Sandra sat in the back of the Chinese restaurant. Her meal wasn’t that bad, considering the restaurant might have been a front for organized crime. Laying in front of her were two fortune cookies. Sandra hated fortune cookies. They were always stale and flavorless, but the restaurant was all out of egg tarts, and Sandra had a hankering for dessert. But, begrudging, she opened the first cookie. At least I can read a crappy fortune, Sandra thought to herself. So she picked up the tiny sliver paper.

             “Now is the time to try something new.”

Interesting. Sandra was going to try out something new tonight. Though about, yes. Practiced many times. But she had never attempted it before. She ate the cookie. It tasted disgusting as always. Sandra looked at her phone and checked the time. 11:55 p.m. She took a deep sigh and realized she had five minutes to mentally compare for what was about to come next. She looked down at the second cookie. She elected to crush this one in the palm of her hand. Dumping the crumbs onto the table, she read the second fortune.

             “You will be an inspiration to others.”

With the events about to transpire, Sandra would be surprised if someone in the city wasn’t made aware of them in the next twenty-four hours. She would also be surprised if her actions did not immediately impact the town and its inhabitants. Her hand gravitated towards the duffle bag on her right. The server never questioned the bag or what contents were inside. Big mistake. The server had nothing to worry about, though. He wasn’t her target.

Sandra rechecked her phone. 12:00 a.m. The time has come. She got up from the table, pulled the duffle bag over her shoulder, and laid down the cash. As Sandra closed the restaurant door behind her, she checked the content of her bag. A Colt M1911A1, an FN M249E2 SAW, several grenades, and a katana. She pulled the katana out and slung it over her torso. The bastards behind the bombings, the shootings, and the countless cold-blooded murders all over the city would be put to rest tonight. Sandra would make sure to work on that. It was their own fault, she thought to herself. If they didn’t want to have her target on their backs, then they shouldn’t have bombed her favorite coffee shop. As Sandra made her way down the street, she couldn’t help but smile.

After this, no one would fuck with her coffee again.

3. To my mom (4 stars) 

Mom, I can’t thank you enough for that that you have done for me. You always know how to make me laugh when I am sad and calm me down when I am mad. Thank you for always encouraging me to be my best whether it’s with sports, school, or relationships, you always know what to say. I hope to be like you when I group up! You wear 100 different hats every day and make it look so easy. Love you! 

1. Another Day (4 stars)

After reading this assignment, I went through my photos and came across this picture I took a few years ago in Nevada. This picture does not have any filter or was ever edited, which is hard to find these days. Looking at this picture, it makes me feel relaxed instantly. I came across this quote and thought it fitted well with this assignment. “Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!” ? C. JoyBell C.

2. Changing Fortunes (80’s theme & 3 stars)

I picked this writing activity because I like reading fortune cookies. Most of the time, I believe they can pertain to one’s life in some aspect or another. I am connecting this fortune to our class theme, the 80’s. The fortune is “Embrace change, don’t fight it!” If people did not embrace change from the 80’s we may still be carrying around phones that look like bricks or perms still being in style.

3. To my mom (4 stars)

Mom, I can’t thank you enough for that that you have done for me. You always know how to make me laugh when I am sad and calm me down when I am mad. Thank you for always encouraging me to be my best whether it’s with sports, school, or relationships, you always know what to say. I hope to be like you when I group up! You wear 100 different hats every day and make it look so easy. Love you!

4. Extra Extra Read All About It (80’s theme & 3 stars)

For this assignment, I watched 25 minutes of Full House (S1:E1.) The directions were to pay special attention to the extras in it. Note their acting skills, what they’re wearing? How many extras did the show have? Did any of them talk? What were their ages?
The show started in the Fuller house where there were no extras or people in the background. After 15 minutes, a woman rang the doorbell. She was tall with blond hair and was dressed up looking for Uncle Jessie. I’m not sure if I would consider her an extra but she is the only person who appeared in the show who was not living at the Fuller house. I thought there would be more extras in this episode but, I was wrong.

