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!

Hannah's Random Thoughts #16: In'erestin'

Sometimes I just think... Wow! Writers can create anything!

Othertimes I think.... Wow! I can think of anything!

Stillothertimes I think.... Wow! Why can't what I write capture everything I can think of!

Hannah's Random Thoughts #15: The Poem That Is Not A Poem

Isn't it funny
How this looks like a poem
But
It is not.
It is just normal
Writing
But I clicked
Enter
Every
Once in a while.

Because
If I write it like this:

Isn't it funny how this looks like a poem but it is not. It is is just normal writing but I clicked enter every once in a while.

Is doesn't look so poemy
Anymore.

What deep thoughts
I have
When I can't think
Of any
Random Thoughts.

That was
Sarcasm.

I'm so funny.
Oh dear,
I can't stop this
Poem thing.
It was supposed to
End
Three stanzas ago.

But it is kind of fun
To make you read this
Like a poem
Which I guess
It is
Now.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #14: Dreams

If you know me, you'd probably know that I love telling stories, and especially my dreams. I have a few (okay, many) old favorites that everyone's heard a million times and says the plot before I finish the beginning details.

(You: "Oh, yeah I know this one. The one about the bunny." Me: "Grwhasdf!LETMETELLIT")

Well, I also happen to sometimes write down my dreams. My family encourages it so that I don't ramble on for an hour about a little (very "important") detail and I can keep it nice and precise. So I will write out some personal favorites and maybe you'll scream or laugh or smile or cry at them like I do.

And I know this is like a super long post but hey. I find great joy in retelling my dreams.

THE OLDIE-BUT-GOODIES:
-Most of the dreams I retell fit under this net. But I was just looking through my old dream journal and I forgot some of these! But anyway... These are the tales. (Commentary in the [brackets])

The Macarena:
This was at my elementary school's "Luau" and we were dancing in the gym. Some lady that looked like Tonks from Harry Potter started doing the Macarena and Sarah saw her. Then Sarah started really jamin' and Sarah was twirling, skidding, Macaraning [what kinda word...], and she was the best dancer! Everyone applauded and she was star of the show!

The Blue Bunny:
This huge blue bunny hopped out of the black berries and I was scared. I told Sarah to get behind me and I was about to fly but I couldn't. [I had been able to earlier in the dream]. I couldn't yell either.  [So...frustrating.....] Then the blue bunny turned into a lady [she actually looked like Tonks too] and walked in the woods and said to follow her We did and she led us to a glacier and we had to slide down an ice slide and Sarah did it wrong and fell into shallow water and the lady asked if we were hungry and gave us crab. Then she showed us her world. It was all bright and cheery with toadstools for chairs. It was the best dream ever.

Voldemort and Sledding: [Not a dream I retell very often, but I just found it again in the journal and it's kind of funny... soo...]
Sarah and me were lying on the big chair [maybe in our living room] and Voldemort was planting flowers on the deck. [Yeah... about that...] Then we went to the Middle School Challenge Run but it was at Galbraith and you could use sleds. :) Eventually, I finished first on my sled and we changed to the Ski to Sea parade and all the graduates were there and we had to sign their feet. (Mama cleaned off someone's w/ a wipe) Then we went to the attic and a guy had to bring a motorcycle down. It was a great dream!

The Lady Who Stole Us: [If I've ever told you a dream, it was probably this one]
Sarah and I were at swimming lessons and we had just finished and so we got out of the pool and were about to go up to our parents but all of a sudden this lady -a dark brunette with a short bob with bright red lipstick- shuttled me and Sarah away. "Oh, no, these are my children." Sarah and I were scared and we got in her car and she gave us her cell phone but made us not use it to call anybody but we could play Bejeweled. [hehehe] and then she said, "Oh, I have to go get some bread". So we went to this rustic bread store and a 3rd grade teacher from my elementary school (that I didn't have) saw me and Sarah with her and asked us if we were okay and we said we weren't and he made our kidnapper sit in a time out chair. We were free!

SCARY DREAMS:
-Get ready.

Steve-Steve:
Ok, this was like my scariest dream ever. Sarah and I were sort of with the Cross Country team and we had to stay in this motel thing. It was all made of wood and it was out in the woods and it was dark. But we went in and asked for a room and this "nice" old lady came out and told us around and showed us our room. There was her son or something who was called Steve-Steve. [Menacing, I know]. The creepiest part at this point was that she kept saying, "If you hear anything, just let us know. If you hear the floor creak, or a ball bounce, or anything, just let us know." It was like she WANTED us to tell her of noises she and Steve-Steve were going to make to scare us.
So Sarah and I were kind of freaked out but we went down the hall to our room and Steve-Steve was still there and talking to us. But Sarah and I climbed into the bed and just sort of waited for him to leave, but then there was his coffee cup [Starbucks, good choice, Steve-Steve] in the crook of my arm and I so I reached back behind my head to give it to him. I didn't look back but I just reached my arm back. And then I saw Steve-Steve out of the corner of my eye at the side of the bed and instead of grabbing his coffee HE WAS STRANGLING ME! I woke up with a start, as if someone really had just strangled me and my heart was beating really fast and I was really, really scared.

