Attention, today's LGBT youth - It Gets Better.

If you have a Facebook or a Twitter, I'm sure you noticed that yesterday was the Spirit Day thing, where (according to Facebook) 27,990 people wore purple in honor of all the gay teens who committed suicide recently, as well as just to show support to the LGBTetc community. There have been several suicides recently, cases in which these kids were being bullied and picked on for being gay.

There's also a project on YouTube that's been going on since September, the It Gets Better Project, where dozens of celebrities have made videos telling LBGT youth that life gets better, that getting bullied right now sucks, but it's not worth killing yourself because as you get older, as the world becomes more accepting, and as you come into who you are and become proud of it, life does get better. I think it's part of or associated with The Trevor Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trevor_Project), which is also just amazing.

These projects are beautiful and awesome, and some of the videos in the It Gets Better project made me choke up a little, but the fact that they have to exist is sickening. The fact that children are killing themselves because their peers are so close-minded is just awful.

This subject makes me so angry. The people who say being gay is a choice, the people who don't want gays in the military or to be able to marry or adopt children, it's all just so frustrating. There are some things I'd like to say to those people:

First of all, IT IS NOT A CHOICE, YOU IDIOTS. Did you ever CHOOSE to be straight? When were you offered this choice? Birth? How can a baby make such an important decision? And I was never offered the choice - maybe I would have liked to be gay. God knows there are some things I would have liked to change, had I known we got a CHOICE. Were you also offered a choice on skin color, religion, gender? And why in the WORLD, with people like you walking around passing judgment on others for things they can't help, WHY would ANYONE choose to be gay? Or black? Or speak any other language besides English? With people like you making everyone who isn't JUST LIKE YOU feel like an abomination that doesn't deserve to be alive, WHY would anyone choose anything else? Also, sidebar - someone explain to me where the "God doesn't make mistakes" line of thought comes in.

Secondly, SHUT THE EFF UP ABOUT GAYS IN THE MILITARY, OH MY GOD. Seriously, there are people willing to go and die for their country, and you're going to tell them they can't? WHY? What could you POSSIBLY have to lose? I thought being in the military was just about the best thing an American could do, and here you guys are not letting everyone play. That's not fair. Women are allowed. Blacks are allowed. Asians are allowed. People not even from this COUNTRY are allowed, so why not gays? Woman isn't catching, and as far as I know neither are black, Asian, or foreign, so why are you so afraid that people will "turn" gay? Furthermore, what does being gay have to do with your ability to hold a gun, fly a plane, and drive a tank? The more people willingly signing up for war, the less likely your perfect straight-as-an-arrow sons will be drafted. Isn't this a good thing? Or do you just want to keep the glory of being in the military away from the gays? That's pretty selfish. =/

Third, Neil Patrick Harris and his boyfriend of like, five years, David Burtka, just adopted twins:



Look at these two. Just LOOK at them, and tell me that they shouldn't be allowed to be married, to be parents, to be IN LOVE. Look. Look at all the cute:



How can they possibly be wrong? :D <3 And there is just no argument about the babies turning out gay - I'm pretty sure NPH's parents aren't a gay couple. I don't think David's are either, actually. Hmm. How strange. I don't think Ellen DeGeneres was raised by two gay parents either, nor was her wife, Portia De Rossi. This is so weird! It's almost like the parents' sexualities make no difference on a child's sexuality! So, if we assume this is true, just, you know, based on all the evidence around us as seen in just about every single family in the world, then it simply CAN'T be true that gay parents would make a gay child! Wow. Learn something new every day, huh?

Seriously, though, it's just disgusting that there are people out there who treat their fellow human beings like this. In Sarah Silverman's It Gets Better video, she says that adults go around banning gay marriage and protesting adoption by gay couples and talking about gay people like they're the scum of the earth, and then they're all surprised when their children start bullying their gay peers. You're all shocked at the hatred and anger your children are expressing - WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY LEARNED IT? Why is it so bad to just let people be happy? Just let people love, whoever or whatever they want to love. How can it POSSIBLY hurt you if two men you don't know get married? What harm could POSSIBLY come to you and yours if two women decide to raise a child together? Do you really think that child will turn out any worse than your 14-year-old-daughter's kid?

