The Bouncy Castle in Space

Heza, congratulations on the new house! And at the holidays, no less. Very impressive. Good luck with the unpacking!

How's everyone doing? I hope you've continued to bounce in my absence!

I really should be around more now. I'm getting settled into my new job and my life is finally getting back into a kind of routine. So, it's time to put AW (and writing!) back into that routine.

I've missed you.

Yay, Smish is back.

Totally missed you.

Yay SMISH is here! ! ! !

(Missed you)

Missed you guys, gals, and dragons, too!

OMG, SMISH! Yay! Welcome back. Glad things are getting back to normal for ya.

Is everyone feeling bouncy today? I know you guys are long overdue for a contest. So keep you're eyes peeled, mmmkay?

I'm not feeling bouncy - but a contest might be just the thing to fix that!

Be prepared to bounce soon.

Smish, seriously. What will it take to make it so you can enter the contest? I WILL DO ANYTHING.

It's okay, Joy. Seriously. I like throwing the contests. And I may write an example to share, as I sometimes do.

Thank you for being so awesome, though.

What will it take to make it so YOU will enter the contest?

Smish said:

What will it take to make it so YOU will enter the contest?

Click to expand...

I thought that might come back at me. I'm just busy enough with my own ideas. Contest prompts rarely...prompt anything for me. It's not that they're not good prompts or anything. (They are! And I've read whole manuscripts that have been inspired by your prompts and they're awesome.) It's just not the way my creative process works. Maybe one of these days!

Hehe.

I'll forgive you for never participating, since you always vote. And voters are incredibly important!

Oh, and if anyone wants to donate a prize (Amazon gift cards, books, etc.), please send me a PM.

Well, what do you guys think of the contest prompt? Feeling inspired? Feeling bouncy?

Maybe there ought to be a contest for prize donations. The best prize wins... a story! Written to order just for that person.



*this might not really work*

A CONTEST!!! SO EXCITED. Ahem, excuse the yelling.
It's a busy time of year, but I'll try to enter something. At the very least, I'll vote!

SMISHY! CONTEST! I am excited!

It was so hot here today that I turned the thermostat down 3 degrees in my classroom. The smell of broiling 7th graders was decidedly wretched.

You should have plenty of inspiration then, Kitty! Broiling 7th graders...yep, there's definitely something there.

It's -3 in Smishville right now. I may be a little late to work because I'm dragging my feet about going outside to clean off my car. Brrrrr.

I won't lie, I get ALL my ideas from Smish's prompts! And this looks like a good one.

Yay!

(I just have about 10 things to get through before I can start writing. Time to get on my horse).

Get to work, Sheila! I'll accept no excuses from you, missy.

Hi.

Nice and quiet and peaceful in here. I think I'll take a nap.



Where'd everybody get to, anyway? All writing contest entries?

Yeah, I'll just curl up over here in the corner, have a snoooooooozzzzeee....

Hallooooo!

I'm busy with work. But not busy enough to not prank my coworker while he was on a three day field trip. In the fall, he lost a bet and I got to decorate his room with Stanford stuff (he is a ucla alum). It didn't bug him too much, but the kids carrying on about it drove him bonkers. I wanted to do something similar. He is a big ole prank-happy frat boy type, so I thought it was my duty to do something funny while he was gone.

So I set up a scavenger hunt around his room, leading to a big sign in the closet saying "You've been treed!" (Stanford mascot is the tree). When they got back from their three hour bus ride, they went nuts racing around the room looking for clues. I hid one hundred little cut out paper tree mascots around the room, so the kids will still be finding them in June (and driving him up the wall).

He also made the tactical error of giving me his car keys to move his car out of the teacher lot while he was gone. So I covered the inside of his car in tree mascots as well. Before I returned the keys, I made him pinky swear to give me a ride home. So I got to laugh while he pulled all the trees off the windows. I even taped a tree mascot to the air freshener tree. All in all, a good day.

(Pay attention, kids. This is how grownup professional people behave. Watch, and learn.)

I am totes a grownup! I am finding in my first year of teaching that while rewarding, the job is also stressful! There are better and worse ways of relieving stress...sweet innocent mayhem amongst friends is pretty good. This teacher is a very good friend, and I have spent the last two years with his class of kids, so we are all pretty close. I'm just worried about what he's going to do in retaliation...