Hannah's Random Thoughts #23: The Rainforest Cafe

As a child, was there ever anything that you liked but you hated at the exact same time? Maybe it was having a capful of hydrogen peroxide poured over a recent cut. (The stinging was AWFUL but the fizzies were nice.) Well, for me, this wonderful/terrible thing was the Rainforest Cafe. 

If we were in another city or traveling or anything, Sarah and I would always want to go to the Rainforest Cafe. I think it was because we liked the fish tank and the animal robots were fun and there were lots of colors and sometimes the desserts had sparklers in them but whenever we got there, the inevitable booming thunder made us panic as the terrifying gorilla screams only added to the cacophony. 

So it is kind of interesting that we always wanted to go there. 

BUT. I have another story that I didn’t think about until I started this one. And actually I should have thought of it, it was so much more obvious. So anyway, we were at the Rainforest Cafe and we went to the gift shop after the dinner. (Ah, yes, another reason why we liked the terrifying zoo.) We were all sort of wandering around in there, you know, trying to avoid looking directly into the creepy tree-lady’s eyes as we dug around her trunk to play with little stuffed frogs. (Seriously, why did we like the restaurant?) 

Anyway, (keep in mind this was after dinner so it was dark and kind of rainy and to make things worse I was far away in like, Orlando. Also I was little, I think I was five.) I saw my mom crossing the street. It all is like slow motion in my head. I see the back of her head, and through the rain I remember seeing the white strips of cross-walk paint. I reached out, about to grab her hand, when all of a sudden, familiar voices cause me to whip back around.

“Hannah… Hannah!” To my horror, my whole family (yes, including my mom!) is still on the Rainforest Cafe side of the street at the edge of the gift shop, waving and crying out to me, whatever it took to get their little Hannah back to safety. Okay, probably not all that dramatic. But I did cry when I realized that I was about to walk away from my family and join this random woman’s life. And the moral of the story is keep your children close. 

Hannah's Random Thoughts #22: Pinkies, Poems, Sweatshirts, and Dreams

So Sarah gave me a nice long list of things to talk about since I haven't written here since... erm... heh heh... November. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, the list is like two pages long so I now have a lot of things to think about. And, as you'll see, it's quite random. So I'll just start at the top of the list and write about a few things. (You'll notice I've changed a few of the original prompts of Sarah's)

A Time I Bit My Tongue  A Time I Rolled Over My Pinkie
To be honest, I can't think of a time I bit my tongue right now. But, actually for some reason this just reminded me of a time in fourth or fifth grade when it was the rollerskating unit in PE and I fell down (big surprise, I know. Turns out Hannah wasn't always as graceful as she is now) and as I tried to push myself up off the ground I rolled over my own pinkie finger. Pitiful. It hurt a LOT too, but I was tough. I think I busted the blood vessel so when I got home I soaked it in an ice bath that was so cold it was almost as painful as rolling over my poor digit.

A Poem I Like
The first poem that came into my head was "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth. I did it for the poem unit two years ago. Just a nice little poem. You should read it.

All the Favorite Sweatshirts I've Had
My trusty Lakeside soccer sweatshirt was a favorite for many, many years. It was far too big when I first got it so it lasted for a long time. It was the central item of my elementary school fashion. Yep. Lakeside soccer sweatshirt, blue jeans, running shoes, and hair in a ponytail. The epitome of Hannah's fourth grade style.

