The Horror!

It’s a Monday night. 7:48pm. The sky is a dusky overcast, and all is as usual inside the house. The teenagers are merrily camped out in front of computer screens, television sets, and video games while I’m up in The Fort, fruitfully spending time on face book.

Then, without warning….

….. lights flicker ….

...... Scream emits from somewhere downstairs .......


*The room goes pitch black*


“THE POWER IS OUT!!!!”


Another scream - “THERE’S. NO. INTERNET!!!” (no, it wasn’t me! Surprisingly.)

Ellie - “But I need to use the bathroom!”
Amanda - “There’s STILL no internet!”
Celia - “Why don’t you guys just go to bed?!”
Ellie - “It’s only 7:30!”
Faith - “How do you know?!””

Ellie creeps out into the hall, timidly calling out “Amanda?? Where are you?” as though lost alone in the forest at night. Faith finds mining-hat like light, straps it across her forehead, and ventures out into the darkened house - mostly to show everyone else her headlight so they can be jealous. Ellie calls random friend to ascertain that their power is out as well., because who can be bothered to look out the window across the street?

TJ - “Let’s go to a movie!”
Celia - “The power could be out there as well!”
Faith - “Dude, I would be SO pissed if that happened to me! Not risking it!”
Billy - *snores*
*random crash*
Billy - “I’m awake!”
TJ - “Flashlight!”
Billy - *snores*

Gizmo the ferret dog is confused by the darkness and loud noises of people talking and walking (suddenly much louder without the attic fan, room fans, heating, and television noises to mask it) and growls continually while Ellie and Amanda discuss the horrifying possibility of having to shower in the dark (no towel heater!).

“But…but what do we do?”


So, what DO children do in these modern times without electricity? Read a book by candlelight? Tell ghost stories, go outside and engage in some kind of three-dimensional sporting activity, or, heaven forbid, with the absence of constant electronic stimulation, be forced to actually talk to one another in some sort of family bonding time?

The answer is, of course, is that they talk on their cell phones and watch movies on their portable DVD players! Because those were thankfully charged.

Crisis averted. But it was close.

Besides being confused as to what does and doesn’t work without electricity, and hitting up the parents for Itouches (because THOSE would still work without power…so long as they were charged), we got through the power-outage just fine.

Until I realized that I was missing Heroes.

THE HORROR!!!!!


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Of the Moments:

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
Song - "1,2,3,4" - Plain White T's
Quote - Ellie's "But I have to use the bathroom!" during a power outage (see above)

Today in random poetry/musings

And now, a poem, by Faith:

Rain Rain Come Today
Don't make me wait another day
Rain rain come today
Please make my world dark and gray
So I can sleep today
It's National Rain Day! Everyday!
Hey, hey, hey....yay rain yay

"Forget Miami, I'm moving to Forks. I still want my raincloud with lightening bolts and gusts of wind over my bed so I can sleep at night. I could wear a pancho when I sleep, build onto The Fort with a tent. And then combine it with a movie projector! It's rainatopia!
There should be a National Day of Rain, it should bless us all over the United States. It'd be my favorite holiday. RAIN! Wooo. Yeah! Don't forget your umbrellas, it's national rain day, yo! It's what I'm going to do when I become Governor of Forks. Where do Easter Bunnies come from?" - A very "punchy" Faith, who then falls asleep.

Well, it's not quite up there with the ubiquitous "RNE4EVA" poem, but then, what is?

Quote of the Moment: "Seattle is a state, Washington is a CITY. Duh. It's by the province of Vancouver"

Song of the Moment: "Boom, Boom, Pow" - Black Eyed Peas. 'Cause I have the music tastes of a 14 year old and that song is catchy!

O Happy Day!

Yes, it is a Happy Day. One every unemployed college grad dreams of - I was approved for a deferment for my student loans!

Besides being a huge relief, it comes on a night when I really needed a pick-me-up. God is good.

I promise a real update is coming soon, it's in draft form right now... lots to catch up on. And maybe a day-in-the-life-of-a-sub kind of thing. Exciting stuff, people!

Happy Birthday To Me

For the big 2-4 I decided to take a trip back home to Chattanooga to hang out with my family. Doesn't sound that exciting to some I suppose, but I was thrilled. I'm a very blessed person in that while things aren't always perfect, my family has always been close and we get along well together - we have the same sense of humor, we make each other laugh, and genuinely enjoy each other's company. Not too many families can say that, I don' t think.

The trip up last Friday afternoon was rainy but uneventful - but I don't think I've ever been so excited to be home. I got home around 4 and my mother was still asleep - when she woke up, she was so happy to see me that she didn't even have her Disgruntled-Hour-of-Just-Woke Up-So-Don't-Talk-To-Me-Get-Me-A-Soda-Now-Angsty-ness. Trust me, that's love.

My actual birthday was three days later, that Monday, and I scored from the parents: two Cubs shirts, pajamas, some new books, Heroes DVDs (thanks Dad!), cash, some pretty green nail polish from Ellie, and gas money for my trip to TN from Aunt Celia and Billy (thanks again!). It was a wonderfully quiet day spent in my pajamas doing mostly nothing - we ordered Chinese, had sinfully delicious cheesecake, watched movies and, yes, snarked at TV shows. It's what we do best. Some families have "athletic talent" or "artistic ability" - my family makes hilarious sarcastic jokes at the television (probably more amusing to us than others, but still). It's a rare and under-appreciated gift.

