Snowy Weather and "Torture Bells"
Wintery weather was predicted for our area today, first sleet and ice everywhere and possibly snow later in the evening, so a whole uproar was caused at school at the thought of possibly getting out of school early. We were talking about it in Orchestra because we had a concert tonight and if we went home early that meant the concert would be rescheduled to December 13. Ben Rosemann couldn't handle himself. He told Ms. Schlienat, "If we get out of school early, you'll hear a loud voice yelling, "YES!!!" Then he, Shelby Simmons, and Hannah Goldstein did a snow dance. They waved their arms and spun around in a circle, and while they were doing that, they sang, "Hallejulah, it's snowing men." over and over again.
At the beginning of Gifted class, we heard an announcement over the intercom. It said, "Due to inclement weather, we are having dismissals after lunch." Brett smiled and then shouted "YEESSS!" just like Ben said he was going to do. Brett, Gary and Alex Chan couldn't get it out their heads.
We were dismissed at 12:30, right after I ate my lunch with Shira and Lalana. The minute I got home I ran upstairs into my room. At first I didn't want to waste the three extra hours of my time sleeping, so I told myself I wouldn't fall asleep. Instead, I started to read the Guinness World Records 2007. However, all I had left to read of it was the music and television awards, and that got really boring after about ten minutes. Then I turned on the radio and decided that I was going to close my eyes and listen to the radio while I had my eyes closed so that I wouldn't be tempted to sleep. However, when I opened my eyes again, it was three hours later, so I guess that didn't work out so well.
While I was asleep, I had this crazy dream that it snowed so hard that we were trapped in this house. Then my radio broke and I had none of my favorite music to console me. So our family bought three music boxes, all of which played nothing but Jingle Bells. After three days of that annoying song I was so aggravated with Jingle Bells that I busted right out of the door and slammed my way through the snow. I ran into the woods behind my house and found a huge present that was addressed to me. The tag said, "It's what you've always wanted." I opened it and a zombie that looked just like Justin Rosenthal emerged from the box. He carried in his hand a music box. After he wound it up, I heard the same song I had heard for three days, Jingle Bells. I covered my ears and ran from the zombie. Then I fell into a ditch, and I thought for sure that the zombie was going to strangle me. Instead he held the music box right up to my ears, and I screamed, "AAAAAHHH!" At that instant I woke up and it was a relief to find myself back in my own room.
That dream must have been sort of a psychic invision, because later, at about 5 o' clock, Ally got out her music box that she got from Grandma that played Jingle Bells over and over. When I got annoyed by the music, Ally put the music box right in my ears, just like in the dream. All of a sudden I remembered the song I had made up last year called, "Torture Bells". It was to the same tune as Jingle Bells, but it was all about things that a person did to hurt himself. I began to sing that song to the tune of the music box to resist the song. And it also hit me that I had all seven verses that I had made up written down and on my bookshelf. I got out Torture Bells and sang it a few times. Then I made several adjustments to the song that I thought I would never sing again and sang the adjustments into it. Here is the adjusted song:

Chorus:
Torture bells, torture bells
Torture all the way
Let's ride in a cart chock
full of angry lobsters to-day!
Torture bells, torture bells
Torture all the way
You just love to hurt yourself
You always find a way

Verse 1:
Getting hit by cars
On a one-way street
We're running in the way
Of every one we meet

Jumping off a plane
When you've got no parachute
And just to make matters worse
You're in a bathing suit

Verse 2:
Boiling poisonous mushrooms
You want to eat for lunch
Even though they just might be
A dangerous thing to munch

You go in a rocket
And stand right on th sun
You just might burn to a crisp
But, hey, it might be fun

Verse 3:
You're standing by a tree
During a lightning storm
And it's 34 degrees
So you're not even warm

Let's go to the ocean
And jump right off a bridge
Chances are you'll likely drown
But you don't care one smidge

Verse 4:
You decide to wrestle
With fierce man-eating sharks
You are going to lose that battle
That'll leave some marks

In a locked gunpowder room
You light a dynamite
You're locked inside a burning room
But still you have no fright

