Whatever Maddie was talking to me about faded off into the distance as I turned my whole body to face this woman. I cocked my head to the side and slowly started walking towards her. I know I just didn't hear her reference my brother in the way of an impending marriage.
I vaguely heard Maddie start calling my name, but I put up my pointer finger, to signal I needed a minute. I walked up behind the woman and the sales lady, who were perusing slips. Before I could think through what I was doing, I reached out my arm and tapped the woman on the shoulder. She turned her head to me, raising an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" she questioned.
"Um, yeah, excuse me. I think... Sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but did I heard you say that you were getting married?"
She laughed strangely, turning fully to face me, and held out her arms. "Why else would I be in a bridal store?"
I blushed slightly, thinking how ridiculous my question probably sounded. I quickly recovered and started, "Sorry, let me start over." I smiled sweetly at her. "Did I hear correctly that you're marrying a man named Tom?"
She narrowed her eyes slightly at me, and then hesitantly said, "Yes. I did. Do you know him?"
"What was his last name again? I thought it sounded familiar..." I trailed off.
"Lange."
I bristled at the realization of what my brother was about to do. "I see," I said through clenched teeth. I took a step back then, and looked this woman up and down. She was approximately 5' 1" and wearing super high, white, platform flip flops, which brought her up to about 5'5". I didn't even know they made those after 2005, I thought cattily. I brought my eyes up her orange-ish fake-tanned legs to her high-waisted, super short, white shorts, which I'm sure showed off the bottoms of her butt cheeks, if she turned around and bent over. I actually liked the paisley fitted crop top. If it weren't on her. I raised my eyebrows, unintentionally ogling her massive breasts that were barely contained in the probably too-small top with no bra. I took in her painted-on face, and her brown hi-lighted hair on the side of her head, held in a banana clip. She looked to be at least in her mid-twenties. Tom is 18, I incredulously screamed in my head. I finally locked eyes with her, and saw she was looking at me smugly. If I had been in her shoes, I think I would've been uncomfortable. She looked bored.
She disgustedly glanced over me and then said exasperatedly, "Oh. Let me guess. Jealous ex-girlfriend?"
"What?" I shrilly yelped. I looked at the sales lady looking at me disapprovingly. I lowered my voice and again gave her a sugar sweet smile. "Actually, no. His sister."
She immediately had a look of shock on her face, but quickly masked it with her bored look again. "Well, this is awkward."
"You and Tom are getting married?"
She started turning back around to look at the slips, and said while still in motion, "I think that's something you should discuss with him." Then she fully turned away from me, signaling the end of the conversation.
I went to take a step forward to grab her shoulder and whip her around to face me again, but was jerked backwards by my arm. I angrily looked at Maddie who was shaking her head so quickly it looked like she was seizing. I went to protest, but she pulled me away towards Elena, who grabbed my other arm and guided me out of the door.
"Guys! Seriously? Did you just hear..." I started, before Maddie cut me off.
"Aleah. I heard the whole thing. Please, just don't. Maybe this girl is delusional psycho? Talk to Tom first before you knock her out."
I huffed my annoyance at her, but obliged. After hashing it out with both Maddie and Elena, I agreed to not only keep this from my parents for now, but wait to talk to my brother until Maddie left, so I could cool down.
That night we got all sexy and went out dancing and drinking. Elena ended up crashing at the apartment with us, and we slept in late Sunday. Elena was going to lunch with her family, so she left close to noon, and Maddie and I got laze around, watching Netflix, and talking about the possible reasons for my brother's potential impending nuptials. I cringed just imagining that person as part of my family.
Maddie left that evening to head home, and I cradled my phone, debating whether or not to call my brother. I decided to wait until the next day, after I finished the first day at my new job.
In the morning when my alarm went off, I shut off the alarm and then looked at the date on the phone. June 16th. Elena's birthday. I made a note to also go get her a birthday present after work. I called her on my way to work, and she didn't answer. I left her a singing Happy Birthday message. I giggled to myself, picturing her reaction to my off-tune rendition.
