the things that, apparently, really burned me up!!!

    Today I got to spend time with Jason, Darby, Ollie, and Lyric.  Last time I saw Ollie he had his usual brown hair and light skin; however, I was greeted by a little boy with skin as brown as a berry and longish, blondish hair (but if he asks, you didn't hear that from me; for some reason, he doesn't like being told that his hair is blond).  And Lyric--well, she is quite the fashionista!  She had on these trendy leggings with lace on the cuffs, a long tunic, braided brown belt (which is so in right now), and converse; she was just adorable.  It was so fun to see them!

    And Darb and Jase look about the same, in case you were wondering; still quite the handsome couple.  

   We had a lovely little time at Newport Beach, which, in Darby's words, had some of the interesting and beautiful qualities of Venice Beach without the smell of urine.  I appreciate that. 

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   Darby brought me some interesting literature from home.  Somehow she got a hold of one of my essays from elementary school--I am guessing I was somewhere around 8 years old when I penned it.  The title is Things That Burn Me Up, and it even has a picture of a blazing campfire to go with it (in case you didn't quite get the idea from the title alone).  I have chosen some excerpts for your reading enjoyment...In the interest of keeping it authentic, I will be typing it as is, with no editing--with the exception, of course, of making it legible.   

   This got first heading, I guess it really made me mad...

• On (my brother--I called Jonathan "On" while growing up), does bone squeeze on me. And it also hurts when he does belly button buster on me. Because after home schooling On and I have lots of energy and we go wacko and that's when he does belly button buster and bone squeeze.  
  

  Hmm, well you can't blame me for being upset.  I mean, bone squeeze?!?!?! Ouch.  And I am pretty sure that belly button buster was when Jonathan would catch me at the top of the stairs and drag me down them by my feet, with me on my stomach, effectively "busting" my well, belly button.  

• One time we had a fold out bed that turned into a couch. On said to me that he will give me a quarter if I went down under the couch and he would fold the couch back in and for me to stay in their for five minutes so I went in their for like two minutes and then I said let me out but Jase and On kept on scwishing it in and I'm like screaming let me out to him. And then he left me in the couch and made me think he was going upstairs and that really burned me up.  

Well, yeah, I guess so!  And what I want to know is--did I ever get that quarter?! I am pretty sure I deserved it...If not, Jonathan owes me a quarter. I take checks.  

• One thing that gets me mad is when it's realey late and every body is asleep except for you and your scared and your all swetey and hot but you don't want to get your blanket off because your afraid someone might get you. But your hot and your can't get to sleep. That really burns me up.

Quite literally, I guess.  And the really sad thing is that this still happens...Just last week--when I dreamed of those aliens...

• Well I hate it when I'm sleeping in my brothers room and he acts like he's the boss and when I'm in the middle of a sentence he says be quiet I want to go to sleep.

This one really cracked me up when I read it.  I mean, in the middle of a sentence?! And believe me, though I didn't mention a name here, I had no problem figuring out who it was that I was talking about.;-)

• I hate it when On or somebody tattle tails on me that burns me up.

Yep, nobody likes a tattle tail.  But, to be honest, I do remember doing my own fair share of tattling on my brothers.  In fact, one time I remember being pretty shocked because I overheard Jonathan use the word "wus." Well, I was positive this was a curse word and went straight to my pop with the bad news.  I was very disappointed when pop explained to me that it actually isn't a cuss word, meaning that Jonathan was off the hook.  

• I don't like it when my brothers are mad at me because I feel guilty.

Some things just never change. Lucky for me, my brothers don't get mad at me that often.

• I hate it when I'm bored and I have nothing to do and all my brothers are playing the Nintendo.

Yep, sounds about right--but now you can swap "brothers" for "husband" and "Nintendo" for "X-box."

• What really burns me up is when I have no money and I want some bad and I can't borrow from anybody.

Sorry, but I don't remember this happening much at all.  When did I badly need money as a child?  When did I try to borrow from everybody I knew and was repeatedly turned down? Did I have bad credit, or something?

• What I hate is when I brake something and I'm scared to tell any body about it but when I finally tell them their not mad.

Why did I hate that?  That sounds like a huge relief!

• What really burns me up is when some body makes me enbarast in front of a crowd.

And that last one shows once again why I am a proud, card-carrying member of OSA*. And to be honest--I still hate when somebody embarrasses me in front of a crowd, or anyone, for that matter!  

  So, there you go--that's me as a young writer, passionately conveying to my mom (who, as my teacher, was probably the only one who read it!) how I feel about certain injustices or difficult situations.  Thank God I've learned a thing or two about punctuation and spelling--oh, and have finally come to understand the enormous difference between there, they're and their!

*Overly Sensitive Anonymous