Thursday, September 27, 2007

Near death experience

Angrily I pounded my fist on my pillow. Usually my sister and I never fought, but today she was being really annoying.
"Jojo, clean up the bathroom!" I winced at her high pitched shrieking voice.
"It's your bathroom too! And all of that stuff is yours!" I retorted angrily. Suddenly I stopped arguing with her. Something nasty was trickling into my open mouth. Hurriedly I wiped my hand across my thin mouth, it was covered in blood. My sister was still yelling furiously at me.
"Josie," I interrupted.
"I think my nose is bleeding!" I said as blood dribbled onto my dark blue Old Navy t-shirt.
"Oh," said Josie all of her frustration draining out of her.
"Pinch your nose Jojo, I'll go get dad." I pinched my nose so tightly that it hurt, but that didn't help my nostrils started pouring blood out of both sides.
"Jojo, Jojo," my dad called.
"Here this will help it stop." he said reassuringly as he pinched my nose for me with a white rag. Being a ten year old I trusted in my dad completely. Grown ups were always right, right? But this time he was wrong. My nose was not going to stop bleeding, I had broken a blood vessel. My precious little time was ticking away as me and my dad sat on the couch trying to get it to stop. If it weren't for my dad I would have started to panic.
"So are you excited to be in the parade today?" he asked me calmly trying to get my injury off of my mind.
"Yeah, but I don't know if I'll be able to walk, dad I'm starting to feel light headed. The blood isn't stopping!" I cried a note of hysteria creeping into my voice.
"Now now, calm down Jojo it's only been twenty minutes. I think that you're right that this is a little more serious than a nose bleed, but don't be scared, I'm going to take you to the hospital."
"Josie!" my dad called commandingly."Take over the pinching job and hop into the car with me, we're taking Jojo to the..." he lowered his voice and whispered in Josie's ear. But having pretty good ears I heard what he said anyway. We were going not just to the hospital, but to the emergency room.
"Am I going to die?" I asked my dad.
"Of course not!" he exclaimed, but he did not smile. The ride to the hospital was all a blur. I remember that my sister was crying, and that she apologized for arguing with me. But the hardest thing about the trip was staying awake. My eyelids felt like they weighed as heavy as hundred pound weights.
"Stay awake!" my sister would constantly beg me. Finally we made it to the hospital, and my dad carried me in. My dad jogged to the front desk carrying me like a rag doll and spoke quietly to the lady who worked there.
"We don't have any rooms open right now, you'll have to wait for ten minutes." said the barbie like lady chewing her bubble gum obnoxiously. And then as an after thought she added.
"You can set her over there for now." she pointed to a big grey table with little wheels on it.
"Thanks." responded my dad. He gently set me on the table, and Josie adjusted the once white rag, it had turned into a nasty shade of maroon.Ten miserable minutes later I was rolled into a perfectly clean emergency room. I wondered what the last person to come through had suffered from. Had they survived? Would I?
"How long has this been bleeding for?" questioned the tired looking doctor.
"About forty five minutes."
"Well well, it looks like we have a broken blood vessel." he started digging through a big white cupboard that would have been a good place to hide if you were playing hide-and go-seek. Carefully he shoved a tiny green bottle up my nose and started squirting a nasty smelling yellow liquid into it. Hey, I could smell something other than blood! The blood finally stopped. And that was the end of the day that I almost died.

A reason to be thankful for parents.


Have you ever stepped in something really gross? Or really sharp? Well one time I almost stepped on something that was a living thing. It's a really squishy animal and it will sting you. Now can you guess what it is?

Last summer I went to Seaside, Oregon to visit my great grandma. As I was running out to jump in the nice cold waves my parents yelled "Watch out for jellyfish!" I paused right as they said that, luckily. My foot stopped inches above the sand and I looked down. Right under my foot was the biggest jellyfish that I had ever seen in my life. Thank goodness that parents are always one step ahead of you.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Fear

Has there ever been a time in your life where you were totally scared to death? Something life threatening? Or something silly? Well I had a pretty funny experience a couple of years ago. Looking back on it now I laugh at what a coward I was on that warm summer night.

