And Now For Something Rather Different

Dear Chilly often posts fill-ins and whatnot on her blog, and usually I read them, smile, and go on with life. Today, for some reason, I decided I would like to try one myself.

Ten Things I Wish I Could Say to Ten Different People Right Now:
1. I'm not insane, and I apologize for seeming to be. (I was only 14, remember.) Could you please look past that and get to know me? I would love to be your friend.
2. I want so badly for you to be one of my 'do this' role models instead of one of my 'don't do this' role models. Please.
3. Could you please tell me whether you a) are too scared to ask me out, b) haven't yet realized I rather like you, or c) wish I would leave you alone?
4. Give me a chance.
5. Talking to you always makes me happy, and I hope I make you happy too. We're really alike in many ways and I wish we were better friends.
6. There are so many things which make me so very proud of you. I wish you didn't constantly work to make me forget these things.
7. I don't hate you, and I'm not mad at you. But I do strongly disagree with some of your cherished opinions. I don't like confrontation, and I'm pretty sure you'd just brush me off if I brought up my objections; that's why I often don't want to talk to you.
8. I'm sorry.
9. Do you yet realize that your behavior was inappropriate?
10. You have a girlfriend, and she's not me. Please remember this.

Nine Things About Myself:
1. I hate living in a messy room/house, but it's really hard for me to actually clean.
2. I talk with several different accents, admittedly not always successfully.
3. I need around eight hours of sleep, which means my bedtime is the totally uncool hour of 9:00 PM. Deal.
4. Having money for books is often more important than having money for food.
5. I have never done anything to my hair aside from get it cut and curl, crimp, and straighten it a few times.
6. People are hard for me in many ways. I have trouble starting and continuing conversations with people I don't know very well, and even when someone is a friend of mine I occasionally wonder if they really do like me. I hate talking on the phone or asking someone a question. I usually work much better alone than in a group. Somehow, all this changes if I'm in charge.
7. Most of the time, despite my shyness, I will take any reason to start singing wherever I am.
8. There are many things I love to do and have a talent for, but I don't take time to do them, so I'm not as good as I could be. This had better change, as I know I have so much potential and will be guilty for the rest of my life if I don't develop.
9. I like to think I'm witty.

Eight Ways To Win My Heart:
1. Ice cream.
2. Remember me - send a text or e-mail, say hi when you see me.
3. Play with my hair or rub my back.
4. Listen to me as I prattle on about my story ideas, and be willing to discuss my problems with characters and plot details.
5. Go talk to salespeople and the like for me.
6. Don't play practical jokes on me. I don't know why, but I really hate them. April 1st is my least favorite day of the year.
7. Be willing to do things with me; I often hate going places by myself.
8. Include me.

Seven Things That Cross My Mind a Lot:
1. I can do better than this.
2. Wow... I'm so blessed.
3. I wonder what [someone] is doing right now...
4. I wish I could just sit here and read this.
5. I should really get to work.
6. I shouldn't have eaten that.
7. Where on earth did I put my [something]?

Six Things I Do Before I Fall Asleep:
1. Take out my contacts, wash my face, etc.
2. Read to Siri.
3. Plug in my phone and make sure the alarm is on.
4. Turn off the lamp.
5. Convince myself that there is nothing to be afraid of, that I'm too old to be scared of the dark.
6. Make up stories until I fall asleep.

Five People Who Mean a Lot:
1. My parents
2. All of my siblings
3. Goober
4. My many Board and other friends
5. So that's about 30 people or something already.

Four Things You’re Wearing Right Now:
1. A dress my mother made a long time ago for herself
2. Flower earrings I bought for prom
3. Makeup
4. A smile

Three Songs That You Listen to Often (Currently):
1. White Man by Steeleye Span
2. Songs from Scarlet Pimpernel
3. TMBG

Two Things You Want to Do Before You Die:
1. Go to Ireland
2. Be a published author, a professional singer, and a wonderful mother

One Confession:
1. I feel guilty right now for not going doing the dishes half an hour ago.

---

No matter what my intentions are, no matter how determined I am to watch a TV show, play a game, or write, I am not able to stay awake past about 9:30 PM these days.

I really can't. My eyelids droop, my head drops, my limbs are heavy and unwieldy. I'm tired.

I'm exhausted.

I'm weary.

Maybe it's 'cause I'm getting up at six.

Maybe it's 'cause I am, again, throwing good sense out the window and eating sugar all day.

I don't know what it is, but I wish it'd stop.

And now I must go to bed. I nearly fell asleep sitting up while writing this.

Family Life

This is what family life should be like.

We come home from a shopping trip, and everyone helps. Even Draik. And we dance around singing and generally being happy and enjoying each other's company.

Well, except for Boo, who stomped around 'cause she had to help.

And Bamboo 7, who is moping about the kitchen because he was told to wash some of the dishes (Random and Connor already washed most of them).

But yeah, aside from that, we're all one big happy family. Which seems an odd phrase to apply to an actual family.

For once.

Boy Are My Sides Sore!

So, the Wii Fit that my father ordered from the Bookstore ages and ages ago finally came. We promptly played it. A day and a half later, we have filled up all the available spots (8) and are competing to see who can remain number one after a full day's play.

My Wii age is 22 (I refuse to count today's, as I had some consistency troubles), only two years older than I actually am, which is pretty good. Or so they say. I would personally rather be my actual age, but whatever.

