Word: Mulligrubs

mulligrubs

[muhl-i-gruhbz]

noun (used with a singular or plural verb) Southern U.S.

1. ill temper; colic; grumpiness.

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               Charles slumped in his chair and huffed.  His scowl somehow reach every inch of his face, rather than just his mouth. He arms were crossed in front of him and his eyes bored into the colorful decoration in the room.

               “What’s wrong dear?” Maggie asked. 

               “Nothing.” Charles huffed.

               Maggie came into the living room and looked at her husband.  “Oh, don’t give me that.  You’re not a teenager, you know.  You don’t get to ‘nothing’ me.”

               “Nothing’s wrong, Maggie.” Charles insisted.  His voice betrayed him.  Maggie stood there, staring at him.  Her gaze was one of the few things that could get through to him when he was in such a mood.  “It’s just…just…look at it all.”

               He waved his hands around the room.  The place was a mess, despite everyone’s best efforts to keep it clean the day of.  Wrapping paper littered the room, having been removed from the still stuff garbage bag it had been placed into, having then been used as ammunition for a game.  Ornaments had been removed from the tree and scattered haphazardly.  A few fake gingerbread men and candy canes had teeth marks in them, and several glass balls had been broken.  Tinsel and light strings wound around furniture without any semblance of order or decorative sense.  And the floor was covered with needles in a manner more akin to a forest than a single tree in the living room.  It was a wonder the star was still in place, and the tree still standing.

               “Yes, I suppose the kids did get a little…rambunctious this year, didn’t they?”

               Charles huffed again.  “Rambunctious?  No, I can deal with that.  This is just…just destructive.”

               “Oh, now don’t be so dramatic.  Nothing was…” Maggie looked at several smashed ornaments and corrected herself.  “Nothing important was broken.”

               Charles sighed and looked at his wife.  “Maggie, it’s not just the room.  It’s everything.”  The only response he got was raised eyebrows, so he kept talking.  “It’s the whole damned season is what it is.  I’ve been doing this too long, Maggie.  I’m sick and tired of it all.  All the fake cheer, the platitudes, the decorations, all of it.”

               “So you don’t want to host the holiday party next year?”

               That earned her a piercing glare.  He turned back to the mess that he would inevitably have to clean up.  “No, I don’t want to deal with any of it next year.  Or ever, really.  None of it.  Not just this one.  All of them.  They’re all the same these days anyway.  The only thing that changes from one to the next is what mascot they use to sell toys and candy.”

               Maggie moved to her husband, being careful not to step on anything.  She placed her hands gently on his shoulders and squeezed. 

               “Now, now.  You don’t really mean that.” She said softly.  “It’s just the stress of the season getting to you. We’ll get this place cleaned up, and you’ll take a few days to unwind.  Then you’ll forget all about this little funk you’re in, and be just fine for the next holiday.”

               “How do you know?”

               “Because you’ve said the same thing for the last five years, Charles.  It’s always the same.  You get hit by post-holiday crash, and then a month later you forget all about it.  Trust me, when the holiday’s roll around again next year, you’ll be as thrilled as the kids are.”

               Charles let out one final huff.  He did not want to believe her.  He wanted to believe he was done with holidays.  But, his wife was right, as always.  He would get over it, and everything would be fine.  But for now, he allowed himself to be just a bit grumpy.  He felt like he earned that, at the very least.

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Did you have a good holiday?  Or just a good day for those who don't celebrate it?

Word: Kaleidoscopic

kaleidoscopic

[kuh-lahy-duh-skop-ik]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or created by a kaleidoscope.
2. changing form, pattern, color, etc., in a manner suggesting a kaleidoscope.
3. continually shifting from one set of relations to another; rapidly changing: the kaleidoscopic events of the past year.

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The area was pure white.  Or at least, that’s what it looked like to him.  There was no floor, walls, or ceiling to be seen.  He still had a body, he could see it, feel it, and move it.  And it did not feel like he was dreaming.  He simply did not remember how he arrived at his current location.

               The place was not empty.  It was filled with floating blobs of color.  They were amorphous, ever shifting and changing.  Their shape and color were shifted regularly, making the place look like the inside of a kaleidoscope.  There were hundreds of the ever shifting masses of color, and they spread out as far as he could see.

