Writing Assignment!

It's that time of the week fellow bloggers......time to join Kat for another fun writing assignment.

Last week I sort of took the easy way out of the assignment but not this week! I am going to take on two of the five prompts. Don't all cheer at once!

For the first prompt I choose:

"Fictionalize an event that happened to one of your parents, friends or siblings."

This is a story of a lovely lady who was...........just kidding, I tried to go fictional, but you know the saying that the truth is stranger than fiction. Well, here is the story of one of my Dad's shining moments as a parent.

Flash back to the summer of 1979. I am 12, my younger brother is 10 and we are on a road trip with our Dad. With our burnt orange VW van packed to the gills we spent two weeks of our summer vacation visiting a variety of state parks and tourist traps on our trek from Southern California to the State of Washington to visit family.

My brother and I took on two hours shifts riding shot gun. We sat for hours in anticipation of our turn in the front seat. When we weren't on front seat duty we would lounge around on the bed in the back of the van. That was fun for a while, but if you laid down it was inevitable that the hum of the van's engine would lull you to sleep.

This brings us to my dad's shining moment as a parent. While driving home from Washington my dad made a pit stop at a gas station in Oregon. When we stopped I was asleep in the back of the van. Instead of waking me up, my Dad and brother got the gas started and then went to use the bathroom.

In my pre-teen state I was a little bit annoyed when I woke up and saw that both of them had gone to the bathroom without waking me up. I'm mean, sheesh, how rude! It is common knowledge that if we don't use the gas station bathroom the next bathroom stop might be that tiny bush beside the freeway and homey don't tinkle in public.

So I gather my pre-teen belongings and trudge towards the disgusting gas station bathroom. I was probably in the bathroom for about 5 minutes before I emerged to discover that my Dad's van was no longer parked at the gas pump.

Ok, really funny dad! I stood there tapping my foot looking around wondering where he had hid his ORANGE van. After a few minutes had passed I found myself getting really annoyed with this little practical joke of his.

A few more minutes passed by when all of a sudden I went from being annoyed to having this scary feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then it hit me........"holy crap, my dad just left me in a gas station in the middle of no where Oregon."

Yes people it is true, my Dad abandon me in a gas station! It probably could have been a very scary scene if it wasn't for my brother. He turned around a few minutes after they left and said, "Ahhhhhh, where's Michelle?"

Can you just imagine the horror you would feel if you forgot one of your kids at a gas station in a strange state? That would have freaked me out as a parent! Knowing my Dad I'm pretty sure he just thought it was funny and potentially $200 less dollars a month he had to pay in child support!

Even though I didn't think the story was very funny at the time, I do now and I know that my Dad wouldn't mind me sharing it. Not to mention that he doesn't know I have a blog so I can say what ever I want.

Now on the next Prompt: 10 of my absolute worst pet peeves!

1. Word verifications! Trust me blogger friends, you won't get slammed with spam if you get rid of your WV's!
2. People who have a wimpy hand shake. I size up new people by the way they shake hands. Come on people.....put a little umpf behind your shake. Ladies, please don't offer me up the tips of your fingers like we are in a reenactment of Gone with the Wind.
3. People who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom! I'll skip shaking your hand.
4. Spitting.
   
5. Hair in the sink.
6. Globs of toothpaste in the sink.
7. People who don't replace the toilet paper roll (you know who you are).
8. Smokers who think the world is their ash tray.
9. Pet owners who don't pick up their dogs poop.
10. Finding a typo in my newly published post!! It always happens!

That is it, my writing assignment is done. Not sure what grade I will get this week, but I tried and isn't effort worth something?

Want to play?

Click here: Mama's Losin It