happenstance

PROMPT:

happenstance: noun; an event that might have been arranged although it was
really accidental [syn: coincidence] (Dictionary. com)

use this word as the central focus or theme of your piece

Bonus Points: include music somewhere in your piece - as always this does
not have to be prominent or important in your story, just in there somewhere

Walking into the bar, Cate was immediately taken by the atmosphere. Beth had called it a club, but really it was just a bar. It didn't have the thumping music or the crazy, twenty-something crowd that Cate associated with a club. It had soft lighting, wasn't as loud as she had expected and had a blues band playing on the stage. From the outside it had the look of a gothic club and she was unexpectedly delighted as she entered.

"Well, what do you think, Cate?" Beth asked her.

"I love it!"

"I thought you might." Beth grinned at her. Turning around, she led the way to a table near the back of the room, flagging down the waitress as she passed her.

As they sat down, the waitress joined them, "What can I get for you ladies tonight?"

Glancing up at the waitress, Cate found herself staring. She was uncommonly pretty but not in an obvious way. She had short red hair and was wearing lipstick that almost matched the red of her hair. Her name-tag gave her name as Ella. Tilting her head to one side, Cate studied her trying to figure out what it was about her. She certainly didn't wear clothes to attract attention, her hair style was very basic and simple and she wore little makeup. It was almost as though she was purposely downplaying her beauty. Despite all that, she just had this....glow.

"Cate? Catelyn!"

Cate snapped back to reality and blushed, realizing that she had totally been examining this girl as she stood there waiting for her drink order. "I'm so sorry!" Cate exclaimed, "it must be the jet lag." Ok, so one little white lie. The waitress would never know that she was only one time zone away.

Ella smiled at her, still waiting.

"I'll have a, umm....," leaning back so that she could see around Ella, Cate looked to see if the bartender looked competent and sucked in a breath. The man was gorgeous! He looked up right at that moment and caught Cate looking at him, grinned and winked at her. Blushing again, she sat back into her seat normally and told the waitress she'd have a french martini.

As Ella walked away, Beth looked at her and laughed. "I did that the first time I came here too. Aren't they gorgeous? Wait until you see the owner."

Cate nodded at her friend and looked around. "I thought you were bringing me to a club. This isn't a club, at least not by my definition of it."

"Oh well, some nights it is. The owner is very....strange. Some nights this place runs as a goth club and then other nights, completely at random, he will have in a blues band, or some other local talent. He never even gives any advance notice of it, it's just whenever he's in the mood for something different I guess. I wasn't sure what we'd find."

"It doesn't sound like a very lucrative way to run a business," Cate replied. Even though as she looked around the club, it was obviously a thriving night spot. It was still very crowded. The band launched into a Jimi Hendrix song "Red House" and she started tapping her fingers on the table. She loved this song. "I love the atmosphere," she told Beth.

"Well, he doesn't seem to have any problems keeping his customers coming around. And speak of the devil..."

Cate glanced back at Beth to see what she meant, just as her french martini arrived in front of her accompanied by a smooth as silk voice saying "Good evening ladies. I hope you are enjoying my establishment."

Looking up to see who the voice belonged to, this time instead of sucking in a breath she seemed unable to draw one entirely. She found herself staring into the most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen, attached to one of the most incredibly good looking men she'd ever seen.

Across the table, Beth grinned as she looked back and forth between the two of them staring at each other.

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Thankful Thursday

Title:

Thankful Thursday

Notes:

Sometimes we all get so bogged down in the daily stresses and anxieties of life that we tend to focus too much on the negative in our life. Today, date the top of your page and number from one to ten. Write down ten things you have to be grateful for this week. It doesn't matter how trivial it seems. Even if the best thing that happened was your morning cup of coffee, put it down. You'll be surprised because the more you do this the more you'll find you have to be thankful for. It may be a struggle at first, but it will help you see what you do have versus what you don't.

I'm thankful ...

1. That my sons surgery (ACL) went well yesterday.
2. That we have good insurance to pay for this sort of stuff.
   
3. That tomorrow is payday.
4. For cooler days so that I can open the windows and let in the fresh air instead of running the A/C constantly.
5. For the coming Autumn because that is my favorite season and I can't wait to see the leaves.
6. For a job that allows me to work from home and set my own schedule.
7. That my father has survived his many (26) surgeries and that he's not ready to give up.
8. That Halloween is coming up. It's one of my favorite holidays.
9. For good music and movies, the thoughts and ideas that they inspire or the calming the effect that they have.
10. For having a family that allows me the freedom to be me. Even if they do think I'm crazy half the time. And for finally realizing that I do have that freedom with them.
    

It's harder than you think it is to come up with 10 things!