Work was natural and easy. There were 3 back to back hour-long classes in the morning running from 9-12, and then an hour and a half break, and then 2 back to back hour and a half long classes in the afternoon from 1:30-4:30. Then I was done for the day. That was the scheduled Monday-Thursday. Fridays only the morning classes ran. It was uneventful. I was in charge of the ages 5-8 beginner classes in the morning. In the afternoons I helped run the advanced level teens.
After work, I sat in my car with the air conditioning blasting. I called up Tom. It rang twice and went to voice mail. Great. She must have told him her story of our run-in. And Tom being Tom, was going to avoid me until I managed to corner him, I'm sure. I left him a message casually asking him to call me when he got a chance.
I decided to drive up to the Nebraska Crossing Outlets, in Gretna. It was about a 35 minute drive. I stopped at home only to change clothes, because I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I blared my radio, singing loudly.
While there, I found the perfect dress for the rehearsal dinner from White House Black Market. Elena, Maddie, and I all had the same style, and all wore pretty much the same size of everything, so that made shopping for them really easy. (Plus the added benefit of when we were all living together, having our wardrobes more than double in size.) From the same place, I got her some gorgeous strappy heels and a top I knew she would love. I would never have shopped that extravagantly for any of my other friends, only because I know they would've felt uncomfortable with me spending that much money on them. But since Elena and I had been friends forever, and both came from money, we had always gifted each other graciously on birthdays. Feeling content, I left for my apartment.
The rest of the week passed by quickly with working two jobs now. I did make time to meet with Elena a couple of days later, and she loved her gifts. It was Friday afternoon after Cara and I had boarded the plane to Florida for the tennis tournament, that I realized Tom had never called me back.
No offense but I felt like this post dragged. Nothing really happened. The girl at the shop is engaged to Tom. what if it's a different Tom Lange?
ReplyDeleteYea kinddd of a boring post... seemed like a lot of filler
ReplyDeleteThis post was definitely a let down. Like another poster said, it seemed like a filler. Wish there was more substance.
ReplyDeleteAlways loved reading your blog but it is kinda getting a bit dragged, like the story is losing charm... No offence meant though! Love your writing style, past stories, character development and I'm pretty sure you have something awesome in store for us but thought maybe I'd voice out my concern.
ReplyDeleteTo all the Anonymous':
ReplyDeleteFirstly, let me say before I start, to take into account that a lot is lost in tone through writing. So if this comes across as non-appreciative, defensive, or as any sort of negative emotion, it definitely is NOT supposed to be that way.
I think this will kind of respond to all of you at once, since they're all similar comments. I do appreciate what each and every one of you has to say. Anonymous #4, thank you for the compliments in addition to the concerns.
I understand completely what you all are saying. I think it has seemed this way for a couple of reasons. These are not excuses, just what I think is causing it to seem this way.
1) When I had to go on brief hiatus, I fell behind in my timeline. I was up to date until that point. The OCD part of me HATES that it is behind. I'm trying to find a way to quickly jump forward without it seeming like I'm just saying *2 months later*, but that's what it may come down to, because I'm still about 6 weeks behind. And because I'm doing that, I'm struggling with the balance of detail, to be honest (like how much is too much to give for one story when I know I'm going to be skipping ahead.)
2) To address Anon 1, 2 & 3, some of my posts are going to be uneventful. You can take that as a warning for the future if you'd like, or an apology, if you'd prefer it that way. That is because there is going to be some filler material, probably more so while I'm trying to play catch up. But also because a lot of what I write about are real life stories. And as much as I wish my real life was super drama-packed, it hasn't been 100% of the time. So I do embellish at times, or add fictional things in as well, to make certain things more interesting, but there are also "real life mundane things" that happen, too. However, I will keep all of that in mind from now on, and try to put more substance in my posts.
