Free Money

Hey! It's Caitlin. I was debating whether or not to post a blog entry myself last night, but then I thought since Steve wrote such a great one why would I want to write a poor lame one that would bump his post down showing mine first? =P But someone told me once that they "love when there's more than one" blog entry at a time, so knowing this made me think I should share my bloggin' ;)

My life, in general, has been exactly the same most days so yet again not too much going on to mention personally. Although I guess I could say that at the beginning of this week we had a cold blast where we got a 2-hr delay for two days in a row! It was just lovely, since I like to sleep in, and waking up late for school was rather nice. Personally, I think we should have had three delays this week because Wednesday was mighty cold too but our school ended the delay streak despite more than half the schools in the area having one. =P

I suppose you may be wondering what my blog title has to do with anything. Well Friday was an interesting day and I thought I'd share a story that happened with my friends. xD Looking back we are still laughing hysterically about the whole event because it was so ridiculous! My two close friends, Abby and Nicole, started around last year I believe, saving any lose change they got back after buying lunch at school that day. It started filling up in their purse wallets so before long they asked my friend Lauren for her brown paper lunch bag one day instead of her dumping it. Back then they had dumped all the coins the two of them had into the brown bag and announced they would continue to save up money for their "fund" so they could eventually afford a connected garage home to share as adults I think they said once, or like buy a bunch of CDs or see a band in concert they wanted to. Then I think they were keeping the brown paper bag of coins inside Abby's locker because periodically they would bring it out to lunch, dump it all over the table, add more, and recount it up. It was pretty fun. Everyone who walked by our lunch table would stare with open eyes at all these coins. Haha, I admit it must have looked strange. I didn't really have anything to do with it, I just sat across from them, ate my food, and made sure nobody stole the money from them. Well, Friday afternoon was one of those days. I guess their purses were getting filled and it was time to "dump and count." There was a whole lot more coins this time, and there was only enough time to count the quarters, which totaled 52 dollars. Now if you think about it, there was a good chunk of nickels, dimes, and pennies left unaccounted for, so there was probably a good couple bucks more. The bell was going to ring soon so we all helped gather all the coins back into the bag. Then we fooled around and each felt how heavy it was to lift that bag up. I, considering myself to be rather weak, thought it was so so heavy!! I couldn't believe they had collected that many coins already, hahaha. xD

-brrrrring!!- So the bell rang, and off we go down the hallway to our lockers on Friday. Typically, the hallways are real crowded with kids after lunch because we all storm out of the cafeteria at once. I tend to be an incredibly fast walker 99% of the time and I don't know why (maybe I take big steps?), so usually in the hallway I end up 5 feet in front of my friends when I intended to walk with them, haha..which makes them mad..but anyhow I remember realizing how farther ahead I was of Abby and Nicole, so I paused and went back to Abby and said how loud those coins were since I heard her bouncing them off her knee a few feet in front of her. It couldn't have been 30 seconds after I said that when there was this loud jangle crash-like sound as the 52+dollars worth of coins burst through the bottom of the brown paper lunch bag, drippled down Abby's legs, and landed in a huge pile in the middle of the hallway! I am so shocked at what just happened that I stood still in the hallway with my mouth open as I stare at Abby whose face is beat red and looks like she might cry. All the while the stampede of 9th and 10th graders heading through are all looking at us with their shiny, greedy eyes just waiting to pounce in the pile of free money spread over the hallway. I take a few steps toward Abby, not sure what to say or if she wants me to help her pick some up. It all happened so fast, I mean before we knew it kids were yelling "money!" and I figured there is no point in even trying to pick the money up because kids are going to steal it anyway, so I watch as Abby drops the now empty brown paper bag and keeps walking quickly forward so nobody sees it was hers as she is SO embarrassed, leaving all those coins behind her. I continue on to my locker, grab my books, and hear kids walk past me anxiously telling their friends how they just picked up 5 dollars worth of coins here and there, and how it's mostly quarters and they should go get some themselves. Even my locker neighbor Corey comes running to me to exclaim how he just picked up 3 dollars in coins on the floor back there! I start explaining to him how it was Abby and Nicole's money, but its useless and I didn't want to be late to Math, which I have everyday after lunch. On my way to math class, I passed the area of hallway where the coins dropped and I couldn't believe my eyes. That area was completely deserted, not a single coin ANYWHERE! All that was left was the brown paper bag blowing in the dust (hah, aren't I doing a good job of painting the scene?) I mean, I didn't even see a penny, and it all was there just 2 minutes ago. I can just see it now, after we walked forward the kids behind us must have dived like a pack of hungry vultures to grab as much money as they could pick up, and trust me, it was a lot of coins. It literally was a Free Money pool. Unbelievable!!