I am so tired of hearing about these idiots. Listen, if there are any gay kids out there who happened upon this blog (thanks for reading, btw :D), pay attention: THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT HERE WHO LOVE YOU. There are people ON YOUR SIDE. There are people willing to fight for you, who've never met you but want you to be happy anyway, who never want to see you go through this pain. There are people you can talk to. Please, please, if you're a gay kid or teen being bullied at school, please don't hurt yourself. There are so many things out here to live for. And there's so much you could do. Please don't give up.

Personally, I am not homosexual, but inside, I am as close to a gay man as a woman can get. XD Many, many of my friends are LGBTs (is that a term? I guess it is now.), including one of my very best friends in the world. He is amazing and beautiful, and being gay is only a part of who he is, but without that part, he just wouldn't be the same glorious person. :D And neither would you. One of my other gay friends in high school once wore a dress to a football game, no joke. It was hilarious, and amazing, and he's just that kind of person. He actually dated my bff, and they were one of the only (possibly THE only) openly gay couples, and no one seemed to have an issue with it. And I live in South Carolina, y'all. =/

My point here is this: a) gay people are people, plain and simple; b) people who hate gays are stupid jerks and they make me sad and angry; c) The Trevor Project and It Gets Better are terrific projects and it makes me feel a little better seeing all the people who DO care; and d) if you are a gay teen being bullied, or, actually, ANYONE of ANY AGE being bullied and hurt, don't stand for it! And don't let them get you down! Talk to someone, tell on them, call the effing cops if you have to. Show them how much stronger you are than their close-minded words, and if they hurt you physically, I'm serious - go to the principal or even the police and get some help. And please, before you think about hurting yourself or someone else, please talk to someone. There are people who will listen, and people who care. Don't let the bullies win - if they keep winning, this world will never accept peoples' differences and we will all lose. =/



Go check out some of the It Gets Better videos on YouTube - Neil Patrick Harris's, Ellen's, and Sarah Silverman's are all good. Darren Hayes's (from Savage Garden) is good too, and YouTube's own Sassy Gay Friend made one as well. They are all pretty touching and emotional.

And here's the Trevor Project's site, where you can donate money, find helpful resources on suicide, and also find their suicide hotline number: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

TRIPLE RAINBOW AWESOME TOUR

Hey, remember that time when I used to update this? Let's bring that back. :D

Once upon a time, around 3:30 Monday morning, my friend Carmen and I set off for Washington DC for the Triple Rainbow Awesome Tour! :D It was a long drive. A loooong drive. =/

We get to DC around 12:30ish, having stopped to eat and getting lost once or twice. :D Then we still have to find parking, which is just ridiculous, because it was Columbus Day so forty thousand people decided to go to DC and just take up all the parking spaces. =/ A nice meter maid lady told us it was free because it was a holiday, but thanks to stupid jerkfaces who can't park, we just ended up paying $10 to park in a garage. We figured it was less frustrating, and thus worth the money and the walking. It wasn't far to the park, anyway, but then we decided to eat. It was around 2 (yes, it took us THAT LONG to park) and we had seen a Subway somewhere while circling looking for parking, and a security dude in an art museum directed us to Pennsylvania and 7th, which was really close! Yay! So we set off!

And then we got to PA and 7th and didn't see a Subway or ANY restaurants, in fact. =/ I asked a lady, but she thought I meant a real subway, not the food Subway, so that was useless. Then I got attacked by a bug. Then we found a Starbucks, rested, and decided to try a place called Au Bon Pain, I think. I was deeply unimpressed. It was $8 for a crappy little ham sandwich and a Pepsi, and I didn't even get refills, and they didn't even get it right. =/ Not a fan. Oh well. There isn't one here, so it's not a problem. :D

ALSO: walking back and forth between this place and Starbucks, there was a LEGIT CRAZY LADY. On the way past the first time, we thought she was talking on a bluetooth thing. She didn't look crazy. She wasn't dressed horribly, and she had a roll-y suitcase guy with her, but she was just sitting on this wall thingy talking to herself. It was kind of terrifying. =/

