Barn | Tina Bishop

Mary Ann sat on a stump just outside of the old brown barn in her black dress and black pumps. She stared at what used to house her grandfather’s sheep and shearing tools. The sheep were gone now and horses replaced them in the meadow. The barn had become more of a storage shed for the current generation, but still stood strong against the mountain’s harsh winters. There were a few holes in the wooden structure, but for the most part the patches from earlier years were holding fine.

Moments passed before she got up and slowly walked into the barn. She noticed that horse riding accessories like saddles, bridles and blankets were stored on the north end of the barn, while inflatable toys for the nearby lake filled up the shelves on the southern end. The hay lofts above were cleaned out and bare, but an old brown couch was still up on top for someone to look out of the large windows on the west side. Mary Ann smiled as she contemplated the many kids and grandkids that had graced the barn with playful laughter, spooky ghost stories, and sleepless slumber parties in the hay.

Then, she looked up to see if the old zip-line was there. A zip-line is a line tied at a high end and a low end. A person could hold onto a specially designed handle with rollers and slide down the line from top to bottom. Her son Kyle had constructed a zip-line years ago that started at the top of the hay loft, was drawn length-wise through the barn, out the large back window, and ended at the big pine tree on the west end. Kyle broke his arm on the first ride down the line because he had tied the end of the line too low to the tree and too close to the ground. That didn’t stop him, though, because he said true soldiers never give up. He was back up the next weekend fixing the engineering of the device so that there was plenty of time for the rider to jump away before hitting the tree. Kyle became a great soldier, she reflected, and that zip-line was still there to prove it.

She looked down at the triangular piece of cloth in her hands and decided to fly the colors at the top of the barn where the zip-line began. She unfolded the flag and placed it horizontally on the wall with the stars on the left-hand side. She sat down on the couch with her back to the colors and looked out the windows across from her. Her son had become a valiant soldier and it all started here with a zip-line. She fell asleep and dreamed of Kyle running into the barn, up the ladder, and over to the zip-line. As he flew down the line out through the window she said good-bye.

Barn | Christie Fordham

It is the home of horses, cows, dogs and a scene of a young man working. I remember a time when I could walk to the doors and watch my son playing in the hay. It was refreshing because I knew that he wasn’t out causing trouble to our neighbors. The red paint is now flaking from the side of this sturdy building, and even through everything that has happened on this farm, that barn has stayed strong, unchanging.

It is about thirty feet tall and caked with memories. Such as the time when it was grandpa’s 80th birthday and we all hid in the barn. Or the summer barbeques that ended in a stick pull in the rafters. Time goes by so fast, if only we could just embrace what it has to give us. Through out my life, the barn has been a sanctuary. At any time you could walk through here and catch a family member just thinking. Sitting there, taking in their surroundings. It’s where Jake got his first kiss, and where Sarah realized that she could no longer be a little girl any more. This barn heals souls. Here I sit, looking at the pole with the strangely organized marks up the side of it. By each line there is a name and a number signifying the age and height of each person’s mark. I remember the time when grandma lost pa and tried to run away from the world. We could always find her right here.

If just anyone walked onto this farm and looked at this barn, I’m sure they wouldn’t be very impressed. It’s not a whole lot to look at if you’re not part of the family. It’s simply just a plain barn that needs fixing. The way I look at it is we can’t fix anything in the past, so why should we fix what our past is centered around?

Faces | Mara Lefler

1. Eyes that glow because of the tears that well up in them before the release.

2. When you see someone look at you and you know that they are judging by the way that they have a tiny glint and artifical something.

3. Looking at someone with a longing, not understanding why but that you want to help. The face tries to hide it but can't.

4. The suprised expression. Where the whole face expands and it seems like their skin, lips and everything else wants to run off the face.

5. The look that says I wasn't looking. Where you catch someone staring at you because they try to look any other place but at you.

6. The glazed to look that comes when a person is sat infront of a TV or Computer. The mouth slightly open and the eyes glowing from the screen.

7. The smile that says you are having the best time dancing away. Big like you can't get enough joy in your face.

8. When someone hits a wrong note when they are singing and they smash their face to one side and push their lips out just like they have heard to most horrible noise on the planet.

9. The stare that says so much. To someone who didn't know who the person they would think that it was just a stare, but to someone who knew how to read the stare and knew they where in trouble.

10. The face the says I love you. When you glance and your mom and she is looking at your dad with something that can be explained. Contentment, love and peace all rolled into one.

Faces | Laura Spencer

1. A yawn so large it seems the mouth is too large for your face, eyes shut tight.

2. Left side of top lip lifted in a curling sneer--a tight kink.

3. Slack mouth, closed eyes, a trickle of drool trailing after on the pillow.

4. Covering their mouth with a hand, they turn away coyly, eyes tear as they titter out their laughter.

5. Left eyebrow raised, head cocked to one side.

6. Mouth pursed after biting into a sour plum--eyes squinting open.

7. A fake smile full of teeth--now you know why a smile in the animal kingdom means agression.

8. Eyes heavy on the verge of sleep, deep purple shadows emphasize the eye sockets. The back of a hand comes up to rub at them.

9. Narrowed eyes looking down and to the side over the shoulder.

10. Faint smile that never reaches the eyes.

11. Eyes sparkling like liquid diamonds, face turned up toward her partner, mouth subtly curved--almost demure.

12. Upper lip raised off teeth, pushing air from the back of the throat, eyes glitter strangely, nostrils flared.

Faces | Jillene Stark

1. Twitching eyes.

2. Half smile when reading a book.

3. Staring intensely never looking away at one object for a long time.

4. Tear glistening eyes.

5. Glazed over look.

6. Falling asleep with sunglasses thinking no one is watching them.

7. Glaring at their pencil as they write something.

8. Horrified look when getting a test back.

9. Smile as big as their whole face to show everything in their mouths.

10. Mouth puckering up as they think.

Faces | Elyse Georgeson

1. Nose scrunched up, trying not to smell, eyes crinkled as much as the nose

2. Eyes half closed with a half-smile, an expression of contentment

3. Eyes not focused, muscles of the face relaxed, the glazed look of someone who’s thoughts are elsewhere

4. Eyes closed, no expression, the peaceful innocence of an infant asleep

5. Eyes scrunched together, cheeks lifted up, lips curved in a smile as she guffaws

6. Bottom lip stuck out in a pout, eyes pulled down at the outside corners to let us know she’s sad

7. Eyebrows raised, eyes wide, a look of nervousness on a cat

8. Mouth pulled down at the corners, eyebrows slanted into the nose, water gathering in theinside corners of the eyes, an expression of one who’s about to cry

9. Squinty eyes, the rest of the face flat—annoyance reigns

10. Lips pulled into a line, eyebrows drawn down against the tops of the eyes, a look of anger

11. An expression of anger changing suddenly into an expressionless face--run from ultimate rage

12. Eyes wide, looking earnestly, pleading for a favor

13. A plastic smile, tension in the forehead, eyes not smiling, the look of one who doesn't want to be here

14. A pen stuck between the lips, teeth clamped tightly, eyes focused intently on the paper in front of them, utter concentration

15. Eyes lifted up to the sky, face dreamy, faint smile, one who's lost in a daydream

Faces| Raymond Wadsworth

1. The look of wonder and amazment at the sight of something that you don't remember eating...

2. Dr. Petersen's broken tooth face.

3. The stern look of your father after being told that you did something wrong from your mother. Eyes narrow, teeth grit and a rumble starts from his toes and exploids at his head! (I've seen it a 100 times)

4. The pleasurable look after killing your first deer. A grin from ear to ear and your pupils never seem to shrink, even if the sun is shining.

5. Eye brows go up, a smile broadens your face and you point your fingers saying, "I gotcha!"

6. Stretching your neck, making your lower jaw go over your upper jaw, eyes squinting trying not to get touched on the mouth from a kitten playing on your chest.

7. The ecstatic look after getting a 5 on a paper. Eyes wide, hands trembling, and your tougne is slightly hanging out of your mouth.

8. The nervous look of biting your lip.

9. The happy face because the girl that you like just called you back and said that she can go on a date. The scrunched nose, eyes half closed, mouth making a tight 'O' as you pull your arm down saying 'yes!'