               He moved towards one of them.  Not walked.  He did not walk, as there was no floor.  He simply moved, without any real method of locomotion.  The mass he was near was canary yellow and spiky.  He waited for the sharp spines to vanish before doing anything.  It shifted into a vibrant sea blue and the spines melted away into a oblate sphere.  It was then that he touched it.

               A sudden burst of knowledge hit his mind.  No, not knowledge, not exactly.  Understanding.  He understood something.  Not something big.  It was just a small pebble somewhere in Montana.  But he understood it.  He understood where it had come from, its history, and even some of the things that could possibly happen to it.  It was not terribly interesting, but the fact that he understood so much about the pebble was.

               He move to another mass of color.  This one conveyed understanding of a single blade of grass in China.  The next brought a photon released by a lightbulb.  He touched more and more colors, each one granting complete understanding of something small and insignificant.  So many he touched, that he lost count.  And then he touched one particular mass of color, currently pink and shaped like a ring.

               This one brought understanding of a neuron.  Not just any neuron either.  One of his.  He suddenly had full, complete understanding of a part of his own body that he had only vague knowledge of.  With this understanding, everything changed.

               He understood how the cell worked, how it interacted with others, what it was made of.  Everything.  And this allowed him to expand his understanding to his other neurons.  Slowly, he understood more and more, until he understood his own brain on a level he never knew possible. 

               He newfound understanding allowed him to alter his own brain, if only slightly.  He was able to shift cells, unlocking more than he even knew possible.  And so it was that he came to a realization.  The understanding he had been given by the masses of color was far more than he previously thought.

               His understanding of the pebble allowed him to understand the stone around it.  The blade of grass expanded into other forms of plant life.  The photon led to understanding of light itself.  And with complete understanding, he now knew, came influence.  He looked around, seeing the hundreds of ever shifting, kaleidoscopic array of colors and shapes around him.  A smile crossed his lips.

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So...trippy?  Maybe?  I don't know.  I've never experienced anything...mind expanding...before.  I know, I'm boring.

Word: Nummary

nummary

[nuhm-uh-ree]

adjective

1. of or relating to coins or money.
2. dealing in coins or money.

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              Bobby looked at the coin with wide-eyed awe.  It was big, shiny, and was more wealth in one place than he had ever had; a whole quarter.  He looked up at the man who had been so generous as to give him the precious coin.  Uncle Tom smiled at Bobby and said.

               “Now this is a secret between us, okay, Bobby?  Don’t go telling your mom and dad, got it?” The towering man said with a smile and a wink.

               “Okay, I won’t.” Bobby replied.  His wide eyes fell back to the quarter. 

               “Good man.” Uncle Tom ruffled Bobby’s hair and went off. 

               Bobby’s parents stood far enough away that he could not imagine they knew what had just happened.  Besides, it was a secret, so there was no way they knew that their son held so much money in his hands. 

               He ran off, further into the house.  He needed to find a way to store the quarter where it would be safe.  He had heard about piggy banks, but he did not have one.  In fact, he did not have a bank of any shape, piggy or otherwise.  He would need to really think about a good hiding place.  He dashed into his room and looked around.

               Maybe he could hide it under the bed?  He had lots of things under there, so he could leave it there without anyone knowing.  But then, if it was there, he might not be able to get to it either, and that would be bad.  Maybe he could hide it in one of his toys?  A bunch of them were empty inside, and could probably be opened if he really tried.  Some of them were even made to be opened. His train and race car were both good. Both of them could open easy enough, and were big enough inside to hide the quarter.  Plus, since he was the only one who played with them, nobody else would find it.

               Bobby immediately got his racecar out of its place in his toy box.  Its bright red plastic and yellow stripes were easy to find, so he would never lose it, and the quarter.  He popped it open, seeing the smiling figure of the car’s driver inside.  Bobby leaned in and whispered to the driver.

               “I’m gonna put this in here, okay?  Don’t tell anyone.  It’s a secret.”

               Bobby carefully placed the precious coin behind the driver, so that it wouldn’t get in his way when Bobby played with the car.  It snapped shut and Bobby placed it back in his toy box.  He smiled, knowing the secret quarter was now safe. 

               Now he just had to figure out what he was going to spend it on.  After all, there was so much that could be done with something as valuable as a whole quarter.

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 Yeah, I don't really know what to say right now.  So yeah, stay warm and all that.