Haunted Mansion

     It was mid April and raining outside, I lie awake in bed, motionless.  I was listening to the rain from outside my window.  The rain hadn’t stopped all day.  I was trapped in this dirty, old, creepy house with only my parents to keeping me company.  Some company they were though…always working or busy, they never had time for me.  Being an only child my parents got me a dog for my 12^th birthday a couple of years ago and since then he’s been my best friend, and my only friend at that. 
     When we moved into this house I was only 9 years of age.  We got it for a bargain because of how old it was and the real estate agent had told us the owners of it had strangely disappeared.  He said they were known for leaving without an explanation though so nobody was too worried about it.  I found it a little odd that someone would leave such a mansion of a house behind though, and not to mention everything they owned inside. 
     When I first walked in the double doors in front of the house I remember seeing cobwebs and dust everywhere, like someone hadn’t been inside for years.  I remember seeing the two rows of staircases on either side of the foyer hooking around to the dark top floor.  If you took an immediate right as you walked into the front doors you would find yourself standing in the overly sized living room and if you took a left you would find yourself in a large out-dated kitchen.  Going upstairs we found lots of bedrooms and in the middle there was another living room a bit smaller than the one downstairs, but it was still very big.  We only saw glimpses of each of the 7 bedrooms, the courtyard with not just an empty and dirty fountain but also a pool, and the giant covered porch wrapping around the entire courtyard with 6 white cracking columns on each side creating 5 arches between each of the columns.  Without a second look my parents said in unison, “we’ll take it.” 
     So now here I am 5 years later and still living in the same old house.  We fixed the cracking columns and cleaned out the pool and the fountain, filling them and then admiring them from the now clean porch with chairs and tables all around it.  Of course we hired a cleaning crew to dust off everything, vacuum, and sweep, and then we hired an electrician to fix the electrical in the top floor but we still had trouble with it to this day.  It constantly made strange noises and with the tiniest thunder storm it would all go out.  My parents still were busy all the time and we constantly had people over from their work, we had their work parties here every year too.  Christmas, Halloween, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Labor Day! Any holiday you could imagine was always hosted at our house.  It got old… all the parties, all the noise and people I didn’t know.  I usually hid out in my room with my dog, trying to sleep or occasionally doing homework. 
     So now in my warm bed I lay awake listening to not only the rain, the lights of the hallway struggling to stay lit and of course the loud commotion of yet another party being hosted in the house this time because of the weather conditions.  I couldn’t sleep so I decided to count how many seconds after a crash of lightning it would be before I heard the growling of the thunder follow it, then I would count how many seconds it would be before the lights went out, which was never delayed very long.  With my dog at my feet I heard the biggest crash of lightning I heard all day and as soon as I heard it I started counting, 1..1000..2…1000…3…1000…and then there was the grumbling thunder shaking the floors and my bed, 1..1000…2..1000..3…1000..4…1000..5….and there go the lights. 
     I woke up the next morning to the sound of chatter in the kitchen downstairs.  I slowly pulled the warm blankets off my body and swung my feet down to the hard wooden floor, standing up I could feel a tension in my neck and a scratchiness in my throat.  I must be getting a cold or something.  Walking down the giant staircase to the trashed foyer and then walking through the foyer to the large now updated kitchen, I noticed something quite unsettling…the kitchen was empty.  Yet the chattering of my parent’s voices and others continued.  I went into the living room to try and figure out where their voices were coming from but I found nobody there either.  I walked back into the kitchen where I walked to the back door, opening it up to the courtyard where I then again find no one.  The chattering of their voices continues but this time they are growing louder in my head.  I search the house running around franticly trying to find them, but they are nowhere to be found.  I shout their names, I scream their names I cry out their names but there is no response, just the chattering of their voices in my head.  I run up to their bedroom, struggling with the door knob for my hands are shaky and clammy, finally opening the door I find my parents in bed...  The voices in my head stop as I see that their bed is stained with blood.  I walk over to their bed side to find that their throats had been slashed.  In shock I run to my room slamming the door behind me.  I run to the corner of my room and find myself in the fetal position on the floor.  I can’t breathe, I can’t move, I just lay there helpless and scared.  Suddenly I stop breathing all together for I have noticed something disturbing.  Someone is in my bed.  I stand up, walk over to my bed and look down at the blonde headed blue eyed girl in my bed.  I look at her throat that has also been slashed.  I look at the blood stained covers on top of her.  I stumbled back in horror; this girl I was looking down at was me.  I reached up to touch my neck.  I felt the deep gash where my throat had been cut.  I look down at my feet to find they were no longer touching the ground.  I looked around the room, confused and scared.  I saw that the door to my room had been opened and in the door way were my parents, but it was as though I could see directly through them.  We were all dead; our souls had left our bodies.  We were now ghosts and not the only ones at that… Going downstairs with my parents I couldn’t now see what I hadn’t been able to alive.  I saw all the spirits that lived in this house before us, and all of my parent’s party guests.  The trash in the foyer I thought I saw when I walked down the first time was now blood…it was everywhere.  All the families and married couples just lingered in the house.  I saw the previous owners of the house, they were floating around the house as if it were still theirs, not even noticing the rest of the spirits around them.  They were all trapped here forever, and now we were a part of them.  The house was cursed.  The spirits living here were too much for any human to survive here.  Within 5 years the spirits will have had enough and gotten rid of whoever lived in their home. 

