It was an open secret that dreams reveal our innermost worries and joys, fears and, perhaps, even our future.
So when Sue woke up at 3:23 a.m. feeling as if she’d just popped out of a virtual reality show, she knew what she had to do.
She waited impatiently until the bank opened at 9.
“I want to withdraw all of my money, today,” she said as simply as if asking for the recipe of a chocolate dessert.
The teller was bleary-eyed Miriam, the one Sue most disliked. Sue had befriended this bank down the corner from her old New England Victorian house for over three decades. She figured using any bank was the same difference as shopping at any grocery store. Make it easy and convenient.
But Miriam responded: “Oh, you can’t do that,” and Sue wondered what happened to convenience and ease.
“Yes I can,” Sue replied. “It’s my money. I can do whatever I want.”
“But there are forms to fill out, managers to speak to, and delays that are unavoidable.” Miriam rang a little bell by her station and within seconds Joe Tully was at Sue’s side, as if he was ready to take her away to the funny farm.
Sue decided to act naturally as she slowly took her cell phone out of her purse. “Guess what Mr. Tully, big bank manager. I’m going to dial 911 for the robbery about to take place.”
The confusion on Mr. Tully’s face was priceless. “What robbery?”
Sue poked her finger near the “Call” button on her phone. “The one you’re trying to perpetuate. I want my money – now – or I call the police.”
With a frustrated grimace, the bank manager nodded his head toward his office. “I’ll write you a check within 15 minutes. We just need to get the latest numbers and make sure there were no recent withdrawals.”
“My last withdrawal was last week for $200. So I expect $56,005 and 45 cents in cash, within your 15 minutes.”
They all thought she was crazy, the people in this town. Sue knew that. But she also knew what she had to do.
Her only choice was to move to a little town on the north side of Maui, making and selling fresh water pearl necklaces and earrings.
She’d seen it all in her dream.
Can you guess what “prompted” this post? “Write a story with at least four oxymorons.” What’s an oxymoron? It’s a figure of speech made up of two or more words that seem to be opposite to each other, or actually are opposite.
I hope you are not clearly confused, now. 🙂
Clever, Pam. ❤ xxx
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I felt a bit “passive aggressive” when I wrote this. 🙂 (Another oxymoron!). xoxox
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😂 You’re on a roll, Pam. ❤
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A big fat round one…. 🙂 🙂
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Clearly confused I am – but your bold pairs helped find the oxymorons.
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I felt that highlighting the oxymoron’s in bold would “definitely maybe” help out here. 🙂
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I think I need more coffee! Very clever indeed, Pam. ❤ Happy Friday!
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I find coffee to be “bittersweet” and unable to drink it, but I’m envious of those like you who enjoy the beverage. (Bittersweet is a word-oxymoron, isn’t it?) 🙂
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Fun story. Jumbo shrimp is my favorite oxymoron. In case you needed to know that. Happy Weekend, Pam.
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Jumbo shrimp is an oxymoron that makes sense to me. Who wants to eat shrimpy shrimp? 🙂
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Oh to move to Maui and sell fresh water pearl earrings and to get away from it all…sounds good right now. Except, wait, never mind, I already live about as far away as you can get. And I can’t think of an on-purpose oxymoron on right now. Too early in the morning!
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Kathy. It’s a TRUE MYTH that living in Hawaii is paradise. 🙂 xox ❤
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Ha ha, good one!
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Very well done Pam, that sounds like a good dream to fulfil 🙂
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I agree, Andrea. I think living in HI would be a fulfilling dream. In living color. (‘Cause who wants to dream in dead color??) Uh oh, I’m on a roll (better than a baguette). ACK. I’ll let you go now. 🙂
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Very clever, Pam. As I read, I was wondering about the boldfaced words. You did a good job of blending them in.
I hope Sue is happy in her new life, but I don’t know. 😏
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My guess is that for Sue, moving from wintry New England to warm Maui would be “weirdly normal.” 🙂
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Hahaha. She might also feel uncomfortably relaxed.
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Perfect! 🙂
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😀
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Nice one. I’d even go so far as to say Brillig!
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It would be my “sweet sorrow” if you felt differently. 🙂 Thanks. xo
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🙂
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Clever. Funnily enough I’d been wondering how the bank will react when I ask for all my money in cash. The Bank of England is actually considering negative interest, which means they take some of the money we have in the bank. I’d be better to keep it under my mattress.
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ACK! That would be “amazingly awful” if the bank gave my money back, or should I say took away even more of my money, with negative interest.(Um negative interest is an oxymoron!!) Mattress saving looks better and better.
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So good, Pam! I, too, was wondering at the bold characters then figured they were part of a prompt (but not quick enough to pick up the theme – d’oh!)
