I know, that as an eighth-grader, you feel like a rockstar each time the eighteen-year-old college freshman texts you. I know the stories he’s told you to suck you in, how his mom is so sick and how he’s carrying the burden of the world on his shoulders. I know he talks to you about music and makes you feel like he understands you. I know you want Hillary and I to back the hell off and let you do your own thing.

But E? We love you, and we care about you. He started reeling you in when you were just thirteen, barely a teenager. We know him- I know him. He lives in my town, this small little community where there are no secrets. I know his past, his conquests, his friends, his enemies. And I can tell you right now, he’s up to no good. When my older skater sisters warned me about Jesse, to be careful, I didn’t listen. I told them to fuck off, they didn’t know what they were talking about, to just leave me alone. I stand by my decision only because I believe you have to make mistakes in order to learn. The difference between you and me, though, is that I was seventeen, out of high school. You’re still our baby, the one for whom we’d kill.

This boy, he thinks you’re cute. He tiptoed around when he was with Hillary to avoid anyone noticing that he was talking to someone as young as you. There are rumors that he has ‘pictures’ of you, and I swear on my mother’s grave, if that’s true, there won’t be anything holding me back. In case you didn’t know, those kinds of pictures are illegal in our state for anyone, for any reason, under the age of eighteen. He’s prepping you for more. I know you have a good head on your shoulders… but what about when someone you think is a friend, really cares about you, tries something? Will you say no? Do you have it in you? I never want you to have to make that choice, be in that situation, at this age.

I’m not mad at you; WE aren’t mad at you. I am furious with him, but I’m not angry with you, I promise. Yeah, I ‘had’ him first, but only for a nanosecond. Hillary’s slightly more upset, simply because she feels betrayed, but she still loves you too. Listen to me, hon- I’m going to sort this out. I will not allow him to continue talking to you, no matter how angry this makes you. If he doesn’t follow our rules, there will be consequences for him. This town doesn’t settle for assholes or pedophiles. And I will fix things between you and Hillary.

I love you, dollface. I hope this isn’t the reason we haven’t talked in a few months, because you were afraid of me. There are some things I get upset about, but in this case, I’m not upset with you in the slightest.

<3

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I password-protected a post I wrote about two weeks ago. There are no juicy secrets in it, sorry, I just don’t want that information about me available to the general public. Future protected posts will more than likely be coming, and the password will be the same for all. If you want the password, comment on this post or send me an email.

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The House passed the healthcare reform bill tonight. Remember when I wrote this, about my friend who freaks the fuck out at anyone who could be remotely liberal? Yeah, guess who wrote a Facebook status almost immediately, sparking debate (not bad) and namecalling (bad.) WHICH PISSES ME OFF ALL OVER AGAIN. Shit, I don’t care if you hate the bill. Honestly, I’m not quite fond of it myself. But to write “FOR ALL YOU IGNORANT LIBERALS….I’M SURE THIS IS ALL GEORGE BUSH’S FAULT.”? Really? Do you really need the “for all you ignorant liberals” part? As I recall, there were plenty of conservatives blaming Bush 24/7. So shut the fuck up. *P.S. Just for you, one-who-wrote-Facebook-status, I’m not-so-secretly glad that someone poked a hole in your credibility and commended a liberal for taking the high road. HA!*

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To the surprise of no one, I’m pretty sure I’m failing approximately half my classes.

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My mom hit a deer last week, driving my dad’s car. We took it to the dealer, along with my car (scheduled maintenance), to make sure nothing was technically wrong with it and to order new parts. The service technician propped the hood open to check the engine, stuck his hand in there, and pulled out… OUR HOUSE PHONE. From the engine. All my mom said was, “THAT’S where that went!”

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I bought a new LCD HDTV. It is gorgeous and the most grown-up thing I have ever bought myself. I’ll be living off Ramen and water for the next thirty years, but who cares? I HAVE A FUCKING SWEET TV! Also on the home-y note, I’m painting my rooms dark blue and dark green, a definite upgrade from the current dingy, contractor-painted colors.

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Get ready for tomorrow… where I detail everything that I’ve been feeling toward MFH for the past, oh, ever! (Oh, and in case anyone noticed, I didn’t do a first of the month post for November. Because absolutely nothing is happening in November.)

On some level, I have things to write about. Like the 90% I got on my Psychology Statistics exam, the 91% on my Child Development exam, and the 86% on my Musicology exam; I’m super proud of those. This semester is the first where I feel like I actually have a handle on school, and the first I’m not only starting out well, but the first I really enjoy.