Karen Karenson had an incredibly long day at the office. Barry, who sat at the cubicle across from her had spend the entire work day watching self-help videos with the sound on, and Tom, the company intern, spilled coffee on her shirt right before her important business proposal.

In short, Karen Karenson was frustrated with life. She wanted excitement, adventure, pizzazz!

But instead, day after day, she stuck to her same routine of eating Corn Flakes for breakfast, going to work from 9 to 5, ordering take-out for dinner, and feeding her cat, Sprinkle, before going to bed.

Today was different, however, due to a slight irregularity in Karen Karenson’s routine. The slight irregularity was that while Karen Karenson was at work, her house burned down due to Sprinkle the cat knocking over a candle that Karen Karenson had carelessly left burning in her bedroom. Sprinkle the cat was okay, but the house, which burned down, obviously was not okay.

Inconvenienced by all this, Karen Karenson was forced to make changes in her routine. Instead of ordering take-out, she decided to dine in for once.

The meal was more delicious than usual, which made Karen Karenson question why she had ordered take-out so many times. Her favorite dish was the Veggie Lo Mein, and it tasted so much better fresh.

At the end of her meal, Karen Karenson paid her bill, and left in search of a hotel. The restaurant manager, however, came running after her to tell her that she had forgotten her fortune cookie.

The manager seemed familiar… it was Tom, the company intern! Karen Karenson was shocked to see him there. Turns out, Tom got fired for spilling coffee on Karen Karenson earlier that day. Unbeknownst to Karen Karenson, it was the twentieth time that Tom had spilled coffee on people at the office. It made sense.

Grateful for having her fortune cookie returned to her, Karen opened it immediately. The fortune inside read:

“The time is right to make new friends”

Karen Karenson thought long and hard about the fortune in her hands. Karen Karenson didn’t have many friends, and perhaps at this very moment, with Tom standing in front of her, she could change that!

However, Karen Karenson was soon reminded of a much greater wisdom: a Vine that she loved very much:

Karen Karenson trusted the advice of the Vine much more. She left Tom standing there, without saying anything.

Being Helga Schwarz is a pretty tiring job. I mean, can you imagine?! All those years working as a spy, and then housing all those spies! It is a never-ending job. But mein gott, I love it.

So you can imagine my surprise and satisfaction when I go to eat at my favorite chinese restaurant and I receive not one, but TWO fortunes that I believe showed me that I was meant to do what I do!

The first one was “you will be successful in your work.” Oh my! Well if that isn’t the truth! After all those years of tirelessly assassinating people, smuggling people, spying in on dangerous people, interrogating people by beating them to a pulp…wait, what was I saying again? You have to remind me, I’m but eine Suesse Oma now. Anyways, I know I was successful. And if that isn’t true, that I at least know I’m successful with all of the delicious Apfel Strudel I make. Sehr Gut!

My second fortune actually had something to do with my future. This one, told me “tomorrow, take a moment to do something just for yourself.” I’ve never wanted to do something more in my life! Except maybe shoot a bazooka into a crowd of Russian spies. I really wanted to do that.  But in all honesty, I do need a break. I have spent many years on the run, and many years raising my blood pressure just by being home and still practicing my skills. It really is so tiring. Have I said that already? Anyways, I think I might just take a bath, catch up on some Netflix episodes..(yes I know what those are!) and maybe….look into some spy dossiers? maybe? No no…I need to take a break. Yes, Helga…take a break.

-Helga Schwarz.

I’m not sure about you, but just reading that title made my brain hurt. “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.”…

Well, the first thing that came to my mind immediately was school. I always have a constant worry about what assignments I have and when they’re due and how long it will take me to do them. So, I can actually really relate to this fortune, even if it is a bit of a brain boggler at first. After reading this fortune, the best advice I can give is take care of your worries today so you wont have to worry about them tomorrow. If you know you have something on your mind about the next day or what’s to come in a few days, do whatever you can to help prepare yourself for that event. It’s better to be somewhat prepared than to not be prepared at all.

