Weekly Paragraph contest

[Snowbird]

We haven't had our paragraph contest for a couple of weeks.  Before we begin, I want to set some new guidelines. 
1. The contest will begin no later than Monday at noon EST.   However if the winner gets the sentence up sooner, anyone can go ahead and post their paragraph.

2. The contest ends on Saturday at noon EST.  The winner should be declared at that time and notified.  However if you are the one who picks the winner and will not be here on Saturday, please notify me so we can extend the contest or have someone else choose the winner.

3. If you have an entry posted try your best to check to see if you win.  However, if you know you will not be here from Saturday till Monday at noon, please message me so if you are the winner I can put your sentence up for you.

4. The winner should be notified by personal message and an announcement made in the shout.

5.  I will no longer make a new topic for each week.  We will just continue the contest on this topic.

These guidelines should help our contest run more smoothly.  I hope you all will continue to participate.

NOTE:  WE ARE GOING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW.  INSTEAD OF A STARTED SENTENCE, WE WILL PUT UP A SENTENCE TO END YOUR PARAGRAPH.   Remember, no other sentence should come after this last sentence.

The first ending sentence is - "I will never leave home without my underwear on again."

[ponytail]

Got to work, and wouldn't you know---UPS dropped off a huge delivery of teddy bears, packed in giant boxes. I tackled them right away, smoothly fishing them out and setting them up in the giant display. Teddies of all sizes, kinds, and colors one after another in neat rows, stared at me as I continued my work. One, two, three boxes unpacked, disassembled and ready to be recycled. I wiped my sweaty brow and tackled the last one, wading through packing material, making sure I hadn't missed one of the precious little things. Finally, the last one came out. I turned to place it with it's mates on the shelf when I suddenly lost my footing and fell head first into the final box. Wedged I was...no wiggle room to speak of...I flailed my legs, tried to tip side to side...nothing worked. No one heard my muffled cries over the sounds of 'Jingle Bells". Ten minutes until they opened the doors for the biggest toy sale of the year...and I was about to be exposed in more ways than one to dozens of holiday shoppers--I will never leave home without my underwear on again.

[Outlast]

^^^
too funny ponytail! 


I wrenched the steering wheel to the left, hoping somehow to stop the skid, but up here in the arctic circle the ice is treacherous even at the best of times and in January ...it could be fatal. In a second's eternity my beautiful blue finally paid off corolla slammed about four feet deep into a snow bank. I wasn't hurt thanks to the airbag, my seat belt and the mercifully soft powdered snow, but I was stuck fast and royally screwed because I had failed to pack the one thing every Alaskan knows they need to have in their car at all times. Warm clothing. I had a good eiderdown coat to be sure, but the rest of my clothes were more suited to the wedding I'd just attended then to trekking ten miles across the frozen tundra of Alaska. In heels. What I wouldn't give to have my long underwear on! Or some decent cell phone reception! I felt like kicking someone. The trouble was I was the only someone available. So instead I wrapped my coat around my little black dress as tightly as I could and started my long frozen walk back to Juneau and trust me...I will never leave home without my underwear on again.

[Snowbird]

Just writing on for the fun.   Here goes.

Moving to town from the suburbs had been a decision I had never regretted until the day I rushed out of the house and forgot something very important.  It was my custom to take an early morning walk each day which was so much better now that I had sidewalks instead of the usually overgrown grass by the side of my former winding road for walking.  That morning I received a phone call from my bird-brained sister-in-law who could have a conversation with a light pole since she rattled on without stopping to give the other person time to say 'excuse me, I have to go'.  When I finally got off the phone I knew I had to hurry and dress for my walk so I would get back in time to change for work.  I slipped on my walking shorts and a tank top since the temperature was already climbing toward 90 degrees.  As I was approaching the court house where all the old men gathered in the morning to sit on the lawn and gossip, I met Mrs. Snodgrass walking her all too friendly German Sheppard.  As we passed he turned around and took the end of my shorts in his mouth thinking he was going to get a game of tug of war out of me.  I was horrified as I felt my shorts being pulled down to my knees and felt the warm air on my naked behind while the laughter screamed at me from the court house lawn.  Then I knew I had forgotten to put on something very important.  I will never leave my home without my underwear again.

[Merry Prankster]

The invention of the zipper was truly a stroke of genius.  Most men experience its benefits several times each day.  These benefits, however, are accompanied by certain perils.  I will never leave home without my underwear on again. 

[bacali]

That's too funny...
 Now I forgot anything I was going to write... "ouch"

[Snowbird]

There is an empty feeling when you win something because you were the only one who entered.  I feel almost guilty because I know several of you could have written a better paragraph than I did. 

That being said, our next paragraph should END with "That was the last time I let my mother make my Halloween costume."

[Outlast]

Sorry guys. I'm finding the ending sentence thing a lot harder than the starting sentence for some reason. But here ya go!