3) This is definitely not a negative, but just take it for what it is. When I was writing before I had a posting schedule, I personally found more enjoyment in it, because I don't do well with "obligations." I was getting quite a few negative comments regarding not having a schedule and that guaranteeing 2-3 posts per week wasn't sufficient. Although I write for me, of course I want my readers to enjoy this, too. So I agreed to a posting schedule because I'm more than willing to adapt to suggestions. But with that being said, there are times when I have writer's block, but because I committed to that schedule, I want to keep my word, and some of my posts may not be of the quality that I would like, or obviously, that you guys like, either. And there's other times that by the end of an evening I may not have a post completed, and I'm exhausted, but write because I feel obligated to, and so the quality may not be to par.
4) I have multiple storylines going right now, and that's clearly a mistake of mine, because I have certain things I'm trying to accomplish by a certain time (in the blog). Although I don't know EVERYTHING that I am going to write about, I have certain major things planned in my mind, and an end goal in mind too. Not for a long time, but it's still there. But with having those multiple story lines, it's kind of taking me and my writing all over the place. So I do apologize for that. I'll try to wrap some things up so I can be more focused.
5) However, I do, if you can bear with me as I try to transition and get the blog back to real time, have awesome events in store for you all :)
(And apparently my first comment was too long, so I had to split it into 2.. I'm a rambler.. haha!)
DeleteI'm sorry that I seem to have let quite a few of you down recently. Like I said, these aren't excuses, I'm just hoping some of what I said made sense. I've never actually fictional/fun written before in my life (besides journaling, or school work when I was still in school, or my "professional" writing for work), and it requires more time than what I originally anticipated, and I honestly don't have a lot of personal time to give. This is a release for me, though, so I'm going to continue to write. I do love it, but it's also a learning process. So thank you for sticking by me, even during times like this, and for the criticism. Hopefully I can raise the level of my writing, and Aleah's story will be more enjoyable from here on out :)
~Aleah
Some thoughts on your comment for us readers. If I recall readers complained months ago because you weren't sticking to the 2 or 3 post a week schedule and that's why they asked if you had a schedule. To be fair you're posting twice a week which is what you use to do. There shouldn't be added stress. I understand that it's hard to write sometimes but since you do two post per week there should be more substance. Not necessarily drama but more substance and content that add to the storyline. For example lovelifela posts twice a week, same with lies greatest journey, minneapplegirl, Tragedy and the Twenty Something but they have more substance. If the schedule is adding pressure and preventing you from writing your best then maybe you can forget it and write at your own pace. I'm not trying to criticize you because i like your blog and your writing style.
ReplyDeleteThe complaints were that they weren't spread more evenly throughout the week, not that I wasn't posing 2-3 a week, which I was (there was one week that I didn't, which I had addressed). For instance, I may have posted Sunday, Friday and Saturday. And it's not the quantity that is stressful. Nor is it stressful at all. It just isn't as enjoyable for me to write when I feel like I have to. Ultimately, I'm not going to make everyone happy, which I'm okay with. I will stick to the schedule. Really, I just am not a person that enjoys schedules/deadlines. It's not ever been my personality type. So maybe in a way, this will actually be beneficial for me as a person, too, to grow.
DeleteThe reason why it isn't as enjoyable sticking to a schedule is because I used to write when I had the time, which varies, unfortunately, because my SO works nights, and with a young child at home and me working full time during the day (and being so busy right now, doing work some evenings and on the weekends), and with being on-call for work sometimes, I don't always have the time to devote the same days of the week every week. It just allowed me more freedom, which in turn I think my "creative juices" flow better when I'm not really tired or trying to squeeze in writing time just so I can meet a timeline. I'm not blaming readers, I'm actually blaming myself for agreeing to it to begin with, when I knew I wouldn't particularly like it. But like I said, I want to grow as a writer, and as a person, so maybe this will stretch me and it'll be good for me in the long term. Or, I'll give myself to the end of this month and see if my posts don't improve, I'll switch back to just posting 2-3 per week, when I have time to write. Do you think that's fair?
And I appreciate your thoughts and honesty, so thank you.
Also, just reread my response.. again it wasn't meant to sound crappy, so please don't take it that way.
