Saturday's Stupid Saying amd Snippet

Reason for leaving last job:

-The responsibility made me nervous
-They insisted all employees get to work by 8:45 every morning. Couldn't work under those conditions.
-Maturity leave

from actual job applications

My personal eye-roll fave is the third one, followed closely by the second. Geez...these people should try parenthood!

Snippet: Explosions

The only 'explosions' I have are of the bedroom kind, but then again, in Love Is Sober, you are treated to a rare occurrence: The space shuttle explodes twice, first at the end of chapter seven, and then again (correctly!) at the beginning of chapter thirteen!

In Ch. 7:

“I’m tired of studying, tired of trying to understand it, and I just want to unwind.” She drank some more, then cocked her head to one side. “You know, I really wish I could just take life easy for a while, instead of constantly having to hit the books. But no, I have to study hard, make good grades, and get a job downtown in a good company, so my dad can be proud of me.” She took another drink and giggled. “It’s funny; no matter how hard I try, it’s never good enough for him,” she mused. “I dated the quarterback, the fucking star of the class, but did he care? No! I made the top ten in my class, and all he said was, ‘you should have been valedictorian'. I brought my econ grade up a few points, and he’s going, ‘you should have made the Dean’s list like Diana’. Well I say fuck the Dean’s list, and fuck Diana!” She crumpled the beer can and tossed it into the wastebasket. “And you know what they’re gonna say when and if I ever show them the pin and tell them about you? Dad’s going to say, ‘he’s not good enough for you’, or else he’ll accuse you of doing only God knows what,” she finished. “That’s why Jeff is up at Notre Dame. Daddy wanted to get us as far away as possible from each other, and threatened to pull the scholarship if he even so much as contacted me again.”

Brent was shocked, and he stared at Elicia. “Why did he do that?” he wondered, trying to take it all in. “He...he actually threatened the guy? That’s insane!”

Elicia nodded, opening up another beer. “Yup. Right now your only saving factor is that number one, you’re in law school, and number two, Daddy doesn’t know you exist yet.”

Brent shook his head. “I can’t believe...What does your dad do, that he’s got that much influence?”

Elicia looked at him strangely. “He’s on the Board of Education, didn’t I tell you?”

“Whew,” Brent sighed with relief. “I thought for a moment he was a congressman or some high official!”

“I thought I told you.” Elicia drained her beer can. “All my life, Dad’s always harped on education this, education that. Grades, grades, grades. That’s all I hear. Sometimes I think I was born into the wrong family. Why can’t I have a social life as well? ‘Because it might distract you from your studies’. Humph,” she snorted. “And I thought going to college was supposed to be fun.”

“It is,” Brent smiled. “And you’re having a good time, aren’t you?”

“Yes, until report card time,” she retorted, sliding off the bed. “I’ll be able to bluff my way through about this month, because all I’ll have to say was I was upset about the space shuttle exploding, but that's all the slack he'll let me get away with.”

"I don't remember you being particularly upset," Brent frowned.

Elicia rolled her eyes. "Okay, so I was pissed the newspeople couldn't wait fifteen more minutes to break the story. They interrupted 'The Young and the Restless', dammit! You don't just cut into any scene between Victor and Nikki!"

Brent shook his head. "You're complaining about your damn soap opera, when lives were lost? Women!"

"Okay, what if it had happened during one of your ball games?" Elicia pointed out. "Say the score is tied, three seconds on the clock, your team throws the ball, and wait...the network cuts in because a moment ago, the space shuttle exploded. Don't tell me you wouldn't be pissed!"

And on page 141, the third page of Ch 13:

The space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing everyone on board, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe. Everyone in the dormitory had been glued to their television sets for days after the incident.

Yeah, not as dramatically presented as the first one, but as the story progressed, it became more of a historical fact than just another example of Elicia's self-absorbed nature. And keep in mind, this was my first book, and my self-edit skills have hopefully improved since then!

Have a good weekend; I'll probably spend most of the day downstairs, watching L&O. Having the kids home for two days due to snow really messed up my routine.