What Kinda’ Gone?

In the words of Chris Cagle, “These days, gone can mean so many things.

Well there’s gone for good and there’s good and gone
Then there’s gone with the long before it
I wish she’d been just a little more clear
There’s gone for the day and gone for the night
Gone for the rest of your dog-gone life
Is it whiskey night or just a couple of beers
I mean what kinda gone are we talkin’ ’bout here?”

Songwriters
DAVE BERG, CANDY CAMERON, CHIP DAVIS

Published by
Lyrics © CAL IV ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, HORI PRO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

For us, Trifecta was good – was great even – but now, after this week, I believe *she’s* gone for good…

We’ve all grown in friendships, skills, respect for various genre and risk-taking – leaving us to wonder, what part of ourselves will be gone with *her*? And yet, all parts of life come with change. Strangely, somehow – in an uncanny way – that, too, grows us. That was the true beauty of a welcoming place disguised as a competition – each time we came, we exercised showcasing our creative muscles, yet we all walked away each week as winners. So thank you all for sharing in my growing pains (especially those that turned out to be more painful for you than me!). And many tremendous blessings on each of your lives.

Here are my final 33, lifted & shifted from one of my beloved characters, Cody, offered in the style by which I first arrived on this playground with my knobby writing knees:

 

Go BE a remarkable impact!  Mad love, -jody

Procreation of a Protagonist

Could I have ever hoped for someone

to satisfy me as you do?

In return, each night,

fingers lightly caress

the conception of your being –

birthed from none other than

my wanton desires.

***

As Trifecta soon comes to a close by the end of this month, we’ve been asked to stretch ourselves. Maybe I’m just fanning myself a little instead. 😉  Or perhaps, I’m simply up at late hours, my fingers sliding across the keyboard as I feel I’m falling in love with the same characters that I’ve deliberately allowed to suffer throughout their development – until the adversity fully stretches them, causes them to grow, to change, to transform – and then to recreate something more alive than ever in me. How satisfying is that?!

This post will be the last one-word prompt from Trifecta. Betcha’ might’ve already guessed it, butWithout further ado. . .

SATISFY  (transitive verb)
1a : to carry out the terms of (as a contract) : discharge
b : to meet a financial obligation to
2: to make reparation to (an injured party) : indemnify
3a : to make happy : please  

 b : to gratify to the full : appease
4a : convince
b : to put an end to (doubt or uncertainty) : dispel
5a : to conform to (as specifications) : be adequate to (an end in view)

Remember:

• Your response must be exactly 33 words.

• You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.

• The word itself needs to be included in your response.

• You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.

• Only one entry per writer.

• If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.

• Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.

Link up here!

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.AlnhSRpp.dpuf

Race fast, safe car (Palindrome Sagas among the Sexes – Take 1)

Cain, a maniac, in his Civic racecar –
running a testset to preen his speed as level
Ran into
Hannah, a Toyota madam, new to his dirt track –
stats profess: running with the devil.

In honor of all the fun & excitement provided by friends we used to cheer on years ago at the Cleveland Speedway

***

Was very sad to learn today that the Trifecta writing challenge won’t be with us much longer.
But while it’s still here, let’s continue to share in the fun of it – 3 times over!

This week’s challenge: You’ve got exactly 33 words and one must be a palindrome.

(I’ve italicized the ones I was able to work in. Only one had to be a palindrome. The others just added to my fun.)

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2014/03/trifextra-week-104.html?showComment=1394540020093#c3072512728967232353

Of Brothers, Worms, and Men…

“Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that, before Pop Crawley died, he entrusted you with this key document that’s centuries and centuries old and that, if disclosed to the wrong people, could cause the beginning of the whole freaking apocalypse?”

Cereal and milk spewed from my mouth somewhere in the middle of this repeated declaration. Partly because of my incredulity about it all. Mostly because my twenty-eight-year-old baby brother practiced the same amount of responsibility in assuring the freshness of his dairy products as he ordinarily did in things like, say, keeping up with a full pair of shoes.

“I guess Pop Craw had gotten dementia, after all.” I dropped my head in a sad pause about the loss of our mom’s stepdad, before continuing my inquisition. “So I’m dying to know…where exactly did you stash away this theoretically vital piece of information for safekeeping?” I figured there was a catch in here somewhere.

