I Can't Stop Eating These Damn Jelly Beans

[enduringplum]

Jelly Belly is giving me a serious tummy ache. Maybe I should sue them for making these damn things so delicious. One flavor that's not delicious? Baked bean. I sampled it at the grocery store, it was atrocious.

The friend I e-mailed the other day wrote me back; It was nice to hear from her, although she didn't really give me any clue as to what her life is like now and what it's been like for the past eight years. We'll have to get together to really catch up after my life is a little more normal.

In middle school we were absolutely inseparable after we met in P.E., which was a subject both of us despised; She despised it because she was an unathletic, over-achieving nerd and I hated it with a burning passion because at that age I hated most things with a burning passion. I think we became such close friends so quickly because no one else would be her friend (sadly, most of our classmates were jealous of her incredible brains and shunned her because she had crooked teeth) and I needed someone to accept me unconditionally, which she did. Really, that's what we gave each other at a time when young people are at their most self-conscious and crave that kind of acceptance more than anything else.

I wrote a letter and several 'thank you' notes today, to Aunt Joye's friend who lent me the large small animal cage and to the veterinarian's office that treated Conrad for free. I should sit down to write one for Aunt Joye right now, because I'm afraid I'll forget otherwise; For her I'm also going to include about five hundred dollars to help with the extra expenses she incurred from having me here. Really, though, there's not enough I could ever do to repay her.