Sorry for double-posting, but this is completely unrelated to my last post:

I wrote my very first creepypasta the other day! Secret Youngstown!

I normally dislike writing microfiction, but I actually had fun with this. I might have to try writing some more.

I've been meaning to write about England, but I've been so tired. Jet lag really took a hold of me, and while I was getting adjusted to that professors were assigning entire books to be read in like two days. So, yeah. No time.

We were supposed to go to the Lake District, but as a lot of you probably know, there was a 1,000 year flood in Cumbria and the police were like "Stay out, and whatever you do, don't go hiking!" Which is exactly what we were going to be doing all five days. Of course, our hostel was all "We're dry! We have guests here! Don't listen to those police, it's safe in Grasmere. What do you mean, refund your money? Lol, no." So we lost our money to them, despite the fact that all the trains to Grasmere were stalled and most of the roads were washed out.

We decided to go to York instead, which was a great choice. I'll share pictures later, but York is just a gorgeous city. They saved as many of the Roman and medieval buildings as they could, including nearly all of the Roman/medieval wall, which is actually still walkable. The part of the city inside the wall is fairly touristy, but in a really charming way. I loved it.

And then we went to the Bronte Parsonage and walked the moors. I have never seen anything so gorgeous in my life. I just stuck out my arm and took pictures as I walked, and every single one of them looks like a postcard. Also, we saw at least ten rainbows, no exaggeration. Huge ones that wouldn't even fit in one photograph. And one of them was a double rainbow. I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

I've been back for over a week, but I still feel so peaceful. I've just never seen so much beauty in one place before, and I don't think I've ever had a vacation before where I've had so much fun all at one time without it being broken up by some sort of unpleasantness (we did have a little, but the two bad incidents happened in the same evening and resolved themselves without further drama).

I'm so glad I didn't chicken out on this trip, and it was worth going broke for. I may never have an experience like this again, and I feel like such a better-rounded person now because I've had the opportunity to leave the country and go on a major adventure with my peers instead of my parents (I guess Baltimore counts there as well, that was a different sort of adventure).

I have a lot of retrospective posts that I want to write. I've grown up so much in the past couple of years and I keep seeing how much stronger I am than I was even two years ago. I think I'll try to work on one of those this week, and I promise to put up at least a couple pictures of rainbows England.

I'm back in the states. I'm going to have to write some really long journal entries to sum up this trip. Right now I have stuff to do, though. I've been up for about three hours now waiting for stores to open. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. wide awake and hungry. The only place here that sells breakfast food is McDonalds. After about an hour's deliberation I decided to walk there to kill time and wake myself up. It didn't kill enough time, though, so I've been hanging out here waiting for Community Market to open. It's weird being so wide awake when the rest of the town is this quiet.

I have so much laundry to do it's not funny. I guess that's on my list after grocery shopping.

England was amazing. This was one of the best weeks of my life, seriously. I can't wait to write it all down and tell you guys about it.

We had to change our plans at the very last minute due to the flooding in northern England. We're going to York now.

I'll be offline for about a week. There's no way I'm going to backread all that, so if anything important happens, let me know.

Early Thanksgiving was wonderful. I miss spending time with my family. And Paris was actually sort of cuddly. I gave her lots of hugs and belly scratches.

Before I left, I hung up one of Kiwi's spoons (his favorite toy). He took it in his foot and just stood there and held it until I left. Awww.

I have nothing good to say about Chloe. I have a bruise on my finger and a scratch on the back of my hand from her. Okay, she's absolutely adorable and I love her. But she was in an awful mood this week.

I'm coming down with something.  I've been sleeping pretty much every moment that I'm not in class.  I'm only up now because I'm trying to convince myself to do some homework.

Our school announced their swine flu contingency plan.  We have an empty dorm that's set to be demolished at the end of the year.  They stocked it with food and are going to quarantine any sick students there.  I think if I get the flu I'm going to make it a point not to go to the Health Center and risk getting banished from my lovely room.  I mean, I might consider it if there were going to be nurses at the quarantine zone, but there's not.  Just beds and food.  No thanks, I have that here.