Then we hung out in Starbucks charging our phones for an hour or so, waiting for 4:00 to happen. We were sleepy, but by the time we made it to the park, I was pretty excited again. ^_^ And guys - I've never been to a YouTube gathering or a Nerdfighter meetup, and the other two wrock concerts I went to were kind of small, so it was freaking AWESOME to see like, 70 people in HP, Doctor Who, wizard rock, Nerdfighter, YouTube people, and generally nerdy t-shirts, all hanging out together and being awesome. There were two groups when we came up, and then by the power of the Sons of Admirals and Doctor Who, we joined together (two girls in one group were wearing those shirts and I went to compliment them and said they should come join the other group). :D WOOT. It was fairly awesome. Everyone introduced themselves, even though there were far too many people to remember names... it was fun.

AND THEN. The stars showed up! :D Luke Conard, Kristina Horner, Mike Lombardo, Alex Carpenter, and Jason Munday. Weeeee! :D We relocated to another bit of the park, and then the concert started. Highlights:

* I am TOTALLY IN LOVE with Mike Lombardo. Seriously guys, go look him up on YouTube. :D SOOOO CUUUUTE. :3
* ALEX CARPENTER WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE. Why didn't I love the Remus Lupins before now?! Everyone was right - he's pretty much a god. :D <3
* Jason Munday is frickin' adorable and played two songs I love, but unfortunately not California Dorks, which has been stuck in my head for about a squillion years.
* ALL CAPS acoustic was pretty good, and even though I was sad I didn't get to hear them/MoM in all their glory, it was a really cozy familiar setting, and it was really nice. :D
* Mike Lombardo solved my Rubik's Cube, which sounds like an innuendo, but it's just a fact. XD In one of his songs he says he can solve it in 2 minutes, and I wanted to see if it was true, and he didn't do it in 2 minutes so I felt bad, but he did eventually solve it so it was okay. :D
* Nerdfighters will clap at anything - parrots, fire trucks, some guy shaving in the park...
* Did I mention how cute they all are? 'Cause they are. SO CUTE.

I talked to Mike Lombardo, and guys, he is just so sweet. He's one of the sweetest guys ever. :D He was so nice to me even though I'm a crazy fangirl who was like "HELLO MIKE I LOVE YOU YOU'RE CUTE AND I LOVE YOU SERIOUSLY I LOVE YOU AND YOU'RE CUTE. I LOVE YOU. :DDD" And they were all pretty impressed that we drove so far to see them. ^_^ So that made us feel special.

Then we napped for about three hours in the rest area right outside DC on the way back to Richmond. Totally didn't even die. :D And then we drove home, and it was mostly okay, but the last 3 hours were just torturous. We were hallucinating and cranky and just wanted to teleport home. And we saw a weresheep. D: For reals. It followed us. ;-;


Anyway, so that was my adventure to DC for one day! :D It was a good time. People who performed:

Mike Lombardo - http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeLombardoMusic
ALL CAPS - http://www.youtube.com/user/ALLCAPSBAND
Ministry of Magic - http://www.youtube.com/user/ministryofmagicmusic
Luke Conard (ALL CAPS, Ministry of Magic)- http://www.youtube.com/user/LukeConard
Kristina Horner (ALL CAPS)- http://www.youtube.com/user/italktosnakes
Jason Munday (Skyway Flyer, Ministry of Magic)- http://www.youtube.com/user/JasonMundayMusic
Alex Carpenter (The Remus Lupins)- http://www.youtube.com/user/AlexanderCarpenter

Check them all out, they're all amazing musicians and really great people. :D

I like the internet.

I have totally failed at blogging this week, huh? -_- Oh well. What can you do?

I've been thinking a bit about social media stuff, partly because of my last blog and partly because everyone makes such a huge freaking deal when any part of the internet is broken. Of course, I'm just as angry when Facebook goes away or something, but people are always saying stuff about how my generation can't do anything because we're so wired up and always have our phones and iPods and whatnot, and honestly, I don't think that's true.

