Welcome to Russland!

A Let's Not Meet

Storytime!

While I don't use Reddit, I am still as ever a lover of scary stories and Creepypastas, especially real-life centric ones.  I'm an overly paranoid person and reading or hearing them is slightly cathartic to me, even if I lose some sleep doing so.  That being said, I don't like using Reddit since the one time I tried it, sharing DND horror stories, the community immediately showed their toxic side and I left right away.  But, since I do have some good personal stories, I figured I can share one or two of them here with y'all.

I have a severe phobia of social dangers, since when I was 8 years old, we moved from a town in Wyoming, population 600, to Washington DC which has, let's just say, that same population multiplied at least by 10,000.  There are so many people in DC that for a small town kid like me, undersized and in a new, strange place, I was terrified from the get go, and constantly bullied as the new kid.  Life in DC SUCKED, especially since we moved houses every single year, due to that my father was in the military.

The year we moved to DC was also 2001, aka 9/11.  Yes.  I was there for the terrorist attack.  My father watched the plane hit the Pentagon, in person, from across the river.  He still has a bit of the rubble, and one of the flags that were outside the building from that day on his display case.  Why?  Well my father also was made the G-3 for the state of Wyoming during the invasion of Iraq.  Full Bird Colonel has some weight to it.  I'm not bragging, if anything I'm infinitely proud of my father and he is the sole reason why, other than tradition, I eventually joined the Army too.  Which is where I broke my legs for the second time and why I now limp and use a cane.  This is sort of important.

After 9/11 came the DC sniper incident, as well as multiple other terrifying ordeals.  My trust in people eroded very quickly and I became afraid of everyone and everything for a long time and have even since clung to staples and things from my childhood that remind me of simpler, less scary times.  Eventually we did move back to Wyoming which I still consider partly my home, so I'm very fond of the state, even if I no longer live there.  Anywho, onto the ACTUAL story, which occurred just recently as of this being posted, on Monday, 5/22/2022.

As I mentioned, I have little things and rituals I do to keep me calm and remind me of less scary or frantic times in my life.  Most of these things revolve around food (snacks, drinks, etc) but due to my love of sour stuff, my selection of nostalgic material does seem to be shrinking in popularity if not outright vanishing.  My favorite and only energy drink I like, Amp, was discontinued, for example.  And one of my oldest childhood nostalgic cravings come in the form of Trol-io Green Apple gummy rings.  You know the ones I'm talking about: bright green packaging, tiny green and white donut shaped candy.  There is a peach flavored version that everyone tells me "Oh it's so much better, if you like the green apple just get the peach"

To those people I say "No, you're wrong, I don't want the peach, I want the green apple, because green apple is the superior sour flavor!"

This does tie into the story, don't TLDR me.

Well I get the hankering on Saturday or Sunday before the incident that I'm really starting to need that sugary, citric-acid fueled trip down memory lane.  On Monday I research where I can find them and find 4 locations.  My first stop after work is immediately the big ass Walmart Grocery store since that's the most obvious choice.

Whenever I go to Walmart, I also have rituals I do there too.  I park way out at the end, not exactly at the last spot, but near to it.  This is so I have an excuse to dance down the parking lot while listening to music (I am unashamed of this) and it also helps stretch out my legs.  When the weather is nice, I'll even make loops of the lot if I have time, just dancing away and making people smile.  I Don't really care if they think I look stupid, I just like seeing people smile and I love dancing.  Well, that day was a bit stormy out so I didn't dance much but I was listening to music with my headphones in my ears.