Show Don't Tell

It looked like a haunted house.

"Sammy!", Athena cried as her yellow lab Sammy ran after a stray tabby cat. She started after him, and follwed him down the street. She sprinted after him, starining to keep up. As Sammy ran ater the cat, he became less and less visable.
"Sammy,come back!", Athena shouted,as a last effort before she had to stop and catch her breath. Athena panted, out of breath and started to worry if she would be able to find Sammy. After catching her breath, Athena started jogging in the direction she last saw Sammy. It took her down a dark street, where she could faintly see a, "Dead End" sign at the end o the road. At the very end of the road was a omnious looking house with boards of woods nailed over the windows. She glanced around her, thinking Sammy might have gone another direction when she heard a dog bark.
"Sammy?", she hollard. She looked in the direction of the sound and was staring back at the house. Only then did she notice the front door of the house was open.
A cold shiever ran up her spine as she heard Sammy bark again. He was in that house. The house almost seemed to look back at her as she stood staring at it. The paint was chipped, and the front-yard was un-kept giving the house an even creepier look.

Dialogue Practice

Jenny felt her stomach ache from hunger as she and Bruce walked down the sidewalk. The dark clouds made the morning seem dark and dismal. She glanced up at Bruce, who’s eyes were transfixed in- front of him.

“Let us go out for some breakfast,” she stated trying to lighten the mood, “how much money do you have?”

“Let me look.” Bruce stopped and shuffled around in his pockets looking for some spare change. He looked down at his hand and frowned at the small amount he pulled out, “I have got about, thirty-five cents.”

“Thirty-five cents?,” Jenny shot him a quizzical look, “that is all the money you have on you?”

Feeling embarrassed, Bruce shuffled his feet and lowered his head, “Well I thought we were just gonna go for a walk.” He looked back up at Jenny, waiting for her respond.

Jenny laughed aloud and grabbed his hand, “Ok, I will buy this time and you can buy next time!”

Google Docs Response

I think Google Docs does an amazing job of making peoples lives easier, and it keeps your files more organized. I will definately use Google Docs for any kind of writing assignment in this class or in the future. I can also see myself using it for just everyday life.

Have you ever been in 27 of the 50 U.S. states?

I have a rather large family. Not only is my family large but, so is the space between them. My mothers half lives on the East coast, from Florida all the way up to New Jersey. My fathers side is on the West Coast, from Washington to California. My parent use to take me and my sister from one coast to the other for holidays or for visits and we even took a lot of family vacations all around the U.S.
My grandparents lived in Tampa Bay, Florida and we use to spend a lot of time visiting them there. I remember it was one of the funniest place as a kid. I loved how lizards are everywhere over there and I would spend hours catching them, the communtiy pools in Tampa Bay were huge and it was by far my favorite thing to do while we were in Florida.
We would travel from Florida to New Jersey were my mothers mom is and me and my sister would get to visit our cousins and have huge BBQ's. We got to go to New York and I got to see the twin towers. When we returned on our way back home we often took little road trips to the others states on our way home. I remember stopping and going to museums and going to Las Vegas.
On the West coasts we would visit my fathers side of the family specially during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We stayed in my Uncles huge mansion of a house and were allowed to be crazy wild kids.
My mom and dad liked to take road trips a lot growing up and I have gotten to see a lot, more then some people my age. And I think its because of the amazing places I have been that I have such a love for travel. I hope to see the remaining 23 states(mostly the Northern states) and travel all over the globe.

Bloomsday Race

Have you ever ran 7.5 miles along with over 50,000 other people running it with you?

My boyfriend introduced me to the Bloomsday Race in Spokane WA 2 years ago, he has been running this race since he was 5 years old. To date he has ran the race 23 times! I have personally only ran it twice but it has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The race starts at 8am and you stand for about an hour while over 50,000 other people file in next to you. You see some crazy things while you wait for the race to begin. People will run in costumes, and people of all ages run thing race! I remember one year i saw 3 men running in grass skirts and coconut bras, I saw a woman run in a Raggedy Ann costume, I saw a guy running in a huge bannana suit, I even saw a guy running in a speedo, bare foot!
Right before the race starts the excitment in the air and the overall mood is positive. Everone there is so nice and it was just an amazing thing to be standing next to 50,000 other people from all around the globe with different backgrounds and ethnicities all standing side by side doing this all together...to me it was amazing. The course is 7.5 miles long and you run past a lot of houses in a part of the race and the edges of the entire race are lined with people all cheering you on. I mean these people were really cheering for you! I saw some amazing people running the race too, one girl had a shirt on that said " I use to weight over 250lbs". I saw a lot of shirts with sayings like "This ones for you mom/dad". It was amzing to see the reasons on why so many people come to this race every year. It gives me hope that maybe one day we will all live in a world free of judgment, be it the color of your skin, religion, race, or sexualality. I am proud that I can say I have ran this race and I plan on running it every year till the day I die!

Free Write

Have you ever gone to Cancun Mexico?

When I graduated in 2007, I was in the Spanish Club and I signed up for the E.F. Tours trip to Cancun Mexico. Going to Mexico really had a big impact on me, the culture, the people, the country, everything. We stayed there for 11days in a group of about 10 of us. We got to see some amazing things...and some terrible things.
Mexico by far is the most gorgeous place I have personally ever seen! We went to see the ancient Mayan temples like Chichen itza and we learned about the rituals that use to happen there and how the Mayan invented there own form of basket ball. Have you ever seen the Dream works movies called The road to El Darado? Well in the movie the two main characters played this game known as; Pok-A-Tok and i this game there is a arena with two hoops on each side of the walls but unlike basketball the hoops are sideways on the wall.....and very high. The goal of the game was to get the ball in the hoop using your head, hips, or sholders. The most crucial rule of the game was....loser dies!!
The forests were amazing, when you stood on top of one of the temples we went to you could see nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. We got to go scuba diving and saw the abundance of wild life there it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. But there was also a lot of poverty there. I saw kids living on the streets in building that were nothing but ruble. Kids working along side there parents everyday just trying to get by. It impacted me heavily, I knew stuff like that was out there but once you see it, its forever in your thoughts.

10 List

1. Have you ever been to Cancun Mexico?
2. Have you ever rode on an elephant?
3. Have you ever ran 7.5 miles next to over 50,000 other people running it with u?
4. Have you ever been in 27 of the 50 U.S. states?
5. Have you ever had your life saved?
6. Have you ever had a guy try to kidnapp you?
7. Have you ever laughed so hard you have cried?
8. Have you ever got stung by a jellyfish?
9. Have you ever traveled more than 140 mph?
10. Have you ever been to more than 10 schools?