The scariest 24 hours of my life began with a phone call from my cousin Amy.
“Hey Jojo, want to come have a sleepover?”
“Of course I want to have one! You should’ve asked if my mom would let me!” I set the phone on the nightstand and ran to find my dad. Usually I ask my dad for permission to go places because my mom usually says no. So when I found my dad I begged him to let me go to my cousin’s house. Before he really had time to register the question he blurted out
“Yes of course Jojo.”I really have no idea where he got the name “Jojo,” but he’s called me that since I’ve been five. Anyway back to the story.Hastily I snatched some clothes out of my closet and fetched my toothbrush out of my bathroom drawer. You may wonder how a girl packs for a trip in about two minutes, but it’s easy for me. It’s not like I can pack any girlie things like nail polish and hair curlers for when I go to the Rivers’ house. They have seven children in their family, five boys, and two girls. Ally, ( the youngest girl in the family) loves girlie things. If I brought any make up she would put it not only on herself, but on the walls too.

Thirty minutes later I was chillin’ like Bob Dylan at Amy’s house. We decided to watch “The Pink Panther,” a movie that they had just rented. I laughed at some parts, but I still thought that it was pretty tacky. By the time that we were done watching the movie it was about 10:00 so we decided to get ready for bed. That’s when everything went wrong.
“I just thought of the best idea ever!” Amy squealed.
“What?” I yawned loudly.
“I bet it involves our sleeping arrangement.” I added.
“How did you know?” Amy asked.
“I didn’t know. I just guessed.” Amy ignored that last comment and continued.
“It’s really warm outside, why don’t we sleep on the tramp?”
“That is the best idea ever! Let’s go set up our sleeping bags!” I suggested. We skipped outside and laid our matching dark blue sleeping bags on the big black tramp. Then we headed back inside to brush our teeth. On our way to the bathroom Uncle Mike came back home from work. After working till 10:00 at night he was rather bad tempered.
“What are you girls up to?” he snapped.
“We were just setting up our sleeping bags on the tramp,” said Amy innocently.
“You were what?!?” his voice level soared.
“Go bring your sleeping bags in, right now!” he demanded angrily. So grudgingly we went to clean up everything. We walked out the back door and down the creaky old stairs onto the grass. Suddenly something big, black, and furry darted in front of us yowling at the top of its voice. “REEER!”
“AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” screamed my cousin at the top of her lungs. I jumped a foot in the air. And together my cousin and I ran for the tramp shattering the silence of the night. We dived onto the tramp and hid in our sleeping bags.
“What the heck was that thing?!?” panted Amy.
“I think it was a cat.” I laughed uneasily.
“It must have been my neighbor’s cat, Clifford.” She assumed.
“When you screamed I thought you were being murdered.” I said seriously. At that remark we couldn’t help but giggle.
“Let’s go inside.” she suggested.

Don't worry that wasn't the scary part of the story. What I’m about to tell you is something that made shivers run up and down my spine the next morning.

I got up early in the morning and headed groggily to the dining room to see if anyone was eating breakfast. Uncle Mike, Aunt Becki, and Amy were all huddled around the round table. Lexi’s mouth was wide in horror and Aunt Becky’s eyes looked like they would pop out of her head.
“Did you hear what happened last night?” My Uncle questioned me.
“No, I just woke up.” I said, showing my talent for stating the obvious.
“Our neighbors over the fence got robbed last night.”
“What?” I gasped.
“The robber jumped over our fence to escape. They found his foot prints in our garden.” said Amy sounding as scared as I felt. Ever since that day I have been really grateful that my Uncle was so grouchy when he came home from work.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Blog Post #1

Hello World!