Like A Bad Horror Movie....

Pain...it's such a horrible thing! It's like in those bad old horror movies when suddenly there's the EEK!!! EEK!!! EEK!!! sound and there are these stupid people sitting there doing nothing but half covering their faces with their spread out fingers while the camera zooms in and out on their looks of horror as something big and black swoops down on them. I mean, you'd think that they'd have the sense to at least try to run away or something. The worst though, is when they know something is in that big scary house and they go inside anyway! Don't they have at least half of a functional brain? Ok, so that's off the subject. Anyway, I've realized that sometimes the helpless, spreadfingered little saps often don't have much of a choice even though they know of the pain that's coming towards them at a very rapid pace. When I was placed in that situation, that's pretty much how it was with me....only slightly worse, because I thought that the pain wouldn't be all that bad.

I'm probably not making any sense, so let me clarify....braces. When my dentist said the words "Hmmm...maybe we should consider braces for you...." I actually said (as hard as it is to believe) "Yes!". I know. I'm a typical sap. The truth is, though, it had always been a hope - dare I even say a dream - of mine that one day I'd get braces. You know, to straighten out that incredibly annoying gap between my two top front teeth. I also liked the way people talked with braces and retainers....I was so young...so innocent....so unbelievably stupid. Braces as a whole experience weren't actually all that bad. Granted, getting them tightened was the pits, but really...what can you do? And my teeth are now beautifully, stunningly straight and white. Yay, right? WRONG! Because I knew that the braces were going to hurt, but nobody ever said that getting the stupid retainers were going to kill my mouth as much as they are!

I know what you're thinking. I've only had this rare form of torture for a total of about seven hours...give it time and you'll get used to it, right? I think it's a horrible thing that nobody informed me that after the braces the retainers were going to be the pits. So here I am with one retainer permanently (or at least temporarily permanently) stuck inside my mouth with what feels like rubber cement on my bottom teeth. On my top teeth I have what's supposed to look like a watermelon but, thanks to the shape of certain wires, looks like a ladybug that flew into my mouth and got stuck there. My teeth ache, my gums are sore, and the next six months appear (from this particular point in time) like they aren't ever going to end. And then after that six months of non-stop retainer wearing, I have yet another year of only "nighttime" retainer wearing. Gah! I dunno what I did to Dr. Barry, but I'm warning you right now....don't mess with him! He has forms of torture that you wouldn't believe. I'm telling you - BEWARE OF THE PAIN!

Singin' In The Rain....Or Dancin'!

This summer while I was sitting in one of my chemistry classes, (sigh) my teacher informed us that we were all going to have to write a short paper. After all of the many groans and protests, she told us that all we had to do was think of two questions about anything in the world that we didn't understand and that we wanted to know the answers to. We had to include a few short sentences about why we wondered this, so that she had some idea as to why we were asking that particular question.

My question was one that I've wondered for a very, very long time, because, quite frankly, I don't think that it's fair. The question that I wanted to know the answer to was: Why is it, that here in Provo, UT, we never experience rainstorms? Now, I wasn't talking about the skimpy pathetic little sprinkle showers that we get occasionally. I know that we have those. I'm talking about the kind of rain that you see in the movies; the kind that you run out in and within seconds you are soaked to the bone. The kind of rain that you can't see further than a few yards in front of you. You know...actual rainstorms.

My question never was answered in the chemistry class - I suppose that my teacher was as stumped as I appear to be. The rain is my favorite kind of weather, but only when you get that earth shaking thunder and the lightening that makes it looks like it's noon. Finally, after so much waiting since the last one, today I got a glimpse of that. Ok, so the actual rain only lasted for about seven minutes, but still! There was rain! I ran outside and just by standing on my porch I got wet. I stood down in the thick of it, and by the time it was over my hair was dripping and my clothes were darker in color than the manufacturers had intended them to be. No lightening, but plenty of thunder and that seven minutes of heaven.

I pity the child that lives somewhere where he or she can't experience a thunderstorm like that, no matter how infrequently they occur, where they can just drop whatever it is that they're doing and run outside barefoot to dance around in the rain.

That's probably why my favorite quote is the one that some wise old person said, "Whoever said sunshine is happiness has never danced in the rain"!

Start Of School

How is it even remotely possible to dread something to the point of tears and yet be so excited about it that you feel like your about to wet your pants? The start of school never ceases to amaze me. I have exactly six days, eight hours, twenty three minutes, and fourteen seconds before I will be sitting in a cold desk wondering what my new teachers are going to be like and wondering just how much I'm going to have to suck up to them to get those hard earned A's. Just kidding.

But seriously, how can it be that school is starting in less than a week? My fellow summer school prisoners can agree with me that it is very not fair that we just got out of the classroom and are now forced back into it. Not that I'm complaining - at least this year I didn't have to suffer through the few weeks before school starts when you're almost tearing your hair out because you have absolutely nothing to do. Still, it's going to be a bummer to go back so soon.

There's something about the first day of school, though, that is strangely exhilerating. It's a new start, a new beginning. In some ways it's like the year before never happened, and you're starting with a clean slate (or a new spiral notebook), ready to learn new things. In other ways, though, it's interesting to know that the kid that threw up on your desk in second grade is still going to be making frequent trips to the principal's office.

The one good thing that you can count on without fail, however, is the back to school shopping for school supplies. Maybe it's just me and my crazy, mixed up lifestyle, but there's something about the smell of newly sharpened pencils and a notebook that's just been opened for the first time that makes everything worthwhile. So even though I know that by the second week of September I'm going to be marking down the days until Christmas vacation, school is starting to look fun to me. I'll see all of my old friends, and, with a little luck, I might just be able to get by without running into barfer boy.

"Wicked"ly Obsessed

I have to admit that I have listened to the CD of the new broadway musical "Wicked" about a thousand times. It's one of those things that no matter how often or how loud the people around you grumble because they will simply DIE if they have to listen to Glinda's ditzy voice singing about how popular she is one more time, you just can't seem to turn it off! It's like in the movie "You've Got Mail" when Meg Ryan tells Tom Hanks that she's read the book "Pride and Prejudice" about two hundred times and every time she reads it she's in agony over whether Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (who's first name still appears to be "Mr." no matter how many times I watch the movie hoping they'll slip out his real identity) are really going to get together! I have to agree with Meg that no matter how well you know the story, you still sit there shaking in anticipation to hear it unfold into all of it's amazing wonderfulness.

I will proudly admit that some of my neighbors, friends and, yes, miraculously, even a few family members are now completely hooked on the story of Elphaba, the not-so-wicked witch of the west, thanks to my constant babbling. One of my older sisters even got so sick of my obsession with it that she finally consented to listening to it on the way to a family reunion. Much to my dismay, I rode home with my brother-in-law in a different car and couldn't retrieve the CD from her last night. She came over today, though, and when I asked her for it back when she came in to say goodbye the response was, "Dang it! I knew I should have just left. Do you really need it back tonight?" Yes, my amazing attempts at showing my family where TRUE happiness lies have paid off. Only two siblings and a grumbling father have so far dodged any attempts I've made at showing off the grand story. Still, I'm sure that in time, thanks to my excellent sterio and not so amazing piano skills, it's only a matter of time before it'll rub off on them.

I had the grand opportunity of going to visit one of my "converted" sisters this summer to actually SEE the play, and, though I won't go into all the details because, knowing me, it would take HOURS, I will say that the person that dies without seeing it has my eternal pity. I still can't talk about going to see it without hyperventilating. It's only been two and a half weeks since I saw it, though, so hopefully within the next year or so I'll be able to tell it in a way that is coherent enough for people to pick out the major points.