How Do You Make An Ordinary Situation Hilarious? Turn the Jazz Station On.

Thank you all for voting on my poll about pets. If you haven't, please feel welcome to do so! I would have never known that someone owned a saber-toothed tiger until a today had I not set that up. Wherever you live, mysterious cat-owner, remind me to keep a good three hundred yards away from your house whenever I pass by it. I'm in awe that you have managed to survive so long with such a ferocious animal as a beloved pet! Tell me, what is it that you feed it?

In other news, my best friend, Fang, who happens to be a poet, has this blog called Believe Your Voice Means Something. It's a collection of her work, and she also has nobody reading it to review her pieces. So, it would mean a lot to her if some of you could go and look at it! Thanks!

Yesterday, my brother started school and my sister had to help with freshmen orientation. Today, they are both in school while I am not because I got to private school. Kristen was done with her thing by twelve, so my beautiful mother and I joined for for a while. Know what's kind of sad? I walked around Forever 21, the most random clothing store I've ever crossed paths with, for fifteen minutes and didn't find anything to get. After Kristen the Pretty and Skinny got out of the dressing room with her six shirts that suited her perfectly, she and my mother were all over the store trying to find something for me to wear. The annoying part? They found something within two minutes. I think my problem is that I honestly have no fashion sense. But that doesn't mean that I don't look good in things that my sister and mother pick out for me, which means that I am now two shirts poorer than I was. I'll plunge into a fashionless oblivion once Kristen leaves for college. Thank God she's only a senior this year!
Kristen left after we shopped a little while, not finding anything, and so my mom decided she wanted to take me to the Cheesecake factory, which happens only in a blue moon. Partially because we have, like, no money. But, because we're in the family we are, we both know exceptionally well how to save money. Like to order basket of bread and only one slice of cheesecake to share, and one coffee instead of, say, a BLT with shrimp and garlic salt with a side of freshly-cut french fries. What we got only cost us eleven dollars. Skill? I think so. And we've managed to keep our little mother-daughter date secret from my siblings. (Know how kids spell "love"? T-I-M-E.)
The two of us then went to Target and I bought an additional two shirts and a pair of jeans. Ninety dollar paycheck well spent!

It rained yesterday, and I sat out on the front porch in the hammock to read a book. It's cool to watch how storms progress. First, it begins to get really dark; then it starts to sprinkle, then the downpour. I sat and shivered for a long time, but I loved it. My dog, Bo, came up and sat next to me in the chair I moved to after a while, and it just seemed so...peaceful. I haven't felt that way in a long time.
My mother called me in for dinner of spinach quiche, to which my twelve-year-old brother promptly began complaining about, piling cantaloupe high on his plate and refusing to eat anything else. I thought, is this seriously the kid that is the quarterback for his little football team? (He also cries whenever I accidentally hurt him and acts like he needs to be taken to the emergency room, but laughs it off whenever he's with his friends...) My mom resorted to feeding him like a baby.
"Heeere comes the airplaaane!" she crowed, making an engine noise with her mouth and trying to shove quiche in through his.
"We should turn some classical music on," Kristen suggested. "Everything's much more comical whenever there's a symphony playing."
"Like in movies!" I added.
Dad got up and turned the jazz station on.
Then we couldn't stop laughing at him. While he pulled a face while he was chewing, there were saxophones going, da dum ba-da bum...
"Stop giggling at me!" Daniel growled at me from across the wide table.
Which, of course, made me laugh harder. His glare hardened, and then a singer went, "I need to tell you I looove yooou!"
His eyes widened, and his frown quivered into a suppressed smile which continued to grow until he ended up laughing with the rest of us. I feel the need to videotape the rest of our family dinners.

Today, youth group was at my house because we always have it at our house at the end of the year. We're the people with the huge, huuuge thirty-six acre yard. Ashley (Fang) was there to entertain me, and my other friends that made it were Michael Anderson, Alex, and Mikayla (who is a freshman as of today :).
Towards the end of the night, Chris Johnson thought it would be a great idea to pay Michael and Alex ten dollars to eat a spoonful of cinnamon. They were all for it, especially because both Kristen and I were the ones running all about the house trying to find cinnamon for them to use. The results, however, were purely entertaining. I have never seen anyone blow any type of powder out their nose before. Michael is a weenie in disguise, so he quickly dashed off in a random direction and proceeded to puke, while Alex, the determined one, slowly managed to swallow the whole thing, and then puke. Everyone was laughing so hard they were crying! It was so comical. I kind of wish classical music could have been playing. Alex even won his ten bucks.