Tag: dailyprompt

Only Five? No Can Do.
daily prompt · Humor · Writing

Only Five? No Can Do.

Amy50 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
View all responses

I’m definitely going over that limit.

Toothpaste

Clean water

Indoor plumbing

Shelter

Food

Drinking water

My cat

Kindness

Bumblebees

Flowers

Trees

Notebooks

Pens

OK, all stationery products – I have a bit of an obsession, all right?

Sleep

Music

My car, Koko (NOT the Audi Q3)

A hot cup of tea

Books

WRITING

Feeding squirrels and birds

Singing in my car (technically it’s performance art)

Brownies

Forehead kisses

Holding hands with the right person

The warmth of spring

Tennis

Finding cash on the ground

Making people laugh

All things Parisian

Pink skies

French fashion

Chocolate milk

Hummingbirds and their nests

My neighbor’s dog, Petey

Waking up to another day

Work In Progress
daily prompt

Work In Progress

Amy29 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
View all responses

I’m writing. I hadn’t done that in many years and I forced myself to purchase a domain to keep at it. But that’s not really a positive change, that’s a revisit of something I enjoy.

I finally got blonde hair again. But that’s not really a positive change. That’s just a superficial renovation of the exterior. 

I’m a work in progress. I try to change aspects of myself that I feel could be different, but I tend to fall back into bad habits: thinking I should’ve made better choices, feeling bad about not making better choices, and, well, trying to get through this thing called life.

I suppose one positive change is realizing that I’m not making positive changes all the time.

Old traumas resurface and old behavior patterns come along with them. I’m not sure I’m ever going to get it right, but I’m going to try.

Have a good day, everyone.

Only One?
chick lit · daily prompt · favorite author · fiction · Humor · Jane Austen · Love · prose · Women’s literature · Writing · Zora Neale Hurston

Only One?

Amy26 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What book could you read over and over again?
View all responses

It isn’t possible for me to answer this question with just one book, so I’m going to list them all. There may be a few that I have forgotten, but these are the ones I have in my bookcase.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This is my favorite novel. Ever. It was required reading in American literature class, and I’m so pleased to have been introduced to this amazing wordsmith Ms. Hurston.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.

Any and all titles by Bill Bryson.

The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club by Jessica Morrison. This is a fantastic novel. I’m not sure if it’s still in print, and I don’t believe the author ever published another novel, which upsets me to this day.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles.

The General’s Mistress by Jo Graham.

The next three novels are a series by author Diana Norman. Sadly, she has passed away and there will be no more novels in the series. The first book is A Catch of Consequence, followed by Taking Liberties, and last but not least is The Sparks Fly Upward. This author also wrote under the pen name Ariana Franklin. I was today years old when I found that out, so I am excited and will try to get my hands on the novels she wrote under that name.

The next one is the first book in the “Undead” series by Mary Janice Davidson. I thought the first book was the best: “Undead and Unwed.”

Next up is author Katie McAllister (a pen name), with Men in Kilts and Improper English being my favorite titles from her.

Jane Austen – the whole catalogue.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

Villette by Charlotte Brontë.

Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence.

Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George.

Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor (this is a particular favorite of mine, though it is rather sordid, especially for the time period in which it was written.)

And the last one is Absalom! Absalom! by William Faulkner. Just kidding. I despise this book. I had to write a paper on it and I hated every second of it. I don’t particularly like Faulkner nor his writing style, and that’s being polite. Faulkner perfected the run-on sentence, and that’s being polite.

That’s my list. What are some novels that you can’t get enough of and read over and over again? Let me know in the comments!

Claire from Outlander
fantasy · fashion · fiction · French Fashion

Claire from Outlander

Amy35 Comments
Daily writing prompt
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
View all responses

From the book and from the TV series. Why? If you have to ask me why, you don’t know Claire.

Claire is smart, stubborn, tough, headstrong and she travels through centuries. She gets to wear Parisian fashion in the 1700s. Shout out to the costume designers and all of the seamstresses that have worked on all of the seasons, and especially Season Two. Your work is amazing, and I want to be you when I grow up.

* weeps in 1700s French fashion*
Still weeping
😭
I’ve dried my tears of admiration so I can truly view this marvelous, dusty blue creation

Ah hem – pardon the fashion geek moment, I just had to indulge.