**Side note: I began this post before one of my classes and copied the link to the fortune cookie website. However, I was unable to finish the post at that time and didn’t get a chance to paste the link. With that being said, I’m not able to get to the link to my fortune, but I PROMISE that was really my fortune. Sorry!!

The little piece of paper reads: “Do not be overly judgmental of your loved one’s intentions or actions.”

Of course, I find a small source of food in a somehow preserved fortune cookie and it mocks me. I already had Bryce telling me yesterday that I wasted ammo on zombies just because my undead wife nearly bit a chunk out of my arm. YES, I was mad. YES, I am still mad. My wife was the one who decided it was a good idea to move to Washington D.C. and not a few months in and the zombie apocalypse begins.

Bryce thinks he’s making me feel better by rationalizing things and saying I’m just going through the “Anger” stage in the stages of grief. What does he know? He’s only ever lost his beta fish, Randall. I was there for the funeral, and Bryce only shed one tear that I can recall.

But when my wife lunged for me, unyielded by her stringy hair falling into her face. Her skin was already grey and I could almost see the clotted blood frozen in her veins. Her teeth nearly ripped my skin apart. I remember taking her to the dentist to get the implant for the one decayed tooth she always hated. I pushed her from me, and squeezed the trigger as tight as I could, though I had to look away so her brain matter didn’t go into my eyes and mouth..

The child, no older than ten years, quietly read his fortune while the rest of his family laughed around him, trading fortunes back and forth, giggling over the ones that were spot on or way off.  His mother, seated across from him reached her hand out across the table.  “What does your fortune say, love?”  He glanced up at her but said nothing, only shaking his head in response.  Her face clouded, eyebrows scrunched together in worry.  “What’s wrong, honey?”  Again, no response.  His eldest sister sat next to him and peered over his shoulder at the small slip of paper he held in his hands.  “It says ‘This life is yours.  Some has been given to you; the rest you’ve made yourself’.”  All laughter stopped.  His mother with a tight smile offered her best reply.  “It’s a rather nice fortune, isn’t it my love? Can really mean anything, you know.”  But everyone was thinking of the same thing.  The boy felt sorry; he never wanted to ruin the mood.  This was their first family dinner out in such a long time!  It was supposed to be fun!  Now he had to go and ruin it like he always did.  A knot of guilt nestled in his stomach, his cheeks reddened and he felt the beginnings of tears well in his eyes.  His oldest sister snatched the fortune from his hand and crumbled it in her hand.  The boy cried out, tears now flowing freely from his large dark eyes.  His sister regretted it immediately; she had miscalculated, thinking getting rid of the thing that bothered him would solve everything.  She uncurled her hand and tried to smooth out the small piece of paper the best she could before handing it back to him.  The siblings looked up at their parents, unsure of the next step. Their mother was holding back her tears while their father stared intently at them, equally unsure of what to do.  Finally it was his second oldest sister, just begun her first year of high school that smiled back at him with comfort in her eyes.  “You know what that means Andre right?”  She asked, an eyebrow raised.  “It means that your life is what you make of it.  You have the power to choose how to live it and what to do with it.  And…seeing as now you have a little more life given to you than what was granted initially, that’s a big deal dude.”  Andre nodding his understanding, placing his small hand on his chest, feeling the surgery scars beneath his shirt.

For this writing assignment, I chose to do was the fortune cookie one (three stars).  When “This life is yours.  Some of it has been given to you; the rest you’ve made yourself” popped up I immediately thought of a quick story about a boy who maybe had more life given to him by another person.  So I wrote this short story about a boy who had received a heart transplant and dealing his newly held future.