Erika Wallace (or It's a Small Small World)

It's been a while, I will admit that. Here's a story for you all.

Two summers ago I went to an improv workshop. While I was there the instructor told me a story about the time he made a fake eHarmony account under the name Erika Wallace and basically messed with people. Fast forward a year and I get a friend request on Facebook from none other than, Erika Wallace. I don't accept but I don't refuse either, vaguely wondering if this is related at all to the story I had been told.

As it turns out, yes. I was going to that same camp that summer and the next day during break I see him talking to another teacher about something on the computer. I take a shot in the dark.

"Did you get a friend request from Erika Wallace too?"

He's surprised. "Yeah!" He answers. "Do you know who it is?" I don't. We suspect it was one of the other kids from last year and move on. Sort of...I don't forget Erika. I look at the request every single time I get on Facebook. Erika and I have a mutual friend. She went to the camp as well, so I don't think too much of it. Still I am unwilling to answer the request. It stays pending for months.

Then, today I see the number has changed. 

Two Mutual Friends

Further inspection shows the unexpected. Earlier in the year I had come across a girl on Lamar's swim team who I had wanted to befriend. I tried to be cool but instead I had just been incredibly awkward. She was nice about the whole thing. We became Facebook friends (A step up from acquaintances). I take in the new information.

It's enough. I accept the request.

Three Hannahs and a T-Bird

I know a lot of people named Hannah.

That's not really surprising, Hannah isn't a particularly uncommon name. Most people know a Hannah. Most Hannahs know a Hannah.

But relatively speaking, I know quite a few people named Hannah. I'm only going to talk about three though.

I'm not going to bother with last names, heck, I haven't even mentioned my name on this blog so we'll just stick with Hannah.

In elementary school I knew a girl named Hannah.

She was extremely tall for her age. I think she played basketball too. For all purposes let's call her Big Hannah.

But Big Hannah wasn't really all that great at making friends. Most people didn't really hang out with her that much. At the moment, I can't remember why. But odds are she was annoying.

I'm not saying Big Hannah and I were best friends. We weren't even friends. I was nice to her when she talked to me, and she was...herself. When I left my regular school system to go to a special 5th grade, ended up changing my educational track for good.

I haven't seen her since.

I saw Hannah O yesterday. I saw her for the first time in months the day before that.

Hannah O is a volunteer at WOW with me. She also went to that special fifth grade I talked about, but she went the year after I did. Being from the first crop of volunteers is hard, most of the friends you made at the start are gone. Not to mention everyone is younger than you.

Thankfully there are always some good kids. I met Hannah O during a summer when I had a lot of freetime. We started an easy friendship and always managed to balance a good amount of work and fun. One day during a camp we made up a ridiculous dance routine for the kids. They didn't appreciate as much as we did, but it was still fun.

At one point her iPhone pass code was SWAG. I have yet to see if this is still the case.

Anyways, I got busy. Between swimming and plays I didn't have much time to volunteer during the school year. I forgot about Hannah O.

Monday I walked back into the animal room. I wasn't particularly excited about work, I had done a few programs last week and had found no one to really talk to.

Now, I should say no one was all that excited to see me either. I got a few "I haven't seen you in awhile"s and "Nice to  see you" comments. But I mean nobody was thrilled. Which is reasonable, since most were from the forth or fifth crop and didn't know me anyways.

But when I walked back into the animal room Monday, Hannah O was more than happy to see me.

And I was more than happy to see her. We hung around all that day, as well as the next.

I don't know if I'll be working much this school year, but if I am, I hope it's with Hannah O.

If there is one person I am going to be glad to see come school next week it's Hannah. (This Hannah doesn't need nicknames because she's Hannah. That's all there is to it)

I'll be glad to see a lot of people. But Hannah is going to be the person I resist tackling on the first day back.

Hannah and I met in drama.

You know how every time you enter a new group there is always one or two people you want to get to know? Hannah was that person. Lucky for me it was mutual. Pretty soon Hannah, Sasha*, and I became convinced we were actually the same person. At semester we all moved up to drama two together. We rocked the IMPROV club. We were unstoppable. Well until puppets anyways but I won't go there.

