Tuesday, August 19 - Scariest Place

   Nothing. A field of nothingness obscures the view from the same shade of grey. What happened? Why is everything so colorless? Walking past the once a toy store reduced to rubble, and the factory which used to produce the world's toothbrushes, now gone. Black and grey ashes that smell of death fly swiftly past to try and claim their next victim, but jokes on them, everyone is dead. Burned by the second of two bombs to try and scare the citizens of this nation. If the first was tragic, this was downright devastating. Rows and rows of melted cars line the street, because this is still a danger zone, and while no one is allowed in the perimeters yet, No one thinks there were any survivors. Skeletons that tried to run, a ghastly smell of everything burning that just never seems to go away, and the screams still echoing through the buildings that no longer stand haunt this little town. It will never recover, nor will the lives of all of these innocent people who will never get to tell their stories. While sitting down on the dusty and glass covered sidewalk, I am overwhelmed by all of the thoughts and realizations that occur to me. So I lay down, close my eyes, and wait for help to come.

The Aftermath

Friday, August 15 - Kingergarten

    Joey was tired. His mother was waking him up and saying strange words like "school" and "kindergarten." Joey didn't understand anything she was saying, so he just rolled over and closed his eyes again. His mother insisted that he get up right then, though, because something important was going to happen. With sand in his eyes and a tired sigh, Joey reluctantly stood up. He was feeling confused because he always slept longer, and it felt really early, and the light peeking through the blinds had a bluish tint, when it normally had a yellowish hue. His mother made him wash his face and put on clothes. He felt more awake, but was still really confused. And hungry. While his mother was preparing breakfast, he noticed a bag in the corner of his room. What could be in it? He thought in his head. He walked over, opened the bag, and saw... office supplies? These were the things his parents used when they did boring stuff! Not wanting anything to do with the boring items, he went to see what his mother was making. When Joey tried to walk down the stairs like a dinosaur, his father yelled at him to knock it off. Finally downstairs, Joey ate the bagel with cream cheese his mother had made and sat down on the couch. Joey still was confused because he was dressed when he usually wasn't and his parents were giving him weird looks.
     "What's going on?" Joey asked his concerned looking parents.
     "We have something to tell you," His father said.
     "Today is your first day of Kindergarten!" His mother exclaimed.
     "What's Kindergarten?" Joey was still confused.
     His parents exchanged looks.
     "Well," His father explained, "It is a place where children your age go to a classroom and learn things. That is what the bag in your room is for."
     Joey was horrified. A place to learn? That sounded terrible.
     "You can't make me go!" Joey yelled, and then zipped off to his room like a scared spider. He was just shaking at the thought of doing something other than watch tv and play video games. He crawled up under the covers and tried to fall back asleep, but his parents came and picked him up before he could.
     "NO!" Joey cried, but it was too late. His mother had already strapped him in his car seat and put his book bag in the seat next to him. Joey pouted the whole way there, wishing he were one of his action figures that could save the world and did not have to go to Kindergarten.
     When they arrived at the school, Joey was shocked at the size of the building and the huge yellow cars that held what seemed like hundreds of little kids his age.
    "We're here!" his mother said happily. "You are going to have so much fun! I already met your teacher and she is really excited to have you. I'll be back to pick you up when it is over. Bye sweetie!"
    Joey thought his mother had abandoned him and felt really upset. He followed all the other kids and ended up in a room with little desks and lots of kids. The teacher said her name and called out all of the kids that were supposed to be there. She called Joey's name and he let out a surprised squeak, then recovered and said here like all the other kids had. The lesson started and ended with nothing important happening. Joey hadn't really listened to anything the teacher had said and his paper was blank. Something called free time was next, and it was basically when all of the kids were set free for an hour and they got to play on dangerous looking play structures. Wanting nothing to do with these children and their oddly shaped contraptions, Joey just sat down in the grass and started to hum.
   When the teacher called all of the kids to come back inside, Joey did not hear, because he was very aggressively humming. Joey had dozed off on the grass because he had gotten up too early and didn't understand what he was doing in school. When an adult finally came and retrieved Joey, he had already decided to run away. He was still working out all of the details when his mother came to the principle's office after he had been sent there for "misbehaving"
    "Oh, Sweetie, I'm sorry," his mother said, shaking her head, "your father and I should have told you about school before today, we just didn't know how you would react."
   "I hate it!" Joey said, shaking and pouting, not knowing exactly why he was in trouble.
   "Okay, can you just sit here while I talk to the principle?" His mother said sweetly but sternly, like she always did.
   "I guess," said Joey.
   "Good, I'll be right back," His mother patted him on the head and then walked into an important looking office. Joey was thinking about what a shell-less turtle would look like when the important looking office door opened. His mother walked out looking happy like she always did and told him that he would be moved to a different class.
    "Why?" Joey asked, more confused than ever.
    "The principle recommended it  and I agreed that it was a good choice for you. The principle also suggested you start now so that you don't fall behind. I'll take you there," His mother said, practically beaming with happiness. Joey followed her down halls covered in pictures that were covered in glitter and paint. He thought it might be fun to make one of those pictures and have it hanging on one of the endless walls. They finally arrived at the new classroom and a shining lady with a lovely floral dress was there to greet them.
   "Hello!" The lady said, radiating happiness much like Joey's mother. "I'm Mrs. Lovette, and I'm going to be your new teacher! How exciting is that?" Joey didn't think it was very exciting, but he did not say anything, for fear of dimming her sunshine.
   "Bye, Joey," His mother said, "I think your in good hands now." She patted him on the head again and departed.
   "This is a good class, Joey, I think you will like it. It is designed for children like you who learn a little differently than most kids. Right now they are drawing a picture of their favorite toy. You can join them if you would like," Mrs. Lovette smiled at him and handed him a blank sheet of paper and a box of crayons after he shook his head so hard, it gave him a headache. She directed him to an empty chair next to another boy who was muttering to himself about monsters.
   After scribbling for a few minutes, the boy turned to Joey and said his name was Tony. Joey asked what he was drawing. When Tony said a shell-less turtle, Joey knew he had made a new best friend.

