Final Fantasy VII

I grew up in a religious family. First Catholic, then "Born Again Christian"

Both religions were clearly not for me. I've dealt with some people doing crazy things in the name of God. The Christian school I attended lied to their in-school therapist and had her forge papers saying I had learning disabilities (which I didn't have) in an attempt to get my parents to medicate me. The principal, I later found out, molested one of the students.

Later, I had an aunt tell me I was hell-bound and needed to repent because I had a boyfriend (something I am, ironically, unable to get these days).

Anyway, I've had it up to here with religion. I think it's appalling that some people behave so reprehensibly in the name of God. For example, picking outside abortion clinics and churches where gay people should have the right to marry. It's one thing to have an opinion, but it's really disgusting to me when people say "God wouldn't like it."

God's not speaking. You are. Think for yourselves... Do you really think it's okay to scare young girls by showing them bloody fetuses? (I'm against abortion myself but I'd never do any of those things). Do you really think it's okay to tell two consenting adults they don't deserve the right to marry, but YOU do?

I'm not saying I'm opposed to people who are religious. I'm sure there are lots of decent people out there from all walks of faith. And I certainly don't mean to offend. But I myself am done with religion.

I don't think one can prove God exists. Believing strongly is still not proof. Nobody can KNOW what happens when we all die, until they're dead.

Anybody out there?

Mornings are awful. I'm awake this early because of work :( But if you're on vacation you should go back to bed.

Hm. Interesting.

Awesome, where can I get one for my lawn?

Whoohoo, candy! Come on, any takers!?

This is going to be my new dating strategy. I am going to walk around with a big bag of snickers bars around my neck. Because, come on, it's snickers!

Lol, that's how I do math.

Thanks!

Haha, once when I was working in a coffee house and I was still in high school, I had this much older man try to invite me for a jog through the woods. He even wanted my phone number... I gave him a fake one.

I haven't heard of her but I'll take a look. I'm always looking for new reads..

Good luck with your novel! It's always interesting to know how they take shape. Did you know White Oleander by Janet Fitch started out as a short story, and it was rejected because the magazine thought it would make a better novel? And it turned out to be a bestseller.

Thank you so much! Well my agent was happy with the writing but she didn't think the whole story had enough of an edge so I'm writing something else now. It's okay, it was good practice and I had fun with it :)

Oh, duh, thanks! :) I just posted there; hope you'll check it out: http://mingle2.com/topic/show/241734

This was part of a novel I was working on a while back, but my agent and I decided the story wasn't very publishable so I'm now working on something else. But I'm proud of this chapter so here it is.

(all my writing is copyrighted, of course. Not that you'd want to, but please don't steal it.)

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Gram started knitting in 1965, when my uncle Ricky was drafted to Vietnam. My father was eleven; he wore his brother’s old coonskin cap and ran around the kitchen with a Johnny Eagle toy rifle. The trigger clicked, he yelled “bang!” and Gram’s shoulders lurched. She would try to shush him, suggest playing outside, and Pop would say, “Jesus, Ellen, let the boy be a soldier.”

She would think of her Ricky with his hair down to his waist and his blue coke-bottle sunglasses and his brown suede coat, huddled in ditches while men with narrow eyes and yellow faces shot at him. She bought a homemaker’s almanac and size 10 circular knitting needles; she made him a sweater.

My father outgrew pretending to be a soldier. When he was nineteen he sprained his wrist laying bathroom tiles, and he fell in love with the light-eyed receptionist in the emergency room. They married and five months later had a child, a girl who was born without a pulse. They named her for the date on her death certificate, and promised no month of their lives would ever be so bleak as April had been.

My mother didn’t know what to do with her hands. Babies cried on television and in restaurants, and her breasts leaked. She would huddle in public restrooms and sob. Gram showed her how to knit, one loop of yarn sliding down the needle after another, a chain, a swatch of cloth, a scarf. My mother made dozens of these in the three years between the births of my sisters April and May; on our way to school we grabbed scarves from a cardboard box in the closet, and every winter of our childhood smelled like cold air and wool.

Before my sister June had mastered walking, Gram had forgotten how to knit. She dropped stitches, thought she was making a sweater and fumbled for imaginary circular tubes; she forgot what the needles were for.

Sometimes, wandering through the house, she still found find a ball of yarn and began to unravel it; her eyes would be dark and confused, her hands slow and careful, like there was something tangled in the yarn that she wanted to remember, but couldn’t.

I graduated with my BA in English about a year and a half ago. Anyone else have similar interests? Seems rare these days...

lol, that's a great thing to say on the first date.

I'll be 25 in a couple months. I fit smack dab in the middle.

Hehe. Well I'm only about three years older than you.

Everyone seems to be in a relationship these days, man.

I just added about five people from my old elementary school on Facebook. These are people I haven't talked to in maybe a good 15 years or so... They are ALL married or engaged! And most of them are rather attractive too. I remember this one girl whose parents were absolutely crazy. They wouldn't let her use big scary words like "darn" and she was actually the reason we weren't allowed to watch Aladdin in class because she felt it was too satanic or whatever... even SHE managed to get out there, find someone, and is happily married.

I know I am clearly doing something wrong here.