10. The look of 'I can die happy' because the girl in number 9 just kissed you. Eyes fluttering, lips loose, face is relaxed. (nice job guys...nice job)

Faces | Heather Zundel

1. Eyes glance up, declaring a truce of trust.

2. A neck cranes, desperate to see beyond the crowd.

3. Face cast downward, a smirk lingers upon the lips.

4. A single eyebrow is raised, curious and confrontational.

5. Contorted with pain, they persevere and continue to push the blocks

6. Running, she turns back, sticks out her tongue playfully and the chase continues.

7. Head arched back, his face softened, he looks at the sky in wonder.

8. Wrinkles line the eyes as she laughs, her face bright.

9. Brows furrow, not understanding what is happening.

10. Lips purse together, whispering soft comforts to the sleeping child.

Faces | Beth McGraw

1. Lips forming an o shape for whistling.

2. Eyes glazed over gazing off into the distance, daydreaming.

3. Smile and/or laughing to show that you're happy.

4. Red, swollen eyes from crying.

5. Talking animatedly to friends nearby.

6. Squinting eyes when you walk outside and see the sun glaring off the car windshields.

7. Rolling eyes when someone is telling you something ridiculous.

8. Brow furrowed, eyes lowered on scantron slips as students take tests.

9. Eyes moving back and forth, reading a book or newspaper.

10. Facial expressions to show when you are frusterated, angry, sad or happy.

11. Eyebrows up to show surprise or amazement.

12. Eyebrows furrowed to express confusion.

13. Wrinkling your nose when smelling something unpleasant or to signify disgust with a certain idea or task.

Faces | Brynn Bowthorpe

1. Strained smile posing for a picture.

2. Eyebrows up, waiting for an answer.

3. Mouth silightly open, eyes blank staring at a computer screen.

4. Wide, shifty eyes on guard for the worst.

5. Alert eyes, diliberately set lips looking and listening at a job interview.

6. Droplets of sweat from the pores of a red face at the gym.

7. Squished cheeks resting between hands during a boring class.

8. Eyes red and puffy, nose running, mouth gasping for air on a sobbing girl.

9. Pasted on smile of a grocery cashier.

10. Wrinkled nose, pursed lips, half-lidded eyes while cleaning a nasty bathroom.

Faces | Tyler Cook

1. A tingling sensation in the sinuses causes your nostrils to flare, your brow to climb, and your eyes to flicker shut. You sneeze, suddenly aware of every hair your scalp possesses.

2. Face lax, eyes vacant, mouth agape. The light from the television turns his skin blue.

3. Her jaw is set and her face is taut. The muscles under her eye flinch. You decide it’s time to relocate.

4. Groggy, with a brow furrowed in frustration, you paw at the light switch.

5. Jaw opens wide, stretching your face and baring your teeth. Your eyes begin to water. Yawn. It’s time for bed. Well… bed or caffeine.

6. One eye squeezed shut, contorting the face, the other straining to see through the glare of the sun.

7. Lashes flutter as her head turns to the side. She sticks out a pouting lip and says “please.” ....... Damn her!

8. Despite the rosy cheeks, she looks washed out and tired. Her skin is soft. Her hair is white. Her lips are brilliant red. Pale eyes twinkle as she smiles. The crow’s-feet deepen, cracking her makeup.

9. Nervously biting her lip, the girl glances over her shoulder.

10. Her eyes are puffy and damp. Her face is tear-streaked and red. She looks at you for a moment pleading silently, and then hides her face again in the pillow.

Faces | Sarah Gibbs

1. Blowing those stubborn wisps of hair from the eyes.
2. Rubbing the eyes in a circular motion.
3. Pursing the lips together.
4. Narrowing the eyes and scruching the eyebrows.
5. Lifting the eyebrows and widening the eyes.
6. Mouth all slack and eyes fluttering, nearly asleep.
7. Eyes roll toward the ceiling and a sigh squeezes out of the closed lips.
8. Running the tongue over the teeth with closed lips so there is a bump over you mouth.
9. Nostrils flare slightly and jaw tightens.
10. A slight smile that starts at the right side and soon goes to the whole face.

Faces | Shannon Eberhard

Things faces do.......

1. Carry the eyes, which are the portals to the soul.

2. Inhale pleasant scents through their nostrils.

3. Sneeze on someone when they have a cold.

4. Carry, purple under eye bags, when tired.

5. Have eyelids that droop open and shut when tired.

6. Have twitchy eye muscles when they are tired

7. Blow wet raspberries at their brother’s face.

8. Leave lipstick marks on everything they kiss.

9. Get freckles, when they’re in the sun too long.

10. Lick stray crumbs and sauce off their lips.

Faces | Jenny Sorensen

1) Scrunch the nose
2) chew gum
3) breathe w/ mouth open
4) smile
5) look concerned
6) talk
7) look around the room
8) twitch when there's an itch
9) sniff because of allergies
10) have big, surprised eyes
11) frowning
12) laughing

Faces | Jordan Peace

1. The "Clint Eastwood," half squinting and nostrils flared when someone makes you mad.

2. The "There's No Hope For the Planet", when your eyebrows are furrowed and your mouth is open. Generally used when someone says something stupid.

3. The "Sammy Davis Jr.," one eye's closed and one is open when you turn on the lights after being in the dark for a while.

4. The "Probe" when you try and use your tounge to pick at a piece of popcorn that is stuck between your upper lip and gums. A large lump appears on your face.

5. The "Travel Agent," a totally blank expression in which your pupils almost become literally fuzzy. Usually associated with daydreaming.

6. The "Stoner," eyelids too lazy to be either fully opened or closed. Often comes with a satified smile.

7. The "Drainage Pipe," lips exteneded in a circle and tounge out in a cresent moon shape. Very useful while vomiting over a toilet. I beat you to it Ray.

8. The "Contortionist," lips usually exteneded in weird shapes, with eyebrows raised, and eyes closed. Often occurs before sneezing.

9. The "Sam Eagle," a stone serious face with one eyebrow cocked to signify something odd just happened.

10. The "Dentist," lips stretched wide and eyes closed revealing all your teeth. Usually the smile of small children.

11. The "Mick Jagger/Steven Tyler," lips closed over teeth and stretched to the point of tearing. Eyes are normally wide.

12. The "Canio (from the opera Pagliacci) ," red eyed and drying rivlets of tears on your cheeks. Usually comes with sobs after someone is done crying.

Hands | Sidney Jordan

1. Give a Tramp Stamp with your lips on someone’s neck.

2. Stretch out your neck skin to grouse someone out.

3. Cross your eyeballs like Drew Barrymore in Charlie’s Angle’s.

4. Get plastic sugary on the ugly nose that your mother gave to you.

5. Go through the pain of plucking and waxing your eye brows.

6. Put make up over all the zits you don’t want your crush to see.

7. Paint your face like a clown for Halloween

8. Squish your face to tell fat jokes.

9. Curl your eye lashes for a big date.

10. Rub mud all over your face before entering a paint ball tournament. So you can

be Camouflage.

Faces | Cassidy Berlin

1. Raising one eye brow and letting the other one relax (A way of showing dissatisfaction.)

2. Sucking the sides of your lower lip into your mouth

3. Making your scalp and your ears move back and forth

4. Scraping of the dead skin on your upper lip with the bottom of your teeth

5. Trying to pick food or plaque out of your teeth with your tongue

6 .Pulling your ears out and making the monkey face

7 .Raising one side of your lip when you are grossed out

8. Squeezing your eyes tightly shut in hope that when you open them you will magically not feel tired anymore.

9. Scrunching your nose up and blowing out when something is itching it

10. Pulling the inside of your cheek into your mouth and just biting on it

Faces | Katy Nielson

1. Slowly a tongue peeped out between slightly parted lips. As it drew back into her mouth the upper lip followed, pulled light over the same teeth that held it firmly in place.

2. The bottom lip clenched in between teeth, as the eyes furrowed in concentration.

3. One eye closes the muscles around it bunching, as the head is tilted slowly, stretching muscles along the neck. Slowly the other eye closes, the head tilts forward, then sinks back into place.

4. The mouth opens, and the eyes close. They seem to parallel each other as the yawn grows deeper and deeper, deforming the features into a grotesque caricature.

5. She looks at her hand, a small smile lighting her face, though her lips are only slightly curved upward. She neither hears nor sees anything around her.

6. The eyes grow round and wide. Lips draw together and open slightly, but only for a moment, then sunshine breaks from the face that a moment before was dull.

