A New Year, A New Start

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019 JackieP22 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone!

Surprised to see me? I bet you are!

I’ve been wanting to start my blog up again and what better time then the new year? I’ve been warning a few people for quite some time now that I was going to start writing on my blog again. Now here I am!

There’s going to be a few changes to the blog. Nothing major. I’m just going to focus more on why I started this labor of love six years ago. Writing. Stories. Imagination. Fun.

As you might have noticed I’ve changed the title of the blog. It’s now “Stories to Tell”. That’s exactly what I want to do. Tell stories. The twist is this….well maybe not so much a twist as….well, ok, maybe it is a twist. For me, anyway.

The stories you will read here might actually be based on truth. Not all of them. Some of them. The others will be complete figments of my very vivid imagination. I will post one once a week, (day of the week still to be determined). What makes this idea a bit twisty is this…..

YOU, the reader, get to guess if the story I post is based on truth or fiction. In the comment section, you write whether you think the story has truth in it or is it a made up story. The following week I will post another story and tell you if the story the week before was truth or my imagination.

The true stories will not all be about me and my experiences. They could also be about people I know and their true experiences! I didn’t want to make it too easy for some of my readers who have followed me throughout my six or so years blogging. I gave out a lot of personal information through the years. This evens things out a bit for newer readers. Or…I’m just devious that way.

So, this is also a call out in a way. If anyone has a true story they want to share with me, so I can write a story based on your experience, get in contact with me through my contact page.

With all that said, let’s get to the first story! Is it true? Or not? You tell me!

Stone Cold

She had only been on the job for a couple of weeks. She enjoyed it even if she had to work the night shift. Now that was something to get used to. Usually, the shift was from 5 pm until closing, which was usually around three or four in the morning. She had never had a job where she worked nights. If it hadn’t been for her co-workers she wasn’t sure she would have made it past the first week. They were a great bunch of ladies and gents. Always having a fun time even if they were on the clock.

The job dealt with the gambling community. Not the high rollers like in Vegas but the retired group that had nothing better to do with their time than spend a few hours putting coins in the slot machines. Usually, they were a quiet group, the coin droppers. Sometimes you might get the odd one but all in all unassuming.

Weekends or holidays were the big days. That’s when the working public came in to spend their paycheck or part of it. They’d get busloads of people from the big city farther south. She didn’t mind though, the busy weekends brought in bigger tips and new people to watch.

Her job was exchanging money for coins or paying out winnings. It was interesting. Every once in a while she might even see a big winner at her window. Sometimes she dreamed of winning big somewhere and what she would do with the money. Big dreams.

One weekend she was exchanging paper money for rolls of quarters to one of the regulars when she felt a strange prickling on the back of her neck. Like a cold draft of air brushed over her. She shivered a bit and looked around and found a stranger staring at her. He was behind a couple of excited older ladies, lined up at her window. She only glanced briefly at him and turned to ask the ladies what they needed.

That glance was enough to see he had stone cold eyes. They stared at her without blinking.

As the old ladies walked away the man took their place at her window, still staring coldly at her, and tossed a twenty down on the counter. He didn’t say a word. Just stared. After a brief hesitation where she waited for him to state what he wanted, she decided to ask him hoping that would make him go away quicker. He was giving her bad vibes.

“Would you like quarters?”

He only nodded his head in the affirmative. She slid a roll of quarters his way and picked up the twenty to put in her drawer. After picking up the quarters he turned and walked away all without saying a word or taking his eyes off her. She doesn’t think he even blinked. It was a busy night, so she just shrugged the encounter away thinking he was a bit odd but harmless.

She saw the man with the cold eyes once again that night as he stood in her window to collect his winnings. Once again he didn’t say a word, just stared at her. She counted out his money and pushed it across the counter to him. Picking it up he pulled a twenty out and threw it down on the counter in front of her. For a minute she was confused. Did he want more quarters? Smaller bills? What? Abruptly he turned and walked away. That’s when she deduced that the twenty he threw at her was a tip.