Beyond school and nannying though, I don’t have much to say. I’m in the midst of a potential life-changing event, but I can’t give those details yet, as I haven’t told some people who deserve to know before the general public. That’s consuming a good deal of my time- researching, planning, preparing. I’m excited, and the minute I can write about it, I will.

In family news, my dad moved back to Washington DC. He’s doing business out there, business I couldn’t blog about even if I knew what it was, but he comes back here to Kansas on the weekends. That leaves me to help with getting Will to/from school, finding him dinner, etc when my mom is on call. Its gotten to the point where I’m now at home more often than I’m at my apartment.

TK and Len are adjusting to KU quite wonderfully. We all still have other groups of friends, so we aren’t driving each other crazy, being in the same school again. Len and I watch for TK all the time, since she’s hilarious when she huffs and puffs walking up campus, late for class.

Anyway, no promises I’ll be better at blogging, at least for a little while… but at some point, I’ll be back with plenty of news for everyone.

(P.S. I’m deleting my Plurk account, so follow me on Twitter.)

People that are utterly disrespectful when it comes to political views. (Or, really, anyone disrespectful at all, but I’m talking political right now.)

I have a friend who is extremely conservative. There isn’t one issue he’s even remotely moderate about, let alone anywhere near liberal. You have to tiptoe around anything political around him unless you want an earful of his opinions.

Now, I’m all for debate, but I’m also all for acknowledging the other side and realizing that your way isn’t necessarily the only way.

This friend of mine commented on Len’s friend’s Facebook status, which said something to the effect of “So-and-so is very close to calling himself a Democrat.” Said friend of mine had a conversation with Len’s friend, then followed up with “All I heard from that was ‘sorry I am totally wrong…wow Democrats sure are stupid.’ Lol” Len then got involved, said straight out “No need to be disrespectful”, to which said friend responded “Respect is definitely something you can’t learn from a typical liberal, ha nice try though.”

HOW DISGUSTING IS THAT.

Said friend refuses to even hear out the other side. I consider my political alignment moderate, holding opinions that fall both on the liberal side and on the conservative side. If I even briefly mention a left-wing point of view, he goes BALLISTIC and WILL NOT drop the issue till I either hang up the phone or walk away. As you can see, he also flat-out name calls people (anyone!) stupid, brainless, unintelligent for having liberal opinions.

And he wonders why I refuse to date him. I can’t ever be with someone who not only is so completely disrespectful, but also someone who absolutely refuses to accept that HE could be the wrong one.

Eliesa’s friend has a Siamese cat who was having kittens. Loving Siamese cats and being lonely when I take my pets home for the weekend, Eliesa had planned on taking one of the kittens if the cat gave birth to a Siamese one. Well, apparently they all took after their dad, so Eliesa headed down to one of our local animal shelters while I was at the rink to find the perfect kitten.

I got a call pretty soon after I got off the ice that day:
Eliesa: “Sooo… I’m at Animal Haven…”
Me: “Yeah…”
Eliesa: “Weeelll, how would you feel if I got a husky?”
*note my shock here*
Me: “A husky? As in the DOG BREED husky??”
Eliesa: “Ya, I totally just fell in love with her.”
Me: “A husky, a puppy and a cat in an 800 square foot apartment. LET’S DO IT.”

The shelter knew I had Arabella, and they wanted to see how she reacted with the husky (whose name I can’t remember now.) Right off the bat, the husky’s prey drive went NUTS. Arabella only weighs three pounds, so that’s understandable- but we obviously couldn’t adopt her when we have both Arabella and Trixie.

Eliesa and I (and Arabella) went through the shelter looking for a new dog, since Eliesa had basically decided at this point that she wanted a dog that she could take running. One of the adoption counselors pointed us to a dog named… Esme. That was the name they had given her. She’s a black lab mix, about a year of age. The only thing she wanted to do to Arabella was to play with her. No issues there, so Eliesa filled out some paperwork and brought her home.

Oh yeah, and renamed her Breckyn.

I used to watch the sky before I finally fell asleep each night. At least once a week I’d see a shooting star, which is totally cool given that people complain all the time about never having seen a shooting star. But this meteor shower? Those meteors left big, long streaks of light after them.

It was tight.

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Will officially started high school yesterday. He says it’s just school, lame, sucks, whatever (that scarily sounds like me), but he’s finding the fact that he can leave campus for lunch quite liberating. They only have 25 minutes for lunch, and the only places near the school are fast food, so I’m fully expecting him to gain 24,290 pounds by the end of the year.

Anyway, I’m the one that gets to pick him up after school until my mother hires someone else to, and the two times I’ve gone remind me just how much I loathed seeing that school every day. I can’t believe kids deal with that for three years. Sometimes I wonder what it would’ve been like if I had stayed, and then these haha-yeah-right moments come along where I laugh at myself for even contemplating that possibility. I really am happy with the choice I made.