For the most part, yes, we're constantly texting or tweeting, checking Facebook or IMing, blogging or emailing (yeah, like anyone emails anymore! [that's a joke, I still email]). But that doesn't mean we don't know how to interact with people. It doesn't mean we sit inside all day and do nothing but stare at a screen. A lot of our time may be spent that way, but why does that have to be a bad thing? I spend a LOT of time online, but I still have irl (in real life) friends and hang out with them often. We do things that don't involve screens at all, sometimes, and occasionally we even go to that place without walls or ceilings, where it's all hot and bright and there's plants and stuff. But yes, I do text and tweet sometimes, and I have been known to check Facebook more than a few times a day (more than that, if I'm trying to do homework), and even sometimes remember to post on my blog.

And the internet, aside from being an amazing time-waster and source of "knowledge" and useful tool for pirating, is also a fantastic way to meet people and make friends. I have several friends I've met online, who I feel I know pretty well, from all around the country, and even around the world. Someone I would consider a very close friend lives in Wisconsin, and I've never met her. We've talked on the phone, as well as various places on the internet. In fact, I've made more online friends than I have friends at college, and I consider them to be just as important as my real life friends. So it's not all bad. It's not all posting pictures of drunk friends or updating everyone we know about what we're eating at the moment. There are some legitimate uses for the internet. And the internet is the only way I can communicate with most of my online friends, so yes, I do spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter, but it's not like I can't function without them.

That's what I feel a lot of people think about my age group - that we literally cannot do anything without our phones or laptops. And it's a little insulting, because not all of us are like that. A small percentage, yes, but not all of us. It just really bothers me. I'm a pretty well-rounded person, I think, and I read, I write, I like to play games, I do a lot of things that don't involve a screen or wires of any sort. And I don't think it's a bad thing to like video games, movies, or hanging out online. Honestly, I think as long as you can go without it, as long as you can function without it in your life, as long as it isn't your entire life, anything you like to do is okay.

I don't know. I probably shouldn't blog at 7 AM when I haven't been asleep yet. =/

Internet rights?

I failed at blogging yesterday 'cause I was busy with Real Life Things. O_o I know. It happens sometimes.

However, today I come to you with A Story. :D Apparently some kid brought a gun to my old high school and shot the security officer dude, and then I think made a bomb threat or something. The officer is fine, and the kid was taken away, but several schools had to be locked down because of the bomb threat. This whole story has circulated around Facebook today, and now people are passing links to his Twitter around, too. And this kid... let me tell you, he's a real winner.

I'm not going to post a name or a Twitter account, or quote him directly, but there were at least 15 tweets involving guns, bombs, and death of some sort. I just glanced over the first page, all the tweets before the shooting occurred, and as one of my friends put it: this probably could have been prevented. But that's where I find issues.

On the one hand, if the authorities had access to this kid's tweets, they might have been able to keep the shooting from happening. They would have had to have access to his location, full name, and school information, but they could have prevented it theoretically.

On the other hand, would it have been an invasion of his privacy? It's a public place, his tweets aren't protected, so anyone can see them. But his information, unless he makes it public, should be protected by Twitter, right? And he should be allowed to say whatever he wants on his own Twitter, right?

So what should be done about these kinds of situations? Everyone's always saying that the world has become obsessed with social media and the internet and instant everything, and it's true. I'm part of it, of course, and I love Facebook and Twitter, but even though they're on the internet I still consider it sort of private and personal. It's my own corner of the internet. And no one can tell me what to post, or not to post, and if I don't want you to have access, I don't think you should be able to see it, police, government, or not.

In a case where monitoring social media could potentially save lives, is it better to protect our freedom of speech, or to violate those rights but keep more situations like this from happening?

Pointless post is pointless. :D

I think I've decided I'm not going to blog every day in October. I was considering it, but it's very difficult sometimes to come up with stuff to talk about. And I don't want this blog to be just random nonsense, I want to plan out some really cool posts. Also, in November, I'll be doing NaNoWriMo, and I don't think I'll have time to keep up the blogging every day thing. So I'll take a break in October and get a routine going for blogging. :D

I know you guys care so much about that. ^_^

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I AM EXCITED THIS YEAR. I sucked last year, so I'm really excited to win again. Somehow I can't make myself do it any other month than November. =/ But I've got an idea for a plot already! I'm stoked. :D Are any of you guys doing NaNoWriMo? You should.
http://www.nanowrimo.org

So that's what I've been thinking about today, figuring out a schedule for my life. I need to have time for homework, blogging, writing, and the internet, as well as school, a job, and sleep. Then there's family times, hanging out times, helping around the house, and hobby type stuffs. Lately I'm having a terrible time managing my time, hard as I try, so I really need to just sit down and schedule it out. I like making schedules and stuff. ^_^ So yay.