After that first night, he came every weekend and they went through the same routine. He stood at her window, staring with cold eyes, getting his quarters, then cashing out at the end of his night. A few times a co-worker would tell him that they could help him and he would shake his head no and stay where he was, even if he had to wait. He always tipped her twenty, no matter if he won big or not.

Once she asked her co-workers if they knew who he was. They informed her that he was the new owner of a small bar she was familiar with. She used to know the man who owned the bar before the strange man. Most of the people she worked with just said he was a bit on the weird side.

This routine went on until she left her job and moved on to something else. A few months later she had heard from a friend that the strange man, with the stone cold eyes, had committed three murders before he took his own life. He killed his ex-girlfriend and two men he disliked. She gasped when she was told that the man also had a ‘hit’ list of some sort.

She shivered and wondered what would have happened if she stayed at that job. Would she have become a name on his hit list?

That night as she lay in bed and tried to sleep, all she could see was a set of stone cold eyes.

So, is this story based on truth? Have you ever met a killer face to face? How would you feel if you found out you did?

Blog challenge · Humor · Mi Vida Loca · NaBloPoMo · Nano Poblano · nonfiction · postaday

Truth or Fiction ~~~ The Answers

November 21, 2014 JackieP21 Comments

Earlier this week I did a post called Truth or Fiction ~~ Done My Way. I wrote 15 things about myself that could be Truth or Fiction. You, my dear readers, were to answer them with T or F and now today we will see how many you got right!

So let’s go see how many things were true about my life and how many things I just outright lied about.

1. At one time, I raised dogs and I owned 14 dogs all at the same time. Five of these dogs lived in the house with me.

TRUE……. Yes, I used to raise German Shepherds in Texas. At one time I had a female that gave birth to puppies. I had 2 full-grown Shepherds living with me, plus a Springer Spaniel, poodle/spaniel mix, and a Pekingese in the house with me. They were my babies.

2. I met a serial killer face to face and lived to see another day.

TRUE…...When I lived in Texas I came face to face with a serial killer at his father’s business. His name was Ricky Lee Green. The man wouldn’t stop staring at me the whole time I was there. It gave me the major creeps and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

3. I’ve been married 4 times.

FALSE…...I’ve only been married twice. Two times too many. LOL

4. I have a ghost that lives with me and has for many years.

TRUE…...His name is Abe. I’ve written about him on here a few times.

5. I’m allergic to feathers.

TRUE…… Strangely enough, I am allergic to feathers. I can’t have a down comforter, or wear a winter coat with down feathers in them. It literally stops my breathing. I can’t have pillows stuffed with feathers either. Can you even buy them anymore?

6. I‘m a very tall woman. Six feet in my stocking feet.

FALSE…...I’m actually pretty short. Five feet even.

7. I don’t own a skirt or dress and haven’t for years. I also don’t own any shoes with heels.

TRUE……I have always hated wearing skirts or dresses. I’m a tomboy through and through. So no, I don’t own any skirts or dresses. Haven’t since I quit working outside the home years ago. I also don’t own any shoes with heels. I used to when I was younger, but not any longer as I like being comfy.

8. I love wearing socks.

FALSE…….I hate socks. I should rephrase that, I hate wearing socks. I don’t hate socks themselves, I mean socks never did anything to me. I live in cold Canada, I come from cold Wisconsin and I hate wearing socks. Go figure that one out folks. I actually wore a pair last week, a good friend sent me 3 pairs of bright, neon socks. I wore a pair to the doctor’s office the other day. They made me smile. But…..I took them off again as soon as I got home. LOL

Just cus I thought it was cute! I mean, puppy!

9. I am deaf in one ear.

TRUE…….I am deaf in the right ear. At the age of 16 I was almost deaf in both ears. At the age of 20, I had an operation on one ear and it fixed my hearing. I never got the other ear done as I kept moving so often that I never had insurance to cover the cost of it. People don’t know I am deaf in one ear unless I tell them. I am excellent in reading lips and my good ear more than makes up for the other. Unless you are behind me on my right and try talking to me, then I won’t hear you, usually.

