Day One: Circle Game One

Directions:

Circle the one word that most appeals to you:
Alabama Banister Carousel Diesel Exorcist

Circle another word that appeals to you:
Flatulence Garage Harried Insensitive Jambalaya

Circle yet another word that you find appealing:
Keepsake Lamb Massage Nonsense Oriole

Use these three words in a story.
Start with: Sometimes I feel just like a gerbil, running around and around on his wheel!

My turn:

Sometimes I feel just like a gerbil, running around and around on his wheel! The in-laws are coming in to town from Atlanta tomorrow, and my goodness, it takes a lot to please them! First they require the bed sheets be Egyptian cotton 420 thread count double needle hemmed. Double needle hemmed! I don't even know what that means! But I rush out to Bed, Bath and Beyond and find just the set in a serene sky blue, hoping that the blue will subliminally calm them down. (I once read in Better Homes and Garden that to create a calm room, you are to paint the walls blue.)

The next order of business is how they take their coffee. I have to run around town looking for their specific coffee of choice (choice? Is it really a choice?): Atlanta Coffee Roasters premium blend. Except they didn't tell me it was specific to Atlanta. They claimed "Atlanta" was the founder's name. I can't believe I fell for that one. After many fruitless stops at grocery stores in my area, a kind clerk at the Piggly Wiggly commented on my harried behavior in the coffee aisle. After I explained my predicament, he gave me a tip: "Check shoffee.com. They carry more then 300 different coffees."

I rushed out of the store, yelling thanks to the clerk in my dust. Sitting in my near-its-death Volkswagen Rabbit, I quickly pulled up shoffee.com on my iPhone. I was in luck! I placed my order, and paid way too much money to have it delivered the next day. Now all I had left to do was clean the house from top to bottom, removing all dog hairs (because she is allergic, of course!) before they arrived the next afternoon.

The first evening went pleasantly well. I cooked my in-laws' favorite meal of red beans and rice for dinner. As I was showing them to their room, I pointed out the Egyptian cotton sheets and mentioned that I had found the Atlanta coffee. "Oh, that's just nonsense. You didn't need to do that," my husband's mother said. I wanted to scream! I wanted to print out the email she had sent me that listed these things, crumple it up, and throw it in her face. But of course, I didn't. I politely smiled and said, "Anything to make you comfortable."

The next morning I woke up early to prepare the morning's coffee. To my surprise, someone had already made a pot. Not even a minute later, my husband's dad came downstairs, carrying an armful of the Egyptian cotton 420 thread count double needle hemmed sheets. "Can we get some new sheets?" he asked. "I spilled coffee on these." I knew at that point that I wouldn't be getting off of my gerbil wheel until after my in-laws returned to Atlanta.