Back to Claire:

She has two husbands, which, if I’m being honest, is not something that I would want. (She’s not a polygamist, because the husbands are not in the same century, so it’s OK. They do get jealous of one another however, which I find comical.) Anyway, she’s an herbalist and a healer in the 1700s, and she’s a nurse who becomes a surgeon in the 1900s. She’s a tough broad. She gets herself and her husband Jamie into a fair amount of trouble by bringing her 1900s ideals back to the 1700s. An English woman ordering Scottish Highlanders around, cursing at them to the point they become silent and a wee bit frightened? Priceless.

Claire isn’t simply a tough broad, she’s also loving and kind. She isn’t afraid to speak her mind, though, whether it’s words filled with vinegar or words dripping with honey. Claire speaks the language of sarcasm, so sometimes the vinegar and honey is mixed, and we end up with a vinaigrette.

A friend of mine once told me I reminded her of Claire and vice versa. That’s probably one of the best compliments I’ve ever received in my life.

Speaking of my life, I occasionally live it vicariously through Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser, my favorite heroine.

©️2024, itsamyisaid.com, all rights reserved

All images property of their respective owners

Curling
daily prompt · Rafa Nadal · tennis

Curling

Amy16 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?
View all responses

Just kidding. Watching curling is like watching paint dry. I don’t watch the Olympics. But since they are being held in Paris this year, I just might start. I recall in years past I watched the Winter Olympics’ skiing and ice-skating competitions, but that was a long time ago, and I was a kid.

Anyone who’s been reading my blog since the beginning knows what I’m going to say I will most likely watch present day: tennis. The Summer Olympics are being held in Paris this year from July 27-August 4, Rafa Nadal is probably playing his last season of professional tennis, and Roland Garros (The French Open) is his jam (he’s not called the King of Clay for nothing), so I am deducing he’s going to aim for the double play: Roland Garros and the Olympics – which will be played on the red clay, the same courts as Roland Garros. There are current rules in place, however, that may be a bit of a hurdle for him to be able to do this. Without getting too complicated, he will have to appeal to the ITF (International Tennis Federation) to be able to be allowed to play in the Olympics. Fingers crossed.

Rafa Nadal hoists La Coupe des Mousquetaires, in his first of 14 French Open victories (to date), 2005
Rafa Nadal won men’s singles gold at the Beijing Olympics, 2008

I suppose you know where I’ll be for Summer Olympics Paris 2024. I will not be in Paris. But I will be watching from my couch at home, wearing a beret, eating croissant and sipping un Café. 

©️2024, itsamyisaid.com, all rights reserved.

Back In The Day
daily prompt · Writing

Back In The Day

Amy9 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How would you improve your community?
View all responses

The community that is now filled with people who don’t know each other and don’t care to know each other, used to be one filled with block parties and neighborhood watch patrols. People would come sit on your porch and have a cup of coffee or a beer and chill. Santa Claus came every year on the local fire company’s biggest firetruck. Everyone knew everyone else, and stopping your car to chat with your neighbor was common. No one behind you would honk their horn to hurry you on your way.

Last week I witnessed a minivan with no tags drive around a tow truck into someone else’s front lawn to get past what must’ve been an annoying situation for the minivan. I couldn’t believe what I had seen. Couldn’t the guy have waited a few minutes, or turned around in my driveway and gone around the block? No. Too impatient. About 15 minutes later, he came back and did it again from the opposite direction. Yes, it was all a bit suspect, but without a license plate, I couldn’t call the police. See the other thing, back in the day, neighbors looked out for each other and would call the police or investigate a strange situation if they saw it. They would also look after each other’s houses and pets when one or the other went on vacation.

This doesn’t happen anymore.

I only know a few of the original people in my neighborhood, and the new ones are not from the back in the day mentality. Everyone is huddled inside of their homes, doing whatever. It’s the antithesis of community.

I’d be willing to bring back block parties and neighborhood watches, but the sad truth is one person doesn’t make a community – it takes a group of like-minded people to foster a sense of community.

The question is the answer and the answer is the question. And I don’t think the definition of community will ever be as understood as it was back in the day.