The Hungry Ass

Yesterday, I had a precious sixty minutes to myself while my son spent some quality time with his grandmother. He probably snacked on cookies, ice cream and straight sugar, but she could probably give him crack and I would look the other way just to get my much needed alone time. So while my son was playing junkie at grandma's, I decided to head to one of my favorite sandwich shops for lunch.

I walked into the empty cafe with its narrow walkway near the deli counter, savoring the quiet. After placing my to-go order, I sat down at a small table to wait. A few minutes of peaceful meditation and the door swings open as four ladies enter the cafe. While viewing the chalkboard menu, one of the women stands within inches of my table with her back side toward my face. She then backs up the mere few inches and sits on my table. Yes, puts her actual butt cheeks on the table. Now, I don't know about you, but I was under the impression that butts are one of, if not the most, unsanitary parts of a human body. Also, not sure if you know, but a long time ago someone invented the chair. I'm talking ancient Greece, 600 B.C. the chair was invented. I think you get my point - asses belong in chairs.

At one point the table wobbles, the woman stands up and turns to face me. I made a disgusted face and looked her straight in the eye, assuming she would understand the feelings of abhorrence radiating from my eyes. Instead, she mutters, "oh sorry" and shifts her weight to be more centered on the table and promptly sits back down. I finally stood up and moved to the empty counter to wait for my sandwich away from the lunching ladies and let her have the table. But not before snapping this picture to post here and on Facebook.

Don't read this blog! It's about you...

Any time I need to amp up my writing skills, I try to use writing prompts to get my creative juices flowing. One of my favorite websites for prompts is plinky.com. With the upcoming anthology, I really need to work on my writing skills. And Facebook status updates don't count. So after a too long hiatus of quality writing, I have committed myself to daily literary exercises. The Plinky prompt I received in my email inbox recently was this: Who is the one person you do not want to read your blog? Why?

This is an interesting question for me. I often times find myself censoring my blog posts or writing cryptically about a situation as to avoid someone connecting the dots on a story being about them. I have no idea if I am successful in this effort. I also have plenty of saved drafts that never made it to publication because there was simply no way to spin the story into a generic blog post. Or sometimes I am simply too annoyed to write with any decorum.

To me, writing is a symbol of freedom. A freedom of expression that can either be private or public depending on how transparent you want to be. Would I share the same feelings in my blog that I do with my best friend? Well, I haven't so far. If it were that easy to be honest about my feelings, I would either have much stronger relationships or none at all. So, who is the one person that I would not want to read my blog? No one. But, I do believe this is a challenge for me to be more expressive in my relationships. After all, I would much rather hear from a good friend, face-to-face, how she is feeling about me than read it in a public blog.

Call for Submissions

I am so excited, thrilled and pleased to announce a call for submissions for the commercial fishing anthology that has been in the works for several years. Along with my fellow commercial fishing wife/mother and author, Jen Karuza Schile, we are moving forward in producing this new literary project. 

This anthology will feature stories from the perspective of modern fishing families and life 'off the boat'. We have all seen or at least heard of Deadliest Catch, the popular crab-fishing reality television show on the Discovery Channel. We watch them battle each other, wicked weather and rough seas, but who are these men at home? Who are their wives, children, mothers and fathers? What would life be like without your husband for months at a time? Could you do it? Well, these families do and if you are part of one of these unique commercial fishing families, then we want to hear your story. If you know someone who would be interested in telling their story, please direct them our way. 

For more detailed information regarding this project and submission guidelines, please follow the link below.

http://jenkaruzaschile.com/submit-your-story