DeletePost whenever you want. None of us are forcing you to stick to any schedule. You chose to set up a schedule. I don't understand why you can't write when you want and then post it on the scheduled date. If you feel like writing Friday, Saturday and Sunday then you should and then post on whatever your schedule is. Do whatever you want. It seems like you're blaming the readers for the negative comments and your limitations. That's not fair to us when we've been supportive from the beginning. None of the comments you received warranted such long, tedious explanations. They weren't rude or harsh, but you got on the defensive. Post, write whenever you want.
ReplyDeleteAleah - your comments make sense, and you're clearly trying to come up with a compromise that will make readers happy and not inhibit your desire to write. Thats wonderful! Sometimes people just look for a fight, and no matter what you say they are going to be negative and twist your words into something that it they were not intended to be. That's just life. No matter what, you are writing something for yourself and choosing to share that with us and I for one am grateful for that.If a post feels a little less dramatic some days than others, whats the big deal? It's not the end of the world. Thank you for writing for us, thank you for your patience with some of these commenters, and thank you for trying to compromise with a posting schedule. In the end, I think you should post whenever you want, because those loyal readers who love this story will wait for each post, and appreciate it when it arrives :)
ReplyDeleteAnn, thank you so much for your words. I felt a little deflated after reading some of these comments. I have to argue with people almost every day in my job and defend decisions I make because it's my job, and I don't want to have to do it on a blog that I write for my own enjoyment, and hopefully the enjoyment of others, as well. Of course I'm going to defend myself, but at the same time, i try to do it in a way that's respectful and not "defensive" or accusing. I get comments to my email on my phone, so when I saw yours, it actually brought a smile to my face. Thank you for responding, and for understanding what I was trying to convey.
DeleteI do like to share with you all. And I don't mind constructive criticism. But I absolutely love encouraging/positive comments (or thought provoking about the posts). On days when I write and posts may not seem as good in my mind, it gives me motivation to make it just a little better, not only for myself, but for you guys as well. So thank you :)
I'm one of the Anonymouses from the first 4 comments and I don't think you're reply was defensive. I think you were just giving an honest answer and acknowledging your faults. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know! It gets hard keeping which Anonymous is which straight.
DeleteI do tend to be overly honest and an over talker at times. So thank you for your comment :) And you're welcome
I don't feel like your answers where defensive or blameful to the readers. I feel like you were trying to explain yourself, which imo is thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want a schedule, don't have a schedule. Life happens and I for one understand that. Write and post when you want. I will still read it!
Thank you so much! Your words mean a lot.
DeleteI've always been an overly honest explainer, so while that may have been long (what I previously wrote), and unnecessary, this is my blog, and my work, and I want to explain my thoughts as well. I guess I just think when people give me their opinions, I want to be able to give mine back.
Thank you for understanding. I'm still torn on the schedule thing and am trying to decide what to do. And thank you for reading!
Hey Aleah,
ReplyDeleteI have been following your blog from the beginning. When you went into hiatus I used to come back and check daily in case there is a new post :)
I really want you to know that you are doing a great job. Your :about" part mentions the fact that this is a half real and half fictional blog,so of course we, the audience will find few posts less dramatic as compared to others. I guess that makes it more fun, too much drama in every post will make it too overwhelming.
I really like how you addressed everyone and their concern here. I just want you to know there are people who will love your blog no matter what (me :) ) so don't feel down! It is admirable as to how you manage to write and post, and keep doing what you are passionate about, even though you are busy.
I for one don't need a schedule. I'll just check your blog for a new post everyday :)
-R
R,
DeleteThank you, so very much. Your message means a lot to me, and is so encouraging!
I'm glad that you enjoy the blog, and of course I want to be able to address concerns! It's in my nature, plus I feel the audience deserves it, too.
I will attempt to keep at the schedule for now, but it may change. I'm still debating whether or not to keep it long term, but for now I will.
I actually may be moving out of town within the next couple of months, and if that's the case, my schedule will drastically change as well, so if I opt to keep a schedule, the days will actually change, but I don't know to what. But I will definitely keep everyone posted, regardless of what I decide.
Thank you for being a dedicated reader, and for the sweet, encouraging words! I hope you enjoy the new post :)
I love your blog I can't wait to see what coming up!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Danielle :)
Delete