For whatever reason I'm taken back to this time last year when we were doing Jolly 4 Joplin.
Have I told you about that?
Well, in May of last year, a small city called Joplin was hit by a tornado. And because kids' families were so busy rebuilding their homes, they couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents. So our team at school (I was in eighth grade) contacted my science teacher's friend in Joplin, who usually dressed up as Santa at malls and stuff. The kids at one elementary school wrote letters to Santa. We were Santa. We raised money, then went out on a wonderful shopping day and bought the presents. I still remember my girl, Gabby, and the present she asked for. (Though I was a little surprised when she opened her play makeup set and I realised I just basically slapped fifteen different eyeshadows on a kindergartener!) It was a wonderful day that I'll never forget. We left for Target on the city buses in the morning, ran around buying gifts. I got to help manage all the spare change when we got to West Acres. Then we had lunch, bussed back to the school, and wrapped the presents. What fun the wrapping was! Ribbons and tape and news crews everywhere!
It's a pity I've lost that T-shirt. After we helped load all the presents onto the truck, we couldn't wait for the day. Finally it came. We all sat in the auditorium with our Jolly 4 Joplin shirts on and watched the kids (with their matching shirts) recieve their presents. It was so amazing! "Santa" was wonderful, and I'll always remember that one boy who went up to the camera and kept saying "Thank you" and "I love you". He was so cute! It was a wonderful day, a wonderful experience, to give some presents to kids who probably wouldn't get any others. Elf for a day. Haha.
This is the kind of thing I'll tell my kids about. Then I'll take them Christmas shopping and give them each a dollar to put in the salvation army man's bucket. Is it strange I've taken the thought that far?
Regardless, it's a nice memory.

FUCK YEAH!!!!!
Jay and Nya can be together! Garmadon's had his awakening! GARMADON'S HAD HIS AWAKENING. MY GOD!
I feel like I could climb a mountain! Not even climb, just leap right up to the top! The whole world is perfect!
Garmadon's had his awakening.
Jay and Nya can be together.
Garmadon has had his awakening.

This song fits them.
They are so cute.

I once said that the nice thing about multiples is that they'll always have each other.
At the time I thought I was just talking about twins and triplets and stuff.

The more people that share a place, the more real it becomes. Earth is very, very real because there are just over seven billion people in it. A place like the queen's land has very few people, so there is not enough reality to go around.

I also think this applies inwards as well. Everyone has a little world in their minds that they retreat to now and again. Mike's mind-world is just more real because there are five people in it instead of one. I imagine once Destinee masters her mind-world it will be even realer.

Is realer a word?

I read something I probably shouldn't have today.
I didn't mean to. I probably shouldn't even have picked it up, but curiosity makes me grab every piece of paper I see. It was a confession of love, from a boy to a girl, but it was also confession of something much worse. I can't think of anything better to do with the information than to keep it to myself.

I tried to go to the homecoming dance tonight, "tried" being the active word. Katelin and I couldn't get in because apparently you need to buy a ticket beforehand and they're not sold at the door which, I will point out, NO ONE made clear. So we walked in confused because everyone had tickets and we reasoned that we could just buy our way in (at $5 a ticket, ten bucks could've covered the both of us) but they wouldn't have it. Katelin walked up to a woman and calmly asked, "Hey, can we, like, buy a ticket?" And the woman replied in a snotty voice, "No, you, like, can't. They're presold in the cafeteria." (For the record, no one wants to spend valuable time at lunch buying things when they could be spending it shoving food down their throats, but I'll save that rant for another day.) Anyway, she then told us and about a dozen other people that if we didn't have tickets, we needed to leave (still being incredibly snotty and rude, by the way). We were lucky enough to have the foresight to make Katelin's mom wait for us until we were sure we could get in, but I saw a group of people walk off into the darkness. One girl was talking desperately on her phone and shivering in her short sleeves, and it nearly broke my heart to watch another girl wrap a blanket around her friend, whose sleeves were basically nothing. Again, Katelin and I were lucky, and we went back to their restaurant and had a pretty fun time playing with the twins. But I have to think about those other people. What if they couldn't get rides and had to wait out there forever? Katelin's dad was going on that they could go out and get lost, drunk, high, into a shooting, or killed out there, whereas if they had been allowed to buy tickets, they would've been safe at the dance. I know it's wicked, but for a heartbeat I thought, "hmm, and when someone's dead on Monday, we know who to blame".
And you know what the most messed-up part is? The proceeds from the tickets were going to the Garcia family, who lost their house (in a fire, if my information is correct). So we were literally handing that woman more money to go to those poor little kids (not exaggerating, I saw the family at the pepfest and there were little kids) and she just turned it away. Nope, no more money for them. They don't get anything else. What. The. Hell.
Okay. Okay I think I got all my rantings out. I covered all the bases, yes? Yes. Okay. Good night.