Hannah is one of the few people in this world I am capable of texting back in a timely matter. Hannah might even say I am a little too capable. (One time I walked away from Hannah and started texting as I walked away.)

Hannah may or may not be developing a biological need for wintergreen mints. This may or may not be my fault. She might also be in constant need of a back scratch. This is probably my fault.

One time Hannah fell asleep on me. Despite this she will not let me sleep on her, I figure it's gonna happen anyways.

Hannah also ties my shoes for me which is nice because I like making people tie my shoes.

I like Hannah.

In fact the more I think about things to say about Hannah the more I realize I will probably accidentally tackle hug her.

There you have it. The Hannah I never knew, The Hannah I almost forgot, and The Hannah I can't wait to see again.

*You guys know Sasha. I'm positive I've mentioned her a few times...

Throwback Saturday (I know that isn't a thing shutup)

I've been neglecting to tell you faithful readers a good story so let's go back in time!

The family is out on a roadtrip, since I was around two or three at the time I don't remember where. We stopped for gas and the majority of the car went to use the restroom. All that remained was me and my brothers, Matt and RJ. Matt was so engrossed in his gameboy I'm not even sure if he knew we had stopped. A minute or so passes and RJ says he needs to use the bathroom. (At least I'm 60% sure he does. It was a while back) He leaves and it's just Matt and I.

Slowly, the car fills back up. My Dad finishes with the gas, my sister and my mom come back bladders empty. We're all set to leave, so we do. We exit the lot and get back on the road. Innocently I ask...

"What about RJ?"

A quick glance in the rear view mirror shows a panicked RJ chasing after the van. Feel free to add a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe to enhance the image.

Thankfully for RJ, I remembered he exists. Also there was a lot of traffic so he probably could have caught us.

That's all I got for now!

And That's What You Missed On...

ME!

Okay, I've been absent from the blogosphere. But I don't want you all thinking I left for Tumblr.

Because I've actually been kinda absent THERE too.

And if you pay attention to my handy little Twitter thingy, you'd see i've been missing there as well.

So if I was not on the internet (because let's face it there is no chance I was on Facebook) where in the world was I?

The short answer is, I got busy. I was on tech crew for my school's production of Sweeney Todd. That sucked up two weeks of my life essentially. Not to mention several Tuesdays before hand. I'm still working on catching up from that lack of sleep so my late night ramblings have been decidedly left out.

I'm here now though, and do I have a story?
Mmmmmrph....sort of no, sort of yes.
I have lots of interesting things that happened, but a nice story? Not really.

For instance, today I thought I was being robbed.

I had just gotten out of the shower and was all wrapped up in my towel when I heard the doorbell. I figured my dad would get it so I continued to be an extremely slow person. I assumed it was my friend Sophia, and then I realized it was almost seven and there was no way Sophia would be coming over now. Out of curiosity I left the bathroom (Still covered in my towel) and went to my room to peek through the blinds. I looked and to my great surprise, there was no one there. I heard a knock and so I panicked and ran back across the hall into the bathroom. I closed the door just in time, for the second I closed that door, someone else opened the laundry room door. They called for Rebbecca or someone, said hello a few times, before finally leaving. I listened to the car start and drive away.

When I calmed down enough, I ran back to my bedroom and got dressed. Now fully clothed I headed to the laundry room to...I don't know, look for clues I guess.

On the floor was a green reusable bag. Inside was food.

I was confused and proceeded to send a mildly panic-y text to a friend.

Later I discovered it was a friend of my neighbor's who had the wrong house.


SEE?

NOT AWESOME STORY.

And The Winner Is...

So today I set out to chase the bus again.

Well no, that's not exactly true.

You see, I had just said farewell to Sam as she got on the bus and I was talking to my other friends Erin and Katie, waiting for the bus to leave.

However, mid-sentence I was cut off by the honk of a horn. Looking up I saw the bus driver looking right at me. He pointed ahead of him.

He was making sure I was ready for the race.

And so race I did. When the bus reached the stoplight the bus driver opened the door and said quite plainly

"You win."

As the bus drove away I saw Sam staring at me out the window, shaking her head lightly.

Sorry Sam. I don't think I could stop now even if I wanted to.

