Combo Party: Imaginary Friends and Celebrations

This first half is part of Annalisa Crawford's Imaginary Friend Bloghop. Kyra Lennon is the co-host and they invited us to talk about our imaginary friends. So today I am sharing my experience with you.

Carl Sagan said people is made of stardust. Dragons are made of stardust too, but in different amounts. I believe stardust levels vary depending on the inner magic of a creature rather than its race. Although I was born among dragons, I was still different. A conversation with the moon or with Orion in the sky was easier for me than a chat with folks. My Grandfather, Father Dragon "The Great", fed my imagination and unleashed my creativity with extraordinary stories about humans.

Mother Dragon used to say "The fact something lives in your imagination doesn't mean it does not exist. You have created it, therefore it exist. Whether your creations have power on you or not depends on what you decide to do with them."

Mother Dragon didn't intend for me to go all crazy but it happened. Orion was not seven bright points in the sky but a human warrior. Royalty needed an escort and Orion was happy to serve me. Not sure when I decided I was dragon royalty. Blame my flamboyant tendencies.

Sir Orion was only the beginning. My dragon princedom needed hosts to command. I started with those that look well in a coat of arms; tigers, hawks, lions, eagles, cougars, and a bear (to hug of course). I also kept a couple ducks and five dogs of different sizes. I came to count up to 23 friendly subjects. I named them all and as a good sire, took care of them and had their loyalty.

One day my dearest playmate, my cousin, got suddenly ill. For what I knew, she had stomach ache but her parents took her to the hospital. I had to go to school so I didn't get to know what had happened with her. First chance I got, I hid in the restrooms and called one of my brave eagles. I commanded my imaginary friend to fly fast and swift and find my cousin wherever she was, then bring me the news. My gaze followed the route of my eagle through the window and I waited. It came back by recess and informed me my cousin stayed in the hospital and her condition was pretty bad, most likely she was going to stay several days. When I came home, Mother Dragon repeated my eagle's report almost word by word. I was dumbfounded.

That was centuries ago and it may have endless explanations but to this day, Mother Dragon's words still echo in my heart:

"The fact something lives in your imagination doesn't mean it does not exist. You have created it, therefore, it exist. Whether your creations have power on you or not depends on what you decide to do with them."

Friday of Celebrations is here and this meme has come out to be such a significant activity in my life that I want to start by celebrating VikLit from Sribblings of an Aspiring Author, who came up with this wonderful idea of a bloghop.  People is always waiting for big things to happen to give them a reason to celebrate, but hey! several small things can really make one big joy, or many.

Besides celebrating VikLit's idea, I am celebrating:

1. I set my goal this week to 1000 words on my WiP. I hit 1,517!
2. I celebrate I was blessed to live in the same time frame than my granddad, Father Dragon "The Great", and that I got the chance to learn from the best the meaning of hard core courage and fortitude. I am celebrating his legacy and the invaluable treasure he left me.
3. Last week I ran 3 miles on Monday and Wednesday. This week I got on that treadmill daily.
4. Yesterday I got on the treadmill in spite of feeling pretty bad. I set myself for one hour, whether I would reach the 3 miles goal or not. I felt sick and thought I wouldn't make it, but then thought on my grandfather, who always resisted to give up to ailments. I remembered the promise I did to him and my determination boosted over the ailment. Sweat ended up mixing with tears but I managed 3.5 miles. This is huge because there was a day I crawled my way over a simple flap of stairs.
5. I celebrate my dragon pride, or stubbornness to never give up. I didn't use to acknowledge my own achievements but this time I am allowing me a pat in the back. Dragon Ancestors know I deserve it.

What are you celebrating this week? The miracle of breathing is worth celebrating too! Join us in the party.

The Daily Dragon - Issue #4

I am here again, your hot reporter, wishing you an excellent productive healthy week. I am going to start with some bloghops announcements. They might not be so new to you but I just ran into them, so they apply as news.

Dani is hosting Express Yourself Meme at Entertaining Interests. In her own words: "It's a goal to help our fellow bloggers get to know one another, to help motivate one another, laugh (or cry) together, in other words - stalk."

Check her site for more information and to sign up! It's scheduled for Mondays, but she says one can post any day if Mondays are just too difficult. She has three different banners and they are all great. This is just one of them.

Nick Wilford is hosting The "Overcoming Adversity" bloghop at his site Scattergun Scribblings. Dates are February 4th and 5th. He is set to create a special anthology to put on sale via Amazon. This is an admirable effort to raise money for the college fund of Nick's stepson, Andrew, who has cerebral palsy.

Theme is: Overcoming adversity for something you believe in. It can be a flash fiction piece, or an episode of your real life. Poetry is accepted as well.

Rules are:

Sign up on the list.
Please keep your entry to 500 words.
Please post on the appointed days.
Keep it family friendly

For more information, please click on the link and visit Nick's site.

Dragons don't use hats, but my Mini-Me does, so *hats off* to Nick and I hope many can join this bloghop and spread the word through the web.

Reminding you (and self) of Annalisa Crawford's Imaginary Friend Bloghop this coming Friday. There is still chance to join and tell about your imaginary friends, if you have one (or one hundred and fifty something) of your childhood (or dragonhoo...err, adulthood).

Father Dragon did the unthinkable and now the A to Z Challenge bagde is actually hanging on the left wall of the Dragon Cave. Still wondering why am I doing this to myself but I will tell you why later. 

In anycase, Sign Up List will be available tomorrow. I have never been in this challenge but I have heard they expect more people than a store door in a Black Friday. (I hope they don't push, but just in case I'm sending Pancholin to sign in my behalf.) For more information about the challenge and the lists click here.

HELP WANTED...

to find a post. Yes, dragon did it again and I misplaced a post. I am nearly sure (or probably  just half-way sure) that I saw it in Shannon's The Warrior Muse but memories are all foggy, and when I went back there, I couldn't find it.

Anyway, it was a post about how the heck one could include the share little buttons on the blog. You know, the +g, twitter, facebook, TNT, CBS, my pretty face stuff. I don't even remember all the buttons but they were more than 5... and square. As a matter of fact, I am not sure what half of them are for, but my dwarf media advisor (Tassin) says we should have them, at least to pretend we actually know what we're doing so...

Any information on the matter will be appreciated and rewarded with dwarf hugs and a table dance by Mini-Me.

I found this ad, and I'm including it just so you note people can come to agreements with red dragons but clarify that I'm not the one referred here.

Any other news you have and want to share, I'll be happy to include it in the next Issue or send me a mail.... or smoke signals if you know the Fire Dragon Code, the MX9000 version, not the 15B.C. That's outdated.