This is the card I created in Adobe Photoshop.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
“Sarabeth”
Based on the song “Skin” by Rascal Flatts
I shifted uneasily in the plastic chair. I hadn’t looked at the outdated prom magazine once since it was thrust into my lap. My attention was caught by the incessant ticking of a clock mounted on the white hospital wall. It had been over an hour since our appointment “supposedly” began and I had yet to see one nurse walk through the door.
I began to tap my foot against the tile; a nervous habit. Usually a sharp look from my mother would discourage my “unladylike” behavior but…not today. My mother, my father, and I had been waiting for the results from my blood test for some time. It’s dumb, really. It all started when I fell on my thigh in our garage, leaving a nasty bruise. But the bruise wouldn’t shrink or change color. It was just a big lump on my skin that wouldn’t go away. After that my dad started to worry and said that we should see a doctor if it didn’t leave in a week. It didn’t leave.
My mom, sensing my uneasiness, began to rub soothing circles in the back of my hand. She might have seemed calm to a random stranger, but I could see the pain behind her brown eyes. The thought that something might be wrong with her only child was slowly eating at her. She gripped my fathers hand so tightly, the veins in her arm began to turn blue.
“Sarabeth?” A tall nurse appeared at the door. Relief flooded my mother’s eyes while fear began to fill mine. Now that the wait was over, I had to face the results; something I wasn’t sure I was ready for all of a sudden.
My small family and I followed the nurse down a seemingly never-ending hallway, only to stop and wait outside another door.
“Just one moment.” The nurse ushered us to a small couch with the same outdated prom magazines strewn across it’s cushions. No one sat. My parents leaned against the wall while I paced , thankful for the little time to compose myself.
A few moments later, a balding man in his early fifties came through the wooden door next to my parents.
“Hi, I’m Doctor Graham.” He shook my father’s hand, then my mother’s and mine. “Please, step into my office.” He requested with a smile.
My parents sat on both sides of my chair each holding one of my hands. I stared at the doctor willing him to speak, so he could end my anxiety.
“Sarabeth, you’re obviously not a child, and I feel it’s only fair to treat you as an adult. So I’m going to give it to you straightforward. Is that alright with you?”
“Yes,sir. “I whispered. Of a sudden, I found it very difficult to speak. The doctor took a deep breath and kneeled down next to my chair.
“You have cancer.” My mother’s sharp intake of breath was all the more I could take. My eye’s began to flood with tears.
“ Between your red blood cells and your white blood cells, something is wrong. But we’re going to find out what it is, and we’re going to take good care of you sweetheart. Six chances in ten, it won’t come back and with the therapy, we’re going to try. It’s just been approved the therapy is the strongest out there and I think we’ve caught the cancer in time.”
...
I awoke to find my mother sitting on the edge of my bed. She was turned away from me towards the window; her hands wrapped around her body in a tight embrace. She must have felt me stir because before I could sit up she came to lay next to me on the bed. Stroking my cheek gently, she began to cry. She had hardly made a sound as the river of water cascaded from her cheek and onto my nightgown.
“Mom, are you okay--I mean I thought we were past all the crying? It’s been a month since……” A series of sharp breathes interrupted my sentence; they were not my own. My mother had begun to bawl uncontrollably.
Flashbacks from the first weeks after the appointment came to mind. I thought we were finished with the crying. I was ready to face this head-on. Dr. Graham said there was an excellent chance that I would survive….So it was hard to understand why she had begun to cry so spontaneously.
I sat up slowly and lifted her head onto my lap. When I reached down to wipe the tears from her face I noticed, a clump of string on my pillow. Soon I noticed that the entire top-half of my bed was covered in string. I reached for the glasses on my nightstand and delicately removed a clump of string from my comforter. Sharp sobs began to spring from my chest when I realized what the blonde strands were…, hair. It was then that I also noticed how light my head and shoulders felt. Moving slowly, I swung my feet over the edge of my bed and walked to the mirror on my wall. The entire right side of my head was bald.
My mother and I sat on my bed crying, once again, like we had those first few weeks. Of course, this pain didn’t run as deep. My hair would eventually come back but not soon enough. My boyfriend Alex and I had been planning for prom. All the arrangements were made. I had my dress, he had his tux. But now there would be just one thing missing ;my hair.
“Mom, Alex…” I sputtered through my tears. He meant the world to me. I used to dream about prom night, how we would dance in the middle of the floor. With no one around, he would spin me in circles until we were dizzy under a beautiful, glowing chandelier. Now, those dreams were dashed.
“It would be a mistake for him to take me to the prom looking like….this. He should ask someone else.” I whispered. I buried my head into my mothers neck and closed my eyes tightly. Ok, if I just count to three this will all go away. I thought. I’ll wake up and he’ll be holding me on the dance floor.
“Sarabeth?” My mother asked quietly breaking my reverie. “Sarah, Alex is going to take you to the prom whether you have Repunzel’s hair or your as bald as a baby. He loves you sweetheart.”
Even though I hated to admit it, my mother was right. Alex didn’t care about my appearance as much as who I was. When I first told him the news he drove straight over to my house in the morning and held me until it was dark outside.. I don’t know why I ever doubted his sincerity. He loved me more than I deserved.