7. One eyebrow raises, though the rest stays the same. The eyes light with derision, but they mouth turns up slightly.

8. His jaw just slightly. Lips parted his teeth bared, he looks forward toward the speaker.

9. Nostrils flare slightly as she sniffs. She raises a hand to wipe her nose gently.

10. Eyes unfocused, staring blankly straight ahead. What is before them doesn’t matter, it is unseen.

11. The corner of her mouth is turned down. Her jaw moves rhythmically up and down. She gazes expressionless at the ceiling, her eyes moving back and forth as her jaw continues to move. Slowly all movement stops. She looks down slowly at her hands. Again she begins chewing.

Faces | Brittany Hoffman

1. Burnt by angry tears.

2. Staring straight ahead, mouth wide open in concentration while putting on mascara.

3. Scrunching up tight because of that horrible odor leaking from the gym bag.

4. Suddenly blank, then eyes rolling till you can only see white as you watch the body fall to the ground.

5. Old and foldy filled with a million stories.

6. Cheeks puckered up with eyes tightly pinched after jumping off the tallest diving board.

7. Squinting to see the chalk board.

8. Eyes slightly glancing up and to the right trying to recall a hazy memory.

9. All open wide and crazy, screaming into a microphone.

10. Sudden color change when they all start laughing at something not meant to be a joke.

Faces | Roma Peddle

1. Concentrating: eyes squinted and focused, mouth straight and serious.
2. Laughing: eyes semi-closed but bright, mouth opened & loud... maybe nostrils flaring
3. Surprised: eyes wide and brows raised, mouth usually in an "o" shape.
4. Excited: eyes wide and vivid, mouth open wide with a smile.
5. Pissed: eyes on fire, one eyebrow raised, mouth straight and serious... maybe nostrils flaring
6. Disappointed: eyes sad, mouth in frown, head shaking.
7. Scared: eyes focused, mouth shut tight, teeth clenched, jaw tightened.
8. Nervous: eyes small, lip bitten, head down.
9. Happy: eyes bright and wide, cheeks flexed from side to side, mouth in an endless smile.
10. Confused: eyes questioning, forehead scrunched, eyebrow raised, mouth closed.
11. Sad: eyes dull and lifeless, head down, mouth in frown.
12. Jealous: eyes intense with evil, smirk on mouth... maybe nostrils flaring...

Faces | Tina Bishop

1. Decreased eye contact

2. Facial twitches near eyes and in cheeks

3. Blinking

4. Pupil dilation

5. Reddening of face

6. Turning pale

7. Swallowing, nose clinches

8. Biting lips

9. Holding breath making balloon cheeks

10. Blow-fishes on glass window

11. Eyes cast side-ways

12. Chin tilted, eyes closed, nose snoring

13. Staring contest

14. head forward, eyes closed, mouth open, drooling

15. twisted lips in anger

Faces | Christie Fordham

1. The muscles in my face ache from straining as the tears fall down my cheeks.

2. My mouth is open wide while I give a burst of laughter to the joke that was said.

3. She winks at me to let me know that she's joking.

4. No expression whatsoever. Just a blank look telling me that she just doesn't get the explanation.

5. As the girl is carving the pumpkin, her tongue sticks out and moves each direction she pulls her knife.

6. She has lied to me again, I look at her with disgust as my lips purse and my brow narrows.

7. As he starts to dream, there is complete relaxation in his face.

8. I watch as my roomate get into a movie. She imitates the character's feelings. When the character is sad, she frowns. If the character is angry, her face bunches up to build pressure.

9. I walk into the apartment with a sweet little smile left by the hug I just recieved from the boy. What a great night I just had!

10. As the girls listen to the concert, they start to sing the songs. Not only do they sing the songs, but they try to imitate the singer by scrunching their brow and seducing their smiles.

Faces | Matt Nielsen

1. 'Hungry' This face is usually noted as having a gaping mouth, often accompanied by streams of drool.

2. 'Pissed' Usually bright red, with veins prominently protruding from the temples and occasionally the forehead. Almost no flinching of the eyes is noted.

3. 'Sleepy' Droopy, baggy eyes and the occasional red spot on the forehead shaped like a desk/book/hand.

4. 'Lost' Characterized by the eyes being glazed over. Also known as the 'Deer in the Headlights' look.

5. 'Bull----er' This face is identified by the total improbability of the crap emenating from the mouth.

6. 'Happy' Grinning ear to ear and wanting to tell everybody why.

7. 'In Love' Characterized by the head tilting to one side just a little, the eyes appearing large and often times teary, and a small smile on the mouth.

8. 'Puppy Dog Look' Same as above except the eyes are batting and the mouth is usually in more of a really pathetic frown.

9. 'Bored' Similiar to the 'Sleepy' and 'Lost' faces but without the red mark on the forehead.

10. 'Teenager' All of the above except with pimples.

Hands | Brittany Hoffman

1. Softly holding a paintbrush texturing with flicks of the wrist.

2. Searching for a firm grip on the chain link fence in panic mode so you can win the game.

3. Inside a sock, bringing it to life.

4. Pressing the redial button again and again and again praying that this time, he might pick up and forgive you.

5. Scrubbing the curves of your body in the shower trying to get every trace of campfire smoke out of your skin.

6. Franticly rubbing the inside of the windshield on a freezing morning so you can see the road.

7. Stained from hair dye.

8. Flipping off the police officer who gave you the ticket that the red car deserved.

9. Saluting the flag in reverence and honor.

10. Accidentally touching the hand you love in the popcorn bag.

Hands | Shannon Eberhard

Ten things my hands do....

1. Jitter from too much coffee on an empty stomach.

2.Shock an unsuspecting person with their icy coldness.

3.Pick my own stray hairs off a lovers clothing.

4.Absentmindedly pick scabs when stressed.

5.Feel for the pulse of another.

6.Scratch that hollow behind a dogs ears.

7.Feel tiny kicks, coming from a pregnant belly.

8.Blindly search for that bug who flew into my eyeball.

9. Paint the fingernails of an old friend.

10. Flip a jerk off, while hidden under a table.

Hands | Sidney Jordan

1. Let them strum a beat on your father’s guitar.

2. Rub your throbbing temples after a math test.

3. Bit every slice of finger nail you can grip.

4. Twist your lover’s hair.

5. Twist your rings in nervousness.

6. Teach your child how to count.

7. Tell your roommates dog “NO!” when she takes a crap in the front room.

8. Tell a story about how big your fish you caught was.

9. Twist your tongue ring during deep thought.

10. Tickle your lover while they are sleeping next to you.

Hands | Seirra Dickerson

1. Hands swaying in the air to the beat of the music.

2. Joints tweaking as fingers move about in a nervous habit.

3. Fingers twirling a pen around.

4. Fingers pressing buttons on a cell phone maniacally as they text message their best friend.

5. Fingers idly running through hair, never satisfied with how it looks.

6. Fingers moving a pop tab back and forth until it comes off.

7. Fingers grasping a pen and meticulously re-tracing the Japanese kanji on the back of their hand.

8. Fingers picking through a bucket of candy to find their favorite kind of chocolate.

9. Fingers nervously causing friction between fingernails.

10. Fingers "button mashing" a Playstation 2 controller as they try to defeat their opponent at Tekken 5.

Hands| Chelsea Trump

1. Finger and thumb gently crush fish flakes and drop them into the aquarium.

2. Hand runs softly across the back of a cat, stopping to scratch at the tail.

3. Poised on a needle, embroidery floss is pushed trough the fabric.

4. She gently places the nail of her pinky finger between her lips.

5. Hands work quickly as laundry is folded.

6. Fingers lightly touch her cheek and caress down her neck.

7. The tight ball of a fist crumpling up a useless paper.

8. His fingernails drum on his knees as he walks around, thinking.

9. She places one finger in between her lips and draws it out slowly, getting rid of excess lipstick.

10. Both hands rub the temples of his face in slow circles, reducing tension.

Hands | Heather Zundel

1. Her hands weave through her hair, winding it around, her mind elsewhere.

2. He delicately picks at the fuzz on his sweater, carelessly flicking it away.

3. Her clenched fist, knuckles shining out, match her set jaw as she listens, saying nothing.

4. Flipping her glasses into the sunlight she examines the dust that has collected there.

5. His hands slide across his face, stress lining his features, as he tries to rub the sleep from his eyes – in vain.

6. The little girl slaps the magazines in the rack, her stubby fingers trying to tear the paper. Another hand comes down sharply, and the little hands curl against the rebuke.

