Take me to The Fish

The following is a photo montage inspired narrative by Rachel M.

She had known it would be a dangerous mission. An unprecedented one. And now, it came to it.

Olivia took a deep breath as she prepared to address the crew through the new hi-tech orange intercom mic. The “mom” tattoo was still fresh on her chest as she suppressed her uneasiness.

“Today”, she firmly announced, “will go down in the annals of history. Today, there is no gender, no race, and, indeed, no country. Today, we are all humans, reaching out into the great beyond. Today, mankind is one... one against the striped subterranean sea that has plagued us and ruled us these last 142 years. Today, you stand for freedom for mankind, and I am proud to stand with you.”

“Captain, NO!” Her first mate burst forth in a craze, grabbing her by the legs and screaming. “It's too risky! We'll live with their tyranny, just don't do it!”

“Damn it man! Don't try to stop me! It's got to be done... in the name of justice.” Olivia and a few others pried him off. He ran to his quarters and wept.

Olivia steadied herself and prepared to meet the enemy head on. As the doors of her submarine chamber opened to the cursed sea, she stared, determined, into the unknown.

She stepped out from all that was familiar into the weightlessness of the striped water. No one knew much about the ones who held them captive from 50 miles beneath the earth's crust, but they did know that the Red-Striped Fish was their leader.

A greenback seahorse and aqua-bird were the first to meet her.

“Take me to The Fish.”

They guided her directly and silently to the one on the throne, an hour's swim away. Upon arriving, the pair hovered menacingly on either side of her.

Olivia cleared her mind and began the speech others had crafted, the one she had repeated countless times for the last two months.

“I have come as representative for the human race,” she started. “I come to--”

“Did you bring any Mentos?”

“Beg pardon?”

“Did you bring any Mentos with you?” the Fish asked again.

Olivia, taken aback and not quite sure what to think, answered,“Well, I, uh, I have a few Lifesavers... but they've been in my wet suit pocket for a while. At least a couple hours.”

“That'll do.”

She handed them to the seahorse, who delivered them to The Striped One.

“Mmm...oh, that's like heaven. Watermelon?”

“I believe so.”

Olivia collected herself and threw the memorized speech aside. “So, will you return the earth to its previous state and allow us autonomy once again?”

The Fish looked puzzled. “Oh... are things not going well up there?”

“Um, no... we'd like to live our own lives again.”

“Wow, I had no idea,” replied the Fish. “Consider it done. No problem.”

“Wow, uh, okay, great. Well, great to meet you, and good luck and everything.”

The swim back to the sub didn't seem to take half as long as on the way there. Back home, Olivia wrapped up warm and snug in her favorite duckie robe.

Mother was not pleased about the tattoo.

Congratulations Rachel! Your story has earned you a collection of six vintage cabbage patch kids 3-D holographic stickers (aka solar glowers)!

Why yes, that IS a unicorn. Enjoy.

No 'y' in beauty to be heard

The winner of create a story for this photo montage #1 is mr andrew f. His story is as follows:

Once upon a time there was Olivia. She was asleep. She must have been thinking about rice krispy treat cereal or something of that sort because the smile that she wore on her face penetrated everyone's heart. It was too much for anyone to handle. Anyone not blood related to her would most likely go into a coma after glancing upon the infant's smiling countenance. This was serious.

When driving to ikea one september day about 2008 years after the death of our Jesus, something happened. Joel saw a lady lying down in the middle of the street. She went into a coma. Unbeknownst to Joel and Miranda, the expressionless lady had caught a glimpse into the saturn only to see the lovely smiling face of Olivia within her safety straps. Miranda got out of the car and checked on the old lady while Joel made sure that Olivia wasn't smiling. Joel said,"No, not another victim of our child's beaut!" But at that point, there was no y in beauty to be heard. Because at that point my friends, Joel and Miranda's immunity to Olivia's smile had ceased to be.

That, my friends, is the story of the trip to Ikea.

Congrats mr andrew f! You may claim your hot date with mrs fields in the kitchen of the rockey home.

The following is a paid political advertisement

How was our night you ask? Tacos by roscoe's and a small reunion of former stonegate personnel made it mighty fine indeed. A triple shout out to our girl wendy!

Late nights are when olivia gets to chill with daddy. And by chill I mean chug a couple ounces of soy peppered with a healthy dose of burps and bellyaches. It's hard to resist when she burns a hole through your soul with those baby blues. Consider my heart fondue.

Activity for the home viewers:
Congratulations to mr. andrew who was the only participant and therefore by default the winner of the last create-your-own-adventure montage. His winnings were not, however, unmerited. His story will be published in a future post. Mrs. fields is waiting for you sir.

Here's this weeks create-your-own-adventure montage. The winner receives a surprise. Step up to the plate y'all and tell us what's goin on in this series of dramatic photographs...

We interupt your regularly scheduled blog posting for this important bulletin:

Don't forget to come out to the second annual indieana handicraft exchange at the harrison center for the arts in downtown indianapolis this friday and saturday. Your own joel rockey will be sharing a set of handmade songs, tee shirts and digital music discs on saturday morning at 11:15 am. The harrison center for the arts is located on the corner of 16th and delaware in beautiful downtown indy.

Later in the evening, my pal katie basbagill has an opening reception for a showing of her photographic work at B-Java. More live tunes.

In other news:

Just over the horizon is the fabled return of a rockey home companion's beloved podcast known affectionately as the aural supplement. To satisfy your appetites in the following days, I will be posting links to previous episodes for downloading and trading with your friends.

Podcast Archive: Episode 9:
The ground grows colder by the hour as we construct our masks and ask to devour the candy corn cobs turning to dust in the wake of Autumn's final gust. Chilled to the bone, guest host Senor Hector LaVeta tempts the recesses of your ears with hallowed tones of excitable stones being thrown in the dark of night.

MP3 Download: Episode 9

Cheers!

Couches, cookies & the company dime

We won't discuss want went down last evening. Let's just say that today has been much better. I'm typing away on a new toy/business expense while my two lovely ladies lie silently on the sofa.

It is currently five minutes after 3 in the afternoon and we've yet to leave the house. Just chillin with some chicken lasagna. Olivia seems to need some olivia time kickin it on the floor. I keep forgetting, she's only been on the planet for five weeks and it's likely she still needs time to take all of this in...

Hang tight my dear, there's a whole lot more to come.

Now for an activity you can enjoy at home:

Create your own story for this montage of photos taken a couple weeks ago during our trip to ikea in west chester, ohio with our friends Rachel and Claire (not pictured). The winner receives a cookie from mrs. fields.

Go get em kids!