I have an incredible dentist. I have a competency crush on Dr. Jesse. By that I mean that I am so in awe of her amazing skills  that I want to grow up to have that same sort of confidence and steady hand. And I am not the only one that is impressed by her. I sent Marianne to her as well.

Today it was taking off the old crown and making molds for the new one. I have to say that during the hour that I was in the chair, I managed to keep breathing through my nose and not wiggle like a spastic disco dancer to get away from the noise of the drill. I only needed one shot which was nice. It is always so awkward when half of your face is numb afterwards and you try to function like nothing is wrong.

She asked me if I had Indonesian blood today. She said that my eye color is common in people who have Indonesian blood. I think we (the boys, Joanne and Sjoerd) are 1/16th if I remember Joanne’s math. However, since fractions and measurements have always been a weak point for me, I could be a fraction off. If Oma was half, mom was a quarter. Wait, that makes us an 1/8th. See what I just said about measurements…

Birthday card from my dad in the mail today, complete with stickers on it. Always nice to be surprised. As I have written before, Mom was my source of cards and I miss that alot. So any cards that come now are a bonus. Henry says the pets planned to get me a card but George convinced them to pool their allowance in the slot machine so they could buy a really big card and gift. Unfortunately, the slot machine won as usually is the case.

I’ve just finished with my last conference call for the day. It is time to make the boys their dinner. After my super excellent dinner last night, I am still not very hungry. Although I did eat the cake this afternoon as a sort of delayed breakfast. Tomorrow it is on the bike to work.

We have a long weekend again, due to WhitSunday. I have no idea which one that is but it is a extra day off so I am happy to observe it 😉

I am having a wonderful nerdette birthday. I am sitting here on the big orange couch, secured by the dogs and installing the new Windows 10 preview on my tablet. While digesting a supremely delicious dinner from Betty’s. Of all the vegetarian restaurants I have been to in my life, Betty’s ranks high up there on the list, along with Sutra in Seattle. I couldn’t eat all of my dessert, so it is happily sitting in the fridge waiting for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.

Busy day today. I thought I could get away with no one knowing it was my birthday. Especially since I didn’t bring cake to work like you are supposed to you on your birthday. During my second meeting of the day, the partner outed me to everyone else in the meeting. Which then of course lead to the questions from colleagues as to why didn’t I tell anyone? I ended up mumbling my lack of cake story. How awkward. It just goes to show you that if I think about doing something not quite upright, I get an instant punishment, as my mom would say.

Lots of text messages and some phone calls today which was really nice. It looks like my dad has discovered the emoticon pages on WhatsApp 😉 And of course, I still have my mom’s voicemail message for my birthday in 2009. Which I just listened to again. The boys were really surprised to hear her voice.

Tomorrow it is back to the dentist for a replacement crown. I was there today for a cleaning. Yeah, you can say I sure know how to schedule fun ways to celebrate birthdays. Good thing I am not a party planner 😉

Today is Joey Ramone’s 64th birthday. Another significant person in my life who went too young. I remember my mom calling me to tell me the news that he was gone. I didn’t have a TV and she knew I would be devastated so she wanted to tell me instead of finding out via the paper or the old days of American Online chatrooms. Some of my best memories of the Ramones involve my mom transporting me and my friends in the Vanagon with all kinds of posterboard signs in the window with slogans like “Follow me to the Ramones” and “This Vanagon stops for the Ramones”. I don’t think other people were as fortunate to have a mom who supported their obsession with their favorite band ever.

Of course, my mom would also put my Ramones t-shirts in Cedric’s clean laundry pile and he would take this as free permission to wear them! I think my mom knew very well they weren’t Cedric’s, she just wanted to make a comment on the single-mindedness of my wardrobe! The last Christmas that we had with mom I gave Cedric one of my vintage Ramone’s tshirts, all wrapped up. When we exchanged our presents in front of mom, she got my point 🙂 and Cedric was over the moon, finally a shirt that he could wear without worrying about his big sister smacking him and taking it back out of his laundry pile. I am not sure his girlfriend (who we were meeting for the first time) was very impressed.