My five days went by all-too-quickly, I already miss home again terribly. Four hours is so far! I definitely need to be on the other side of Atlanta, at least. That umbilical cord only stretches so far. And only a few months until school systems start hiring for the next year! A few...four or five...whatever.The trip back was really nice though, beautiful weather, little traffic, and a gorgeous sunset that followed me back to Warner Robins. It's finally starting to feel like Fall here!

There's not much else to update on - besides everyone failing my "how well do you know me" facebook quiz, there was a misguided 2 hours spent in the truck with Faith and Ellie, wandering around Central Georgia the other night, including a foray into the rather seeder parts of Macon, but that's another story for another blog entry. I'll just tell you that the phrases "Corn! Why is there corn?" and "Gas THIS" were said, and let your imagination chew on that for a while.

Let's see, what else. Today at church we had a guest speaker who was a white South African, you know, with a British accent, and everyone knows how British accents make me happy. In other news, trying to find substituting work is going paaaaaaaaaaaaaainfully slow, but it's a good lesson in patience if nothing else. Also, don't see the movie Quarantine (unless you're Nick, but I don't think he reads this, sooo) unless you really like shaky camera work and gory horror movies where every single character dies. It would probably be fine on TV but not on the big screen, as poor Aunt Celia can attest to.

So. . . is it Thanksgiving yet?

Phrase of the Moment: "YAT-TA!" - Because Heroes, and Hiro, are awesome. Yes, Rachel, Sylar is awesome too.

Quote of the Moment: "We're being split up, you know, plugs in one car and outlets in the other." - Aunt Celia. Ha!

Video of the Moment: - New Harry Potter 6 Trailer! Yes, I'm excited. Hush up with your "But it's still 8 months away".

A day at the fair

So last Friday night Faith decides we need to go to the Georgia state fair. I love fairs, I think it's all the bright, flashing color lights - it suits my ADD or something.

We actually found the fair with little drama, mostly because of my getting lost in Perry previously, and we beat the evening crowd, also a plus. We first stopped by the horses and a strange number of farm-related displays for a non-Midwestern state to a very nice guy who conned us out of ten dollars and our confidence in our ability to throw a tennis ball into a plastic tub from five feet away. We also scored some cool sunglasses.

After wandering through the indoor displays we come out and Faith decides she wants to go on some rides - across the entire fair, probably a quarter mile. So, in a moment of insanity, we get the bright idea of taking the SkyGlide across the grounds instead. Sure, I'm completely and utterly terrified of heights but it's not like those things go especially fast or high (or so it looked from the ground).

Pushing my sense of foreboding aside, I gamely took my seat in the bench next to Faith. Five seconds later we're ten feet up in the air and I'm already white-knuckling it, one hand clutched to my purse like a security blanket, the other to the railing, telling Faith that this "really, really, really, really, really isn't a good idea". Then the total panic sets in as we rise to a good 20 feet above ground - I recite the Lord's Prayer in my head and stare resolutely at the purple bench ahead of me, willing myself to survive. Trying to pay attention to anything but how HIGH we are and how out in the the OPEN we are, and how there is a BREEZE rocking our seat. AND the rickety, creaky cable that separates us from CERTAIN DEATH.

Lemme tell you I can still recite every detail of that purple bench ahead of me and the guy sitting with his toddler aged daughter - his own KID - in a yellow bench ahead. The only thing I can imagine to make this scenario worse is also being responsible for a small child in your lap and worrying about THEM falling over as well. I tried to relax and enjoy the scenery but to no avail, mnostly I kept reminding myself that if I screamed hysterically for the fair workers to "GET ME OFF THIS RIDE RIGHT NOW" or passed out, that would probably be embarassing for Faith. You're welcome, Faith.

I think the worst part was that we were just sitting on a bench - if it had been enclosed I would have been okay (well, probably not) - but no, your legs just dangle down from the seat. DANGLE, people! In the air! TWENTY feet above ground. Plus I had to worry about keeping my slip on shoes, you know, on. Stress! Every few years I need an experience of total terror to remind me what a complete acrophobe I am. Thanks to Faith, I'm now good for the rest of my life.

So after the longest three minutes of my entire life, during which I could only muster one-word responses to Faith's observations (while being so tense and stressed that I could't even turn my head to look at her - if she had touched me I would have probably have screamed), we randomly run into some friend of hers from school and then come across a ride called the Super Himalaya, which I took a pass on but watched Faith ride. It wasn't high (or even off the ground) but looked nausea-enducing. I'm not much of a theme-park-ride kind of person, if you haven't noticed yet. But all-in-all, a good day at the fair -sans SkyGlide of course. It is made of EVIL. Taunting us chubby acrophobes with it's slow speed and 'safety railings'. AS IF.

Quote of the moment: "Did you know hot chocolate is hot?" - Amanda, who was thereafter banned from talking at the Sonic drive-thru.

Song of the moment: Oh No You Didn't! Didn't you? Oh no!