Thanksgiving: A Poem!

Happy Thanksgiving, guys! For this special occasion, I wrote a poem! Poetry is not really a talent of mine, but I enjoy rhyming occasionally.

Thanksgiving: A Poem!
By Sarah Record

Today, we're all closed-
ACE, schools and the banks.
Why? Well that's silly-
It's time to give thanks!
Hey, you family! From West Virginia to Albuquerque-
Let's all get together and munch on some turkey!
It's really not possible, I know it. It's true.
There's too much distance between me and you.
But! In an effort to close that large gap,
I've compiled a list! Gasp! Your jaw hit your lap!
I know that it's shocking- what a plot twist!
But here is my "I am thankful for" list:
I'm thankful for Otis! My dog, my best friend.
Without her, my life would have come to an end.
When I was at my lowest, she brought me back up,
That silly, tenacious, potato-sized pup!
She's older now, of course, that fat, sassy pet
For the rest of my life I'll owe her an unpayable debt.
I'm thankful for family, each and every day.
They support me in every conceivable way.
They love me unconditionally, and that's saying a lot.
They've stood by me through every battle I've fought.
I'm thankful for my cats- they bring endless laughter,
Even when Shelly's hanging from the rafters.
I love them to death, and they love me back. I'm certain!
It's just hard to remember when they're ripping up my curtains.
I'm thankful for TV! For Sheldon, for Dwight!
For Supernatural creatures that go bump in the night.
For Dean and for Sam, the Winchester brothers.
For Game of Thrones dragons and their Targaryen mothers.
I'm thankful for books- the words trap me like cages.
I'm thankful for the wisdom, held in their pages.
I'm thankful for stories- Hobbits with a ring as their burden,
Characters like the Joker, Katniss and Tyler Durden.
I'm thankful for Clozaril, my miracle med-
It keeps things calm inside of my head.
I'm thankful for Youtube, for Facebook.com!
They make it easy to stay in touch with my mom.
I'm thankful for Dr. Pepper and beef Ramen noodles.
I'm thankful for blank paper on which I doodle.
I'm thankful for cameras, the click of the lens,
I'm thankful for Sharpies, colored pencils and pens.
I'm thankful for perfume, for Chapstick, and hair dye,
I'm thankful for computers, cell phones and Wi-Fi.
I'm thankful for my sister when we binge-watch TV shows,
For singing Zeppelin with my dad when we miss all the high-notes.
I'm thankful for cool t-shirts and stupid internet memes.
I'm thankful for sleep, and in my sleep, dreams.
To sum it all up, I'm thankful for a lot!
I wish I was a better poet, but I gave it a shot.
I hope you all had excellent Thanksgivings Day meals.
Now go out and find those Black Friday deals!

Happy Thanksgiving, guys!
Sarah

I'm Fancy Because I Use Latin

Hi, hi, blog friends! This will be a quick one because my internet connection is being annoying and temperamental and keeps shutting itself down... it's a race against the clock!

I am so happy to report that it is FINALLY acting like winter here in Raton! Tonight my dad and I went over to Trinidad to watch the new James Bond movie, Spectre, and we drove past mountains of snow on the pass, thanks to our surprise snowstorm on Tuesday. When we got to the theater, I slipped out of the warm car and went inside to buy tickets, my fresh-from-the-box winter boots crunching across icy snow. I hugged my ACE hoodie close and half-ran across the parking lot, my breath fogging up the air. Once we got into the tiny, back theater, we were both happy we had jackets because it was COLD! By the end of the movie, the tip of my nose was frozen and I was questioning my earlier decision of getting something cold to drink.

We both enjoyed the movie very much and discussed it all the way back to Raton, where the outside temperature had plummeted. In town there are heaps of snow everywhere- dirty stacks in the middle of the roads, piles shoved onto salted sidewalks, and clumps of ice clinging to cars.

I love it all!! It's my favorite time of year. And with it comes the Holidays!

It seems as soon as stores get the Halloween stuff packed away, out comes the Christmas! And ACE is no exception, really. We recently brought in our Christmas racks, huge metal shelves that have been spray painted red and green for festivity's sake. Every year when we haul them in, we have to clean them up a little after they've been roughing it in a back shed for ten months or so. We scrub them down and touch up the paint if needed, then we put wrapping paper across the shelves, which looks a lot better then the bare, splintery wood slats. Then comes the merchandise! Box after box of lights and luminarias and window clings and wreaths and garlands and "NOEL" signs and lit-up deer and candy cane shaped pathway lights and Amaryllis kits and bows and Santa-Clauses and replacement bulbs and

Sunnuvabitch, my internet just cut out.

Aaaaaaaand we're back! Sorry, folks. Tempus fugit!

