The 21st Year

What happened the first time you were left home alone as a child?
Submitted by Warhead.

I don't remember the first time, but I do remember an incident when I was 13.
    What's a 13-year-old to do when left home alone? Why, turn on the stereo, crank it up real loud and dance around like a lunatic, of course! That's what I always did when left home alone.
    What with all the running around and being hyper, I got pretty hot. So I went to turn the air conditioning on. I wasn't allowed to do this normally, because my family tried to save money by keeping it on a certain temperature, which was above the comfort zone normally, anyway. But I'd turn it off before my parents got home. The thermostat was a little box on a wall with a little door-like flap thingie on it. In trying to open the little door, I accidentally popped the thermostat off of the wall.
    Oops.
    In trying to put it back on the wall, I accidentally trapped some of the wiring outside of the box, pinching it. Not knowing very much about wiring and stuff, for some reason, I thought that it was going to wear the insulation off and cause a fire. This eventually snowballed to me thinking it was going to explode. (Remember, I was 13 and stupid.)
    Before long, I was curled up in the fetal position in the corner, sobbing and gasping, "Oh, God...oh, God, I'm in trouble...oh, God, help me..."
    Eventually, I realized that it wasn't going to explode anytime soon. I got up the nerve to push the wiring back into the wall (which still had the insulation on it, so no problem whatsoever) and I got the thermostat box back onto the wall. By the time my parents got home, I was calmed down, had the temperature set back to normal, and they never knew about my little freak-out.

Show us something rusty.
Submitted by Colleen M.

I gotta go with Bessie Bronco here. There's a lot more rust where that came from!

What indulgence always makes your grocery list?

Ice cream.

Which popular slang expression drives you nuts?

Anything repeated from Saturday Night Live one too many times. No more cowbell, please.

What is your "role" in your family?

I'm their photographer and on-call computer geek.

Other than TeamVox, who was the first person you added to your Vox neighborhood? What made you want to be their neighbor?
Submitted by TheFiercestCalm.

Johnny Jelinek IV
He's a friend of mine from college that joined after I sent him an invite.

What have you lost that you wish you still had?
Submitted by gunderson bee.

My car stereo faceplate!

If you were independently wealthy, where in the world would you live?
Submitted by Eileen.

HmmYeahThisIsWayTooEasy.
Hawaii!

Show us a great April Fools' Day joke.

    I don't know about great, but I do have a video showing the results of a prank I tried to play 5 years ago.
    It was April 1, 2003, and my youth group was having a Bible study at my house. What with it being April Fool's Day, I wanted to do something to try and play a little trick on the guests. So as people arrived, I had my parents tell them that the Bible study was meeting somewhere else.
    No one really fell for it.
    In the video: Taylor L., Liz E., Gabby E., Wendy A., Lynn B. and my mom.
    Now today, I do plan on putting a rubber band around the sprayer in the sink so that whenever someone goes to turn it on, it sprays them. I'll let you know how that works out.

Friday!
     FISH went to the Coffee Beanery, then Putt-Putt. I made a fool out of myself, crying because of a friend that's struggling with bipolar disorder. I couldn't take it anymore. I hadn't told anyone, or if I had, I hadn't told them how serious it was. But it just overflowed and I couldn't be the strong one anymore.

    I have a very tender heart and when people around me hurt, I channel their pain. If you've ever heard the song "Scars" by Papa Roach, that's exactly how I feel sometimes. Especially the times that I've tried to be there for people that didn't want me to be there for them for whatever reason.
    "You're drowning in the water and I offered you my hand, I left my heart open but you didn't understand..." "And my weakness is that I care too much..."
    Anyway, it's funny how whenever a friend cries around me, I don't think any less of them and I'm like, "It's fine, you needed to do that." I am not much of a crier but the few times I've done that around other people I've felt humiliated.
    Otherwise, the night was fun. I got a neon green plastic samurai sword with tickets at Putt-Putt. ^_^ It's the little things...     I went to Fort Worth with Erica to take pictures at the butterfly exhibit they were having at the botanical gardens. They had over 10,000 butterflies there. Awesome, awesome stuff. Really humid, but awesome.
    Butterflies are pretty dang hard to photograph, but I did get a few nice shots. This one is my favorite.
A little girl was checking out a Blue Morpho. As they say on Cute Overload, C.O.X.C.U.! (Close-up)
Is that not the most beautiful shade of blue you've ever seen? I had to set my camera mode to "Sports" (action mode, takes a series of photographs in a matter of seconds) to capture this, because this butterfly doesn't flutter its wings a whole lot after landing.
    This one is an Atlas Moth, which is enormous. The wingspan must have been about a foot long.
     Laugh if you will, but if this monster came after me, I'd scream bloody murder. Just look closer at the body...
     The antennae are kinda cool - they look like feathers - and the colors may be kinda pretty, but still...bugs frighten me and if this thing were fluttering around the porch light, I would run away into the night, finally collapsing in an exhausted heap somewhere in Palo Pinto county, where I would fall into a greatly pained slumber, filled with nightmares concerning this monstrous moth. It is incredible, yet terrifying.
    We also took some time to have some fun with the statues outside. Laura-Rose called me and really needed someone to talk to, so Erica and I also took turns consoling her.
Sunday!
    Matt came to church with me, then we went to Billy and Josie's place, where Matt and Billy schooled me on Halo some more. I still suck, but not as much as I did.
    It's a small world.
    During lunchtime, I sat in the Student Center cafeteria, with my laptop. A girl asked if I'd mind her sitting at the same table so she could plug in her laptop as well. She said her name was Emily. We started talking as we each surfed the Web. Then eventually, Laura showed up.
    "I didn't know you two knew each other!"
    Turns out that Emily and Laura are in the same class. Emily even had some notes lying on the table that Laura had written for her.
    Anyway, I made a new friend and realized what a small world it was.