by Beth Hoyer
"Me too"
Me: "Sorry to hear about that."
Sue: "After the test my boyfriend Kurt took me out to eat at a fancy restaurant."
Me: "Good for you."
Sue: "He gave me a Pearl Necklace. My mother when she saw it said it wasn’t real."
Me: "How outrageous of your mother. Anyway it was good to get something thoughtful"
Lucky Sue because she has a boyfriend and I don't. Humph. I have to admit that I have a little bit of a bad memory when it comes to quoting people’s conversations. I admit the TTY had a print out that printed most of the conversation down. Then awhile after the phone call, Dad told me this, Mom called and told him she was coming over tomorrow, which I wrote:
Dad: "Lisha, your mother is coming over tomorrow at 2pm. Look for her"
Me: "Okay dad"
Oh good I can't wait to see her.
I confess I spent the days when Sue wasn't working in the break room. I cheated a bit and had an hour for my two required breaks. I work for eight hours and I get three break times. Two fifteen minute breaks and a thirty minute break for lunch. I confess I sometimes cheat by doing an hour break two times. I haven't been caught yet but I'm waiting to be caught. I wonder why I haven't been caught yet. It's very weird. I guess it's the boss Leslie Sasa. She's been repeatedly asking me if I was sick or something. Am I that pale or what? I looked in the mirror and I don't look like I'm tanned. I look like someone who's tired with circles under my eyes. I think Mrs. Sasa knows I'm goofing off but I think she's letting me get away with it. She was firm with other employees goofing off. Sue told me she overheard her docking one employee's pay. I’m tired. I need some sleep. I might as well go to bed now. I stayed up too long.
Yours truly,
Elizabeth
January 9, 2001 Tuesday
Dear Anne,
Yesterday Mom didn’t come. I spent most of the day shivering outside in my warmest clothes freezing my “seatie” (Mom’s term) off in the cold on the porch steps waiting for Mom. It’s because Dad’s house isn’t equipped with a doorbell sensor. Dad kept promising me that he’ll get a doorbell sensor light that would go off whenever the doorbell would ring. I was still sitting outside when Dad came home around 5pm from work. Dad called Mom to find out why and he wouldn’t tell me why Mom didn’t show up. I lip read him saying something to do with a religious ritual Mom couldn’t pass up. I suspect it’s the reason why my parents divorced. Mom is a believer of New Age religions while Dad is believing in something else that he refused to explain to me. It explains the candles in Mom’s apartment. She has them scattered all over her apartment. Oh on my birthday Mom made me make a wolf head drawing on a big blue candle and light it while saying some words in Mom’s native language of Romania. I had no idea of what the words were. Just a little background, is that her family Gramma and Grampa Najinov at first came from Russia to Romania where Mom was born. Then they moved to America to Connecticut to live and that’s where Mom met my Dad in college.
Dad wasn’t very pleased. He was practically yelling on the phone that I couldn’t lip read him except snatches of him telling Mom that I spent the day outside waiting for her. As a result I wound up going to bed early.
I spent some of today resting. I had a weird dream of a white wolf. The dream was that I was surrounded by clouds while on a mountain top and then a white wolf came to me from behind me. I turned around to see the white wolf sitting there staring at me. Then the wolf walked into the clouds and disappeared. I woke up to feel claws on me from one of the kittens kneading my stomach, Hmph darn cat.
Mom being very religious would consider the dream an omen, weird. I was well enough to walk to the bank in a grocery store to deposit my birthday money. I'm glad to earn money. I love it when I get money and I hate it when I'm greedy. I brought two magazines one about soap operas and the other about famous people in Hollywood. I buy both magazines every week because I love reading them. Then I walked home. Since it snowed last night I wore my boots while my feet felt like heavy blocks.
At home I read my two magazines before the soap opera came on. As I looked out the window, I saw Mom's car pulling in the driveway. I turned the TV off and opened the front door to let her in. It was great seeing mom. I'm so glad I looked out the window. Mom came in to warm herself. She apologized for not showing up but wouldn’t tell me why when I pressed her with questions. Then she suggested I come along to go shopping. Shopping is one of my favorite things to do. I love to spend money on things when I should be saving my money.