Verse 5:
During a tornado
You're standing right outside
And then you're caught by snarling winds
That is quite a ride

You're climbing up a mountain
But you don't have a clue
You haven't got a single tool
And quickly down goes you

Verse 6:
You're out on the prarie
In the middle of a stampede
Hard hooves crush your arms and legs
What a fateful deed

You're driving an SUV
But you're only fifteen
And then the car rolls down a hill
And causes quite a scene

Verse 7:
Then you jump off a ledge
Into a cobra pit
The cobras then attack you
And you're quite painfully bit

You put some window cleaner
In a can of cold root beer
And then you glug the soda down
Until the can is clear

I also made up one more verse just for the heck of it:
Verse 8:
In an elevator shaft
You climb to Floor Thirteen
You cut the cord with scissors
And then smash to smithereens

You ask your friend to hurt you
With repeated hammer blows
So he busts the living crud out of
Your jaws and ears and nose
So anyway, here's the two morals of this story. One: Your dreams might tell you something strange about the furture, and Two: You never know wether you're going to suddenly remember something from your past.

Ciao for Now,
-Jess

With Just Ten Dollars
Today I think I just found the answer to my world of pain and suffering. Yesterday, I got a buzz book. Why did that make some of the pain go away? The answer is simple. I didn't know before where Alex lived, or any of that stuff. However, I wanted to write a letter to him. I already had it written out, in an envelope, and it even had a stamp on it. All it was missing was the address.
So yesterday I had ten dollars so that I could buy a school buzzbook, which would solve my problem of Alex being unreachable to me. Then we could finally communicate for the first time in months, the one thing I am waiting to happen.
I went to the Bookstore to buy the buzzbook, I suddenly got nervous. What if my letter didn't work? What if I never got to see light in my world ever again? I asked the lady, "Can I buy a buzzbook?"
"You sure can," she said.
I slid the ten dollar bill across the table. She slid across the table to me a green book.
For a moment, I held it in my hands, as if it were the entire world. Then I just felt compelled to run, and dashed outside and hid behind a corner. Then I flipped to the M's, looking for Alex's name. I found it, and read the address silently to myself.
I can't believe it. With just ten dollars, I bought the item I needed to possibly reconnect to the love of my life, who I thought I would never see again. With just ten dollars, I could turn the course of my tragic life around for the better. Now I can believe it's possible, that Alex will mend the parts of my world that were destroyed.
Ciao for Now, from partly revived and ready to make my move,
-Jess

Jealousy!
Recently I learned a shocking piece of information about my new super secret crush Brett. He told the entire Enrichment Reading class that HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!!!
He had said, "Everyone thinks my girlfriend is crazy."
Mrs. Laytham asked, "Who is your girlfriend?"
Brett answered, "Amber Hollowell."
All I could think to do was mumble to myself. "G-g-g-g-ir-ir-irl-f-f-r-r-iend?" I stammered. "No," I thought. It can't be true. I had to pick Brett to start over. I just made a huge mistake! Now what was I supposed to do????
To make things just a little more complicated, Amber just happens to be one of my friends! And at the same time, she is my secret crush's GIRLFRIEND! I became insanely jealous of Amber. It wasn't fair! I need someone much more than she does. Why, then, does she get Brett all to herself?
I feel partly like I want to strangle Amber because she is dating my secret crush, but then I don't want myself to do something bad to her, because friends don't do that to other friends. So now all I can do is try and avoid her. However, Brett and Amber the Couple just seem to be appear everywhere, and together! I see them at recess, at the same lunch table, and just last week I saw them at the library together while I was typing my language essay! And what was even worse was that when I froze with a look of absolute horror on my face and slowly started to back away from the unbreakable twosome, Amber spotted me, wearing a look that said, "Man, what is up with you?"
I think I just might call Amber soon and tell her everything, but I'm wondering if that will result in massive chaos. This new jealousy problem just makes every other problem twice as bad!
Ciao for Now, from totally terrified and jealous,
-Jess

