Food, Glorious Food

I love food. Always have, always will. My aunt called me a black hole when I was younger because I ate so much. Food is glorious.

I remember going out towards Nixa to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. We parked in the back of a Braum’s parking lot, and my cousins wanted ice cream. Normally, their parents would say no, but my grandpa was nice enough to buy all of us some. I remember walking into the store after my grandpa, and leaving with a small Styrofoam bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

And around that time my grandpa gave me my first drink of coffee. It was all black, and I was five. He laughed so hard when I spit it out right there in his front lawn- he thought it was so funny when my face scrunched up at the bitter taste. Now, I’m an avid coffee drinker- I even stole some of his over the summer.

Right before Christmas one year, my aunt decided she was going to make cookies for everyone. And when she makes cookies, I’m her helper. I actually did practically all of it, but she helped when I was tired of stirring the dough. We made at least four batches of cookies that night.

When I was younger, I hated eating eggs with a passion. Normally, we’d have them scrambled, but I still hated eating them. The texture threw me off, I think. So I would drown them in ketchup. I’m still not a fan of ketchup, so I mainly use salsa now. Eggs are still really weird for me, I kind of mindlessly hate them.

 
Well, I could probably go on for about ten more pages, but the point will be the same. Food is love. Food is life.

Inspired by Collins

At 4 I was a daddy's girl without knowing who he truly was,

long, brown banana curls that fell down to my waist, 

trusting.

At 14 I was facing the truth,

grinning and bearing it, 

quiet at home.

At 18 I will face my demons,

pull up my big girl panties, 

be free.

Photo Hunt

This adorakable child has put up with me since sophomore year. We've been through a lot together- kudos to you for surviving so long. #yesthisisawin #congratsonkeepingyoursanity

This is my sister in her natural habitat- the Japanese room. Actually, I think she prefers cooking, which is cool with me. She's taught me a lot. No, we're not actually sister. She's taught me a lot about strength, and I thank her for that.  #sisterfolyfe #justkidding #shesuppliesmewithcaffienesomedays #loveher

I can't exactly express in words how great Mr.Snyder is, I tend to just end up using flailing hand motions and incoherent babbling about forensics. Yes, I was in his class for nine weeks, but It was so great. And I guess he's pretty cool. #coolcat #yesIsaidthat #noregret #incoherentnoisesofappreciation

You ask a theatre kid for books, and this is what you'll get. Drama onstage (what about off?), Shakespeare, and Short plays. This is kinda, sorta, basically my life. #Theatrekidprobs #IveheardBillisbae #whateverthatmeans

Squares in the art court yard. #NoNeedForMore

Round objects outside of Snyder's room. #WhyQuestionIt

Up a dino's nose? Why yes, dinosaurs are extinct. And yes, this is a picture on a dinosaur's head protruding from a wall. No one is sorry about this. #welcometoKHS #donttelluswhattodo #cantstopwontstop

Ah, yes. The elusive school spirit. That's something everyone has! The first week. Of their freshman year. Most of us get over it. My Senioritis is very strong, my friends. #thatsenioritisthough #morelikeschoolspirits

I find the art courtyard completely and irrevocably adorable. It's so cute, and interesting! I love the set up, and random art projects that are left our on display or to dry. #Ilikeitalottle #yesthatsathing #maybe #probablynot

Yes, these are the USB ports on the computer. They look like a face though! #tooamused

When children walk into a school, I'm sure they're shocked by the large, odd, profanity spewing hooligans they'll probably turn into in a few years. But what they notice is the vending machines. #getthechangemom #gummywormtime

Well... This is the cast of the first show I've had multiple speaking roles in. Well, besides Phaedra, but that totally doesn't count. this was curtain call for You Can't Beat The Hose. Starting on the left there's Alex Elliot as Officer Laraby, Courtney Price as Brittney, Emmi Kerr as Lillian, Quinn as Conrad Spears, Taylor as Howie, Bailey Diehl as Merle, Maggie Hopke as Glenda Spears, Chrissy as Madam Zenobia, me as Courtney Parfait, and Hannah Cederblom as Fern. I'll always remeber this moment. When the show was over, and we come out to people clapping for us. the adrenaline starts to slow down, but you're still a bit on the high. When you take a breath and bow with your cast mates, and you can't help but feel content. It's probably the best feeling ever.  #theatrekid #thatwasmorethanwhatwasrequired #courtneyparfaitworldwidereality 

Construction. Oh. My. God. It's the most irratating thing ever, and I go on multiple hatred filled, annoyance induced rants because of it. #stoppingmyselfnow #dontevenman

Brad Noble's art work is simply... stunning. #IHaveNoWords #MathStairwell

Well, I don't have a picture for the last one. There were simply too many possibilities. A chief head, football, theatre, or silly stories that are told. High School hooligans. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget this place, and I'm not sure if that's good or not.

Boston

Laughter rippled through us as we congregated in the middle of the room before rehearsals. Our director was on his computer, but we paid him no mind. Not until he walked over to the hardly used television screen. Our attention slowly turned to the new channel and shock rippled through us, and before anyone was consciously aware of it, we had all moved to stand around the screen. It was chaos on screen, and the words hit us like a tidal wave.