First mom drove the car to a museum in New Haven. I didn’t want to go but Mom insisted that we go anyway. We looked at the Dinosaur skeletons including life models of animals from the pass millenniums ago. During the looking Mom kept trying to tell me something but we kept getting interrupted by a security guy with some white streak in his hair and a weird mean look on his face. He kept insisting on looking through mom’s big black bag. Then we went shopping at the museum store with the security guy following us and spying on us, really rude. I brought a pen with rocks in it, like a gem pen. Then we went to one of Mom’s favorite stores that sell fabric. Mom loves fabrics and she’s always buying them to make scarves, and skirts too. After that Mom drove me home as Dad pulled up while Mom was leaving. I saw Dad make a rude sign with his fingers in sign language as Mom drove away. I think he’s still mad that I was outside all day yesterday.
I watched two TV shows on TV with Dad. They were about wolves. Dad insisted I watch them. They were on an animal channel. I saw them and I admitted to Dad that I liked wolves. Dad was about to tell me something but the phone rang and went to answer it. I think I'll go to bed now. I'm feeling really tired. I had an exhausting day. I haven't slept much because of breathing through my mouth. My nose oddly got clogged up which is strange for I usually don't get a stuffed nose. Because of the mouth breathing I've been keeping a bottle of water on my night stand next to my bed. I find I've been drinking lots of water during the night. I also had wake ups in the early hours of the morning too. I suspect it had something to do with sitting outside in the snow all day yesterday. Humph.
Yours,
Elizabeth
January 10, 2001 Wednesday
Dear Anne,
Today I went to a library where Dad works. He came home for lunch at noon and he took me to his work. I asked last night him that if I could go with him to the library. One thing I hated was missing was unknowingly a love scene between my favorite character Lucky and his girlfriend Elizabeth. No joke her name really is Elizabeth. I wonder sometimes if Mom really named me after the Elizabeth in the soap opera Mom watched for years. I guess I have to hope there will be another love scene later. I went online the computer at the library. That's where Dad works as an assistant Librarian. The computer internet here is faster than our service at home. By the way our service at home is lousy. It takes five minutes to load up my e-mail account site. I don’t have the patience to wait five minutes to check my e-mail. I prefer the library’s computers. So I was glad I got to check out my two e-mail accounts. One account I share with friends and family and the other is for strangers. I don't like to give out my e-mail to strangers. I got mostly junk email and stuff about the website such as a website about wolves which Dad insisted I check it out. I just don’t get it why Dad is pushing this wolf business on me. He also started pushing this story about skin walkers’ people who can change into wolves or any animal, weird again.
I found a lot of web sites online on my interests, such as gymnastics and a TV show which I watch a lot. Dad tapes the episodes and I watch the videos. The show is on at a late hour on Saturday nights. It was Mom's suggestion that Dad enforces, on Saturday night to tape the episodes and I watch the videos after work. I had a snack of chocolate candy and soda one of my favorite snacks in Dad's office. It's an unhealthy snack but I had cravings for chocolate. I checked out the local college's gymnasium a short walk from the library and I saw some of the women's college gymnasts. I didn't see them do any gym
nastics because they were busy stretching. I do hope if I have kids, I would want them to be gymnasts. I love the sport of gymnastics. It's my favorite sport I went back to the library and I typed a journal entry on the computer. I could type more but Dad came and told me it was time to go home and I managed to save the journal entry on disk. I hope I can still nose breathe as I sleep tonight. I've been feeling cranky all day that dad asked me this:
Dad: "Lisha, Why are you being Cranky?"
Me: "Oh I didn't sleep well"
I watched a TV show at 9pm.The TV show is in its final season. I didn't want to miss it.
Yours,
Elizabeth
January 11, 2001 Thursday
Dear Anne,
A cat Demeter I think slept on my bed with me. Demi usually sleeps on the bed with me for warmth. I'm sure it was Demi. I fell asleep a few times after waking up. I have been tired lately. I don't know why. I guess I'm really not a morning person. I'm more like an afternoon person for I’m wider awake. Dad and I went to the nearby mall. I had fun walking around shopping that I brought a paperback book and some earrings. I felt like I really should spend time with Sue but she's busy. She is taking make up classes to make up schoolwork because she failed some classes