Well, I started skipping again. It seems like as soon as I try something out that you do every day, like writing a diary or something, I do it for about a week and then totally forget about it. I mean, this site is my home page! Seriously... I need to hire someone to remind me to do this thing..... it's really annoying. And now I don't have anything to write. Christmas was fun – we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Santa Cruz. My grandma, grandpa, cousins, other cousins, etc, were there. It was really chaotic. The pie was good, though. : ) I'm out of things to write again. I guess I'll just end this entry and write when I do something interesting. Sigh. My life is so... average.

Hello! Tomorrow is a half day! (Meaning we get out at 12:00 from school) Also, I don't have any homework except to give this guy, Danny, (my secret santa) a little jar of gold flakes (it's a joke – I asked him what he wanted [the "secret" part is never true] and he said he wanted a 24 karat block of solid gold) SO I'm giving him a "pot of gold". This morning my secret santa (Genevieve) tossed two cookies at me. I looked at them. "Uh... thanks?" Pause. "Are you my secret santa?" "Duh. No, I just like throwing cookies at people. Whadda think?" is along the lines of what she said. [to be read in stage whisper] I don't think she likes me that much. In French we had a little par-tay. I made 11 crepes (sorry to all you french people – I don't know how to add accents) last night and brought them to class. There was whipped cream, chocolate chips, raspberry sauce, etc. It was awesome!!! Danielle's gift to us was to watch the movie "Ratatouille", though she was disappointed that we couldn't have it in french. No subtitle, even! We were all right with that, though. You know how I'm on the basketball team? (Of course you don't – FYI, I'm 5' 10") Well, we had a game today. And on Tuesday, but I didn't write anything then. First, I must tell you about last season's first game. We lost 58–2. Sad, huh? Tuesday's game, we played the same people and lost 50–4. It should've been –6, because Jane got an awesome shot in, but apparently (next few words to be said with sarcastic tone) she took three steps instead of the two and a half you're allowed (for lay-ups, you know?). Ugh. Today, however, the score was 56–6! We lost, but I had fun : ) Okaayyy.... that's about it for today. That's the interesting stuff, anyways. Okay. I'm desperate. Here's an excerpt from my story, starting from where I left off. Well, I just realized that any excerpt that I take will have to be more than a paragraph, so bye.

Hello. I'm feeling neutral today. VERY neutral. As in, no emotion at all. Sigh. I have nothing to write about. Hey, how about an excerpt from my story? Ok, one sec, I have to go to dinner. BRB. I'm back. Here's the excerpt: "Being up in the mountains has never appealed to me. The high altitude made my ears pop, the weather was freezing all the time, and the wind chapped my skin; it just drove me crazy. My parents, however, had a different view on that topic. In fact, they had an entirely different view than me on almost everything. I don’t know if they do now. Anyway, they loved the snow, the high altitude and the wind about as much as they loved going up to the mountains in winter to ski or snowboard or just plain be there almost every weekend. I mean, come on! A girl has to have some social life sometimes! My friends all got to stay in the home; why couldn’t I? I’m a city girl, not some Olympic skier! Anyway, enough of that. Dad wanted to go to the mountains for the views; he was a photographer, and he loved the scenery at the top of ski lifts. I have to admit, it was pretty spectacular. Mom just loved the sports. But I’m not spending hours tapping on an old, decrepit typewriter, writing this down to go on and on about how much I hate the mountains and how jealous I was of my friends’ parents. I’m just here to tell you… well, I’ll get to that later. This winter, something happened to me. Something bizarre. Something you couldn’t imagine even in your wildest dreams… or nightmares. No, I don’t think anyone could imagine my story. I’ve just barely scratched the surface of my last twelve years on earth. But we don’t have the time for any of that if I’m to tell you what happened last January under the Hardback Mountains..." There's a copyright on that, so don't you dare try to steal it for your book!

: ( Kidding. What do you think?

Hi!

Well, I got my f-ing ears pierced. And it HURTS LIKE HE--!!!! "Oh, it'll just hurt for a minute," everyone says. "Like a pinch. Then it'll fade." Ten minutes later, my ears are bright red and still throbbing. Oh god... now they're prickling. This SUCKS. Sorry about the shouting. Ugh. (shudder) Ow. : ( Honestly, I don't want to write, but I should update you on what happened last night. At the Hard Nut, I mean. Well, Mom, Mia, Jennie and me went there. Jennie had a total of 12 mints. TWELVE! And they weren't even that good! Anyways, the play was cool. Not very funny, though – we were too far back to see which ballerinas were men or women. You could tell by: their chests and their armpits. Men don't shave there, but they should. It's nasty. Well, I don't have anything else to add, to I'm signing off now. Farewell, all ye people.