Thursday, August 14 - GROSS

Dark Chocolate

    Imagine you collected some wood shavings, ground them up, mixed them with vinegar, added some tar, put it into the shape of a candy bar, and there you go, you have dark chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love milk chocolate and could not live without it, but dark chocolate is a whole other story. The taste is so incredibly bitter that it takes massive amounts of force and energy just to swallow it. Most dark chocolate has a much higher percent of cocoa than milk, so that makes sense, but I just can't find a reasonable explanation as to why people like such an unflavorful bar of dark cardboard. I would compare dark chocolate to every vegetable ever blended together, and then adding baby powder to the result. People who like eating dark chocolate must also like to drink cough syrup; it is basically the same thing.

The devil itself.

Types_of_Chocolate

Wednesday, August 13 - ANIMAL

TURTLE

    Rows and rows of grass obscured my view from the destination I had in mind. A nice twig was just sitting there and I thought it would be a nice gift for my wife. Our son, Snetle, had been missing for days now, and around here, that could mean a lot of things. My wife, Snell, was also annoyed right now because she had broken her leg a few days ago whilst searching for Snetle. She had accidently fallen into a mole hole that was buried under a pile of leaves. I didn't find her until that night, and it was a good thing I did, because that is when The Snake is on the prowl. The Snake owns every bush in the garden, so once a week, all of the residents have to give him ten percent of what they scavenged for that week. It is a pretty good deal considering The Bushes are a relatively safe place to live. Anyway, the reason it is not safe to be out at night is because that's when The Snake eats, and he gets very hungry and isn't picky.
    It is hard work providing for a family when you can only carry so much and walk so fast, but I can't complain. At least I am not a lizard, because they are so small and slimy and people step on then because they are so invisible. I've got a nice big shell to protect me from nearly anything. My family is good friends with the chipmunks, and we have a deal where once a month we trade their nuts for our grass salad. The Snake doesn't know about this business transaction, of course, because if he did, we would be kicked out of The Bush, and we would have nowhere else to go. Even if we did have somewhere else in mind, we wouldn't be able to make it out before The Snake's supper.
     I am almost to the twig now, maybe another twenty minutes or so I will be able to grab it, then I can go home to our bush where there is leftover grass salad waiting for me. If I could, I would move my wife, me, and our other son, Treetle, out to another garden, where we could scavenge at night in peace. But seeing as I am a turtle and can do nothing about it, I just trudged on.

me trudging towards the twig.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle