I kinda want to post the new foods that I'm trying. I really like to try new things, especially food, and I get all of my recipes off of Pinterest to do that. Recently, I stumbled on to recipes that contained quinoa. I think I cooked it wrong first? Because I was NOT a fan, but it's been growing on me! I think that mostly has to do with the yummy things that I'm mixing with it, though. This week's quinoa bowl includes avocado, bacon, tomatoes. Sounds simple but it's quite yummy! I add a little bit of garlic and salt to make it more flavorful.
For now, I'm gonna leave out the food, but perhaps in the future if the week happens to be slow.
Story within a story: Not so Scary Theme Park Adventures
Last week I went to a theme park nearby, which was completely decked out for Halloween. I wrote a little about the experience last post, but I wanted to elaborate a little more on the experience. I was actually curious as to how I would react with the park. The last time I had been in a "haunted house" (aside from Disney's Haunted Mansion) was when I was little and I HATED it. I know that when it comes to scary movies I don't get scared, but I think this has to do with me distancing myself from the movie, not allowing myself to BE scared. I'll think about how the movies are made and how funny it would be to act out this scene of being dragged my a possessed demon, silly things like that. The whole park was going to have characters who would try to scare you, and not knowing what the experience and atmosphere would be like, I was hoping that I would distance myself just as I had with the movies. My doubts stemmed from my friends telling me of their experiences at the theme park. I got texts saying, "IT'S TOO SCARY" "It's horrid. Not worth it unless you like scary things". So I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for this disastrous trap that I'd gotten myself into. We get to the park and my bones tense up, not knowing what is going to happen when we enter the gates. At first, we just see some park employees, no big deal. I then spot our first "zombie". He didn't even try to scare us, really. He just kinda roamed around and approached people, but not even that aggressively. It was from that moment where I was pretty confident that I was going to be okay.
My friend and I knew characters popped out at us every now and then, so we were actually pretty well prepared and consciously aware of our surroundings at all times. However, we could not for the life of us find the roller coasters. We walked up to a security guard and asked where we could find the rides. He told us "yeah, no problem, all you have to do is go straight that way and go through clown town and it'll be right after that." Clown town. Oh. Good. Clowns. LOVELY.
Well the clowns turned out to actually be nicer than I was expecting. Having gained confidence from talking to zombies and creepy dolls that approached us like it was no big deal, I decided to say "what's up?" to a clown and "i like your makeup!!" No problems in clown town. Score. We actually later had to go through it again and I had a pleasant conversation with one of the clowns who directed us to a haunted house we were looking for.
But anyways, we really enjoyed the roller coasters that we were able to go on. One of them went backwards specifically for this Halloween event, and let me tell you, going backwards on a big drop is weird. I don't exactly know how to explain it (which you would think I could considering I'm WRITING A BLOG), but it's a very strange sensation. We also went on one of those drop rides, which was MUCH taller than I was expecting. Going up felt like forever, and the way the ride is made, there are obviously no people out in front of you, so it just feels like you're not connected to much except for what you're holding on to, and the higher you climb the more you start to regret getting on that ride...until the unexpected click and a big long drop. In a matter of seconds it was over, but oh man. Also, I tend to make a really weird, uncontrollable face when I do big drops like that. I'm just glad no picture was taken.
We ended up going in two haunted houses. There was one haunted experience that was 45 minutes long, and was essentially this long train ride where you have to like fight off zombies. We found out about that one a little later, so we weren't able to go on it, but how cool does that sound?! The first haunted house we went to was like a "rave" theme? And we had these 3D classes that made the house super trippy. Because this was my first haunted house since I was a kid, I decided to be a wuss and not put on the glasses, also it was hard to keep them on my small head (but we know the real reason I didn't have them on...). There was rave music going on for the entire time so I was actually having a GREAT time dancing and going around the house. I had this man in front of me, so I think I also felt a sense of security behind him hahah. The thing about haunted houses is that you can hear the people in front of you screaming, so you know something is coming up....so it kinda loses its scariness when you know something is about to pop out. The ending was absolutely insane, though. Essentially there was this walkway that we were on, and there were lights that made the room look like it was spinning, and I guess with those two combined I could NOT keep my balance. I still have no idea if the walkway was slanted or moving or what, but I had to hold on to the railing and just could not get it together. I can't even imagine what it must have been like WITH the glasses on! Overall, it was fun!
