There was something in the tree. It was difficult to tell from the
ground, but Rachael could see movement. She squinted her eyes and peered
in the direction of the movement, trying to decipher exactly what she
had spied. The more she peered, however, the more she thought it might
be a figment of her imagination. Nothing seemed to move until the moment
she began to take her eyes off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye,
she would see the movement again and begin the process of staring again.
They decided to find the end of the rainbow. While they hoped they would
find a pot of gold, neither of them truly believed that the mythical pot
would actually be there. Nor did they believe they could actually find
the end of the rainbow. Still, it seemed like a fun activity for the
day, and pictures of them chasing rainbows would look great on their
Instagram accounts. They would have never believed they would actually
find the end of a rainbow, and when they did, what they actually found
there.
Sarah watched the whirlpool mesmerized. She couldn't take her eyes off
the water swirling around and around. She stuck in small twigs and
leaves to watch the whirlpool catch them and then suck them down. It
bothered her more than a little bit that this could also be used as a
metaphor for her life.
The day had begun on a bright note. The sun finally peeked through the
rain for the first time in a week, and the birds were singing in its
warmth. There was no way to anticipate what was about to happen. It was
a worst-case scenario and there was no way out of it.
There were a variety of ways to win the game. James had played it long
enough to know most of them and he could see what his opponent was
trying to do. There was a simple counterattack that James could use and
the game should be his. He began deploying it with the confidence of a
veteran player who had been in this situation a thousand times in the
past. So, it was with great surprise when his opponent used a move he
had never before seen or anticipated to easily defeat him in the game.
Brenda never wanted to be famous. While most of her friends dreamed
about being famous, she could see the negative aspects that those who
wanted to be famous seemed to ignore. The fact that you could never do
anything in public without being mobbed and the complete lack of privacy
was something that she never wanted to experience. She also had no
desire to have strangers speculating about every aspect of her life and
what each thing she did was supposed to mean. Brenda was perfectly happy
with her anonymous life where she could do exactly as she wanted without
anyone else giving a damn. Thus, her overnight Internet celebrity was
not something she was thrilled about as her friends told her how lucky
she was.
Many people say that life isn't like a bed of roses. I beg to differ. I
think that life is quite like a bed of roses. Just like life, a bed of
roses looks pretty on the outside, but when you're in it, you find that
it is nothing but thorns and pain. I myself have been pricked quite
badly.
Dragons don't exist they said. They are the stuff of legend and people's
imagination. Greg would have agreed with this assessment without a
second thought 24 hours ago. But now that there was a dragon staring
directly into his eyes, he questioned everything that he had been told.
Her mom had warned her. She had been warned time and again, but she had
refused to believe her. She had done everything right and she knew she
would be rewarded for doing so with the promotion. So when the promotion
was given to her main rival, it not only stung, it threw her belief
system into disarray. It was her first big lesson in life, but not the
last.
It was a concerning development that he couldn't get out of his mind.
He'd had many friends throughout his early years and had fond memories
of playing with them, but he couldn't understand how it had all stopped.
There was some point as he grew up that he played with each of his
friends for the very last time, and he had no idea that it would be the
last.
She looked at her student wondering if she could ever get through. "You
need to learn to think for yourself," she wanted to tell him. "Your
friends are holding you back and bringing you down." But she didn't
because she knew his friends were all that he had and even if that meant
a life of misery, he would never give them up.
Bryan had made peace with himself and felt comfortable with the choices
he made. This had made all the difference in the world. Being alone no
longer bothered him and this was essential since there was a good chance
he might spend the rest of his life alone in a cell.
Peter always saw the world in black and white. There were two choices
for every situation and you had to choose one of them. It was therefore
terribly uncomfortable for him to spend time with Ashley. She saw the
world in shades of gray with hundreds of choices to choose from in every
situation.
MaryLou wore the tiara with pride. There was something that made doing
anything she didn't really want to do a bit easier when she wore it. She
really didn't care what those staring through the window were thinking
as she vacuumed her apartment.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow in more detail at our meeting, but I think
I've found a solution to our problem. It's not exactly legal, but it
won't land us in jail for the rest of our lives either. Are you willing
to take the chance?" Monroe asked his partner over the phone.
Finding the truth wouldn't be easy, that's for sure. Then there was the
question of whether or not Jane really wanted to know the truth. That's
the thing that bothered her most. It wasn't the difficulty of actually
finding out what happened that was the obstacle, but having to live with
that information once it was found.
His mother had always taught him not to ever think of himself as better
than others. He'd tried to live by this motto. He never looked down on
those who were less fortunate or who had less money than him. But the
stupidity of the group of people he was talking to made him change his
mind.
A long black shadow slid across the pavement near their feet and the
five Venusians, very much startled, looked overhead. They were barely in
time to see the huge gray form of the carnivore before it vanished
behind a sign atop a nearby building which bore the mystifying
information "Pepsi-Cola."