Homework Overload
You won't believe how much homework I have to make up after vacation. First, there was a math test that I hadn't even gotten any information about, so I was given about a dozen review sheets to practice the skills my class learned.
Then we had done a ton of work on the unit about India in our Social Studies class while I was gone, and had a lot of catching up to do.
Finally there was a science research project that I needed to catch up on. On Thursday, when I got back from vacation, I hadn't even started my research and the ROUGH DRAFT WAS DUE TOMORROW! Miss Coe said that I was no exception to this because she had warned me to start my research on vacation. Then, out of nowhere, tears started to flow down my face. Miss Coe just didn't understand. How could I get all of that done by tomorrow? I had to go outside the classroom until I was ready to stop crying. But the overload of homework wasn't the main reason I was crying. I was really crying for Alex. I cried for the entire period, saying to myself, "Why can't Alex be here? Why can't he come back? Why?"
That was the first time I ever broke down for Alex in class. Now I just know that things will continue to get worse until I find Alex or commit suicide. I hope I can get to the light first.
Ciao for Now, from nervous wreck,
-Jess

A Disney World Vacation
Last week we took a family vacation to Disney World for a week. We left for the airport on Wednesday the 9th and lugged our suitcases toward the plane. Flying was really cool. Looking down, all the little lights were like patches of grassland and the highways looked like blood vessels. After about three hours, we arrived in Orlando. My ears hurt from landing, so I swallowed frequently. We came to our resort with no idea where we were going to get to our room, so we wandered helplessly in cold darkness. My ears were still bothering me, but now I was too thirsty to swallow.
It took awhile before we finally figured out where we were going. Then the hotel room wasn't nearly as big as I expected it to be. It was only one story and had only two rooms, the bedroom and the bathroom.
I was super tired, because we didn't go to bed until 11 p.m.
The next day we traveled to Epcot (my choice) as the first day of vacation. I had three things that I thought were awesome in Epcot. The first was the ride Spaceship Earth. It was a slow moving ride that showed the history of communication reinacted by mechanical people that actually looked real. At the end of the ride we were rotating backwards and observing what communication might be like in the future whie we watched cool swirling green lights.
Another thing I liked in Epcot was Honey I Shrunk The Audience. This was a 3-d show that was all about the inventor from Honey I Shrunk The Kids, and now he was getting nominated for an award. It showed you what it was like to be shrunken down. My favorite part of the show was at the very end when the inventor blew up the dog and the dog sneezed at the audience. They sprayed water on you to make it seem like the dog had really sneezed on you.
My last Epcot favorite was at the World Showcase. The World Showcase lets you view cultures of 11 different countries at the food and wine festival. The buildings were very authentic. My favorite ones were those of Mexico. The buildings looked like ancient Mayan ruins. It was so cool! We had dinner at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco. Then we went to see a boat ride in the Norway exhibit. It was all about the spirit of Norway. I thought it was entirely interesting. At exactly 9:00 p.m., we saw a fireworks show called Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. It was by far the most amazing fireworks show we saw at Disney World. There were fireworks coming from all directions. At the center of the lake was a huge illuminated globe, and while it was spinning, it showed pictures inside the countries, like horses riding along pathways. As a grand finale, all the torches, which were positioned at each of the 11 countries, glowed brightly through the night. We passed all the other exhibits as we were leaving Epcot, like: China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada!
On Friday we went to Magic Kingdom. Here are my three favorites there:
My first favorite is in Liberty Square. It's the Haunted Mansion ride. I liked it because it had ghosts appear, disappear, and reappear while they were on the dance floor or eating in the dining room. At the end of the ride, you saw yourself in a mirror and it looked like a ghost was sitting on your lap!
The second favorite I had at Magic Kingdom was in Fantasyland. It was another 3-D show (I'm a total sucker for those things), Mickey's Philhar Magic. In it, Donald picked up Mickey's magic hat and it whizzed him off into the middle of Disney movies like Peter Pan, The Lion King, Aladdin, and the Little Mermaid as he tried to get the hat back. I liked it when all the animals were being stacked on top of each other in the Lion King.
Here is one of my all-time favorites: Space Mountain. Space Mountain is a roller coaster in darkness that speeds around turns at high speeds. The cars glow in the dark, and you ride Space Mountain against a star backdrop. It's a really intense roller coaster.
On Saturday, we headed for Typhoon Lagoon. It's one of the two water parks. (Blizzard Beach, the other, was closed for renovation the entire month, so we couldn't go.) I had two favorites there.
My first favorite was a water coaster called the Crush n' Gusher. It was a raft ride where you could ride as one, two or three riders at a time. There were 3 different slides, the Banana Blaster, the Coconut Crusher, and the Pineapple Plunger. The Banana Blaster was the least intense, then the Coconut Crusher, and the most intense ws the Pineapple Plunger. It started out with a steep drop and went flying around turns.
