athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • Today is the Day

    Today is the day I say goodbye to Thanksgiving break. Anxiety and depression levels are rising, tonight is a school night after all. No more messing around with cats, movies, music, and road trips. House cleaning and laundry will become more of the chore they were before, and less of a leisure activity, they were

    Read more

  • Pastry Time

    I am tempted to begin making my rough puff pastry for Christmas. It’s fully delicious and cheap to make. Yet it is  the most labor intensive of all the Christmas delicacies I create, It’s worth every moment it takes for its creation. Butter and flour, rolled, folded, refrigerated and repeated at least five times, it

    Read more

  • The Beaded Purse

    Sherri had her daughter’s heart’s desire. Annie needed a beaded clutch purse to go with her formal dress for the prom, just big enough to hold her lipstick and her glasses. Styles go round and round, and she sure enough saved the pocket book she’d taken to her formal dance years ago. Truth be told,

    Read more

  • Lightning Temper

    I wouldn’t have been in the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning if I didn’t need to take some dog food and a loaf of bread to my elderly aunt. That’s all she said she needed when I talked to her last night, after I baked her casserole. I would have been at home, binging on

    Read more

  • Bright and Dark

    He’d been here before and wanted to show her something magnificent.

    Read more

  • The Tempest

    “I felt my pulse quicken when lightning lit the sky again, it was far away and showed the line of floating houses”

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  • Tuesdays

    I didn’t need to read the headline, “Teacher arrested for Drunk Driving.” 

    Read more

  • What’s Your Best Trick?

    John noticed the barrier she’d put between them.

    Read more

  • Hotline

    Lucinda called the suicide hotline.. The counselor’s parting words were to cook something delicious just for herself. The counselor began with, “too hard to be alone, too hard to have a job you hate, too hard to be a senior citizen so far into debt the only way your life insurance would pay off would

    Read more

  • One of the “Thou shall nots” said not to kill; they decided they might as well do it anyway, but Moses, that wild man, parted a sea and took off like a shot

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  • High School Gossip

    “I heard they broke up and Tom was going to ask Janeen to the prom,” Becky announced it in Social Studies class. “Betty was all upset about it in English this morning. She was so mad she was crying. I’d hate to be Janeen,”  “How do you know that’s why Betty was so mad and Read more

  • Anticipation

    Anticipation, sweaty palms shaking; Jittery, bouncing a foot on the floor Trembling legs crossing, uncrossing, twitching Recheck your hair in a makeup mirror Peek out the window, hover by the door Pace — hide your face behind your hands, cover Hover again, then sit quivering A pounding heart, lack of concentration Glances at the clock, Read more

  • Company

    Tonight. I am company. I tread lightly in my extended family’s home. I am a guest. I am on good behavior. I tell and listen to the telling from children with wide ears, eyes, and smiles. I am more polite than usual.  I have helped the eldest son get an A on an English paper, Read more

  • Interrupting Birdsong

    I asked for the time, but the darkness didn’t answer. I rolled out of bed, and walked down the hall to the kitchen. The clock on the stove said 3:00 a.m., so why not make coffee and enjoy the quiet of the morning? Listen to the songbirds and the breathing of the sleeping humans in Read more

  • Sanctuary

    All day I will talk nonsense. I will repeat a paragraph eight times in a day. I will point out its main idea, drag it out, make people paste it in a book, and read it back to me. I will pass out little pieces of paper with vocabulary words on them and glue bottles, Read more

  • Wedding Cut

    “I was sorta hoping you’d include me in your plans. You shouldn’ta moved your head so fast, now look what happened. You look better with longer hair,” she said. It seemed she was a little bit on the crazy side. “I’m Isabella. Everybody calls me Z for short. Want me to be your date for Read more

  • Today is the Day

    Today is the day I say goodbye to Thanksgiving break. Anxiety and depression levels are rising, tonight is a school night after all. No more messing around with cats, movies, music, and road trips. House cleaning and laundry will become more of the chore they were before, and less of a leisure activity, they were

    Read more

  • Pastry Time

    I am tempted to begin making my rough puff pastry for Christmas. It’s fully delicious and cheap to make. Yet it is  the most labor intensive of all the Christmas delicacies I create, It’s worth every moment it takes for its creation. Butter and flour, rolled, folded, refrigerated and repeated at least five times, it

    Read more

  • The Beaded Purse

    Sherri had her daughter’s heart’s desire. Annie needed a beaded clutch purse to go with her formal dress for the prom, just big enough to hold her lipstick and her glasses. Styles go round and round, and she sure enough saved the pocket book she’d taken to her formal dance years ago. Truth be told,

    Read more

  • Lightning Temper

    I wouldn’t have been in the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning if I didn’t need to take some dog food and a loaf of bread to my elderly aunt. That’s all she said she needed when I talked to her last night, after I baked her casserole. I would have been at home, binging on

    Read more

  • Bright and Dark

    He’d been here before and wanted to show her something magnificent.

    Read more

  • The Tempest

    “I felt my pulse quicken when lightning lit the sky again, it was far away and showed the line of floating houses”

    Read more

  • Tuesdays

    I didn’t need to read the headline, “Teacher arrested for Drunk Driving.” 

    Read more

  • What’s Your Best Trick?

    John noticed the barrier she’d put between them.

    Read more

  • Hotline

    Lucinda called the suicide hotline.. The counselor’s parting words were to cook something delicious just for herself. The counselor began with, “too hard to be alone, too hard to have a job you hate, too hard to be a senior citizen so far into debt the only way your life insurance would pay off would

    Read more

  • One of the “Thou shall nots” said not to kill; they decided they might as well do it anyway, but Moses, that wild man, parted a sea and took off like a shot

    Read more