I felt really bad for Abby and Nicole. First of all, they never should have even kept that amount of money in school, especially in coins, and especially in a weak paper bag! It was an "accident waiting to happen" as my mom would say. If I ever lost over 50 dollars, I would get in so much trouble, wow. Many people ask the question "why didn't they just pick it up!?!?" and I can only slightly understand why they didn't. If it was me, I probably would have tried to pick it up, pointless or not, but Abby and Nicole were so embarrassed and figured people would steal it anyway, considering the entire school was in the hall with them, that they just continued walking. It sounds so crazy to say, but that's how they have always been. If they drop a quarter on the lunch room floor, they leave it because they refuse to pick it up themselves, for reasons that don't make sense to me :P I don't know about you, but I'd rather be embarrassed then throw over 50 dollars into the garbage. That is sort of what happened, they probably could have picked up most of it, but leaving it ALL behind..sheesh. Unbelievable I tell yaaa! xD

Later in the day, Abby and I had Safety Ed together where we laughed so hard about it until our stomachs hurt. Abby is so embarrassed over it still, and I am never going to let her live it down. Nicole is plain mad about the whole thing. Everytime the teacher would say something, I'd turn it around and joke her about it nonstop. Haha, and the whole school was still talking about it, and everyone wants to know who the "girl" was. We were told how kids were really diving at that money, just as I predicted they would. :P

That's a memory my friends and I are never going to forget. Hahaha, I mean, wow, nuts ! ;P The rest of Friday was just alright. We danced in gym class where we learned some basic swing dancing kind of moves. I really stink at dancing, even though I think its fun. I get really shy and terribly embarrassed so I mess up and make more of a fool of myself. To make matters worse, we had to dance in couples, so before we even started and I heard that I got nervous. xD I enjoy it a lot and all, I just have a hard time catching on, if that makes any sense! :P

Then last night I spent most of my time playing Runescape and the sort. Yeah, probably doesn't sound like the Friday night of your average teenager, but that's what I did, and I have fun doing it so what can ya do? :P My runecrafting reached level 19 before I ran out of essence. I was so close to 20, which is my goal before I try to get magic to 20, and then crafting. Once I complete all that, I would have tried every skill I could and they'd all be over level 10. =)

For my daily blog special, I was reading the newspaper recently and stumbled across a strange article I'd like to share, although I hope nobody seriously considers falling into this new "craze." *True story by the way, I didn't make this up :P

Radically Random...

NEW TEEN CRAZE?
In certain towns across America, bored teenagers have been noted to get together and walk down the local streets throughout their towns on weekend nights until they come across a house with a fence in the yard. Then they'd take turns backing up quite a few steps in order to gain speed before they run and throw themselves right into the fence, sometimes in an attempt to leap over it. Once the fence is completely destroyed, the hooting and hollering teens run off down the block or speed away in a vehicle, awaking the owner who when upon opening their door, sees they now have a broken fence.

...and now maybe you can see why me choosing to spend my weekend nights playing a safe game such as Runescape rather then what you expect your "average teenager" to be doing can be considered a smart idea. :P