This place is so weird.  This is like that time we had a blizzard and below -10 temperatures and they offered "courtesy vans" to get students to class.  They only had two vans because they were just saying it to be nice; they didn't think anyone would actually take them up on the offer.  Yeah.

This thread is reminding me of a story.  And not a depressing story, for once.

I was around thirteen years old and sharing a bed with a friend.  She kept kicking me and nudging me.  I assumed she was asleep, but her movements felt so purposeful that I wasn't sure.  But it wasn't like her, and I didn't want to embarrass her by waking her up and telling her to stop it.  It's not like people can control what they do while they sleep.

Then she wrapped her arm around my head and GAVE ME A NOOGIE.  In her sleep.  How does that even happen?  But that had to be it, because this person was not known for getting physical with her friends, nor for weird practical jokes.  So I just scooted away from her and endured the random kicking and nudging until I fell asleep.

I didn't mention it in the morning.  I wasn't even sure if it really happened.  Could I have dreamed it?  Because seriously, who gives noogies in their sleep?

At the time I was really creeped out and suspicious of my memories/my friend, but now I just laugh every time I think about it.

Have I mentioned that I hate packing?  Because I really hate packing.  I am incapable of packing light.  My brother is outfitting an entire apartment, furniture included, and I've nearly caught up to him in square feet of stuff that needs transported.  He keeps telling me what to toss and I'm all "But... but... no!  I need it!"

My college bookstore has some sort of problem with my credit card and hasn't filled my textbook order.  >:(  On the upside, I went on a little bit of a shopping spree and should have some awesome packages awaiting me when I get to school.  One of which contains the textbooks I was smart enough not to order from the bookstore.

I'm going to miss the birds.  Kiwi was being such a sweetie today.  I gave him a spray-bottle shower and he's been talking and making lovey noises ever since.

I'm never reading financial stuff before bed again.  I was looking up options to reduce the cost of meds without insurance last night, so of course I dreamed that all my insurance went bye-bye.  On the bright side, I found out that if I do end up unemployed and uninsured after graduation, Merck will help pay for my Singulair.  They're not going to do crap while I'm still in school, though, so I still have to figure out how to get through the next couple of months.

My dreams are getting very realistic, though.  I'm even writing LiveJournal entries in my sleep!  Do you want to hear the entry DreamMe wrote last night?  Of course you do!  I committed it to memory as soon as I woke up, because it was lulztastic.

Just discovered that I don't have limited insurance at all.  I have no insurance.  This sucks.

I was cleaning the chicken coop today, and Daniel came in and threw the baby into the coop.  What the hell?  He didn't think it was a big deal even though I was completely flipping out.  She was okay, thank goodness.  Then he tried to get into the coop by crawling through the slats and he got stuck.  It was so funny; after this happened there was a segment on the radio about President Harrison getting stuck crawling through the slats to get into his barn.  Apparently this happened to a bunch of Presidents!  Who knew that was such a popular way to get into barns?  I wonder why?

If you're wondering, later in the dream we decided that it was so the horses didn't get out while you were getting in.

My birds are the happiest creatures in the world right now.  Why?  Kiwi has two spoons chained to a hanging piece of wood.  These spoons are THE COOLEST THINGS EVER.  He waves them around in the air, hangs from them, and sleeps with them draped over his back.  I kind of want to get him a whole dinnerware set.  He can build a fort out of plates and cups and hang all of his silverware from it.

Chloe is happy because this morning I gave her two empty toilet paper rolls.  She ran all around the bottom of the cage with them, then took one inside a tissue box (her little cave), rolled on her back, and started singing to it.  Then she kept trying to take it to the top and dropping it, so she took up the other one, brought it up to the other side of the cage, dropped it in her food dish, and just kept bobbing her head so I would notice her totally awesome feat.  Since she seemed to expect it, I gave her a little cheer, and then she proudly took the roll out of the food and stuck it in the water.  Once it was properly moistened, she dropped it and carried the other roll up there.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  All day long.

I love these guys.

Using only EPISODE names from ONE TV SHOW, cleverly answer these questions.
Try not to repeat an episode title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Taken from theninth.