After working in law offices, I was always partial to our documents that were original copies… You, of course, being simply original! 😉
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“Original copies” is a well-used oxymoron that no one stops to think about. Somehow, it seems “weirdly normal.” :-0 🙂
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Was this dream in technicolor? It certainly seems so. I think I’ll keep my $$$ in the bank for now, thank you very much.
I’m glad your dreams are so vivid, Pam!
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I find Sue’s dream to be “painfully beautiful.” Probably because unlike her, I cannot take off for Maui. 🙂
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Totally clever, Pam—I loved the way you used the oxymorons and amazed at how often we use them in our everyday-speech! And, that was perfect how Sue was able to withdraw all her savings and made the manager back down. Dreams can not only solve problems but gives you the confidence to follow through. . . . .
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I think if more of us followed our dreams, we’d feel more like Oscar Wilde, who said, “I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.” – Oscar Wilde 🙂
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I think I will be joining Sue. Maybe I’ll open a branch office for jewelry making on the Big Island. Great post, Pam!
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Amy. You just gave me a brilliant idea. You and I could go into business together, selling our jewelry and our books from our open-front Hawaiian store. You think I’m joking?? As Winston Churchill said: “A joke is an extremely serious issue.”
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I would love that. And there is nothing John would love more than moving to Hawaii.
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Clever conundrums for the clearly confused. Thanks for the deafening silence. 🙂
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Ahhhh, how I love your sense of humor, Brad. Seriously funny. 🙂 ❤
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😜
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Brilliant!
And like Jill, I’m off to grab more coffee!
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I read somewhere that “Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank.” Hmmm, there’s another oxymoron for you. 🙂
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I have often heard that dreams are messages conveyed by Angels who guard you. Sue seems to believe that and you have done a splendid job in assisting her Pam. I love her strategy!
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I believe that we should always take our dreams seriously, Balroop. I seriously smile (I just made up that oxymoron…) when my dreams send me flying to unknown places, knowing that in some way, in some sense of the word, they are within my scope of consciousness. ❤
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Cleverly written Pam. I appreciate the addition of the oxymoron explanation. Then I went back and read it again smiling. Well done!
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Good Grief, I’m so glad you enjoyed my story, even if you had to read it twice! (Get it? Good grief, that silly well-known expression, is an oxymoron too.) 🙂
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This coronavirus time has created an oxymoron for us all. In our family bubbles we are now “alone together.” But other than that oxymoron, I love wordplay. That was a fun use of morons in your post.
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Ohhh, yes, Anneli. The expression “alone together” is a great oxymoron for the times. I think we both nod with a “sad smile” at how these times have changed us all. xo
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Very funny and clever, Pam:) I with her about Maui!
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I think Sue will be joined by a bunch of us reading her story here, including you and me! We can all pretend we’re on a “working vacation” while on the island. 🙂
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I’ll take it 🙂
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Well done, Pam. I’m smiling now. Great story too.
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Would I be “overbearingly modest” by telling you how happy your comment makes me? 🙂 ❤
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I’m appreciative of your gift of Friday morning fun. By the time I reached the end of this clever post, I was laughing and giggling. Sue’s a clever girl and her dream a master vision. Thanks for sharing her dream and clever strategy. When are you leaving for Maui?
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I think flying off to Maui would be “terribly good” right now, Sherrey. But alas, with “sweet sorrow” I must stay at home, water my garden, and tend to my roots. xo
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Awfully Brilliant and Wonderfully Nauceous…hope this is not a test! ♥♥♥
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I would be a “wise fool” to test my readers, my dear Billy Ray, for then I’d lose them all. Except for you, since it was a “minor miracle” that we two Warriors found each other in the blogosphere. ❤
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At least she didn’t go home and eat jumbo shrimp because she would have been clearly misunderstood. Your story was awful good!!
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With a “loud whisper” I thank you for your praise that is “conspicuously absent” of finding any fault to a story that combines banks, spinsters, and Maui. 🙂 xo
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LOL!!
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Great Story, Pamela.
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Thanks for enjoying my oxymoronic tale, John.
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😊
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Don’t be misled by my “deafening silence,” Pam. That was magic!
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I take your comment as a “definite maybe” endorsement of my oxymoronic story, Pete. 🙂
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You are quite the master of words; meanwhile, I’ll just sit here “clearly confused.”😃
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Clever as usual, Pam. I love oxymorons 🙂
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Oxymorons are such fun, aren’t they? Perhaps because we all use them more than we realize. Life, after all, seems like one big oxymoron at times. Good Grief!
