June 7

I am now babysitting my little brother. He looks adorable in a Cleveland Browns hat that is way too big for him. He wants me to try it on too. "Eh, aah!" He's an attention-grabber, alright.
This is the summer before my first year of high school. I can't wait. Even though I am homeschooled, I will be going to a co-op to take some classes, including Chemistry (I will be doing Algebra II at home, 'cause that's the way I like it--plus I begged a little.)
My iPod touch's battery was dying a slow and painful death, and for some reason I insisted to suck all its life out, so I decided to try a blog. I have no idea why. I like writing, and I just saw "Julie & Julia," and I was bored, so I thought I could just try and see how it works. When I said "Continue," I had no idea that that would create the blog, so Click! done, "What?! That's it?"
It might be fun. Like a journal. I'm pretty sure no one will end up reading this, so it's not like my parents will be mad. There is a sensible explanation.
Right?
Anyway, I'm 13 (almost 14, Dad! Yes, it's true, stop denying it!) and just finished 8th grade (aka middle school) last Friday. Hopefully I will get my braces off on Wednesday. I have seen the dentist last Wednesday, last Friday, today, and will see him again on Wednesday: a record high. 4 times in a week. One of my best friends has seen her dentist about three times since she got them on, in October. Oh well, I don't hate going. The waiting room has Wifi :)
My brother, Spencer (that's his middle name; I'm not putting his first name, you know, for security issues. Not that there aren't like a thousand people with his name, and not that my parents haven't posted, oh, a thousand pictures of us on FB, I just don't know if they'd be mad.) Anyway, Spencer is doing whatever (aka getting into everything--I'll be right back)
"Thank you!"
I say that to him a lot. "Thank you" meaning "Thank-you-for-giving-me-that-thing-that-you-probably-shouldn't-have-which-you-will-give-to-me-right-now!" When he does something that he knows he's not supposed to do, does he try to hide it?
Of course not, don't be ridiculous.
He calls attention to it. "Aah, ahh!" "I'm touching, I'm touching, na-na-na-na-na-na!" (He doesn't talk, I'm just interpreting for him.)
He is currently banging one of those colored plastic cups on the hard floor. And the table. And me. Needs more attention, can you believe it? How much more attention can one almost-three-year-old get? At supper he's got all three of us (Mom, Dad, me) clapping and singing and dancing around just so he'll eat.
Needless to say, he enjoys the show.
A week and a day ago, we got back from Washington, DC. A wonderful vacation. Which we will cherish forever, because I took over 850 pictures. Two or three videos, and 869 "images" total (a few of them being of one of my BFF's) so probably about 860 pictures. We saw the Pentagon, the Arlington cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Mall, the World War II Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the White House (from the outside), the Holocaust Museum, the Air & Space Museum, and...a few other places. Oh well, I have pictures.
We saw the actual ruby shoes that Judy Garland wore in "The Wizard of Oz." And Apolo Ono's speed skates. And Carol Burnett's dress in "Went With the Wind."
Not "Gone With the Wind," although that's a great movie (I wept), Carol Burnett did a two-part series called "Went With the Wind." Look it up on YouTube. It's hilarious. Especially if you've seen the movie.
Okay, I'm going to do my chores now. Wow, I ended up writing a lot. We'll see what my parents say ;)