Hello again. Good morning. Guess what we're doing today? We're getting a Christmas tree! : ) Dad wants to go to a place where we can cut down the tree, but Mia wants to just go down the road five minutes so we can get an overpriced dinky little tree at the same lot where we got dinky little overpriced pumpkins for Halloween. Everyone disagrees with her, but she whined for a while and got snapped at. (new paragraph) God, this is so annoying! I keep trying to save this page because on Word you have to save constantly (if you live in my house, with my brother) and this little thing keeps popping up! Hey, you can do paragraphs! Awesome! Honestly, I don't have much to say right now. I'll edit this entry in the evening, after we go to see the Hard Nut, and write some more.

It's been such a long time... I should just write. Here goes. [new paragraph] hey everyone – merry (future) Christmas, happy (past) Chanuka, and I don't know when Quanza is. Heck, I don't even know how to spell it. Sorry, no offense to those who celebrate Quanza. A lot has happened. I'm in seventh grade now, am working on the sequel to my book (although the first one hasn't been published yet; I haven't plucked up the courage to show it a publisher or editor), and am having extreme emotional stress. I'm twelve, 5' 10" or something around that, give or take an inch. Honestly, since I don't know anyone out there, I'm just going to write as though this isn't going to be shown to any sentient being for the next five hundred years. Feel free to comment. If I offend someone, sorry, I'm having a bad day. Start: God, what a horrible day. See that little star in my picture? That's how I felt. First Mia starts singing at 7:20 a.m., then I forget my costume for drama (we're dressing up as the opposite gender, either Shakespearian or modern) I chose Shakespearian because I didn't want to sag. So I go into drama and Heather is the only other one wearing a white button-down, too-big long-sleeved shirt and pants that looked like they belonged in the 18th century. That's me. She looked fine. I looked... actually, there wasn't a mirror, so I didn't see how I looked. Hopefully not too bad. Then Arom and Cliff refused to dress up like girls and got sent to the office and I had to practice with Sam because Sylvia's mom was going to drop off her costume but never came, and Sylvia disappeared after lunch with the pictures on her flashdrive that were supposed to be on the imovie that she, Genevieve and me are working on, so Genevieve and I spent an hour looking for pictures of an adult helping a kid and a child therapist. God, I never realized how useless Google was. Three more words. Ok, bye.

hellooo! (hel-eau) labor day weekend is ALWAYS a big get-together for our family... that's why i couldn't write. yes, i am making excuses, but at least it's true. My family, Kate's (a friend) family, and there are always about two other people hanging around. Always at our house. Yes, it's pretty big, but think of my brother, forced out of his own room! Think of me and my sister, sleeping with three other girls in the room, talking until midnight who ALSO can't sleep without a night light!!!! Think of my ROOM! Anyway, enough blab. Kate's a good friend, so it's nice to be with her. She lives in L.A, or outside of it, anyways, so I don't see her a lot. First day, I got back from school on Friday and her family was there (she and Sarah, her little sister, don't start school til the sixth. the SIXTH!) and there was a little reunion. There was a ping pong compitition, we taught the little girls to play (that's Sarah and my little sister, Mia, they were horrible) and we had burgers for dinner. Well, I didn't, I had a faux-burger 'cause i'm a vegitarian. Then the kids went in the hot tub (not my brother) and we all played word games and caught up on the gossip. Not the little girls so much; they just splashed around. And that's just the first day, and I'm already almost out of words! More tomorrow. Bye!

First day of school! I'm in a pretty good advisory (like a class, but no homeroom, and there are only ten people). I have most of my friends... no bad people, just some clowns, a quiet girl, someone (she's new) who looks like she's going to hang out with the more girly crowd, and me and some more old timers. (paragraph) I went from classroom to classroom, math, tech, double science, double humanities. Then Advisory (that's a half period... we hang out in our advisories and talk with our advisor [like a homeroom teacher] ). I'm supposed to bring in snacks for next advisory period.... maybe pumpkin bread? Sylvia says she makes awesome peanut butter muffins (we're the ones to bring in snack; there are always two). (paragraph) Math was all right... my brother says my teacher's awesome, and he's had them all before. After that, we had tech. All right, we just went over the computer rules. Science: we're studying bubbles, of all things, but in class we did this game with communication. Humanities: fine, teacher just went over a ton of stuff. And we got homework. HOMEWORK! On the first day of school!! Luckily, it was easy, I got it done, but... Anyways, I've been pondering some stuff. One: why are laser pointers always red? Two: how would people cope if we were all mute? For anyone who reads this far and responds, congrats! I think I'm being pretty boring.

