Hi guys,
Every month I try to set a few goals for myself. This month, my goal is to write every day. In prep for that, I made a list of 31 prompts to help inspire me each evening when I set down to write.
I mentioned this on IRC the other day and a few people mentioned interest in following these prompts if I posted them on Hubski. So, without any further ado, here is the first prompt and here are my shout-outs. Please let me know if you would like to be added to the shout-out list.
You will note that these will be numbered and appear to be out-of-order by the number I write down. That is because I am pulling them from my master list out of order but want to be able to easily track them.
29. Write about today's lunch.
OftenBen War ThatFanficGuy lil ButterflyEffect
Also War, yes I will be mailing you that thing we talked about. It will take a little while.
__________________________
I decided to keep updating this post through the month and put links to all the other prompts here in order, so if anyone wants to go through them all or just peruse the collection with ease, we have a sort of index page.
Day 3 - Write About Work Today
Day 5 - Write About Something You Saw On Your Walk Today
Day 9 - Write About Your Brother, Or A Person Named Pat
Day 10 - Define Some Of Your Personal Lexicon
Day 11 - Write One Of Your Dreams
Day 14 - Write About Today's 'Church', as Ref Defines On Day 10
Day 16 - Write As If You Were Someone Else, Annoyed With You
Day 18 - Write About An Imaginary or Mythical Creature
I think I was in the foothills of Colorado when Chipotle had their E. coli scare. The news that a whole bunch of people got sick eating burritos never reached me until only very recently. I’m not sure if the news would’ve stopped me though. There’s something about the congruence between the size of chipotle burrito bowl and the size of my stomach that keeps me coming back. Every time I order, and I mean every time, I make it a game to see how much I can get my chipotle ladler to ladle each of the ingredients. And each time I charm myself another scoop of the tomato-heavy salsa or some fajitas with my wide smile, I walk away convinced of the everloving value of a Chipotle bowl. I feel like the most charismatic cat in the world, or at least in this Chipotle Mexican Grille. That, or the employees are instructed not to be stingy with the tomatoes. Either way, I’ve been a loyal customer for hundreds of meals. Today it was my dad and I, tucking in two vegetarian bowls. [*Believe it or not, this was an attempt at me being writerly. I look forward to writing along with you ref.]
Lunch today was Red Chicken Curry with a side of steamed broccoli. (Which I didn't eat) I was inspired to choose that over one of my other freezer lunches because of johnnyFive's Chicken Tikka. I popped it into my bag, and then into the fridge at work. (Which I never touched again today) I can't name put a name to why, but frozen food in general rarely seems as appetizing as its 'fresh' counterpart, even if the difference is only perceived. See the example of every chain restaurant that serves frozen meals to get you to spend money on alcohol. But this is also true of my own cooking. (Which I ignored) If I had a bowl of fresh made curry, and a bowl of the stuff that's been in the freezer less than a month, if all other things were equal I think I'd still prefer fresh. Is this a quality of freezers? Lunches? My own weird taboos and mores and norms about food? I can be honest about the appeal of eating out daily, especially in an office environment, and especially in a city known for both gourmet food and intense professional competition. I can honestly say that I perceive such a thing as a signal of economic overabundance, to the level that daily expenditures under three figures are trifling. Such a thing can also be a signal of economic ignorance, wastefulness or sheer laziness as well, but those don't enter into my head. But back to the packed lunch(Which I didn't eat), I still feel differences in the types. A young man with a neatly packed bento box might have a doting significant other, or else too much free time. A series of frozen 'Serves 1's conveys all kinds of different things, depending on the context in which they are observed. So many different ways to get a few hundred hopefully nutritious calories into your body, so many different contexts. And in all this hullaballoo I forgot to eat.
Today I plan to eat a big tub of movie theater popcorn. I'm talking about the two thousand calorie leg-spreading bucket of shame. I'll wash it down with some perversely gigantic half gallon of soda lovingly prepared by a kid working minimum wage who doesn't know not to put his finger in the cup when he takes it from the stack. I'll be most of the way through the bucket by the time the opening credits are over. I'll wait for just the right moment to duck out and get the refill. It will be in that moment when the super hero laments his isolated childhood. My popcorn is more important than Cyclop's moping. On my way out of the theater I'll dump those little bits of kernels and dross to make room for a full scoop of salted crunchiness. As I duck back in the theater I realize that I forgot to refill the drink. But there's a new action sequence on and I don't want to miss a single slow-motion kick to the face. I give the cup an inconsiderate rattle... ok - there's still a little less than half. That should do it. As the final credits roll I slurp the melted-ice-watered-down-coke and waddle my way out of the theater. As I approach the concession stand, I ask for a refill on my soda and hope against hope that the kid asks me if I want a refill on the popcorn too. Hey, it's not my fault if he doesn't look for the magic marker "X" that his coworker put on the bottom signifying my 3rd refill attempt shame. Sometimes they do notice... and then they look at me, somehow feel sorry for me, and fill it up anyway with a "I'll just do it this one time for the guy" look on his face.
EXCELLENCE! My family is away for the week in California, so I've been fending for myself a bit. Now that is usually a good thing because I'm allowed to cook whatever I like. The night before I had cooked up some pretty authentic tacos. I made quite a few it was corn tortillas, grilled chicken, salsa, diced onions, cilantro, and cotija cheese. Mind you I had to piece the recipe together as I borrowed the design of the taco from a local taco joint near my college. It was delicious the night before, and after reheating the meat and tortillas in a skillet for a bit they were even better the next day. The chicken is definitely something I want to work on more because the taco joint near my school, Tacoria, has this really citrus-y chicken. I tend to stick to basic herbs and spices when grilling the chicken, but I think it might be time to learn to marinade. I am so happy that place opened. I only had about three tacos before rushing to work, but they were pretty good. The tortilla's were a bit tougher the second day, but honestly I expected worse. I honestly am a bit inspired to hone my cooking skills after this week, to start seriously spicing all of my lunches up.
I have two phones in front of me on the table, placed on each side of my salad bowl. One is a conference call for a job I don't care about and the other is showing me a Facebook post from a customer my startup just had. This guy flew in from Silicon Valley to MI to have his stem cells stored. I flew up from NC to be there. It was a blast. He is bragging about how well it went. Now, Im in the airport eating a chicken salad at Chile's with these two phones on each side of my plate. I can't wait till there is just one phone. I decide to skip the beer. My conference call ends and I devour the salad. Not too bad Chile's, not too bad.
As another part of trying to keep me motivated and on track for this writing challenge, I set aside a specific hand-made book to use to complete my writings. This means that I won't be typing mine up here. However, I have a picture of my start-response for today's prompt, and can continue to post pictures of what I write to help spur others on. (What arrogance!) 
It's literally writing just to write. So definitely for this prompt, and future others, don't necessarily expect a lot of artistic inspiration from me, please! I am just trying to get into the habit of writing every day, or at least, of writing often.
I haven't been writing in months. Hoo boy. Let's do dramatic. * * * ...and then, it was ready. A result of strolls to two very separate food stores, ventilation working at full capacity and loads of applied heat. Burned spices, sauce mess on the table and contents falling over. But it is done. After chicken breasts were cut carefully into most reasonable of shapes... After cheese was grated without a single finger cut... After the only non-red vegetable in the mix, onion, went brown of grilling... It is done. Behold! The Caesar Roll!!