I'm twenty-six years old. TWENTY-SIX! Why did I let her do it?! Let me back up a bit... I was twenty-six years old when my husband left me and I was forced to move back in with my mother. She was GREAT about it. She barely reminded me of how she told me he was bad news at all. A real saint my mom. It was nearly Halloween when I moved back in and mom got really excited over making me a costume again after all these years... you see, Halloween was kind of our thing growing up. Mom always got real excited, she carved multiple pumpkins every year (yes we were THAT house) and she loved to hang the family scarecrow from the tree to try and spook the kiddos. Anyway, like I said, here I was home again after a failed marriage (no kids) and mom wanted to make me a costume for old time's sake. BIG MISTAKE. I walked in from work to find my mother dressed as Little Bo Peep and holding up a sheep costume, complete with pink leash. That was the last time I let my mother make my Halloween costume.

[Snowbird]

  That is a good one Outlast. 

[ponytail]

I've put up with a lot in my short life as a pampered pooch. Tight diamond studded collars, constant petting, brushing, grooming...being stuffed into large Gucci handbags and paraded around endlessly by my 'mother'. Whine..whimper...yawn...but the worst of all came just a few short days ago. We were invited to a themed Super Hero Halloween party, and my mother just HAD to make me a costume to match hers. So why did she choose Catwoman? And how could she even think that I would be okay dressed up as a cat? Whine...whimper...yawn...  That was the last time I let my mother make my Halloween costume.

[Outlast]

Thank you Snowbird!


*removes the much hated sheep costume*


Ok here goes, the new spooky October STARTING sentence is...

She knew that she shouldn't go wandering in the haunted woods at this time of night...


Please feel free to substitute 'he' 'they' or 'I' for she if you like.

[Outlast]

*dons a spooky costume*

I knew that I shouldn't go wandering in the haunted woods at this time of night... the trees were so dense they blocked the starlight and even the moon was dimmed til it almost disappeared. My flashlight began to dim too, yet something seemed to pull me deeper into the woods. Suddenly the moonlight reappeared and I stepped into a clearing just as my flashlight batteries died. At first I was simply relieved to have escaped the spooky woods, but then I saw a dim light up ahead. I walked towards it, drawn to it light a bug to a bug-zapper. It was an old oil lamp sitting in a window. The window was sitting in a rusted old trailer; the kind that went out of fashion when the world switched over to Technicolor. I knocked on the door... the woman who answered was tiny as a doll. She had to stand on a step just to reach the door. She beckoned me in; I went. The hours swam past me like a dream as I was introduced to all manner of humanity. It seemed every disease, defect and deformity ever poured out on the world had been lured here. They greeted me as an old friend... but why? Then I saw my own reflection staring back at me in a mirror. At first I didn't recognize myself and then I thought it was a trick mirror of some kind, but when I raised my hands to feel my face and I felt the fur. It was real! I looked down at my hands and saw it was there too. I screamed and screamed; hoping somehow I would wake up. Why can't I wake up?!

 

[Snowbird]

Outlast, I think you should win your on competition with that paragraph.   

He knew he shouldn't go wandering in the haunted woods at that time of night.. but he had always been the adventurous sort.  He had heard the rumors about the woods since he was a wee lad sitting around the fire with his brothers and sisters, his mother in her rocker doing the mending, and his father in the over-stuffed arm chair smoking his pipe.  One of his siblings would usually bring up the subject which his mother tried to squash and his father would chuckle.  "Oh Della," he would laugh, "there is no such things as zombies."  So now his curiosity had gotten the best of him and he had to see for himself.  He decided to go when there was a full moon giving him more light.  He had been walking for about twenty minutes and was about to turn around and go back when he suddenly lost his footing and found himself sliding down into a deep hole.  He felt around and screamed when he felt the skeleton bones.  He jumped up and started trying to pull himself out when he felt the foot come down on his hand.  He looked up into the eyes of the zombie that his father had assured him did not exist.

[ponytail]

I knew I shouldn't go wandering in the haunted woods at that time of night...but what's a poor werewolf to do when the moon is full? It was my misfortune that the Junior League was having it's annual Halloween Haunted Walk, and they were smack dab in the middle of my stomping grounds. Zombies here, madmen lurking behind trees with machetes and chainsaws, drooling crazies, blood trailing killers...all of them defiling MY woods. I quickly skirted as many of them as I could, but couldn't resist giving a howl at the full moon in a clearing--my bad. I was quickly ambushed, surrounded, and attacked by an assortment of panicked, frightened teens. The fur was flying, literally. Before I could even get my growl up, I was left to lick my wounds. I don't look good with bald patches in my hide, and how was I going to explain my missing eyebrow to my wife in the morning?

[Outlast]

I know responses have been few of late, but don't be discouraged, people get busy, life gets in the way sometimes, but the joy of writing remains. Count on it!

With that... This week's winner is Ponytail! I really liked the details in your story and the ending worked well.

Ponytail please post the next starting sentence.