Another favorite I had at Typhoon Lagoon was Shark Reef. You got to snorkel with sharks, fish, and manta rays that wouldn't hurt you. I snorkeled over blue and yellow fish, some rays and a hammerhead shark. Shark Reef was so inspiring! There was only one problem I had with it, the water was cold, and I mean like 65-degree cold. Brrr!
Since the waterpark closed at five, we had some time to kill afterward. We went back to the resort to relax and have a dinner at the Boatwright's dining hall near our room.
Sunday we were headed for Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom had some cool things to offer, but no really intense rides and no fireworks shows. I liked three things there. The first was part of Dinoland, U.S.A. It was the Dinosaur ride. In it, you had to go back 65 million years to find the Iguanadon, in the middle of a meteor shower. Big dinosaurs roar in your face, there are sudden drops, and your vehicle has to occasionally weave around incoming meteors.
Another thing youu really should visit is the Kilimajaro Safari. It's a 15-minute animal tour where you can see gazelles, cheetahs, elephants, and giraffes on a bumpy road in a safari car.
The last must-see in Animal Kingdom is the 3-d show there. (Yes, 3-d shows again.) It stars Flik and the Characters in A Bug's Life, and it's called, "It's Tough To Be A Bug!" Flik is the host, and he has some special guest bugs that demonstrate their survival skills. My favorite part of the show was when the acid spitting termite came on stage and said, "All enemies must be terminated." Then he spit acid in our faces. (Sprayers shot water at us so it felt like it actually was acid. When he stopped firing, he said, "Darn! Out of ammo. I'll be back!" Then he left the stage.
We left Animal Kingdom while the Jingle Jungle Holiday Parade was going on, so we had a hard time getting out through the exit. Then, since Animal Kingdom closed at 5 o' clock, we headed back for the Magic Kingdom to visit everything in Tomorrowland that we didn't see, since Magic Kingdom was open til 11 during the special Magic Hours. First we saw Stitch's Great Escape, then Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, then the Astro Orbiter, and finally, the most interesting, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was a slow moving train ride that went through the entire area of Tomorrowland. You even got to see the inside of Space Mountain. That's when I figured out that the cars glowed in the dark.
Monday's destination was Disney-MGM Studios. As usual, I had three favorites there. Number One on my list was the Great Movie Ride. It was a tour that showed and reinacted some great events in past movies, like Indiana Jones, Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz.
During my visit, I also enjoyed Muppet Vision in 3-d. (This is the last 3-d show, I promise.)
I had 3 favorite parts in this movie. The first was when the professors at Muppet Vision labs introduced the 3-d character Waldo. He was rather annoying, so when they tried blowing him up, he just multiplied himself. "Cool!" Waldo said. "Now I can start my own football team!" So then the professors tried sucking the Waldos into a vacuum, but they got every one except the real Waldo. In addition, they also also ended up sucking up the entire lab, and even themselves! Then Kermit comes up to the audience and says, "Sorry, folks. Right now the lab is a little...er,...sucked up." My second favorite part is when Fazzy brings out a remote controlled pie and instead of hurling it into the audience, he rebounds it back to hit himself. My last favorite part is at the end when Miss Piggy dresses up as the Statue of Liberty. THen Waldo shoots fireworks around Piggy and rips down the dress, so you can see her underclothes. Piggy shouts to Waldo, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer!"
My final favorite at MGM-Studios was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's a ride where you're the star of a detective show and you travel into the Twilight Zone. The Tower drops you 13 stories at random through absolute darkness. Then you go back up and down and back up again several times.
By Tuesday we were starting to wrap up our vacation. We headed for Downtown Disney, which was a big shopping area. There was Lego, a store completely dedicated to Legos, World Of Disney, a pin trading store, Team Mickey, a place for sports stuff, and Once Upon A Toy, a toy store.
We took a pleasant ferry boat back to the Port Orleans resort. Then we headed back to MGM-Studios to do some of the things we missed the first time, like the Backlot Tour, One Man's Dream, Journey Into Narnia, and most importantly, Fastasmic, the MGM fireworks show. In it, Mickey was in a dream that Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent, and other Disney villains were trying to control.
Wednesday was our last day. We went out to the French Quarter section of the Port Orleans resort to eat breakfast at the Floodworks Food Factory food court there. Then we went back to our own Riverside resort for some fun at the pool before we left Disney World. I mostly felt like laying down on a poolside chair and soaking up the sun. Then we found where the hot tub was and I couldn't resist spending time there. After the hot tub, we boarded the Disney Magical Express to the Orlando International Airport. We got disappointing news there. Our flight was delayed about 2 hours because of bad storms in Dallas, the place where our plane was coming from, so there was an extra long wait. Finally the plane was ready to board. As we took off, I whispered out the window, "Farewell, Orlando."
My ears were bothering me when the plane landed, and the freezing weather wasn't comforting, either. The minute we got home, all I wanted to do was GO TO BED!
Well, that's a brief summary of what I've been doing for the last week. Still, the whole thing was rather depressing. I wish Alex could have been there. He would be surprised if I told him how much he changed me, and how much I needed him, even on vacation in Orlando, even though we were thousands of miles apart. If only I had him back...
Ciao for Now, from lost and emotionally altered,
-Jess