Sarah's Neck:
My mom asked me for a piece of paper from the printer so I went and gave it to her and then I went over to Sarah who was lying on the couch and I touched her arm and she screamed and I was still holding onto her arm and as she was screaming her neck was getting longer and longer and her arm was getting longer and longer as I was holding onto it. I was afraid of what I had done.

MORE RECENT ODD DREAMS:
-These dreams came from a recent time when I wanted to lucid dream and so I recorded a bunch of my dreams to help with that. (Yes, I eventually was able to lucid dream. What fun!) But here are some notes from that:

Homecoming Kix:
I had a dream the homecoming assembly dance was being planned. We all pretended we were pieces of the cereal Kix, and we dressed up as that by putting flotation things around us. In practice we went to a swimming pool filled with milk and videoed (Not the assembly yet, though, just a practice. At the assembly there was no pool.) Some kids were getting Kix blasted in their face [so dramatic]. At the end we were all in this big room eating dinner and talking. [Next year, Juniors, next year this is happening...]

Hermione and the Bat:
I had a dream we were somewhere with Ron and Hermione and I traveled around a lot with them but Ron wasn't always there. The most memorable place was a field with a big group of people all around. One girl was nervous or something and asked Hermione to pray. When we opened our eyes a white dove flew across the night sky [The prayer was answered?] and landed on a tree. My dream-camera "zoomed in" and it turned out not to be a heavenly dove but an albino bat! [Nasty shock right there, I tell ya]. Once people figured out what it was there was a lot of panic. I had my big fluffy blanket on [in the dream and in real life too] and put that over my body. I felt what I thought was a small person step on my back. I froze and people around me gasped. No, it couldn't be. The bat was on my back! I then felt two sharp points between my shoulder blades that hurt a lot! I woke up with my body positioned like it was in that field.


Sweet dreams, folks, sweet dreams.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #13: Learning

I'm not sure when I thought of this idea, but I know I've thought about it for a while.
Sometimes I think what if something happened and I was on an island with a whole bunch of little children and just me and somehow we had to survive, and there was no contact with civilization. Basically it would be as if the "old world" (this current time etc. What I mean is everything before me and the lil' kids got on this island) was gone and I was the only one to have really experienced it.

Other than thinking about if there was a beast on this island, (heh heh might not want to tell *that* story to the kids...) I think when I am learning things NOW like chemistry and history and even everyday things like how to read and what I know of other languages and places and books I've read and famous people and everything I know I try to really learn it "just in case this happens". And I know it won't or anything but I feel like it makes me want to remember things about everything I'm learning. I mean I would have to educate this whole little tribe of kids! I would be like a living World Book Encyclopedia. And if I was to expect any advances in this society well wouldn't sort of have to come from me?

Think about it. I mean, I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, but it took a crazy long time just for us as humans to create sewage systems like we have now, or boats, like I don't even know how to make a boat, or trains or holy cow what about planes, and, oh gosh I don't even want to think about the Internet. Or even things that seem really simple but would probably be really hard to make in reality. Like matches or even paper or knives or hold on, I would be responsible for thousands and thousands of years of knowledge! I mean, I have absolutely no idea how to make a light bulb. So like all the ideas that Edison got and the ideas that inspired the people that inspired him and the people that those people were inspired by would be gone, and we'd have to start hundreds, maybe thousands of years until me and the little ones would ever invent a light bulb.

I don't know if I would say this idea makes me more inspired to learn.. well actually I think it does. I might not be in this hypothetical situation, but what if I was like, stuck in the woods somewhere? What memories of Man vs Wild would I be able to recall? But I do think that it sort of makes me value what I do know, and also makes me feel like there's so much more I could know.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #12: Things I Learned the Hard Way

Listen folks, as you will, allow me to tell you of certain things that I happened to learn in a more difficult way than, perhaps, if someone had just told me.

#1: Plastic is not so different from aluminum.