7. She rubs her bare arms up and down, pleading with the morning chill to leave her alone.

8. She fingers her necklace, letting the chain rub between her fingers. Her mind distracted, she keeps herself in reality.

9. He punches in his pin, using his body as a shield from wandering eyes.

10. Her fingers fly over the strings, a serenade played out in harmony with her bow. Together they dance while the morning light streams in.

11.Her fingers linger on the page before turning it to see if the hero has escaped.

Hands| Mara Lefler

1. Tickling someones back with fingers, stopping because of a distraction and then continuing at a fast pace, almost to catch up for time lost, and then seeing the person who is getting their back tickled becoming annoyed with the stop/start movement.

2.Playing with a pare of sissors and accidentaly cutting your pointer finger and watching it bleed.

3. Examining all the lines in your hands to see what they could mean or if they mean anything at all, and then noticing that you have a mole on the inside of your ring finger on your left hand.

4. When a hair cut is shorter than it was supposed to be and feaverishly pull the back of your hair for the purpose of making it grow and realizing that it can't but your hands keep pull at the back of your hair.

5.Watching your mother's hands rub gently on your fingers all through church. Then when you start to rub her finger she stops you by capturing your fingers and you end up making a game out of who has their finger on top.

6. Not being able to sleep and for comfort you gently run your fingers over your ears. You hold your ear in between your pointer and middle finger, and start at the top of your ear and move down wards.

7.Watching a little child rub their eyes with their full fist when they get tired.

8. Biting your finger nails with your hand curled up and your fist is right up against your chin.

9.Seeing people who are trying very hard to get you to listen and agree with them, useing their hands to emphises all the words that they want to get across

10.Watching someone nervously twist and then flaten their hair.

Hands | Roma Peddle

1. picking under fingernails
2. pushing hair behind ears
3. picking polish off nails
4. shoving them in pockets
5. resting chin in palms
6. massaging upper arm
7. pinching lip between fingers
8. snapping for no reason
9. twidling thumbs
10. biting nails/hangnails
11. typing quickly
12. playing the piano
13. playing the guitar

Hands | Elyse Georgeson

1. Fingers pulling at excess skin, ready to expose the new layer.

2. Hands reach up to the crown of the head, smoothing and teasing hair in turns in an effort to make it look good.

3. Hands absently drum fingers on the table to an unheard rhythm.

4. Fingers pull rings off other fingers, turn them around a couple of times, then slip them back over the fingers

5. Fingers dismantling a pen. After it’s completely apart, they commence reassembling it to function and take notes.

6. Hands hold the covers of a book, while the fingers rifle through in an attempt to find the right page

7. A large masculine hand holding the seat of a bicycle

8. Wrists together as if glued, palms turned out to form a cup for the chin

9. Hand clenched into a fist, but held gentle enough to provide a cushion for the face to rest

10. Skilled fingers flicking a pen around the middle finger

11. Hand flexing and relaxing in rhythm of the opening and shutting of garden shears

12. Hand deftly flicking some dirt off the knee of his dress pants

13. Hands reverently holding a book near enough to the face to read

14. Hands clasping in greeting or congratulations

15. A hand and fingers gently stroking the fur of a small animal

16. Fingers clasping a pen and maneuvering to create masterful doodles on a blank piece of paper

Hands | Cassidy Berlin

1) Holding my finger tips under my palms to keep them warm
2) Picking at the split ends of my hair
3) Using my index finger to pick at the skin of my thumb until it bleeds.
4) Constantly pulling my soccer shorts down during a game
5) Rubbing smeared eyeliner off the underside of my eye lid
6) Taking a pencil and gliding it through my hair
7) Picking the dirt out from underneath my nails
8) Pushing back the cuticles on each finger
9) Chewing away the cuticle on my middle finger
10) Giving someone a wet-willy
11) Flicking the person off who gave you a wet-willy

Hands | Tyler Cook

1. Hanging on to the heavy washcloth by a thread and lifting it slowly from the sink.

2. Carefully picking away the tender pieces of jagged flesh from your bleeding knuckles after slugging someone in the mouth.

3. Slapping the side of your head as you lean over, trying without success to get the water from your ear.

4. Turning up your palms in hopes of learning something helpful from the eccentric woman across the table with the unkempt hair.

5. Hesitantly reaching forward as the teacher brings her ruler down.

6. Tucked away safely in the folds of her arms, so that weird boy who asked her to the movies won’t try to hold them.

7. Drumming "Blue Monday" on the side of the monitor, displaying your disinterest in homework.

8. Placing a limp hand in yours and expecting it to pass as a decent handshake. You squeeze excessively hard to teach him a lesson.

9. Ripping a bad idea from your note book and tossing it across the room.

10. Wanting lotion as you message your scaly, cracked knuckles. Winter makes them dry.

Hands | Sarah Gibbs

These are some things I do with my hands:

10. Rub my eyes, first the right then the left
9. Flip out my hair on the back of my neck
8. Fold my arms across my chest when I'm cold
7. Pull my gum out of my mouth and twist it around my fingers
6. Draw pictures with my index finger on my friend's backs
5. Twist my rings back around so the are right side up
4. Drum them on the desk starting with my pinky and going to my thumb
3. Clench them and then flip them over to examine my nails
2. Popping them, every joint on every individual finger
1. I am constantly finger spelling like in sign language. It has become an almost constant habit.

Hands | Jenny Sorensen

1. hang down by their sides, tapping thumb on pants
2. folding arms
3. playing with their fake nails
4. pointing a direction when talking about something
5. making expressions with hands while talking (talking with their hands)
6. holding hands with someone else
7. eating chips
8. putting them in their pockets
9. holding a cigarette
10. touching someone's arm
11. holding their phone when talking
12. propping their chin when reading something

Hands| Raymond Wadsworth

1. Shaking the hand in order for the watch to be replaced in the right spot on the wrist.

2. Twisting the index finger and thumb and biting down with teeth to crack open a pine-nut.

3. Lighting up a cigarette; one hand holding the cigarette and the other holding a lighter.

4. Nervously writting a 90 second paper in English class.

5. The up an down and side to side motion of sharpening a knife.

6. Reaching down to grab the stick shift and missing do to lack of attention.

7. Punching in the pin number for a debit card/ signing for a credit card.

8. Unwrapping a present quickly, but saving the bow.

9. Searching to find the lock to a car at night to unlock it.

10. Opening up a child proof pill bottle.

11. Biting finger nails and picking at the dead skin around each finger making them bleed.

12. Giggling the handle when the toilet is running.

13. Throwing your hands into the air wondering where all of the toilet paper has gone.

Hands | Jillene Stark

1. Drumming on the steering wheel of their car.

2. Rubbing their jaw with the palm of the hand.

3. Clenching on their water bottle.

4. Tugging on the earlobe.

5. Pulling on their own hair then dropping access hair to the ground

6. Picking up change from the ground then flipping the coin as they walk.

7. Wrinkling pants then rubbing them straight again.

8. Waving hands like lobster hands.

9. Drawing shapes on belly with finger.

10. Shaking fist in anger.

Hands | Brynn Bowthorpe

1. Sweaty hands clenched in tight fists at a kickboxing class.

2. Hands leading a choir: waving, encouraging expression.

3. Two hands hold a kleenex to a stuffy nose.

4. Fingers around the top of the pen, thumb on the end click, click, clicking it nervously.

5. One hand beneath a pillow cradling the head, the other relaxed and motionless while napping on the couch.

6. Intertwined fingers reaching above the head to strech after the nap on the couch.

7. Skillfully spinning an apple between thumb and fingers, finishing lunch before class.

8. Moving mindlessly one finger at a time over the computer keys while writing an e-mail.

9. Clammy hands wringing and constantly moving by the grad student attempting to teach a communications class.

10. Smoothing soap over hands while washing for the upteenth time, trying to be rid of germs.

11. Chef's hands- hotly and quickly jumping, dancing on a fresh tortilla frying.

12. Fingers hold a spoon, thumb scrapes off something that the diswasher couldn't.

13. Frantically pounding numbers on a cell phone- "texting" the big news.

14. Teacher hands gesture, allowing you to speak.

Hands | Katherine Nielson

1. Hands sit gently folded, held between the woman’s legs for warmth.

2. Her hands twisted back, fingers slightly curved, as the girl examined a cat scratch on her arm.

3. The pen is grasped tightly, bringing the lid to slightly open lips. Slowly the thumb runs up and down the plastic casing.