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My two best friends moved into the dorms today, a full two days ahead of the normal incoming freshmen due to rush. I haven’t seen either; I figure they need time to settle and get adjusted. I feel weird that I’m not sharing this time with them, not getting used to freedom and flexibility and living on your own (well, with another person), since I already went through all that.

However, I am ECSTATIC that my (term used loosely) graduating class is finally in college. And I could not be happier that both Len and Erin decided on KU, even if it will take some adjusting to have all three of us together permanently again.

Thanks to not being able to watch shows online or on TV, we’ve begun to hoarde DVDs like they’re going out of style. I’m totally thankful for the shitty economy right now, since it means places like Blockbuster and WalMart are practically giving away DVDs. I’ve already bought seven, just in the past two weeks. Because hello, I NEED ENTERTAINMENT!

I’m posting this using the wireless internet our apartment’s clubhouse provides. It took me a good twenty minutes to actually connect, as for some reason, my dear old MacBook refuses to properly use AirPort. WTF? And now it just kicked me off again. I KNOW IT WORKS, because Eliesa is sitting right across from me on her laptop! HER LAPTOP THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET! I’m pretty sure this is a sign I need a new MacBook.

My appointment with the geniuses at the Genius Bar has been scheduled.

The original intent of this post is gone, forgive me! I think my point was that I’m way too reliant on technology. Obviously.

Why she chose our rink to coach at and not the supercompetitive rink across town IF SHE’S SO GOOD is beyond me. I will be the first to admit that I am always somewhat suspicious of new people, but I generally have a pretty damn good feel for who is good and who is bad. And let me tell you, my radar is going BIZERK with red lights and noise and caution tape.

So she waltzes on in here, right, gets a few students literally handed to her because we have nice coaches who feel bad for her having no students of her own down here. Then she grabs a couple of our good skaters who kinda were looking for new coaches. Our nice coaches notice this, as do the rest of us, but hey, they were kinda in the market for a new coach, so whatever.

THEN, she goes and helps my friend M with one of her jumps. Now, this wouldn’t be a HUGE faux pas at our rink, because generally all the coaches know/like each other. However, I certainly wouldn’t go as far as to say this is a common occurrence. Actually, come to think of it, this almost never happens. Skaters giving other skaters advice, sure… but coaches giving other coaches’ students advice? No. Mistake of CC #1: Giving tips to another coach’s student when no one is quite sure what to make of the coach herself yet. I honestly don’t know what was going through her head. Maybe she’s never heard of morals? Unwritten code of conduct??

THEN, she tells M to not tell anyone. Mistake of CC #2: There are no secrets in an ice rink!!!! Everyone, eventually, will know EVERYTHING. Plus, this request is so unusual that of course M forgets. M’s coach asks her if CC helped her. M says yes. Hockey player who is close to CC asks M if CC helped her. M says yes, again. All coaches suspicious. Hockey player tells CC that M told him how CC helped her.

THEN, CC HAS THE NERVE to go up to M today and question her. “Why did you tell people I helped you?” She tells M that her reputation is now ruined. M obviously now feels like this is her fault. Mistake of CC #3: She makes MY FRIEND M CRY!!!!!!!!

Oh look, three strikes. You’re out.

And all I have to say is this: If you’re idiotic enough to go around helping other coaches’ students when you are still trying to find your place around our rink, then you deserve the consequence of having a bad reputation. And guess what? THAT’S YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT.

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One of my best friends, Erin, came into town randomly Thursday. She decided at noon to get on a 3pm flight from St. Louis to Kansas City, then to leave the next morning. I picked her up from the airport, and we went shopping down on the Plaza and all around had a good time! I can’t waaaait till she moves back this fall!

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My poor Arabella was sick yesterday. =( I gave her one of Jack The Dog’s big food-bone thingys the day before yesterday, because I ran out of her little rawhide bones. She wolfed it down in like ten seconds flat. I’m guessing that’s why she puked everywhere. She seems to be okay now, though!

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All of my Tulsa cousins have arrived and are settling in here with us in Lawrence. My thirteen-year-old cousin Erin made a blog, click here to see! They all go home on Monday, except for Amy who’s staying here a week longer. We’ll probably be hanging around the lake, the rink, the pool, the gymnastics place, etc etc…

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Aaand, I’ve been contemplating legally changing my name. I’ve always gone by Katie, a nickname of my middle name (Katherine) and have never used my given first name. So I might just go legally change my first name to Katherine and stick a version of my first name as my middle name. Make sense?

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P.S. MANY, MANY, MANY!! thanks to Mary for the new custom header!!!