Be Careful What You Wish For: Use Your Words

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: genie lamp ~ movie ~ gas tank ~ elevator ~ vine
They were submitted by Dawn of Spatulas on Parade.

                          
One look at the words genie lamp, would have most people wishing, first of all, that they existed. Me? Not so much. Truth is, when you have anxiety, the most wonderful circumstances can be transformed into a traumatic experience. One thing I do, always, is overthink myself into paralyzation.

If I found one, before I could even start to think of wishes, I'd worry about using them too soon. What if something happens later in life, something serious or traumatic and I need my wishes then but had used them? I could literally convince myself to wait the rest of my life for the right time which, in a situation I'd created for myself, would never come. 

Or what if I dropped it and broke the genie? Or rubbed it the wrong way and got nightmares instead of dreams come true? 

Or what if I accidentally used them? Like the time I bought grape vines for my back yard, so excited not only to grow grapes but to have the vines cover a structure in the back that I didn't like looking at. Would I look out a those vines every day, as I did, and eventually just casually wish the vines would grow quicker (or, as it turns out, at all) and waste a precious wish? 

And then might I, standing in the kitchen covered with sugar and flour putting my precious new creation into the oven, make a little "please come out" wish as I gingerly closed the oven door?

Pineapple Toffee Cookies

Or, stuck in an elevator (probably having to pee, 'cause despite finding a genie lamp, that's my luck) would I wish the fire department would come and get us now, wasting that third wish on something that was invariably going to happen anyway?

Grape vines, food and an elevator, great waste of wishes. Too much pressure, having to go through the rest of my life with people pointing at me "there's that woman who wasted wishes, can you believe it?". I'd have to move away, change my name, get a nose job. Even then, I couldn't escape myself.

I think I'll have to take a pass on that genie lamp, thank you very much.

Hold on, hold on, on second thought, I'm already overthinking that. I can do it. Give me that thing. I want a bazillion dollars, to be a famous movie star, and an endless supply of free fuel for my gas tank. Wait, can I take that last one back? Can't take a wish back, can you? Damn. I knew I'd blow it . . .

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Wandering Web Designer
Spatulas on Parade
The Bergham Chronicles  
On the Border
Climaxed
Part-time Working Hockey Mom

Pineapple Toffee Cookies

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients (makes about 3 1/2 dz):

1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pineapple extract
8 oz can crushed pineapple
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup toffee baking chips
1/2 cup dried pineapple, chopped

Directions:
*Reserving 2 TBSP of the juice, drain the crushed pineapple, then press dry between paper towels.
*Cream the butter, margarine and sugars. Beat in the eggs, pineapple extract and the 2 TBSP reserved pineapple juice from the can. Mix in the pineapple.
*On the lowest speed, incorporate the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix in the toffee baking chips and the chopped dried pineapple.
*Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for an hour or up to a day.
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Using wet hands (dough will be sticky) roll dough into about 1 inch balls. Place in the baking sheets and gently flatten a bit with the heel of your hand.
*Bake 12 - 14 minutes until the edges are browning. Allow to sit on the baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to cool completely.