Capture This ...

  Ambition (word prompt given August 22, 2021): My word for this week is ambition. High school kids are full of ambition. They have quite a lot on their plate at any given time. They try to be in as many activities and sports as they can possibly cram into a day. They get great SAT scores and invest less time with friends because that means a higher GPA. Some of these kids are really ambitious and know with certainty what they desire their career and life to look like. I definitely admire their work ethic and ambition. I wish they could bottle that energy and give me some!!! —Jennifer

  Focus (word prompt given on August 13, 2021): Jill gave me the word focus for this week. Needless to say the first thing I visualized was a close up of something interesting with texture and details. So how I ended up spending twenty minutes capturing photos of my hand I don’t know! 😆 There are so many details in life and things going on simultaneously that it can be hard to focus. I struggle with ADHD and sometimes if feels impossible to focus, and you have to walk away and come back later to something. Quite often, a lot of people overlook the charming details in the world when you focus on the negative things. We need to remind ourselves to focus on the positive things and be grateful. —Jennifer

Jennifer gave me this photo as my prompt on August 22, 2021. I loved the image! That looks like such a great playground, surrounded by the overgrown grass. I tried to decide whether I should write about the playground in its prime or how it is in the photo. Then I started to imagine what might be hiding in the tall grass, and I came up with this ... The Paper Bag It wasn’t until I was sitting on the curb breathing into a paper bag with police, detectives, and medical professionals rushing around me that I remembered the headlines from about a month or so ago.  The national news had mentioned Mariah Cunningham pretty much nightly for a couple weeks until her story just sort of got overshadowed by other, more recent, events. I remembered taking notice of the headlines because of how close to home it was on some level—about 100 miles or so, maybe just a two-hour drive away. I had felt sorry for Mariah, a three-year-old girl snatched out of her fenced-in backyard when her mom ha...

Funny (word prompt given on August 6, 2021): Jill gave me the word funny today and sometimes life just hands you gems! My daughter Ashley and I were dog-sitting this elderly pit-bull Carmen. We had been over for our last visit of the day before Carmen had to got to bed. All day long I’m thinking this good-looking girl can’t run and has arthritis. So basically, my daughter is on the floor with her, snuggling with her and the dog turns her head and stares deep into my eyes. I feel like she just noticed I hadn’t loved on her for a few minutes. After that penetrating gaze into my soul this dog jumps and launches her body directly up onto my lap and I was completely shocked that she was that mobile! She had me fooled. (Also we found out later she was in fact not allowed on the couch…bad doggie!) I couldn’t stop laughing though, it was so funny and took me by surprise. I held her and she got lots of love.  —Jennifer  

  Jennifer gave me this photo on August 15, 2021. I wanted to write about a chaotic graduation party where everything went wrong but, at least, the cake was good. I started it a couple ways but then decided it may be the most amusing as a one-sided conversation and came up with this idea... You Won't Believe What Rick Did!      “Hello,” the woman beside me practically barked into her phone. I sort of shifted my body away from her, trying to get as far as possible from not so much her but from her loud voice.      “Oh, my god! You’re not going to believe what Rick did!” I was hoping this story was bus appropriate. I glanced across the aisle at three younger kids and their mom. “Yeah, at Megan’s party.” She paused. And then, “Yes, I invited him. Of course, I did! He’s her freakin’ father! I didn’t have a choice.” She listened for a couple seconds. “Well, I had to. Plus, he offered to pay for half of it, so there’s that too. I could hardly afford my half...

Jennifer gave me this photo prompt on August 6, 2021. It's pretty adorable! When my daughter started college a few years ago, she had been a dog walker through an app to earn some extra cash, so I assume that is what inspired this story ... Better Late Than Never     Christopher refused to move, and Kelsey wasn’t exactly sure what to do. She’d already wasted twenty minutes getting to the scheduled walk. Then she’d wasted another thirty minutes in the house coaxing him. She wanted to get paid— needed to get paid, but she wasn’t sure how it worked with the money if the dog didn’t actually go on the walk. Nothing like this had happened in the two months since the beginning of the semester when Kelsey had joined the dog walker app.  For Kelsey, it was a good part-time gig. She could walk dogs around her class schedule on days when she didn’t have extra homework or activities. It had been the perfect fit so far. She’d even joked that it was like online dating only better beca...

Jennifer gave me this prompt on July 30, 2021. She and I had planned to meet at Mellon Park in Pittsburgh. And we happened on prep for a private party happening later that evening. While we were there, Jenn snapped that photo, and later gave it to me as my prompt for the week. We never did find out what the event was, but the party did look quite magical. This is what the photo inspired ... A Step Below Semi-formal      It started out so innocently. Lacy and I had been walking, and we happened upon some party prep in a community park. “Walk this way, Tam,” Lacy had said, sort of steering my arm in the direction of the large trucks in the parking lot.      “It looks like they’re planning a party or something. I’m not sure we’re supposed to go in there now,” I said. I had always been way more cautious than Lacy—all the way back to my first memories of her in preschool. She would be the one jumping off the top of the monkey bars while I was only a couple of ru...

Essential (word prompt given on July 30, 2021) Essential means being of the upmost importance; things that you can’t live without. Some of the essential things in my life (as far as materialistic items) are: a constant supply of stress reducing chocolate. My favorites at the moment are coffee/raspberry batons, dark peanut butter cups, and almond cups all from Trader Joe’s , almost all of the flavors of Chocolove candy bars, and pictured above  Dove’s Promises dark chocolate almond candy. My extra firm curved neck pillow is essential…without it I get migraines! I definitely require the support and it goes with me wherever I go. Also, I love german Gerolsteiner water. It naturally contains minerals, tastes delicious and is carbonated. I drink it instead of pop, love the bubbles. (Why doesn’t anyone make affordable water with minerals, yet without chemicals that’s not in a plastic bottle?) I LOVE Dessert Essence’s toothpaste. Wintergreen is the best flavor, and it’s a natural and ...