                Years later someone else bought the house, with the cobwebs and dust.  Once again moving in, they thought they got a bargain, when in reality they bought a death wish.

New Life

My favorite Halloween was the first Halloween my family and I spent in our new house.  I remember it being so fun and laid back.  It was a perfect beginning to our fresh start in a new place, new house, new school, and new friends.  The only thing that wasn’t new was my crazy, loveable, and tight knit family.  We had spent months trying to find a house we all liked and that was in our price range.  Although we found plenty of houses we could never find the perfect one.  The way my family works is we have to all agree on something if it’s something that will affect every one of us.  Before moving to Missouri we considered moving to Kansas.  My dad hated the job he had and needed one that paid more.  After searching for a job that better fit him in our area of the Salt Lake City Valley for a while we decided we needed out, away from the enclosed valley, away from the busy city life and most of all away from the critical, judgmental people of the valley.  We all agreed we needed to move.  But we didn’t all agree on moving to Kansas.  So we didn’t.  Then my dad was offered a job in Missouri.  One that paid a lot more than the one he had in Utah and one that better suited him.  After he got the job we all started to work.  Going away party planning, packing, selling the house, garage sales…we got rid of just about everything we had.  Stuffing everything we had left into a small Pod and truck.  We wanted a fresh start.  Go somewhere nobody knew who we were and start from the beginning.  And that’s exactly what we did.  A three day road trip and we were beginning our new lives, remembering the old ones.  We lived in an apartment for 6 months when we first moved there, but waiting to start our lives until we moved into our house.  Everything good happens when you aren’t looking.  After looking through countless homes with my parents and brother, we found one.  Coming home one day to my parents telling my brother and I they had bought a house was a shock and I was honestly a little upset to find out they bought a home without my brothers and my opinion on it.  But when we arrived at the house to look at it we instantly fell in love.  A medium sized house with a beautiful rock exterior and neutral colored interior giving it a relaxed feel it was the perfect house for us.  And the biggest surprise is when we opened the back door to the large covered deck overlooking the pool surrounded by concrete and then an area of grass for our two dogs.  This was the perfect house that popped out of nowhere.  We moved in immediately and got to spend Halloween in our new house.  I remember getting the strobe light out and putting it out in our garage while my brother scared the little kids coming to get candy, my parents sitting on the front porch with the bowls of candy laughing and giving the frightened little kids extra candy.  I was sitting with my dog in the front yard watching everyone, storing this feeling in my memory to later remember what it felt like to have a crazy family who loved you, remembering the feeling of knowing nobody knew who I was.  I could be whoever, whatever I wanted to be.  The feeling of starting a new life was the feeling I wanted forever, feeling new and fresh, mysterious and secretive.