4. The skin turns pale as the hands are rubbed together. Only the tips of the fingers remain pink.

5. The slow rhythm of the keys bounces back and forth around the extended finger. The finger points toward heaven, and the speaker leans forward in concentration.

6. The hands hover lightly down to the waist. There is a slight adjustment of the belt, then hands are pocketed casually.

7. The thumb rubs the screen carefully, in a futile attempt to cleanse it. After a moment the other thumbs begins to move rapidly over the cell phone keys.

8. Fingers curled, unmoving, pressed against the forehead, perhaps pushing reluctant thoughts out from the brain.

9. Flattened hands pat the air emphasizing the accompanying words.

10. The hand curls carefully exposing the nails before bringing them to the mouth. The nails disappear among the teeth and the hands move slowly to clean them.

Hands | Beth McGraw

1. People rubbing their hand together for warmth as they run in between classes.

2. Couples walking with their heads close together and their hands tightly clasped together.

3. Drumming fingers on the table while staring off into space.

4. Popping knuckles.

5. Cupping the chin in the palm of hand to help support head and neck.

6. Digging through pockets in search of money or loose change.

7. People (especially girls) running fingers through their hair.

8. A little girl using her fingers to count as she learns to add and subtract.

9. Covering the face with your hands when getting embarrassed by a parent or someone.

10. Fiddling with a lighter.

11. Scratching or rubbing someon's back.

12. Giving someone a thumbs up after passing a particularly difficult test.

Hands | Jordan Peace

1. Pretending that they are Neil Peart busting out a drum solo on a desk.

2. Exploring the inner recesses of your nose.

3. Shredding out a monster solo on an air guitar and hoping to get the sound that Bill and Ted can make when they do it.

4. Giving the meat of the other’s thumb a deep tissue massage.

5. Supporting your head with the index finger under the nose and the thumb under the chin.

6. Tuning an invisible dial when you talk about slightly changing something.

7. Unconsciously caressing your own earlobe.

8. Doing that palms together upside down thing where the middle fingers are sticking out the other side and moving in unison.

9. Speaking to each other in American Sign Language.

10. Get manicures from your teeth.

11. Going Adam Vinatieri on someone else’s ear (i.e. flicking it).

12. Pushing up glasses that are slipping down your nose.

13. Serving as a probe for things that you don’t know for sure what they are.

14. Hitch up your pants as they threaten to escape.

Hands | Christie Fordham

1. Two hands locked together with intertwined fingers. The thumb is gingerly tickling the partner's hand.

2. A tired student's hand is bent back to support their head during a long class.

3. Two hands from different people go into the air at the exact same time and slap together to say "Good Job".

4. A man's hand flicks as he takes his last shot in a basketball game.

5. The punk's fingers turn white as they strum the guitar; they sing sad melodies.

6. I exhaustedly sit on the floor as hands move up and down my shoulders, straining to loosen my tight muscles.

7. The adrenaline is pumping so fast and hard that the girl's hands shake from the excitement and fear.

8. Fingers stretch across the hand paddle as the swimmer strokes their way along the pool.

9. The hands hover around the cigarette and lighter as the smoker lights their addiction.

10. Mysteriously, the man plays with the object in his coat pocket. What is he playing with?

11. Almost savagely, the girls each take a slice of pizza from the box. Their hands grabbing at any food they can get their hands on.

12. Each hand stretching just a little higher to climb the tree as the boy escapes from the earth. His hands are swinging from tree to tree.

Hands | Tina Bishop

1. Tightly stuck to legs at military attention.

2. Forced into coat pockets on a cold day.

3. Clutching pen during major, timed essay test.

4. Tiny fist of three-year-old signing "I Love You."

5. Nervously sliding hair behind ears.

6. Competitive thumb-wrestling with a friend.

7. Anxious shading over the eyes while driving into the sun.

8. Rubbing another's hand while giving Ancient Chinese Hand Massage.

9. Vigorously diving into a bowl of fresshly-popped corn.

10. Scooping up desert sand and flitering it through fingers as it blows in the hot wind.

11. Aggressively grips brush while shining shoes.

12. Five-month-old clumsily grasps at spoon and pulls it towards his mouth spilling applesauce on mommy.

13. A mother's hands guide the baby into cradling arms.

14. Mother catches the toddler before he jumps out of restraining arms and hits his face on the floor.

15. Rock! Paper! Scissors!

16. Forms a claw when transferring a CD from case to player.

Hands | Matt Nielsen

Let's see, 10 things people do with their hands...

1. The "washing my hands" action. My wife works with a kid who is constantly rubbing his hands together like he is "washing" them. She finds it incredibly annoying.

2. The "Cupping a fist". I am notorious for this one. Basically you make one hand a fist and place it in the other one in front of you. This is also a way to pop you knuckles.

3. The "Thumb in the Pocket". This is the act of placing your thumb in your pocket while the rest of your hand is spread out across your thigh.

4. The "Hand on the Chin". I also do this alot. It is basically the thinking man pose, where you use your hand to kind of stroke your chin. It is more effective if you have a beard.

5. The "Hands in the Pocket". Probably the most common of hand actions, this is usually used by 2 different people. The shy person, who keeps their hands in their pockets and their head down, or the person with cold hands.

6. The "Marching Man". Have you ever noticed people walking around with their hands closed into fists? Not neccesarily tight fists, but just with fingers curled and hands at their sides? These are usually former or current military people who are used to marching everywhere. I am guilty of this.

7. The "Fist Clincher". This is different than the "Cupping a Fist" in that with this one you are constantly openening and closing a fist, almost as if you are getting ready to pound someone.

8. The "Inter-Locked Fingers". This is simply where you interlock the fingers of your hands either in front of you or behind your back.

9. The "Hand Gesturer". This is the guy who can't talk to you without waving his hands around trying to constantly emphasize his point.

10. The "Nose Picker". I think this one is pretty self explanitory, but if you don't know it is when you use your fingers to pick various items out of your nasal orifice.

Grotesque | Cassidy Berlin

I love to people-watch. Just gazing off and watching what other people do, how they react to certain situations and interact with other people. As I was looking around the room in my Education class one day I noticed the girl sitting right across from me. She’s a very pretty girl with dark brown hair, dark skin, two thumbs and dark brown eyes. Wait… two thumbs? Yep, the girl who sits across from me in my 2nd Tuesday and Thursday class has two thumbs on her right hand. It’s by far the coolest, craziest, most grotesque thing I have every seen. It really makes me wonder, every time I catch myself staring at it, if she ever considered getting one of the thumbs removed. I think to myself, “If I had that birth defect would I have the guts to keep it?” Out of the 40 people in our class, she is probably in the top five students who participate and answer questions the most. I totally respect this girl. She must really have a lot of self-confidence to not let something like two thumbs keep her from feeling like an outcast.

Grotesque| Raymond Wadsworth

When I was in Ukraine I was walking along this very busy street. As I walked something caught my attention, as well as the attention of the kid that I was with. We both stopped and stared at this thing that was before us. We didn't say anything. We then looked at each other and both said at the same time, "that is sick!" But we couldn't not look at it.

Picture a St. Bernard dog. Big, healthy, fluffy and kind of cute. Well, this particular St. Bernard had so hair. Its teeth were gone. I don't know how it was still alive. Its skin was pink with very large specks of dark blue all over it. It was lying down panting. Its rolling skin was flaky and its paws worn. Its eyes were blood shot and it needed to be put out of its missery. My thoughts at the moment was, "oh, poor dog...I wish I had a gun..." My buddy took about 10 pictures from different angles. It must have known that we were staring at it because it got up and began to chase us! It was scary because we didn't want to get touched by it, let alone bitten, it would probably give us some disease that we couldn't just wash off. It needed to be shot!

Grotesque | Elyse Georgeson

I saw her in a store. I admit it, when I saw her, I couldn’t stop gawking. It was rude, I know. I couldn’t help myself. But there was something about her face that looked so odd, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Somehow through a bit of maneuvering, I managed to get close enough to take a better look. I tried to look without her noticing what I was doing, but I don’t think I managed it. She seemed to have a heightened sensitivity to people watching her. Her face was swollen, almost past recognition. She could see, but just barely. The swollen skin had large pustules scattered around as well. Her lips looked like they were made up entirely of cold sores, looking as if any twitch would make them crack and bleed. It looked so painful, and humiliating.

