I'm Sure Michael's is Great, Too

So, here I sit, 11:45 on Thursday night, trying to come up with funny or insightful or clever or interesting blog ideas, and I'm drawing a blank.

All I can think about is Hobby Lobby.

I had an appointment up in Pueblo today, and afterwards, I did a little shopping. I went into Target and bought a cat-laser and some Halloween candy for Trick-or-Treaters. I ventured into the mall and bought Bring Me The Horizon socks and Supernatural sleep-pants. I spent a little time in Barnes and Noble, admiring all the books and soaking in the atmosphere.

But the majority of my time, money and enjoyment was spent in Hobby Lobby. I gotta say, I am sincerely glad we don't have a Hobby Lobby in Raton, because I would be penniless, my house filled to the rafters with piles of different craft supplies. Heaps of paintbrushes and egg-shaped Styrofoam. A tower of acrylic paints. A fort of unpainted, empty wooden boxes. A little forest of yarn. A river of hot glue gun sticks. A cardboard box full of clearance items that I didn't know what to do with, but couldn't pass up. Rock-like formations of pads of paper. Drawers full of Sharpie markers. Pens, pens, pens! Seven different pairs of scissors, one for everyday of the week. Sewing kits, even though I couldn't sew anything to save my life. A kitchen full of empty glass bottles with corks and a closet full of pretty fabric that I could never do anything with.

It is simply the most wondrous and delightful store imaginable! Every time I go in, I toddle around, mouth agape, in complete and utter awe of my surroundings. It is SO dangerous, because it tempts you with cool little creative ideas and tricks you into thinking, "Wood carving? How charming! I could be great at that!" even though you know you are no wood carver, and you accidentally cut yourself with butter knives, let alone deadly little razors in irregular shapes.

Or, "Oh! Calligraphy! Just because my handwriting is considered by most as "chicken scratches", doesn't mean I couldn't excel at the craft!"

And, "I should just quit my job! Open a little road-side stand of crappy, homemade crafts and live off people's pity money! Job security is for suckers!"

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.

They have shelves after shelves crafts and holiday-related decorations, with prices that really sneak up on you. You don't realize the cost until you're getting ready to check out and have to start thinking critically, "Do I really need a Christmas wreath that's six feet in diameter? Or these awesome, yet impractical sets of doll-house furniture? Who's going to use them, my Borrowers?"

It's a slippery slope. But! It's pretty awesome, and brings out the creativity in just about everyone. And though I pick on prices, mostly they're pretty reasonable. Years and years ago, I got a full-sized, moving, Halloween mummy for $30.00. THIRTY DOLLARS, I SAY! I still have her! She lives on my front porch. If you come Trick-or-Treating, you'll see her!

It's nuts.

Before I sign off, let me just say, if you are related to me, you might just get a homemade craft for Christmas!

Sarah

INFESTED

Alas! I am late with my Wordsday Thursday! Auchhhhhh! So it'll have to be quick one.

Lately, I've noticed some troubling things! Little odds and ends gone missing. Things left in places I swear I didn't leave them. My cats staring at walls and cupboards and other boring, unmoving objects. Little objects falling during the night. Feelings of being watched.

Ghosts? you say.

Nay!

It's...

THE BORROWERS!! I know it! If you are unfamiliar with them, they are little people that live in your house, stealing (oh, excuse me, borrowing) little odds and ends. Actually, here is a trailer for an old movie made about the Borrowers! Based on true events, I'm sure.

Anyway, I've got them BAD. An infestation!  At ACE, we sell products to get rid of mice and spiders and wasps and flies and scorpions and weeds and poison ivy, but we don't have a single product for Borrowers!

I mean, normally, I wouldn't want to take such a violent course of action, but I'm desperate! I had to go to KMart the other day because I could not find a SINGLE pair of socks. During the last few summer months, I've worn sandals and my (lame, but extremely comfortable) Crocs. But now that the weather is cooling down, I need socks. But the jerks have taken them all! My socks are just gone! I assume they're perfect little sleeping bags for Borrowers.

And for whatever reason, they seem particularly fond of my hair ties! Actually, and this is really odd, my sister has the same elastic-loving Borrowers! We'll buy a pack of fifty hair ties, and over the next few days, we find them ALL over the house. In weird places! Like in the toilet or in the cat's feeding bowls. Bizarre!

During the day when I'm at work, they must really come out and party because when I get home, Otis's toys will be all over the house and stuff on the top of my refrigerator will be down and spilled all over the kitchen floor. The pets' water dish will be spilled. My plants will look significantly more beat-up. It's kind of mind blowing how destructive they are! And WHY?

The other day, I had made myself some dinner and I put the plate on my couch and left the room to get something. CRASH! Some little Borrower creep had snuck into the living room and pushed my plate on the floor. Ass!