My Connection to The Class
One of my favorite television shows is a show called The Class. It's all about the relationships between eight people who were all in the same class in third grade: Ethan, Kat, Lina, Richie, Duncan, Holly, Nicole, and Kyle. They all get together because Ethan invites them all back together for a reunion. See, in the first episode it's the 20th anniversary that Ethan met Joann, who was also in that same class. Then Joann breaks up with Ethan in front of a crowd of strangers. Kat feels so sorry for Ethan that she decides to help him learn to stop being so nice that people step on him.
Then Kyle reunites with his ex-girlfriend Holly Ellenbogen. She had dated him at the high-school prom, and that same night Holly found out that Kyle was gay, with a man named Aaron. Now Holly was married, and a successful news reporter.
Also in that same episode Duncan Carmello met up with the love of his life Nicole, who was now married to the football star Yonk Allen. Duncan deeply misses Nicole.
This is my favorite part of the first episode. Richie Velch is depressed and he longs for something more in his life. He meets up with Kat's younger sister Lina, and they start to love each other. After the reunion, they go out on a date at a local coffee shop. It goes perfectly until they leave. Lina walks behind Richie's car and Richie suddenly backs up, running over Lina's feet. He is so upset about the accident.
At the very end of the first episode, Nicole feels so sad about Duncan that she asks Yonk on the way home, "Am I the greatest thing that's ever happened to you?" Yonk says, "Well, I'd have to say that you are after winning the Super Bowl, but come on, it's the SUPER BOWL! Wait, there was that million dollar check and that time I had dinner at the White House, but you're still Number Four." Nicole is flustered about this and goes to Duncan's house. They kiss in his mother's bathroom before Nicole goes home.
In the second episode, Richie goes to the hosptal to visit Lina. He finds out that every bone in Lina's feet had been shattered and that she would be in a wheelchair for the next six months. Ethan and Kat are there when he arrives. Ethan tells Richie, "I ran over a squirrel once." Richie is so offended that he yells at Ethan. "Did you take your squirrel on a date before you ran over it? Did you kiss it goodnight? Did you connect to that squirrel the way you never connected to any other squirrel before!"
Kat doesn't want Richie to see her sister, and tells him to go home, and Richie is so heartbroken that he decides he is going to kill himself. When he arrives at his house, he takes an entire package of sleeping pills, hoping that he will die. Immeditaely after, he gets a phone call from the hospital. Kat says, "Don't ask me why, but Lina wants to see you again." Richie has no idea what to say, since he just attempted suicide.
Duncan goes to Yonk Allen's house to see Nicole. He sees Nicole and then realizes that he did one of his first building jobs at that house. "Yeah, I did some work on this house as one of my first jobs. This place is not well built!" He gives Nicole a long list of things wrong with the house. Then the two agree never to see each other again. Nicole, however, tells Yonk about all the structural problems with the house. Yonk wants Duncan to come over and fix the house. Duncan agrees, despite the agreement he and Nicole had made.
Kyle, Holly, her husband Perry, and Aaron have brunch together, where Holly asks Kyle if he can try to get her daughter Oprah into Pembridge Academy, the school where Kyle works.
In the third episode, "The Class Learns About Hurricanes," a hurricane begins to strike in the area where they live. Kat and Ethan meet back up at Ethan's house, where Ethan is folding all his ex-girlfriend's stuff so Joann can get it the next day. Kat is curious after all he had gone through, why he would fold her stuff. Joann shows up with Ethan's stuff just thrown together in a garbage bag. Ethan is hurt. "We were engaged. We were going to get married, and I gave you my grandmother's ring, and after all that, I get a sinch sack?" Joann says, "I'm sorry." Ethan responded by saying in a mean tone, "You know what, I'M NOT!" Kat is rather pleased with him for saying that.
Richie calls an ambulance in a desperate attempt to save his life so he can see Lina again. It turned out that he was going to the same hospital where Lina was staying. "Everything is going my way." Richie tells himself. "Unless I die." Then he offers to take Lina home. Since the huricane has made landfall by this time, when Lina is faced with an open umbrella and goes outside, she gets whisked away in the hurricane. Richie runs out after her in time to see her crash into a hybrid car. When they arrived at Lina's, Richie tells her, "Maybe this isn't going to work out, you and me." Lina asks why not. Richie explains, "When I'm around you, terrible things happen." "That's not true!," Lina cries. Richie supports his statement. "In three days I've broken 52 of your bones, got you lost in a hurricane and sent you flying into a hybrid car!" Lina admits that she still loves him, however, so their relationship remained intact.
Since Holly is a news reporter, the news anchors, rather stupidly, send her out live in the middle of the strongest part of the hurricane, where she gets hit with a stop sign that was flying through the air. Kyle and Aaron are watching the broadcast. Kyle jumped up and gasped, "Oh my god...WE HAVE TO SEE THAT AGAIN!" He and Aaron are up until 2 a.m. watching Holly get hit with the stop sign over and over.
