Gotta Pick Up the Kids

The alarm blares the same piercing noise that I've know all to well. I hate that stupid alarm and I hate the stupid reason behind it. "Well you see if it were anything else you couldn't hear it over the equipment." That's what the higher-ups tell me but I don't buy it. I get it being loud but I swear it's gonna give me a heart attack one day. I sigh then return to my work just to finish what I was doing and head out. I hate how long it takes for me to get out of my work clothes. I work with "dangerous materials," bah, it's only dangerous if your an idiot. And thanks to all those idiots and these stupid kids I have to wear all this. Stupid gloves, stupid goggles, stupid hardhat, stupid apron.

 "Yo, Bill you done for today," my co-worker says just as I'm at the door. I don't actually know the guy's name, never came up often enough to learn it. It's surprising how long you can go, knowing a guy and have no name to his face. "Yea, I'm came in early so I could pick up my kids from school." "Ah, how are they?" He starts up. "You know I don't like to talk about my personal life" I try to stop the conversation. "C'mon man, give me something, I see you everyday and know nothing about you. I wanna at least know your kids' names." He urges. "Karla and Roger, that enough for ya" I don't even try to hide how irritated I am. He clearly has no idea where to go from there, It's actually a little funny. "See ya, tomorrow" I say as my hand slides off the door which causes it to close behind me.

 "Arf, arf" The hell, what's a dog doing here. I turn towards the sound. Pity is my first thought, dumb dog looks like it was ran over. I take a few steps toward the disfigured pup. No, it wasn't ran over but it's left behind leg is shattered, kinda reminds me of a shattered CD. Tail is also pretty banged up, but that's about it. Oh well, life happens. I start going towards my car when I hear a whimper and look back. Stupid thing is hobbling towards me. Of course this would happen. I pick it up, it's maybe twice my hand. Kids wanted a cat maybe they'll enjoy a dog.

Known but Unknown

It was a long drive from my house, I don't remember when but the once seaside town had become a forest blanketed in snow. I've never known snow. I've lived my life far away from the stuff, well... not willingly, my mom says that she can't take the cold, literally, she says that when it gets too cold it's like being stabbed through the chest from the inside. At the same time I've never really left my mom side, I guess that makes me a Momma's boy. I looked out the window again the log cabin my cousins constantly praise suddenly appeared before me, my aunt looked at me with a smile, almost letting out a chuckle. My aunt insisted I go with her to this retreat, she'd normally takes her kids but this year all three of them where stuck at school for the summer. Summer, right it's summer I sorta forgot since all I see is snow. I'm reminded just how far I am from home and get a little sick.

My aunt opens my door to let me out and I half jump into what I though would be a puff but was more of a creak. I said this before but I've never seen snow in real life, only on TV and the movies. It looks so soft, but it's crunchier then i thought. I picked up a bit of it and held it, I not sure what I was expecting maybe something like cotton candy but this was definitely not that. It was snowing lightly has we headed into our cabin and as I was taking off my jacket it occurred to me how wet it was. Right, right snow is just water, obviously. It makes sense but at the same time it doesn't look like to much landed on me. Why is this so strange to me, it's just snow. Just snow, I think to myself trying to accept how different it really is for me. My aunt looks at me as if I did something wrong "Don't take your jacket off yet I haven't even shown the rest of the retreat" they have all kinds of stuff. I put my jacket back on and she leads me back into the frozen world I never knew was so foreign.

Okay now I have a better understanding of this site I can do a proper introduction. Online I  like to use the alias Quetzal or TzarQuetzal as kinda a pen name though for more than just writing. I'm an aspiring cartoonist and animator and a big part of that is being able to tell a story. Though I don't have a ton of practice I love deconstructing stories and determining what works and why. For that matter, I would like to talk about moments in the media I consume where I think something is written really well or extremely poorly along with that I'd like to maybe tell a short story or two. Though that might be problematic as I tend to always want to do more with the characters I create and a simple small story will never suffice.

Well that's me I'm not entirely sure what will be posted here, but hopefully it's a least entertaining.

Fiddling with the Program

Ya' know what's annoying not knowing what you're doing. I'm going to look through things before I go any further on anything else. But I felt it was necessary to post something first so I could get an idea of how things will look. Next time, a serious post.