Underwood's "Unapologize."

“I screwed up.”

Sam glanced over her shoulder at her roommate.  She watched her toe off her heels and diligently hang up her purse.  “What did you do?”

“I told him I love him,” Amber sighed.  She walked around the edge of the couch and flopped down.  “So stupid.”

“Eh.  Not that big a deal.”  Sam shrugged.

Amber stared at her.  “What do you mean, no big deal?  He hasn’t said it to me.  A woman can’t say it before the man.  It’s a rule.”

“Screw the rules.  If it scares him off that you said you love him, then he’s not in love with you and better you know now.  Don’t freak out about it.  You’ll just make it worse.”

“But...”

“No.  Stop.  You’re already doing it.  You being all weird about it will scare him off sooner than if he just isn’t ready to say it back yet.  Just let it go.  It’ll work out the way that it’s supposed to.  I’m going to bed.”

Amber nodded.  “Night.”  She watched Sam disappear down the hall.  She made a face, knowing that her friend was right.

T is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

This story is one part fiction, one part reality, and a lot of love for the Garden of the Gods.  Was inspired by Brad Paisley's "Time Well Wasted."

“And this formation is called the Siamese Twins.  And it’s a good place to stop.”  I dropped my backpack on the ground and plopped down beside it.

My nephew looked up at it.  “What’s a Siamese twin?”

“The nice way to say it is conjoined twins.  It’s when a set of twins are stuck together.  Here, take your water.  I’m tired of carrying it.”  I took the neon green bottle out and tossed it him.  We sat together in silence watching the goings-on around us.  It was a gorgeous day.  Sunny with just a few clouds and warm without being too hot.  The Garden was packed with hikers, cyclists, tourists.  We’d seen fresh horse droppings along the trail so there were some horses and riders roaming around somewhere.  I nudged him and pointed at a cloud floating past the Peak.  “Unicorn.”

He shook his head.  “Dragon.”  He reached into the backpack.  “Where’s the rice krispy treats?”

“In the front pocket.  Look at that dog.  It could be a bear.”  I watched a hiker go by.

“You need one like that.  Ah ha!”  He yanked one of the treats out and tore open the wrapper.  He ate the treat then shoved the wrapper into his pocket.

“Ready to go see if the Scotsman is wearing a kilt?”  I asked swinging the pack back onto my shoulder.  At his nod, we started towards the trail.  I glanced back at the rocks and snorted.  I grabbed my nephew’s shoulders and turned him.  “Look.  It’s Kermit.”

“Yeah!”  He grinned and we started giggling.

S is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Still behind.  I didn't write this as a sequel but then when I was editing, I realized that it is in fact a sequel to my C story. Huh. Strange how things work sometimes. This one's inspired by *NSYNC's "Selfish."

Note: This story has some swearing.  I was going to edit it out then decided it fit with the scene and what was going on so I left it.

“Do not walk away from me!”  She yelled and followed him from the kitchen into the living room.  “You do this. Every time I find a guy that I like; you pick and pick and pick.  You purposely find the button to push that makes him leave.  This is YOUR fault!”

He turned and shoved his hands into his pockets.  He was afraid that if he didn’t, he’d wrap his hands around her pretty throat and throttle the crap out of her.  “Don’t even put this off on me.  You sabotage your own relationships just fine without my help.  And this one... I’ve met the guy all of twice. Tonight being the second time.   I haven’t seen you in weeks because you said that he didn’t like me being around.  You fucked this one up all on your own.”

“You picked on him the first time you met.  It made him feel inferior.  Like you were more important than he was.”  She swiped several empty bottles from the coffee table into a trash can.

He snorted.  “The guy is several inches taller than me and outweighs me by at least twenty pounds.  How the hell did I pick on him?”

“I don’t know.  You just did.”  She pursed her lips.

He eyed her.  “You know what happened, don’t you?  You go out and you pick these guys.  Not just him, this is your pattern.  You’re like freaking clockwork.  But you go get a guy that you have absolutely nothing in common with.  Then you push and pull and whine and prod until you’ve changed him into what you think you want.  But it doesn’t work.  Because they never truly change.”  He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.  “You know why it doesn’t work?  Because you’re too blind to see that there’s a reason I’m your best friend.  You know, deep down, in that messed up, crazy-ass heart of yours that you’re in love with me.  You know it.  But you won’t admit it.  You use these piece of crap guys that treat you like shit to push me away.  Because you’re scared.  You’re too scared to admit that I’m the one you want.”  He grabbed his jacket from the couch and swung it on while she sputtered protests.  “Go ahead and blame me for this fiasco all you want.  Someday you’re going to be able to admit that what we have isn’t just friendship.  I just hope you realize it before I find someone else.  I won’t wait around forever.”

She gaped after him.  He was already halfway to his car when she finally screamed and flung an empty bottle at the door he’d slammed.