  Hunger (word prompt given July 23, 2021) I’m perpetually hungry. Always. I’m one of those people that get hangry and irritable if I don’t eat frequently. I dropped off my kid at soccer practice and decided to walk for 15 minutes even though the temperature was in the 90’s and fairly humid. I gotta keep up with the walking because marching band season starts soon and I love walking with them and taking photographs/video of the band. However I got a headache from the humidity and also pretty hungry from walking. I didn’t feel like cooking because of my headache, so I made a gluten-free pizza in the toaster oven and added grapes. I burnt it, (I blame my headache.) and it was pretty gross, but I was so hungry I ate most of it. (Doesn’t it look like a pizza-faced guy eating grapes?) —Jennifer

  Jennifer gave me this word prompt on July 23, 2021. I love the bright color in this photo and the idea of drinking something that looks like a potion. But then I wondered, "Could you bathe in butterfly pea flowers?" And so I Googled it, and... Yes! You can. So, this is what came to mind ... Her Ritual Dina locked the door and slipped out of her robe. She sat on the edge of the tub and turned on the faucet. The water quickly warmed as it flowed over her hand, and she immediately felt some of the stress leave her body at the sound of the running water and the feel of its warmth on her skin.  She loved her tub—its old-fashioned clawed feet, how high it was to sit on the edge. It was Dina’s favorite part of her current apartment. And she would miss it most when she had to leave. She bent over and plugged the drain.  Exhaling heavily, she reached for her jar of butterfly pea flowers. She opened it and put some in the tub then gently set that jar on the table by the tub, ...

  Jenn gave me this prompt on July 9, 2021. I thought it would be easy since the last 2 flower pictures she gave me made for some easy writing. But this one sort of stumped me, and I wrote 2 other scenes first that I wasn't particularly satisfied with. And, to be honest, I don't really like this scene all that much either, but for the sake of time... I need to be done with this picture.  The Tall On on the Left “Oh, Mommy, I can’t pick. They’re all so lovely!” “Lovely, huh?” Maura glanced down at her seven-year old daughter, Addiella, who was hopping from foot to foot on the deck beside her mom, tapping her fingertips together in front of her nose. “Well, you have exactly one minute left to make your decision, and then that’s it. Remember? We have to pick your brother up from practice soon.” “Oooooh, but they’re all so pretty. Can I just have them all?” Addiella smiled up at her mom. Maura laughed. “That wasn’t the deal, Adds. I said you could cut one flower ...

  Aroma (word prompt given on July 16, 2021) It’s been a busy summer. My daughter has been working a lot more and had drum-line and soccer practices all summer. I miss kayaking as a family, but I decided to take Captain Tequila out for her first kayak voyage this year. She’s getting to be a more mature woman at ten years old, but she still enjoys going out and smelling things. Tequila likes floating, but doesn’t enjoy swimming or getting wet. We took a brief break from paddling (she does NOT do her fair share of it) and we walked around on this little ‘island’ which was walkable  because the river was low. Surprisingly, she walked a few inches into the water and got her feet wet. She wasn’t in the river long, but enough to give her that wet dog aroma! —Jennifer

  Round (word prompt given July 9, 2021): Jill gave me the word round. Struggling with this because obviously I don’t want to simply photograph a plate or something obvious. The whole day went by, and I still hadn’t found anything suitable. Then we attended my cousin’s wedding. A-ha! Eureka there’s my round! On the ceiling of their hall, there were beautiful different sized paper lanterns and some tulle draped in between some of them. Some were lit up and some weren’t. It was quite pretty, and I obtained my ‘round’ photograph. Quite the treasure hunt! —Jennifer

  Jenn gave me this image on July 2, 2021, as my writing prompt. I love when she gives me flower images! My initial thought was to go with them being for a wedding or something sweet like that. But I had a really strange dream that night that had me waking up in a weird funk the next day—all the passengers on a cruise ship had died in my dream (none of the staff had died though—weird; right?). Then I noticed that half the roses were, in fact, dead. So, I knew that whatever I was writing about with this one wasn't going to be a particularly happy tale. And here's what I came up with. 11:07 on a Saturday Morning      It wasn’t like Nathan to be late. I mean, it was—on some level. But usually he wasn’t more than, like, maybe 15 minutes late.       The waiter, Chad according to his nametag, approached our table again, “Can I get you anything else while you’re waiting? You want to put in an appetizer order?” He smiled at me.      Maybe C...

  Hope (word prompts given on July 2, 2021) — I plant   a garden every year and every single year it mostly does pretty poorly. Some type of fungus or blight is in our yard. Every year when spring approaches I forget how poorly my garden did the previous year. I still excitedly plan what veggies or herbs that I will plant. I still hope that things will grow and we will get veggies and fruits. I hate paying for organic food! —Jennifer

  Jenn gave me this photo on June 25, 2021, as my prompt for the week. The beads in the pan reminded me of camp and the thought of kids sitting crosslegged around the pan sorting them or playing a game. Jenn just told me that they are actually blueberries from her yard. Now that I know that, they do look like blueberries to me, but that thought had never dawned on me until she let me know. haha. I wrote this when I still believed that they were beads, so this is what the photo inspired ... 6.21 @ 1:26      “No, that’s not the rules!” I could hear Miranda whining from several feet away and braced myself for what I knew was coming next. “Anita!”       There it was.       Two weeks into this gig as day-camp counselor, and I already had all the kids pegged—well, at least the  annoying  kids.      I walked over to where Miranda was sitting on the cement with two other girls. “What’s up, Miranda?” I said. ...