It's All Toilet Paper To Me

AAAAugh. It is raining, and I can't sleep. I strongly dislike not being able to sleep. When I say "I can't sleep" I seriously cannot. Sometime if I go to bed way too late and can't fall asleep right away, I'll end up tossing and turning the whole night. I went to bed at twelve and by one o'clock I still wasn't falling asleep. I think I eventually went to sleep around 2 but then woke up again soon after because it started to storm. And of course, usually if I don't get to sleep at the beginning of a storm then I be able to for awhile. So now, here I am, awake but tired, early in the morning, and it's dark and raining outside, and I'm hungry. But of course, I can't go downstairs or walk around much, lest I wake up Spencer or Mom, or Winston. Anyway, I guess I'll mention that my grandmother and I went to an auction on Tuesday(I just realized today is Thursday... I cannot believe it's already June 11, this is crazy) where they were auctioning off the possessions of this woman who'd evaded taxes and embezzled and as a result had become wealthy, and now she's in jail for five years or something. So, the auction was pretty interesting, she had a ton of stuff. And it was all super expensive, there was a pair of mother of pearl salt and pepper shakers that cost $160, there was also a large matching mother of pearl bowl(imagine what the bowl would've cost), and five or six decorative mother of pearl balls(bigger than a softball but smaller than a soccer ball) that would've been sitting in the bowl. They all ended up auctioning separately because they only found out there were matching pieces when they were pulled out to sell. (the shakers went for $50, the bowl around $100, and the balls sold around $100, everything went really low) A lot of matching sets ended up selling separately because everything was unsorted and pretty chaotic, you could hardly notice a bowl on one table that matched a plate on the other. The place where they held the auction was full of her furniture and art and other things(picture frames, clocks, glass art, dinnerware, pots and pans, faux flower arrangements, and tons more) and this wasn't even the only sale. There had been a previous auction of some of her stuff, and still after this one that we went to they're going to have an auction selling her clothes and jewelry and purses. Anyway, I didn't end up buying anything, although I could just kick myself because at the beginning, and everything was selling at really good prices, a cultured pearl necklace sold for only $7.50 and I was about to bid on it, but I didn't and I should have!! Gah! Oh well. My grandma ended up buying two large(and heavy) framed photographs. And she got them for a good price, each piece cost $320 originally, she got them both for $175. But now there is the matter of getting them back to Florida. We'll see how that goes.

I Need Strawberries

Well, let's see, on Thursday we had our carpets cleaned so we had to stay overnight at a hotel while they dried. Then on Friday we got back and worked on putting all the furniture back. The house was in quite a state of disarray. Oh, I also made two stuffed animals and a fingerpuppet. On Saturday morning we went to some of the garage sales in the Woodland Springs neighborhood sale and got 8 items for only 5 dollars, yay! I got a hair straightener for $1. Of course, it's not like I really need it, I never do anything to my hair that involves time and heat. I like to avoid the everpresent possibility of burning myself. Then after the garage shopping I lazed around and made brownies. Later, at 4, we went to my cousin Joe's graduation open house. Then when we got home I plopped myself in bed and took a nap. Then I got hungry, got a brownie, turned on the tv, watched random shows and melted my brain a bit, and went to bed. Now it is Sunday, and I'm going to go eat breakfast. Today I'm going to make sure I swim and walk on the monon. I also need to get strawberries because we have cool whip and nothing to dip in it.

This is one of the stuffed animals I made. It is a snail. (the other side of it is reverse in color so the body is gray and the head is brown and pink)

A bird. It has a tail of feathers that are filled with rice as are the feet and the base so that it sits up.

Domo-kun finger puppet! ...sort of.

Don't know what domo-kun is? Look here: domo

This is the other finger puppet I made. It's a plum, sort of.

Oh yeah, one more thing, we were all playing scrabble and I looked up my name in the Official Scrabble Dictionary, and it turns out that I am an asexual reproductive structure or something like that. It has to with plants I think. Here I am on wikipedia ^_^ me ...strange

Got You Numbered

So far the summer is going good. Yesterday we went to the optometrist for a check up, we went to a new clinic to see if we wanted to change optometrists, and it took FOREVER. When we got there at 2:45 Spencer went first and mom went with him so I was left sitting out in the waiting area. For a long time. Okay, it was about 15 minutes so that wasn't too bad, but I got very bored. And they didn't even have magazines to read. So I spent the whole time letting my mind wander... and counting. I counted 72 pairs of glasses and 15 pairs of sunglasses (the selection of frames to try on sat on the other side of the room), which means 174 lenses total, I also counted: 6 chairs, 7 counter tops, 21 windows, 3 potted plants, 3 doors, and 56 checkers on the small race flag that was propped up on the desk. After staring around the room for that long I think I have about every single detail of it ingrained in my mind. Then it was my turn, turns out my prescription changed only a little bit and I have no astigmatism at all. Spencer on the other hand, poor guy, one of his eyes is shaped like a football. His eyes are also apparently very irritated and red or something, allergies they said. Of course, he didn't even notice. I also ended up trying to put in a contact. It went in after a little trouble, but it took me a long time to get out. Like, five minutes long. But anyway, I now have contacts to wear, of course I have to work on getting them in and out some more. Then after my check up we came out and picked out new frames. That's really what took the longest time. We finally left at 5:30. That took almost THREE HOURS!!! I was so hungry when we left! I'm hungry now. So I'll just make the rest of this quick. Today: I did pretty much nothing. The only worthwhile activity I accomplished was that I painted a birdhouse.

And now, here are some pictures:

We also went to the library yesterday after having dinner at McAllister's.

