SNAPSHOT WEDNESDAY: COLLEGE FRESHMAN YEAR

If I had as many novel ideas as I do blog ideas, I would be bowled over right now with book ideas. As it is, my novel is "stuck" and I am getting blog ideas right and left. Does the universe feel like it is on tilt for anyone else? Ah well, you get what you get. At least I am getting an idea for something. I could be sitting here completely idea-less. That would be Bad.

What is this idea? I am so glad you asked. I am thinking of calling it Snapshot Wednesday. Or maybe Wednesday's A Moment In Time. You do realize before this is all said and done I won't have a spare day to blog about just random ole stuff. Of course, I don't have to do this every Wednesday. Well now, that feels better. Isn't it great knowing that you make the rules? As soon as I removed the restriction of having to blog about this every Wednesday, I felt tons better. Whew. However, knowing that it is always there waiting for me is a relief, too. How about that? Finally something that cuts both ways and feels good.

Right now I am restricted to the pictures I already have scanned. I am no good with my stepdad's scanner. That thing annoys the crap out of me, and I never get my picture scanned and saved, where I can find them. It really ticks me off. So... until I can get him to sit down with me, and show me again how to work that blasted machine, I have to deal with what I already have. That is not a problem for today. Unfortunately, I am recycling a photo of me that you have already seen. Them's the breaks folks.

Freshman year College

My dorm was not the traditional set up with one long hall and rooms shooting off on both sides. I lived in the only dorm on campus that embraced cluster-style living. Each cluster had its shared living area. All of the rooms sprouted off of that. There were four doubles, a room for the RA, and two triples on the end. At the far end was a shared bathroom. I lived in one of the triples.

It was winter and it was cold. I was walking back from class rethinking every choice I had made for the last year, beginning with choosing this college. It was on a lake in Michigan. I hate snow. I hate cold. I looked around. There was snow everywhere. It started snowing in October and it hadn't stopped. I blew out my breath. I could see it. It was COLD. I could barely feel my feet and they were in boots. This was the only place I had ever lived that it got colder as the day progressed. It was probable that the day be colder at noon than at 9am. WTF??? I was several classes past Music Theory and I still wanted to lie down on the sidewalk and have a good cry. This is what death feels like. Not my death, but the death of someone you love. The death of a close friend. I had been watching my friend Music die in inches for months. It was almost over. I could hear the death rattle. I just wanted to go back to my dorm, get in bed, and sleep until May.

When I get to my room, my roommates are in the middle of a lively discussion. They are happy. One of them, K, has the perfect boyfriend, is perpetually happy (not the fake kind, the real kind), and is confident and sure about her major. My other roommate, R, has a high school sweetheart, and is also confident about her lifepath. She isn't as perky as K, but they are definitely more suited to one another as roomies. I am definitely the odd one out in this group. A part of me steps outside of myself and wonders if it would be different if I knew where I was going, what I wanted, and wasn't so miserable due to my major? What if I had a boyfriend? No, I still wouldn't really fit in. I am not perky. Not even on my best day. Happy? Yes. Perky? No.

They immediately include me in their discussion. K says, "We have come up with two case scenarios and you have to pick one. The first one is this: (I close my eyes and take a deep breath and then open my eyes and let the breath out) You marry a man that you love to distraction, but he doesn't have nearly the same feelings for you. He loves you, just not to the same degree that you love him."

R picks up where K left off: "Or you marry a man who loves you to distraction, but you don't have nearly the same feelings for him. You love him, but just not nearly to the same degree."

I look at both of them like they have spent the afternoon drinking in the room, except neither of them drink. Me? Too much. Obviously, not with them. "Seriously, this is what you two have been doing?"

R: Yes, now which would you choose?

Me: I wouldn't choose either. They are terrible choices.

K: But if you had to choose one or the other, which would you choose?

Me: (Somebody shoot me dead on the spot.) If I had to choose, I would choose someone who loved me to distraction.

Just then, it was one of those moments that people say they get a cold shiver down their spine. Or maybe they say it felt like someone walked over their grave. Whatever. It was creepy. It was creepy enough that I remember this conversation and the details leading up to it. Oddly enough, I don't remember what they chose or if they chose.

All I know is that I shouldn't have chosen. Some people might say that my choosing something so silly as that didn't mean anything. Maybe not. But, words have power. It was like saying something like that out loud set something into motion.

So, what do you think about the idea in general? The story in specific? And what about the name? Also, have you ever had something like this happen? You do or say something, get a freaky feeling, and then have it actually play it out in your life in a bizarro way MANY years later?