Woeful Workshop Wednesday:Lost in Laundry

***this a repost from the date 10/06/2010  so disregard the date above on the post as it is not accurate for this posting. I had to delete the old posting. 




Apparently, it is Mad Hatter Day. IF you haven't read my interview with Hattter yet please do so here. You may find yourself lost in thought with such clever pensiveness on Hatter's part. I'm celebrating with some herbal tea (my poor sore throat needs it anyhow) and maybe I'll watch Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe I'll swing by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast to get in the mood and find a few more great reads for the week. Or you can join me in my visit here for a Mad Blog Hop and a Mad Hatter prize at the end of it! Okay, the prize IS taken already, but here is a beloved riddle from the book and the unexpected answer to it!

 Moving on...

 Before I sign off, this workshop wouldn't be over without sharing what I have written for the

First Crusader Challenge--Writers' Platform-Building Crusade


Click the link to find out all about it!


It has been quite fun! Anyhow, here is what my wild imagination came up with:

Lost in Laundry

by Angela Peña Dahle with help from other literary characters

      I sat down to write the other day and all I could think about was my mile high pile of laundry scattered all over the bedroom floor. What was underneath it? Is it possible it is even clean anymore? An adventure was waiting underneath that laundy. I knew it. My kids knew it. Thankfully, my husband didn't know about it...you get the idea.

      The first thing I did was grab my super squeaky dish gloves. For all I knew there were rotten banana peels underneath, maybe a booger or two. Unlikely? Maybe. Probable? Yes. Then it occurred to me that my children (who were already attacking the pile) were the ideal critters for this job so I tossed my gloves on the counter, made myself a smoothie, and pulled up a chair to oversee Project Laundry. Oops! I mean Adventure Laundry. So while my kids were yanking at shirts and tossing pants and socks into the air I began to hear voices (no I'm not crazy). I really did.

      “This is a muy muy big pile dudes!”

      “Why all the whispering dude?”

      “I thought we were having a siesta.” said another.

      “No. I cannot sleep.”

      “Is it the sleep maskito dude? They never work for me.” whispered another.

      “This noise is too big for my ears.”

      “What noise?”

      “What! You don't hear it?”

      “Que Loco, Skippito! What are you talking about?”

      “Don't you hear it? It sounds like an elephant stomping around!”

      And faster than you can say children, chores and chocolate, we were all digging into the laundry for Skippyjon Jones. Skippito wasn't Lost in Spice, or even on Mars! He was lost in our laundry! We had a pretty good idea where the rest of our missing books were now. Thank heavens! 

      The search was on. Unfortunately for us, the more we dug into laundry the less and less we found books...until, we heard another voice:

      "A game of Quidditch should be easy work."

      Unlike our laundry adventure, Quidditch was sounding pretty good to me right about then. Instead, into the pile we jumped and before we knew it we were hearing all kinds of voices:

     "I meant what I said and, I said what I meant."

     Was he talking about Skippito's elephant?

     "I wish Pooh were here. It's so much more friendly with two." 

      "You know, Spoon—I wonder if you realize just how lucky you are. Your friends will never know the joy of diving headfirst into a bowl of ice cream. They'll never know what it feels like to clink against the side of a cereal bowl. They'll never be able to twirl around in a mug, or relax in a hot cup of tea."

     I bet Spoon would never ever dive into laundry the way we were though. Of that I was sure.

      "But I don't want to go among mad people."

      "Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

      Even my kids and I had gone mad--with laundry. And voices. This guy knew what he was talking about! We searched that pile until we had a grand total of 32 books.We sat on the floor with chocolate and read our beloved books. We read all but one. I wondered if we'd ever find that reckless cat.

      "Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."

      Oops! Ah! There's number 33! He might be reckless, but he sure was right. Today HAD been fun!

    And surprisingly somehow the laundry got done!

Disclaimer: This story includes characters created and owned by Judy Byron Schachner and various publishers including but not limited to Dutton Children's Books. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The "voices " that are heard by the main characters in this story are quotes from works of literature and I take no credit for writing those portions of this fictional piece. The dialogue between Skippito and his Chimichango's is purely fictional and made up by me based on what I felt he would say if he were actually under our laundry.