It was a dark and stormy Halloween night. Ten year old Timmy was home alone. All of the trick-or-treaters had come and gone, and Timmy decided to settle down for a quiet hour with his video games before turning in for the night. Suddenly, he heard a sound at the window.

“Scccccrrrrraaaaaatch!!!”

“What was that?” he cried. No sooner had he spoken than there came a thump at the door. Timmy ran to the door and, flinging it open, discovered that there on his front step lay a severed head. At first, he looked away in horror, but there was something dreadfully familiar about that head. He gazed back at the horrified eyes of the victim and realized it was Mike, his best friend. His stomach was sick, but being the tough boy that he was, he gathered the courage to look closer at the greusome head. He moved the head with his foot and found a tape recorder attatched to the back with a tape inside that said “Play Me”. He warily took the tape recorder and pressed play.

The tape recorder crackled and bellowed, “Hello Timmy, I want to play a game. It is Halloween night and you decided to stay home instead of enjoying your friends. You never went with the crown did you? You always had to be the loner in the group and bring others down. See what happens when you aren’t there for your friends? Now it’s your turn. Can you save the lives of the ones who you never bothered with? Can you save yourself? Live or die Timmy…make your choice.”

He dropped the recorder in great terror. He backed away from the head, but bummped into something. He screamed on the top of his lungs!

“Hey buddy! It’s me! I got you so good!” Mike exclaimed.

It took a minute to regain his breath, “Then what is the head? And how did you get in here?”

“I was scratching at the door but i finally got in. You should hide your key in a better place. Isn’t the head a great art project?”

“Oh…yea…” Timmy sighed, “Then who recorded the tape?”

Mike stared at Timmy for a few seconds and said, “What tape?”

     “Flight one twenty eight is canceled.” the loud speaker boomed over the airport. Jessica looked at me with widened eyes, and I looked back at her unsure of her reaction. She quickly opened her boarding pass to see that it was our flight that had been canceled.

     “Oh my God…” her voice quivered. I saw her world come shattering down as the one trip she longed to go on her whole life was ripped away with a few simple words.

      “I’m so sorry Jess…” I whispered. I knew how crushed she was. She had gone on so many trips and vacations in her life and never got to go to the Carribean. It took us months to plan this trip since this is our first time being out of our parents house since we are 18. We planned it to be in the summer before college and now we weren’t sure when we could take the time to plan it again with college coming up. All of the spots on the flights were taken for the last few months of summer anyway. I could not imagine how disappointed she was.

      “What are we going to do now?” she asked.

       “I…I don’t know…” I replied.

       “I’ll never get to there now.” she sighed.

      “I’m sorry…Let’s just go home now.” I said as we got up to leave. I drove home. The whole car ride home she stared out the window without saying anything. I knew that we would not be able to go on this trip again in a very long time. I tried to comfort her.

      “It will be O.K. There will be another time.”

      “No! No there won’t! I’ve waited such a long time for this, and now it’s gone! We planned this for so long! I won’t be able do this again for like ever!” she yelled in frustration.

      “I was just trying to help!” I snapped back.

      “Well, you aren’t!” she pouted. I dropped her off home without saying anything to her. She was in a bad mood and so was I. I tried not to be mad at her for snapping at me, but I couldn’t. A few days went by and we didn’t talk very much until one day I got an amazing surprise in the mail.

       One morning, I woke up and found the mail on the dining room table. As usual, i sifted through with tired eyes until I saw a certain letter that was bright blue. It was addressed to me and it had “American Cruise Lines” printed on the front. I suddenly remembered a contest I had entered at the end of my senior year at school last month.

       “No way.” I whispered to myself in disbelief. I tore open the letter as fast as I could.

        The letter read, “ Congratulations Heather! You have won a Carribean cruise with American Cruise Lines! This cruise is booked for August 20^th though August 28^th. To RSVP and for more information call 1-800-333-3416.” I read the note in awe. I could not believe what I had just read. Jessica’s dream had just been crushed a few days earlier and now here it was again in my hands. Before I could comprehend it I was running to the phone, but then I thought that maybe I should show her in person. I grabbed my keys and ran to the car to drive to her house. So many thoughts ran through my head as I was nearing her house. I could not believe our luck. I jumped out of the car and galloped to her door. I didn’t even knock i just ran inside her house. I saw her watching T.V. In her living room so I ran up to her and shoved the paper in her face.