I. Have not written. Since June thirteenth. Wow. I guess I took the summer off. Anyways, I'll totally make up for the long, LONG summer of absence, I'll just write every day until January. I'll start with recounting my summer. June: My family went backpacking with an obnoxious cousin in Tahoe, near Echo Lake, in Desolation. No, we were not upset, it's a place, for those of you who don't know. That was for four days, the time spent playing in the snow drifts (yes, there were snow drifts), getting bitten half to death, and hiking over boulders that you would quake to even dream about climbing. Then we went home, and my mom and I went on a mother-daughter weekend with a friend of mine and her mom. That was fun... we spent the time hanging out, shopping (shah-ping) and strolling the beach. July: Candada!! Some friends of ours moved out there two years ago, so we visited them, and some old friends from France (technically American, but they moved to france eight years ago) came along, too. We had a really great time, and visited an ice cream parlor with 218 flavors of ice cream!!!! Unfortunately, none of us could decide what to get, and some of the flavors (such as chili and parsly) grossed us out. Anyways, we came home after a week. I'll continue next entry, I'm running out of words.

It doesn't feel like summer. noah says that it feels like the weekend the first week of summer, it feels like summer the second week, and that it feels like summer is ending the third week. i doubt that. it's foggy and cold and windy and it has been for the past... two days? I wasn't here over the weekend. it's not OFFICALLY summer until i've forgotten what day it is (monday, tuesday) well. right now it's Tuesday, June nineteenth at eleven oh five a.m. and it feels like tomorrow i'll have to get up at six thirty-seven a.m to get ready for school. right now, on a tuesday (in school) I should be in math right now, with my potbellied teacher that treats us like kindergartners and looks like an ugly baboon lecturing us on the beauty of math. all ye former 6Sers out there, you know who i'm talking about. I'll miss 6th grade. it was fun to be 6th graders. now we're seventh graders, boring and dull.

hi. it's actually june nineteenth right now, at ten fifty-four a.m. and i am still in my pajamas. yes. really. seriously i do not lie. my attitude sort of reflects my desktop picture: a fuzzy orange kitten asleep in a hammock with a blue background. i had pancakes for breakfast today, weighed all of the packs we carried for a mile and a half ( it was mia's first time; she's seven almost eight) uphill at eight THOUSAND feet above sea level on rocky and slippery ground being bitten by mosquitoes with limited water. slight torture. slight torture. then we got to the campsite... that was cool. right by the Lake of the Woods, and there was a huge rock jutting out into the water that we could sunbathe in. very cool, except for the fact that mosquitoes kept swarming around us. seriously, if everyone was silent, you could hear the buzzing noise they made from twenty feet away. it was scary, yet cool.

well hi. I haven't been writing. ashamed.... veerrryyy ashamed. Well, school's out (right now it's actually june nineteenth) we got out on the thirteenth, and that was...awesome!!!!!!!! had a sleepover with some friends and we stayed up until 2 a.m. watching two movies. TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!and yesterday my family got back from back packing near Echo Lake. Tons and tons of mosquitoes! luckily, i only got three bites, thanks to that awesome mosquito repellant we used. ah.....flush toilets sounded SO GOOD after three days of... well, you don't really want to know. here's a list of what I missed the most: 1. plumbing (toilets, showers...) 2. pizza (i always miss pizza, don't ask why) 3. Olive and Tiger (no explanation needed) 4. my bed (my pad kept deflating in the middle of the night!) 5. being able to sleep in and 6. not sharing a tent with my little sister (she woke up at FOUR A.M. ALL THREE DAYS!!!)

i really do not feel like writing one hundred forty words right now. i am supposed to be doing homework. my story is not coming along very well; i have writer's block. Someone get me a lever! (kidding! that was a joke– ha ha?) my dad is giving my sister the "internet privacy" talk. something about phones... weird. fa fa la la fa la ha la fa la my brother is looking over my shoulder. write something, o brother of mine (ok this is him): "Yeah... This is my sister's WCJ, and I have one too but i've only ever actually typed one entry. Anywho, you guys should all check out my sister's other journals, they're pretty cool. About me, I'm an avid socialist/communist, and my sister wants me to stop, so yeah... peace." yes, that was actually him. strange guy, huh? yah.... okay. i'm out of things to say.

