Feel-Good Friday: Jeff Laughs His Head Off, Raven Gets Cooked in Her Own Wordzzle, & Everyone Gets an Award!

Mine was a fitful sleep. I tossed and turned with grotesque dreams. Dreams of a horse's head. A disembodied horse's head that floated over my bed and laughed a maniacal, cruel laughter. I awoke the next morning with the disquieting realization that perhaps I hadn't been dreaming after all. Demonic laughter reverberated from the walls of my bedroom. The horse head scene from The Godfather flashed before my eyes and I began to shake. Closing my eyes, I peeled back the sheets and held my breath. After what seemed like a good five seconds, I managed to pry my horrified eyes open. Horse's head? Nope. Blood oozing out of the comforter? Nope. Blood on my hands? Nope. No blood. No sweat.

Still, the grotesque laughter persisted. It was leading me down the stairs. I walked trance-like, round and round the endless winding staircase, stepping over Trudy's slumbering body at the foot. I seldom envy a dog's life, but in that moment, I longed to trade her existence for mine. She snored in innocent bliss, her dog breath floating upwards from the peaceful depths of blogless sleep. For a moment the laughter seemed to be coming from the mysterious woman in the Marie Larson painting...


Trudy awakened, sensing danger...



I crossed the living room. I counted the bricks in the floor as my bare feet trod over them, wandering into the kitchen. Hypnotically, I lifted a cheese danish to my frightened lips. Funny how simple things--counting bricks, devouring a trans-fat-infused pastry--can keep one from being overwhelmed by hysterics. I wandered down the hallway, one hypnotized foot in front of the other, compelled, counting bricks. The laughter was coming from my studio. I grasped the knob on the door at the end of the hallway, holding my breath.

What awaited me on the other side of the door stopped me in my tracks. The cheese danish stopped in midair, halfway to my mouth. Things were worse than I'd imagined.

The laughter was coming from the i-Book, whose lid opened and closed, opened and closed, in a frantic rhythm. Like a toilet lid in a crazed Tidy Bowl commercial. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. All the time emitting that eerie i-Book glow. Licking my trembling fingers, I sat down and opened Entourage. I held my breath and clicked SEND & RECEIVE ALL.

And you know what? That maniacal laughter? It was just the laughter of Jeff B.


That horse's head? It was only this award he'd presented me over at A Word in Edgewise.

I'd gotten all worked up for nothing.

Thanks, Jeff. Everybody, go to his place and try your damndest to get a word in edgewise. But beware: Jeff lives a bit on the edge, as do his cohorts. It's so easy to fall in with the wrong crowd. Today, a laughing head. Tomorrow a dead one:




I narrowly escaped the horse-head-in-the-bed-fate, only to fall prey to another attack of wordzzle, courtesy of Raven, who actually wormed her determined self into this week's offering:

The heady fragrance of lilacs wafted on the soft summer breeze, entered Raven’s open window, and proceeded to tango with the aroma of Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Premium Cat Litter sifting from the garbage can. Such a fabulous olfactory contradiction, thought Raven, inhaling deeply. I simply adore the violent collision of unrelated things. Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln, all elbows, knees, and Adam’s-apple, was pedaling his tricycle up the hill to Raven’s house. He was late! He was late! For a very important date! Raven sighed. Where oh where is that silver-tongued, womanizing aristocrat Abe? LATE AGAIN?? THE NERVE!!! He has toyed with me one too many times. He is not even MY TYPE. Talk about a violent collision of unrelated things. And now he is trouncing on my good name. As God is my witness, when Abraham Casanova Lincoln walks through that door, I will smother him with kisses. Then I will proceed to beat him with the business end of this curtain rod. The door opened….















I woke from this appalling nightmare to learn of two more awards, both of them sweet as daydreams. Both of them from lovely Anna over at A.Bananna...

Anna has outrageously winsome offspring and an uncanny knack for photographing them at just the right moment. Here's her little enchantress Rue looking at the world through her bubble spectacles...


Like mother, like daughter.

The first award from Anna is the Special Scribe Award. Anna says she honored me with it because of my "creativity in tying my art with everyday stuff." Here's hoping the award isn't revocable after she sees THIS unraveled post, its loose ends dangling all the way to Fort Worth.

I now toss this beautiful blossom, the Special Scribe Award, at the following keyboards:

Raven, of A View from Razen's Nest. Mad scientist/wordsmith. Creator of the wordzzle: every week Raven flies over cyberspace, dropping random words on our heads. Our task is to scrape them out of our hair and shape them into paragraphs. Lady Raven practices what she challenges with a diabolical, beautiful frenzy. Like her namesake, Raven finds literary nourishment everywhere, picking every bone clean of meaning and nuance.

Paschal, of murat11. Paschal's MS (Master of Surrealism) diploma was shoplifted from the BAKING NEEDS aisle of the Piggly Wiggly in Jackson, Mississippi, soaked in agave reposado, hung out to dry in Langley, Virginia, debriefed and chopped into pieces, rolled in powdered sugar, fortified with beeswax, then fired from a cannon by Tibetan monks at the top of Mount Everest in observance of International Choose Your Weapon Day. Most of it landed in San Antonio, and now Paschal dishes it up over at his place. It's an acquired taste, but what an acquisition!

The second award, Shine On, I won by virtue of being female. That's right. Anna awarded it to all females who read her blog. I grabbed it and ran with it. No DNA samples were required.


And now this award is up for grabs by anyone reading this blog who'd like it. I am accepting bids in the form of cash, chocolate, and gasoline, preferably all three. Highest bidder gets the award.

Just kidding. If you'd like this award, just post a comment to claim it. And keep shining, all of you. That's the only requirement.