Duncan and Yonk then debate over the price of the renovating project. Duncan still lives with his mom, so he saw the perfect opportunity to make a lot of money. He insisted, "I can't take this job for a penny less than $200,000!" Yonk agrees. Then Nicole yells at Duncan. "We said we wouldn't do this, remember?" Duncan replies smartly, "I can't remember anything before the nice man with the checkbook said two hundred thousand dollars!"
In the fourth episode, "The Class Blows The Whistle", Holly bugs Kyle constantly about getting Oprah into Pembridge Academy. Kyle doesn't want to because he thought that Holly would be too annoying to have around. He finally lied to Holly and told her that he wouldn't let Oprah in because there were too many white kids at Pembridge and that the school had a new diversity policy. Holly was devistated.
Duncan and Yonk begin to bond over their love of football and video games, and Nicole continues to remind Duncan of their agreememnt. Then Yonk tells Duncan that he is allowed to go to the Eagles game with him and Nicole. Nicole is frantic, so she agrees to stay home and Duncan and Yonk go to the game without her.
The highlight of the episode is when Lina and Richie go out on their first date. The waiter recognizes Richie because in his past, he worked as a scientist and then caused the entire company to lose their jobs. The waiter says, "I hope you die a slow, painful death, you miserable bag of crap!" Richie explains to Lina that his company had depended on a sleep medicine called Somasil. The medicine had some side effects like death. Richie had found a causal link, so he blew the whistle and brought down the whole company. Since no one wanted to hire a whistle blower, he now drives toxic waste to a landfill in New Jersey. It is also revealed that Richie is already married. When he gets home, there's another girl in his bed.
The next episode was called "The Class Gets Frozen Yogurt." It was called that because Kat tastes a lot of free yogurt samples without ever making a purchase, and then challenges Ethan to get ten yogurt samples without buying anything. Ethan reluctantly accepts Kat's challenge. He manages to do it but the child behind him was sad because his dog had just died and Ethan had made him wait. Kat told him, "You came in a cartoon deer, but you are coming out of here a giant jackass!" Ethan ends up feeling bad about his bet. "That kid's dog died and I made him wait? What have I done!" he thinks.
Kyle finally tells Holly that he lied about the school's diversity policy and that he didn't want Oprah to get into the school because he thought Holly would be too much of a pain to deal with every day, but Holly thinks that Kyle really still has feelings for her. Even so, Kyle gets Oprah into his class.
Duncan installed some wheelchair ramps into Lina's house under Richie's instruction. Then he goes over with Duncan to help with Yonk's renovating project. While he's there, he manages to start a small electrical fire. Then he and Duncan half-relate to each other's problems. Both of them have the same issue: They both want something, but something else is in the way. Lina is desperately struggling with a wheelchair at her office. While trying to put water in the water filter, she flooded the offfice. Then she calls Richie. Richie is unable to go on a date because under his wife's order's, he has to deal with a rat that his wife found in the refridgerator.
The most recent episode, "The Class Goes Trick-Or-Treating", there are plenty of surprises. The first is that Holly was being put up for anchorwoman of weekend news. She is doing a live report at a petting zoo and steps on a bunny with her spiky shoes, killing it. The footage is placed everywhere. Kyle even comes by to tell her that the footage was also on the Internet, where it was titled, "Can I see this bunny in a size 8?"
Another part of the episode was where Ethan arrives at Lina and Kat's house in a Superman costume. When Kat makes fun of him, he dangles her in the air and refuses to set her down until Kat tells him that he's Superman. After several hours, Kat finally gives him to Ethan's request. Lina starts to see love developing between them and when Ethan and Kat deny this, Lina says, "I'd better leave you two kids alone."
The biggest part of the episode is when Yonk, Duncan, and Richie go to the casino. Richie loses thousands of dollars playing blackjack and has only one chance left to win back his money with the cash he borrowed from Duncan. He told Duncan, "For once in my life, I need to not lose."
He actually wins the next round and leaves with several hundred dollars. He uses this money to buy a trumpet as a present for Lina. Lina is thrilled and uses the trumpet to brag at the neighbor, who has an electric guitar.
I can't wait to see the next episode. In it, Richie and Lina will get even closer.
My character connection is Richie. He's so depressed, like me, and he loves someone he doesn't deserve, also like me. I wonder if he can save his relationship with Lina before she finds out he's married.
I consider myself connected to Richie in ways I cannot imagine. Whatever happens to him will happen to me. I hope everything turns out okay, because if he loses Lina, that means I'll lose Alex forever.
Ciao for Now, from the girl who is connected in a surprising way to her favorite sitcom,
-Jess

