Close Enclownters

As some of you may already well know, I am not afraid of climbing 50' ladders, catching spiders, or holding snakes. What freaks me out is clowns. I have a very mild form of coulrophobia that doesn't really cause me any problems outside of all my skin trying to crawl off my body. That, and I scare my boyfriend by screaming everytime I see a giant clown billboard (there's one up north on 99, and one lurking around Fremont).

Anyway, I was doing a training last week and one of my "students" asked me point blank, "Were you ever a clown?" I was horrified. I have always been afraid of clowns. Some times that fear extends to all mimes (even ones without face paint), giant stuffed animals, and weird things like cowboy santas (one attacked me with a platic knife once). Whenever I see someone climbing an imaginary rope, it just freaks me out.

A few month's ago, I met Saru's grandfather. He put his arm around me and said, "You know, I'm a clown." I did know that he was a clown, but once he said that, it was all I could do to not run away from him. Instead I stood there and giggled nervously. Snow bound and sick=rambling blog entries

Possibly the Last Short Story for Awhile

Something strange happened this month: I missed my 12 Short Stories deadline. There have been many things changing in my life, and I’ve realized that there are a few things I will need to put less energy into. That doesn’t mean I won’t write anymore, but that I may write less, or may just focus on longer pieces. That being said, I did write something, it just didn’t meet the word count. So here is one more story. It’s not a story about politics, it’s a story about human nature and human feelings. ——— The war is over, or at least that is what they say. But how do you stop such a thing once it is started? Charles sighed when I asked him, “You act as if you don’t understand politics.” “I don’t,” I scratched a sliver of paint off the window with a razor, “I’m not even sure we should be doing this.” “They said we could remove the blackout paint,” Charles swiped an even curl of latex to the ground. It fell among the budding roses, an artificial petal. “But there are still soldiers ove

Decay, Swine, and Beauty

We are staying at an estate that is like a beautiful woman with tangled hair. Neglect is slowly wearing away at her, and you know that in ten years she will no longer be beautiful. But right now, her unkemptness makes her eyes seem wild, and she is ablaze with a vibrancy no clipped hedge ever had. And there is a pig. I'm hoping to have a little more time to write while we're here. The kids have attended one day of school this month thanks to the snow, and they had some fierce cabin fever. I've been inching along with my mystery, but I really want to get sidetracked and write a little office romance for kicks.

Short Story: Distraction

It was an office, not unlike any of the other offices around the city. There were windows, visible to the lucky few cubes on the ends of the rows. Then there was Vera's cube, situated next to the row of manager's offices. Today she was lucky, someone had left their door open and precious slant of sunlight escaped, warming her back and washing out half of her computer screen. "I never realized your hair was red," Tracy dumped a large stack of paper on her desk, "The florescent lights make everything look so soupy." "What is that?" she pointed at the stack of paper. Tracy only offered compliments when he wanted a favor. "I need this entered," he smiled, a dimple appearing in his cheek. "You have a secretary," Vera waved a freckled hand to her left, "Ask him." "He's sick," Tracy gave her puppy-dog eyes, batting his long dark eyelashes. Vera sighed and fought back a smile. Tracy was such a s

Refracted Neurons

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