And ok, it's a little past Thursday again but oh well.

hot on the trail

I joined some yahoo groups a few days ago.

They are supposed to send out writing prompts, help people get past writers block or, at the very least, give ideas of things to write about.

I joined one about journaling. So far that one just seems like a big social group and not a lot about actual journaling is mentioned.

I haven't decided yet if I want to stay in this group. Today they were discussing politics. It's rather annoying. I joined the group to get ideas about journaling, NOT to listen the political views of others.

They do, however, do one thing that I've noticed so far. They do this thing called Thankful Thursdays. Since my goal with this blog is to get myself writing I thought maybe I'd do that here, even though it's not Thursday.

Life has been a pain in the ass lately so I'm not sure how much I'm actually going to find to be thankful for, sadly.

So, without further ado, here is my list....

• My marriage. We've been married for 16 years and it hasn't always been easy. Not even a little bit. We've endured separations and have perilously close to divorce a couple of times. But marriage is hard work and we've worked at saving it and I think our relationship is closer and stronger for it.
  
• My husband. Again, we all have our problems right. And everybody has their quirks and habits that annoy the shit out of others. We learn to live with them and get past them. He's a great guy. He's very generous and thoughtful and kind. He loves me despite all my weirdness and my own quirks. He understands me. And damn if the man isn't hot!
  
• My kids. There are definite issues with one of them that has made life extremely difficult lately but I'm still thankful for them and I love them.
  
• My friends and our monthly outings. Last night we went to Shakespeare in the Park. We do this regularly in the summer. It's an outdoor stage and you get to sit beneath the stars. We always take wine and food too. This month we are going canoeing. These outings sometimes help me maintain my sanity. Especially when wine is involved.
  
• My parents and my family. I'm glad that my parents are still around and that my family is close. We're totally functional in a really dysfunctional way. We are definitely not your average family. Or maybe we are. There are a lot of "steps" and "halfs" and races and ethnicities. We accept just about anybody and base it on who you are not what you are. I love that about my family.

Those are pretty basic right? I'm sure I could have been more imaginative. Next time I'll do a more interesting one. Maybe I'll make this a regular thing. Helps put life in perspective.

At least it made me sit down and write!

Not Chatty Cathy!

When I created this blog, it was going to be a way of sort of forcing me to actually sit down and write. At least to me, in my mind...that was the idea.

Of course, little did I realize that contrary to what my husband believes.....I just really don't have much to say!

I work from home except for one day a week. On that one day I travel to various courthouses and gather information, seeing all of my old co-workers that I used to work with on a daily basis. I work. I chat. And inevitably I'm in a hurry to get the work done, cut the chatting and get back home.

Occasionally this need to be done so that I can leave stems from a logical source....parking meters running out and costing me a $20 parking ticket, having a lot to do once I get back home and so forth. Frankly though, what mainly drives it is just that I work from home people! I don't want to be there, in those buildings downtown or in other county any longer than I need to be because well....I work from home! I mean really? Who really wants to go to work?

Unfortunately, this means that the good majority of all my social interaction comes from my husband and children, or my family and friends that I talk to on the phone often/see occasionally. This does not make for a lot of blog fodder.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. My kids can provide quite a lot of entertainment, I just have to remember those instances...write them down or something, just because it's such an everyday thing that I forget a lot of it. I think my life is boring. My mother thinks it's a soap opera.

I've also wrestled with the idea of total anonymity or honesty. I think for now I will remain anonymous. That said, however, being anonymous is totally not my style so it probably won't last. I'm a true Sagittarius. We like to be noticed.

I've blog hopped quite a bit lately to see what others are writing about. I've found some really great blogs too! Wow, that can be time consuming!! So maybe it's not quite as the idea of it is and I'll be back more.

And I have to get my page background and stuff done. (Sorry Petty!!) I had a friend make that great header for me and I need to get on the ball and get it set up right and provide a link back to her.

So what motivated you to start blogging?

And so it begins...

My journey in procrastination.

Oh wait....that's supposed to be "my journey in overcoming procrastination". Oops.

And writer's block.

I have discovered that I am a bit of a perfectionist though. At least in regards to certain things. Apparently wanting to have things "just so" is one of those things. I find myself wanting to wait until I have my layout done to blog.

Yeah, that's probably just another technique in my never-ending bag of procrastination tricks. I registered this blog like a month ago.

Acknowledgement is the first step right?

So here I am.

Completed layout or not.

And writer's block?? Well, you know I am a master of that too it would seem. Avoidance feeds writer's block. I've heard that the best way to overcome it is to just write. But the longer you avoid it, the harder it is....and then the fear develops.

The fear that you can't overcome it. Or that it's not really writer's block. That perhaps it is just lack of talent and skill. We will see.

I'll be back!