My brother acted as if he was having a conflict of conscious about answering me. I knew better. It just took a long sigh, a dropped chin, and an arched eyebrow to get him talking. “C’mon, let’s get this over with. What’s it going to take to worm this out of you?”

“Well, I knew it needed a sweet place – like only a trip across three oceans, over a ridiculously mega-mountain, and some sick spelunking into the deepest, darkest cave could guarantee.”

“So, basically, what I’m hearing you say is that it’s here…in your apartment…probably out in the open somewhere. Does that just about sum things up?”

“Pretty much, yup. I figured maybe you’d be awesome enough to help me clean up and find it – I mean, since you’re already here and all…”

***

Trifecta has us squirming with a new word to open the week, so wiggle on in & join up!

I hadn’t noticed the squishy 33 word limit (since that usually only comes with a Trifextra), so I won’t be linking up officially this week – no time for rewrites on anything other than Research Questions 4 through 6. But that shouldn’t stop you from digging down deep and submitting! And it won’t stop me from sharing unofficially in the fun.

This week’s word is:

WORM (transitive verb)    (betcha’ didn’t catch me fishing for that one, huh?!)

1a :  to proceed or make (one’s way) insidiously or deviously<worm their way into positions of power     — Bill Franzen>

b :  to insinuate or introduce (oneself) by devious or subtle means

c :  to cause to move or proceed in or as if in the manner of a worm

2 :  to wind rope or yarn spirally round and between the strands of (a cable or rope) before serving

3 :  to obtain or extract by artful or insidious questioning or by pleading, asking, or persuading —usually used with out of<finally wormed the truth out of him>

Remember:

• Your response must be exactly 33 words.

• You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.

• The word itself needs to be included in your response.

• You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.

• Only one entry per writer.

• If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.

• Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.6vNTN58A.dpuf

Skinned

I tried unzipping it on several earlier occasions…you know, through the years.

It always seemed stuck though. Wherever I was.

Stuck.

In a funk.

I’m not sure when it got a little too snug for me. Or outdated.

Sometimes I noticed the discomfort. Other times, not so much.

I don’t know. I can’t tell you about all those other times.

I just know that today – only seconds before, in fact – I finally slid right out of it.

I didn’t have any other choice, you see.

It just didn’t feel like it belonged to me anymore.

It felt kind of creepy…foreign…suffocating.

Then it began to crawl…all over. Ewww!

I had to get out – without further delay!

Problem is, now that I’ve done it…

I find myself in even greater need.

If I don’t soon get a replacement, I’m likely to come completely unglued.

Yet –

It’s not all that simple to just go out and choose another one.

You know…my second skin.

***

Truth is, I’m in a research funk this week – stuck on my quantitative chapter, feeling like I’m re-living it every day. You know, like a Bill Murray Groundhog type of day. I keep doing the tests differently, but the day starts over all the same – getting me nowhere.

Okay, I’m over-dramatizing. But it’s my blog. I’ll whine if I want to. 😉

Trifecta gave me another much-needed break during my lunchtime – to write about my (you guessed it) funk.

That’s the word this week, by its 3rd definition.

Come join us & write yourself in and out of a funk too.

Everyone else, please forgive me. I have to go write some more on this funky dissertation for now…

Swept Away

As I take a quick glimpse out my office window during this lunch hour, I see snow showers trying to convince me that I want to come out and play. The only comfort I take in seeing more snow is the realization that it helps bring some excitement to the spring water flow rates.

For now, another wintry week, another Trifextra challenge (which means we’re limited to 33 words on this one).

Oh, and that’s not all. Here are this week’s rules to write by:

This week we’re asking for exactly 33 of your own words about love gone wrong.  But we’re asking that you not use any of the following words:

love

sad

tears

wept

heart

pain

 ***

I’m the only one in the raft with any feminine charm.
(If you can’t identify me by that characteristic, please don’t feel the need to let me know!)

***

Then…

Splashing rivers swept o’er me
Moments crying out in delight.

All fear and doubt washed well away
Waves of gladness, none of fright.

Now…

Floods of torment sweep me off my feet.

***

***

Congrats to this past week’s champions.

This weekend’s challenge is community judged.

• For the 48 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.

• In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link. To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.

• You can vote for your top three favorite posts.

• Voting is open to everyone.

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.POTXCn5a.dpuf

Statistically Speaking…

A very quick one for Trifecta this week. No doubt you’ll all know what’s on my mind…and plate!

