Summer's no Bummer

Two girls and a guitar. And an iPad was a rousing success even if only one other person besides the two girls was there to hear the new song. The crowd went wild. Just for fun, we'll be performing the song again next time, just so everyone can hear it. More songs are upcoming: details at the end of this post.

The next meeting of LFWG will be on Wednesday June 15th. "Flowers" is the theme for June. David will (hopefully) be providing the writing prompt for next time. At the last meeting, Angela and I choose three random words form a random book on a random library shelf and used those words to inspire our writing during a ten minute writing prompt. There were, as I mentioned above, only three attendees, but the writing samples came out great. The three words randomly chosen were: You, Never, and Africa.

Here is Jack's work.
You've never been to Africa. Or Australia. Or freaking Canada for that matter. Why exactly do you have a passport? It is kind of handy when you're filling our W-9s. It's only one document which establishes both identity and nationality as opposed to one for each, typically a driver's license and a social security card, but those both fit in your wallet, much easier to pack around should you suddenly and unexpectedly get hired and need to whip them out. Likewise, crossing a national border would require a minimum six hour drive or a plane flight, not likely to happen on the spur of the moment to already have the damn thing. $100 and an afternoon at the post office gone. Some day, you say. Africa. Australia. Tibet and the Temples and the jungles and deserts and mountains.
*a note on Jack's handwriting: wow. It took me over a half an hour to decipher this and I'm not sure I got every word correct. Sorry Jack.

This is Angela's work.

"You never take me anywhere." she grumbled.

"What do you mean, I never take you anywhere? We went to Sears last weekend!"

"That doesn't count!" She glowered across the table, her arms folded in her typical pugnacious stance.

"What - you mean like a vacation? Didn't we go to Six Flags a couple of years back?"

"Four years," she corrected. "Four and a half. And Six Flags is only eighty miles up the road. I mean a real vacation. Like... Florida or something. Or New York. Or... hell, Africa!"

"Africa!" he shrieked - yes, men do shriek when properly motivated. "Who the hell goes to Africa on vacation?!?"

"The Holmans went to-"

"Oh, is that it?" The shriek had become an oral sneer. "Mark Holman took his teeny bopper fourth wife somewhere and you just can't let me forget that you might have been his girlfriend once if you hadn't settled for a taxi driver?"

This last one is mine.

"Africa is the place I go to in my head when you are being a shit."

"What!?"

"I'm there. It's savannah or jungle or whatever, and I look out over the yellow grass or vines and monkeys and you are not there."

"Monkeys live in South America, Sweetie."

"Monkeys live in my f-ing head if I f-ing say so."

"Fine. Monkeys, grass, jungle. But not me."

"Exactly. You would never put yourself in Africa."

"It's a third world continent."

"So?"

"Water. War. Famine... Ringing any bells?"

"I'm not there for real!"

"Still..."

"Look, the fact is that when you are a shit, I go to Africa."

"I heard you. ...so... ...um... like now?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

For the next meeting of LFWG, I'd like to have another song ready for you guys. The last one turned into a very sweet little love song. For the next one, I'd like a break up/heartache song. Comment on this post with your ideas, broken heart stories and revenge fantasies, and I'll get cracking. Jack started the ball rolling for everybody with these words: "You can call me if you need somebody to blame. You can call me if you need somebody to shame." The more you tell me, the more interesting the song will be.

Happy writing, and sunny skies!
Jessica