Kids

Well, I found out something interesting these last few days... I like kids!

Not in a creepy pedophile-ish way, but that I think that kids are fun... Even if they can get a bit annoying.

The circumstances leading to this particular conclusion would be that my moderately estranged half-sister and her three daughters came to visit! I thought it would be awkward, but the girls are having a blast, and I think that their enthusiasm is rubbing off on everybody else.

Regardless of cause, it's going great, and there's nothing to worry about. It was worth all the carpet work to have them here.

Back.

Hm, finally back home.

I spent the last few days on a great trip to Bozeman, Montana for my brother's college orientation.

In addition to figuring out that my brother is actually a bit more grown up than I thought he was, I'm also kinda happy to note that he found courses that he's genuinely interested in. I mean, he's taking 'Introduction to Arabic' and he's excited for it! I know I'd jump for a class like that at my school, but I guess I'm just glad to hear that he is going to be able to adjust well.

Also, on the entire trip I read through three Dean Koonts novels, 'The Husband,' 'The Good Guy,' and 'Velocity.' While they were obviously good books considering I read all three of them non-stop, I'd like to recommend his novels to people. I mean, they do get a little graphically violent, but it's not much worse than you'd hear on a daily news program in the USA anymore.

Though, that could just be a testimonial to the slippage in quality of news in America.

Old Friends

Well, let's hear it for Facebook!

Out of the blue, an old friend that moved away in like third grade found me on there, and we've gotten to talk. It's nice to reconnect with people you'd almost forgotten, like a little reminder of those long-gone Days of Innocence.

...Then again, I'm certainly one to talk about innocence, considering that most would consider a person of my age to be innocent all the same.

Living on junk food

So... A week into the epic floor re-carpeting, and we've finally got carpet completely down in one side of the basement! It's been a huge pain, and I don't think I've had an actual healthy meal since I cooked a few days ago, but still, it's half-done already!

In other news, now that there's less work that I can do, and more work for people that are paid to do this work, I've gone back to Taekwondo! It's weird, but even a week away, and I was a pretty sorry sight today... Felt a bit sick a few times, but it was an easy class, and TKD is always fun.

Oh well, I feel great now, even if we did have to make a stop to Mickey D's after because there's nothing to eat at home that's any better...

License

Fun note on this... It appears I read to deeply into the initial refusal. I guess my parents are simply convinced I need to drive borderline-obsessively for a few days, then I can get the license.

Let's hope they keep their word.

I HATE CARPET

So, after all the flooding in the basement, family decided to start tearing up carpet early... And, that has sucked. We got all the carpet up, after moving several very large things, but, then we had to take out the rotted tack strips because they're old, and mud + water + old = ROT.

Do you know what an annoying process that is? You have to take a small chisel, and then force it with a hammer under the glued down wooden strips, hoping you'll get something up. Yeah... No fun.

At least it's done....

After doing that for a mind-numbing few hours, I cooked dinner! My mom watches over constantly, but she let me do most of the actual cooking today. Honestly, I am really surprised I haven't set anything on fire yet...

I keep expecting to mess it up and burn dinner, but no such misfortune so far. I guess I'll just keep trying it, and if I can learn how to do it right, that should be a great help for college/later life.

Besides, It beats ripping out the freaking carpet.

License/Basement

Wow... What a great day yesterday was! First, when the letter comes in the mail that I can get the next step of my Driver's License, my mom flat out told me that she is not going to let me get it. She gave a few half-assed reasons for this, but we went driving right afterwards, and nothing of the like she described happened, and I'm not sure I've ever even had things like that happen...

It's almost like my parents don't trust me anymore. I mean, my mom has actually told me that she doesn't trust my best friend that we've known since I was in first grade. He doesn't do drugs or drink or smoke pot or anything, and she doesn't trust him. I honestly don't get it anymore. Is she actually listening to Chris now? Doesn't she know that my stupid brother openly hates me, and that he refuses to trust me, no matter what I do?

Then, even better. We had a huge downpour that evening, and around 9:30 PM, our basement started flooding. I mean, how can you top off a day like that other than to have to deal with a huge downpour, and stop your basement from flooding?

Ugh, what a mess. I don't wanna try and drag out this huge issue, but I really want my license, I mean, it's been six months of waiting, and the TELL got -really- old after about two weeks. When I get this license, I'll be so much more self-sufficient! I won't have to rely on everyone, and be such a huge burden on everyone... What's wrong with that? There's way worse drivers than I am on the road, and I don't get why she's worried when I passed the Driver's Ed test with complete ease...

Maybe I'm just not seeing the whole issue, and I'm dragging out the fact that she's said that she doesn't trust my friend too far... Either way, I guess I just need to figure out for sure, but I don't know how... And now certainly isn't the time to start anything like this.

I really just wish I could have that unshakable feeling that my parents trusted me completely again, and I don't even know where that feeling went. I just hope it can come back again, or things are gonna get... Tough.