The week 111 challenge is the inclusion of the one-word prompt (3rd definition):

MANIPULATE (transitive verb)

1: to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner
2a : to manage or utilize skillfully
b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage
3: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose : to doctor

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.968mUYWJ.dpuf

***

Did you just infer how dare I try to manipulate you?! HA!

After you had the nerve to suggest to me this variable relationship we’ve had going all this time wasn’t…significant?

In my current mode of distrust, all I have to say is, ‘Skew You!’

I’ve spent the range of my median career collecting every little morsel of mean-ing about you; the sum of my half-life chasing your outlying whims; my downtime became a product of trudging through your worthless probabilities!!

…hours upon hours wasted as I tried to work on the problems between us…

And you want me to just accept it?!

Chi-square up, Data! You’re out of your theoretically distributed little mind if you think I’m not about to go Pearson on you…down to your last dirty, descriptive decimal.

Oh yeah, you’d better believe I’m pitching a goodness of fit!!!  Why, I’ll t-test terrorize you ’til you give me exactly what I’m looking for.

You want your degrees of freedom?? Then you’d better expect that your p-value will be utterly worthless when I get done with my regression of you!

You wanna’ see null? I’ll show you null…just before I go post hoc on you!

That’s how the ANOVA rolls, baby.

After all, you know what they say…

To err is human;

to manipulate is research.

Aquaria-demia

Photo Credit: Thomas Leuthard / Foter.com / CC BY

***

A world passes by each day,

Never engaging.

There’s no swimming behind the glass –

Except for ideas in her head.

She’s not flashy enough to catch the eye –

But she’s becoming ever brighter.

***

This was written in response to the Trifextra 101 Challenge: to come up with 33 words to describe the above photo.

After coming off another month of working on (and maybe completing my chapter of quantitative analysis by carrying) dissertation papers and statistics books everywhere I went – strewn atop bleachers, across counter tops, littering my bed…boy, could I ever relate! I meet with my methodologist later this week, so wish me progressive luck! -jody

The Release

He slipped in during the most quaint hour of my life –

The moment in which I had given up on my frantic search for fulfillment,

yet only seconds before I was prepared to reside in kind with loneliness.

He surely had never been bold before now in the announcement of his intent –

For that matter, I was certain he’d thought nothing of me at’all,

seemingly caring very little for my former presence in his midst.

After all, we’d kept one another’s company, in an aloof sort of way, on prior occasions –

In past days, when his eyes had been upon others,

his heart fancying their presence on his arm

in lieu of mine.

I was quite taken aback when he at last turned his focus on me.

Oh, let me assure you. In a million years, I would’ve sworn to you –

I meant absolutely nothing to him.

I would’ve lifted my chin haughtily and declared to you –

I’ll never offer him the response he’s sought from so many others

before me.

Yet there I was, most peculiar in my retort to his grotesque charm –

Falling into his ample arms,

casting my breathiness upon his face,

feeling my heart no longer tepid to his touch.

Take me! I cried. I am yours!

He pulled me close to his frame,

wrapped me tenderly in his arms,

cloaked the chills traveling my spine.

Finally – my release –

as Death offered me his long-awaited kiss.

***

Written in response to this week’s Trifecta prompt – 3rd definition of:

QUAINT (adjective)

1:  obsolete:  EXPERT, SKILLED
2a:  marked by skillful design <quaint with many a device in India ink — Herman Melville>
b:  marked by beauty or elegance
3a : unusual or different in character or appearance :  ODD
b : pleasingly or strikingly old-fashioned or unfamiliar <a quaint phrase>

– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2014/01/trifecta-week-110.html?showComment=1390310840545#c7083642183870303690

All a Blur

The first time I saw…
Light flashed bright.
Jolt shot through.
Blinked. Stunned.

Warmth turned cold.
Seized by fear,
I fought back.
Kicked. Screamed.

At least, I think I did.
Braced for it.
Faced new life.
A blur.

Into the Great Beyant…

***

The Trifextra 100 challenge this week is as follows:

We are asking for a 33-word response to the following snippet:

The first time I saw. . .

Here’s the catch: all of your 33 words must be one syllable each.  We’re going low-brow on you this week.  Or not.  Can you class it up under these restrictions?  Give us your best.

To clarify, we are giving you 5 words.  We want another 33 from you, for a grand total of 38.

 – See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.ss04lAQc.dpuf