Do you think you're living an ordinary life? You are so mistaken it's difficult to even explain.

The

mere fact that you exist makes you extraordinary. The odds of you existing are less than winning the

lottery, but here you are. Are you going to let this extraordinary opportunity pass?

Eating raw fish didn't sound like a good idea. "It's a delicacy in Japan," didn't seem to make it any

more appetizing. Raw fish is raw fish, delicacy or not.

The leather jacked showed the scars of being his favorite for years. It wore those scars with pride,

feeling that they enhanced his presence rather than diminishing it. The scars gave it character and

had not overwhelmed to the point that it had become ratty. The jacket was in its prime and it knew it.

According to the caption on the bronze marker placed by the Multnomah Chapter of the Daughters

of the American Revolution on May 12, 1939, ?College Hall (is) the oldest building in continuous use

for Educational purposes west of the Rocky Mountains. Here were educated men and women who

have won recognition throughout the world in all the learned professions.?

She wanted rainbow hair. That's what she told the hairdresser. It should be deep rainbow colors,

too. She wasn't interested in pastel rainbow hair. She wanted it deep and vibrant so there was no

doubt that she had done this on purpose.

There was something special about this little creature. Donna couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, but

she knew with all her heart that it was true. It wasn't a matter of if she was going to try and save it,

but a matter of how she was going to save it. She went back to the car to get a blanket and when

she returned the creature was gone.

Since they are still preserved in the rocks for us to see, they must have been formed quite recently,

that is, geologically speaking. What can explain these striations and their common orientation? Did
you ever hear about the Great Ice Age or the Pleistocene Epoch? Less than one million years ago,

in fact, some 12,000 years ago, an ice sheet many thousands of feet thick rode over Burke

Mountain in a southeastward direction. The many boulders frozen to the underside of the ice sheet

tended to scratch the rocks over which they rode. The scratches or striations seen in the park rocks

were caused by these attached boulders. The ice sheet also plucked and rounded Burke Mountain

into the shape it possesses today.

She patiently waited for his number to be called. She had no desire to be there, but her mom had

insisted that she go. She's resisted at first, but over time she realized it was simply easier to

appease her and go. Mom tended to be that way. She would keep insisting until you wore down and

did what she wanted. So, here she sat, patiently waiting for her number to be called.

It went through such rapid contortions that the little bear was forced to change his hold on it so many

times he became confused in the darkness, and could not, for the life of him, tell whether he held

the sheep right side up, or upside down. But that point was decided for him a moment later by the

animal itself, who, with a sudden twist, jabbed its horns so hard into his lowest ribs that he gave a

grunt of anger and disgust.

He sat across from her trying to imagine it was the first time. It wasn't. Had it been a hundred? It

quite possibly could have been. Two hundred? Probably not. His mind wandered until he caught

himself and again tried to imagine it was the first time.

The young man wanted a role model. He looked long and hard in his youth, but that role model

never materialized. His only choice was to embrace all the people in his life he didn't want to be like.

What were they eating? It didn't taste like anything she had ever eaten before and although she was

famished, she didn't dare ask. She knew the answer would be one she didn't want to hear.
He was an expert but not in a discipline that anyone could fully appreciate. He knew how to hold the

cone just right so that the soft server ice-cream fell into it at the precise angle to form a perfect cone

each and every time. It had taken years to perfect and he could now do it without even putting any

thought behind it. Nobody seemed to fully understand the beauty of this accomplishment except for

the new worker who watched in amazement.

It was easy to spot her. All you needed to do was look at her socks. They were never a matching

pair. One would be green while the other would be blue. One would reach her knee while the other

barely touched her ankle. Every other part of her was perfect, but never the socks. They were her

micro act of rebellion.

Turning away from the ledge, he started slowly down the mountain, deciding that he would, that very

night, satisfy his curiosity about the man-house. In the meantime, he would go down into the canyon

and get a cool drink, after which he would visit some berry patches just over the ridge, and explore

among the foothills a bit before his nap-time, which always came just after the sun had walked past

the middle of the sky. At that period of the day the sun?s warm rays seemed to cast a sleepy spell

over the silent mountainside, so all of the animals, with one accord, had decided it should be the

hour for their mid-day sleep.

The wave crashed and hit the sandcastle head-on. The sandcastle began to melt under the waves

force and as the wave receded, half the sandcastle was gone. The next wave hit, not quite as

strong, but still managed to cover the remains of the sandcastle and take more of it away. The third

wave, a big one, crashed over the sandcastle completely covering and engulfing it. When it receded,

there was no trace the sandcastle ever existed and hours of hard work disappeared forever.

I recently discovered I could make fudge with just chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk,

vanilla extract, and a thick pot on slow heat. I tried it with dark chocolate chunks and I tried it with
semi-sweet chocolate chips. It's better with both kinds. It comes out pretty bad with just the dark

chocolate. The best add-ins are crushed almonds and marshmallows -- what you get from that is

Rocky Road. It takes about twenty minutes from start to fridge, and then it takes about six months to

work off the twenty pounds you gain from eating it. All things in moderation, friends. All things in

moderation.

The trees, therefore, must be such old and primitive techniques that they thought nothing of them,

deeming them so inconsequential that even savages like us would know of them and not be

suspicious. At that, they probably didn't have too much time after they detected us orbiting and

intending to land. And if that were true, there could be only one place where their civilization was

hidden.

There are different types of secrets. She had held onto plenty of them during her life, but this one

was different. She found herself holding onto the worst type. It was the type of secret that could

gnaw away at your insides if you didn't tell someone about it, but it could end up getting you killed if

you did.

They rushed out the door, grabbing anything and everything they could think of they might need.

There was no time to double-check to make sure they weren't leaving something important behind.

Everything was thrown into the car and they sped off. Thirty minutes later they were safe and that

was when it dawned on them that they had forgotten the most important thing of all.