Last week before we got the huge snowstorm, the shop guys at ACE started working on lights for the building. It's always a spectacle! Unfortunately, a few lights here and there is all we can do anymore because people like to steal anything that's not chained to the building. But the guys always do a really nice job with the lights... long stands of white along the roof of the building, set with timers that turn on just as the day is closing, as the soft afternoon light fades into darkness.

And the rest of the town is doing the same! The city has begun putting up the holiday decorations and the other stores are filled to the brim with decorations. My dad LOVES Christmas time and is already planning his outdoor lighting. This will be my first Christmas in this house and I'm excited. I have made a vow, however, that I WILL take down my Christmas tree this year! I admit, a year or two ago, I put up my tree and left it up all year. After a while, it was just another piece of furniture! Like my mummy!

Anyway, guys, I couldn't be happier that it's winter time. I washed my nice winter coat today and I've been wearing a new beanie I got a few weeks ago... Supernatural! I'm hooked.

I promise next Thursday to write a Thanksgiving blog! I'm sorry this blog wasn't more interesting, but every now and then it's kind of nice to just sit and reflect about how good things are.

And I'm signing off before my internet has another conniption!

Stay warm out there!

Sarah

(Not So) Secret Talents!

Hi, ho, there! Another blog being written hastily to meet my self-set deadline.

There are some things in my life that I talk about... All. The. Time. Pshhhhhhh! Look who I'm telling! If you are a frequent reader, you know! I'm obsessed with my dog, I like to write, I talk about my job, my family, my dog, I love taking pictures and stupid memes, I love my dog... you know!

So today (tonight) I thought I'd do a quick list of gifts and skills of mine that I don't talk about all the time. Granted, there are a lot of blogs on this page and I know I've mentioned some before.. but still. Changing it up a little!

Forgive me if this is weird.. I'm kind of loopy tonight!

ELVISH

So years and years ago, I discovered this little-known book series... THE LORD OF THE RINGS!! I, like the rest of the world, fell in love. The books are absolutely incredible, the films are great, and for nerdy fans like me, there is a whole WORLD of knowledge out there to immerse yourself in... and that's just what I did. I bought a bunch of books about the histories of Middle Earth and discovered all the different languages that Tolkien created. So I bought an English-to-Elvish dictionary!(Sindarin and Quenya, not to mention a bunch of other dialects like Dwarvish and some Uruk-Hai.) To this day, it remains the most dog-eared book I own. And I learned! Back about 10 years ago, I was basically fluent in Elvish! Speaking and writing. Unfortunately, I don't remember a whole lot of it, but I still love it to death. Little bits of it stay with me! When I'm nervous, there's an Elvish poem that I recite over and over. It calms me.

You mark my words, someday I will have a tattoo in Elvish!


Music

I'll be honest, for a while I was a bit of a music snob, but now I love ALL KINDS of music, regardless of the genre. If it's good music, it's good music!

Over the years, I have learned to play (at least a little): piano/keyboard, clarinet, guitar, bass guitar. I like to sing, I'm just terrible at it. Actually, I love to sing when I'm with my dad because neither of us are really good, but we sing at the top of our lungs and just don't care! You should hear us do "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" or "The Sky is Crying" or any AC/DC, ZZ Top, or Led Zeppelin! Lately he's been teaching me a lot of  Eagles stuff and he loves to quiz me on Van Halen songs- Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth?

Flexible hands

My hands have always been very flexible.. I swear they don't hurt at all! I know it's inaccurate, but the term I grew up hearing was "double jointed."Over the years I've learned ways to twist and turn them that make some people... uncomfortable! Haha! For example:

My incredible, bendable pointer finger! I can make it go pretty much all the way to the back of my hand.

My thumb, which can go straight down to my wrist:

Or back around to the outside of my arm:

And finally, a move that everyone learns in 6th grade to freak out your family:

And, just for you! I made a really, REALLY dorky video of it all! Enjoy :)

My "put out the match" trick!

There is absolutely nothing to this trick, you just have to MAKE yourself do it the first time. It's kind hard because it's counter-intuitive. Your body's like "Nope! Bad idea..." Enjoy this high quality video from about 8 years ago!

GUILT

Admittedly, this is an odd one! But it's accurate. I am, to my core, GUILTY. Which is ironic, because I'm one of the most honest, cautious, boring, law-abiding citizens you can find! One of the things I say most often is, "I'm sorry!" even if it's not my fault at all. Somehow, I still feel responsible! I just inherently feel this overwhelming sense of guilt. It's to the point that it sometimes annoys my loved ones! They say, "STOP SAYING YOU'RE SORRY!"
To which I squeak, "Sorr--- I mean! Okay..."

Sometimes I like to think what I and other people were in past lives. It's fun! For example, I'm convinced that at one time or another my dad was a famous rock/blues musician. As for me, I'm positive I was some sort of master-criminal. It's the only thing that I can think of that would explain why, in a different life entirely, I still feel bad! I just hope I was an excellent criminal and had a lot of fun, because I am STILL PAYING FOR IT!