A Dream I've Never Told Anyone About
Well, you don't get many of those. Just ask my family and they'll pull out the 2957 lbs of cassette tapes of my recorded dreams. (I'm just kidding, we don't have a tape recorder.) Although, most of you don't know that last week I had a dream I met Russell Wilson. He was in a wheelchair in a local park. I was with Sarah and my mom and she talked to him and we all had a nice little conversation. Then she raised her arms and said "Strong against cancer?" and he replied with a nod "Strong against cancer." and that was kind of cool and fun.
OH OKAY I THOUGHT OF ONE NOW (see, you get me going on dreams and I don't stop)
So this was a dream I had during the Age of the Great Secret (aka the time when I was writing letters to the Harry Potter Cast for Sarah's Christmas present and I couldn't tell her ANYTHING about it which was SO PAINFUL but also cool because I got replies! Ginny (Bonnie Wright), Neville (Mathew Lewis), and Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps)!!! ARGGHG I WAS SO HAPPY when they came I just felt like my heart was bursting with so much joyyyyy. Okay, back to the story: ) So, during this Age, in the beginning I wasn't sure who I was going to ask for autographs and originally I thought the Golden Trio but I realized it would be harder with all their fans writing too so anyway, during this decision making process, I drempt (Yes, I say drempt. Dreamed sounds weird. Dreeeemeddd. bleck. drempt sounds so much more elegant. Though usually I just say "I had a dream") so anyway I drempt that I met Harry and Ron and Hermione (and I think Ginny was there too) and I told them my secret and they were kind of weirded-out at my enthusiasm which is kind of understandable, but I thought it was cool I met them anyway.

Anyway, that's just three of EIGHTY things Sarah gave me to talk about. So I'll stop there for now.

Thanks folks for reading!

Hannah's Random Thoughts #21: A List

A LIST

-a yellow hollow rectangular border
-a green mug with a chipped handle
-a perfect ratio of tea and sugar and milk
-a window looking out at fog and drizzle
-a grey blanket with a creamy fuzzy underside
-sparse
-ewe
-preface
-Neville
-Penelope
-cul-de-sac
-cerulean
-lemon-lime
-dogs
-horses
-monkeys
-whales
-gilded edges
-"Man, I'm probably really confusing people"
-abcDefgHijkLmNoPQRstUvWxYZ
-0256
-14
-3879

AN EXPLANATION:

-National Geographic. Obviously.
-The mug I drink tea out of every morning. I made it in 2008.
-My definition of a perfect cup of Earl Grey.
-Good Weather
-A blanket that's on my bed.
-I said this word incorrectly a few days ago. As if it was "spare", not "SpAHRse"
-This is just a weird word that actually is pronounced like the letter "U" and not like "Ewwww"
-well we all just read this word, we never really say it.
-I wasn't subjected to many obscure names before I read Harry Potter so I think it's okay I said his name like "Nee-ville". Don't laugh.
-I always say it like "Pen-eh-lope" not "Pen-eh-lo-pee"
-From about third grade to eight grade I could never remember this word for the life of me
-best most awesome color in the Crayola box.
-second best most awesome color in the Crayola box.
-Fun to look at in the World Book Encyclopedias
-Fun to look at in the World Book Encyclopedias
-Fun to look at in the World Book Encyclopedias
-Fun to look at in the World Book Encyclopedias
-Exterior of the World Book Encyclopedias
-My thoughts
-letters I think look better capitalized or not.
-Neutral numbers
-Numbers I don't like as much
-Numbers I associate with being good. (Yes, I categorize numbers... don't you?)

Hannah's Random Thoughts #20: Imaginary Games

Sally and Nally
Sarah and I have a long history of imaginary games. Our first one was probably "Sally and Nally". (We didn't want my name to be Hally, because that actually sounded like a name and so did Ally, and we then decided on the third and last letter of my name, so it had to be Nally. I don't know why it couldn't be a real name because Sally was... Oh well. Sometimes childhood logic doesn't always line up.)

Crystal and Violet
That game was a good one, and as we got older, we developed a new game, "Crystal and Violet". I was Crystal, and I had two horses: Brownie (a brown horse), and Sand (a horse that looks like Spirit from the best movie ever "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron".) Sarah's, or Violet's, horses were Mountain and Pumpkin. Crystal and Violet was a longer lasting game, and thus a bit more three dimensional. There were more characters, like our friends Magenta, Mahogany, Mrs. Flower the teacher, Sammy, and Mean Sammy. Mean Sammy had a horse named Thunder that was all black with red eyes... Creepy. It was a bit like Gaston's horse in Beauty and the Beast. There was also one of our favorite "episodes" (as we called them) of Crystal and Violet, where one of us was Blackie the black lab, and something exciting happened. There was also another episode with Goldie or Sparkles, the Golden Retriever. I think her name changed.