Now Entering: The Suck Zone

Yep. You guessed correctly. It's story time.

Okay, so every single day after school I walk over to my mom's work. There I sit from 3 until 5 when my mom gets off.

It's not that bad really. Sometimes I have clubs to go to like Improv Club and more often than not I have at least one person keeping me company till 3:30. The rest of the time is passed with reading or messing around on my iPod.

Today wasn't unlike any other.

I met up with my friends Sasha and Sam outside the school. We stood around in the shade and talked for a bit before heading on over the my mom's office. Once inside we sat in the lounge and ate the snacks that we had stored for us in there. It was a perfectly average picture. The only part of this that had been even remotely odd was when a lady walked by the room with two small dogs. Other than that though, it was just another day.

Par normal, Sasha left first then ten or so minutes later Sam left the building.

I took my stuff into my mom's actual work area. She shared the space with two other employees and there was a spare desk which I sat at when it came time to wait. I got on Tumblr got caught up on my dashboard and events going on within my fandoms. At about 4:30 I noticed how dark it was outside. Around this time my mom started chatting with the other people in the room.

They joked about leaving work early. There were some thunderstorm warnings headed our way and they wanted to see if they could beat the weather. The discussion was dropped and they went back to work.

Ten minutes later, the sirens went off.

Since we were siting in a room where one wall was made of windows, we all decided it would be best if we moved.

I grabbed my backpack and the four of us made our way across the hall to an office that had once been a closet. The lady in there welcomed us (and a few others in). We were informed that everyone else had gone home already. This lead to jokes about them getting swept off the road in the winds. It also lead to statements about how we should of left at 4:30.

Someone came into the office and said that we needed to go across the street to another building to seek shelter. They said that a tornado had touched down nearby.

Now it was pouring down rain outside.

And I meant pouring. It was just sheets of rain and the wind was whipping around. The sky was tinted green and lighting flashed every once in awhile.

We were clearly not going outside in that.

Instead we sat in the office thinking.

Someone eventually decided that we should probably consider a better shelter than this former closet. Going to our actual storm shelter was briefly considered but the idea was abandoned once we looked outside.

My mom said that we should go hide in one of the closets. It was a fairly good size and would be decent shelter should any twisters come our way.

However, right as we opened the door to the closet, the power went out.

And the closet wasn't exactly empty either.

As we opened the door and the power went out, the people who were already in the closet taking shelter screamed and shut the door.

About a dozen smartphones lit up and we made our way into the storage area.

The people inside were quick to welcome us into the closet. I sat on some boxes and listened at the people around me called loved ones and updated them on the situation.

Unfortunately for me, when the power went out, do did the Internet. I wasn't able to tweet about the whole ordeal which I was more upset about than the storm. Periodically someone went outside and gave us an update.

"It's real windy out there"

"Still storming."

"A tree fell down over onto the street."

After twenty minutes of sitting in the closet we determined that it was safe enough to go home.

Now, I should mention this. My mom doesn't exactingly park close to her work.

She parks close to my school to make it easier on me in the mornings.

Any other day this would have been fine.

But today it was raining cats and dogs. The walk to the car probably lasted around a minute, a minute and a half.

By the time we reached the car we were soaked. Like, soaked soaked. Like, swimming in your clothes soaked. Like, walking to your car in the pouring rain and getting splashed by passing cars soaked.

We made it to the car, however soggy, and set about going home.

Using the magic of hands free calling we got into contact with my dad. The conversation went something like this.

Mom: We just spent 20 minutes sitting in a closet!
Dad: Why?
Mom: We didn't want to go next door for shelter.
Dad: Why did you need shelter?
Me: The tornado?
Dad: There is no tornado.
Mom: They said that one touched down.
Dad: No it didn't.
Mom: The sirens went off.
Dad: Those were for high winds.
Mom: Oh
Dad: I'm going to go get a massage now.

I guess my mom's work has poor sources or something. My father was making it quite clear that THERE WAS NO TORNADO.

Feeling safer we decided to call up my sister Karen. We told her what happened, she was slightly whiny.

Before I say this next part, there is something you need to know.

We have clowns living by our neighborhood.

