Horror flicks through the walls are still scary

I'm sitting in my living room by myself, minding my own business, putting on my boots, and getting ready to leave when suddenly I hear demon-esque voices coming from the apartment next door. That apartment and my living room just so happen to share a wall, so, hearing things from the other side is not uncommon. However, scary noises and voices that are designed to mess with your head I think are even more effective when taken out of context. That being said, I already can't handle watching horror flicks as it is--they leave me in a state of absolute paranoia for weeks at a time--so randomly hearing a demon voice saying something along the lines of "I will eat your soul" just went over that line of calm verses freaked the hell out.

If only there was a camera...

For a while during highschool, we had a litter of stray cats living on our porch. They were very cute, and two of them were happy to sit on your lap and love on you. The other two would do all they could to keep away from people.

Never the less, I would end up playing with them on a regular basis, me being one of the few people of the household that went outside for any amount of time.

Normally, people think it is adorable to see kitties dancing around, but one day, while wandering my yard, I started dancing on one leg and hopping around while squeaking out a little tune. I turned at just the right moment to see all four cats looking straight at me, their heads all cocked to the right in confusion. It was like it was from a movie.

A blush made its way across my cheeks as I stood there, one leg still kicked forward, arms spread out to keep balance, and lips puckered in such a way as to get the last desired note. All in all, it was an odd moment for both parties involved.

The reason I used to be forever alone

Back in my jazz band days, we had to play at the Miss Ada Pagent. It was a pretty standard thing, though we did the gig for free. Our jazz director, Mr. Angel told us however, "You all need to wear black and a tie."

Okay. Well, normally, this wouldn't be so bad, right?

Switching gears for a moment, my friend Sarah and an acquaintance of hers were going into taco bell. Before they go inside, they see through the window this, "Really hot guy!" He had short, brown hair and glasses, and was kinda tall. Really light skin, too. Plus, he was all in black.

Switching back to my side of things, before going to the pagent, I needed some food. So, mom and I stop by taco bell. I'm by the drinks, waiting on the order when I hear, "Oh God, its Erica!" I turn to see Sarah and her friend. They were a ripe shade of green and red.

Sarah didn't tell me for a while that she and her friend thought I was a "really hot guy!". At the time, I thought it was hilarious....... Now I realize why none of the guys asked me out in high school. I looked as good as they did....

Dad's laugh is the best!

When I was very small, I think maybe six or seven at the time, I wanted to make a play about the nativity scene. It was the middle of the summer, if memory serves me right. I was in my room, even going so far as to write it down in a crude format, most of the words being misspelled (peas instead of peace, and the like.) David came in after I'd started and gave me a hand. He even helped me to finish it.

Now, some things to take into account was that neither David nor I had ever studied the bible in any way, aside from what little we were told about it, being raised in the bible belt and all. So, we thought the Angel of the Lord was a girl... Oops.

So, with the script written, I grabbed a plastic storage box (one of those big enough for children to fit inside) and put it in my doorway as a stage, set up chairs for my family, got my cast of stuffed animals ready, and waited for my audience.

Here's roughly how it went:

Dad and David sat in the chairs in front of my stage while mom viewed from across the room. Mary and Joseph (played by dogs) were plopped onto the stage. Mary said, "Joseph, I'm having the baby. I think its a boy." Out from behind Mary, I shoot out a tiny pound puppy to play the role of the baby.

In come the three wise men, played by other dogs and the shepherd who was maybe a bear. Then, from the sky flies down the angel of the lord, who was a bunny, and says, "You must named the baby 'Jesus'."

Joseph says, "I wanted to name him Bob."

...Dad actually went to the floor laughing on that one.

The swing

There were many times in my childhood that certain blocks of time would be blank in my memory. I found that rather unnerving, but now that I am older and can talk to my siblings about those moments, the blanks are steadily being filled with reminders.

However, what I have never forgotten were the times I would spend playing on an old swing in the yard of a very old house my family used to live in before I was born. The swing was made out of a ship rope that my dad had aquired when my older siblings were kids. He tied the rope between two trees in the yard, and it was really quite nice.

The "Old-house" as I used to call it was falling in on itself, nature taking back what once belonged to it. The house was made out of oak, so it still stands today, though it is not long for this world. While during thw greener parts of the year, the branches of the trees would be so heavy with life that they would create a curtain between me on the swing and the rest of the world. It was a perfect escape for me. (In all honesty, I always thought myself stuck out there. I had friends, but I didn't get to see them all that much. So, I would use that place as a way to leave the boundary of my home.)

That swing came to represent much for my younger self. I would play pretend in worlds of my own creation. I would think of ways to implant myself into the stories of different shows or books I liked. This went on for years. That swing was a gateway to everywhere else. After a while, I could take that same experience with me anywhere I was, which became a distraction at times, but nothing ever was as good as that swing.

In the 8th grade, I developed a childish paranoia that I was constantly being watched, so, ashamed of the idea of being caught playing pretend as a 14 year old, I stopped going to the swing.

One of the trees the swing was attached to was dying, and finally David and Eric took it down. That was a year ago. However, I had developed a story, a world of my own, in that place. It is the same story I've been working on since I was 12. It has been nearly ten years since then, and the story has gone through more changes that I had ever thought it would. It is the story I am currently trying to write down.

Someday, I hope to finish that story, so that other kids in situations like I was in growing up can have a world that they can explore and play in. I want to give to others the spark of imagination, so that maybe life wont be so hard.

Country living part 1

It was a normal thing in my house to see bugs and spiders and other creepy-crawly things. However, there are some places you never want to see one of those more dangerous bugs. For instance, when I was young, I was trying very hard to get to sleep one night when I saw something strange on the ceiling above my bed. I thought, "that is one odd looking june bug." So, I stood up on my bed to get a closer look and preceded to scream bloody murder. A poor scorpion had made it's way into my room to get out of the ungodly oklahoma heat.

Another time would be while I was in the shower. I was going about my business when a giant spider-what kind I don't know-waltzed right on in the stall with me.

It seems he told a friend, because the next time I took a shower, I grabbed the bar of soap only to find a damn scorpion underneath.

However, the bugs that bothered us the most were those stupid moths that eat clothing. We had swarms off those....until two years ago when my parents found a bunch of electric fly swatters. Hardly a thing gets by Dad when he has that thing in hand.

Ding and my hair

My youth was an interesting time. I tried to be many different things. Finally I settled on tomboy, chopped off my hair to almost a copy of David's, and refused to wear the skirts and dresses I wore before then.
One day, Mom and I are going to town to pick up David from school. It was a normal thing, but that day, Mom went to a gas station before we were to pick up David. She needed smokes, or something. Never the less, we pulled up to the window. I was sitting in the back seat, and I waved to the woman who came to serve Mom. Years later I found out her name was Ding. She smiled and waved back, saying to Mom, "You have cute little boy."

I was devastated.

Years later, my hair had gone through a few more butcherrings, and I had dyed it blue. I went back to the gas station with David and his roommate to grab some snacks. It had snowed, so we all wore our heavy coats. I got up to the counter with my stuff, and Ding looked me straight in the face and said, "You so handsome!"

I was crushed.

So, a few weeks ago, I went through her drive through to get a coke only to find the only form of payment I could do was by card. Ding gave me the dirtiest look I'd ever seen, charged me two bucks for a 20 ounce bottle, and it was out of date by a year.

She can't call me a boy again if I boycott the damn place.

>:}