1. What type of mood are you generally in on a rainy day? Sleepy, lazy, especially if I get a migraine from the pressure change
2. What are your favorite things to do when the weather is gloomy? Take a nap, go online, read
3. Have you ever been kissed in the rain? No
4. After the rain stops, do you continue what you were doing, or do you run outside to do something else? Hmm, just depends on the situation. If it's a quick storm I might continue after it's done, but if it's been going on for hours I'll get my raincoat and tough it out lol
5. What is your favorite drink/food to have when it's raining outside? Nothing specific, unless Excedrin counts LOL

I have a new favorite song:

I discovered it on YouTube and I LOVE it!! It's so catchy! I've usually been an elf person, but I become a dwarf person when I listen to this song LOL. It looks super fun at concerts too, basically a concert party haha. I especially like the "swing swing swing with me" line. Definitely an addictive song :P

It's scary how the universe hears my thoughts..when I've thought "ugh, I just want to stay in bed," I got covid or some other sickness. When I think "I haven't been to the doctor in a long time! Yay!," suddenly I have a reason to go. When I thought earlier in year how planes seem to be safer than cars because cars crash more, suddenly planes just started crashing everywhere. O_o A few days ago I was thinking about List Challenges, and how much time I like spending on it. It's how I discovered The Worst Journey in the World, so it's definitely a meaningful site. If the site went down or was discontinued, I'd be devastated and bored, and hoped it would never happen. LITERALLY the next day it stopped working, with an error message coming up instead. I was like.."are you kidding me?!?" That was NOT an invitation to test my theory of the day before, which was 200% accurate LOL. Other people on Facebook said the same thing, and hoped it would come back soon. I do other things online too, but I REALLY missed List Challenges..it's basically in my soul lol. I kept getting more upset when I refreshed the page and the error still showed up. Today, after three days of it being down, I was like "nope, I'm getting to the bottom of this NOW." I found the owner's phone number and called him, and he was surprised to hear it was down, because whatever system he uses didn't tell him there was an error. After a few minutes, he said he fixed it! YAY!! I should have done that three days ago haha. I told him how much I loved the site, which he was pleased by, and if it ever stopped working again, to call or text him. I've been SO happy all day because of that lol. Moral of the story: be careful what you think, the universe can hear you O_o

( feb 15-21 )

Yesterday mom had a dentist appointment, so we left for Anchorage pretty late (after 1). We were going to stop in Healy for snacks (1 1/2-2 hours away) and that part of the drive seemed to last FOREVER haha (and it was raining..ugh). The trip seemed to go by faster after we got snacks lol. The fall colors were pretty, though a lot of the leaves had fallen off the trees in the mountains. Mom put on music from her phone when the radio died..I Googled The Sound of Silence when it came on, and read this: "Simon wrote 'The Sound of Silence' when he was 21 years old, later explaining that the song was written in his bathroom, where he turned off the lights to better concentrate. 'The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark.'" He..composed one of his most famous songs by playing with water in his bathroom?? I won't think of the song the same way again probably LOL. The last 50 or so miles to Anchorage is painful too, since you have to drive slower in the populated areas and you're tired and just want to get there already!! Haha. It was after 8 when we finally found the hotel..laying on the nice bed felt HEAVENLY haha. Nice curtains too! It was nice to relax the rest of the night lol

Today mom dropped me off at Title Wave Books and went to her appointment. There are WAY too many tempting things in that store LOL..I just kept adding more things!! I found one book (Mutiny on the Globe) that's been on my Amazon wishlist since 2019!! There was a section for curtain/window treatment books too, and of course had to get a couple of those LOL. Mom shopped some when she was done with her appointment too. I was there for THREE hours..there were other books to look at, but I already had an obscene amount and my eyes were tired, so I had to get out of there LOL. *bank account cringes* After that we had lunch at Yak and Yeti a couple doors down (a Himalayan restaurant..hadn't been there in a long time!), got something for dad at Lowe's, then went back to the hotel (mom's still recovering from covid, and is still pretty tired). Not sure what we're doing for dinner, but I'm slowly getting hungry lol. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be less tired :P

( some pics!! )

I had today off since I worked on Saturday. I was wondering how that forest fire south of here has been doing (it's been hot the last few days, in the 80s). I think I got my answer when mom drove me home:

Of course it looked cooler in person, but I was awed when I saw that in the distance. Those clouds are growing on the smoke, called pyrocumulus. I've seen them before, but these just looked super intense and epic! The fire is mostly in the wilderness in a military training area and no structures are threatened, so they're letting it burn..good thing the wind isn't bringing the smoke over here!!

On Saturday the bookstore did almost $5000! Not quite as crazy as the fall/spring sales (when everyone is tired of being cooped up in their houses haha), but still good! Adam had an 80s radio station playing, and was shocked to hear "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M! I hadn't listened to their music in years, and had forgotten how much I liked it! Of course it was stuck in my head the rest of the day, but it still made me happy lol

( june 15-17 )

TURILLI/LIONE RHAPSODY?!?? No way!! I had no idea they'd make their own band together after splitting up! I never thought I'd enjoy a video about math LOL, but I'm totally squeeing over Luca's very familiar shredding. <3 <3 <3 I missed it more than I thought! Maybe I have another chance now of seeing those two perform together, that would be amazing!! So happy! I hope the rest of the CD is as awesome as this :D

( Day 126-127 )

Today's trivia: The radiation at Chernobyl was so intense that the eyes of a firefighter turned from brown to blue

So I just read a book for the "monastery" topic, and the plot revolved around Gregorian chant..I doubt anyone knows this, but I LOVE Gregorian chant..I really love going into a church when Gregorian chant is playing, it gives me goosebumps! (Like when I went to the church at Hampton Court last year..it gave me chills!) After I read the books I went to listen to some, and omg..this is the best one I've found so far, and I can't stop listening to it! It's just..SO beautiful and calming. In the book the characters sat there in pure bliss while the monks were singing, and I can see why! People have wondered why I love Latin so much..songs like this are a huge reason why. I imagine this is what heaven must sound like. <3 Amazing. Next time I feel like I need a Xanax, I'll try listening to this first..it's THAT powerful. I love how the reading challenges expose you to cool things like this!

