Thumb: A Six Sentence Story

Dolores trudged up the stairs, pausing on the landing to catch her breath before climbing the rest of the way up and continuing down the dingy hallway to her apartment. She thought she heard a slight rustle as the door swung open, and she quickly flipped on the single, dangling lightbulb; seeing nothing amiss, she closed the door and sagged into the only seat in the room other than the single bed in the corner, a tattered chair with stuffing poking out and a spring that had to be negotiated carefully when sitting, and she kicked off her worn shoes.

"Oh, how I wish life were easier," Dolores sighed as she closed her eyes and laid her head back into the too-soft chair, but no sooner had she begun to relax, bone by bone, when a voice, a tiny voice, but one filled with strength, said, "I can grant you that wish."

Dolores's eyes popped open and searched the room, finally landing on a the figure of a mouse, a very small mouse, not any bigger than her thumb, that clambered onto the arm of her chair, and Dolores rubbed her eyes, fixed them on the mouse, and stuttered, "D-d-did you just say something?"

"I can make your life easier," said the little mouse, reaching out a minuscule paw and clutching her finger with its infinitesimal claws.

"Come with me," said the mouse, and, bewildered, Dolores stood up, the weariness leaving her body as she felt the mouse pulling her, and they flew out a narrow crack in the window and disappeared into the night sky.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge's Blog for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "thumb"

Simply Thankful

Some weeks, I don't participate in the Ten Things of Thankful (a real loser move, considering I'm a host) because I don't have the energy to come up with a list of thankfuls. The world (especially the US) is so weird and ugly in so many ways right now, and I let that overwhelm me and I. just. can't. I'm going back to basics. Here they are:

Propel Fitness Water packets. Grape, please.

Porch swings.

Lightning bugs.

Aussie Instant Freeze hair gel. No glycerin = frizz-free hair.

Roasted broccoli.

Juicy, ripe watermelon.

BBQ chicken on the grill, the kind where the bbq sauce carmelizes.

Fabric stores (may be a little obsessed with face mask options).

Naps with a cat.

Sitting on the porch swing with a glass of Propel water next to me, broccoli in the oven, watermelon in the fridge, while my husband grills the chicken, waiting for dusk and lightning bugs. Had a little nap with Lewis earlier. Currently mask-free. And my hair is frizz-free....

It's simple. Be thankful.

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Mattresses, Mattresses, Mattresses

I'm late to the hop, but what else is new? I'm just short of having to wish a belated happy 7th to the Ten Things of Thankful. My thankfuls this week are mostly mattress related.

1. I am thankful that my husband and I were able to make a trip to Oklahoma City last weekend to visit our son and his fiance. They are moving into a smaller apartment, so we rented a little U-haul trailer and hauled back a mattress and box springs and a few other items they wouldn't have room for in their new place. 

2. I'm thankful that bringing that mattress home was the catalyst we needed to deploy the Great Mattress Swap that was born when my dad got adjustable beds at both his house and the lake house and no longer needed his queen sized mattress sets. We wanted to put them in our kids' bedrooms, so every bed in our house was queen sized and all took the same size bedding (I'm lazy), but hadn't wanted to do it badly enough to go to the effort to move them. 

3. My husband and I (and we aren't spring chickens, people) moved my son's mattress and box spring into our house, carried my son's old, full size set (plus the heavy wood headboard and footboard, side rails, and slats) down a flight of stairs WITH A TURN IN THEM and loaded them in the U-haul, then delivered them to a friend who wanted them and unloaded all of it into her garage. While we had the U-haul, we picked up the queen mattress and box spring from my dad's house, carried them down a flight of stairs (no turn this time, thank GOD) and into the U-haul and brought them home. If you're keeping score, at this point, I had two mattress and box spring sets in my living room.) We also had to carry one mattress and box spring up those infernal stairs to my son's room. A few days later (and after the U-haul was returned), we carried a wood futon and the queen size futon mattress down the stairs with the turn in them ("Pivot! Pivot!") and stuffed them into the back of our Sequoia, took them to the lake house, unloaded and set up the futon and set up my dad's old mattress in the dorm-style kids' room there, moved a set of twin beds with heavy, antique frames to the basement, and feel no remorse that we still have a mattress and box spring in our living room because we are TOO OLD AND TOO FREAKING TIRED TO CARRY IT UP THE DAMN STAIRS WITH THE DAMN TURN IN THEM. Hopefully, we'll get it done before the weekend.

4. I felt badly that we couldn't help my son and his fiance move into their new apartment, because they wouldn't have access to it until the day after we left, but I'm not going to lie, I'm also a little (a lot) thankful for this, because I'm pretty done playing moving man.

5. Throughout all this, I didn't break a fingernail! 

6. I'm also thankful that my husband and I both agree that we are NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN OURSELVES. We're either living here until we die or will pay someone to move our crap after this.

7. The cats are pretty grateful that we got them each a queen sized bed....

8. I didn't take a single picture when we were in OKC, but I did get the link to Kyle and Lillian's engagement photos, and I'm going to share one of those now:

Photo cred: Payton Marie Photography

9. This has nothing to do with moving mattresses, but I had a TWO HOUR telephone conversation with my good friend and former TToT co-host Christine. We hadn't talked in AGES, and it was delightful to catch up.

10. Most important thankful this week: I'm thankful for Kristi of Thankful Me for taking the helm of the Ten Things of Thankful a few years ago and leading us to what is now our 7th anniversary. It's a big task, and how she fits it in with everything else she does in life, I'll never know. Thank you, cousin Kristi!

Go forth and be thankful!

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