I finally went on my way. Call it youthful vanity, but I kept wondering how she could endure going out in public like that, knowing that wherever she went she was the target of stares and whispers. But life goes on, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. I do hope that whatever it was that caused her face to look like that went away, and she could finally do her shopping in peace.

Grotesque | Heather Zundel

The alleys of the state fair were crowded and cramped. Men and women jostled around booths filled with useless baubles to entice and tantalize the mind. Nothing out of the extraordinary. . . until a man passed. He was tall, not just tall, but gigantic. His small head towered over all the others, like a balloon detached from its body. A long tweed coat and pants filled in the vast expanse of his gangly body, filling in around his thin arms, his wrist so tiny the smallest watch would not have held around the bones. He walked as a sky scraper would – unbalanced, as if the slightest wind would send him toppling. But for all his vast size and rail-like appearance, his feet did not comply with the rest of his making. So small they could have fit a child's shoe, he looked the part of a living Jack Skellington, in color. Like Moses he parted the red-lined alley, with gawks and stares of very person as he passed in his long, unsteady stride.

Grotstesque | Sidney Jordan

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I was In Vegas two weekends ago staying at Cesar’s Palace. Well my little sister and I decided to go swimming, so we were walking down to the pool. I was in the elevator with my little sister and some kid. If I had to guess id say, in his early twenties. So my little sister and I were swimming and the guy jumps in. He smiled at us I guess he recognized us from the elevator ride. Not to long after he jumped out and was going to do a cannon ball or something. Well when he was out of the pool my little sister noticed that he had a third nipple. I didn’t see it. So I got up the guts to ask him to do it again. The second he jumped out my eyes were pealed to his chest, because I wanted to see it. Sick! I had never seen one in real life. I have only heard about them. In not sure if they are all like that. I sure hope not. Now if anyone ever asks me if I want to see their third nipple Ill say no thank you, then go and throw up.

Grotesque | Chelsea Hinckley

My roommate Lynley and I were watching A&E on Wednesday night after dinner and something came on that she got ery excited and kind of scared about. I had never seen it before. It's called "Mindfreak". Criss Angel. Besides his devilishly good looks (a major proponent of watching said program), he had magical powers. Not Lance Burton style, or even the infamous David Copperfield, these were real. He went around the streets of Vegas and various other cities levitating people and himself and confronting all of their senses and sensibilities in one fell swoop.

There was one of these such 'confrontations' that I will never forget. He went up to two ladies on a beach and asked one of them if he could borrow a quarter. She said sure and he took out a permanent marker and asked her to sign it before she gave it to him. She did, then handed it over. He took the quarter and swallowed it. Then, suddenly, within a few seconds, he began pushing the quarter down his throat, down his neck, and onto his shoulder. You could see it under his skin. He pushed it all the way down to his wrist.

Then he asked for a razor blade.

He slit his wrist and amid all the blood was the quarter. He painfully pushed it out of the small slit he had made, then gave it to the girl after a quick wipe down (it being all bloody). It had her signature on it.

Absolutely disgusting.

Grotesque | Karalee Dearden

Every summer in high school, I worked at a Cub Scout camp in Salt Lake up Millcreek Canyon. We saw many a grotesque thing on those summer days. The severed heads of rattlesnakes, the many and varied disgusting things involved with cleaning latrines, vomit, and wounds of all shapes, sizes, and severities. But perhaps the most grotesque thing I saw up Millcreek Canyon was the roadkill.

The third summer that I worked up the Canyon, I had a friend named Graden. He rode his bike up the canyon to work every morning, and back down the canyon every afternoon. He lived fairly close to our campsite, and so had easy access to it by bike. Every day, I would watch Graden ride down the hill. And every day, I would see him stop to examine the newest squashed animal on the side of the road.

Now, most people are drawn to roadkill to some extent. I usually glance to the side of the road when I see something there. I just have to get an idea of what it is, and how mutilated it is. But Graden was never just satisfied with looking at the dead animals on the side of the road. He examined them. He would find nearby sticks and poke them, pull them apart. Many of them had been there for days at a time before he examined them, so they stank. But even this was not enough. The next day at work, Graden would describe his finds in great deatail to all the members of staff as we sat in our ritual lunch spot. Needless to say, most of us didn't eat much at lunch that summer. To this day, whenever I see a bloody carcass on the side of the road, I think, "I wonder what Graden would think of that one?"

Grotesque | Beth McGraw

When I was in high school my went on a field trip to the USU cadaver lab for biology. I was a little squimish about standing among all those bodies; although a lot of them were covered with long, white sheets.

As soon as we all walked in the room I could smell formaldehyde and something else I couldn't identify. This only heightened my apprehension. We got to look at a brain and lungs and different organs. The professor who was showing us around told us some very interesting things.

After a while I had started to feel not as uneasy. Then the professor, who was standing next to one of the cadavers, reached down with a spatula looking thing and held up this yellow, kind of gritty looking stuff. He explained that this was excess fat that was stored in the leg. He plopped it down in a little dish and passed it around for us to look at. The fatty tissue looked like some sort of melted grease that had been overcooked and improperly cooled. I couldn't bring myself to even touch the bowl. The professor made a joke about that was where all the french fries and hamburgers went we ate went.
None of us could eat at the fast food place the biology teachers took us to after.

Grotesque | Laura Spencer

I had to go turn some papers into one of the offices on campus. I turned into the office and asked the receptionist there who I needed to give the papers to. She told me the name and pointed out the room she was in. I headed toward the indicated door and knocked at the open door as I asked "Are you ___?" She responded with a big smile and ushered me into her office where she went through the papers efficiently and proceeded to ask me several questions about whether I had in fact completed this other form and turned it into this other office and etc.
I responded affirmatively in each case. However, as I responded to her questions my gaze kept wandering off to the right. I would realize my lapse and quickly jerk it back to center only to have my gaze continue to wander. After a while it dawned on me that the reason my gaze kept shifting was because her left eye was off center and the pupil of that eye was fixed off to the left instead of looking at me.

This was grotesque because the effect of the off-center eye was not immediately apparent. It snuck up on me as I was sitting in her office. Her other eye was perfectly normal and her friendliness and directness helped draw a person's attention away from the deformity. When I finally realized why my gaze kept wandering despite my best conscious effort to stay focused on her, I went through this belated moment in which all these questions ran through my head: Oh! That's what it is! How peculiar! No, no don't look, don't look...I wonder what the deal is with that eye. No, no, no DON'T LOOK, she's going to think you're prejudice toward her or something! What is that? What do I do? No, I said, don't look. All of this in a split second of time with (hopefully) barely flicker of this internal dialogue showing in my response. I was soon ushered out of her office and all I could think was: What was that!

Grotesque | Sarah Gibbs

My brother Adam scraped his leg on a workout box while at wrestling practice. A small piece of wood inbedded itself into his shin. It was just a little scratch but a month later he showed my parents and it was all red and infected. He immediately was taken to the emergency room for antibiotics, but it never got any better.

Finally the doctors decided to operated and cut out a huge chuck of green tinged pussy flesh from his leg. The gangrene was almost to his knee. The worst part is the doctor didn't stitch it up because it needed to heal from the inside out. Instead every morning and night my parents had to jam gauze down into the two inch long, but inch wide gaping bloody hole. It was so deep that if you stuck a q-tip down the hole, it sunk two inches. My brother is a tough guy, but he could barely handle this.

Every day you could see the hole filling in a little bit more, until finally it was better, but to this day his is missing a chuck of flesh so if you touch his shin you can feel his bone. It is the sickest thing I have ever felt or seen.

Grotesque | Brynn Bowthorpe

I have a roommate whose hair reaches down her back, hitting just below the pockets of her pants. It really is a beautiful color- a deep reddish brown. She takes good care of it too, although I think that getting into the shower after she has finished is completely disgusting. Long, dark hairs are stuck to the walls and clog the drain of the shower. If they were my own, that would be one thing, but bending and scraping out a soggy hairball from the drain each morning is enough to make me want to take a shower, even though I was planning on it in the first place.

Grotesque | Shannon Eberhard

The only truly grotesque moment I can think of was a few years ago. Walking down a crowded street with a friend on the way to a café, while turning a corner I ran into a man without a nose.

There were no scars or holes in the void, at least not that I remember. It had been freshly removed and was oozing clots of blood. I could see pink cartilage poking out from the bloody void and red bubbles where air once passed. But that was not the think that scared me most. It was his eyes. They were wide, surprised and looking into mine, and he was moaning.

