A Beetle and a Barbell/Not so "Healthy Grains"

It's really Wednesday night but writing this early. Writing group was fun tonight - we had five folks and I led the prompts. No Lucas or Convex - Lucas in is Urbana during the week these days and Convex had to work. The three musketeers are stretched far and wide! I held down the fort. First prompt I threw down was some special dice for writing inspiration I just bought. Each person got two dice - one a thing and the other an action. I rolled a beetle and a man lifting a barbell. This is what I wrote:

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Suzie liked Ralph. Ralph didn't even know Suzie existed - or so she thought. And maybe it was the way he looked right through her when he passed her in the halls that made her take notice of him - being ignored was, in a weird way, kind of a turn-on.

Because really, no one ignored Suzie - ever - she made sure of that. Pretty she was - blond white hair razor cut to just beneath her chin - pouty lips made even more so with a potion of stinging nettle and bee venom that caused them to swell, enormous wide set crystalline blue eyes that always looked surprised, and a barely there button nose.

But there were lots of pretty girls at Harrison High - that's not what made Suzie stand out. It was her revolving portable menagerie - one day a garter snake necklace who she kissed on the lips as she walked the halls. Another day, her hamster Henry that ran from hand to hand or along the wall on a tiny leash. The teachers and hall monitors had a fit of course and Suzie spent a lot of time in the principal's office but lately they gave her wide berth - ever since that snitch Sally South found a family of beetles in her lunch sack - everyone knew they were Suzie's. Only Ralph seemed unimpressed - preferring the company of lesser girls, turning his back when she brushed too close.

"Wanna hold my boa?" Suzie asked him one day, frustrated into conversation.

"Not really."

"Why don't you like me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the way you looked at me in the gym yesterday when you were lifting weights - that wasn't a friendly look - you could have smiled back or something."

"You don't know why?" Ralph asked, looking her in the eyes for the first time.

"Know what?"

"The only reason you like me is because I look just like you."

Suzie stared at Ralph. He was right. His straight platinum hair fell to his shoulders. His baby blues were like hers, beautifully startling. his lower lip pouted.

"So, you're saying I'm vain?" Suzie asked, flipping her hair in what she hoped was an alluring and petulant way.

"No, I'm saying you're dumb not to see what's right in front of your face."

"I don't get you at all. Do you want to hold Bella Lugosi or what?" Suzie was losing patience with Ralph's cryptic comments.

"Suzie, it's no accident you moved here - to this town - where I live. What did your mother tell you?"

"I dunno - something about a guy who was willing to help us - hoping the dude would leave his wife or something. I didn't really pay attention - she always has some guy doing stuff for her. I don't even know who my father is."

"I do," said Ralph.

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Turning in to bed now. Hoping tomorrow is less confusing eating-wise. Finished the Wheat Belly book today - just plowed through it and oh my - humans and wheat should have parted ways 40 years ago. There is not a one among us for whom wheat is a good thing. It's really sad that something so delicious and prevalent is so bad for us. Read this book and you will agree that there is not one good thing to be said for wheat - not even hockey puck, sprouted ancient wheat bread. It's all deadly. And what a racket has been perpetrated on us by not only giant food companies but our own government who sits on the research that links wheat consumption with a myriad of illnesses. And yet we are still told to eat plentiful amounts of "healthy grains".  So wrong and it will make you mad once you see wheat for the problem it is.

Challenge today is getting that book. It's not pop science - I promise. Today I ordered twelve copies and I'm giving the book to everyone I love.

Peace,
Sarah