Calm, Cool, and Collected... Not!

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

​If you read the comments on my blog post from yesterday, you probably noticed that my mom threw in a couple of things that I didn't mention in my list of chaotic and panicky situations at our house.

One of those things was the fact that I totally panicked when our new pool guy showed up the other day. I was home alone, and the company that had been doing our pool since we moved in had recently changed, so I had never met this guy before. Instead of being a sane person, I flipped out and had to text my mom to see if I could give this man the combination to get into our backyard... Could I trust him? Was he a criminal who was playing the part of a pool guy in order to get access to our house? I know, the chances of that are extremely slim, but maybe it's the creative writer in me that can't help but picture these scenarios. Anyway, everything worked out fine. I gave him the combination and he cleaned the pool (I kept watch from a window where he wouldn't see me, cellphone in hand, just to make sure).

You know, that reminds me of another time I freaked out for no apparent reason. I was in middle school, and my mom had taken my siblings to the doctors after school, so I was home alone. Watching television in the living room, I suddenly heard voices coming from the direction of our neighbors' house. Well the problem with that was the fact that our neighbors were pretty much vampires. You never saw them out during the day, but would hear them walking around at night. They were creepy people, and the fact that I could hear them outside in the afternoon shook me to the core. In case I haven't already mentioned it, I am well aware that I am completely insane... they say the first step is admitting that you have a problem. Oh, I have a problem, but I'm not sure that it can be fixed! So back to the story, I immediately tried to call my mom, because moms fix everything, but she had no reception at the doctors' office. Did I try to call the office? No, instead, I tried to call my dad. Where was my dad, you ask? At work. In New York City. An hour and a half away from home. Yet I called Daddy to save the day and be my hero, and clearly got his voicemail (he was, after all, working). I left him an incredibly panicky voicemail and didn't hear back from him until after my mom got home. If I remember correctly, my mom laughed at me (as she should have) and calmed me down. My dad, on the other hand, was really concerned because I hadn't given him the whole story, and called back to tell me that he was leaving work immediately to come home. My mom had to tell him that I was fine and that he didn't have to leave until work was out for the day. I've never lived this situation down, and that was a good ten years ago.

Speaking of ten years ago, I just realized that one of my favorite movies from middle school, Disney's "High School Musical," is celebrating its tenth anniversary on Wednesday! That seems crazy that I'm old enough to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of a movie that I remember seeing and falling in love with as a twelve-year-old. Although, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Disney's "Toy Story" at the end of 2015, so that was even crazier. "Toy Story" was actually the very first movie that I saw in theaters, when I was just two years old. My mom and my aunt took my cousin and me to see it together. I'm not old enough to be celebrating such big milestones!

Alright, so before I go to bed, I do have to mention one other crazy thing that happened. My mom actually wrote about this in a comment on yesterday's blog post as well, but I hadn't written about it because it actually happened at 1am today (after I blogged yesterday). I was still awake, getting ready to go to bed, when my mom's phone went off with a weather alert. There was a tornado watch that was starting then and would be in effect until 8am. So naturally, since we're still new to Florida and its weather patterns, we panicked. We had practiced a tornado drill with the kids the other day, but everyone was asleep at 1am! It wasn't at all like the scenario we had practiced, where everyone was playing and just had to come running when my mom called. It was crazy. We kind of calmed down enough to make a plan... I would go to sleep, we would make sure all phones were charged in case of power loss, and my mom would wake me if anything happened overnight. She slept on the couch with her phone in hand (although she didn't actually get a full night's sleep), but luckily nothing ever touched down around here. I think that there were some high winds, but nothing too serious. I know that two tornadoes touched down in a neighboring county, and some people were injured (two killed), so I am very grateful that they didn't make it to our area.

Like I said yesterday, there's never just a "normal" day in our house. There's always something weird going on.

Thank you so much for your continued support! I look forward to sharing more stories about my experience with foster care, and hopefully hearing from readers who have questions or similar stories to share. I'm always willing to answer questions and hear about other experiences! Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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