Pick your Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Are you a male or female?: This Year's Girl
Describe yourself: Storyteller
How do you feel: Restless
Describe where you currently live: No Place Like Home
If you could go anywhere where would you go?: Into the Woods
Your favorite form of transportation: Lovers Walk
Your best friend is: Witch
What’s the weather like: The Harsh Light of Day
Favorite time of day: New Moon Rising
If your life was a TV show, it would be called: Who Are You
What is life to you: Lessons
Your fear: Fear, Itself
What is the best advice you have to give: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Thought for the Day: Go Fish
How I would like to die: Surprise
My soul’s present condition: Normal Again
My motto: Bring on the Night

I hate packing.  And moving in general.

The worst part is knowing I have to do it all over again in two weeks.

But!  I see my parents tomorrow!  And home on Saturday!  Yay!

Remember when I posted a while back that I was going to injure myself with my pillow?

I did it.  I managed to incapacitate myself before even getting out of bed yesterday morning.  I am that awesome.  Also in a lot of pain.

It's supposed to be 99 degrees today.  I was getting really sad about having to leave Maryland, but this weather is kind of making me look forward to getting back to Ohio.

I just ordered a trackball mouse and an allergy-free pillow.  I am excited about both of these.  The tech guy at work loaned me his trackball to see if it was better than a regular mouse for my hands, and it's so much better I don't want to use anything else ever again.  You only have to move your fingers the tiniest bit, and if I put it on my lap and use both hands, I don't need to use my thumb at all.  Score!

The allergy-free pillow was something I found while panicking about the price increase of my meds, and I immediately knew I had to have it.  I hope it helps.  It would be awesome to wake up without a headache and stuffy nose.

Of course, since I was doing online shopping, I had to buy some fun stuff too.  So now the first Blood Ties book is on its way to my house.  I hear the author is pretty rad.

I have some reviews to write up, but I'll wait until I finish my current book, since I'm racing through it.  Expect a long post tomorrow.

Last night I dreamed that I was a jar of peanut butter.  And I was being chased by empty Tupperware containers who wanted to steal my peanut butter for themselves.

OMG, I just found out that the lullaby "All the the Night" was adapted from a Welsh song "Ar Hyd Y Nos." You have no idea how thrilled this makes me.



(I may be the tiniest bit delirious right now.  But nevertheless, this is AWESOME.)

Now every time I hear a siren, I just think, "Oh.  Zombies," and go on with whatever I was doing.

This tells me two things.  First, I got way too involved in my narrative yesterday.  Second, my survival instinct sucks.

That is all.

I have to type this quick.  I don't know how much longer I have.

There are smoke trails going up all over the city.  Some of it might be from accidents, but I think there are arsonists going around trying to burn the zombies to death.  I don't know if it works--the zombie I saw earlier didn't seem to mind being on fire.

Our smoke alarms are going off.  I don't think anyone purposely went to our house (the dogs would have got them, for sure), but a flaming zombie or some ash might have.  I can't tell if the house is really on fire or if the smoke from outside set them off, but the smell of smoke is really strong now.  I'm thinking that it's not a good idea to wait and see.  I'm going to try going downstairs one more time, and then I’m going to make a run for it. If it’s impassible, or the zombies are still there, I’m going to climb onto the roof and jump off the top of the porch. I may break my legs, in which case I hope I burn to death before the zombies get me. If I make it, I need to find a zombie-free and non-flaming place to hide. Those of you who have my cell number, if you survive this and our phones still work when it’s over, call me. I need to know who’s left.

Goodbye, my friends. I wish you all the best of luck.

Disclaimer: If you don't know what this entry is about, read this.

I just saw a flaming zombie ambling down the alley.  What the hell?

Disclaimer: If you don't know what this entry is about, read this.

I ended up going downstairs brandishing a chair leg.  I never found my landlord.  As soon as I got onto the second floor landing, there was a flurry of barking, and then the dalmatians came running up from the first floor, baring their teeth.  I jumped back onto the stairwell and slammed the door behind me.  I can still hear them down there, barking and growling.

I think I could take down a man, if I had to.  I don't think I can take down two dogs.  Plus that cat is probably still downstairs, waiting.  I need a new plan.

I think I smell smoke.  That can't be good.

Disclaimer: If you don't know what this entry is about, read this.