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Clever story Pam. Didn’t catch on or notice the highlighted words until the end. Will have to pay more attention to my own writing.
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We all use more oxymorons in our writing than we realize, Patricia. It’s probably why sometimes we are “clearly misunderstood.” 🙂
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This bilingual somewhat dyslexic old girl had to read it twice. I open up a cooking shack next to your jewelry and book business. I’ll be serving sweet and sour food.
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Aha! Good job, Gerlinde. Sweet and sour is a great oxymoronic food, and I’d LOVE to have you join Amy and me in our Maui jewelry/books/now food endeavors. 🙂
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Well done, Pam! 🙂
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With “deliberate speed” I thank you for your praise, Bette. 🙂
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Oh! I feel like such a dope. I didn’t get it until I looked back over the story and noticed the oxymorons highlighted in the text. lol I’m observant like that.
Very clever, Ma’am. Very clever indeed. 😀
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Oxymorons are used more casually and enthusiastically in our writing than we realize. It makes “perfect sense,” in an perfectly silly way.
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You’re right. Looking at your story, I was shocked to realise that not one of them raised any alarm bells in my mind, and I’m usually a stickler for things ‘making sense’. Clearly not as much of a stickler as I thought. 😀
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Well done, you! Make sure you print out an original copy to keep with your other writing. 😛
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Haha. To be “deceptively honest,” I save all of my “seriously silly” stories. ❤
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Well done, Sam. Love the story as I love “impulsive decisions”. 🙂 The only oxymoron I don’t get is the “funny farm”…
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“Impulsive decision- haha. I’d never heard that one, and it’s good. “Funny farm” is a phrase (American I presume) used decades ago from the slang use of the word ‘funny’ to mean weird, unusual and the description of mad people as ‘funny in the head’. An early citation of ‘funny farm’ is in John Knowles’ novel, set in New Hampshire, USA – A Separate Peace, 1959:
“You might start to believe it, then I’d have to make a reservation for you at the Funny Farm.”
Fortunately, I haven’t heard this phrase in a long time.
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Thanks for the description and explanation, Sam. I still don’t get how “funny farm” is an oxymoron (was printed in bold). The term “oxymoron” was new to me, so I studied yours and gave it a try with “impulsive decision”. 🙂 I didn’t realize oxymorons are usually popular phrases, I thought you could make them up.
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Thank you for highlighting the oxymorons to make it easier for me to go back and find them. Very clever.
Peta
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We use oxymorons in our language more often than we realize. Perhaps because LIFE is an oxymoron more than we realize!! 🙂
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Not an oxymoron but I knew an old lady once who used to go into her bank every so often to count her money. The staff put the exact amount in front of her and she carefully counted it before going home quite content.
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I have a feeling there are a lot of “old ladies” and old men who do that. These days, I know several “old men” who do the same, only now they can do it virtually thanks to on-line banking. 🙂 I guess it’s “weirdly normal.” 🙂
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Wow. Nicely done, Pam. I’m glad you bolded the oxymorons or I would never have found them! I’m with Sue any day – off to Maui to sell necklaces on the beach. 😀 Great story. Let’s keep dreaming!
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Couldn’t you just imagine us, Diana, in our tie-dyed peasant dresses, hair held back in a scrunchy, long dangly earrings, selling our wares until 2 p.m. – then time for our surfboarding lessons? Ahhh, “spontaneity is good as long as it is controlled.” (A fun oxymoronic phrase.) 🙂
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I could live that lifestyle sooo easily. Lol. (My vision of retirement). 🙂
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Hi Pam, I agree with many of the comments, “clever!” I have a problem with how she almost has to apologize and jump through many hurdles when requesting access to to her own money. I understand the safety issues, just not the attitudes.
I think you and I have discussed vivid dreams in the past. I get it.
Then I became lost in examples of an oxymoron, a paradox and juxtaposition and the differences. Now I am clearly confused.🙂 A fun post!
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When I was (much) younger, I had to fight the bank all the time. Wives had to have the signature of their husbands to make deposits/withdrawals, etc. I was horrified, but when I argued against it I was called a “feminist.” Yup, a proud one. Those “amazingly awful” times have improved! 🙂
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The banking thing hit a nerve with me, too, Pam. My first job was in a bank when I was fifteen, as a teller. Long banking stories. From both sides. Yes, the inequity. My blood pressure is already rising as I recall many things. Later on I met my husband through the bank, also long story. (A good part of the story). I was also horrified and tried to stand up for myself. Yes, improved a great deal.🙂
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We have so many happy “coincidences” together. I’m awestruck that you made it “to the other side” after working in a bank!