...
“Sarabeth!” My mother screamed from the top of the stairs. “He’s going to be here any minute! Get your booty up stairs!” With my dress in hand I slowly climbed the stairs. My muscles had begun to weaken in the past week just as Doctor Graham had predicted.
In my room my mother helped me change and put my make up on. I starred at my completely bald head in regret. My mother kissed the top of my head and looked me straight in the eye as if to say, ‘Don’t worry, he loves you.’ A ring from the doorbell startled us and my mother rushed to the top of the stairs to see who it was.
“You already know who it is.” I joked.
“Come on in, Alex.” I heard my father say.
“Should I go up?” Came Alex’s deep voice at the door.
“Oh, no. She’ll be down in a minute.” My mother said quickly. Scurrying back into my room, she lifted me from my chair.
“He’s here.” She muttered. I just laughed. My mother let me make the descend down the staircase on my own. There Alex stood, at the bottom of the steps looking dashing in his black tux and blue tie. It made me want to cry. Don’t do it. I scolded myself. So, I smiled instead. I had been so focused on his tux, though, that I had missed the ratty baseball cap that sat on his head.
“What’s with the hat?” I asked still smiling.
“Well, hello to you too Sarabeth.” He joked. “If you don’t like my hat I can certainly take it off.”
“I would like that, thank you.” I replied. In all honesty I did not want to see his beautiful brown curls. He reached up and slowly removed the hat from his head. The whole room seemed to freeze. Breaking the silence I gasped and jumped into his arms. He spun me around and around until we were both dizzy, and then…I kissed his bald head.
Based on the song “Skin” by Rascal Flatts
I shifted uneasily in the plastic chair. I hadn’t looked at the outdated prom magazine once since it was thrust into my lap. My attention was caught by the incessant ticking of a clock mounted on the white hospital wall. It had been over an hour since our appointment “supposedly” began and I had yet to see one nurse walk through the door.
I began to tap my foot against the tile; a nervous habit. Usually a sharp look from my mother would discourage my “unladylike” behavior but…not today. My mother, my father, and I had been waiting for the results from my blood test for some time. It’s dumb, really. It all started when I fell on my thigh in our garage, leaving a nasty bruise. But the bruise wouldn’t shrink or change color. It was just a big lump on my skin that wouldn’t go away. After that my dad started to worry and said that we should see a doctor if it didn’t leave in a week. It didn’t leave.
My mom, sensing my uneasiness, began to rub soothing circles in the back of my hand. She might have seemed calm to a random stranger, but I could see the pain behind her brown eyes. The thought that something might be wrong with her only child was slowly eating at her. She gripped my fathers hand so tightly, the veins in her arm began to turn blue.
“Sarabeth?” A tall nurse appeared at the door. Relief flooded my mother’s eyes while fear began to fill mine. Now that the wait was over, I had to face the results; something I wasn’t sure I was ready for all of a sudden.
My small family and I followed the nurse down a seemingly never-ending hallway, only to stop and wait outside another door.
“Just one moment.” The nurse ushered us to a small couch with the same outdated prom magazines strewn across it’s cushions. No one sat. My parents leaned against the wall while I paced , thankful for the little time to compose myself.
A few moments later, a balding man in his early fifties came through the wooden door next to my parents.
“Hi, I’m Doctor Graham.” He shook my father’s hand, then my mother’s and mine. “Please, step into my office.” He requested with a smile.
My parents sat on both sides of my chair each holding one of my hands. I stared at the doctor willing him to speak, so he could end my anxiety.
“Sarabeth, you’re obviously not a child, and I feel it’s only fair to treat you as an adult. So I’m going to give it to you straightforward. Is that alright with you?”
“Yes,sir. “I whispered. Of a sudden, I found it very difficult to speak. The doctor took a deep breath and kneeled down next to my chair.
“You have cancer.” My mother’s sharp intake of breath was all the more I could take. My eye’s began to flood with tears.
“ Between your red blood cells and your white blood cells, something is wrong. But we’re going to find out what it is, and we’re going to take good care of you sweetheart. Six chances in ten, it won’t come back and with the therapy, we’re going to try. It’s just been approved the therapy is the strongest out there and I think we’ve caught the cancer in time.”
...
I awoke to find my mother sitting on the edge of my bed. She was turned away from me towards the window; her hands wrapped around her body in a tight embrace. She must have felt me stir because before I could sit up she came to lay next to me on the bed. Stroking my cheek gently, she began to cry. She had hardly made a sound as the river of water cascaded from her cheek and onto my nightgown.
“Mom, are you okay--I mean I thought we were past all the crying? It’s been a month since……” A series of sharp breathes interrupted my sentence; they were not my own. My mother had begun to bawl uncontrollably.
Flashbacks from the first weeks after the appointment came to mind. I thought we were finished with the crying. I was ready to face this head-on. Dr. Graham said there was an excellent chance that I would survive….So it was hard to understand why she had begun to cry so spontaneously.