Daisie Mae and Spangles. They have a sign in their yard, a tiny smartcar (which we dubbed the clown car) and an RV.

Clowns in general are just creepy so imagine my surprise when I turn to see the clown RV right behind us.

I have no idea what fate was thinking.

"We already have the storm and power going out trope. They left the building so there's another...what does this horror movie need? Oh yes. Clowns."

Mom and I told Karen that the clowns were following us.

Karen said to ditch them as clowns were bad news.

Eventually we got home (clown free I might add). It seemed the fates had one last bit to throw in before leaving us be.

Pulling up into the driveway I noticed one thing.

My brother's sun roof was open.

I told him and he closed it, which for now I'm going to say was the close of my adventures today.

All in all? I'd give it 4 stars.

Keys

If you thought this would be a post about how I am constantly forgetting my house key, think again.

I have a story for you all, a real one that actually happened to me unlike all those stories I said yesterday.*

I have this necklace.

I wear it every single day. The only time I take it off is to shower or swim. Sometimes afterwards I'll forget to put it back on and I'll freak out a little when I notice it's gone.

Essentially, I'm really attached to the thing.

Because I am always wearing it, I've had a lot of people ask me:

What are those keys to?
Why are you wearing them?
What does it mean?

Since I'm being honest here, if you want to be literal, the keys went to a pair of toy handcuffs I had that broke. I put them on a string, which later evolved into a chain, which broke so I had to get another chain.
Now if you want to hear what I tell everyone that asks, they are the keys to my soul. Which is a rather poetic way of not answering your question. Not that that answer is wrong, just misleading.

The other two questions are much harder to just answer in a simple conversation as they require a backstory, so I would just not answer.

So let's start at the beginning. I warn you that my life is a huge web of connected events, so depending on how well you know me...this may blow your mind.

On August 27, 2010 I watched my eighth episode of Eureka. How do I know the exact date you ask? It's called Wikipedia. It is also worth mentioning I had only seen three episodes of Warehouse 13 at the time.

Anyways in the episode several people have "hallucinations" this is the cause of several gags and also emotional turmoil for some. That night I went to bed thinking of the gold mine that would come from a character seeing something that wasn't real, this was the night I created Allison and Neil. Soon they would be tagged on to Charlie Parkit, but for now they were content with bugging me. (As most of the characters I create are.)

That night I had other things on my mind too, school was rapidly approaching and for the first time in...ever, I was invested in fictional character's lives. I knew that I needed something to remind me of them.

I looked at my possibilities and eventually decided on the keys. From that moment of they would be Allison and Neil. Heck, I can even tell you which one is which.

I started wearing the necklace everyday to remind me of my shows, of my creative side. I told people they were the keys to my soul because...they kind of were. My creative one anyways.

Eleven days later I'd write the first Charlie Parkit story and low and behold the keys would show up there.

So that is that. The real story behind my keys.

Oh, also one time someone asked if they could borrow them for the weekend. That was interesting.

"You want to borrow the keys to my soul?"

"Just for the weekend!"

"No!"

Ah friends...

*The one about the frozen pizza was true actually...



Did I ever tell you...

Did I ever tell you about the time someone had the wrong number and thought I was their girlfriend?

No of course not. That was just the only way I could think of to start this and plus it's not that great of a story.

...Also it never happened. So uh...yeah. If it had happened, it would of been an excellent story and you guys would of already read all about it.

Let me try again, this time with an actual life event.

Hold up...let me think...okay. Got it.

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I had a project due and then last minute I changed groups and my new group sucked. Then after watching them bomb the project I moved back to my old group and we sung a song and were best friends. Then we went to a swim meet and one of them turned into a cat and when they turned back I hugged them?

Wait...I think that might of been a dream. A pretty awesome one too. I wish I remembered the song we sang because as I recall it was pretty darn catchy.

Okay I think I can tell a story this time...

Did I ever tell you about the time I went backpacking through Europe?

Wait...no...

Did I ever tell you about the time me and my friend Ron...I don't know anyone named Ron.

Oh come on...there has got to be a story I haven't told you, plenty of things have happened in my life!

Um...one time I baked a frozen pizza...and I was nervous, but the pizza turned out okay so...uh...