One time my mom asked me to empty out a bottle of Coca Cola that was in the fridge... I think that she got it from the airport or something. Well, as a dutiful daughter would, I went upstairs and pulled the plastic bottle from the fridge. I was probably around... Oh, nine or so, and I hadn't ever experienced the thrill of shaking a carbonated drink, nor seen the consequences. But, as I took the drink to the sink, something planted a seed in my head that got me thinking. Surely the bubbles only happen when the can is aluminum, after all, it must me some reaction with the metal that causes it to overflow when shaken.

Actually folks, this is not the case. Aluminum is not what causes the reaction, and plastic won't stop it from happening. But, little as I was, these useful bits of information had not yet been gained.

So, the curious child as I was took the bottle and shook it. Everything seem okay. So I unscrewed the lid just as I poured the bottle into the sink. But the Coke did not go down the sink, it actually went all over the place, including some half open drawers that might not have gotten fully cleaned from the disaster.

That is one of those things that I look back on and think oh how silly of me, but, hey, sometimes nine year olds don't quite know how aluminum cans and plastic bottles differ.

#2: DON'T CLICK FORMAT

Another thing that would have been nice to know... If you are playing around on your camera and you've just taken some really nice sunset pictures not to mention a whole spring break load of pictures, then it would be better to not actually click that format button on your camera. It happens to delete all of them, so why it's called format beats me, but if I had known this like all you do now, then I wouldn't have cried. I might have been very happy, actually. What if those pictures made me famous? Well I guess I wouldn't be writing this now and I might not have told you this because I wouldn't have known and then YOU might be famous soon. (So I get the credit guys, c'mon.)

#3: Save. Save. Save. Save.

I don't really want to dwell too much on this one... (To many stressful moments and much frustration) but always save your work on the computer 'cause if you don't..... Well then Papa told ya so.

Other random tidbits: Um, don't eat an orange after drinking milk, uh, it's always a good idea to bring fingernail clippers, bug bite gel, and aloe vera with you on a trip. Hmm.... If you have a sip of water when you have a retainer in and then you go to bed you wake up with worse morning breath than if you take the retainer out to drink the water. (Sorry if that was too gross... It's just one thing if I've found.) oh and spicy food, garlic, and broccoli tend to lead to vivid dreams, at least in my experience.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #11: hee hee

Funny story:

The other day, (actually it was more like several weeks ago), Sarah and I were at school and we were walking down the hall and there was some guy a little ahead of us. He had sort of a big baggy sweatshirt on (you know the type) and obviously a little too big of a shirt because his shirt stuck out from under the sweatshirt just a wee bit.

Sarah kind of laughed a bit and whispered to me "Tuck in your tail, little duck" , and we both quietly stifled our laughter. (That quote is from the Hunger Games. And this certain young man did not seem at all like a "little duck")

I meant to write this a long time ago but anyways there ya go.  

Hannah's Random Thoughts #10: It is rainy and I like it

Last spring break we went to the Grand Canyon but the day before we got there we spent the night in Las Vegas. I remember waking up, looking outside and the first thing I saw was how blue the sky was. I said, "Wow! It's so sunny! Look outside!" and for about 30 seconds I was awestruck at how amazingly blue and clear the sky was.

Then I realized I was not actually in the Pacific Northwest, and in Las Vegas it is sunny a lot of the time.

Ham Fact: Las Vegas has sunny days 80% of the year.

That made me kind of sad, because for me, I would see such a gorgeous day and be really excited and happy but then I realized that people here would wake up and just see a typical sky and probably not even think twice about how awesome it was and just continue their day. So I was sort of sad that nobody else in the city would be as excited about the sky as us Bellinghamsters.

But, today it is rainy and overcast. Welcome to the end of November I suppose. (Although really, this fall has been not the typical crazy windy one we usually get). But I LOVE it when it's this weather. By the end of the summer all I want is lots of rainy overcast weather. I suppose I live in the right place. I just love it because it just feels so cozy and lazy but it could also be wild and adventurous too. It's the best.

I know a lot of people get all sad with all this rainy weather but I like it. I also had a dream last night and I ran outside because it was snowing and the snow was so heavy that if I opened my mouth to catch the flakes by the time I closed it it felt like there was a snowball in my mouth. It was quite nice.
But anyway, hope you like the weather today.

oh and a Ham Fact is just a nice little fact that you can ponder for the day or laugh at or use in an argument someday because they're always true and then you'll win.

Ham Fact: Celeste came up with the name "Ham Fact".

have a great rainy day.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #9: Imagination

This morning I was doing my normal routine, ya know, making weird faces in the mirror and all, and I pretended to fall down on the floor towards the mirror (hey, you do it too) so that my head and my reflection were really close and I thought how weird it would be if something in my reflection was... different....
I think if it was something really subtle it would be the weirdest. Like if an eyebrow was 1/2 and inch higher than it should be and you weren't raising it. That would be weird.