“What’s happening?” She asked me in a soft whisper. I didn’t even hear her come in.

“The Boston marathon was just bombed,” I told her. I couldn’t tear my eyes off the screen, but I could hear her gasp of surprise. Tears evaded my vision, and I could hear the quiet whimpers of a few other people.

“Oh God, my uncle lives in Boston,” A voice said in a hoarse whisper. The sound of fabric moving signaled that people had started comforting each other, consoling those whose family was near the explosion.

Clearing my throat, I turned to leave the room as a tear rolled down my cheek. I hadn’t lost anyone, but the pain in the classroom was practically malleable. Just the thought of how many people had died- where dying- shocked me to the core. How could someone do that? How could someone be so cruel? What the hell kind of world did we live in?

I didn’t understand- I still don’t- how one person could harbor so much hatred, and take it out on innocent people.

Photograph 2001

This is me when I was three
smiling at my mother 
as I tried on the tiara and veil
for her upcoming wedding
and my role as flower girl.

This is my curly brown hair
tugged back to expose
my chubby three-year-old cheeks
dark blue eyes cast in shadows 
in the house my grandparents lived
those fourteen years ago. 

Dark blue overalls that 
I didn't bother wearing 
a shirt under because
who would criticized a three year old
on their clothing choices?

This is before the wedding
before the miscarriages 
and heart ache from 
dead beat dads
before I felt a fathers love
before I grew up too soon
and before I realized how screwed 
our entire world was.

This was before the other shoe dropped.  

 

The Mirror

I gripped her hand tighter in mine as strobe lights flickered in the room.

“Ready?” I asked the other girls as we stare towards our reflections- the pulsing lights illuminating jerky movements. Murmurs of agreement rippled through the three of them. And I took a deep breath.

“Bloody Mary,” I said softly, and Natalie gripped my hand tighter.

“Bloody Mary,” We chorused together, “Bloody Mary.”

As soon as the words left our lips for the third time the bathroom door was yanked open with a loud creak. A shriek left our lips as we stumbled away from the door, and the lights flickered on.

“What are you, twelve?” Chrissy asked incredulously. “Keep the lights on, I’m not peeing in the dark.”

Chrissy was hardly five feet tall, but she could scare a grown man with a single look. She stomped off into one of the stalls, and I glanced at the other girls to see their reactions. They began to relax as we all exchanged looks before laughter bubbled its way out of my throat. I suppose laughter was contagious because the next thing I knew, we were all laughing.

My eyes strayed back to the mirror, and my breath caught in my throat. Standing beside me was a girl with long dark hair, and pale blue eyes. Blood covered the front of her dress, and seemed to come from the wound on her neck. Her head tilted lightly to the side as though she couldn’t figure out why I was staring at her.

“Cupcake?” A hand touched my shoulder, and my eyes shifted to the girl next to me.

“Are you okay?” Cassie asked as her hand fell back to her side. I glanced back at the mirror- did they really not see her?- but she was gone.

“You look ready to pass out,” Allyson spoke up. I glanced at my own reflection and noticed how horribly pale I had gotten.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled as I tried to get over the sudden terror I felt. “I think my sugar’s just crashing. I’m just going to grab something from concessions real quick.” I don’t think I could have left the bathroom faster.

I wasn’t prepared for school the next day. When I walked in the doors, everyone was uncharacteristically somber. I had no clue what was going on until the announcements came on in second block. After I heard the news that Allyson had killed herself in the theatre last night I was numb. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t focus on anything. I found myself in the boy’s dressing room next to the stage right after school. The performance that night had been rescheduled so we could have a memorial for her, but I didn’t care. I sat on the couch in the dressing room and stared at the spot of dried blood on the ground, and the place where the large vanity mirror once sat. From what I could gather, Allyson shattered the mirror before using one of the shards to slice open her throat. My eyes raked over the room as I tried to fathom a reason as to why this happened. When I caught sight of a piece of mirror that had somehow stayed in the frame, I knew. Because staring at me from the reflection was the same girl I saw in the bathroom mirror yesterday. A vicious smirk curled her lips before she disappeared.

The next two days followed in the same manner, Natalie and Cassie were both found near the theatre with shattered mirrors and slit throats. Cassie had been found in the girls dressing room, where as Natalie was found in the bathroom adjacent to the auditorium. I had been numb the past three days- what were you supposed to do when an urban legend comes alive and kills your friends?

I was next, I knew I was. But I didn’t think she’d find me. The school had been closed for a few days due to the rash of suicides, and the police were actually looking into it to find a reason behind them. I knew they wouldn’t find anything.

I was a wreck. I hardly ate, hardly slept, hell I hardly got out of bed. My mom tried to drag me out, but eventually gave up. She couldn’t do anything- no one could. After everyone went to bed one night, I found myself wandering into the kitchen. I knew it was stupid, but I just wanted sleep. I took a large dose of Nyquil and prayed that it knocked me out. It worked.