Lost Love

 

We kissed, I fell under your spell

They say I'm caught up in a dream

They tell me I'm too young to understand

I never hit so hard in love

It slowly turned, you let me burn

All I wanted was to break your walls

All you ever did was break me

And now, we're ashes on the ground

And I'm not proud of my address

So wake me up when it's all over

Journey to Myself

 

Didn't know I was lost

But I know where to start

We jumped, never asking why

You could be my luck

Don't you ever say I just walked away

I will always want you

I know that we'll be safe and sound

I can't tell where the journey will end

All this time I was finding myself, and I

Music Questions

What music or songs reminds you of your childhood?
Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Assley--Mrs. Stephens
Songs by Jessica Andrews--me

Who is your favorite singer or group or song and why?
Barry Manelo, his music touches my soul.--Mrs. A
The Maine, their music never gets old--me

What music reminds you of someone you love? Your child? Spouse? Parents?
I'm Gonna Miss Her, reminds me of my husband--Mrs. Lord
Jack Johnson reminds me of an old childhood friend--me

Do you go to concerts? Which concerts are memorable to you? Why?
No not really. I've been to one concert in college and it was the Blues Travelers.--Mrs. Lord
Occasionally I go to concerts. I remember going to the Macklemore concert this last April because it was most recently.--me

What radio stations do you normally listen to in your car? Do you song along?
Yes classic rock. Tom Petty mostly. --Mrs. Wyrick
I mostly listen to music off my phone like Ed Sheeran and Somo. --me

Which music or artist was "controversial" or "offensive" to some when you were growing up? Is any music offensive to you now?
Milly Vanilly, Madonna, Boy George, Ozzy, Biggy, Tupac--Corn
No music is really offensive to me... I just don't like metal so I don't listen to it.--me

Which music or artist do you really dislike or refuse to listen to?
I don't like new country music like Tim McGraw.--Mrs. Wyrick
I just don't like metal.--me

My Music World

When I listen to slow or softer music I feel peaceful and at ease.  I can usually think best when I listen to slower music.  I get irritated and annoyed with people pretty easily on some days but when I listen to music I tend to be more patient and calm.  When I'm in a good mood I tend to listen to faster music.  The kind that makes you want to dance.  I also associate some music with different seasons.  One of my all time favorite bands is The Maine and I remember when I was first introduced to their music about 2 years ago.  It was in the summer when I first heard them so I associate their music with summer and hot weather.  When I listen to John Mayer, another one of my favorite artists, it reminds me of autumn because when I lived in Utah my family and I would go camping in the mountains with our little camper and for that entire week all the music we would hear would be by John Mayer.  My dad and I both loved his music.  Jack Johnson's music is so peaceful it just reminds me of the warmth of my room in the middle of the winter.  And the freshness of spring reminds me of Jayme Dee's music because it's so upbeat and cheerful.  I connect music to so many different events and places.  The song Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band reminds me of my Uncle.  At his funeral my dad put together a memory video with lots of different pictures and he put that song and Toes as the background music.  When I hear the song Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne I remember when I was a little girl just moving to Utah and meeting a boy that just so happened to be a skater.  I would listen to that song on repeat and just imagine what it must be like to have a boyfriend.  My friends taste in music has not always been the same as mine.  I've very rarely found someone who likes to listen to The Maine as much as I do and John Mayer.  I don't have one friend that likes another.  They are all very different and have very different tastes.  I like it that way though.  I like a variety of music, listening to the same things day in day out would get boring and bland.  Without music in the world there wouldn't be any sense of direction or flow... no differences and nothing worth listening to.  Everyone has their own style and taste.  Everyone is different in one way or another.  They all like different music and that's because they connect with different things.  All music should be tolerated even though you personally don't like it.  It's there because someone else does.

Six Words

"Another place. Another story to begin."