Thorny Prickles
Thorny Prickles was a game that didn't last for quite so many years, but we enjoyed it all the same. Strawberry (me) and Grape (Sarah) went on adventures in the thorny patches of our front gardeny area. The storyline itself didn't go very far, but the name of the game was cute and somewhat Beatrix Potter-esque if you ask me.

Captain Wasabi
This was a "secret" game. The first times we played it we were outside our front door in the same-ish area as Thorny Prickles. We were Sarah and Hannah, on a boat with Captain Wasabi, who was usually played by Sarah but every now and then due to circumstance of the episode, I would portray his captain-ship. (Nice pun Hannah. Captain. Ship. You're so funny.) Captain Wasabi was the greatest captain, full of knowledge, technology (including little communicators that we used our Tomagotchis to stand in for them), and wisdom. He would commission us on special little quests and we would record things in a top secret log book. Sometimes we fished.
Captain Wasabi got his name from me and Sarah looking in the kitchen cabinet and seeing some wasabi snack and somehow that became his name. The first time our parents asked us about "Captain Wasabi", Sarah and I were devastated. How could they know about our secret missions? I guess our shouts calling for Captain Wasabi were indeed audible from inside the house.

The Ladies That Work There
This was actually the name of the game. Whenever our dad worked out in our living room Sarah and I would play TLTWT (sorry, it is too long of a name to write out over and over. I spend a lot of time on these blog posts... But to write all that out? Ain't nobody got time for that!) and we would write down what we was doing and how much and fetch him water and time his rests. This game soon developed into....

Exercise 
Once again when our dad would work out, we started a business doing everything that TLTWT did. Except we could charge... Like a nickel and pass out business cards. Our logo was the smiley face that automatically formed when you did :) on Microsoft Word. We must have just been introduced to it.

Happy Ville and Friendly Town
Sarah and I were very interested in the international relationship between Friendly Town (Sarah's place) and Happy Ville (mine. And the currency was Villes. Not bills. But Villes. Ah, so clever.) I am currently looking at the passports from Friendly Town and Happy Ville and our ID cards ( my ID#: 3808031922) and my Happy Ville Purse, filled with 6 Villes and another scrap of paper that says "Villians: 100". We traded items and set up our border by dividing the family room in half. We sold things like beads and rocks and string.

These of course are only some of the games we played together, not to mention others like Banker, Insurance, Artist's Challenge, Dress Up, Kitchen... Nor does this include the elaborate and long lasting games we developed with some of our friends. Those were good times. When I think of how much we loved playing those imaginary games, I think of (somewhat sadly) telling Sarah during an episode of Crystal and Violet:
"We'll play Crystal and Violet until we're 20, right?"
And being so sure of it. 

Hannah's Random Thoughts #19: Espionage

Sarah and I used to be quite the little spies when we were younger. We enjoyed it to its fullest, taking advantage of our tricky twinness (sort of stereotypical twin behavior... Mischievous yet playful... You know, Fred and George style) and useful smallness (to hide under the beds or in the shoe closet or behind the fake plant with the leaves that are fun to pull off. Heh heh heh) to furiously record conversations and then slip away to report back to headquarters with the observations.

I'll actually let you in on a little secret... In all honesty it has been revealed many a year ago, but not many know of this once-classified information. When Sarah and I wanted to spy after dinner we would say "Y-P-S" and then give a nod or something to show confirmation. This was a code, believe it or not, backwards for the word SPY, believe it or not. Our parents didn't catch on to it until one time our uncle came over and we divulged the meaning (the things you do for family...) of our little clever code.

Our natural gifts of swiftness, observation, and gumption came in handy whenever we ordered pizza. The pizza man, a creature morphing into a new form upon every ring of the doorbell, helped us tune our senses. Our ears sharpened, necessity often forcing us to make judgement calls based on voice alone! Our wits more acute when a stranger's presence showered us in jeopardy! Would the pizza man see us, hunkered down under the ferns, quietly reporting into the walkie-takie? Would we dare poke our heads above the foliage for a better glimpse of this stranger, soon to disappear from our lives forever?

Those were thrilling times, behind those ferns!