Wacky Tacky Day
In the event of Wacky Tacky Day, I was one of the wackiest people out there! I had chosen to wear my bangs died blue, lip gloss on my hands, sunglasses, my sweater on backwards, different colored socks and one tennis shoe and one dress shoe.
The night before I had gotten everything ready on my desk chair, just so I wouldn't forget to dress wacky. Then I skipped breakfast the following morning so I could get ready. The people at the bus stop were pretty surprised when I came up. Bridget Baker said, "We were supposed to dress wacky, but not that wacky!"
I saw lots of people dressing wacky. The prize, though, would have to go to the Sommers twins. They each had their hair dyed three different colors, were wearing funky scarves, different socks and a boot and a slipper. They were soo adorable!
I kept asking people if they liked my hair and saying stuff like, "Happy Wacky Tacky Day!"
I had some fun that day. But also, I saw Alex in the crowd at the assembly. I almost cried. When the lead role of the play sang The Fray's "Over My Head", I sang too, kind of loudly because I know what it's like to be in over my head. People around me stared at me a few times, but I didn't care. If the song had been "Far Away," I probably would have gone nuts, maybe even race out of the audience. I am going under, faster than ever! I need a savior!
Ciao for Now,
-Jess

Twin Day
Twin Day was today for Spirit Week. This year, me, Lalana, and Shira had planned to be triplets. Mrs. Pollio gave us all the same necklaces and hair ribbons. We chose to wear black pants and red shirts.
When we met up at recess with Shira and Lalana, I told them, "We are so gorgeous! Let's promenade!" We pranced around, acting fashionable and all sticking together. "Hey, nice necklaces, ladies." siad Mr. Maxwell. "I know," I told him. "Aren't we so awesome?"
In the lunchroom, Shira shouted, "This is the best Twin Day ever... except now it's triplet day!"
Anthony Henderson came by to take our picture as consideration for the yearbook. (He must think we're cute, because that's the third time already.)
I think I'll dress up for Freaky Friday tomorrow. I don't know what I 'll wear, but all I know is...IT'LL ROCK THE HOUSE!!!!
It's nice to have friends like Shira and Lalana. But even friends like them might not save me from suicide. (What a scary thought!)
Ciao for Now,
-Jess