10. I’m color blind.

FALSE…...just an outright lie. LOL

11. I got my first driving license when I was 21 and living in Mississippi.

TRUE…….I took driver’s Ed in high school, just like my sister did. My sister was able to get her license AND a car. I couldn’t get my license because my mom didn’t think I needed it. So, that was the end of that. When I moved away from home to Mississippi when I was 21, I paid for lessons and passed my drivers test and got my first license. I never used it though, as the guy I was living with was a dick and refused to let me drive his car. Needless to say that relationship only lasted 6 months. He was a dick in many other ways.

12. I’m an only child.

FALSE…..I’ve written about my siblings before. Some I like, others not so much. But, I am the second youngest of four.

13. Now for famous number 13, I’m going to ask you to guess my age! Go ahead, you won’t hurt my feelings, I promise! Take a shot. I’ll let you know if what you guessed, is Truth or Fiction.

I had fun with this one! Most didn’t even want to hazard a guess, others, well just lets say their guesses made me smile. I’ll take that I am younger than all of you! Hehehe. Which I’m not of course, unless you count how I feel mentally. That totally counts, right?

14. I used to work with an ex fashion model.

TRUE……I did indeed work at one time with an ex fashion model. She was tall, blonde and gorgeous. When I lived in Texas I worked with Angie in an Antique Mall. When she was a teenager, she did some modeling. She could have done it when she got older too, but she got bored with it. She was a beautiful woman inside and out. We became best friends and when we would go somewhere she literally made heads turn. I used to laugh, because there she was almost 6 foot tall, beautiful and blonde hair piled high on her head, and me, short and well, plain. But she always made me feel good about myself.

15. I once owned a one-legged parakeet who was an alcoholic.

TRUE!…….well it was the family pet when I was younger. He got so old that he lost a leg, never stopped him though. He lived in a cage in the kitchen. He caught a cold one time and my mother gave him a few drops of whisky in his water. The bird loved that stuff! He drank it, then he would twirl from his perch on his one leg and sing up a storm. We had to give him a few drops of whisky in his water dish every day after that. He also used to spit his seeds at us when we ate chicken for supper. LOL Only with chicken would he do that. He lived to be like 15 years old. I think he was just pickled. LOL

So there you are, people! How many did you get right? That was fun! I might have to do it again one day.

Blogging · Humor · Mi Vida Loca · NaBloPoMo · Nano Poblano · nonfiction

Truth or Fiction ~~ Done My Way

November 19, 2014 JackieP19 Comments

Hello people! I hope today is going all right for everyone.

Today I’m doing a version of the kind of posts that were going around this past summer. That’s where the blogger posts a bunch of things about themselves and they are true, except one lie that was snuck in there. I know, I’m late in these kind of things, but I always had other things to write about. Now I’m going to do my version of Truth or Fiction.

I will make statements about myself and YOU, as my guests can tell me if these statements are Truth or Fiction. Or T and F for short. In a few days I will do another post and let you know which were T and which statements were F.

So join my silly little game and let’s have some fun!

Truth or Fiction?

1. At one time, I raised dogs and I owned 14 dogs all at the same time. Five of these dogs lived in the house with me.

2. I met a serial killer face to face and lived to see another day.

3. I’ve been married 4 times.

4. I have a ghost that lives with me and has for many years.

5. I’m allergic to feathers.

6. I‘m a very tall woman. Six feet in my stocking feet.

7. I don’t own a skirt or dress and haven’t for years. I also don’t own any shoes with heels.

8. I love wearing socks.

9. I am deaf in one ear.

10. I’m color blind.

11. I got my first driving license when I was 21 and living in Mississippi.

12. I’m an only child.

13. Now for famous number 13, I’m going to ask you to guess my age! Go ahead, you won’t hurt my feelings, I promise! Take a shot. I’ll let you know if what you guessed, is Truth or Fiction.

14. I used to work with an ex fashion model.

15. I once owned a one-legged parakeet who was an alcoholic.

There you have it folks. Fifteen things about me that might be true, or they might not be! Take a guess in the comment section! Have fun! Maybe you can even add to the list! What would you say about ME?