I sat up slowly and lifted her head onto my lap. When I reached down to wipe the tears from her face I noticed, a clump of string on my pillow. Soon I noticed that the entire top-half of my bed was covered in string. I reached for the glasses on my nightstand and delicately removed a clump of string from my comforter. Sharp sobs began to spring from my chest when I realized what the blonde strands were…, hair. It was then that I also noticed how light my head and shoulders felt. Moving slowly, I swung my feet over the edge of my bed and walked to the mirror on my wall. The entire right side of my head was bald.
My mother and I sat on my bed crying, once again, like we had those first few weeks. Of course, this pain didn’t run as deep. My hair would eventually come back but not soon enough. My boyfriend Alex and I had been planning for prom. All the arrangements were made. I had my dress, he had his tux. But now there would be just one thing missing ;my hair.
“Mom, Alex…” I sputtered through my tears. He meant the world to me. I used to dream about prom night, how we would dance in the middle of the floor. With no one around, he would spin me in circles until we were dizzy under a beautiful, glowing chandelier. Now, those dreams were dashed.
“It would be a mistake for him to take me to the prom looking like….this. He should ask someone else.” I whispered. I buried my head into my mothers neck and closed my eyes tightly. Ok, if I just count to three this will all go away. I thought. I’ll wake up and he’ll be holding me on the dance floor.
“Sarabeth?” My mother asked quietly breaking my reverie. “Sarah, Alex is going to take you to the prom whether you have Repunzel’s hair or your as bald as a baby. He loves you sweetheart.”
Even though I hated to admit it, my mother was right. Alex didn’t care about my appearance as much as who I was. When I first told him the news he drove straight over to my house in the morning and held me until it was dark outside.. I don’t know why I ever doubted his sincerity. He loved me more than I deserved.
...
“Sarabeth!” My mother screamed from the top of the stairs. “He’s going to be here any minute! Get your booty up stairs!” With my dress in hand I slowly climbed the stairs. My muscles had begun to weaken in the past week just as Doctor Graham had predicted.
In my room my mother helped me change and put my make up on. I starred at my completely bald head in regret. My mother kissed the top of my head and looked me straight in the eye as if to say, ‘Don’t worry, he loves you.’ A ring from the doorbell startled us and my mother rushed to the top of the stairs to see who it was.
“You already know who it is.” I joked.
“Come on in, Alex.” I heard my father say.
“Should I go up?” Came Alex’s deep voice at the door.
“Oh, no. She’ll be down in a minute.” My mother said quickly. Scurrying back into my room, she lifted me from my chair.
“He’s here.” She muttered. I just laughed. My mother let me make the descend down the staircase on my own. There Alex stood, at the bottom of the steps looking dashing in his black tux and blue tie. It made me want to cry. Don’t do it. I scolded myself. So, I smiled instead. I had been so focused on his tux, though, that I had missed the ratty baseball cap that sat on his head.
“What’s with the hat?” I asked still smiling.
“Well, hello to you too Sarabeth.” He joked. “If you don’t like my hat I can certainly take it off.”
“I would like that, thank you.” I replied. In all honesty I did not want to see his beautiful brown curls. He reached up and slowly removed the hat from his head. The whole room seemed to freeze. Breaking the silence I gasped and jumped into his arms. He spun me around and around until we were both dizzy, and then…I kissed his bald head.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Go Animate Link
I've been having some trouble with saving my animations to the website. It's only allowing 10 second clips.
Here's the link:
http://goanimate.com/movie/05NKga-3_NM0?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0LyrvsZGH5XQ
Here's the link:
http://goanimate.com/movie/05NKga-3_NM0?utm_source=linkshare&uid=0LyrvsZGH5XQ
Monday, May 10, 2010
Go Animate
I've always wanted to learn how to animate with a computer and I got my chance a couple of weeks ago at Normandale college. The only problem with the apple software that we used was that it was very difficult to navigate if you hadn't already explored it. This new website seems infinetly simpler and i'm hoping it won't be too time consuming to come up with a story and characters. I also really like to draw and cartoons are pretty fun to come up with so having the ability to do this on a computer and make it portable and "save-able"makes this project appealing.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Blog on Short Stories
It really surprised me how much I actually enjoyed participating in this activity. At first, I thought it might be a drag to sit here and try to collaborate with five+ people, but it actually worked out just fine. Some of the things I didn't like though, were certain issues with the site itself. For example, the website 'supposedly' allows its users to edit documents while other collaboraters are using them, but every time I tried to perfrom this command it shut my entire page down, forcing me to refresh and ultimatley lose everything I had just worked on. This put a large hole in my process for the project becuase we are supposed to be able to collaborate, but not even google is a perfect system.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Free Writing Activity 3--Coll. Writing
I think that the collabrative writing idea is great! It would be really fun to write a book as a class. I had absolutely no idea that these kinds of sites were available on the internet. I've always wanted to publish short stories and poems but I've been under the impression that it's a long and arduous process to publish. The one thing I don't like about this activity is that the story is probably not going to be as good as everyone wants it to be becuase it's not coming from one person. And certain people are more creative than others, so i'm guessing the story itself might not be all it's cracked up to be. But the idea is nice.
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