The Photo - edited

I had some time to kill this morning and after boring myself with a few websites I turned my attention to my own document files. I found this piece I last touched on 8/8/12 and thought I might do some editing. I've crossed out unnecessary words, added present tense, and eliminated the word 'She' that started almost every sentence in the second paragraph and the word 'had' that drags down every sentence.

I understand this is a boring post but I couldn't resist showing all my red markings and cross-outs. This is an old piece and I probably should be writing on my new, but what the heck. I  posted it to writing.com in hopes of suggestions in order to learn more. It can't hurt.
Here is the link of the edited short on the site:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1992819-The-Photo

And below is the reworked piece prior to my posting on the writing site.

A young woman decides to take on the mundane task of sorting through a box of old photographs.  It was only supposed to help her pass the time on a lonely evening but finding one particular photo has memories of an old friend the past flooding back to her.

The Photo

At the time that particular moment, she couldn’t have told you what made her go into her closet and take down that old box.  Maybe it was the accumulation of quiet evenings spent all alone.  Maybe she was looking for something that could fill that particular the end of the day without expending any energy.  Maybe she thought it was a good way to try to escape from the permeating melancholy that had invaded her life recently by the moving out of her ex live-in boyfriend.

She didn't have more than a sigh left as far as feelings for that relationship.  It was over and done, she thought, as she hefted the box up, and carried it out of the closet, and set it on her old worktable in the extra room.  She stood over it and opened the flaps.  She reached Reaching in, she and drew out a handful of snapshots. and She held them in her hand as she settled while settling down into the chair she kept at the table.  She was already l Looking at the picture on the top, she movinged it to her other hand and putting it down as she did the same with the next photo and the next.  She placed each down on the table after she scanned it. Soon there was a small pile of photos on the table.

It had been ages since she had gone went through these old photographs.  They were thrown into the box with no rhyme or reason.  There was no order to the chaotic assortment and as she finished looking through one handful, she would reach in and get another mix of pictures.  There she was at 4 years old in this one and then another when she was 15 and older.  Her mother had shoved the box in her arms when she moved away from home.  She had Mom insisted she take them with her.

She had progressed through a good measure of pictures and had them randomly stacked them on the table.  She went in to get another handful and had to stop and stopped to stare at the one that appeared on the top.  There were two people in the picture and she was one of them.  She grinned as she realized she was 18 in the picture.  She knew that immediately.  

She saw the simple county fair and remembered how she had spent the day riding the Ferris wheel and eating cotton candy with her best friend, Gail.  They had planned it together for what they thought of as a childish escape for the now grown two young women.  They had gone went through the fairgrounds trying their luck at stuffed animals and alternating being silly and girlish, to serious and sophisticated when any good-looking boy happened along within their sight.  

They had become  became such close friends and were inseparable from the time they had met freshman year of high school.  They shared all their secrets and talked for hours on the phone in the evenings even though they would spend the entire day at school together.  It had been was that way with them the entire time.  It had was always been easy, and fun, and simple.

She kept thinking of Gail as she stared down at herself in the picture.  It was so long ago yet at that moment it didn't seem so.  She wondered what might be going on with Gail now after so long a time.  She knew she would need to find her old friend and see if they couldn't talk and catch up.  They had been were such good friends.  They had done did everything with each other.

She decided at that moment she would make that call and talk to Gail again.  She knew it had been a long time but as close as they had been she knew they needed to re-connect.  Somehow, something had made her take that box down at this particular time and find that snapshot.

She sat at her worktable and smiled as she stared at the picture. There she was, all of 18 and grinning from ear to ear alongside some boy she didn't even remember that she had met that day. Her only memories now were of the fun and easy times she had spent with her best friend, Gail, who wasn't even in the picture.

Gail had just happened to have brought bring along her camera and had taken take that photo so long ago. 

TT