Ok... now, i need advice: who should I dedicate my book to? mom and dad? the authors that gave me hope, like Christopher Paolini or however you spell his name and Nancy Fin or something? my cats?! or maybe to hope... [gets a dreamy look on face] that's too sentimental. no, maybe to... uh... um... ok: i need your help!!!!! i'll gather the votes: deditate to: mom and dad, my cats, or the other under eighteen authors? R.S.V.P!

I'm saying that I'm totally hyper! I'm writing a book right now, and it's got 184 pages now. Guess what? My dad, showed me a site that will actually publish your book in hardcover or paperback for you! And it's really, really cheap! Now, I want your (anyone's) opinion on this: the book's about this girl that is kidnapped and taken to a mysterious underground cavern to fulfill a prophecy about this elemental (which is sort of like a god) and kill this elemental to restore peace to the cavern and its people. So what should I call it? Please, leave comments! Thanks for reading. I know I haven't been very active about writing journals, but it's the end of the school year, almost summer, i've been spending most of my time outside... you can understand, can't you? Thanks for reading this.

AHH MA GAWD!!!! it's so frickin' HOT! All the shades are down, the doors are closed to keep the cold air in, and everyone is still boiling. It's torture. the pavement is so hot that I can barely walk on it with bare feet! Mom just made some windshield wiper fluid, and Dad's car (it's a dark blue) is so hot that i can't touch it without a towel in front of my poor, burning hands! My brother had a crew race, and he's probably dying of heat. hopefully not dying. that would be bad. i wouldn't have anyone to annoy! except for my little sister, of course, who is the devil incarnate (sort of) Oh well. where i'm going, it's even hotter! (89 degrees there!)

It is actually May 3rd. Okay. Starting: How can I write my own book? I know of two under eighteen authors, but I'm twelve, for god's sake. And my book is only 183 pages long. (right now.) I will forever be in the shadow of people like J.R.R Tolkien and J.K. Rowling and people like that. I am feeling really depressed right now. Really down on myself. Sure, I can hide it at school really well, but I'm still really, really depressed. Not depressed enough to kill myself, just enough to scream at God for a good hour. Maybe add some swear words. Maybe it will be all curses, telling him to come down HERE and experience his "wonderful" creation.

Even though it's tomorrow (it's the third of May) I will tell you what happened yesterday. I have decided to delete my "Not Castaway" to focus completely on my 163 page story that I am currently writing. Yes, I am only twelve, but I do dream sometimes... it's happened before... Anyways when I was coming home from hebrew practice yesterday (Yes, I am jewish and am preparing for my bat mitzva) a bird POOPED ON MY KNEE. It did. I nearly screamed and almost fell off of my bike (I was riding home). Don't worry, it wasn't on the skin, just on my pant leg, and it didn't soak all of the way through. (Shudders, makes a face) It was totally disgusting!

Skipping again! Tsk tsk. Did you know that I am going on my longest sleep-away in my history of school next week? Just preparing you: tuesday through friday i'll be gone. I might be back in time to do an entry on friday, though. We practiced setting up our tents; it was very... hectic. The poles were hecka long! Definately more than ten feet... maybe fifteen? I dunno. About fifteen feet is five meters, for those of you who use the metric system. America was SO stupid, making up it's own system. I mean, what were they THINKING? Now all of the poor american travelers have to carry a metric/... I don't even know the NAME of our system! A metric/ our-system converter.

I am ashamed of myself. Really, truly ashamed. Six innocent entries, ignored, discarded for typing my story. Did you know that I just typed my one hundred forty-seventh page in my story? I plan to publish it sometime around... next year, maybe. It probably won't get out, though. I mean, who would want to read a book written by a sixth grader? No one, that's who. Scratch that. A twelve year old, Nancy something, got a book out called "Swordbird". It was pretty good. She goes into a little too much detail on the villian in the begining, though. And she should have defined a main character, to get us more attached to that bird. Very good book, none the less.