I went to an open house today. It was a disappointment and I have discovered now that real estate agents the world over use glamour shots for houses they are advertising. I am sure they will do fine, since there were alot of people there. As for me, I left with a renewed conviction of what I am looking for and won’t settle on. In that case, it was productive. I am thinking ahead to when our lease is up in a little less than six months. Hah, who knows, maybe Italy will so charm me that I move there instead 😉

Last night, on the way to Utrecht, we passed all of these great big old land houses, some even for sale. Talk about inspiring architecture but so much more space than I would ever need. I can see the pets getting lost and having to wear little tracking beacons. Your real estate euro goes alot further outside Amsterdam. But then again you are outside of Amsterdam and that is not a jump I am ready to make, even if it comes with a barn!

Tonight I am off to the sauna with a friend from work. There’s a complex of saunas and all the sort hot and cold pools in the woods near here. Tuesdays are bathing suit required days so that is the day we decided to go. In some ways I will always be American and I am okay with that even if it makes some people laugh. When people are wearing bathing suits, you don’t have to worry about where to look 😉

that somewhere in the world they are experiencing summer weather. It is not here. It is grey, chilly and rainy again today. Which is prime weather for writing a book or reading one. I am just glad it was still dry this morning when I went to my banjo lesson. While I carry my banjo in a case on my back like some sort of broken down cowboy, rain is generally not good for it. Tonight I am going to a bluegrass performance in Utrecht. It does not look like we will be sitting outside listening like we did last year.

I have goosebumps at the moment, thanks to the weather. This is why I haven’t yet turned off the radiators for the year. I transplanted my tomatoes to outside over the weekend, thinking the weather was finally warm enough at night for them to be out. Of course, the first nights I was still covering them up with cardboard. Until it started raining and the cardboard became messy.

Yesterday, we went to the Hermitage Museum to see the Napoleon, Josephine and Alexander exhibit. Since convincing Marjo to get a museum year card, we’ve started competing in the Olympic sport of museumgoing. I liked the second exhibit more, Holland in the Golden Age. It made an interesting case for how modern day Amsterdam and the Netherlands came to be. Especially interesting was the idea that nothing could disturb trade hence the religious freedoms that were found here, the basis for the tolerance, the social care systems, etc. It also talked about the dark parts of the history, that even with slavery illegal inside the Netherlands, the Dutch were responsible for transporting 575000 people from Africa to the US for the purposes of slavery.

I never made it to the Rollende Keukens festival but that is okay. My taste buds aren’t completely working yet so if it isn’t really spicy food, it is just kind of blah right now. I hope this resolves before Wednesday evening since I have plans to go to Betty’s, the well known vegetarian restaurant! We went to De Vliegende Schotel over the weekend. Luckily, he cooks with alot of spice power so I could taste it. It was really good. The only unusual thing were the people at the table next to us. One of them was not wearing shoes. Fine if you live in the wide open country but I would think that walking around barefoot in Amsterdam is not the smartest thing.

Time to make some tea and see if I can convince myself that this weather is really 65 degrees and sunny 😉

Today, our youngest sibling, Rupert, turns the ripe age of 37. I can’t blame Rupert for changing my life for the worse, that happened 6 February 1976, when the twins were born and I went from the paradise of being an only child to being the oldest of three. I think it is fair to say that our brother Rupert was born impacting people’s lives.

From my earliest memories, I can remember my mom telling us “Don’t give him an audience, he will only get worse”. It seems that Rupert was born with the belief that because he was last in the birth order he had to move super fast to do everything we were doing only louder, better and faster. Even worse, we were all responsible for Rupert. In many of the family photos from our youth, one of the three of us is holding onto Rupert for dear life. He developed his talent for running away early. And he would do it with this devil’s smirk on his face. His getting into trouble face, if you will.

Rupert is also the only one of us who had to wear a kinder harness. The sort of chest harness that you put on your child and it remains attached to the parent or responsible sibling. Growing up, we didn’t know what to make of Rupert, only that he was more than the three of us combined. More trouble, more outgoing, just more.

The battles were epic. In part because he was determined to surpass us all, having no respect for his place in the birth order. And also because of us all, he is the best parts of my mom when it comes to connecting with complete and total strangers. There is hardly anyone who fails to respond to his curiousity and doesn’t share their life story with him. He gets this from my mom. Meredith, his wife, said at my mom’s memorial service, that in Rupert she sees my mom’s clown tendencies. The rest of us don’t have that to the same degree.