Without thinking, my friend pulled me behind the closest doors and leaned up against them. He was gone like that. Looking back I think that I should have helped him somehow, only an accident or torture could have caused that. At the time though, it was just too awful, to grotesque for me to comprehend, and my first instinct was to make it disappear.

Grotesque | Mara Lefler

I looked behind me while I was talking to my friend last night. I saw a man, he was a bus driver for the high school kids. He had on a blue shirt and jacket. He was short about five four and he was listening to my conversation. In the middle of my converstaion he came up to me and started to talk. His mouth was completely bare of teeth except for one, it protruded from his mouth and lips. He was talking about how theatre kids can't talk without their hands. He said we should tie their hands behind their back and see if they could talk then. I barely registered what he was saying becasue I was so intranced by his one tooth the stuck out of his mouth. His gums where black and gray. They seemed like they could be made out of tar. His breath smelled like an old rotting fish that has been sitting in the sun for to long. His lip where also crack and dry. They looked like you could peal them off. I didn't know that the Utah Shakespearean Comp. would bring such seasoned people to Cedar.

Grotesque | Jillene Stark

I went to Vegas for a night this week and I saw something that won't leave my brain. I parked my car next to man in his car, he looked at me and my friend and asked if we would help his daughter get out of the car. I looked at my friend reluctantly but we decided to help any ways. He opens the door; he has no legs I stop for a second because I wasn't ready for just to stubs I thought it was going to be a broken leg or something. The his daughter brings around two legs that almost look like peg legs they are so small and me and friend have to take his body and slide him into his legs. He thanked us and wobbled away I didn't know exactly how to react or what to think, except I just helped a man with no legs into his artificial legs.

Grotesque | Jenny Sorensen

Today I was sitting in my Nutrition class taking notes. We are talking about protein and the effects it has on our bodies. There was a picture of, I think, a child's foot that had Adema. that means that they have not had enough protein to help reduce water in the tissues of the foot. The ankle looked like and elephant's ankle and the foot looked like a huge, red balloon with little pug toes stuck to the bottom of it. It kind of resembled a latex glove that was blown up, only it was red. It was disgusting! The second I looked up at the powerpoint to write down more notes and I saw that, I immediately went augh! and had to look away. I've never seen skin that could turn red and huge like a balloon like that and not explode like a bomb.

Grotesque | Tyler Cook

He was a slender man with slumping narrow shoulders. There was almost a perfect arch sloping down from the top of his shiney forehead to the tip of his sharp, beaklike nose. His slicked back hair was the color of dirty water, beside that it was thinning. Hands stuffed inside the pockets of his worn leather jacket, he walked around the electronics section at Walmart. He was very vulture-like in appearance, and probably hadn’t eaten in a couple of days. The left side of his face was gone and the skin around his yellow skull was like rawhide. There was some meat around his eye and cheek, but the flesh around his brow, jaw, and ear was gone. I didn’t know people could walk around like that.

Grotesque | Katherine Nielson

I have a friend that has been unhealthy her whole life. Her skin is paler than pale, in fact, it's almost transparent. I find myself examining her when she isn't looking. I can see her blue veins perfectly clear, even on her neck. Her hair also has an unhealty pallor to it.

Over the past few years she has also developed a tendency for bulemia. This has effected her posture and her spine in other ways. Her shoulders are no longer even, one humps slightly over the other. The natural curve of her back makes her look like she is always leaning forward. She looks as if she would be carried away on the wind. She also has become thin to the point that I truly feel like I can see through her.

Grotesque | Jordan Peace

Last semester I worked for a group home here in Cedar. I worked the weekend graveyard shifts so my job mainly consisted of making sure no one in the house ran away, other than that I would watch movies and tv all night. In theory this is a great job for a college student. Unfortuantely we don't live in a theoretical world. The particular house that I lived in had two people all of which were deemed high functioning, meaning they could do everything for themselves, but still needed supervision.

After working there for a month a new person came to live at the house. This is where things got nasty. While I won't say this man's name he looked like a cross between Golem and that yellow guy from Sin City. Also I have a strong feeling that the man in Matt's post is also this particular man. So Golem, as I shall call him, has a particular dislike of getting up during the night to go to the bathroom so instead he would urinate on a pile of dirty clothes that was next to his bed. As you can imagine the smell of fermenting urine combined with the fact that he refused to bath gave him an odor all his own. Now as disgusting as this is it's only the lead up to one particular night's events.

Golem had recently returned from the hospital after having shoulder surgery for unnessisary reasons. This being said the upper right side of his body looked as though Jasper Johns had had a seizure on him. So this particular night I was sitting in the living room watching TV and Golem opens his door and a burst of the most foul air hit me in the face making me gag. Without a word he waddles into the bathroom and is in there for a moment before calling out "Can you come here Jordan?" I replied that I would and came into the bathroom to see Golem standing there naked with how shall I say fecal matter pasted to his backside. With a tone appropriate if you were asking for a soda Golem asks me the question I feared the most. "Will you wipe me?" Steeling up my convictions so as not to throw up I politely told him that he needed to do that for himself, for he was certainly capable of doing so with his other hand. With a grudging "Ok" he sat down to clean himself as I went to the kitchen and threw up.

Grotesque | Chelsea Trump

A few years back, someone at my brother's school was giving away pet rats. Not large, scary sewer related rats, but the cute (and actually quite smart) kind that you find at pet stores. My mom has always been a major animal lover and she felt sorry for the poor thing living in a box and so she allowed it to be brought home. My brother named her Ratigan and set up a nice house for her.

It wasn't long before the little white rat starting showing signs that she was pregnant. We made her as comfortable as possible and waited for the day of birth to arrive. When it did, however, it was really bittersweet. She had eaten most of her babies. Reading in a book about rats, we actually found that this is rather common. The mothers will eat their babies if they feel threatened. Apparently, we hadn't had her long enough to where she felt safe.

At first, this act seemed awful and cruel. But then you have to stop and think about what was going through this little creature's mind. Before coming to us, she had gone through so much that she felt killing her babies was better than bringing them into the world.

However, she left two boys who ended up being two of the sweetest pets ever. And over time, Ratigan learned to trust us, even to the point where she would jump on my brother's shoulder to take a nap.

Grotesque | Christie Fordham

This past weekend I visited my two brothers in St. George. I don't get to see them often because of many conflicting schedules. We were all having a discussion and the topic of, my brother, Trevor's leg. A few weeks earlier he had burnt his leg while at work. He caught the burn as he watched his skin melt from his leg. He was lucky that his pants didn't melt to his skin. I had forgotten all about this and really didn't realize what they were talking about it until Trevor lifted up his pant leg to reveal this horrible wound.

This burn was about the size of a softball. It had already scabbed over so it wasn't too horrible to look at. I walked over to him and started to inspect his wound. It had bubbled over and started to heal itself. I didn't think it was too bad until he showed me the picture of the burn before it started to heal. The difference between the wounds was almost unbelieveable. The only way I could tell that it was the same thing is because the his leg looked. It was hard for me to realize that the same thing and energy that is so useful for us such as a stove or curling iron could so something so horrible to Trevor's skin. I have been burned many times, nothing serious though. To see this huge blemish on my brothers skin made me realize how thankful I was that I have never been seriously burned. Trevor and I came to the conclusion that we were lucky nothing too incredibly bad happened to him.

Grotesque | Matt Nielsen

I actually had several ideas for this one, but decided to talk about a man I met at Wal-Mart, as I figured it would be most appropriate for this blog...

For those of you who don't know I worked at Wal Mart for over a year as a cashier. In that time I met many strange and off the wall people. As is my nature, though, I went out of my way to be friendly to all. I consider it professionalism. There was one gentlman, though...

He came into the store and the people parted like the Red Sea for him. His head was wrapped in bandages and he was followed by a horrible odor (which as you now know is very hard for me to deal with). I was working a register by the entrance so was instantly entranced by him. Who was this man and what could possibly be wrong with his face? He proceeded into the store and I went back to work. After about an hour, when I had pretty much forgotten about him, I noticed the stench. I am not kidding when I say it smelled of Death. I have seen death before firsthand, even having to participate in the removal of a still-born baby from the womb of its still crying mother, but never in my life had I smelled or seen anything like this. It literally made me almost gag. It was because this gentleman was in my line.

