Well! I feel a lot better now that everyone's introduced themselves. Like I said, my school counselor thought I could "benefit" from contact with people from outside this area, and I think I will. Maybe not the benefit that *she* thought, but I'm sure I'll benefit.

What I'm saying is that I was a bit nervous about writing. I assumed that I'd be the youngest one here, but I also assumed I was the only one who wasn't completely happy with their situation in life.

I sure didn't expect to not be the only one living in the middle of a very hot nowhere. We've been topping 100 degrees lately.

For you UK-sians, we've been going well over 38 degrees every day. Usually this time of year there are no clouds at all, but because of the wildfires it's quite hazy. The air quality is bad, and even though it doesn't bother me, my parents won't let me ride my bike. One of my parents' friends (one of the few I like) has to stay in ONE room in her house, hunkered down with her air purifier. She even has breathing problems on good days.

Luckily, all the fires are far away from us, so we're not worried about getting burned out. And no jackasses started any fires on the Fourth, so we're good.

So...

I was also interested to see that I'm not the only one who isn't 100% comfortable with their name. Stormy, I think your name is fine. It is a mouthful, but it's not bad. I mean, if you called yourself Lady Melisande Agatha Decker-Williston (of the Sheffield's Crossing Decker-Willistons), I don't think anyone would think twice about it.

Which, now that I say it... well, no, it doesn't sound pretentious. It's just long by American standards.

My own name, in the Spanish style (and this will show you why I don't like MY name) is:

Lindsay Felisa Maria Solidad Nieves Lindsay

Because your last two names are your father's last name and your mother's last name. My mother — knowing full well the wrong and the damage she was doing — gave me Lindsay as my first name EVEN THOUGH it was already there in my last name.

We've fought about this many times... Oh, man! And I didn't want to get into this, but what the hell...

I'm Puertorican, and proud of the fact, but unfortunately, I look just like my mother, with pale skin and blond hair, so everyone thinks I'm white.

I'm not.

And my mother has ALWAYS assumed that I want to live in the Anglo world, as if my Boriken (Puertorican) heritage didn't matter.

And so, you know — well, maybe you won't know, so I'll tell you — but just reading about the rest of you so far gives me hope that I can get away from all this: this hot little town, my stupid name, and some parts of my family.

But, sorry! Don't mean to complain. Now that I've whined so much, I have to find something nice to end with.

Okay: here are a few things.

For the Fourth of July, the winds blew all the haze away, so we had nice, clean air for the holiday weekend. My friend Lewis got one firework: one HUGE thing like a rocket, and he lit it off from my backyard.

It took off into the air, at least twice as high as any of the houses around, and we got SO SCARED that it was going to come down and set something on fire. It didn't seem like a stupid idea until it was hanging up there in the air. Because, you know, all the plants and houses and everything on the ground is as dry as old matchboxes.

Obviously, we weren't supposed to do it.

It exploded with a tremendous BAM!, and this big bright fountain of blue, red, and white, opened up like a flower.

At first we were astonished and happy (and tremendously relieved that we hadn't started a wildfire). Then we heard neighbors yelling, so my friends and I all ran into my house and hid for half an hour with the lights off, laughing our heads off.

My mean neighbor, Mr. Curry, asked me if I knew anything about it the next day, and I feigned innocence, so he was disgusted and walked off, which added some quality to the event.

Another nice thing: on Saturday, I was walking with my friend by the river, and we saw a family of deer. They were only maybe ten yards away, but they were upwind of us, so we stood still and they couldn't see us. We watched them for a while but then Denise had to cough, which scared them off.

One last thing, also very nature-y: Last week, a cow and a sheep turned up in my neighbor's front yard. This is VERY unusual, since the ranches are not that close to us. Anyway, there was a group of animals being taken somewhere (who cares where) and these two got away. My neighbor, again, Mr. Curry (who is not a nice man), had just put in sod in his front yard, and the two animals walked all over it, leaving these deep, deep hoof-prints. They ripped huge pieces of sod out of place, and took big bites out of it.

And even better: they didn't mess with anyone else's yard but his.

Oh, my God, it was so funny! I don't know if you've ever seen someone try to shoo a cow away, but it's a riot. He's there, waving his arms, going "Shoo! Shoo, Bossy! Shoo, shoo!" and of course the cow just chews away, staring at him like he's an idiot.

It was only after he ran in the house to call animal control that the two animals left, and no one knew where they'd gone. I guess they're on the lam. (ha ha)

Plus, in the sod, there were these teeny tiny frogs, less than an inch long, and now they are everywhere. Super cute. My little sister Bibi loves them.

Oh, dear God, what am I telling you!?

Yes, people! Things can get so desperately boring that you laugh at cows.

Laters,