Fast forward through lots of rocky years and bumpy times and our littlest brother has grown up. He still really wants to have a bite of whatever you are eating. He still wears his favorite tie dye and flip flops. And he believes there is no problem that cannot be solved without an application of pizza. And he is someone that you can nerd out with and do deep analytical thinking and then in the next breath talk about how that makes you feel. I cherish this about him, that the hyperactive boy has grown into a thoughtful, compassionate, funny man with a deep concern for the people around him.

I can walk with my brother and have farting contests. I can talk with him in my deepest bouts of grief and shame. I can listen to him share his stories with others. I can admire his faith, seeing it’s evolution from sheep think to deeply grounded and practiced. I am grateful that he had the good sense to find Meredith and bring her into our family. I know that in the midst of sibling drama he can be counted on to ask the difficult questions to all of us. I trust and respect the man he has become.

So, as you turn 37, Rupinder, know that even though you told me you don’t need me to be your big sister anymore, I always will be. More importantly, I will always been willing to kick ass on your behalf (just like in the Marcello years). No one messes with my little brothers! I wish you a year full of happiness, that you receive even half as much joy as you bring to those around you. I am so grateful for the times you have listened to me cry and even in our fights, because I have learned a lot about what it means to be adult siblings instead of only childhood ones. I can’t wait to hang out with you again and compare foot odors and have long discussions about the state of the world and our roles and responsibilities in it. Most of all, I can’t wait to give you a big hug and feel at home again. With lots of love, from your Big Sister.

Yes!!! We are going to Italy! I heard back yesterday from the owners of the little agriturismo that they have space for us at the end of August! I am very excited to be going and I know I will want to cancel at least seventeen times between now and the 19th of August (our get in the car and go date). For now, I am happy to say I have booked a vacation for two weeks, not including travel time.

I was counting the number of vacations I had been on over the years. Since 2008, I have been on five. Never longer than a full week (including travel time). Prior to that, the answer would be 1. Here’s the thing, if it hadn’t been for my mom wanting to not be in Seattle for Christmas (in 2008), we never would have made that step. She didn’t want to worry about playing Martha Stewart so she was joking that we should go to Mexico. We did and we got stuck there for Christmas due to the snow in Seattle. Prior to that first trip to Mexico with Mom, I had only been on vacation once in my early twenties to Australia when I had flight benefits and I went with my best friend from high school.

We travelled alot when I was growing up but never for just the pleasure of travel or vacation. Our travel was carefully coordinated with a move to the next base that my dad was transferred to. We saw alot of the US that way, from the lumbering safety of various model year VW Vanagons with 4 kids, rabbits and a big dog. When I reached 13 or so, my parents were deeply concerned with my bad attitude and unacceptable math scores (B’s). So, I would get shipped off to the Netherlands right after the moving truck left our old house and six weeks later fly into a new city in time to go to a new school with a head full of math. I know I lucked out 😉 I think my dad still thinks this was a punishment. But it so wasn’t. I had my Oma and Opa to myself and I had  “job” in the local stable – shoveling manure in exchange for daily riding privileges. This was organized by my Opa. I had three glorious summers like this until my Opa and then my Oma passed.

Over the years, I developed a mindset that travel should be effective and efficient and if you go somewhere new you should maximize the time you are there and be active. See as much as you can, take as many photographs as possible, etc. Better yet, combine this travel with something serious like work or school. There’s not point in just doing something to have fun. I think you can connect the dots and understand why this vacation thing is something I needed remedial instruction in. I have 25 vacation days per year. This is not including public holidays or days like today that our office is closed in order to make a long weekend. As you can imagine, so many days to use is a pressure of it’s own. It means that my habit of combining travel with work isn’t necessary.

Some of my best memories of my mom are from the two trips that we took to Mexico. And some of my best photos of the two of us. My mom had booked a trip to go to Rome to learn to photograph stuff for September 2012. Unfortunately, she couldn’t go because we had just gotten the diagnosis. While I won’t be going to Rome, I will be celebrating in the spirit of Mom’s other habits such as wandering without an itinerary or with any concept of time, asking questions about everything, playing the “I could live there” game, spending hours window shopping and being outside.

In addition to coming back with a healthy respect for prepositions and the other assorted dangers of the Dutch language, I also brought home a tremendous case of the sick. My ultra mellow yoga like writing teacher had been getting progressively sicker and was worried that it was contagious. With typical American bluster, I assured her that I rode the trains and my immune system could certainly handle it. Well, the Wise Woman of Writing was right 🙂 And yours truly got a smack from the humility stick.

