E is for exercise

The exercise for today is a creative writing exercise. It's a bit different than yesterday's. Today, you're going to go to an online word generator and you're going to get eight words that will be randomly selected by computer. Once again, the idea is to use your imagination and have fun in the process. 

The online random word generator that I used is right here! It will generate eight random words for you. They are a mixture of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

This is an exercise that you can do by yourself or with friends and family. In fact, you can do this as a party activity, especially if you're all using the same group of words. If the party is for adults, you could enjoy a glass of wine while writing. Or chocolate milk. That's appropriate for all ages.

Once you have your words, you will establish a time limit for creating your stories. There are various ways in which you can work. It is suggested that you can take the first word and make a sentence. Then keep writing, quickly, and keeping that pesky internal editor turned off. You can incorporate all of the words in your story. You can try to use as many of the words as possible in one sentence.
It is OK if your story makes no sense at all. Sometimes the stories that seem like utter nonsense end up by becoming great stories because they speak a truth that is great than fact.

So now, I will set my timer for ten minutes, and I will write, incorporating the following eight words into my story, starting with the first word, which I will use in my opening sentence.

cappuchino
frustrate
repulsive
clown
surprise
vivacious
school 
scrutinize

I was sitting by myself at a cafe, staring into a cup of cappuchino that I had not ordered. I ordered a cup of herbal tea because I needed to feel calm. My day could only frustrate me. I felt annoyed and irritated by developments that occurred around me.

It made me mad that my beautiful, quiet home was going to be surrounded by a housing development, full of repulsive McMansions. I could see it now. All of these nouveau riche folks sitting on their patios and drinking cappuchino in the sunset, having noisy parties, and driving expensive cars fast around curves, just because they can. I had moved to the country to avoid people, because I don't like people. They annoy me, especially the fake people who live in McMansions.

I got up and went home, fuming all of the time. It is odd that I don't like people. I used to be a clown. Not a circus clown. Just a clown that goes to kids parties and makes the kids laugh while wearing my makeup and my brightly colored costume. I wear a huge red nose on my face and a wig of purple, pink, and orange. The colors really clash, which makes the wig funnier. The kids love it. They chortle and squeal. I enjoy the kids. They are direct and honest and there is nothing fake about children. I guess that I don't dislike all people. In fact, I lied about not liking people. I just feel mad that the McMansions are going to be built so close to my little house and that the developer is going to chop down all of those old growth trees. 

I kept going on and on about my irritation, turning into some sort of curmudgeon. Suddenly, as I was yelling at the television about the bad state of world affairs, the doorbell rang. It was the mail carrier, who handed me a package. I had not ordered anything. I wondered what could be inside. I kept thinking over and over again about all of the terrorists being talked about on the news and, as I opened the package, I knew that I was in for a very bad surprise. Fortunately, I was wrong. There was no explosion. It was a box full of oranges and grapefruits, sent by my nephew in Florida. Oh, yummy. There was also a note: we are coming to visit you in a month. Be ready for all of us. My nephew is married and he and his wife have five children.

My nephew's wife is very vivacious and outgoing, everything that I am not. I am happy to keep to myself and entertain myself with my own thoughts, as I am doing right now. When I went to school, I learned that I was an introvert and that I was supposed to enjoy my own thoughts and that people tired me out, which is true. Just the thought of having all of those people in my house. Well, I'd better prepare myself. I scrutinized the box carefully, one more time. No bomb inside a fruit. I then went to taste test a grapefruit and tried to stop fuming over the McMansions...