When trying to become friends with a boy when your friend has a crush on him, you must overthink every step. Anything could look like you like him, from a giggle (reality: you do that all the time for no reason) to brushing your hair back (reality: it was windy and your hair was blowing in your face) to playing his favorite song again on your iPod when he asked (reality: it's your favorite song too, go figure!). If she gets mad, just tell her you think they'd be cute together. That'll turn her around or at the very least shut her up.

Grandma said today that she saw a falcon on the metal fence today.
A falcon.
A FALCON.
Could it be that falcon?
I hope so...

I taught an origami dragon lesson today.

Every time I write Destinee, it makes me wonder about Mike's past. And every time I see Mike, it makes me wonder about Destinee's future.
Funny.

I've figured out the pattern!

The way births work, is they operate on a cycle of moon and sun. Psychic abilities are tied to the moon. As I was born at mere seven on a winter's night, I have merely scratched the surface of psychic abiliy. Which is why I can read people, but not all that clearly. Someone like Dawn must've been born at moonhigh. Same goes for Yakumo, or at least close to moonhigh. Those born in the day have no psychic ability (though sometimes the pattern, like any, is broken) and are basically normal. However, those at sunhigh are most likely to be born with....psychologic complications, we'll call it. (I don't want to say "problems", it sounds judgemental and I hate to sound judgemental because I'm trying to be nice). Liam-excuse me, Luna, was born at sunhigh. Mike, perhaps. Destinee, definitely, because I wrote her, made her up myself, and I say she was born right at sunhigh. That's the thing.
Twins (and triplets and whatever) are rarely born with one at sunhigh or moonhigh, though I've seen it happen (think Ghost Boy and his brother) it's exceedingly rare. They're more likely to be born in the day, and it's just a little bit less likely they'll come at night, though not totally unheard of. Those born at night, of course, tend to have stronger "twin telepathy" than twins born during the day. Of course.
I can't believe the pattern was that simple.

Random thoughts over the last few days:

There's nothing more precious than when Angeline called Sandra "sister".

The first time I drew Carol I was stunned by how much Cole I saw in her.

Lia and Hayden are the other names, although Hayden was a given.

I have to draw them. Now.

Cutest person in the world: Little-boy Lloyd. Cutest couple in the world: Jay and Nya. Cutest thing in the world: The kitten cam kittens.

Carol has the biggest bust because it makes sense, and Zoey's is smallest because it makes sense.

Maybe Sari doesn't know everything.

Courtney is normal now. She makes sense in that way. I'm not sure if she felt the connection last night, but I did.
She has anxiety. She's sweet. She pops her knees like I do.
She's taken on a Karen Ichijou vibe, at least boyfriend-wise. Even though I think she could do so much better, I won't say anything because she likes him and hey, maybe she can fix him.

Lyla matches her mother in both beauty and strength. You have seen nothing until you've seen her flip her dad over on his back in one shot.

I think everyone is most beautiful in sleep. In sleep, anyone can look cute, becuase they seem so innocent. So pure. Like they could never do any wrong. I think people are this way naturally all the time, their actions just make them worse. That's why they're sweetest in sleep. They're not doing anything to screw that up.

Nya reminds me of Cinderella. Not the Disney Princess, the song.

Kasuni Nunaki and her kitten, Itazura.

Today, Zoey has officially earned herself a cowrie shell. Not that I ever doubted she would, of course. I knew she would be sweet and accepting when the secret finally came out. *sigh* Couples like them restore my faith in humanity.

I guess she's the Miharu to his Yukinari