I’ve been online now for almost ten years. Back then, I posted with some of the same people I post with now, but I clung to the fringes of those communities, testing the waters too many times before offering opinions. I was a very good girl, especially for a woman in her mid-twenties. If you blinked you missed me, or at least if you blinked twice. People who were in some of those places the same time may remember someone with the same name as the brash Bitch they now know, but more often than not, it’s like this: ”Oh, you were on Table Talk too? I’m sorry...don’t remember that.” Of course not. Courteous, well-spoken, mainstream vapor trails have that effect on people. “I’ve been through some changes, since.”

All for the good. Re an offline conversation we had , don't take it as a suggestion to change that. (I know you wouldn't anyway, but I don't want you think I would be so hurtful as to suggest it.) Your bluntness is both charming and a survival mechanism. We discussed an exception - but it was a once in a blue moon exception; it would be a shame if you took anything I said to apply more generally than that one instance. And the sad fact is you are still better at tact than I am.

Everything has limits, babe. Not to worry. I just found one, that's all. And, luckily didn't hurt anybody. But it's because I know that my tongue is a weapon that I'm careful with it. It's all fun till somebody loses an eye.

Liese! Song!

Hee. I really enjoy working with the word limit in song form. It makes me so much more aware of what it is, exactly, I'm trying to say. I must say, the drabble community has improved my songwriting outside of the community, too. Good exercise.

Of course, 100 words limitation wreaks a certain amount of havoc with verse/chorus structure, but that's good for me, too.

OK, I actually read TB's as a drabble.

Liese, I've been on a lyric binge for months, which is bizzarro, since it had been easily 20 years since I'd written any at all. But these days, it's all about the music, you know?

Yup, you're pretty immersed in it, it's not too much of a surprise the lyrics are coming.

For me, I've been off & on for a while. Lately it's been more off than on, but I'm thinking there may be some creativity on the horizon. I can feel it tickling the back of my throat.

Also? That wasn't a drabble? I thought it was.

TB's read like a drabble - I kept wondering why he hadn't given it a title.

Beneath the Surface (100 words)

After dinner, while I'm loading the dishwasher, of all things, you come up behind me and place your hand in the small of my back as you thank me for the meal. I close my eyes, and the image hits me: turning around and kissing you until we're both breathless, laying you out right there on the dining room table, using my hands and mouth on you until everyone in the entire apartment complex knows what you sound like in the throes of passion.

If I turn around, will you really see me? Or just what you've come to expect?

OK, I actually read TB's as a drabble.

So glad I'm not alone.

Karl, that's a lovely thing to read this morning.

Everyone's so far has been evocative in its own way.