I also was thinking how cool it could be if you could walk into mirrors too. :) I imagine it like the time-turners in Harry Potter... don't let yourself see your self or you'll freak out!

Sometimes when I'm in a car ride and listening to awesome music that makes my heart beat faster I imagine that I'm on a horse galloping away from the bad guys or something.

Sometimes when I am in a very busy, person-filled area (say, the farmers market) and I have a task to complete (say, to get some cheese), I feel like I'm a spy on a mission or in National Treasure...
(Do you know what the preservation room is for? Delicious jams and jellies?)

Or the good ol' run away from the mailbox as fast as you can because the cars passing by are shooting arrows at you and if you don't get to the driveway before the car passes, oh no! That's a good one.

In 3rd grade I remember pretending I was in a movie. I was looking at a poster of a seal and I think I was imagining that the scene of me looking contemplatively at this seal would end and then the music would be dramatic and it would show me 20 years later as a marine biologist or something working with a seal. (Not that I wanted to be a marine biologist, but... I mean... it was a seal.)

Well that's all the thoughts for tonight. I can imagine a lot more I just don't really feel like writing it all out right now.

*giggles nervously, backs away slowly towards door. Lighting dims and antagonist narrows eyes toward Hannah, her head slipping slowly away from view behind the door. Close up shot on antagonists fist, clenched. Door knob turns and door is shut with a soft thud. New scene, Hannah on other side of door exhausted and relieved to be out of the dim room with the scary eyes.*

Now you can imagine whatever events follow. Use your imagination.And don't forget to make weird faces in the mirror.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #8: Memory

I was thinking today as I was eating some Nerds (the candy, guys, not the people), and it was grape flavored. For some reason, that taste brought to my head a picture of me and Sarah really little in the Atlanta Hello Kitty store. So I think we must have gotten some grape flavored candy there, because it just tasted like that memory.

Sparkling apple cider tastes like Christmas Eve. Orange Creamsickles remind me of family reunions. All-dressed chips taste like Canada. I can always remember the taste of those good, Mickey Mouse-shaped lollipops from Disneyland.

A rubbery chemically smell reminds me of some goo Sarah and I had when we were little that came in a pineapple-shaped container. Sometimes when I smell oak trees it reminds me of Atlanta. The crisp foggy air smells like snow and Christmas. A nice musty, lived-in smell reminds me of our old car, "The Explorer". Sweaty hats remind me of Mount Baker.

And on more random notes, I also associate for some weird reason the color yellow with happiness (which is not too abstract) and the letter "e". I have no idea why. But people who's name starts with "e" I just picture wearing a yellow dress or their name in yellow, or something. I don't really know why. Also, it's weird when you see one thing and then you can suddenly remember all of your dream that had that one little thing in it, even if the dream was one that you couldn't remember before. Oh! And then when people hum or sing like, 3 notes, and then you can suddenly think of a whole song (even if it wasn't the song that the other person was humming).

I kind of like it when you can relive all of a tiny memory with a split-second interaction with something random.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #7: Why I Laugh

I really love laughing.

I believe there are 3 general categories of how I laugh (other than a typical haha):

-While running
-With happy tears
-When trying to hold it in

Picture a group of runners, about eight, say, all looking very serious, 3 or 4 abreast running down a trail. Then, a few paces behind is a girl looking back with an embarrassed and annoyed expression. She is looking back at another girl who has several meters of separation between herself and the group. This particular girl is doubled over in laughter, her "heehees" trailing behind her, as her head lolls about her shoulders with an expression of pure insanity across her face. (That girl is me, if you can't tell. And the one looking back would be Sarah.)

One of the best (and worst) times you can laugh is on a run. Sometimes I'll be running and I just have this huge urge to laugh. It's so much fun and so terrible at the same time, because somehow it makes it funnier when you are just laughing your head off behind all the other runners, and then it's kind of awkward after a while. And it also feels like you've done about 100 sit-ups.

My running-laugh is really odd, too, which makes it even more awkward. It is usually really repetitive and weak-sounding, since I'm all out of breath from having to run and laugh at the same time. ("Ha ha ha heeheehee..... Ha ha ha ha heeheehee!.... HA HA ha heeheehee!!!...") I can't ever really tell if the other runners are weirded out when it happens... I sound sort of crazed. (Interjection from Sarah: They ARE weirded out.)

I also love getting to the point when you cry because you laugh so hard. It's a nice when you wipe away tears as you gasp to catch your breath. Proof of your investment in an emotion.