Memorable Windows

I saw majestic mountains towering over everything in the closed in valley

I saw the paved street sloping down the hill to a dead end

But I can no longer look out this window

Instead I can only see it in memory

And once a year I have the opportunity to look in

When looking in I sometimes see people

Perfect strangers walking on the floor I once knew to be my own

I remember loving to look out this window when the mountains were painted with orange, yellow, red and brown

The dry summer had passed and the autumn air was here

When I would look hard I could see the ski resort's chairlift

When I would look even closer I saw the shadows of mountain ranges behind the one I lived in for so many years

Giving me a taste of the world beyond the valley

Poem Paintings

The master piece of a 23 year old
Say to have been done by someone else
The angry Michelangelo set them straight
In the deserted night
He snuck in to see his own sculpture
Taking a chisel he carved
The next day people saw what he had done
Michelangelo's name was etched in Mary's sash
Proving a 23 year such as himself could create something so incredible
No one ever second guessed his work again
But he always amazed people regardless

A 4 year long painting
So many different stories in millions of brush strokes
Taking stories from the Bible Michelangelo puts it all into paintings.
Famous for sculpting though Michelangelo refused
Forced by the Pope he painted
Still in existence today
The ceiling of The Sistine Chapel is easily one of the most beautiful things man has made
4 years on he laid on his back, day in and day out
Michelangelo created something that will forever be timeless

European

This picture that we studied in class the other day reminded me of when I went to Spain and Italy this last summer.  It reminds me a lot of the restaurants we went into.  Every night we would  go to a really nice restaurant and be served about 3-4 courses of delicious food.  A lot of the time we had no idea what we were eating.  We were always really hungry by the time dinner came around.  They eat really late in Spain and Italy.  They eat around 8.  The way you are served is also very different there.  You pick a certain combination of food like pizza or pasta and salad or fries.  A lot of the options were a lot like america but they made it a lot different.  The salad had a vinigarette on it and the fries were always freshly made.  The pizzas were made by had with a thin crust and amazing sauce.  The pasta was always al dante (tender) and the sauce made from scratch.  They served an entire group like ours by bringing huge tubs of pasta out and putting it on everyones plates that ordered it and the same with the salad and fries.  It was always very relaxed and fun to go to the restaurants and I miss it a lot.  I will never eat pasta as good as the pasta we had in Italy again. 

The Insecure Italian Artist

Born on March 6, 1475 and dying on February 18, 1564 of almost 90 years old Michelangelo was one of the best artists this world has ever seen.  Creating a lot of his pieces at a very young age.  His mother, Francesca Miniato del Sera, died when he was only 6 years old leave his father, Ladovico Buonarroti Simoni, alone with 4 other boys not including Michelangelo.  At age 7 Michelangelo went to school but often snuck away to draw.  He was so in love with art he fought his dad for years about it and when his dad finally gave in at age13 Michelangelo became an apprentice for the Ghirlandaio brothers, a very respected family of artists.  Michelangelo created some amazing pieces in his lifetime.  He was a sculptor, painter and a poet.  He started his poetry in an older age while sculpting at a younger age.  Some of his most famous pieces include Pieta, David and The Sistine Chapel ceiling.  Pieta is the sculpture he created at only 24 years old of Mary holding her dead son Jesus.  He was so young when he created this magnificent piece some people were saying it was another artist who created it. This made Michelangelo frustrated so late at night he snuck into the place he kept Pieta and carved his name into Mary’s sash.  The statue of David is probably one of his best known pieces world wide. He started this piece at age 26 and finished it at age 29.  This sculpture stands 17 feet tall and is of a completely naked David standing in a position symbolized the defense of civil liberties with his eyes facing the direction of Rome as a warning glare. They had an attachable leaf they would put on the statue when Queen Victoria would come visit. Another famous piece of his is the ceiling of the Sistine Capel.  Before this extraordinary painting he only did sculptures out of marble and when requested to paint the ceiling of the all time famous Sistine Chapel he refused and ran away.  The pope at the time sent people to search for him and bring him back.  After a while they found him and brought him back where he was forced to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  He spent 4 years on his back painting the ceiling.  He started painting at age 33 and finished at age 37. 
Although Michelangelo was never married he had a long term relationship with a woman named Vittoria Colonna.  She is known to be a muse for several of his pieces but it has never been proven that it is she was the inspiration for the pieces.  She died in 1547 when Michelangelo was 72, he spent the rest of his life alone.  My favorite pieces by him would have to be the Sistine Chapel and Pieta because when I went to Spain and Italy this last summer I got to see them in person and they are really amazing.