So, amidst old notepads warning the reader "DO NOT LOOK", "Looking is forbidden", and "I will roar if you read this" I find the reports of those brave souls on the field.

Spies
A1-Sarah A2- Hannah
.....
A2 is going out to the field. Superb opportunity for us to spy, but also for us to get caught. We are taking the necessary measures into consideration with every move we make.
.....
OBJECTIVE #1
Find out where people are. Go to street, yard, &/or lane to gather more info. 
A1, me, developed Objective 1 by the request of A2. Relaying info now. A2 has copied and will try to complete.
A2 returns to base.
A2 will go to b,room,
.....
end of mission
aborted mission

Know the lingo: 
PM- Pizza Man
S- Sarah
H- Hannah
BP- Backpack
M- Mama
restaurant- an area in our yard where we used to play like it was a restaurant

Pizza Man Spy Record {original spelling mistakes and scratch-outs included in report below. First paragraph is written by Sarah, the rest is by Hannah}

idea for PM: Becuase S is using a pen with bubbles, why not blow w bubbles?! H agrees. S will blow bubbles H is getting a pen so I can blow bubbles while she writes. Wind blows while H gone S is SCARED! It's been more than 30 sec. ons and H isn't HERE!!! How hard is it to find a pen? H is back. Leacage on BP!

Flimsy Bubbles. S says wimpy. Plan fails. S is sad. S puts BP in House. Airplane above. or is it something else? S is back. S is now recorder. Never mind! OK. :P I don't want to record. last PM was in a red truck. Maybe red truck or white. Probably. Found a snail shell. Empty? I think so. I hope. we hear noise from-- Whoa! H finds stick because S needs one. Heavy,must be heavy. goes over to restaurant. S uses stick to B ol hold ferns down so we can see. Slow car coming. This might be it. False Alarm. car goes up to neighbor's driveway. H and S must be quite for neighbor. IDEA! PM comes (he's Here) M says Yes, Blue-Black car. S growls a cougar growl!!

Yeah, we always tried to scare the pizza man... frankly I don't think Sarah's animal noises did the trick.
Anyway, spying was a blast.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #18: this was actually a random thought

So, I must confess, these "random thoughts" are not really super random. I usually think about something for a while and then when I have deemed it blog-worthy, I write a post. But this one really is a random thought.

Sarah's older than me.
But I am Sarah's oldest twin. I am also Sarah's youngest twin.
I am Sarah's only twin. I am also all of the twins that Sarah has.

A bit of a paradox if I do say so myself.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #17: The Past

Sometimes, when I read or watch something from another time period or a different place, I think about how awesome it would be to live in those times.

I read books or see scenes of farmlands and I think, gosh, seems so rewarding to be a farmer! Then I read a little bit more about the Dust Bowl and I feel the need to change my shirt of something because all I've been reading about is dust and dirt and grime and I suddenly feel like I'm just as covered in dust as the people in the story.

Then I watch good, lovely shows like Downton Abbey (Oh.... Downton Abbey....) and I think YES! I DO want to be in that time period! Such good clothes, so fashionable! What lovely accents and manners and ways of life! And, while the war certainly did change a lot of things around Downton, it still seems like such good place to live. It seems so fun. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

I wonder (and I'm sure it's true) that people, from whatever time period, feel like they'd rather be born in another time or place. I mean, think of how many people have thought about time travel. Not me. I don't want to time travel. Especially not in the future. But, yes, going to the past probably would be fun. I wouldn't really want to travel to the future. It would probably scare me. But the past! Now, that would be an adventure.

I bet probably lots of people for all sorts of time think they would rather live in the past.  But if you think about it, if we all lived in the past.... well I'm sure some time periods would be more populated than others. Like, not many people would want to go to the Middle Ages. At least I wouldn't, but maybe some Middle Ages historian can see past the bubonic plague. I think the Twenties would be fun (that's the Downton part of me talkin').

I guess nobody can go back into the past. But we can read books about it, or from it, or watch movies. Like it or not, I guess that's as close as we'll get. I sort of like it. All the comforts of home and still, able to sort of experience whole eras and places!