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I wonder if Sue’s dream is really Pam’s dream? Lol, I’ll tell you. Sue has the right idea! 🙂 xx
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As Oscar Wilde once said, oxymoronic tongue in cheek: “I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.” 🙂
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Lolllllllllll 🙂
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Oh my. But haven’t we all had a dream that felt like a vision? That forced us to do something we might not have otherwise. I’m not sure I could resist either.
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I wish I followed my night-time dreams more often. Because yes, the ones that aren’t nightmares are a vision in possibilities. 🙂
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I’m clearly confused and well done!
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🙂 The story of our lives – confusion abounds. 🙂
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Sometimes it’s good to not quite know.
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Too true!
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Pam… I applaud you.. Your stories are always well worth reading.. this no exception.. 🙂 I smiled widely at the 911 call.. Day light robbery happens everyday in these institutions lol.. 🙂
As to the oxymoron… Love it…
And I had better watch my own dreams… I usually wake up in those twilight hours hahaha… My own though have been on Hollywood, the Sign falling down, A huge wave was sweeping through and knocking people over at first I thought it was a Tsunami, but it wasn’t water it was energy.. .. I dreamt it a few weeks back…. ( I feel something big is about to shock.. ) As the Beach boys were singing just as I woke up and the music was still ringing in my ears as I woke.. the song Good Vibrations.. So while at first it may shock, I feel the long term is Good Vibrations.. 🙂 LOL.. Any way I digress…
One Dreamer to another 🙂
Hope you are doing OK Pam…. Sending you special Hugs..
Much love your way ❤
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I’m sure I’ve told YOU how much I love your dreams. Good good vibrations for sure. Usually when I go to sleep I ask for “good” dreams. I think tonight I’ll ask for “dreams like Sue Dreamwalker’s.” 🙂 xo
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haha…. Well Hollywood could do with collapsing if you get my drift of what has been happening with certain directors etc.. … And that, I feel is what is coming, if my dream is anything to go by. As more information unfurls…
Happy Dreamtime Pam.. 🙂 My Dreamtime often holds keys …. Whether they fit the right locks is another matter hahaha.. ❤
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Happy unlocking to both of us!
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💚
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Well done as always. I wonder what would happen if a person tried that in real life? I don’t think I’ll try it.
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Which part? Taking all of your money out of the bank, or taking off for Maui, Arlene? 🙂
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Something tells me that going into a bank and accusing them of being robbers would not go over so well!
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I don’t think I’ll try it anytime soon, but I sure applaud Sue. 🙂
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Me too! I thought it was an ingenious idea.
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Wow, Pam, I was totally confused, but then the light switch flipped. 🙂 This is SO clever and now I get why those words were bold. I kept wondering throughout the story. Amazed again by your creativity. Hope all is well and safe with you. 😍
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In my “foolish wisdom,” I thought every reader would ‘get’ what I was doing. Yet, I was “clearly wrong.” I guess I got myself in another “fine mess.” 🙂 Thanks, Lauren. We all need some fun in our writing. 🙂 xo
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🥰
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This is very clever, Pam.
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Thanks, Robbie. As Winston Churchill said, “A joke is an extremely serious issue.” 🙂
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Hi. Oxymorons or no oxymorons, I like this story. I hope that she got her money and that her dreams came true.
Neil S.
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The manager wasn’t going to mess around with her! Haha, she knew herself and trusted her dream. We got married on Maui, Pam. We went back several times and Hubby wanted to moved there. I said, no way (because it wasn’t my dream). 🙂
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What a beautiful place to be married. Perhaps for you, better to visit paradise than live there daily. 🙂
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Yeah, Pam, I’m used to the big cities and have more things to do. I don’t mind to visit there often.
I hope you’re doing well. Have a peaceful weekend! 🙂
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I understand your reasoning. I’m not sure I could take that much “slowness” 24/7 for years either. 🙂
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Yes, for me, I have some enjoyment only big cities can offer such as concert and opera and the like. 🙂
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“Only choice” — I get it because choice implies more than only one. Ha! Never thought about looking at phrasing like this before. I enjoyed the story too! Not sure I could write with oxymorons in mind, but maybe I do and don’t even know it. I’ll be on the look out. Mona
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I found an easy way to “purposely” write with oxymoron’s is to make a list of some, then just start a first sentence and see where it goes. Of course, most time we DON’T want oxymorons in our writing. 🙂
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Well, I hope you have another early morning wake up call so we kind find out who ended up in the looney bin…I guess with the way things are today…a good day could seem like a bad day to someone waiting on her money to appear.
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All in the perspective, right? 🙂
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This is insane! What a year for technology. I’ll be browsing on The Iconic for sure after reading this, such a great individualized experience for the customer. Such a good read!
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