tea time

just hangin' with Naja and some shadowy guys, nothing weird about that nope.

Oregon Coast

When I was little, I told this girl in my class that I liked this one boy. This girl was new to the class, and none of us had known her very long. I don't know why I deemed her trustworthy with such an important secret. I guess it was a show of good faith or something because she was new and didn't know anyone, and I felt sorry for her. 

That was when I learned my first lesson in being careful who you trust

The secret didn't stay quiet for long. I'm pretty sure it was just the next day when she broadcasted it to the entire world, aka: everybody in the lunch room. I remember it like it was yesterday.

That was a big lunch room. VERY ECHOEY. It housed grades 1-3. The lunch tables were long, and every class was assigned a certain lunch table. A lot like Harry Potter. 

Within seconds the whole school was alerted that Katie was sitting in a tree. It was a secret no longer. The whole lunch table sang and laughed, and then the rest of the lunchroom chimed in. And they didn't even know who we were but boy they were having fun singing about us. When somebody sings, you have to join, right? They were like birds, singing their bird call. SITTIN INNA TREE. SITTIN INNA TREE.

Then they started in on doing a round. Ohoho. How musically talented you all are. Yes. What good fun. 

From that day forth, she was deemed the Girl of Evil and I never spoke to her again.

After that, the little boy mostly avoided me.

BUT. He did give me a really nice valentines day card one year. It was origami. THAT HE MADE.
I THINK I was the only one in the class to get an origami card. So, at least that was my consolation prize.  (Maybe. Unless he gave origami cards to everyone else.)

Origami! So cool.

I know in life that sometimes we have up times, and sometimes we have down times. And sometimes we have vibratey times where it's up and down so fast it's like a vibration. The trick is not to take the down times too hard. What goes up must always come down, but then it always swings back up again. Everyone goes through this life in cycles of up and down. Sometimes the down times last a long time, but they will always end in some way or another, giving way to a good time or two. The trick is to let the bad times pass through you, don't dwell on them or hold on to them. You don't need them. They only make the bounce back up slower and heavier than it needs to be.  

Hibernation

After moving back in with my parents and getting a job where I felt completely inadequate, I sorta fell into this weird hibernation/slump thingie. It's like I had NO ENERGY. EVER. AT ALL.

After dragging myself along at work, I would come home, lock myself in my house, turn off my phone, and zone out / nap. 

Other people just sucked more energy out of me, so I avoided them at all costs. 

At work I was a zombie, I would just do my job, and then go home.

I know it sounds mean, but listening to people talk really affected me in a bad way. I had the same problem with music. The peppy, high-energy songs that I used to love now zapped what little energy I had. I had to listen to more mellow songs. Not sad songs, but less energetic ones.

EEEEUGH. 

I didn't think it was depression, because I've seen Cymbalta commercials, and I wasn't like that poor complainy soul on the commercial who was sad all the time.

I was not sad. Not really super happy, but not sad. The biggest thing they drill into your head during that commercial is "depression hurts". So that was what I was looking for. Hurt. And since I was feeling no pain, then clearly I wasn't depressed right? Just very very tired.

I certainly didn't have enough energy to think about the important things in life.

As you can probably guess, my lunch breaks were spent in my car, away from everyone, napping.

Then one day, I sorta just woke up.

"you mean she actually has a personality?"

And so I went back home to do my normal hibernating thing. As I was laying there, I realized I was not really that tired. ...What??

So I just sat there with my thoughts. And I was like "Huh. Has it really been like... two years since I've gone outside, or interacted with other human beings of my own free will???"

"I should go talk to people. And do stuff."

"But what people? And what stuff...??"

"How"

"Where do I start"

It seemed that while I was hibernating most of my friends moved away. I must have slept through it all.

But now I'm at that awkward stage. Because I haven't used my social muscles in so long, it turns out I have no social skills. Beyond poking needles into people. 

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

So for now I'm just bored.

The Scariest Roller Coaster

When I was a teenager I went to a local theme park with my family. I was really excited to be going, and I equated this outing with the beginning of summer vacation, so I decided to dress for the occasion and wear sandals for once in my life. I was going to be whimsy.

I never wear sandals, even during summer. I think I have something against getting my feet dirty. But this time it was a special occasion, so I decided to "let it all hang out" and wear sandals.

It ended up being cold and rainy there, but hey, I'm an Oregonian, we can handle a little rain and cold. Wearing sandals in this weather wasn't going to kill me. This is just the sort of thing we Oregonians do.


My family and I wandered around the park for a while, and then we found ourselves at the theme parks ONE ROLLER COASTER. And this thing shouldn't even qualify for a roller coaster it is so boring.

But this whole theme park trip was turning out to be even more boring than the roller coaster, so I convinced my little brother to go on with me.

We climbed into the log/car and the ride attendant plopped my (at that time) much smaller little brother on my lap and pushed down the bar and sent us on our way. 

We scooted down the track for a while, waiting for the ride to pick up, but it was going nowhere fast.

That's when I saw it. 

the THING

THE BUG THING. 

OMG.

It was down by my vulnerable and overly exposed foot. I felt it brush up against my big toe and I looked down and saw it. I couldn't tell what it was because it was dark and shadowy down there, but all I could see was that it was big and black and shiny and it had long legs. 

Then it scuttled into the light. IT WAS THIS HUGE, FREAKISH THING. It glistened in the sun. AND IT HAD MANDIBLES.

This bug was like something out of Metroid.

Oh how I screamed. We inched slowly down the track, me, kicking and screaming, the entire way. THERE WAS NOWHERE TO RUN. I was pinned to my seat by my little brother and the bar and that was holding us down.  And Jordan did not seem to notice or care about the horror I was experiencing.

Then the thing scurried ONTO my foot. When I close my eyes at night I can still feel it.

For a moment, it was just me and the bug. Everything else melted away.

I WATCHED, HORRIFIED, AS IT DREW ITS FANGS, AND BIT ME. 

IN SLOW MOTION. 

I don't think I've ever screamed so loud in my life. 

As I shrieked, we passed by this roller-coaster-life-guard guy standing on a platform-watchtower thing. He stared at us as we slowly inched by, disinterested. 

I somehow made it out with my life. But my foot and my leg itched and burned for weeks after that.

Portland

Be warned, this is almost like an obnoxious instagram post.

Zoi and I went to Portland last week. Other than the parking ticket it was actually a really cheap trip. We did and saw a lot, and I think it ended up being under $30. The only thing was the parking, but with a little practice I bet I could become a saavy portland-parker and not have to pay very much, if only I knew where the good parking lots were.

..

We were going to try Apizza Scholls, but it was closed. But Zoi, with her quick Google-thumbs, found another pizza place that had much higher ratings, was in the same neighborhood, and was way cheaper. 

Portland Aerial Tram: $4

Pyro Pizza: $7

Japanese Garden: $7.50

Hot Chocolate: $2.50
Zoi, I think we spent more at Olive Garden a few weeks ago than we did on this trip. Go us!!

According to Yahoo! News, Stumptown Coffee Roasters was voted to have one of best cups of hot chocolate in the nation. So of course we had to go there first. It was very yummy- and they drew a little leaf in our drinks. Shmancy!

We got rained on while we were at the Japanese Garden, but it decided to start raining right when we sat down in a covered hut/barn thing. After sitting around for a while we decided to brave the rain- and just as we stepped out the rain stopped. So that worked out.

Between the two of us, we took almost a thousand pictures. It was hard to narrow them down to just these, because there were a lot of good ones.
Also, I want more pizza.