       “Is this a joke?” she asked.

      “No Jess! I just got it in the mail! It’s something i signed up for at the end of the year and I won! Me and a guest get to go to the Carribean!” I said in glee. She stared at the paper for a long while. She looked up at me with a blank expression, and stared at me for a while too. All of the sudden, she grabbed me and hugged me so tight I could barley breathe.

       “Thank You.” was all she could squeeze out. Her eyes teared for her dream had been restored. She finally would get her chance to go to the only place she had ever longed to go. I called the cruise line and responded to the letter. Jessica did nothing but smile for the rest of the night as she thought about her trip to the Carribean.

Saw IV comes out on Friday, October 26!! (tomorrow) I cannot wait! I am going to a late showing and watching the fourth movie of my favortie movie series. Saw is about a man named John that is dying of brain cancer. He feels that others do not appreciate their life as much as they should and decides to put them in situations in which they are in danger of (and usually do) lose their life. He has many victims and only a few live to continue their lives and find a new appreciation of life. Each victim must figure out a complex puzzle in order to stay alive or save another persons life. The end of each of these movies is a mind-boggling twist and end to a complicated puzzle. In Saw III Jigsaw (John) dies and so does his assistant so this movie may have a terrific ending!

If I were to leave this world tomorrow I would hope that i have left a good mark on the people in my life. I think about this all the time. I always hope that i havent wasted my life doing things that are not important like worrying myself too much with school work. For those of you who have read “Contents of a Dead Man’s Poecket”, I feel like i may end up like him. Taking work too seriously and willing to risk my life for a promotion or an idea for work. I dont want to devote my life to things like that. I would rather devote my life to family and friends and love.

Latley I have been trying to not be overly concerned myself with things like school and getting in trouble or ALWAYS doing the right thing. Im trying to realize its ok to do the wrong thing somethines and take some risks or else my life isnt being lived. I dont want to leave this Earth with everyone feeling like i was nothing but a workaholic and that i concerned myself with things that didnt matter that much. I want people to say things like “she was a good friend” or “i could alwys come to her with something” or “i remeber the time we really messed up together, and it was so much fun”.  I hope that i can let go of my fear of messing up or getting in trouble for anything and live my life like it is my last day because i do not want to be sitting worrying and fearing silly things on my last day here.  You only get one life, you might as well fill it with things you love doing.

I know it has been a while but i felt that everyone who didnt know already should know that i did end up dropping ASR. I dropped it at the end of September after i finished a project i had already been working on with Liz. Mrs. Girtain agreed that if i was feeling stressed at all that it was a good idea to drop it because she doesnt want it to be a program that is a burden on the student. She wants the student to want to do the work and i most certainly did not. Ha ha. In the end, it did end up being a huge stress reliever granted i still get a little stressed. I am not nrarly as stressed as i was while i was in it and i have much more free time noe to do what i would like and to focus on other work that is more important. =)

Here is something I wrote a while ago that I really liked.

Keep smiling

I cant see its all the same

Keep smiling

I cant have anyone to blame

Keep smiling

I cant find what I’m looking for

Keep smiling

I cant keep coming back for more

Keep smiling

I cant see the end

I cant keep smiling

When I promenade out that door, I deficient to province into the womb of time. I dearth to have dibs on tutelage to see the light of life tot he fullest and not appropriate everything so seriously. Ascertain that it is O.K. To roll the stone of Sisyphus sometimes and I don’t always retain to deporting by the aphorism. I require to be felicitous with my life. I crave to still acquire the confrères I obtain now and for each of us to have a triumphant sentience. I lack to maintain Paula Deen as my gourmand and Green Day to be gamboling and for me to contend thereupon them. I omit the whole kit and kaboodle of my fraternization to be hereunto. I would fancy Kurt Cobain to behoove fecund to refute him and inquire him whereby he matrixed. I miss by a mile Mrs. Cotter to be there to glad hand me démodé the portal. Though in this out of sight life there may be paradox interregnum, I will forevermore ween that aggregate will be zenith and I can prevail it.