Day 63: Your favorite duet: "Under Pressure," for one

Today's trivia: Walmart has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard

I'd never heard of Delain before, but this video popped up on my recommended videos on YouTube..I saw the picture of the woman standing in front of the glacier, and couldn't resist clicking on it, and OH MY GOODNESS I was NOT disappointed! WOW!! Her name is Charlotte Wessels, and her voice is amazing!! I LOVED the aurora, the mountains, and all the amazing shots of the glaciers!! I was squeeing so much haha. One of the best music videos ever. :D I'll have to check out more of their music! (I'm not sure if it's just me, but she totally looks like Dana sometimes lol)

Welcome new friends! I hope I'm not boring :P

( pokemon update )

Day 12. A song you play when you're getting ready to get your confidence up. Actually I recite lines from The Worst Journey in the World if I'm doing that LOL

Day 13. A song that reminds you of a past love. Hmm..maybe March of the Swordmaster? He liked swords anyway lol

I've seen some weird names when researching my family tree, but this family tops them all:

Desire Clapp
Samuel Clapp I
William Clapp
Elizabeth (Clapp) Holmes
Experience Clapp
Waitstill Clapp
Preserved Clapp
Experience Clapp
Hopestill Clap
Wait (Clapp) Simpson
Thanks Clapp
Thomas Clapp
Unite Clapp
Supply Clapp

Ummm..Preserved?? SUPPLY?!! Wow, I guess they ran out of names for their kids LOL. I wish Hopestill and Waitstill were twins, that would have been perfect. :P And I found yet another Mayflower direct ancestor: George Soule, who was an indentured servant. I must be related to half of them now haha

Also, POWERWOLF:

Tina just recommended them to me (thanks!), and I LOVE THEM!! This is probably my favorite song so far. Yay, love good new music!

( August 25-27 )

Today's trivia: Longview, Washington, has a treetop bridge over a busy road that's just for squirrels. It's called the "Nutty Narrows Bridge"

This is my new favorite song (I'm always late listening to "new" albums lol):

The part from 2:40 to 5:20 is absolutely AWESOME..it is SO epic!! I don't like Tommy Karevik in Kamelot, but he's great in this song (I actually tried listening to Kamelot's album that just came out before I listened to this, but I just don't like his voice in Kamelot..weird lol). The same awesome guitar playing came in again at 11:53, and then FLOOR JANSEN started singing!! YESSS, she is amazing lol. A lot of the time I'll go to listen to an album and be like "ehhh whatever," but I was blown away by this song! Someone commented that "Hansi is the only one that sings like he is leading his massive army to the most epic battle Middle earth have ever seen," and yeah, that's a perfect way to describe his voice lol..it's majestic, as someone else said :P (I still can't get over his short hair lol)

I also really like this one:

Awesome!! Such a happy sounding song about the apocalypse haha

My other favorite is this one:

Wow, amazing! This album is great!!

( April 23 - When’s the last time you went on a picnic? )

Today's trivia: Adam Rainer (1899–1950) is the only person in recorded history to have been both a dwarf and a giant. In 1920, when he was 21 years old, he stood only 3 feet 10.5 inches tall. Sometime in his early twenties Rainer experienced an inexplicable and astonishing growth spurt, and by his 32nd birthday, his unusually short stature of under four feet had increased to an unusually tall stature of just under 7 feet 2 inches. At the time of his death, he was measured at 7 feet 8 inches tall

I'm totally addicted to this song right now lol..I looked up the lyrics for a survey yesterday and found this extended version of the song (it's from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie). I might not have listened to it if I hadn't been intrigued by the word "sepulchral" in the lyrics (I'm not sure a pirate would know that word..I couldn't even pronounce it at first haha!). The song sounds so cool, I love singing to it! I especially like the part near the beginning where the guy says "yo ho, all hands, hoist the colors high" slowly. Yay, random song addictions :P

Ingrid's in town (yay!), so mom and I went to lunch with her today..I always love seeing her, she's so happy and fun lol

( march 20-22 )

Today's trivia: King Tut's third and inner coffin was made from 243 pounds of solid gold

OMG Ella is amazing!!! All of this guy's videos with disabled people are great, but some speak more deeply to me than others, like this one..especially when she said "have a great time, have fun and keep exploring!" She is positive, hilarious, and wise beyond her years. I was just so happy after watching this video lol..I would so love to meet her! Never lose your strong, positive outlook, Ella!! <3

So next on funny country lyrics..there's this one song that I hear a lot that goes "she's a flatliner," but I always thought it was "she's a flatlander" haha!! I only found that out when the announcer was like "that was Flatliner by Cole Swindell!" I just looked up and was like "OMG no way." Haha wow :P

( pics for aug. 22-24 )

Today's trivia: "Overmorrow" is the word for "the day after tomorrow"