the creature

even worse if you ever take into consideration that strangers would likely confuse them for mother and son all the time

- age 5 - driving to disney world with my mom

we went on a hot air balloon ride while in Florida. we got to the place at 6 am and it was storming, so we were worried it would be cancelled. we went inside and luckily it passed. my mom hurt her arm getting in the basket, but she was determined not to ruin the experience for me. i was too short too see over the edge standing, but got tired on the footholds especially from how hot the fire was. i ended up on the floor looking through the footholds and just seeing houses. but tiny houses. like ant houses. we started in a field and ended in a field, but passed over thousands of people in an hour. and probably more, but it's too large of a number for me to conceptualize

- age 8 - flying to St Louis to meet David Tennant and Matt Smith at Comic Con

i didn't get off the escalator fast enough and fell, i was terrified to take another escalator but worked up the courage by the end of the trip because i hated stairs more than i was scared of escalators. to this day i still take huge steps on and off escalators.

- age 8 - getting stranded in Chicago after flying home from meeting David Tennant and Matt Smith in St Louis

my mom and i didn't plan for the trip at all so we just hopped on a Big Bus. we were seated at the front by the tour guide. the very first thing we passed was the "cloud gate". i excitedly went "*gasp* it's a bean" and the tour guide said "yes, a lot of people call it the Chicago Bean" and i was really embarrassed that he heard me

- age 10 - going to South Dakota to the Corn Palace to compete in a national pedal tractor pull championship

my first impression of South Dakota is that the speed limit is 80 (compared to Ohio's 70) BUT while construction is still going on

- age 11 - going west to the four corners states (but my mom and I always just call it Colorado)

every drive through in Colorado has trash cans as you pull away. every single drive through. it was amazing.

- age 12 - going to South Dakota to the Corn Palace to compete in a national pedal tractor pull championship

in North Dakota in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, there are buffalo. there is also buffalo poop. buffalo poop that is bigger than my head. my mom, being a teacher, had to find a hardened one and bring it home to show her kids. it became my biggest fun fact of the trip, "we stole buffalo poop"

- age 13 - driving to NYC to see Be More Chill on Broadway

the moment i saw on the board that in this performance, the role of michael mell would be played by troy iwata. and i loved troy, and i appreciate that getting to see a swing was a rare experience, but george salazar was my favorite actor playing my favorite character. i had planned everything perfectly and it was going perfectly, until that very moment

- age 19 - going to Kelley's Island on Lake Erie with my mom

it was my first time realizing that every area of ohio has its own local ice cream, and that northern ohio has Toft's, and that's why i can never find *my* local ice cream when i'm at school

- age 19 - going to Germany with my school's band and choir

*dadadading*

"There they are"

The apps, in order of importance.

1. My strip light app

2. Tiktok, to brainrot

3. Instagram, because I couldn't sign into Tiktok

4. Discord, because I wanted to send my chronically offline boyfriend an Instagram reel

5. Wendy's

6. My doctor app

Can you guess which one I remember doesn't like candy?

And I can tell you why too

My partner not liking sweets was just something I learned on our first Halloween as friends, when we did my former fraternity's Halloween scavenger hunt.