Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

I remember in the fifth grade, we had to write a memory or something for our silly little yearbook. I remember that I was sitting in the middle pod of desks, next to the boy I had loved since the first day I saw him in third grade. He had broken his arm. Again. Now, I can’t remember what happened to make him break his arm this time. I can think of the time my friend broke her arm by falling off the monkey bars on the playground at recess in elementary school. And I can remember the time my other friend broke her arm when she fell on her rollerblades when we crashed loverboy’s birthday party in sixth grade, but I can’t think of why he broke his arm that time.

That is neither here nor there.

What I wanted to tell you was my memory.

Ding Dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead!!

I was little, and my parents were still married. We still lived at the house on the lake, the one I remember as my first home even though it wasn’t the first house I lived in as a child. We were outside, and Maggie, our golden retriever, was outside in the driveway with me and Dad. I can’t remember if Mom and Drew were outside with us.

I must have just watched the Wizard of Oz.

Standing at the base of our driveway, by the wooden fence in the front yard, I stood. Though I’m not sure what I was doing down by the fence and the road, I’m sure it was something awesome, like picking grass, or licking rocks, or climbing the rickety, not-made-for-climbing fence. Out of nowhere, I heard something hit the ground with an odd jingle-smack. When I turned to look what it was, I saw that a set of keys had hit the ground behind me. From the sky.

I looked up and saw that the once perfect blue sky was dark, and there were words written in the sky. Don’t ask me what the sky said because I sure as hell can’t remember.  I could swear I saw that mean old, green-faced witch ridin’ off into the sky.

Yeah. That was my memory. That’s the memory I chose to write down to be published.

Really?! I think about that now and just think, Really, Katie? REALLY?! What the hell!?

The best part about this is that I swore that this memory was legit. I would have bet my life on the fact that this actually happened. Of course, when my mom read what I had written down (of course, once this silly little booklet was printed), she had no idea what the hell I was talking about.  The other best part is that I didn’t have a doubt in my mind about the validity of this memory. I didn’t believe I had anything to be embarrassed about by sharing this memory. I believed I had experienced something paranormal, g-d it! I had encountered a physical object falling from the sky! I had seen a witch writing words in the sky!

That was fifth grade. In fifth grade, I still believed  that this memory existed. Who am I?!

I was a weird kid.

Oh, remind me to tell you about the time I ran into a moving van on my bike. Or the time I got my fingers stuck in a wiffle ball. Or the time I found a power tool (drill) and put it to my forehead, turned it on and left a cut in the middle of my forehead. Or the time I played the piano with my face and cried every time I banged my head too hard against the keys.

I bet you’re glad you stuck around to read this.

Butterfly fly away, got your wings now you can’t stay, take those dreams and make them all come true, butterfly fly away

I went to bed last night with the intent of sleeping in.

With today being my day off, I figured I’d have a niiiiice leisurely morning. I’d wake up, put some pants on, and sneak up on the cat on my way to the kitchen to get some pumpkin cake for breakfast because it’s October and pumpkin cake is a staple in our house in the fall. It’s truly glorious.  I would snuggle back in my bed and watch an episode of The West Wing. I figured I’d shower and then spend an obscene amount of time flat-ironing my hair, simply because I had the time. Then I thought I’d sort my laundry and do a load or two. Thought maybe I’d finish putting all the random shit sitting on my dresser away and color-code the next three weeks in my planner. Maybe I’d finally put the movies away by the TV in the upstairs living room. Maybe I’d finally get around to backing up all of my recently added music on my iTunes. I figured I’d even paint my nails, since it’s been over a week since I’ve done that.  I thought I’d meet up with Nikki for lunch and then we’d spend the afternoon scrapbooking.

The life I lead is a little rough. I know.

My phone rang at a quarter after eight this morning. It scared the hell out of me. I was confused. And worried something bad had happened. It was work. I hoped I wouldn’t be asked to come in. Luckily, that didn’t happen. But once I was off the phone, I was totally awake. I hopped out of bed with the intention of starting my laundry but then I remembered I didn’t know how our brand new washing machine worked because it’s pretty much from the future.  So instead I brushed my teeth then crawled back into bed.   So much for being productive.

Nikki bbm’d me just after I got out of the shower and alerted me to the “weather situation” occurring in the area.  We solidified our plans for lunch and scrapbooking and I started blow-drying my hair. But then she called me back because she was driving to let me know that there was indeed a tornado warning in effect.

Uhhhhm. This entire back side of this new house is made of windows, practically. Sure, I was already in the basement but… there is really no place to hide away from windows. Let’s get real. If a tornado was to come attack me, I would make like Dorothy and end up in Oz. I turned the news on and watched a whole lot of meteorology-related graphics on the screen with little thought to what it really meant. I laughed it off because while they were spouting off all this info about how important it is to TAKE COVER and STAY INSIDE AWAY FROM WINDOWS, all that was outside my windows and doors was light rain and a little wind.

But then it got really dark. And all of a sudden it started downpouring. I couldn’t even see the lake. It was scary!! But then it passed. And I went on with my day.

Here’s the thing though. It remained really windy all day and it made me wonder something.

Where does wind come from?

I think that this question may make you wonder if my brain is actually fully functioning but I am  for realzzzzz.

Oh, also, I don’t know if this is related but for some reason it is related in my brain. I saw that creeps Ashton Kutcher movie The Butterfly Effect and I don’t really remember what that movie is about. I feel like it mentioned something about a butterfly flapping its wings and then it changes something on the other side of the Earth or some shit.  That is outrageous and totally creeps me out. Is that for real?! Is that where wind comes from? Does wind exist without trees? What about in the Sahara or whatever. That place gets wind, right?! WHERE DOES WIND COME FROM?!

Gosh, sometimes I wonder weird things.

I’m sure you’re really glad you wasted the five minutes it took to read this. It’s good to know my internal monologue is such an unproductive use of time.  Kind of like facebook.