"A person can develop a cold!" (Adelaide's Lament- Guys and Dolls)

Ah-Ahh-ACHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't you hate that feeling where you really need to sneeze and your nose just isn't cooperating? So annoying. I've had a cold coming on for the last few days, and I kept trying to fight it back because of my show choir performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Now that it's over, however, I feel terrible. A cough, stuffy nose, sneezing, sniffling, and an on and off fever. I noticed last night at my performance that everything around me sounded a lot quieter than it really was, except for my nasally, sick voice. My problem is that I can't sit around all day with a blanket and a box of tissues. I get too bored! So no matter how sick I am, I'm still walking around the house, or on Facebook, or playing the piano. It probably isn't really going to help me get better any sooner, but I can't just sit in the same place all day! This is in contrast with my brother, who is also sick, who was either in bed, or on a couch playing on the Wii. All day.

I was REALLY scared last night before my choir performance. My solo is in a song from Grease called, "Those Magic Changes." It is insanely high, and goes up to a really high G. (I think Helena told me the technical musical term for that G, but I can't remember what it was) Anyways, I was not looking forward to attempting that with my cold. When I practiced at home that day, my voice did some pretty scary things. I was very grateful that no one was there to hear them. I definitely didn't want that to happen in front of a room full of people. That would probably make it to the top of my ten most mortifying experiences ever list. To keep that from happening, I made sure I drank plenty of water during the day, and even resorted to taking Tylenol. (Which inevitably triggers a gag reflex every time I drink it) Surprisingly, it ended up being my best night, and my voice didn't squeak or screech or anything. I felt very relieved as I let the next soloist take over and walked back to the risers. The down part of that night, was that my dad couldn't come see it because he was----sick. He had a fever of over 100 degrees and didn't want to give that to whoever was there. But my mom and siblings watched me, and I got ice cream, and went to a pretty awesome party afterward with my friends.

Today wasn't a very productive day. I just felt horrible all day, so I either texted, messed around on the computer, or walked around looking for something to do. I tried reading for a while but felt too tired. I did practice piano for a while and looked at some of the Select Choir music I'm supposed to learn within the next few weeks. I posted a few times on the Discussion Board and am apparently a "Proficient Padowan" now. It's fun reading what other people have to say about different topics. Whether it's the weekly discussion, or recommendations for books, Halloween plans, or random chain games that make no sense. Then I decided to finally do this blog entry. 500 words really isn't that much, but when you're trying to think of a topic to write about, it seems like more than it really is. Anyways, I'm going to go rest my tired, sick body! 'Night everyone!

EEK!!!

I had a pretty scary weekend! I went to Frightmares at Lagoon on Friday with a bunch of other people. The Haunted Houses were so creepy! I went into two of them! There are all these creepy people in each room, or jumping out at you, or chasing you with a chainsaw, or other things like that. My least favorite part was when you had to move a curtain, and you know as soon as you do someone's going to jump out at you. Even when you know none of it is real, you're still freaked out. What is really scary is when you're all by yourself. Most of the time, I was the only one waiting for my friend on crutches, so sometimes I'd be standing all by myself waiting for her to catch up. She and I got confused when we came to the end and saw an "Exit" sign. We thought it was fake, but I checked it anyways and realized it really was the end. I went out to where our other friends were, but then I realized that she just kept going! She came out a couple minutes later, which was really funny!

Another kind of scariness at Lagoon was the roller coasters. I went on one called Wicked for the first time. Before I wouldn't go on it because it goes straight up and then straight down really fast. I went on it anyways, and I actually wasn't scared! I kept waiting for something scary to happen and then it was over. I also went on one called Samurai where you go upside down a lot, and it was way fun! I went on one called Colossus where you go in a loop really fast so you're upside down for part of it. Another fun one was the Spider. It's a roller coaster, but the car thing you're in turns around, so you go down some drops backwards. Usually I'm not a big roller coaster person, but when I went on all of them it was really fun!

Remember last time when I mentioned my super-severe arachnophobia? Just the sight of spiders makes me start hyperventilating, it's horrible. Anyways, last night I was up until around 2 AM reading Fablehaven 4. (Which is a really good book, by the way) Then, all the sudden I saw something on the floor move out of the corner of my eye. It was another spider a couple inches long like the one in my shower a couple weeks ago. AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! After staring at it for a minute, I started looking around for my cell phone so I could have my dad come downstairs and kill it, but I realized I left it upstairs. I thought about running and waking him up to come kill it, but then it might move and I wouldn't know where it was. So I took Breaking Dawn off my shelf, ran over, and smashed the spider. Then I woke up my dad and had him move the body off my floor. After that I still couldn't sleep even though it was so late, or early, so I read until about 4 AM, and the whole time I kept looking around to make sure there weren't any more spiders. I'm pretty tired after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night, and I've tried not to go into my room very much today.

