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 #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!"