They had always called it the green river. It made sense. The river was
green. The river likely had a different official name, but to everyone
in town, it was and had always been the green river. So it was with
great surprise that on this day the green river was a fluorescent pink.
The piano sat silently in the corner of the room. Nobody could remember
the last time it had been played. The little girl walked up to it and
hit a few of the keys. The sound of the piano rang throughout the house
for the first time in years. In the upstairs room, confined to her bed,
the owner of the house had tears in her eyes.
How had she been so wrong? All her instincts and intuition completely
failed her for the first time in her life. She had so heavily relied on
both when making decisions up until this moment and she felt a seismic
shift take place in her self-confidence. If she could be so completely
wrong about something so simple as this, how could she make decisions
about really important things taking place in her life? She wasn't sure
what she should do next.
The irony of the situation hadn't escaped her. She had taken years to
sculpt the perfect persona with the perfect look that she shared on
Instagram. She knew her hundreds of thousands of followers envied that
life she showed and stayed engaged with her because they wanted that
life too. The truth was that she wanted the perfect life she portrayed
more than any of her fans. The fact was that despite all the perfection
she shared on social media, her life was actually more of a mess than
most.
It was easy to spot her. All you needed to do was look at her socks.
They were never a matching pair. One would be green while the other
would be blue. One would reach her knee while the other barely touched
her ankle. Every other part of her was perfect, but never the socks.
They were her micro act of rebellion.
She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried
to think back to when the girl had been younger but failed to pinpoint
the exact moment when she had become a little too big to pick up and
carry. It hit her all at once. She was no longer a little girl and she
stood there speechless with fear, sadness, and pride all running through
her at the same time.
He knew what he was supposed to do. That had been apparent from the
beginning. That was what made the choice so difficult. What he was
supposed to do and what he would do were not the same. This would have
been fine if he were willing to face the inevitable consequences, but he
wasn't.
I've rented a car in Las Vegas and have reserved a hotel in Twentynine
Palms which is just north of Joshua Tree. We'll drive from Las Vegas
through Mojave National Preserve and possibly do a short hike on our way
down. Then spend all day on Monday at Joshua Tree. We can decide the
next morning if we want to do more in Joshua Tree or Mojave before we
head back.
Twenty-five years Dana had been waiting. She tried to be patient during
that time but she hadn't always managed to be as patient as she'd like.
But today the opportunity had finally come. The thing she always
imagined would make her the happiest person in the world was about to
happen. She didn't know why at this specific time she all of a sudden
felt sick inside.
There was nothing else to do. The deed had already been done and there
was no going back. It now had been become a question of how they were
going to be able to get out of this situation and escape.
I love the feel of wood curls flying off the lathe as I begin to shape
the log in front of me. The sound of scraping changes based on the
wetness of the wood, the speed at which the lathe is turning, and the
type of cut I am making. The smell and feel of wet wood being turned are
unique. The water is sprayed out as I cut through the different layers
of wood. A log can turn into anything one's imagination can think of
with the right set of hands-on tools. I have those hands and
imagination. I use all of my senses and intuition to create a beautiful
object. That is why I enjoy turning wood.
The rain and wind abruptly stopped, but the sky still had the gray
swirls of storms in the distance. Dave knew this feeling all too well.
The calm before the storm. He only had a limited amount of time before
all Hell broke loose, but he stopped to admire the calmness. Maybe it
would be different this time, he thought, with the knowledge deep within
that it wouldn't.
I'm heading back to Colorado tomorrow after being down in Santa Barbara
over the weekend for the festival there. I will be making October plans
once there and will try to arrange so I'm back here for the birthday if
possible. I'll let you know as soon as I know the doctor's appointment
schedule and my flight plans.
The trail to the left had a "Danger! Do Not Pass" sign telling people to
take the trail to the right. This wasn't the way Zeke approached his
hiking. Rather than a warning, Zeke read the sign as an invitation to
explore an area that would be adventurous and exciting. As the others in
the group all shited to the right, Zeke slipped past the danger sign to
begin an adventure he would later regret.
Frank knew there was a correct time and place to reveal his secret and
this wasn't it. The issue was that the secret might be revealed despite
his best attempt to keep it from coming out. At this point, it was out
of his control and completely dependant on those around him who also
knew the secret. They wouldn't purposely reveal it, or at least he
believed that, but they could easily inadvertently expose it. It was
going to be a long hour as he nervously eyed everyone around the table
hoping they would keep their mouths shut.
It's an unfortunate reality that we don't teach people how to make money
(beyond getting a 9 to 5 job) as part of our education system. The truth
is there are a lot of different, legitimate ways to make money. That
doesn't mean they are easy and that you won't have to work hard to
succeed, but it does mean that if you're willing to open your mind a bit
you don't have to be stuck in an office from 9 to 5 for the next fifty
years o your life.
