Down the Rabbit Hole

Confidence and a bit of Word Play -Jan 4th

Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise
Day 668 January 4, 2016
Prompt: Do you believe confidence, even false confidence, can boost a person’s reputation?

Confidence is a building block. If you possess even a little confidence, it boosts your self-esteem and can have a snowballing effect, feeling confident allows you to gain more confidence. It emboldens you, it encourages you. Even a false sense of confidence can be helpful to spur us to think and act outside our comfort zones. Our reputations are built on how we act, how we behave so if we are acting and behaving more confidently, then I do think we see a natural boost in reputation follow.

Blogging Circle of Friends
DAY 1146: January 4, 2016
Prompt: Write a story or poem containing the following words: sandwich, force, fat, attic, abolish, chubby, pipe, contest


The cold blast hit Henry in the face as he flung open the fridge. He had been sitting in front of the damn laptop for hours, desperate for inspiration. His resolution had been to write more in 2016. The contest prompt had arrived in his writing.com inbox in the infantile hours of the new year and still, days later, he had nothing to contribute to the first round of the new session. Henry knew he was facing an epic fail if he could not get the wheels spinning again. When his gut had begun protesting loudly, Henry decided not to force his creativity on an empty stomach. He made his way into the kitchen for a sandwich.

The fridge was depressingly devoid of anything appealing. He had aggressively cleared it out on New Years Eve, charged by yet another of his New Year's resolutions, to abolish some of his chubby middle-aged middle. He had ruthlessly thrown away anything that could have contributed to storing more fat while visions of a leaner, more successful him aerobically danced in his head. Henry sighed. His loaf of soft, white bread had apparently been a casualty of his pre-2016 fridge cleanse. There would be no sandwich after all.

Henry slammed the fridge closed and reluctantly snagged a still green banana from the overflowing fruit bowl. He hated fruit yet he had still resolved to eat more of it in 2016. Henry thought of all his new resolutions; to eat more fruit and veggies, to write more regularly, to finally clean out his attic, to start dating physically, to stop cursing his ex-wife's name each month he wrote out his alimony check...all promises to promote him living a more positive and productive life. They suddenly all seemed so daunting and oppressive now in the harsh light of the new year. He returned to his office, the offensive banana clutched in his fist.

Henry sat down in front of the laptop screen and stared longingly at the blinking cursor. He looked at the banana for a moment before tossing it aside. He reached for his grandfather's old mahogany finished smoking pipe, packed with sweet apple tobacco. Henry struck a match and lit the pipe, sucking on the filter, hearing the satisfying crackle of the dry tobacco catching. He filled his lungs and expelled the sweet, ripe smoke. Henry smiled, thanking God and his 2015 self, that "stop smoking" had not made the list of resolutions for 2016. After a few highly satisfying moments, Henry sat up with a new sense of purpose. "Now about that prompt," he thought, as his fingers descended on the keys.

THE END

***I think I got them all!****