Yesterday was when we had our first problem with the Balance Board that came with: it needed a name! Robin, Keaton, Blue, Patsy, and I-don't-think-it-needs-a-name were rejected immediately. We tried Dirk Manly, hoping to have some laughs about the obviously manly name to go with a board that bounced around the screen and spoke in a high-pitched voice. However, it was just too odd. After playing around with Bob ("That's my name!") and other names that had two b's, we chose Webbi. We Balance Board. Or something.

So we step and we run and we ski and we pilot bubbles down rivers and we hit soccer balls and we do yoga and we (I) do (fail) push-ups and all sorts of fun. Oh, yeah, and the hula hoops, where I have a high score even though my body forgets how to hula halfway through and sort of flails about uselessly.

And that's why my sides are sore.

P.S. Siri has now wet the bed three nights in a row, mine twice and Random's once. What is up with this girl?

Early Mornings

Someday, someday, I will finish talking about that vacation we took almost two weeks ago.

But for now, I want to talk about other stuff.

3 AM Tuesday

I got up. I needed to go to the bathroom, a direct result of downing two glasses of water right before going to bed.

This meant that all was going according to plan.

I crept to the door, noting the red lights on in the kitchen and living room. That meant my father had gotten up first, but no matter. The door was locked, so he probably wasn't outside.

But he was.

I joined him on the lawn, glasses slightly askew, folding my arms tightly for warmth. He spoke of constellations and falling meteors, then laughed about a sore neck and proceeded to the backyard. I followed.

We climbed onto the trampoline, carefully avoiding his books and papers. I grabbed the yellow afghan and wrapped it around me. Father turned on his red reading light and began looking through a book.

Around ten minutes and two meteors later, I proclaimed I was going to bed. I was, I admit, slightly disappointed. Blast those city lights. I decided that next time I was going to arrange a camping trip so I could actually see some of these meteors.

5 AM Tuesday

I woke again, first noting that Siri had climbed into bed with me, next noting that I was wet.

Wet.

I was quickly as fully awake as I had been two hours ago. I flipped on a light and took stock. I wasn't just wet, I was soaked! I glared at the oblivious child in my bed, and the large wet spot around her, and quickly changed clothes. Then I went upstairs with my phone and crashed on the loveseat.

4 AM Wednesday.

I was awakened from a deep sleep under borrowed blankets (the girl soaked everything!) by someone pounding on the door. A moment later, I registered a long, loud sound, which I at first thought was a train. But it went on far too long. Siri woke up and asked me what it was. It wasn't until after the sound stopped that I realized there was another reason for Siri to be awake: I was wet.

Wet.

Again?

We had asked her five times before she went to be wether she had gone to the bathroom! She hadn't had anything to drink! What happened?

I got up and changed, rather angrily, and found some clean underpants for the guilty one. As she changed, I stomped upstairs, where Father was wandering around and Mother was up feeding Caiti. There was also a very bright light out front.

"What happened?"

"The horn on the Astro was stuck on. A police officer came to tell us to turn it off."

Well, that was cool. I mean, in a way. But I quickly got over the coolness of it all and began to complain about my problem. My mother was strangely sympathetic, despite being up and taking care of the baby at four in the morning, and vacated the couch so I could have it as soon as I came back from the trailer with some more blankets. I made Siri go sleep with Random.

So. That's what I've been doing these days. Getting up early and getting mad at my sister for wetting the bed.

National Parks Monopoly

So, mates, I did indeed got to Mirror Lake last weekend. It was great fun.

Well. Um. Okay, most of us had fun.

We were determined to get out of the house by eleven A.M., and for once, it looked like we were going to accomplish this. I was out with my aunt Sue at about eleven, and my family was supposed to follow.

They didn't.

Sue got a call while I was in Taco Time getting some breakfast: the trailer, which we were borrowing from friends, had had its registration paid but the sticker hadn't been put on. Quite glad that it had be caught by us before we left instead of a cop on the road, Mother called the friends.

"Let me call my husband."

"He took it to work with him. We can get it in 45 minutes."

Something good came out of this delay: I remembered that my glasses were still at home.

Finally on the road, I surprised myself by actually carrying on a conversation with my aunt instead of reading all the way. The trip was uneventful, not counting when Father thought he heard something flapping around and when Sue and I noticed a brake light was out. We arrived at the ranger station to buy our tickets or whatever for the campsite. It is here that I notice a most wonderful, wonderful thing.

National Parks Monopoly.

I love Monopoly, mates, all different kinds of Monopoly. In fact, I don't really like the original; I want the interesting ones. My greatest regret when I visited Disneyland was that I bought Disney chess instead of Monopoly. I have an electronic Monopoly game. I love our Star Wars Monopoly. And now here was National Parks Monopoly staring me in the face!

Problem: I wasn't getting paid until the next day. And all of my money was in savings, with the idea that I wouldn't spend it.

So, my friends, I do not own National Parks Monopoly.

Yet.

Later that day, we made it to the campsite, where I fell into my role: while everyone else set up camp, cooked, made beds, and whatnot, I watched Caiti and read. Then there was food. Then there was... FIRE!



And there were marshmallows, of course. LissAnne was employing her usual practice of catching them on fire so she could sing a quick "Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!" before blowing them out and eating them. Siri started copying her... but without one important step: she wasn't eating them.

"Siri, are you going to eat those, or just burn them?"

"Burn them."

Random the Pyro approves of this picture.