Featuring the writing of Linnea Eileen Smith, © 2005-2009 All rights reserved

Sometimes it’s good to own a website. You can do what you want - and I shall…

As I have mentioned before, my son is a promising young trumpet player. So promising that he (non)auditioned (long story) for The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps and was asked to become a corp trainee even though he is still in Jr. High. If all goes well, he will be accepted as a full member next year. Obviously, this entails money. From Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad are happy to help support his dreams of one day being a band director and DCI is a great way to learn about music and a lot of other life lessons. There is a way you can help support his dreams with nothing more than a few moments of your time when you go to the grocery shopping. It is very simple. Follow the link on the Academy website to Grocery Cards and see if your favorite super market is participating. (warning, the information there is from last year, but the program details are basically the same) The biggie is Kroger and its grocery empire. If you spend an average of $100 dollars a week at one of the participating retailers, it will earn my son around $325 in a year’s time. The cost of next years dues will be well over $2000 - as well as the greatly reduced dues for trainees we are on the hook for this year. I myself have changed where I shop to take advantage of this. If you are interested in helping us and have further questions (like my son’s name if you go ahead and decide to support him) please email me and I will do my best to explain.

Thanks for letting me play the pitch man.

Linnea Eileen

(PS-I’m not above a little bribery. I will name a character in my next story after anyone who goes jumps in to help my son. I’m about to do a short story challenge with Linda Wells and I will have a lot of parts “open for casting.”)

(PPS-I went ahead and typed out the Kroger Family of stores in the second comment below.)

Howdy folks! It’s been nearly 6 months since I’ve done much writing. Life has had other plans for me, but I’ve had a little inspiration and thought I would share it with those few faithful folks who check in here now and then to see if I’ve finally started posting a new story.

A few words of caution before I reveal all… this is only a beginning. And it’s NOT JAFF. I’ve been wanting to work on original stuff and I have a few things running in the background of my mind. Because I am working on original stuff, if and when I post, I will do so with a password protected page. That password will be different than the one I use now. I may even put things in a different part of this website than the WordPress blog. Like many would-be writers, I have dreams of someday being paid for my work. While I have no plans to ever sell any of my JAFF for personal profit, I do have a desire to do so for an original novel or three.

The following is the opening of a story that has a small basis in my personal life, if only for the inspiration for the lead characters. My “best” friend as a teen was the guy across the street. He stood at my side through some very difficult times and he was one of the few constants in my life. He will always have a special place in my memory. Our friendship got me to thinking about an idea of a boy and a girl who where best friends into their adulthood and the things they might to to help each other. Crazy things. This story has no working title. I’ll know it when it comes to me. For now, I’ll call it Original Novel Idea 3.0. Here it is, totally unedited by anyone other than me. You should be able to tell that right away. lol

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Chapter 1…

I still remember the very first time I saw Darren Carter. He was wearing jeans and a green and gold long sleeved Green Bay Packers t-shirt. Why would I remember something so specific when I was only eight years old? Very simple; it was the middle of August in Phoenix and no one in their right mind would wear something that heavy. Did I mention that it was over 100 degrees outside? We are talking Phoenix in the summer.

I decided then and there that this intruder was insane. Plus, he was sleeping in my best buddy Ben’s old bedroom. I mean, if that wasn’t reason enough to distrust him, then I didn’t know anything.

Looking back on it, I was never so wrong about anyone in my life.

I suppose had better explain.

Two months prior to that fateful day, my mom had come into my room. When she shut the door and looked at me, I wondered who had died. She sat me down on my bed and told me that she had just come back from visiting Ben’s mom, Mrs. Robinski. For my entire life, the Robinski’s had lived two doors down across the street from us. Our families knew each other well. Mom explained that for the past year Mr. Robinski had been driving across town to his new job and he had grown tired of the long commute. They had decided it was time to move closer to his work. Mrs. Robinski told mom that they were close to finalizing the purchase of their new home and that in the next few days the “for sale” sign would go up in front of their house. I was devastated.

Ben Robinski and I had grown up together. In one of my photo albums there is a picture of us as toddlers playing together in one of those small plastic pools that most families buy when they don’t have a real swimming pool. The ones with the bright colored fish on the sides from Finding Nemo. The giant wanna-be aquariums also make great water dishes if you have a really big dog and tend to be forgetful about the water thing. When were in first grade, when Emily Parkinson teased Ben about his last name, I found her during recess and pulled on her pigtail until she promised not to do it again. Ben returned the favor in second grade; he heard Tyler Shirley call me a stupid girl and made Tyler take it back. Only Ben was allowed to call me names. We were pretty tight that way. We might have bickered between us, but no one was allowed to mess with our best friend. We even spit-shook on a pact to be best friends forever. You don’t go back on a spit shake. Every kid knows that, hygiene issues aside.

That’s why it hurt so much when he his family locked up their house one last time and then waived goodbye to the neighborhood two weeks after our third grade school year ended.

A month later, after the carpet layers and the painters had done their thing, a new family moved in to Ben’s old house. And so I got my first glimpse of the boy who was destined to become my new best friend.

He looked like a total dork.

I had my second post-op visit today and I’m doing really well. The doctor is very pleased with my progress, I had my drains removed, and I can shower again! I’m so looking forward to a nice warm one in the morning. The DH did a wonderful job with helping me with sponge baths, but it’s not the same as a good shower. Thanks for all the well wishes. I appreciate them. I had hoped to do some writing during this down time but the house has been a little to full for that to happen.

I logged onto the grades website for our boys today and received excellent news. Both the progeny and the on-loan son did well. On loan son is solidly elegible and is very pleased with how he did. He’s a bright young man who is starting to understand that he really is intelligent and can go far in more than just sports.

The progeny has received an invite to become a trainee in the local DCI corp. He’s too young to go on tour, so this is the perfect solution for him and for us since we will end up having to drive him to all the rehearsals.

Now, off to take a nap so my body will continue to heal. I feel so much better!

In case you hadn’t heard, I lost my hard drive last month. I nearly cried. I got back everything I absolutely needed, but I did loose my word docs for No More Tears. I’m working my way through converting them back into a nice clean document. Once that’s done, I’ll be able to post the book version in the story pages. It’s a hassle and the worst part of it was that I was going to do a back up of my hard drive that upcoming weekend. Sigh, of course it had to die before I could.

In other news, the Progeny made the state 8th grade honor band. As proud as I am of him, this was entirely expected. The on-loan son has his first basketball scrimmage tonight as I type this note and the season starts next week.

Busy times!

No, this is not writing news, but a RL update. I am a very proud momma - and one who will remain insanely busy at least one more week. My son’s band qualified for the State Marching Festival today. After missing qualification by 0.1 points last week (they were so robbed!) today was their last chance to extend the season. The show was expanded, and the sets were FINALLY painted. The kids had a good week of practice and a great warm up. They stepped off and proceeded to have their worst show of the year - and scored their highest score by far. Go figure. I will say that the show is very progressive and completely different than anything anyone in this state is doing. I think we finally got a judging panel that could appreciate what they saw.

So, at leastone more week of band rehearsals and a competition next week. The top five bands next week in each of the top three divisions advance to a Super-State Final - 15 bands will make the final. It would be a stretch, but after today, you start to believe that anything is possible.