Care Contest: Alex vs. Brett
Lately, I keep hearing the Simple Plan song, "Welcome to my Life" ringing in my ears. To describe the similarity between my feelings and the song, here are some of the words:
You don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left down in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
But no one's there to save you
No, you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my Life
I'm starting to wonder if either Alex or Brett knows what it feels like to feel unwanted at home, to have plans for suicide, to have a life-changing depression, and to have gone through three lovers. And I wonder if they have even the slightest clue what it feels like to have all those things happen when you're not even 13.
I also worry which of them care more about my scary and unstable position. I think it's Alex, because he so understanding of terrible situations. I'm not so sure Brett would care, because he is rather viotlent and carefree. (To show you how violent he is, he said in Gifted Tuesday that if anyone touched him he would rip their head off.) I think he might enjoy watching suicide. I'll have to wait and see. Only time will tell. Yet it will also bring me pain.
Ciao for Now, from doubtful and searching,
-Jess

My Not-So-Great Halloween
My Halloween was not what you would call the greatest Halloween ever. It began when my sisters began to get ready to trick-or-treat. Ally was going as a vampress and Sydney was going as a snow queen. Next Grandma came over, dressed as a clown, ready to assist in taking them trick or treating. I was going to stay here and be in charge of handing out candy to the younger kids. While I was waiting, I had my CD player and was listening to depressing songs, such as "Far Away" and "Welcome to my Life," and singing when no one was listening. They were the kind of songs that made me desperately miss Alex. I believe I felt his spiritual presence in the living room, where I was sitting on the couch.
Finally, at about 7:00, the first trick-or-treaters arrived at the house. They were Jesse Gordon, Grant, and Kyle Matteson. I thought that since Jesse and Grant were 11 and Kyle was 12, they were a bit old to be trick-or-treating, but I gave them some candy anyway. Then I went right back to my Cd player and the depressing music.
Soon after the trio of boys left, my sisters and Jarod Gordon (Jesse's younger brother.) came back from trick-or-treating. Jarod, in his ninja costume, shortly after went home. Then Ally and Sydney ate a few pieces of candy.
We ended up with a lot more trick-or-treaters after 8:00, like Laura, Thomas, and Troy Bielsmith, Anna and Zach Sullentrup, Mason Jappa, and Bridget and Cassia Matteson (two of Kyle's younger sisters). While they were here, I was outside, riding my scooter in the cold and whispering messages for Alex into the wind.
We ended up with a truckload of candy, but I was still unhappy. No amount of sweets would ever fill Alex's position in my heart. I still need him. Please, dear God, let him come back to me...
Ciao for Now,
-Jess