ANYWAY, that concludes today's episode of Erin Babbles About Nothing In Particular. Whooo! Hopefully I will have something more important to babble about tomorrow. By the way, fall TV premiere week starts tomorrow! I am excited! :D

Today's post is made possible by SCHOOL. Where you LEARN.

I should probably start a segment called "Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Me." Or at least make it a tag or something. =/

Today's TTAtCOoM is college students who a) don't try, b) don't listen, or c) think that the classes should be really easy and they shouldn't actually have to write papers or do homework or, you know, learn anything. I mean, you're PAYING FOR THE CLASS. Why not actually do the work and learn the stuff?

My Spanish class is extremely annoying, for many reasons. It's a 101 class, which means that very few people have actually taken Spanish. That's to be expected - I don't have an issue with people not knowing Spanish right off the bat. BUT. When we do "Como te llama?" and "Me llamo ____" for THIRTY STUDENTS, by the time you get to the 30th, they should have some idea of what's going on. I mean, hearing the teacher ask every person before you "Como te llama?" and hearing EVERY PERSON reply with "Me llamo" and THEIR NAME should kind of give you a clue as to what you're expected to say. You don't even have to know what it means! It's repetition!

There's this girl in my class who was talking about how she wanted to switch out to a different teacher, because OUR teacher had the CRAZY IDEA that actually SPEAKING SPANISH TO US would help us learn. She was like "I hear that the 155 class is taught in English. I mean, she comes in here and starts speaking Spanish and I don't know what she's saying! We don't speak Spanish yet, jeez!" (Not an actual quote.) Apparently the 155 class spends the first few weeks just learning the alphabet. Yes. WEEKS. On the ALPHABET. I would die of boredom in that class. And seriously, what could you possibly learn in a class that spends so long on the basics? If you don't want to learn Spanish, DON'T TAKE SPANISH.

I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't be calling people out like this, but seriously. It really bugs me when I hear students complain about stuff like this. You're paying to learn, okay? So what if the paper due date gets pushed back after you've already finished it? You're done with it, who cares if you have to wait a week to turn it in? Don't complain about stuff like that. And don't be surprised if the teacher expects you to actually take something away from all the hours you spend in class. Why are you even here if you're not expecting to learn? There are lots of people out there who can't afford to go to college, and here you are wasting it. Why even bother going?

It makes me mad. =/ Unfortunately, not everyone in our country is able to get an education, and when I see people BS-ing their way through classes or not doing the work, complaining about the homework or tests or whatever (unless it's actually unfair, like the prof makes really crappy tests), it just upsets me. It's the same for teachers, too - teachers who don't teach right annoy me because I've paid to be here, and you're BEING paid to be here, so why don't we actually get something done in class, eh? I don't want to sit here for an hour and hear you talk about your life when you were a kid, or read in class for an hour, or have you try to trick us on the tests instead of just seeing what we actually know. It's stupid. It cannot be that hard to be a good teacher, really.

Bah. Anyway. That's today's blog post, the first official installment of Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Me. I'm totally making it a thing. XD

Boooo.

I'm extremely tired so this post will probably be very short. =/

I spent most of the day "working" on Twilight, then came and did my math homework, which took entirely too long. Then I applied for a job at Best Buy! Wouldn't that be a funtime? Fingers crossed, guys!

My sleeping is all out of whack again, quel surprise. But I'm about to go to bed and it's only 11:30, so maybe I'll turn it around again yet! :D My life is so utterly fascinating.

I really don't have anything to talk about, I'm sorry. Lame blog post is lame. =/ But hey, at least I didn't forget to do it! :D?

Bedtime internets. Goodnight.

I have nothing else to talk about. Besides, I love Doctor Who.