I can't for the life of me figure out why they're so aggressive all of a sudden. And honestly, I'm really disappointed in my cats for not hunting them down. It would seem they'd cross paths often because a lot of Borrower activity happens where my cats hang out all day long. Weird!

Anyway, I'll keep you updated. Any advice would be appreciated! It looks like we might have an epidemic on our hands.

Happy hunting!

Sarah

The WHEN List

Well, hello there!

Today was, as is every Thursday, my day off! I had all these plans and accomplished almost none of them. But it is Wordsday Thursday and I made a promise to write, even if the blogs are poorly executed and/or short.

So for today I thought I'd do a quick list of my dreams and aspirations. Deep stuff! But instead of calling it a "Wish List" I'm calling it a "When List" because, dammit, it's not a question of IF these goals will happen, it's a question of WHEN!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sarah's WHEN LIST:

• First, an old one: One day, I will walk into a bookstore and see MY BOOKS for sale on the shelf. I'll walk over and open one and read a random page and remember where I was when I wrote that. Maybe I'll have written that chapter one day when I was lying in bed with Otis dozing next to me, or one evening while I was waiting to wash a new shade of hair dye out. Trapped in those pages will be memories no one will see but me, and it will make it that much more powerful and wonderful.
  
• Before that happens, I have much more short-term goal. I have several ideas for books that I've been working on, but one is leaps and bounds ahead of the others. I work on it everyday and I'm thrilled with the progress I'm making. So, my goal: I want to have at least a very, verrrrry rough first draft of this book by Christmas this year. Not something ready to go out to publishers, just something COMPLETE that I can work on it as a whole, instead of a bunch of random parts that I've written here and there.
  
• I will travel to Finland and go hang out at Lake Bodom for an afternoon. Maybe pack a picnic! It is the inspiration for the name of my favorite band, AND it boasts some spectacular scenery!
  
• At work, we sell these kits to make your own "memory stone", basically a concrete slab that you mix, pour, then put handprints, words, etc. in. I want to do one with Otis's pawprints! Then, someday when she is gone, I will make a copy or the pawprints and get them tattooed, probably on my shoulder blades, like she is pushing me forward. She has left her mark on me for life, so why not make it visible?
  
• When I make my fortune from writing books, I have a list of people and organizations I will donate large sums of money to! For example, the Humane Society, and a couple of Foundations that gave me scholarships for college.
  
• At some point in my life, I will adopt more animals and name two of them "Dwight" and "Mose" (from The Office!) Though probably not for a while...
  

• At some point I will develop more conventional sleeping habits and become a better housekeeper. I'm the worst!
  
• I will have the means to travel around the world AND the country. Especially to West Virginia, any old time I feel like it! I miss seeing my Mom.
  
• I will also travel to New Zealand and go to different filming locations of The Lord of the Rings.
  
• One day, my heroes will become my peers! And someday, I will become as good a person as the people I look up to.
  
  Here's to hoping, anyway!

What are YOUR dreams?

Sarah

I Need to Read "1984" Again...

Halloween is coming up! You can't go into stores without seeing decorations and costumes and candy and trick-or-treating flashlights. Even ACE has a modest selection of Halloween items! Orange and purple lights and... um, extension cords to plug in those lights, and, uh, light bulbs for your porch light that you can turn off when you're tired of trick-or-treaters. ACE really has everything!

When I was at KMart the other day, I spent some time in the Halloween section. I paid special attention to decorations, because in my case my style of decorating is so unique, I tend to keep "Halloween" decorations up all year long. It fits my decor! Anyway, I also fished through a big bin of horror movies, and it got me thinking!

I remember several years ago in high school, my English class had just read the book "1984" and our teacher  decided to show us the film afterwards. After setting up the TV and rewinding the video tape, he addressed the class quite seriously.
"Before I show the movie, I just want to warn you guys that some of the scenes are quite graphic," he told us. "Some may be kind of upsetting to sensitive people."
We all sat up in our seats a little straighter. Oooh! Gory? At school? Niiiiiice!
We were all kind of disappointed.
The "upsetting scene" our teacher had spoken of was, if memory serves, when the government is using the main character's fear of rats as a kind of torture technique. Which is pretty gruesome when you think about it! However, we all ended up laughing because the sad truth of the matter is that we are children of the "Saw Movies" generation. It takes a hell of a lot more than rats next to a mans face to shock and upset us!

And looking through the bin of horror flicks at KMart, it was easy to see why. Scary movies are very popular and very diverse. Some are supernatural and some are paranormal and some are realistic! Some are psychologically frightening and some are good ol' jump scare movies. You name it, they've made it!

I'm not a huuuuuuuge fan of horror movies myself. It is fair to call me "sensitive", perhaps even "wimpy" at times. But I have watched my fair share. What I'm sharing with you today is a list of "horror" movies I've watched that yielded unexpected emotions. I mean, you watch a scary movie and you get scared. But the following movies also made me experience feelings I was not anticipating!