This morning I woke up covered in sweat and I was thrilled! For the past three days I have been freezing cold, wearing lots of clothes and sleeping under a comforter with four breathing heaters. And still not being warm. Sweat soaked was a big relief, wanting to kick all the blankets off and send the pets elsewhere was even more so. My end was not imminent! Today I have plans to leave the house as well. Haven’t done that since Monday morning’s banjo lesson. I basically spent this week sleeping, sneezing and not even wanting coffee. I know, that’s the worst part!

I should know this by know. Every so often there comes a point where your body says “Hey you up there, you’ve been missing the signs lately. About how I am feeling? Do you even care? Well, let me show how I can make you care”. And then I get sick. It always happens after really emotionally stressful times. I have decided to pay more attention to those signals.

One of my goals from last week was to actually use more of my vacation time this year and have at least a 2 week vacation in August. Most people go for three weeks but that’s more than I am comfortable with right now.  My cousin, Joanne, is generally a vacation house expert. She always manages to find the perfect vacation house. I asked her to share her secrets with a vacation beginner. Well, she literally takes two weeks to find the right place. That’s not going to work for me so she sent sites to look at that she has used. That saves me so much time compared to a search engine. Yesterday I started looking and sent off my first email to inquire about availability in August. I haven’t decided which country, I was just looking at the vacation houses. This first one is in Italy and if it is available, the boys and I will be headed there for two weeks in August. It is about an 800 mile drive from here which I could do over two days. I could probably do it in one but with the boys in the car, that’s not good for them (or me). So, we will see!

It is Hemelvaartsdag today or Ascension Day. Yesterday I wished a coworker a Fijne Hemelvaart (Happy Ascension) He was quite taken aback and he asked me I knew what I said. After I thought about for a minute I quickly apologized and said I definitely wasn’t hoping for him to ascend to heaven quickly. I think I gave him another entry for the list “Strange things my American coworker has said to me” . He is also the one who I wished not to be painfully cremated as opposed to painfully surprised. Poor Gerard. Aside from awkward language moments, that also means a long weekend here since most things are closed today.

This weekend is also the Rolling Kitchens weekend. That’s what you call a food truck here, a rollende keuken. They have a lot of things I don’t eat and seeing the barbecue and pig on a spit ones makes me queasy. They do have a high representation of veg/vegan though. Rollende keukens come from all corners of the Netherlands to participate. Den Haag apparently has a huge vegan business community.

I think I am not quite ready for that today. I am not hungry yet and it would be pointless to go somewhere like that when you can’t really taste food yet. Hopefully tomorrow. For now, coffee. 🙂

Even if she makes you crazy or irritates you beyond belief, hug your mom.
I would give anything at all to be able to do so again. Instead, this is what I have left to hug and talk to.

I have so many stories that are bubbling up to be told that I think I will stop thinking about the order and just share them freely. You can rearrange them as you like. I am home again and sitting directly next to my laptop is Moortje. The boys are tucked around each other in their poofy basket on the floor next to my desk. The wind is noisily making it’s way through the street and it sounds terribly dramatic. I had put the laundry out to dry last night on the terrace and this morning the racks were everywhere like someone had just picked them up and thrown them around while having a temper tantrum. Overnight it also rained which was a substantial setback for the drying process.

I need to say that if I get one more email about Mother’s Day tomorrow and the last date for guaranteed delivery of flowers, fish, whatever, I think I might scream. I would prefer to ignore that it is Mother’s Day tomorrow entirely. The question I really want to ask is can they guarantee overnight delivery to the after life?

Today is five years (also on Mother’s Day in 2010) that I lost my dragon cat, Mikha. Mikha was 18 by that time and had mellowed a bit to being likely to only remove one of your fingers instead of her whole hand with her jaws of terror. Mikha was my perfect companion in the sense that she was snarly, didn’t think much of being socialized, could carry a grudge and didn’t really want or need anyone else. We had alot in common!  Mikha chose me when I was 19 and determined to have a cat in my dorm room despite the rules to the contrary. Mikha was a New Jersey cat with all the sort of attitude that implies. I remember driving down the highway to get home over school breaks and Mikha would be howling the whole way as she was perched on top of piles of dirty laundry and school books. At the time, Ramona was my Saab. Ramona was a white 1982 four door 900 Turbo with a gypsy red interior. She was my first car. Mikha would sit on the dashboard and try to stand on the turn signal indicators so as we would be driving the left, right or hazard lights would randomly signal according to her mood.

