So I’ve got this hat, I’m pretty sure it gives me special powers. But enough about me. I’m blogging, I’m blogging my stream of thought. I remember one time when I was little. I was with my Aunt Stephanie. We were sitting at a picnic table by the lake. The town we were in is called McCall. McCall is a dainty tourist town that has a wonderful climate during the summer and a fresh smell of warm pine needles to soothe the mind.

While I did not know it at the time, Stephanie was trying to capture my innocence on paper. As we sat she pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. 

“Wayne,” she said, “I’m going to ask you some questions and write down the answers on this piece of paper.” 

“How come?” I asked.

“Oh just for fun.”

My young brain struggled as I tried to understand what she was doing. After about twenty more questions for her, I began to realize that Stephanie did not have any secret plans behind her actions, but she was actually doing this activity because she saw some intrinsic value in this process that my little mind couldn’t comprehend. 

The first question was went something like this, “What would you like be when you grow up?” 

I sat there for a long time. “Um. Umm. Um. Ummmmmmmm.” I stopped abruptly. “What are you doing?” I asked flabbergasted.

“I’m writing down what you say.”

I looked at the paper and I could see a bunch of symbols that all looked similar. I couldn’t read them but she explained that I had said ‘um‘ almost 13 times. I pointed at another group of letters and asked, “what does that say?”

“It says, 'What are you doing?’.”

That was when it dawned on me that she really was writing down everything I was saying. After about seven more ‘ums’ I started laughing. Soon I couldn’t think of an answer simply because I was distracted by what she was writing. 

“Stop writing all my ums!” I exclaimed. “Are you writing all of them?”

“I’m writing everything you say.” I leaned over the table to look at the paper again, and I could see where she began writing the words "stop writing the 'ums’." This phrase was repeated by me on her paper about four times. I finally gave her an answer just for the sake of giving her something else to write. I believe I told her that I wanted to be a police officer or a fire fighter. 

I eventually lost focus, and I believe she did too because soon I found that we were walking about, enjoying the scenery. Although I’m sure the nonsensical talk continued, it just was not recorded in the same way.