*Warning!! SPOILERS AHEAD! Proceed with caution!*

"The Blair Witch Project"
Quick description: A group of filmmakers go into the woods searching for a legendary witch that supposedly lived (lives) in the area. They get horribly lost and are hunted by something that terrorizes them in the night. One of them gets picked off and the other two hear him screaming at night. Then the other two also die (thought not on camera.) In the beginning, it claims it's "Found Footage", meaning that someone just found all the film and they don't know what happened to the people who filmed it. Not very convincing, because in the credits they were obligated to include the "Entirely fictional, not based on any real people, living or dead" spiel. Anyway, I first watched it several years ago with my sister and her friend at night. It was sufficiently creepy! Then my sister's poor friend had to walk out to his car in the pitch black night, surrounded by woods. He made it, but admitted later he was pretty much scared shitless.
Unexpected emotion: ANNOYED. So! Semi-recently, I DVR'd the movie and rewatched it. There are very chilling parts, like when the witch leaves the poor guys teeth and blood as a present for the other two, but I was unable to feel very scared because there is so. Much. Pointless. ARGUING! Mostly about being lost, and who lost the map, and who should hold the compass, and who's fault everything is, and if they've seen that log before, and who's lying about being out of cigarettes, and why is she still filming? Etc., etc. After a while, it's like SHUT UP!

"The Sixth Sense"
Quick description: A renowned child psychologist helps a troubled little boy who is haunted by visions of ghosts. Absolutely infamous for the line, "I see dead people!", also for a huge twist at the end. Pretty creepy, but also just an awesome movie.
Unexpected emotion: TOUCHED. It's actually a pretty old movie, but I saw it for the first time fairly recently. Some of the scenes are downright freaky, but it's an excellent story. I was certainly not expecting to go, "Awww!" Because while learning about the little boy's problems, you get to know his mother, who loves him to pieces and is worried sick about him. Also, it's sweet at the end because the little boy isn't "cured" of his problems, but learns how to use them to become stronger, and to help other people.
This is the scene where the little boy finally tells his mom about what's been going on. It really gets me!

"Scream"
Quick description: A sleepy little town goes crazy when a string of murders happen by "Ghostface," an unknown person wearing a costume. A good ol' "Who dunnit?" because victim after victim is killed, and it's hard trying to figure out if there's a pattern.
Unexpected emotion: MYSTIFIED. Yeah, it's the definition of  "slasher" movie, but I could NOT figure out the murderer(s) for the life of me! I was guessing and going back and forth til the end! Same with Scream 2 and Scream 3! Ghostface's identity just eludes me every time.

"Mirrors"
Quick description: I actually don't remember much about this movie, because I just saw it the one time, but basically a policeman battles evil forces that can slip in and out of the reflection in mirrors. I saw it with my friend and my dad because we wanted to go do something on a weekend. Bad decision on my part!
Unexpected emotion: ABSOLUTELY TERRORIZED. Yeah, I know, scary movies are scary. But something about this movie freaked the hell out of me. After we watched the movie, we went back home and my friend spent the night, but about 3:00 in the morning, I was so freaked out I had to go wake up my dad and talk to him. I couldn't sleep for a few days! Pretty embarrassing, really.

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose"
Quick description: Allegedly based on true events, a priest is pressed with criminal charges after a girl he was (religiously) helping dies. It follows the events that happened leading up to the trial, and also the trial itself. It's interesting hearing lawyers argue about speculative and theoretical ideas and beliefs, instead of laws and facts.
Unexpected emotion: CAPTIVATED. The majority of the movie is actually courtroom happenings, and a few people I know found this incredibly boring. I really enjoyed it! Which is also kind of odd when considering my religious beliefs (or lack thereof). It's just an interesting story!

*Bonus! Bonus! Bonus!*
"The Shining" (book)
Quick description: It is quite similar to the famous movie- snowbound family lives in a haunted hotel and the writer/father goes crazy and tries to murder them. But there are some subtle yet large differences that are kind of hard to point out. For example, in the book, the hotel is more like a character than just a place, with an independent mind, and instead of Jack Torrance just going crazy, in the book the hotel possesses him.
Unexpected emotion: SAD. There is one particular scene in the book that always makes me go "Aww." Jack Torrance is fighting a losing battle against the possession of the hotel, and he knows it.  He also knows that when he is possessed, he will hurt his family, so with the last bit of strength he has, he tells his son, Danny, "I love you so much. You need to run away now! I'm not your daddy anymore," and then he hits his own face so he doesn't look like himself any more.

And then there are a million others that did just what they're supposed to... scare me!

What's life without a few scares?
;)

Sarah