Then there's the good ol' hold-in-every-breath-because-this-is-a-situation-where-you-shouldn't-laugh-anymore type of laugh. This usually happens if I pick up on something sort of late, or else we all laughed about it for a while and I still think it's funny, or it's something subtle that most people didn't notice but you and your one friend are trying to supress the giggles. Sarah and I call this, "Internal Chaos".

But overall, I think laughing is just dandy. Here's some funny stories that make me laugh: (most of these have to do with Sarah)

The Picture
Being a twin has it's odd moments. One of these moments occurred when I was trying to take a picture of Sarah on an iPad. I started to get the camera ready and she grinned, ready for her close up. I opened up the camera app, and, to my annoyance, she had stopped smiling. I just wanted to get the silly picture taken, so I took my eyes off the screen to tell her to smile.... but she was. I glanced back at the screen. Again, Sarah wasn't smiling. As I opened my mouth to say "Can you smile?!?" I realized I had been looking at myself through the front-facing camera but I had just thought it was Sarah. We laughed about it for a long time.

The Bubble-in-the-Throat
So, it just happens that we were going to watch Monsters, Inc. with our cousins. Sarah was feeling like, I don't know... conversation should be started while the previews were still going. She was going to ask if our cousins liked Mike or Sully better, but she only got as far as "Um, so, do you guys," when all three of us (me and our two cousins) looked at her with our eyes wide with a mixture of humor and confusion. Sarah had a ginormous, massive bubble in her throat that made her "Um, so, do you guys," quite funny. To this day I have continue to tease her about it.

The Arm
(Why are all these stories about Sarah!?!) When Sarah and I were little, we were sitting at a table in our playroom with our arms in the middle of the table alternating (Like Sarah left arm, Hannah left arm, Sarah right arm, Hannah right arm). Sarah got mad at me or was feeling silly or something, and she wanted to draw a smiley face on my arm. But she got confused with the amount of arms on the table, (four was a big number back then!), and she drew a blue smiley face on her arm. I escaped unmarked.

The First Drive
The first time I drove by myself, I just did a short drive to a neighborhood up the street. I guess I was feeling all nervous and only focusing on the road, because as I continued down the street to come home, I thought, "Wow... seems like I should have passed our driveway by now..." and I looked out the window as I saw our driveway flash by. But I was going 35mph, folks, and I had no time to stop and turn! After a brief application of the brakes and a heavy bout of laughter all alone in the car, I managed to turn around and make it back home. But I just kept laughing at myself and thinking "You missed the driveway! You missed the driveway!"

Hannah's Random Thoughts #6: Running Lightly

I generally consider myself a fairly quiet runner. I find it almost disruptive when someone's footsteps hit the trails with the same thunk thunk. With quiet feet, the pattern is varied and  changes from inaudible pat-pat-pats to the soft crunch of leaves under my shoe. And I think it's cool when you can be in the forest undetected if you so choose...like a hobbit! :)

I remember reading Hunger Games -I think it was the first one- and I can still remember Katniss' annoyance at Peeta's clumsiness in the woods. After that when Sarah and I went up in our woods or ran somewhere trail-y I tried to Katni-fy my steps. It was kind of fun.

Running lightly makes you feel like a spy or a hobbit or... like you know all parts of the trail with your eyes closed.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #5: Textbooks

As I was reading my chapter for AP US history, I was thinking.... What if the school gave out DVDs of textbooks, and a nice voice read out all of the text (maybe in a British accent!! I find reading in Professor Snape's voice helps me memorize) as the screen showed accompanying images or maybe the text also on screen. 

Then it wouldn't take as long to read and then copy down, you can copy down as you listen! And then at the end of each chapter it ran over the highlights again. It *would* be more difficult to study at school due to less access to a tv, etc, but along with the normal textbook it might be helpful.

 I don't know. Just some genius I thought of as I was doing my homework.

Hannah's Random Thoughts #4: Facebook

I was just thinking what if Facebook had a little meter and it timed how long you were on Facebook? I wonder how quickly you would start to rack up days/months/years(?) (hopefully not!!) and then how people would feel about seeing "So-and-so has spent 6 months on Facebook" on their home feed. I think it would make people go on less. Or at least I would probably go on Facebook less.

 And what if we were "sentenced" by Facebook to spend all that much time AGAIN on facebook consecutively... like in a room with only facebook to be on for, say, 6 months. No sleeping. No real interactions with people in real life. No eating. (Ok, you can eat.) 

I'm not saying I'm quitting my facebook or anything, (Don't worry folks, I'll still be there to entertain you!! ) I just think that people would lose interest in Facebook pretty and really see how addictingly-boring it is.