R is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Hm. I dunno how I feel about this story.  I know that my stories have gotten steadily shorter so that instead of a page they're only about half a page.  Side-effect of being behind and feeling rushed.  So here's R.  Inspired by "Rainin' You" by Brad Paisley.

I slit the bag of soil and dumped it into my wheel barrow.  Humming absently, I hook a bucket holding my tools onto the handle of the barrow then put a tray of annuals on top of the dirt.  I navigated my way across the yard towards my father’s lawn chair.  “It’s going to rain today.  I don’t care what the weather guy says.  It’s got that feeling.”  I started laying out my tools on the bench that circled the tree. 

I knelt and began laying out the flowers, arranging and rearranging them until I was satisfied..  “Bob took the kids to the mall.  There’s a pet expo adoption fair thing going on so I fully expect them to come back with a puppy.  But that’s okay.  I think we’ve been too long without a dog.”  I glanced over my shoulder before continuing a run-down of all the things going on with my children. 

“I’ll put up a temporary fence so that the puppy won’t dig up your flowers.”  I started digging the holes, mixing in the fresh soil, for the plants.  Lapsing into silence, I got all the flowers into the holes.  Just as I patted the dirt into place the sky opened up and the rain started.  It was light, the perfect rain for all of the plants in the yard.  I laughed and stood up. 

I gently touch my fingers to the plaque my kids had made and hung on the tree after my father’s funeral.  “I miss you Daddy.  Enjoy your flowers.”

P is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

Super late but it's finally here.  Here's my P story, inspired by Jaron and the Long Road to Love's "Petals Back on the Rose."  Only half a page so it's short.  Enjoy.

She yawned and put her head in her hands.  Whoever had originally come up with the idea that you should never let a sun set on an argument was a moron.  All that led to was sleep-deprived anger.  She was just so tired.  Tired of feeling ignored.  Tired of being mad all the time.  Tired of listening to advice that never seemed to help.  And just physically tired.  For weeks they had stayed awake late into the night nearly every night trying to find some sort of solution but it seemed like things were more intense than they had been at the beginning.

She didn’t look up when his footsteps approached the doorway.  He was probably gearing up for round five of the night and she just didn’t have it in her anymore.  Definitely not tonight.  Maybe not ever.  She would play deaf mute this time.  Just block him out and not respond.  Closing her eyes, she counted his steps as he crossed the kitchen to the table where she sat.  Eight steps.  When he was revved up, raring to go for an argument, it took only four.  The chair across from her slid out.  He sighed and started speaking.

“This is stupid.  I don’t even know where this started but it has to stop. We just keep bickering and picking and saying things we shouldn’t say.  But I’m stopping it; I’m done fighting with you like this.  I love you and I won’t stop fighting for our marriage.”

Slowly, she lifted her head.  He reached a hand out, palm up.  She nodded and extended her own hand.  “Where do we start?”

Q is For...

Below is my contribution for today's letter of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For more information about the challenge please visit their website http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com. If this is your first visit here from the challenge, I'm writing short stories based on song lyrics for each letter. I'm also participating over at Oh Frog It, feel free to check that out too.

KarensWhimsy.com

I am rearranging the alphabet!  The song I have picked out for P wasn't talking to me but Q was.  It's another sequel.  This time to my F story. It's not necessary to read it first but it is a cute story that I'm proud of.  So here you are... my Q song, inspired by "Quitter" by Carrie Underwood.

Paige smiled, tilting her face up to the darkening sky.  She closed her eyes as the first raindrops landed on her skin.  She leaned into Jon’s chest when his arms came around her.  

It was the perfect summer rain, she decided.  The temperature was still warm enough that she had only had to add a light shawl to her tank top and shorts.  The clouds were sparse so the first stars were twinkling in the sky.  Crickets and birds serenaded them with their songs.  The scents of freshly mown grass, the flowers and the rain mingled in just the right way.

And most importantly, she had the most amazing boyfriend.

She laced her fingers with his and breathed in his scent.  “If it weren’t raining we could have lit the fire pit.”

“I wouldn’t change a thing.”  He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, sliding one of his hands from hers.  He put it into his pocket.  “Rain is my favorite weather.  Has been since we met.”

She laughed.  “We would have met eventually.  You were working at my favorite restaurant.”  

He shook his head.  “I think that rain brought us together.  It was meant to be.”

“Why, Jon, you almost sound like a romantic.  Have my sappy, love story movies rubbed off on you?”  She tilted her head back to look up at him.

“Maybe just a bit.  That’s why I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to do this.  I knew I wanted it to be raining.”  He removed his hand from his pocket.  A diamond ring glinted as he held it out in front of them.  “I love you Paige.  I think maybe I always have and I was waiting for you.  But I know that I want to be with you forever.  Marry me.”

She nodded and turned in his arms to wrap her own around his neck.  “Yes!”