I’ll start by saying thank you to Wendy for our prompt word of the day, “change.” Thanks, Wendy! You can find Wendy’s Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow!
They say the only thing in the world we can be certain of is change.
And yet I never seem to have any in my wallet anymore.
What’s up with that?
It sucks, actually, when you want change for something–to get on a bus, to throw into a tip jar, or worst of all, when you need a quarter to get a shopping cart.
Do you get those where you live? Shopping carts that are chained together and the only way you can get just one is to put a quarter in a slot to release the chain?
They suck.
Seriously, I’m not going to steal your cart, nor am I going to fail to put it away.
A few times I’ve been so completely out of cash that I’ve had to use one of those hand-held baskets for way too much food. If I’m really desperate and I really need a lot of groceries, I’ll put the food into my reusable bags. But then I walk around the store feeling guilty, like everyone must think I’m trying to steal food.
Which I’m not, of course. I just don’t have a quarter to put into your damned cart, Mr. Grocery Man!
Still, I always make a big show of turning my bag upside down at the checkout and shaking it to prove there’s nothing in it.
Ah, the joys of the convenience of debit and credit cards.
P.S. I have heat! Still waiting for a part to come in, but we’re good for now. And I only got one repair man this time!
Welcome to the Daily 2020 Just Jot it January Prompt and the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt for SATURDAY, JANUARY 25TH! This is the last combination SoCS/JusJoJan prompt for the year. Time flies, eh?
For those of you joining SoCS for the first time, it’s a little different than the other prompts in that it’s not always a whole word. Much may be left up to your discretion: this week is no exception. Having said that, if you’re joining in from JusJoJan, don’t want to write stream of consciousness style, no worries. It’s up to you! If you do want to try it, please check out the rules below. It’s fun! Here’s your Saturday prompt:
Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “last call.” Talk about the enterprise (sales or service) conducted by the last phone call you received from a business you’re not associated with (i.e. your workplace), or talk about that phone conversation itself. Have fun!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use our SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
You can also use the Just Jot it January badge! To find the rules for Just Jot it January, click here.
Here are the rules for SoCS:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Hi there! I’m here with your 24th prompt for Just Jot it January 2020. Today’s prompt comes to us compliments of Wendy. Thank you so much, Wendy! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while you’re there!
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 24th, 2020, is “change.” Use the word “change” any way you’d like. Enjoy!
If you’d like to see what I have so far on your prompt list, you can find it HERE.
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 24th, 2020.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
4. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
5. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
6. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
8. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
First off, I’d like to say thank you to Janet for our prompt word of the day, “drive.” Thanks, Janet! You can find Janet’s Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow!
Since I’m the only driver in the house, you might say I’m the least driven in my family.
But that’s not true.
Because I am driven in the other sense of the word.
Driven to succeed in both of my careers, driven to learn, driven to do lots of things.
I’m in the driver’s seat of my own life, and yet I’m driven …
How does that make sense?
One thing I am driven to do, to save my own sanity, is put Alex on a school bus in the morning and send him to school. I’m pretty sure he’s ready.
In other news, my boiler conked out again, so we have no heat. Which really sucks. But I borrowed some electric space heaters from my best friend, John (happy birthday, John!), so we’re not freezing to death tonight.
The guy’s supposed to come in the morning to fix it. I wonder how many guys we’ll end up with tomorrow. I’ll report back.
Ah, it’s all enough to drive me to drink sometimes.
It’s Thursday, and we’re back to our regular daily prompts, this one for the 23rd day of Just Jot it January 2020. Janet gave us our prompt word for today. Thanks so much, Janet! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while you’re there!.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 23rd, 2020, is “drive.” Use the word “drive” any way you’d like. Have fun!
If you’d like to see what I have so far on your prompt list, you can find it HERE.
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 23rd, 2020.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
4. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
5. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
6. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
8. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
I’ll begin my post as always by saying thank you to our guest prompter for the day. Thank you Cheryl, for the word, “scraggly”! You can find Cheryl’s Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow!
I spend most of my days a scraggly mess.
I remember going out to work,
Back when I didn’t have kids, but I did have shoes.
Back when I fit into clothes that looked like I hadn’t slept in them
… even when I had
because I could do that–I didn’t have kids.
But I did have a life.
Stockings. Remember stockings?
I do, barely. I remember I hated putting them on, and I hated the ones that always seemed to ride low in the crotch,
Tuesday is here, and it’s time for the 21st prompt for Just Jot it January 2020, brought to us by Cheryl. Much appreciation, Cheryl! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while you’re there!.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 21st, 2020, is “scraggly.” Use the word “scraggly” any way you’d like. Have fun!
If you’d like to see what I have so far on your prompt list, you can find it HERE.
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 21st, 2020.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
4. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
5. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
6. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
8. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
I’d like to start by saying thank you to Sadje for her prompt word, “humor.” Thank you, Sadje! You can find her Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow!
It’s true that sometimes laughter can be the best medicine. I use humor a lot to relieve the tension that goes with parenting, and that includes times like now when I have a sick one home from school.
Yep, Alex’s is truly sick with a cold. Still begging to go to the hospital, but I managed to avoid it again today.
Half of my problem is the language barrier. If he spoke English, I might be able to effectively explain to him that there’s nothing the hospital can or will do for the virus he has, and the likelihood of him getting even sicker just by going there makes the trip worthless. Worse than worthless, possibly deadly.
But, of course, I can’t say that either. Because without the nuance of language, he might assume that if he goes to the hospital, he’ll die, and then I’ll have the opposite problem I have now.
I’ll have to drag him there, kicking and screaming when he really needs to go.
I used to be able to scare him a little out of wanting to visit the emergency department by telling him he might have to get an IV. He hates needles, so that worked.
Until he turned 18 and discovered the nurses and all the attention was worth the pain. Now he’s begging me for an IV right along with everything else involved.
You know, sometimes I laugh just because it’s better than crying.
And you know what else? Sometimes that’s the best laughter of all.
Monday is here and with the start of the workweek we have the 20th prompt for Just Jot it January 2020. Today’s prompt comes to us compliments of Sadje. Thank you so much, Sadje! Please be sure to visit her blog to read her post and say hello. And follow her while you’re there!.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 20th, 2020, is “humor.” Use the word “humor” any way you’d like. Enjoy!
If you’d like to see what I have so far on your prompt list, you can find it HERE.
Here are the rules:
1. Please be sure to link back to THIS POST for January 20th, 2020.
2. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
3. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.
4. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.
5. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
6. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
7. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below as they come in, which means I’ll be updating this post. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you. NOTE: If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.
8. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
Before I write anything else, I’d like to thank Jim for our prompt word, “gobbledygook.” Thank you, Jim! You can find his Just Jot it January post here. Go visit him and say hi, and give him a follow!
Today was a tough one at home with Alex. He woke up with a sore throat and spent most of the day complaining that he was so sick, he needed to go to the hospital. If he was to be believed, he was dying. Dying, I tell you! But no. It simply wasn’t true–he just loves the hospital that much.
Sounds like gobbledygook, but that’s Alex. He tried everything to convince me to take him to the emergency, just so he could sit there and people-watch and flirt with nurses. He made himself cough until his throat probably really was raw.
But I saw through the deception. He was happy and smiling whenever he thought I couldn’t see him. He sang in his own way (he’s Deaf and can’t hear himself, but I know his singing) when I wasn’t in the room, but the moment he saw me, he pretended to be hoarse and in agony.
Still, he did look a bit sick today, so I’ll keep him home from school tomorrow unless he’s bouncing off the walls. A sure sign he’s faking it.
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