My "annoying" gift

For those of you who know me, you also know my uncanny gift to know what is going to happen in a book, movie, or show long before it happens. I can't always explain it because while sometimes it's based on a word, phrase, or look a character gives, other times it's completely based on a feeling that I get. It's not often that I'm wrong (I don't say that to be boastful, it's just true).

I started reading a book earlier today (and I'm almost finished with it now) and near the beginning I got this thought/theory about something that I immediately clung to. This theory could be summarized into a simple four word sentence that I found myself repeating over and over as I made my way through the story chapter after chapter. I won't tell you the sentence in case you go to read the book some day, but I will tell you that at 43 chapters in (out of 54), I was proved right very eloquently through the masterful story telling abilities of the writer. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have my theories proven correct. No matter how often it happens, I always find myself doing a little dance or jumping up and down while squealing as silently as possible.

Though I like to attribute the gift to my understanding of the hero's journey, to my many years of reading and watching movies, and to my own writing skills, the truth is that I was able to do this long before I'd been well read and well entertained/educated by stories and their structure. As helpful as they have become over these years (and I do know that they have increased my ability to pick up on the clues for my theories sooner) I think that I'd have to attribute it to my creativity and my sharp mind (gifts that I cannot entirely claim as ones that I gained for myself). Sometimes I wonder if my writing and story telling skills even branched from the combination of creativity and my ability to see what is coming. I wonder if this skill or gift makes my writing better?

While some family members or friends will know it simply as that annoying talent of mine at spoiling endings in the movies or shows we are watching (sorry Danielle...you know you love it too), I know it to be the reason that I can write so well, the reason that I can spin a tale, and the reason that I come up with so many story ideas that I have at least twenty book ideas sitting in my notebooks, waiting to be written. It's a gift that I am so very grateful for and one that I will never grow tired of. I can only hope my friends and family will forgive me for the side effects of such a gift...I can't let it go to waste. ;) Just know that whenever you choose to watch something with me, there will always be unintentional spoilers.

Is Breanna's theory correct? *shake* What are you asking the ball for? Of course it is!

Everybody wants me...maybe

So whenever an unknown number calls me on my cell phone and DOESN'T leave a message, for some inconceivable reason, I like to Google the number. Most of the time I don't get anything more than information on where the area code belongs in the grand mass of area codes, but today I actually got a hit.

I was sitting at my sewing machine, listening to the soothing sounds of Josh Gates and his crew hunting down Big Foot or some other mythical beast, when I heard the "da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da..." (by the way, if you can't tell that this is obviously "I'm the Doctor" from Series 5 of Doctor Who and on...then I feel so so sorry for you) that told me someone was calling my phone. I recognized the area code but the number was unfamiliar to me, so I let it ring. When a few minutes passed and no message was left, the curiosity drew me to Google.

After playing with today's logo...

I got down to business and typed in the number. To my surprise, it yielded results!

How many writers out there can say that a newspaper called them when they hadn't even filled out an application? Well...probably a few amazing writers out there, but am I now to be counted among those few?! Nope.

As much as I'd like to think that they heard about my amazing writing skills and were desperate to add me to their team, I am pretty sure they miss-dialed a number and ended up at my voice mail just before hanging up. No message, no call-back, that is my policy. There's a very small chance (probably about the same chance that I'll go walking through the forest one day and come across a unicorn that lives with a pack of wolves and a baby t-rex) that perhaps they did mean to call me and maybe waiting for a message could be perceived as a mistake on my part, but save your skeptical scowls for someone else. I have a freaking amazing voice mail and wrong number or not, anyone who can resist leaving a message after the tone is not worth a call-back. I've had total strangers leave me messages after a miss-dial...that is how amazing my voice mail skills are. If you ever miss-dial a Colorado number and you come across a Voice Mail message that you can't resist responding to then you know you've reached me and you had better leave a message after that darn tone.