OH! I KNOW!

One time I was hanging out by my school you know? And I was kind of bored and a little lonely, plus I found this kinda deflated basketball, so I just started shooting hoops. Which was dumb, because I'm not very good. Well anyways these guys came up and they were kind of giving me a rough time about my free throws. We had a bit of a disagreement...okay it was a fight, but just a little one. Look, the point is, it freaked my mom out so she sent me to live with her sister and her sister's husband. Anyways I took a plane and then this taxi, which kind of smelled. I got to the house in the evening hours and that's pretty much how I became the Prince of Bel Air.

Well Hell Sandwich. That didn't happen to me either.

Guess I don't have a story for you tonight. Next time...

In which I somehow rant about a story for longer than intended

Claudia sat alone at her table. Par usual, no one had sat next to her. Her lunch already gone so she pulled out her history book and started to read the chapter. After the first two sentences she slammed her head into her book.  Claudia glanced up to see Trina Heatsom and her gang of adoring followers coming her way.

“Great. I have company.” Claudia said, slamming her head back into the textbook.

“Claudia, I saw you got sent to the principal’s office. That’s rough. Hey, I have a pillow in my locker if you need it next block.” She laughed and so did her followers.

“You’re hilarious.” Claudia said to the book.

“Excuse me?" Trina asked. Claudia lifted her head out of the American Revolution.

I've always liked this part of the story. Just the way I wrote it, something about it, I like it.

That by the way, is an excerpt from a short story I wrote that is currently being re-written. (I'm currently writing about seven billion stories)

Anyways, this excerpt isn't done. The sentence flow still needs altering, but the basic idea is complete. I just like it.

The story itself is about a werewolf, Claudia, struggling to fit in.

WAIT! Don't call the over-used-plotline police! I swear I'm not finished!

Claudia has, I feel, almost a different look on it.

All those other characters just want to be normal, but by the end of the story they either realize

1. Everyone is special, and so they're good.
or
2. It's cool being different.

But that's not the case. Claudia KNOWS that.

Yeah, everyone is special in their own way, yada yada, but for the most part, in the grand scheme of things not everyone is special.

Those struggling to fit in, feel good specials, always say that special is good.

But Claudia knows that's not true.

People hate different. People shy away from the odd. Punish those who question the status quo.

She will never be, in any sense, normal.

Here is a excerpt from a scene earlier than the other one.

Across the hall were some short stories from the English classes. She skimmed over a few stories. Most were corny romances or stupid action stories. One line happened to catch her eye.

“Everyone wants to be special!” Claudia snorted. Wrong. What she wouldn’t give to be normal, to be one of the anonymous masses. To have people look at her and think, ‘Oh look! It’s an average teenage girl, how boring!’ Without thinking she ripped the story off the wall.

See?

Okay maybe I'm not making sense, in my head (and by extension Claudia's) it makes sense.

And as for "It's cool being different"

I do go there a little in the story. But then Claudia is yanked back into reality.

She can't control herself.

This is no "aw man, sometimes I turn into a dog"

Claudia is a legitimate werewolf. When she turns, it takes all of her energy to even know what's happening, and a ridiculous amount of strength to stop herself.

But that's not her only issue, because as the full moon nears it starts getting harder and harder to act like she's just a girl. She's angry and tired and alone and all she really wants is to be able to walk into  room and not have to think about the fastest way to get out if some animal instinct takes over.

Yeah. So that's Moonlight.

A Treat...maybe...

I'd like to reward you five people that maybe sometimes take a gander at my blog and say 'Heh...that was sort of funny.'

Enjoy this unedited excerpt from a story I'm writing.

The Constrictor led Thom and some others to a designated section of the large room. Up on the mega screen pictures of happy working people scrolled past in an eerily cheerful slideshow. Thom looked around him, spotting a few familiar faces from around camp; he didn’t see Kaden anywhere which he supposed was a good thing. Something was wrong, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this little gathering on getting a job would end like planned.

                Two gunshots to the sky informed him it was time to start paying attention. The pictures faded away and Radiator’s shadowy mug replaced them. The knot in Thom’s stomach tightened as Radiator’s voice surrounded him.