I was Mikha’s Person to be Tolerated. I think Mikha accepted my mom as a backup for that position but further than that, she had ZERO interest in doing anything social. When Mikha was 7, I bought my tiny little house in Seattle and we moved in. She had a house and a yard. A few months later, Lientje came to live with us as a kitten. In retrospect, it was not my brightest idea ever. I do have a picture of the two of them sitting together, back to back in the nursery window frame so I do know they didn’t hate each other entirely. Other cats would cross the street to go past our house instead of walking by even if Mikha wasn’t outside sitting on the front porch. That’s how strong her reputation was in the feline community.

I miss her.She was one of the constants in all those years that I had growing up to do. Mikha and I knew each other longer than I have known anyone who wasn’t a relative. And in some cases we knew each other better than those relatives. I would like to think that Mikha and Mom have found their way to each other, with Mikha not being afraid to take a swipe at Ninja’s nose, claws out, and remind him that “cats rule and dogs drool”.

The past week gave me alot of time to think and reflect. So did the wrong way detour I took yesterday that nearly put Beatrix and I on the highway! I really need to take a crash course in understanding the Dutch method of road signage. Yesterday was not the first time that I have nearly entered the highway while on my bike! I am not sure about the depth of my thinking since my language lessons consumed a considerable amount of brain cycles. I do know that I loved being outside of the city and sitting under the sky until late (1130 but that is LATE for Vught) at night. One of my fellow students said to me Thursday evening as we crossed paths at the hotel entrance “Are you going to sit outside on the terrace again the whole night?” with a faint whiff of disapproval in her voice. To which I cheerfully replied “Absolutely! And I am going to enjoy it!”

I did exactly that, sitting outside in the dark, looking at the stars and chatting with the people who work at the manor. It was so relaxed. Someone asked me why I didn’t just move to a place like Vught if I like being outdoors with peace and quiet so much. Two reasons, I really am a city person. I like to go to the country and spend time there to recharge but I love Amsterdam. The second reason is that I think I might get very easily bored in Vught. It is very homogenous. And I am not that good at fitting in, nor do I want to be.

George was really happy to see me yesterday when I came home. Henry was playing “deeply traumatized by abandonment” for all it was worth. Which I let him do because he has to work through his own attitude adjustment. Marjo came and brought me some soup. She’s on a 30 day vegan challenge and while I can’t say how it is working for her, I can certainly say that I am benefiting from all of the kitchen experimentation she is doing! We had a long conversation over good wine and Henry made a definite point to sit in her lap and stare at me from across the way. George is George and he just curled up next to her and started snoring. As I reminded Henry, I am the only one bringing home the proverbial bacon in this household so when he is willing to make a contribution to the bills, he can certainly have more to say about my schedule 😉

The coming work week is a short one, due to Hemelvaart. My religious background is skimpy. The literal translation of Hemelvaart is Sailing to Heaven so I guess in English that is Ascension Day? Anyway, it means that the office is closed Thursday and Friday so we have another long weekend! Now if only the weather would cooperate so I can transplant my tomato seedlings and the pepper plant!

This past week, I had three excellent teachers. The way the process is works is that you have 4 sessions per day with a teacher one on one, then four periods in between of multimedia or self study. What this means is that you are doing your assignment for the next teacher led session. This is personalized for every student. They base the teacher student matching on personality, learning style, etc. When you get the chance to learn something from someone who is committed and passionate about their subject, it is a gift! I look forward to seeing them again next time. You know I am going to go back next year, right? I want to sit for the native speakers proficiency exam so I need at least one more round. I did go up a level during this week so I steadily made progress.

