The Perplexity of Perplexing Phobias

I have and have had, relatively few phobias, but they still affect me, regardless. My "big" phobia was spiders. I didn't used to be afraid of them, but at some point, I crossed that line and everything went downhill from there. I would shriek and run for cover at the sight of a spider, and if I needed to walk past one...I just couldn't do it. How was my phobia fixed? It was cured by what I call "Positive Reinforcement", or something along those lines. It was Mom's idea to try this after we had been studying psychology one day. Being who I am, I was a little skeptical, but hey, who could say no to getting candy every time they see a spider? I wouldn't say I have no fear of spiders or anything like that; I still get a little freaky around them, but I can now continue my life a little more normally than I could before, and with persistence, I am slowly getting better. Currently, I only have one and a half phobias. One and a half may be a strange way to put it, but I believe I have good reason for it. The half is claustrophobia, however, it is a half phobia because it only affects the area that is my head. I would presume that I got this sometime during the process that brought me into this world. Even heat or a scarf is enough to set off the panic and a feeling of being choked. My other phobia is a phobia of needles, that suddenly appeared one day at the doctor's with no prior reason or warning. Ever since then, I get a numb feeling from the sight or thought of needles, even as I type this, and almost faint when they're used on me, even the sewing kind (once used on an infected toe). I probably inherited this from my grandpa on my dad's side. It is also possible my fear of ticks may become a phobia at some point. I certainly hope not though.

Crazy Cravings

For the past few days and then some, I've had this incurable craving for what I believe is called a Daifuku, specifically with Anko filling. I've only had this delicious treat once, at a Japanese festival I went to at least two years ago. It is, in short, a gooey pastry filled with a sweet bean concoction. I actually found a recipe here, but I'm not sure whether I will be able to find the ingredients to make it. Or for that matter, be able to make it. It's more the texture I like than the flavor, although I certainly do like the sweet beans as well. I recall it was very filling, and in my opinion would fit under the "heavy" food category. Other cravings I've had recently are Chips Ahoy Chunky cookies and Chocolate Lovers Delight cake from Costco. Luckily I managed to fulfill the cookie craving, the others are as of yet unanswered to.

The Molar Agenda

I know by my age I should have lost all my baby teeth at the least, but guess what? I've still got 7 molars to go. Yes, I did lose ONE molar recently, although it wasn't easy uprooting him. The worst thing is that all 7 maddening molars are now rebelling against my mouth, meaning it hurts to chew just about everything. I'm fairly certain they'll all jump ship soon, leaving me hopelessly eating pudding and applesauce, or maybe just slowly starving to death. To make it worse, they have some pet canines that are chewing their way up through my gum, making me feel the pain even when I don't chew, and speeding up the "tooth loss" project. However, there is a slight backlash. One of their agents is firmly stuck between a secondary molar agent and a canine. Unfortunately, they've made up for it by planting a cavity bomb inside of him, also giving me an incentive to pull him out. Too bad I can't because I might leave bits of him behind in my gum, and thus cause my parents dentist bills. I'm also fairly certain that the adult molars are on their payroll as well, otherwise they would be speeding up their growth a little more. I could swear my teeth plan this all out, who knows though, maybe it's a blessing since it stops me getting braces yet. One thing's for sure; it sure isn't gonna be pretty when my wisdom teeth join the party.

A Feathery Spy Spoof

As I looked out the window, a red headed woodpecker of some kind swooped stealthily into a landing on our porch. Woodpeckers never come near suburbia, so is something wrong? It must be so. The sneaky spy gave the area a thorough pecking, looking for that secret message his barmy friend had hidden for him in such a strange place. After a little while, he hopped over the mulberry tree and disappeared from sight. Suddenly, an enemy agent; a red tailed hawk came swooping down from a nearby tree! Was this the end of the oddly adorable adventurer? We may never know...

Bug Wars!

It started with an aerial assault; flies loitering on my pant legs, despite my many warnings against it. But the real threat came from under the leaves of a harmless looking plant...an unstoppable army of TICKS! Fifty strong of the miniature devils came swarming onto my pant leg...panic ensued. Luckily, a helpful hat came to my rescue and swept through the front lines like a knife through butter. A few larger tick tanks took their places at strategically placed points on my clothes, most swept away by the helpful hat. After the battlefield was mostly cleared, a search continued for hours on end, covering every visible area, to ensure that no more ticks remained. One large tank was discovered attacking the sole of my foot, and quickly dispatched, along with two mini ticks, also on my foot. The war however, was won! For no ticks remained when home base was reached. Hurray for persistence and paranoia!

Yellow pencils join the red list?

For those of you who don't know what the red list is, click here. Yellow pencils have a mysterious tendency to vanish in our house. The more we have, the faster they disappear. Once they're gone, we never see them again, almost as if they went on vacation to Hawaii or France, although I don't have a clue how they'd pay for it. Of course, almost everything disappears in our house, from pirate bandannas to widgets and whotsits. I'm currently down to my last 3 or 4 yellow pencils, which have thankfully remained loyal and not gone sneaking off like the rest of them. It's not just individual pencils though, a WHOLE PACK of unused pencils went missing recently. So much for re-stocking my shelves. I suppose most would blame human error for these strange events, personally, I blame the sprites*.

*= Mysterious purple fairies with a taste for mischief.

Tubing USA

"Everybody was tuuubing, tubing USA!" Isn't it funny how hedgehogs love to run around with toilet paper tubes on their heads? One would think they get tired of it, but the fact they stick their head right back in after the tube is removed is proof enough that they don't tire. If you haven't seen a hedgehog tubing, you should try searching it on YouTube, as it is a very amusing sight; although muchly more so in person. I can vouch that Raeka and Reyna are total tube-a-holics, and being the family of four that we are, we go through enough toilet paper to guarantee them their fair share of tubes. Apparently Micheal Phelps eats somewhere between 9,000 and 12,000 calories a day (the reporters can't seem to make up their mind on the exact amount, it keeps getting bigger and bigger!), I bet if he had a pet hedgehog, it would be rolling in TP tubes!

Dust Bunnies

I originally wanted to call my new blog "Dust Bunnies", but my plans were foiled when I discovered that both "dustbunnies" and "dust-bunnies" as a blog URL were taken. What annoyed me even more was that these people weren't even using them. So after slumping off to the animal shelter to socialize the cats, I came back with the idea of "The Clockworks" in my mind. I wasn't very surprised to find that "theclockworks" was already taken, by what I guessed was someone who made or fixed clocks, but I had trouble understanding their posts so I could be wrong. So you can imagine I was quite happy when "the-clockworks" was still available. Being my usual idiotic self, I went to the next step, and then realized I should probably do one last spell check on the name and URL. Since I couldn't find a proper back button, I just used the one on my browser. After feeling relieved that everything was spelled correctly, I pressed the official "continue" button, and of course the slightly annoying software made me type in the warped letters from that picture again. After that I got sent into a panic because the software said the blog URL was already taken. I was completely convinced it had been stolen by some evil blog-stealing software or a pack of rabid squirrels. After consulting tearfully with Mom, I got a "light bulb" that the software may have created the blog before I chose the layout. And sure enough, when I went to my profile, there it was. I can be so stupid sometimes.