The Two Takes

It's been too long, reader, and we're sorry for that. The truth is that it makes us happy to write for you, and for each other, but it's been tough to get it done, and it feels amazing to have something to share again.  This is a story challenge and here's how it worked: We each picked a character first, not a setting or a plot, just one main character. Then we assigned each other a genre of story to write. MAYBE it would work for the character we picked, maybe not.. you be the judge. Her Take:  r/cringeyfamilystorytime Posted by u/SammieWitch Ugh. Guys, for reeeeaaaaaal. I can’t. Cannot. Can’tCan’tCan’t.  This just happened and I’m so done with my mom and dad and all their stupid sneaky crap. It’s my birthday. My ACTUAL 16TH BIRTHDAY and it’s like they went OUT OF THEIR WAY to make it the worst. WORST.  Ok, but for REAL I get it, ok? Like, blahblahblah coronavirus, blahblahblah, stay home, bahblah, don’t ever have friends ever again or see anybody or do anything...

His Take:  So, life is kinda sorta slowly getting back to the way it was before the pandemic. Where I live we still have a lot of restrictions (I can’t tell you how many times people I don’t know have taken my temperature with one of those things that scan your forehead) and back home, there doesn’t seem to be any. I hope everybody uses common sense, respects others and for the love of God, please wash your hands. But, it was during the pandemic that everything seemed to go ass over elbows.  It started with the murder of a man by a real shit excuse for a human being. That led to protests, that led to looting, which leads to millions of dollars worth of damage done. There’s a clip on Youtube of people smashing into a Best Buy, running in and coming out with really big TVs, speakers, etc, and that Best Buy was less than three miles from my house. Somebodies gonna have a nice Christmas. It was during that time that Sue emailed me and asked “What’s it like down there?” I an...

His Take:  I have been very blessed in my live in a lot of ways but one way I didn’t know that I was so blessed was by the teachers that I had all throughout school. When we decided on this topic, I immediately knew who I was going to write about. Until I sat down at my laptop, My finger just wouldn’t hit that first key, I had to really sit and think about this and I really hate thinking.  After like a day of kicking this around I decided to just go with my gut. During the 1985-86 school year, I got my first male teacher that I had in a few years, and I thought that that was pretty cool. Plus, I had just escaped the WORST teacher that anyone has ever had. Seriously, the woman was Satan. Ted Voelker was the teacher that every boy wished was their uncle. When you’re in 7th grade, everybody older than you is old, but I think he honestly in his late 20s or early 30s.  Let’s put it this way-he listened to Van Halen. He was really tough, but always fair. He had a great ...

His Take: Moments ago, I literally burst into Suzanne’s place of business and verbally assaulted her into picking a subject for this week. After hours of negotiation, we came up what I think is a really great topic. There’s a lot of things you can do while waiting for the apocalypse to end. You can read books, work on some DIY projects, but let’s face it. Sometimes you just want to sit on your ass and watch a movie. Be forewarned, I’m not what you’d call a “movie guy”. But, I was able to think of 5 movies that I love that maybe you haven’t seen, or maybe haven’t seen in a while.  Empire Records: This movie is not only the most 90s movie on my list, it might just be the most 90s movie of all time. The short version of the plot is a day in the life of a really big independent record store, with all the trappings of the times. The threat of the store closing, a huge pop star visiting for a store signing, some shoplifting, add to that a bunch of teenage/early 20something drama a...

Her Take: The scene that follows describes me embroiled in a confrontation with my arch-enemy.  This is a very dramatic scene, so please read it that way. If you feel the urge to exclaim something suitable for this mood or draw the back of your hand to your forehead in a gesture of utter dismay, feel free to do so. Just don’t bite your fingernails, that’s gross.  I knew at the beginning of last week I was going to have to write something positive for this blog entry, and now here I sit. Laptop open, fingers paused mid-word, essentially useless.  Enemy mine, I confront you.  I even told myself and my co-blogger that sure, I wasn’t feeling too many warm and fuzzy things yet but if something didn’t come to mind, I would just have to create something positive to talk about. Admittedly, up to that point, I had been spending most of my free time wallowing in self pity. (Hey, that’s not a one-and-done kind of thing, you really have to set aside time to rumi...