I got my Doctor Who shirt in the mail the other day, which made me do a happy dance of happy, and I wore it to school yesterday hoping I would make all the friends. Unfortunately, only like, two people commented on it, and one was already my friend. =/ BUT it doesn't matter because I love Doctor Who and wearing the shirt made me really happy. It has David Tennant's face on it.

David Tennant is the best Doctor, imo, of the three I've seen. I liked Christopher Eccleston too, but he was there so briefly I didn't get a chance to love him properly. Matt Smith is okay so far, but David owns my heart. ^_^ He's so cute and weird and his eyebrows are magnificent. Also "allons-y" is the best catchphrase, and he's so cute when he says it. I LOVE DAVID TENNANT.

As far as the companions go, Rose irritated me at first and then grew on me; Martha was freakin' awesome; I HATED DONNA FOREVER AND EVER; and Amy so far is all right, kind of annoying and slutty, but mostly okay. Donna set the bar pretty high for me hating characters on that show. I thought Rose was annoying, then Donna showed up. After that I was like, "Hey, as long as you're not Donna, you're welcome to be the companion!" UGH DONNA. She's just so whiny and nasally, and she's always bugging the Doctor about stuff that he can't do anything about.

One time they went to Pompeii, and Donna was all like "OMG Doctor we should totally save all these people from the volcano!" and the Doctor was like "We can't actually do that, much as I'd like to, because it's a fixed point in time and we can't go messing about with history 'cause it could totally destroy the world." And Donna was like "YOU'RE SUCH A JERK I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'D LET ALL THESE PEOPLE WE DON'T KNOW DIE EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DIE AND IT'S A MILLION YEARS AGO ANYWAY OMG YOU'RE SO MEEEAAANN." And the Doctor is like, "Look, I'm the Time Lord here, I know the rules, and it's my responsibility to make sure everything goes the right way. MAYBE I know a little bit more about it than you. So MAYBE YOU SHOULD LET ME DO MY JOB." And then Donna was all, "Whatevs, if he's gonna be like that, I'll save the people my own darn self." And the Doctor had to go and correct all her stupid mistakes and save the world from exploding. And that is why I hate Donna.

I'll give her that it's refreshing to have a companion NOT be totally in love with the Doctor, 'cause that's a little annoying. But Donna herself is MUCH more annoying than the others pining away for the Doctor - at least that has a vague sense of plot about it. Donna just irritates me to no end. =/

As far as season 5 goes, so far I like Matt Smith, though not as much as David Tennant, but he's doing a pretty good job. I kind of like Amy, whore-y as she can be. My favorite, though, is Rory, Amy's fiance guy. He's adorable and funny and I feel really sad for him, but he's a good guy. And I love him. And I want him to go travel around with the Doctor, too, because he's awesome. ^_^

I need to get a job so I can spend all my money on DVDs and shirts. I have a serious addiction to buying t-shirts and TV-on-DVD. XD

I'm from the future.

Another suggestion from my blog muse was to write a letter to the Erin of the Future. :D So here's my letter to me in ten years.

Dear 32-year-old Erin,

Hello! It's 22-year-old Erin, remember me? I'm just writing to see how you're doing, how life's going and all. I hope it's going pretty well. For Pete's sake, I hope you're done with college. If you're still in school, punch yourself in the face RIGHT NOW. I'm gonna know if you did it or not. =/

Am I married yet? I guess I hope I am - I mean, it doesn't matter if you're still single, I'm sure life is still awesome. But it'd be nice to be married by now. What's our hypothetical husband like? I hope he's handsome and funny, smart but not too much smarter than me, sweet and caring, with interests similar to mine. I'm not even going to ask if he likes Harry Potter, because if you married him, I'm sure he does. Did we have a Harry Potter themed wedding?! Oh, I hope so. If you didn't have a HP-themed wedding, punch yourself in the face again. SERIOUSLY. That's just messed up. (I'm pretty sure we had a Harry Potter themed wedding, or at LEAST some references here and there. Like the bride and groom figurines were in Gryffindor colors or something. Or maybe we served butterbeer. I'm sure we figured something out.)