Oh, I just realized that today is Friday the 13th! Which is pretty insignificant, except I MISSED  MY DEADLINE ANYWAY!!

Have a good one! :)

Sarah

That Mummy is Invaluable

Happy November to you all! With the warm, balmy weather we've been having lately, it's been hard to believe it's fall. But this morning when I rolled out of my toasty-warm bed and let Otis outside, there was a fine dusting of snow on the crispy, dead grass of my back yard lawn. I could see my breath fogging up the chilly air and Otis' outside water dish was crystallized with ice. Hopping from one bare foot to the other, I hugged my arms close to my body and shivered as Otis happily crunched through the snow.

I know some people will be sad to see the nice weather fading away, but I love it! Late fall and winter is my favorite time of year.

I was, however, happy that we had pretty nice weather for Halloween! This was the first Halloween in a long time that I didn't dress up or anything. I just wore a Dunder-Mifflin t-shirt and pretended I was Dwight Schrute!

I was sort of disappointed in myself for not doing more! Last Halloween, I braided my hair, put on my renaissance festival crown, and carried around some plastic dragons, my version of a Khaleesi (Daenerys Targaryen) from Game of Thrones! Not too much work involved, obviously, but at least I did something!

Even back in mid-school when I and all my friends were in the inevitable "I'm Too Cool for This" stage, I at least put on some drippy eyeliner, because, well, I'm not sure. It seemed like a good idea at the time, okay? Shut up!

But to be fair, over the years, I did have some cool costumes. I was the Joker one year! When I was really, really small, my mom made me a tiger costume. I was Hermione from Harry Potter. When I was in about first grade, I was Meg from the animated movie Hercules!

Halloween is just cool! I've stated in previous blogs that I really love when they put out Halloween decorations because most people's "Halloween" decorations are my everyday house furnishings. And you know what? My neighbors told me the other day that the life-size mummy I keep on my front porch quite possibly prevented a minor theft from occurring! I had an empty (though the potential criminal did not know this) box left on my front porch and the crook came up to inspect it. Suddenly, they looked up and saw my mummy, got scared shitless, and hauled ass out of there!

Three words: Muah. Ha. Ha.

But, even though I did not dress up this year, I did (through work and trick-or-treaters) get to see other people's costumes! Costumes, and, of course, older women's Halloween sweater vests.

When I was younger, I trick-or-treated with friends, and sometimes my parents would have Halloween parties! We'd play games and hang out, and it was just fun. However, I missed out on one thing: giving out candy! Up where I lived, there were no trick or treaters! So when I got to be a little older, I went to my friends houses and finally got to experience the phenomenon. One of the funnest Halloweens I ever had, I was at my friends house and we sat on the roof of her garage and threw candy to kids and strangers, and twigs and small pebbles at people we knew.

For the past couple years, it had become kind of a tradition for me to hang out with my sister on Halloween, watch ghost-hunting shows, eat junk food and pass out candy. We tried to keep track of the trick-or-treaters and we usually got about 70 to 80. Well, this year I was on my own! It was kind of scary, I won't lie. You probably know by now I have anxiety when it comes to people, and I was pretty scared to be on my own! But, you know what? Not one single kid mugged me! It probably helped that Otis was in the house WOOFING like a maniac.

I got home a little later than usual, so I know I missed some trick-or-treaters, but I still had about 45! I tried to take inventory of costumes. There were:

• a LOT of pirates! Which is really cool, but kind of unexpected
• a couple evil clowns
• a few fairies
• one or two vampires
• some monsters
• a TON of girls wearing Day of the Dead skull makeup
• several princesses
• three or four superheroes
• some ghosts
• a couple Ninja Turtles
• a cowboy
• a ton MORE girls wearing Day of the Dead makeup
• and many more costumes!

I'll be honest, I turned off my porch light at 8:00. Most trick or treaters were gone, I was almost out of candy, and it seems like later in the evening you get the mid school and high school kids who are bored and want candy so they find a mask somewhere and carry plastic KMart bags "trick or treating." I suppose there's nothing really wrong with that, but sometimes it's like, "Come on. Get your own candy!"

Now that Halloween is over, Christmas stuff will be ALL OVER! And I'm fine with that. With the holiday season comes cooler weather, pretty bright lights, family crowed around the table for Thanksgiving, deep snows, City of Bethlehem, luminarias, creative Christmas crafts from Hobby Lobby, kids letters to Santa, the Christmas Carol at the Shuler Theater, candy canes, and my favorite, CHRISTMAS CAROLS! I'll be singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" til Cinco de Mayo.

I SWEAR I will take my Christmas tree down this year!!

I think.

Happy November!
Sarah