Stars were falling on Alabama

I was about to go and do my laundry, but it turns out I don't have enough quarters. And it's funny because I'm really annoyed that I can't do it today now, even though an hour ago I was trying to rationalize not doing it.

I talked to Pete just now, who has been making me nuts the past couple of weeks, calling and suchlike. It's such a relief not to be in the same state anymore. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're still very good friends. I'm just not remotely interested in which famous person he hung out with last night anymore. My world is too low-key for that nonsense anymore. I decorate my apartment, I watch movies, I spend free time with people that I like. This is a large part of what I moved to Seattle for, and it is good.

Next week, I think, I'm going to go try not to embarass myself too badly in a dance class. Things can't continue the way they're going; I can't keep eating like a frat boy and stay this size. I've only recently discovered that I have eating habits, and so I'd like to keep them. Before you all start getting shrill and mentioning that I'm still smaller than a breadbox, remember that I'm still getting acquainted with me, and we're still not entirely comfortable with each other. But I'm doing my best.

I'm waiting for the pitter patter of the mailman and not hearing it, and I think that this may tragically mean that I have no mail.

(no subject)

My brother is 12, which means that he is coming dangerously close to getting grown up. Last week he wanted to know what masturbation was (my father answered "I'll tell you later" but my stepmother was having none of that and made them go in the other room for a talk.) Later that day he wanted to know what a condom was, and it's really just altogether too much for me.

He's a peculiar kid, afraid of dolls and "getting jacked," which evidently means getting beat up or kidnapped. (I'm so out of the slang loop.) This last fear is slightly valid since there's been such a rise in kidnappings in Florida; that girl whose abduction was accidentally videotaped lived not far from my family. He hates that my old porcelain doll collection is still in the house.

I've neglected him shamefully the last few years, waiting for him to turn into a person. In an attempt to at least begin to undo this neglect, I've sent him a couple of cd's. He's starting to really get into music now, the way you only can at a certain point in your life, and I enjoy that. Whenever we would be in my car together I always let him choose the cd. He tended to go for the Foo Fighter's "Colour and the Shape" because it was the first he'd tried (and he is, after all, my brother and a creature of habit) and I would try to expand his scope. "No, how about maybe that one there? They're called The Dead Milkmen." "See these guys here? Lynrd Skynrd? Dad and my mom used to hang out with them." "This is Poe, and your only duty in life is to worship her." Since I've moved to Seattle, and even for my last year in St. Augustine, our sibling time has diminished. But Ryan's personality is happening, he's more him than he's ever been before.

And it's my duty as his much older sister to shape his personality the way I want it to be.