When he got to the register it took everything I had to force myself to look him in the eye, smile and be polite and professional. I could see that his face was literally rotting off of him. It was horrid yet fascinating, and it was hard not to stare. He was as friendly as could be expected from someone who has to live with something like that I suppose. I don't know if I could live with something like that. Whatever his disease it was absolutely grotesque, yet at the same time it was quite fascinating. I found myself thinking about what his life must be like all afternoon, dealing with whatever his wasting disease was.

I never saw him again, but I can still remember the stench and appearance of his rotting flesh.

This is a true story.

Grotesque | Alison

Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the wonderful world of “Grotesque Burlesque”!

This art form, otherwise and more derogatorily known as the “Side Show”, has been a fascination of mine ever since I discovered the art of tattooing. I have no tattoos, mostly because I also have no money, but my boyfriend has several and in the past few years I have become obsessed with them. I’ve researched and studied every type of tattoo I could find and of course, as the leaf littered path leads into the woods, I’ve moved on to more “extreme” art works. “Grotesque Burlesque” is a group of performance artists who perform to shock. They themselves have been known to use the term “side show” or “freak show” when discussing what they do. They have mastered the arts of sword swallowing, fire eating, and the infamous “Bed of Nails”. Others have simply put a spin on the original “Tattooed Lady”. There is a debate on who is the most tattooed person in the world, but it is generally accepted that the only two competitors are The Lizard Man(Erik Sprague) and The Enigma who both have full body themes, and suits. Please check out their websites, you won’t be disappointed, disturbed maybe, but not disappointed.

I’d also like to introduce you to my personal favorite performer: Lucifire. She is a headlining act in “The Grotesque Burlesque” doing everything from traditional singing burlesque to standard freak show acts. However, she is best known for her industrial acts. In her “main attraction” she wears a metal body suit and uses an angle grinder to throw sparks into the audience and all over herself. She is also one of the first performers to implement a now growing art form, suspension. Six to eight piercings or hooks are placed in the back and the artist is hung from them. Odd, beautiful, and probably psychotic, she is the epitome of grotesque.

Grotesque | Tina Bishop

My friend Kelli and I were walking to our hotel down Main Street in Salt Lake City one night. It was frigid and just beginning to snow. We had underestimated the distance of our jaunt and became tired and lost. We stopped on a corner to check the street signs and get our bearings. Within moments of stopping we heard this moaning sound to the right of us. We looked and saw an older man on the ground with his hand on top of his head. We both looked closer and noticed that blood was gushing from his head. Blue, purple and white clumps of gnarled tissue from his scalp were squeezed in between the man's fingers as he tried to hold it all together. A stream of blood started to run from the man, down the sidewalk about two feet and into the ditch. We suddenly noticed a policeman running towards the man and figured that we had happened upon a horrible crime. As we ran across the street arm in arm, I mumbled to Kelli that the man looked like he had been scalped. Kelli held my arm tighter and asked, "Tina, didn't you hear the gun shot?"

Visceral | Shannon Eberhard

Last week I was home alone, working on a project with the television on for background noise. I hadn’t looked at the screen for a couple of hours; because I was concentrating on my art work. The sound of sirens on the TV pulled my attention away long enough to shackle my eyes to what has to be the most painful documentary I have ever seen. I think it was on PBS or something, but it was this huge compilation of photos, audio, and video from the fall of the World Trade Towers.

I guess I’m just too sensitive, but writing just this little bit about how it made me feel, makes my throat get tight and sore, my eyes burn. It was so dark and morbid, so unlike anything I have ever seen. There were these home videos that people made while standing around the towers, after the first plane hit.

These crappy hand held videos of people falling, jumping out of windows from thirty stories up, you could barely tell they were people the videos were so fuzzy. All kinds of curses and sobs in the background, when the jumpers hit. It was awful. I couldn’t stop watching. It was like I had entered some horrible nightmare I couldn’t wake up from, even thought the remote was right there. The TV didn’t turn off until my boyfriend came home and I realized I was sobbing soaked in tears. It made me mad, that he wasn’t drawn to it like I was. I guess misery likes company.

Visceral | Sarah Gibbs

My roommate is the nicest girl you will ever meet, but she has one really weird habit. Every night before she goes to bed she doesn't brush her teeth, instead she will fill her mouth full of chocolate peanut butter M&M and chew them just twice. Then she adds warm rootbeer from under her bed and swishes it around for a few times. She swallows this whole mass then lays down to go to sleep. In the morning she repeats this process before showering and brushing her teeth. It made me gag the first time she did this. I wanted to puke. I don't know what to say because she is so sweet and very popular, most people don't know about this weird ritual.

Visceral [ Sidneyjordan

At my work all of the welders mess with everyone else. Well there was this New Mexican guy in the next booth over. Well I snuck in there when he was in the middle of a weld because he couldn’t see me and I plugged his air hose. This makes it so hot inside of your welding hood and you think that you’re on fire. Well I plugged it and two seconds latter I saw him doing the Mexican hat dance in his booth. The crazy thing is that he really did catch his pants on fire. The strings on the end of his pants had lit up like a Christmas tree. I couldn’t look away. The best part was I couldn’t understand him. Should I feel bad?

Visceral | Laura Spencer

I'm sitting in class and the room is packed to the brim, so I have to either sit near the front or way in the back. The room is long rather than wide so it seems as though one is very far away from the front if you choose the back. I generally choose the front. If one chooses the front inevitably you must sit right next to the overhead projector. The arm of the projector juts up into the air blocking my view of the professor. All that I can see of my professor becomes his adam's apple bobbing up and down on his long, skinny neck.
I sit in class and try to focus on his voice so I can take notes, but the motion of the professor's throat as he speaks absorbs my whole attention. The professor's neck is tenuous looking as if it can barely support the rather large head attatched to the neck. The neck weaves and dips dangerously trying to stay under the head as it is constantly whipped from side to side. The adam's apple bulges out of the thin column. It will break out at any moment. Oh, wait--everyone is leaving. Is it time to go? What did we talk about?

Visceral | Heather Zundel

It was the other night and my roommates and I knew we had to clear out the fridge – so we had "leftover night." Among the dishes were Hawaiian, Chicken Alfredo, Hamburger Helper, and leftover rice." All in all it was extremely good, we had a blast tearing through the old cartons and laughing through the woes of the day. But when we got to the rice, boy were we in for a surprise. Little had we realized just how long it had lain dormant in there, and were quite surprised to discover that rice can grow pink mold if left alone for a month. It was amazing, I have never seen anything like it before. It wasn’t like the nasty spotted mold dotting your cheese or bread like a disease. It was soft and fuzzy. It was positively cute. The hairs reached out like unshorn grass, but infinitely softer and I could not stop staring or help but think how soft it would be to have a whole bed of it to sleep in. Then I promptly did a mental check and asked myself if I had seriously thought about sleeping in a pile of mold.

Visceral | Chelsea Hinckley

I have a solitaire addiction. Should I feel personal shame or guilt about this? I don't know. But I am willing to admit it. I got turned on to it with the purchase of my new laptop, a true thing of beauty. I thought that once I got to school it would stop, but it just gets worse! The most disturbing part of the situation, is that I am very ridiculously good at it. I can win nearly ever game in under a hundred seconds- that is not too shabby. Every night I tell myself, Chelsea, just go to bed. But every night it's the same thing. That little blue light on my desk lures me into sweet seduction and before I know it am in the throws of an all-out solitaire binge. I have decided many times that the only way that I could possibly have an attempt at normal life is to give up solitaire. I come away from it worse than I started. My eyes stop focusing after a while. A girl possesed- the green screen eats away at my thoughts until I have none left. This ravenous monster of glut must be stopped. Curse you, solitaire, curse you.

Visceral | Tina Bishop

It was snotty nose week for all the children I came in contact with this week! My friend came down from Washington state with her two boys and they had runny noses, as did my son. I have never seen a snot fest like this one, ever! During this snot fest it was interesting to see how quickly snot can coagulate, crustify and create lumpy masses all over and in the childrens' noses! Also, there seems to be no end of this festival. A child's nose simply cannot stop creating snot. Somehow, snot should be scientifically researched to see if it has any fuel producing value. Can snot be maintained in liquified form and transformed into some type of crude oil for energy purposes? There will never be a shortage of snot so why not research the option? The problem must be with that of the crustifying process. No one would want to clean out gas tanks if snot could not be controlled to retain it's liquified form.