Skip to main content

Santa and Abandoned Malls


Here it is, the day before the day before Christmas.  The snow is actually falling for once, all our shopping is done, all gifts wrapped, and Santa Claus is terrifying a new generation.  One of our friends asked my 3-year-old if Santa was coming to our house.  Without missing a beat, he responded, "No, he's too scary."  I mean, forget presents.  Santa is a creepy stalker and little P knows it.

On a much lighter note, did you know that you can curl wrapping paper like you curl ribbon?  I had this giant present and no giant bow.  So I cut some wrapping paper into strips and ran a scissor blade across it and voila!

Dollar Tree wrapping paper curls just like ribbon!

With Christmas being the commercialized time of year it is, I started thinking about abandoned or nearly abandoned malls.  I already fessed to my love of evil robots, now I'm coming clean about my love of old places.  Be it a grand Victorian or a humble tenement house, I'm just full of anemoia.  Sigh.

I was knocking around deadmalls.com and I ran across a link to an article on Totem Lake Mall which is relatively close to where I live.  Then actual nostalgia kicked in.  I forgot about Lamonts and Mervyns.  Heck, I even forgot about Gottschalks.  All of this made me think about the mall near where I grew up, Kitsap Mall.  Kitsap Mall seemed like it was dying around 2006-2007.  Two of the anchor stores failed during this time and a lot of the small storefronts were empty as well.  Somehow magically, this mall now seems to be on the upswing. Here's a map of their current layout.   I was there last weekend and it was hard to find a parking space.  We ended up at World Market, a non-traditional anchor for what was originally a very traditional mall.

So . . . writing.  Yeah.  I'm still writing in the same futureverse, but I'm what I'm working on doesn't fit with the Culling series.  It's about the same people when they're a bit older, and ties up some loose ends.  It's not action/adventure/ya, I think it's going to be more slice-of-life/romance/drama.  I'm thinking about putting it on this page instead of Wattpad, if it turns out.  Who knows, the cake might fall when I open the oven door.

But Chapter 7 of the Bond is now on Wattpad.  Hint, hint.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Read more

Perfect Quote(s) for Valentine's Day

"Lovers in the first stages of attraction speak in harmonic dissonance-echoing and remarking on things that make no sense to anyone but their intended." -George Hagen, Tom Bedlam ********************************************************** Evira: "Yup, the lyrics really are 'Your sex is on fire.'" Agnes: "If my sex was on fire, I would hope that you would call 911." 
Read more

Poem: Calling

I keep sifting sand through my fingers, not feeling the grit of you in my palms. Did you skip out to sea like a stone, each kiss of the water a nix pulling you under, or are you always stretching out beside me, your shadow lapping against mine? The tide nestles up close to the shore, its corners tucked and turned under, in the shush and pulse of the waves, your voice is calling, me   to   you. __________________ We took our first trip of the Spring to Carkeek Park yesterday.  Even though it was cloudy, it was still overwhelmingly pretty. One of my favorite poets always starts each of his books with a poem written to the reader.  I guess that's my hope, too.  That you (yes, YOU) will feel that I've been reading your diary and wrote this poem to spill your secrets.  Or maybe you really are the "you" in my poem. Meanwhile, in prose land, I have just posted the next chapter of The Culling, and it involves . . . an octopus...
Read more