Day 23 and 24

Rainy days are here again. Now if only the rain and wind would knock down the rest of the leaves so I can do a final raking and be done with it!

I have nothing life changing or really very interesting to write about.

Nothing new or exciting.

Kind of a bummer huh?

Not really what you came here for.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning, putting away, and throwing away.

I am still in shock that the holidays are breathing down my neck.
Stop doing that holidays, it really creeps me out.

Speaking of creeping me out,

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Spooky World? I don't even think it is called that anymore. Anyway, it was this big haunted everything place, haunted hayride, haunted house, etc.
I went with a bunch of my girlfriends when we were younger, maybe in middle school, or freshman? I am not one who really relishes in scare tactics. I have an overactive imagination. Even though I know it is fake, it still gets to me.
Maybe I have a super sensitive fight or flight response.
Anyway, after being tortured on the hayride, in which I am pretty sure I repeatedly kicked whatever masked person was pretending to grab my leg, and crying the rest of the way to the haunted house, I some how was convinced I could handle going through the stupid thing, which was obviously not true in the least bit.
I ended up frozen in fear, hearing my friends scream and laugh at whatever lurked around the corner, which I was positive was absolutely the death of me. Being the resourceful scaredy cat that I am, when the next normal, alive person came by I immediately grabbed them and pulled them on either side of me as my shields. These people happened to be a young couple, maybe in their twenties. They were good sports, although I am sure the girl wasn't so happy I was burying my face and screaming into her boyfriend's back. But I was shaking, and hysterical, and clearly about to have a heart attack, so they took pity on me. I did crouch in corners when I could see someone lurking in the distance, waiting for us, and pulled them right in front of me, refusing to let them leave me. Eventually they dragged me to the end.

That poor couple.

So I get creeped out fairly easily.

It is also why I am both fascinated and horrified by the show Criminal Minds. I can't stop watching, but my poor children have undoubtedly suffered from the excessive stranger danger I have learned.

And that was your lesson in the neurosis of Nicole for the day.

You're welcome for the knowledge that you are now significantly more normal than I am.