                “Welcome, it seems it’s that time again.” His voice didn’t even sound entirely human. It was almost as if he was one of the countless AIs he ruled over. “Time for all the children over the age of fifteen to—“ The screen went black. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

                Nova, I trust you are ready with that thing?

                Thom kept his eyes glued to the screen. Waiting for Radiator to come back and complain that some stupid drone had tripped over a cord. That had to be why he was gone.

                “Please let me be wrong.” He whispered. “Please tell me they didn’t.” A burst of static followed by the appearance of four words confirmed the worst. At first the crowd was silent, absorbing the message that was left there in blood red.

                Consume. Be Silent. Die.

                Then all hell broke loose.

So there's that.

As an interesting side note, I've noticed that the majority of writers I've met all agree that a lot of the time your characters write for you. Sometimes even when you want them to do one thing they do another. It's odd from a non-writer standpoint I guess, you'd think of all people the author would have most control over a story.

Anywho, that's that post. (You might have noticed I'm trying to be more daily. It's summer. I have time.)

Tony

This, surprisingly, has nothing to do with the Tonys. No. Not that.

No, I was thinking to myself about what my next post would be about and I realized it's been a while since I told you a story. A nice true story from my wonderful life.

So, I dug deep into the depths of my grey thinking matter and found just the story to tell you all.

The story of Tony.

It happened a few years ago, the week after my spring break. My fave cousins, Anna and Julia*, were here as it was their spring break. We had decided to go out to lunch, our families did, so they picked me up to school and we drove to Red Lobster.

Now here's what I can tell you about Red Lobster. They have really good biscuits.

That's about all I could say before this fated day. Now I can tell you that they have Tony.

So we arrived at the restaurant. Hungry, thirsty, a little bit excited to see each other in my cousins and I's case. We are seated and introduced to our waiter, a friendly fellow named Tony. Par normal restaurant standards, he took our drink orders. Now this is, in the story of Tony, his call to action. Or something.

Anna, Julia, and I get lemonade. There's nothing particularly special about it, we all suck it down like it's the first liquid we've seen in days. Being a good waiter Tony comes back and fills our glasses back up.

And that's when it gets weird.

Because every time he passed by since then, he filled our lemonade.

After that first gulp I never got the drink down past halfway. Heck, at one point he filled my glass, I took a drink, and he freaking filled it again!

I don't know what he learned in his training, maybe he was told that the costumer should never have to ask for a refill and he just took it to heart and soul. But I swear, if I would have managed to drink the whole glass, Tony would have dropped dead.

To make matters worse, we happened to have an inside joke about a Tony.** So Julia was reciting it, drawling out his name right as he walked past. He didn't say anything about it, or react in any other way than filling our glasses.

It got to the point that every time he walked past, we all pretended to be taking a really long drink. Which worked up until the point where he just stood there waiting.

So here I am, about to burst from to much lemonade consummation, and I'm taking a ridiculously long drink. Tony is just standing next to me holding the pitcher of lemonade and staring at me. So I hold his gaze, willing him to leave, and he just stands there. Finally I gave up the charade (because I needed to breath) and put down the glass. He filled it and moved on.

Really, in conclusion, I didn't finish my food because I was too full of lemonade.

I suppose he's the best service I'll ever have. I think of him often, normally when I'm staring at my empty cup of soda wishing for a refill.

*These are the cousins that I build legos with and stuff. They're really awesome
**The joke involves a garbage disposal being mistaken for a lemur named Tony...you'd of had to been there...

24 Hours Earlier

HEEEEEEYYYYY YO! Not Heyo HEY-YO! Two words...


Anywho...I'm going to post the start of a story, and if you want more TELL ME and I will provide.

24 Hours Earlier

I woke up staring at the celing. My head ached. Slowly, I sat up, waiting for my vision to return. I knew that I was lying in the middle of the room. I also knew that in my right hand was a nice golf putter. It was too dark to know much more.

I know what you're thinking, why are you lying on the ground with a golf club? Well first off it ISN'T a club. It's a putter. Secondly It all started back when the world was made and a little thing called GRAVITY was born. Well that's a part of it at least.

I guess it REALLY all started 24 hours earlier...