This was painted sometime last week(i dated it, just can't recall the day right now) as requested by my mother. She kind of wanted a Georgia O'Keefe style painting, so this is, eh sorta close enough.

This creation came out of art class when we made paper mache models.

It's a calla lily if you can't tell.

And this is the birdhouse. Cute huh?

Also: our power went out while I was writing this post, and it finally came back on sometime during the night. So this wasn't actually published on Tuesday. So yeah.

Driving Rain

That was a pretty frightening storm last night. I mean, it wasn't that loud or anything, but the tornado warning freaked us out. But ah, the main fear was when we drove through it. Do you recall that I mentioned we were going to dinner with the cousins? Well, we met them at a restaurant in Thorntown, why we traveled 45 minutes just to eat dinner I do not know, and we left around 8:15. As we were leaving the restaurant it was raining, and guess what, a tornado warning siren was going off. So we get to the car and turn on the radio trying to decide what station to listen to for weather, while overhead the sky is gradually darkening. Now it was pouring and we were driving along, getting scared and all that, and it starts to hail. Big loud hail. By this time mom was calling my Aunt Gloria in Zionsville to see if she could check the weather for our area. Instead, our cousin Harrison picked up, he said she wasn't there and checked the weather online for us. So, now the hail had stopped and the rain had lessened a bit but it was still very dark and ominous. We now knew from the radio that the storm was coming southeast and that in Boone County and Marion County funnel clouds had been seen. Great. We were in Boone County. GREAT. So we were in front of or in the midst of a big storm and we were traveling east trying to get away from it. Then my Uncle Hugh(husband to Gloria) called back and it started to hail and rain again so we pulled off. Keep in mind, we're in ruralish Indiana and it's just us, some other cars, and the occasional passing barn. The hail stopped off pretty quickly so we pulled back out and kept going. Most of the trip it was like that, rain/rain and hail/less hail/less rain/more rain again/hail again, and so on. Also, look to the north and it wasn't too bad, just a bit cloudy and darkish, there was even a small bit of blue sky every so often, but look to the south and it was dark. Dark and gray and scary. So then what do we do? We turn south on 421. And guess what, more rain and hail. The rain was so loud and threatening, slapping against the side of the car while the hail smacked the roof. Finally when we were getting closer to home, I'm thinking, "okay so we're good, we're almost there". And then we hear the report that Southeast Hamilton County has a tornado warning. Now wait a minute, that's where we were headed. So instead of going further into a storm we turned on 146th rather than 116th. Anyway, we eventually got home safe and sound after that, if not a little frazzled. We all went straight down to the basement of course. When we turned on the weather and saw the radar we realized we'd driven right through the storm. Fun. Of course, there was only one report of an actual tornado touching down and that was in Lapel, which is what, like 20 miles away from us. Now let me say, this story does not do our little car ride justice, we were really panicking what with the wind and rain and hail and the shaking car and the fact that sometimes we could hardly see thanks to the mist and darkness. What an ordeal.

But now it's sunny out and nice today, and I'm going for a walk. ^_^

Cherries and Sprite

The school year has ended and it's finally summer, I am so pumped! I feel so free! So what are you all planning to do with this glorious summer? Personally, I just want to make sure I don't waste it. Many summers I have spent worthlessly lazing around accomplishing nothing. Nothing. It's a shame really. This time though, I'm going to do as much as I can. (or at least I'll try) We'll see how that goes. I'll definitely be working in a lot of swimming, it's nice to have the pool open again. I'm looking forward to lots of art and sewing and that sort of thing too. Even though our last day of school was just Thursday, it feels really good to have all this free time finally. ^_^ Today I had a truly painful migraine in the morning so the first part of my day was spent in a dark room trying to sleep it off. Luckily that subsided in the afternoon so I headed outside and lounged in the hammock for awhile in the sun. Nice. I also did my nails, it's actually been awhile since I last painted them. Anyway, I have to head off, we're going to dinner with my cousins and I need to catch Spencer so we can gel his newly shortened hair before we go. ;P

In This Infinite Universe

The sun is shining bright and happy through the window into an otherwise dark office. Today is a good day. It's spring and everything is green and happy, we have only 5 school days left to attend, I took the core 40 exam test for algebra(which I was stressing out over) yesterday and today so now that's finished(turns out it wasn't too bad at all), and the only thing I have to do tonight is study for two tests tomorrow. Yay. I'm so extremely excited for the end of the school year. Hurrah! Of course, my days will lack structure and it's unlikely that I'll accomplish anything of importance over the summer other than art, if that even, but that's the point of summer right?

And now:

Nature From The Pastel Cabin

The camping trip was quite successful. We had campfires, went hiking, and did this adventure course tower activity that involved a rock climbing wall, ropes crisscrossed with a rope net at the top to climb up, and some other climbing courses. In all it was a lot of fun. On the hike we went to see a hollowed out tree that a turkey vulture had laid her eggs in. There were some feathers and two pretty blueish eggs with brown speckling on the ends. Very cool. We also saw a lot of these red birds with black wings that were about the size of finches. We couldn't figure out what species they were so I just looked up the description and I'm pretty sure they were Scarlet Tanagers. One more bit of nature we found was a luna moth sitting on the railing of the camp's main cabin area. It was fairly interesting to get to see, even though it didn't move at all for most of the day it was a very pretty little creature. Anyway, the trip was great and we had many animal sightings. Also, I stayed in a cabin that was painted a pleasant yellow on the inside, while some other girls in our troop were in a cabin that had an interior of light pink with a dark peptobismol pink trim which was a bit overwhelming.