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!