Have you ever felt like there are two yous? The school you, and the home you? You know, the "cool", "popular" you that you miraculously change into the moment you get on the bus? Yeah, then there's the book-wormy you in the afternoon that makes faces at your little sister and harasses your older brother. Sigh. Eyes droop, fingers moving slowly across the keyboard. Eyes brighten, gasp, fingers fly. That sounds like a poem. All I need to do is make the spaces right.... there, there, and over there. Yeah, that could be a cool poem. They should have a poem site, too, or a poem journal. "The Journal Of Poetry", it should be called.

I skipped again. Don't harass me about it like my sister did. If you saw the previous entry, check the comments. Shun! Shun the non-believer! Mua-ha-ha! (That, for your information, was my evil laugh.) Anyways, the story that I'm working on currently is now 57 pages long. It's not here on word count journal, but maybe when I reach my goal of one hundred I'll split it up into chapter sections and copy it onto here. Maybe. It'll probably be too embarrassing because some people I know go on word count journal and it would be like showing them my secret self. I have a school self and a home self. How 'bout you?

This morning was horrible, especially the part called "waking up". Have you ever gotten the feeling that you just want to lie there until about noon? I have. Anyways, I got up at seven and made breakfast, got dressed, etc. School was fine. Coming home, some kids were prank calling people. It was really funny... then we had to go. That was fine, but when I got home, my sister started whining about how I bumped into her on the bus and how I didn't say hi when I got off and that kind of junk. I am now shunning her. (Hint hint, Jennie) : ) Before I was typing my (currently) 53 page story.

At the bot mitzfa (its spelled bat mitzva) yesterday I got a henna tatoo on my hand! It's like, an awesome swirly flowery thing and is sort of mahogany colored. It's supposed to last for two whole weeks! I mean, most of those little kiddy tatoos last about two days, but this is like, pro stuff. Anyway, enough about the tatoo. Mom says I can't do any computer stuff until I get my homework done, so right now I'm under cover. (you head the james bond theme song playing in the background) Noah's really grumpy cuz he didn't get to hang out with his friend cuz we were shopping. It was torture!

Just got back from my friend's bot mitzfa (ceremony of becoming a woman if you're jewish) and it was so long! I mean, she was good, and all, but the singer dude? He was so full of himself! Whenever he was on stage, he was like, preening himself and twisting his finger in a peice of thread. And he sang too fast. And he said prayers too fast. All in all, he was stupid and shouldn't have been there. But ya know the thing about that ceremony was? I had to wear a skirt again! I kept sitting down and whenever I got up, it felt really weird. I hate skirts.

Something really, really, strangely weird just happened. I won't tell you what. Oh fine. My cat, Olive? She's really formidable ( here that means scary and cute at the same time) and guess where I found her this morning? Sleeping on my feet! Yes, you read that correctly. Anyway, I have to go to a celebration soon and can't stay. Oh, guess what I have to wear. A skirt, fancy shoes, and a fancy top, or a DRESS. Yes, I chose the first one. Which one would you choose? Anyways. I'm going to the animal shelter later today to pet the poor kitties stuck in those tiny cages. They're so lonely!

Tomorrow is earth day! I was going to ride my bike to school, but it's probably going to rain, so I don't think I will. Buses are fine with me, thank you very much! I mean, it's a pretty easy ride if I follow the bus, but in the rain? No thanks! I could definately manage it; I've done it before, but who wants to get to school soaked from the waist down? Yes, you over there in the green. What's that? No one? Correct! Very good. Here's your prize: a piece of chocolate and my thanks. What? Well I think it's a good prize! No gratitude these days.

April 18th. May I have a round of applause? Thank you. Okay. Today was the offical day of silence. About three quarters of my class did it, but most of them were talking by the end of the day. I snapped at the end of sixth period. Yes, I know, that was not very fulfilling, but you try trying to tell your math teacher that you get it and that he doesn't need to treat you like a third grader without making a sound! God, I hate him. The girl that brought it up yesterday was the only one that actually made it, and she said one word!

It is still april 17th, if you're wondering. Yes, this is only about five minutes after I wrote the last entry, but who cares?! Not me. And hopefully not you. Please? because then you won't read my journal, and then I will have no reason to write this! Wait... (skipping to other journals) see march 7th please.... you back? good. Yeah... well, I guess I'd better revert to my hostile, rebel self. Ahem: (clears throat) I don't care whether or not you're reading this! This is simply (and here I quote march 7th's entry) a naritive of my life! (stops acting and runs off crying) Please read!