Well, my week of babysitting for my 10-year-old neice is over. In addition to the roller skating, she and I and my new friend (my only friend in the state, technically, but that just sounds sad) went to an amusement park one day. It was raining lightly all day on and off, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the park was nearly empty and we didn’t have to wait in line the entire day. Also, I have discovered that sliding around on a wet bench gives riding a roller coaster that little extra frisson of danger, which translates into more fun and terror.

In fact, what my friend, M, and I have discovered is this: when we get scared, she is a squeezer (of my hand), and I am a screamer (and yes, I scream like a little girl, or a woman in a movie. This is probably my most girly feature).

This discovery of each other came into extra effect during each evening last week, when she pretty much crashed here every night along with my little neice. We’d sent MK to bed and watch a new scary movie every night, during which we would clutch each other (her) or scream our fool heads off (me) for two hours straight.

This is what we saw:

Night 1 – “The Ring,” which I for whatever reason had never seen, and consequently had built it up in my head to such epic proportions as such that I thought actually seeing it would end up being a letdown. It was not. The Ring is SCARY. Holy lord.

Night 2 – “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Gore gore gore gore gore. Also, very bloody!

Night 3 – “Session 9,” which I had seen but it was still freaky scary, and yes, I screamed once or twice. My friend M had never seen it and she was holding my hand so hard that my hand got all gnarled and twisted. (I am currently typing this entry wearing a hook.)

Night 4 – We left the house and saw “House of Wax” in the movies. Sweet CHRIST, people. Do not let your children see “House of Wax,” ever.

We are both scarred for life! I will never light a candle again! (Screw it, I’d RATHER just curse the darkness.) It was both jumpy-scary and gory, which is a rare find I think.

(Also, Paris Hilton is in it but don’t let that stop you. She pretty much plays herself, which is totally watchable.)

Night 5 – We had overdosed on terror and rented “Closer.” This turned out to be an equally terrifying movie, in the sense that it makes you never want to be in a relationship with anyone ever again.

The frogs!

Did I tell you that my dad and stepmom have a pool in their backyard? I know how horribly richie-rich that sounds, especially to those of you who live in cities, or up north. I myself find it surreal to look out the window and see a pool. However, I have learned that in the south it’s fairly common, as land (along with everything else) is so much cheaper. So don’t freak out on me and stop reading my site because you think I have “gone bourgeous” or something. I am as trashy as ever, deep down!

Anyway, we have gotten a lot of rain lately, and for whatever reason this has caused the entire frog population of south Georgia to relocate to our backyard, give birth en masse, and then commit a sort of species-wide hare kare. By this I mean that they are jumping into our pool and dying.

By the dozens.

I mean, dead baby frogs. In the pool. Lying there, dead, floating, white, bloated, the whole nine yards. It is repellant. I was a bio major in school but I still cannot handle this. I mean, anything mildly gross becomes completely horrible when found in large quantities, don’t you think? Like, one earthworm is okay, but a big mass of writhing, squirming earthworms…

(SORRY!)

Right. Not okay. So, picture our pool all FILLED with frogs after each rainstorm. Gack. My little neice fishes them out with her bare hands, but I am wimpy so I use the pool skimmer. I have developed a good technique for scooping up the ones that have sunk to the bottom. See? Skills.

The only ones that don’t completely gross me out, only because my sense of inappropriate humor tops even my sense of squeamishness, are the ones that have sunk to the bottom in such a way that they are “standing” on their back legs with their front legs stretched up toward the sky. These, we have dubbed the “reaching their arms up to Jesus” frogs. Yup, we’re pretty much going to hell.

My house!

Also, last weekend my dad and I took an overnight trip to Sav to scout out apartments, and I found one! It is actually a house, a cute little yellow house. I am ecstatic. I will have two roommates: a girl who is also 25 and also a grad student at scad, and a guy who is a DJ on a local radio station. Rock.

We have hardwood floors, a cute black mutt dog, a porch with chairs, and a little backyard with a grill. My room is pretty big and I even have a walk-in closet. I can’t wait! My dad and stepmom and I are moving me in this weekend, and then I’ll have a week to sort all my stuff out before classes begin.

I just bought a new electronic friend off the internet, and getting acquainted with that thing will kill some time too. I just know we will be instant BFFs. Here is a photo:

My Buddy

Have a nice week, everyone!