However, our second haunted house had a more...gruesome theme. It was called "Blood Bayou", so you know they're not playing around. For this one, I was feeling a bit more anxious in line and told my friend that I would basically be holding on to her for the entire time. We get inside and the room is just incredibly overdone with decorations. I said this then, and I'll say it again now, I felt like we were inside the Indiana Jones' ride at Disneyland, but just like a spookier version. Needless to say, it was not spooky. However, we were still in line, so surely it must be worse inside. Nah. See, the people in our group, who went ahead of us, probably had the best reactions we could have asked for in a group. Not only were they ahead, but they screamed and flailed a ton. Essentially, they were asking to be the targets of all the actors, which means that no one even tried to scare us. I could see clearly the entire time, so I think that maybe if it were harder to see, it might have been scarier, but if you don't get scared of actors popping out at you (and I didn't) then it was just not scary at all. No complaints on my end, though, because I do not like being scared! It was actually really fun getting to walk behind the screaming people and enjoy their reactions.
We ended our night going into a cafe and grabbing some hot chocolate, as it was getting really cold at this point. As we were leaving the park, we bumped into a zombie who attempted to scare us with his dinosaur like noises, but we asked for a selfie and went on our way! I posted the selfie on my last post, so be sure to check that out!
One highlight I forgot to mention was that at various times throughout the night, at a certain location, some of the zombies would come around and do the thriller dance! Here's a video of it below. Really crap quality, but you get the point.
Monday: We didn't have school, so I was able to relax. Normally, this late in October the weather is pretty drowsy, but it was 70 today! It felt so nice to walk outside and not have to wear a jacket! Also, the photography tumblr is doing fairly well, slowly but steadily, so I'm appreciative of that because it's something that I care about. My sister and I hung out for a while. I took a picture of her Harry Potter themed pumpkin and we ate popcorn and watched Bob's Burgers and Gravity Falls. It was a nice break.
Tuesday: I hung out with my sister (again) and made lasagna with her. So. Good.
Wednesday: Honestly, my outfit was on point today. My green army jacket, black lace dress, tights, and boots.
Thursday: My Journalism teacher told me that I was a really good writer and that I should consider looking more into it. This really meant a lot to me because I actually think that a lot of my writing is way too casual (as you can tell on here) and unorganized. I really enjoy writing and I think I put a lot of my personality into it, so it felt incredibly encouraging.
Friday: I didn't do a gosh darn thing today and it felt so good. I am going to work on being more productive this weekend, though, or else I know it will creep up on me and pile up. But I woke up late, went to the Halloween store with my sister and grabbed some Harry Potter gear for her costume, we then watched Bob's Burgers and Gravity Falls (again), and later on I hung out with my friends. We watched the end of the world championships of League of Legends (which I think happened a week or so ago?), and then I played Epic Mickey for a little bit! It was nice just hanging out with friends and chilling.
Saturday: I skyped my friend, Allison, and we talked about graduate school and I helped her a little bit with her essay that she was working on. It's always nice being able to talk to a friend. She's actually the one who turned me on to looking into Myers Briggs stuff, so we talk about that a lot, which is super fun!
Sunday: I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time today. I actually liked it! I don't think I would show it to my kids as it definitely would have been too creepy for me as a child, but overall I loved how clever Sally's character was. She always had a plan and that continued to impress me throughout the movie because we rarely see that in female characters. I wish I had seen a bit more chemistry between Jack and Sally or at least a history of them because the ending was a bit abrupt when it came to their relationship. Anyways, overall, really enjoyed it!
I also went with my friends to get a basketball ticket for our first game of the season! I hope to go to a lot of the games since it's my last year.