I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again. The mirror I had was leaning again the wall- it was a simple full length mirror. Slowly I got up and walked over to it. I probably shouldn’t have approached the mirror when I was half awake, but I did. Looking into the mirror, I didn’t think anything was amiss. I shrugged off the foreboding feeling I was getting- there was no one here, and I was probably just imagining it. But when I turned around to go back to bed, she was there. The smirk was still present on her face, and the blood that nearly covered her entirely looked fresh.

I didn’t know what would happen next. When she suddenly reached up and shoved me back into the mirror, I began to understand. It was my turn. All of the other girls were gone, and now it was time for me to go as well. The mirror shattered with the force she had shoved me with, and my body broke the frame. I could faintly hear my parents stirring over the sound of their fans, but I knew they would arrive too late. It all happened so quickly- she grabbed a shard of glass, and a sharp pain spread over my neck. I could still feel the warm blood escape me and trail down my neck.

I could hear my mother stumble into the room, and her sobbing as she caught sight of my body. Of my dad screaming in agony and disbelief. I could hear my brother ask- with sleep lacing his voice- what was wrong. I could see her- I could see Mary- standing behind all of them with that damn smirk still present on her face. And then, nothing.

Halloween Spirits (And Other Creatures That Go Bump In The Night)

While trick-or-treating, my friends and I decided to explore a dark street we had never noticed before. Looking back now, I realized just how stupid that was. Going down that street would start a domino effect that I wouldn't have a chance in hell stopping. But that thought didn't even cross my mind before we started down the street.

The red cloak I bought for my costume billowed out behind me as I walked, and my friends chatted happily around me. A smile pulled on my lips as Ariel nudged me with her arm. True to her name, she wore a bright red wig with a child’s Little Mermaid tiara on top of her head. She was dressed in modern clothes, but anyone with a childhood could tell who she was.

“Snickers?” She offered with amusement in her eyes, and candy in hand. I feigned horror at the offer before a smile broke across my lips at our inside joke. The light of the full moon broke through the trees as we continued down the street- why we were walking this street escaped me. A howl pierced the air, and startled us all. The eerie sound lasted for a few seconds- it sounded awfully close- before dying down. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have ran.

“What the crap was that?” Emmi asked as she turned to look at us, her yellow shirt flowing around her. With her hands on her hips, she glared at the surrounding area, but the fact that she was dressed as Snow White made her less intimidating.

“Maybe it was a wolf,” I suggested as I tried to keep the smile off my face. She sent a withering look my way before Liana spoke up.

“In Missouri?” She asked as she popped a piece of candy in her mouth. The fact that she was dressed as a dragon may have been intimidating if she hadn’t chosen a dragon from an animated movie. But props to the black outfit with large green eyes.

“It’s Halloween you non-believers,” I told them. Sure, I was being sarcastic- the howling was probably from a dog- but there was no need to rain on my parade.

“Shun the non-believers!” Ariel said as she linked her arm through mine, a laugh escaping my lips at the reference. We continued to recite lines from the idiotic video as we made our way down the street again. A snarling sound from in between two nearby houses stopped us dead in our tracks.

I glanced over to see a large, dark shape walk out of a figure emerge from the shadows. It was a male from what I could tell, but I wasn’t too focused on what he looked like, rather the fangs protruding from his gums. His hands were claws at his sides, and his eyes flicker dangerously between the three of us.

In the blink of an eye, he darted towards us, and tackled Ariel to the ground. A shriek escaped our lips as she yelped in pain- her head smacking into the ground. In one quick, jerky movement the man had snapped her neck.

“Oh my God,” Emmi breathed. The sound captured the man’s attention, and before any of us could move, he had snapped her neck, too. Liana turned to run, but the man had already caught up to her.

Tears clouded my eyes as I stood rooted in the spot and the sickening crunch of bone breaking rippled in the air. I didn’t know what to do- my friends were lying there on the pavement with snapped necks, and all I could do was stand there.

The man’s eerie eyes turned to me, a snarl vibrating through his body. A strangled sob wracked my body as he began to stalk towards me. This was it- this was the end. My friends were dead, and I was next. Two gun shots suddenly rang through the air, causing me to flinch. The man fell to the ground as blood began to pour around him. Footsteps pounded the pavement as two men ran up, the taller one bent to check on the man they shot as the other glanced at my costume.

“Red Riding Hood? Are you frickin’ kidding me?” He asked, his voice rough, and disbelieving.

“Dean,” The other one said in exasperation. He stood from the ground, and walked over to where I was standing. I flinched- involuntary- and took a step back. The man stopped about two feet away before offering me a quick smile.

“My name’s Sam,” He said before gesturing to the other male with his head, “That idiot over there is my brother, Dean. Are you alright?”

What a ridiculous question. Before I got the chance to respond, the world turned sideways before everything went dark.

My favorite Halloween treat…? Candy corn, sprees, or any form of chocolate. I really like candy and any form of sugary products. My parents think I have a problem, but I think they’re crazy.

In the past years I've been Cinderella, Belle (multiple times for both princesses) a witch, a vampire, Dorothy, a Greek Goddess, Red Riding Hood, and a gypsy. I love dressing up so much. I’ll probably wear my Red Riding Hood costume again but with wounds this time- Little Red is one of my favorite costumes.