My second teacher of the day had given me a self drawn diagram of the Danger of Prepositions. I will call her Madame Schematica because she would illustrate every lesson and topic with a schematic (Dutch for diagram) and it helped me visualize and learn. I never thought prepositions could be dangerous. I knew I often put them in the wrong place in a sentence but how harmful could they really be? Thursday afternoon I was sitting at the lunch table with a group of the Dutch students who were learning German. I was telling a story and got the point about taking off my shoes. I said something about je moet je schoenen aftrekken (you must take off your shoes) and the entire table fell on the floor laughing. I didn’t understand what was so funny. I mean, I am funny but this was like gale force hilarity. One of the students saw my confusion and said “Do you know what you just said?” And I said “Yes, you have to take your shoes off” She said “No, you didn’t. With shoes it is uittrekken. You said something entirely different”  They couldn’t stop laughing and then I got it. I think I went way beyond red and turned maroon. Uittrekken (take out) is correct for shoes, aftrekken is otherwise known as masturbation. Yep, that’s exactly what I said “you must masturbate your shoes”.  Never a dull moment with learning a language!

Time to run some errands and go to the park before wind changes to add rain!

It is Tuesday and I am back at the manor. I am having a tremendous time. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I am not overstuffed with rules about perfectum, imperfectum, hoofd zin en bij zin, conjunctions and spelling. I do feel that the more time I spent studying one subject, the more I forget it. However, I have faith that since these methods have worked for many more students then me, I can make it through. Today one of my writing assignments was to write my first blog post in Dutch. Never fear, despite the sweat, blisters on my thumb from the pen and the hair standing up from the amount of times I pulled my hands through my hair to make the thoughts come easier, I am not going to be publishing that one any time soon. It did take me nearly an hour to write a page and a half long hand.

So what is different this time? Mostly, me. I have stopped worrying about whether or not I will learn all the Dutch I need to by the end of the week. I have put my out of office email on with the message that says “I am studying this week. I am certainly not available by telephone”. People respect this. Whereas last year I was still trying to do my job and learn because I am just that American that letting go is difficult. I also am sitting in the massage chairs at least twice per day and have convinced the other new and nervous students to do that too. Beatrix and I make the trip in 8 minutes from the manor, which is a lovely way to start and end the day. As a matter of fact, tomorrow morning I have a bike commute date with one of my teachers from last time. I am enjoying the yummy vegan food the kitchen is going through all the trouble to prepare for me, even the snacks at the end of the day before the last study session.

Today is Liberation Day. Yesterday evening during dinner we had two minutes of silence to remember the Netherlands victims of WW II. Sitting at my table was a German man of a certain age. He didn’t understand why we were silent and thought at first we were praying. So, he was twiddling his thumbs, drinking his wine and asking me why we were doing this. After the two minutes were up, I had the slightly awkward task of explaining to a 70 year old German that we were honoring the Dutch war dead from the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. He went on to whip out his iPhone and show off pictures of the hotel he is staying at, waxing on about the amazing conference facilities. Like beyond the level of the average guest. Turns out, tonight, as we sat at the same table again, I learned about his past as a paratrooper in the German army in 1965 and then his career in conference management facilities for Esso in Europe – that was his career. And hence his passion over his hotel. Listening to him was interesting. It also made me realize how very different the countries in Europe still are from each other. He’s there to learn Dutch by the way since his wife made him move here because his 91 year old mother in law refuses to give up her driver’s license and apparently terrorizes her fellow Dutch motorists frequently. I made a mental note to be careful when driving around Amersfoort, where they live!

I have collected some other little ducklings, all of whom are learning Dutch for the first time. And I have even invited two of the Amsterdam ones to the birthday party so they can meet new people. I remember how difficult it was to meet people and make friends of them when I first got here. What can I say? I think that you never know how someone might impact your life and it doesn’t cost me any effort to share my experience or make things easier for someone where I can.

I heard from home today and all the pets are doing well. The 100 Whimzee sticks I ordered for them have arrived so they are very happy. These are veggie dog sticks that I always used to get in Seattle and bring back. Ironically, they are made here but you can’t get them. I finally found a farm supply store that would sell them to me at just over wholesale sale prices. It seems that the things that used to tie me to the US are becoming less and less. I am not quite sure how I feel about that.

We had a tremendous thunderstorm here this afternoon, which dropped the temperature from 71 degrees to 61. This morning it felt like Hawaii and with the humidity to match. I could completely hear my mom making the remark about knowing that it was going to rain by looking at my hair. Which I always used to reply to her that she was just jealous of my curls.

Tomorrow is the short day. We only have class and dinner until 1945. I would like to say I would be heading out to the local disco but there isn’t actually one here. I have plans to make the most of the sunlight and ride around to the woods and see some of the historical sites. I won’t be doing homework. That reminds me that I still have some to do so I better hit the books.