The Lost Field

When I first got this picture I didn’t really like it honestly….but after looking at it for a while I started falling in love with it.  It reminded me of when I would go camping with my family.  I loved it when we would go camping.  Its where I became really close to my dad and where I could just be myself and not have to worry about who I might see or what I look like.  I loved being away from the real world and this painting reminds me exactly of that.  The place in the painting reminds me of a place I would run to every day after breakfast.  I would just start running into the woods, dodging rocks and fallen trees on my way I would find myself just running until I could find something new.  One day I was running but this time I ran the opposite direction I usually ran and found myself in a large open field in the middle of the forest.  It was beyond gorgeous…surrounded by trees and little purple flowers, I found a large boulder to sit on and I just sat there for a while and took it all in.  I loved this place so much that the next day I ran in the same direction and found it again and the next day I showed my family and this became a daily routine.  The next year when we went up to the camp site we found that the water in the lake had risen so much that a lot of the places we used to know were now under water and when I went to find field it was gone.  Covered by water I realized I would probably never see it again, except for in my memory. 

 

 

Crisp mornings, Cool nights

Scenery like a mural

Memories so clear

I will never forget the

Feeling of being so free



Pillows

When I moved from Wisconsin to Utah we drove and on the way we took our time, stopping a lot on our way.  All in all it took us about six days to get to our new apartment.  We would start driving a little later in the morning and end at around dinner time in order to find our hotel and get settled in.  We also drove from Utah to Missouri and now being a little older we spent more time in the car, getting up early and driving till later.  There wasn’t much to do in a car for 10-14 hours so most of the time my brother would watch movies and I would listen to music and play with silly putty or play dough.  And we would both sleep, a lot.  On these car rides there would always be pillows and blankets covering the floor of our van.  The pillow in the picture reminds me a lot of these car long car rides.  They were always being thrown around and stepped on it looked as though someone had a pillow fight right there in the car.  But no matter what the pillows seemed to be everyone’s favorite thing, it comforted you, not only in the physical way but also in the mental and emotional as well.  A pillow is an object you sink your head into after a long stressful day.  You cry into it, laugh into it, you use it as a head rest or even a table, it’s always there, no matter where you go.  It’s the last thing you see before falling asleep and the first thing you notice when you wake up.  Because of this I love pillows; I probably have about ten in my room today.  I use them as decoration mostly.  I love being comfortable and warm and a pillow is the first thing I think of when I think of comfort. 

Thoughts of the Future

I thought that the lady that came in to talk about the art institute was very interesting.  I would love to go to a college like that.  I love the idea that you don't have to take all your gen ed classes your first year, its spread out through your college years.  I also love the fact that the gen ed classes would still somehow be about the subject you wish to study.  I really think I would love the environment there and all the art different students have made.  It sounds really fun and exciting I just have no idea what I would major in if I were to go there.  I really enjoy interior design but I've heard its hard to get a job in that area of study.  One question I would have for her would be how many students have graduated studying interior design and are now successful in an interior design company?  If I could I would absolutely love to go to school for interior design and make that my profession.  I would like to see myself graduating from college and be really good at what I do so that I can get a job easily and I want to love what I do.  In 10 years I would like to be successful and stable maybe engaged or married.  In 50 years I hope to have a big happy family and be successful.   More than anything I just want to be as happy or happier than I am today, I don't want to stress about stupid things, I just want  to work hard and I'll be successful if I do that and if I do what I love I'll be happy.

Blackout writing