Are you a famous author yet? Were you famous before your 10-year high school reunion rolled around? If you weren't, I guess it's okay. I was just looking forward to rubbing it in the faces of everyone who was mean to me. XD But hey, as long as we're a famous best-selling author now, I'm cool. And with pronouns like these, how could we/you/I not be?!

I hope we've had a lot of adventures and fun in our lifetime. When the time comes to write a memoir, I hope future-future-me has a LOT to write about. And I hope our life has been full of joy and happiness, love and friendship. I sincerely hope my parents are still around, and my sisters are close and doing well in their future lives. Let me know how things are going with you, 32-year-old self! I look forward to finding out all about you. :D

Love,
22-year-old Erin

I dream about sharks an awful lot.

I'm wearing fake glasses as I write this. You know, those glasses with clear plastic lenses that they sell in like, Claire's? I totally have a pair, and they have rhinestones on the corners, and they're awesome, and I'm wearing them.

Anyway. My blog muse suggested I write about dreams I've had, which is a terrific topic because I have the MOST CRACKED OUT DREAMS EVER. Seriously. My subconscious is a crazy person.

When I was little, I used to have a lot of recurring dreams. There were three or four dreams I'd have over and over - not for several nights in a row, but for years, with months in between them. It was weird. And they didn't seem to mean anything, either. There was one dream I always had where I was a little fish, just swimming around being a fish, and then suddenly I looked down ('cause fish can do that) and there were like, fifteen sharks in a circle directly beneath me. I'd race for the surface and they'd chase me and just as I was either about to break free or be eaten, I'd wake up. That sounds like it'd mean something, like being trapped in a situation or being afraid of something, I don't know. But I was little, like eight or so. There wasn't much going on in my life.

Another recurring dream from my childhood, which actually became something of an inside joke for me and my sisters: I'm hanging out in my backyard with my little sister, and we're running around playing or whatever. We get to the back corner of our yard, which is fenced in, and we look back towards the house - and somehow, the entire yard is made of ice. Like, not ice over the grass, it's MADE of ice. There's water underneath us, and we're standing on maybe a foot of solid ice. I'm trying to get my sister to go back to the house, when all of a sudden there's a whipcrack in the air and we look to the other side of the yard, which seems to go on and on at this point, and there's a freaking ESKIMO on a DOGSLED rushing towards us. He looks scary, so I start freaking out. Then my sister points out that underneath the ice, in the water, there are sharks. Apparently I was secretly scared of sharks, I don't know. But as soon as we see the sharks, the ice starts to crack. The Eskimo is getting closer, the sharks are right under us, and the ice cracks. Just before we were about to either fall or get caught, I'd wake up.

Pretty sure I had some other recurring nightmares as a child, but I've also had some amazing one-time dreams. XD They're usually funny and weird. This one time I dreamt about pirates, and I was hanging out with this ridiculously gay pirate, just eating mashed potatoes on his pirate ship. It was weird. I don't even like mashed potatoes that much. O_o

I also had a dream about ice skating with Neil Patrick Harris, then stumbling upon a human sacrifice, escaping it, and returning home to find that a bunch of wizard rock people had mailed me cookies and cupcakes.

I've had nightmares about Doctor Who (the Weeping Angels, need I say more?), Harry Potter (literally, one time I had the dream that's just flashes of green light, a woman screaming, and high cold laughter), and Buffy (the Gentlemen freaked me the eff out). I have dreams about famous people and people I know.

My dreams usually happen like movies - they're vivid, there's music and sound effects and crazy visual effects, and there's usually some sort of either completely insane or intensely epic plot. Like traveling from planet to planet via magic doors, being chased by terrifying Police who look like monks and want to kill you. Or delivering some magic musical instrument to someone in a school run by people I know irl, running up and down staircases that only go in one direction, mourning the loss of a girl I dislike in a Spanish class taught by one of my friends, all the while trying to get this made-up musical instrument to the right person so they can save us all.

My dreams are often the inspiration for stories, sometimes poems, and most recently a book. The ones with good plots, at least. Some of them are just insanity. XD So I kind of like having such an intense imagination, because as long as I dream, I'll have plots for books and stories. And being a writer is what I want, so I guess as long as I dream, I have a shot at my dreams?


... No. Let's just pretend I never said that. :D