He lifted the bottle to his lips and took a sip of the drink. He had
tasted this before, but he couldn't quite remember the time and place it
had happened. He desperately searched his mind trying to locate and
remember where he had tasted this when the bicycle ran over his foot.
There are different types of secrets. She had held onto plenty of them
during her life, but this one was different. She found herself holding
onto the worst type. It was the type of secret that could gnaw away at
your insides if you didn't tell someone about it, but it could end up
getting you killed if you did.
Why do Americans have so many different types of towels? We have beach
towels, hand towels, bath towels, dish towels, camping towels, quick-dry
towels, and let’s not forget paper towels. Would 1 type of towel work
for each of these things? Let’s take a beach towel. It can be used to
dry your hands and body with no difficulty. A beach towel could be used
to dry dishes. Just think how many dishes you could dry with one beach
towel. I’ve used a beach towel with no adverse effects while camping. If
you buy a thin beach towel it can dry quickly too. I’d probably cut up a
beach towel to wipe down counters or for cleaning other items, but a
full beach towel could be used too. Is having so many types of towels an
extravagant luxury that Americans enjoy or is it necessary? I’d say it's
overkill and we could cut down on the many types of towels that
manufacturers deem necessary.
She had been an angel for coming up on 10 years and in all that time
nobody had told her this was possible. The fact that it could ever
happen never even entered her mind. Yet there she stood, with the
undeniable evidence sitting on the ground before her. Angels could lose
their wings.
The desert wind blew the tumbleweed in front of the car. Alex swerved to
avoid the tumbleweed, but he turned the wheel a bit too strong and the
car left the road and skidded onto the dirt median. He instantly slammed
on the brakes and the car stopped in a cloud of dirt. When the dust
cloud had settled and he could see around him again, he realized that
he'd somehow crossed over into an entirely new dimension.
Barbara had been waiting at the table for twenty minutes. it had been
twenty long and excruciating minutes. David had promised that he would
be on time today. He never was, but he had promised this one time. She
had made him repeat the promise multiple times over the last week until
she'd believed his promise. Now she was paying the price.
Sometimes that's just the way it has to be. Sure, there were probably
other options, but he didn't let them enter his mind. It was done and
that was that. It was just the way it had to be.
I checked in for the night at Out O The Way motel. What a bad choice
that was. First I took a shower and a spider crawled out of the drain.
Next, the towel rack fell down when I reached for the one small bath
towel. This allowed the towel to fall halfway into the toilet. I tried
to watch a movie, but the remote control was sticky and wouldn’t stop
scrolling through the channels. I gave up for the night and crawled into
bed. I stretched out my leg and felt something furry by my foot. Filled
with fear, I reached down and to my surprise, I pulled out a raccoon
skin pair of underwear. After my initial relief that it wasn’t alive,
the image of a fat, ugly businessman wearing raccoon skin briefs filled
my brain. I jumped out of the bed, threw my toothbrush into my bag, and
sprinted towards my car.
The coin hovered in the air, spinning over and over again. It reached
its peak and began to descend. Both boys were pleading with it to land a
certain way but the coin had already made up its mind on what it was
going to do.
Ten more steps. If he could take ten more steps it would be over, but
his legs wouldn't move. He tried to will them to work, but they wouldn't
listen to his brain. Ten more steps and it would be over but it didn't
appear he would be able to do it.
It was a simple tip of the hat. Grace didn't think that anyone else
besides her had even noticed it. It wasn't anything that the average
person would notice, let alone remember at the end of the day. That's
why it seemed so unbelievable that this little gesture would ultimately
change the course of the world.
She sat down with her notebook in her hand, her mind wandering to
faraway places. She paused and considered all that had happened. It
hadn't gone as expected. When the day began she thought it was going to
be a bad one, but as she sat recalling the day's events to write them
down, she had to admit, it had been a rather marvelous day.
He dropped the ball. While most people would think that this was a
metaphor of some type, in Joe's case it was absolutely literal. He had
hopes of reaching the Major League and that dream was now it great
jeopardy. All because he had dropped the ball.
Debbie knew she was being selfish and unreasonable. She understood why
the others in the room were angry and frustrated with her and the way
she was acting. In her eyes, it didn't really matter how they felt
because she simply didn't care.
The alarm went off and Jake rose awake. Rising early had become a daily
ritual, one that he could not fully explain. From the outside, it was a
wonder that he was able to get up so early each morning for someone who
had absolutely no plans to be productive during the entire day
--
-------------------------
С уважением,
Рязанов Александр Михайлович
Аспирант кафедры АСВК
E-mail: alryaz(a)asvk.cs.msu.ru
Т./ф.: +7 (901) 770-02-03
