Chocolate In My Pocket

Lunch time conversation in our staff room revealed that my close friend and co-worker, Irmie, had placed her jacket in the dryer to warm it before wearing it to work that morning. She explained, "Oh, my gosh! I opened the dryer, and what a mess! I had left chocolate in my pocket!" As entertaining as her story was, Irmie's words "chocolate in my pocket" are what grabbed my attention. I repeated them aloud, "Chocolate in my pocket. Hey, Irmie, you have a good title there for a piece of writing." Irmie laughed and replied, "No. You're the writer! You come up with something." So, I did.

That evening at home, I started mulling over those four simple words, "chocolate in my pocket," and I decided the phrase would be a good one for a children's story. How many of us can recall an instance, when as a child, we encountered a mishap with chocolate, or glue, or chewing gum. We were simply too young and naive to understand the awful consequences of misusing any one, or all, of those common childhood "companions." The lessons were difficult to learn, but the final outcomes of those lessons were immediate. Never again did we get gum in our hair; eat glue; or leave chocolate in a pocket. Well, never again--until adulthood.

I wrote a few verses for "CHOCOLATE IN MY POCKET" and am now working on images to go along with them. Perhaps, you will picture some of your own!

CHOCOLATE IN MY POCKET 

It's delicious!
It's creamy!
It's so very sweet.
But chocolate in my pocket is not a good treat.

It melts.
It oozes.
It makes such a mess!
And chocolate in my pocket ruined my dress.

It's a candy.
It's a cookie.
It's a Devil's Food cake.
But chocolate in my pocket is a huge mistake! (cbb 1/11/15)

Copyright 2015 Cheryl B. Beaty

Captain's bLog, stardate 010515.1

This is a "first" for me--creating a blog. "Blog" is a word that has perplexed me for some time. I remember my reaction the first time I heard the term "blog." Blog. Blog? What on earth is that? 

I soon figured out that a blog was an electronic, personal log. "Log" was a word that I was well acquainted with having watched countless episodes of "Star Trek" in the 60s and hearing James Kirk's weekly dialogue that included the familiar, "Captain's log...." So, I came to understand that a "blog" is a journal. But, the letter "b" attached to "log" continued to stump me.... Does it stand for "biography"? That would make no sense--a biography is written about someone else. So, that theory proved invalid. 

Having a "thirty-something" son, who relies relentlessly on GOOGLE, I decided to follow his example and GOOGLE the origin of the word "blog." I happily discovered that "blog" is a shortened version of Web Log. Finally, after many years of utter confusion, I am creating my first "blog" entry with total clarity. 

I wonder if Capt. Kirk would approve? Once I've mastered "blogging", perhaps I can learn to perfect another of Capt. Kirk's weekly practices. "Beam me up, Scotty." Hmmm. Think GOOGLE has a "how to" on that?

Copyright 2015 Cheryl B. Beaty