Anyways, that was my scary weekend. October has to be a scary month with Halloween and everything, right?

Obsession

People obsess over a lot of things. For example, they might be obsessive compulsive. I think everyone is like that sometimes. Sometimes, when I do things, I have to do it a certain amount of times every single day. I've heard people say that they can't eat M&Ms unless they arrange them by color. Then they eat them in a certain pattern. On Irish Ninja's blog, she said that she can't stand open doors. I'm the same way. If I'm sitting here at the computer and someone walks by me, opens the door to the backyard, walks out, and doesn't shut it, that drives me nuts! Something else people are sometimes OCD about is grades. I know I am. A minuses are the most horrible thing in the world. You know you were about 3% away from getting an A, but you just barely couldn't. I hate being so close, but not close enough. If I get a bad grade, I can usually see it coming because I know I don't understand it or I didn't work hard enough. But if I look on my grades and see an A-, I work my hardest to raise it that extra bit. Wow. I'm really obsessive compulsive about that.

Another thing people obsess about is what they're afraid of. For instance, I have insane bug phobia, especially when it comes to spiders and earwigs. I cannot stand them. Imagine, you're about to get in the shower. You turn it on, shut the shower door, turn around, and then you notice this 2-inch long wolf spider sitting there on the side of your shower. EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! I screamed, ran upstairs, woke up my dad, and made him come kill it. I wasn't going anywhere near that thing. I was freaking out and shaking. I still think about it everyday, and it was a few weeks ago. I've been showering upstairs ever since, and it took me over a week to start sleeping in my room again. Even now I have to inspect my room for bugs every single night before I can get in bed. Now about earwigs. Remember all that rain we had in June this year? Do you know how many earwigs there were because of that? They were everywhere! In my sink, on my wall, on my bed. I am traumatized for life.

Wasn't that a good example of people obsessing over phobias? I had to force myself to stop ranting about my fear of bugs. I know that bugs can't hurt me, and my fear is totally irrational, but can I help it? Not really.

Another thing people obsess over is things that they're excited about. If you're getting money that day, and you're super excited about it, you'll probably think about it all day. For me, I get super excited whenever a book comes out. Books like Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, Twilight, and Inheritance, I had to get the day they came out-at midnight if possible! I would be counting down the days until they came out and making sure I had them ASAP! I'm sorry. Things like that just make me happy. But even if it's waiting for a song to come out, or something like that, it's the same feeling. Someone might also be excited because they're going to Lagoon, or the beach, or hiking or something that weekend, and they'll look forward to and think about it all week.

Anyways, there are my random thoughts for the week! I'll try to update earlier next week, I've just been so busy! See ya!

Fall

After this weekend, I officially like fall, even though summer is still my favorite. My family and I went on a hike in Provo Canyon and looked at all the leaves, colors, and waterfalls. There was a lot of orange and red with the occasional green mixed in, and the sky was bright blue. Except for when I got stuck because a sticker thing was caught in my hair (which was freaking me out!) it was tons of fun just to get out and see things change.

I also went to my first corn maze ever! It was way fun and we were totally lost. We were wandering around in this huge maze shaped like Larry H. Miller's head. Every once in awhile we'd find a sign with a number you're supposed to text and then they send you a clue which tells you where to go. What was really funny was when my brother would decide to go a different way and be independent, and then he'd end up in the same place as we did or he came to a dead end. I kind of wish we'd have gone there later when it's dark and people jump out at you, even though I'd be screaming my head off the whole time!

It was also cool looking at all the other aspects of fall there. Like the corn maze, all these AMAZING jack-o-lanterns with pictures that looked way real, (I loved the Snow White and Davy Jones! They were so cool!) the caramel apples, and, of course, hot chocolate and cider. It was just really fun to be out doing something and having fun, even if my brother thought he was too cool for everything. :D We walked around in an inflatable monster thing with all this creepy music and lights and weird things popping out at you.

Even though I hate the cold, I do like this season. I like the colors on the mountains. They’re really pretty and I love watching them. I love how blue the sky is—especially when it’s cloudless. I also like the fun parts of the fall. Getting lost in the corn maze was great. And I love when my family carves jack-o-lanterns and we roast pumpkin seeds. Caramel apples and hot chocolate are absolutely delicious and wonderfully unhealthy. I also refuse to believe that I’m too old to be trick-or-treating, so every year I’m out there running around with my friends dressed up as something weird and screaming at people for candy—and then trying to eat it all in one night. That doesn’t work out so well.

I also like how my mom gets all excited for fall, and she puts up a bunch of decorations. We have jack-o-lantern lights on our porch right now, a ghost thing that keeps falling down no matter where she puts it, a scarecrow thing, a stuffed pumpkin, and other cutesy fall stuff she’s put up. It’s just fun watching her because it’s her absolute favorite season.

Overall, I’m pretty excited about starting October, and I think this fall’s going to be way fun!