Forget what I wrote May 13 -- I was in a rotten mood.
This was about the longest weekend I have ever had. Friday night I went to sleep early so I could get up early on Saturday. O.K. then -- Saturday I went to the museum. When Dad dropped me off at school at 8:15 another car pulled up. I didn't know who it was until he got out of the car. He said "hi" and then waited for me to catch up with him. We walked around the school together. That made my day.
Sandy complained at the museum almost all of the time. She wanted to do this, she didn't want to do that, she was tired, she was hungry, she was bored. It was enough to drive a body mad and to top it off Jean L. was with us all morning. She went with some other girls the rest of the day.
When I got home I was so tired I could drop. Mom started firing things for me to do in my face. I was in the process of making a salad and mother came up and got mad. She sent me to my room and there I wrote my May 13 entry.
That night was the visitation at the funeral parlor for Grandma Nielson. The priest gave a touching sermon about her. It talked with Bonnie for the rest of the time we were there and when she left I went over and sat by Jim. He is really in love. I was talking about school and he asked me if I was on the girls track team. I said I wasn't and asked if his girlfriend was. He said yes and his face had the eeriest glow...
12:40 pm The bell rang when I was writing [the] last entry.
As I was saying, Jim is really in love. He wants to move out!!
Then the next day I had to get up early again to go to the funeral. When we got to the church I had to wait upstairs for Bonnie. While I was waiting a boy of about seventeen came in. I was in the very same room as him! I suppose he was my cousin, but it's nice to dream!!
The funeral as a whole was boring, but funerals are not supposed to be real lively, I guess. They had delicious food though.
Then this morning I got up and went through the daily routine of getting dressed and such. At about 7:30 I heard on the radio, "A 15 year old girl was fatally injured in a two car crash..." I listened for who the girl was, "The victim -- Landa G...." That struck me right in the face. I couldn't believe it. Laughing, gay, warmhearted Landa -- dead. Everyone liked her.
Note:
Lots here: My cousin Jim...the girl he was in love with was in a terrible car accident in which she was severely burned. She recovered, but their relationship didn't. Jim was my closest cousin in age and probably in spirit. He didn't marry until he was in his thirties, I think. About four years ago my mother told me that his mother, confided in her that Jim was an alcoholic. That next Christmas I wanted to visit with him at his mother's house on Christmas Eve, but ended up getting lost trying to find her house. Jim died the next February (I think it was February) of an overdose of alcohol. He had just been released from detox and drank himself to death. Last summer I visited his grave. Until I actually saw the gravesite with his name on it, I guess I had not believed it to be true.
Jean L at the museum: This was like kicking the dog. Here I was among the underclass in junior high school. I should have had more compassion than to act the same way the popular girls did with us. Poor Jean The only thing wrong with her was a bit of leftover "baby fat" and a really amazing imagination. My dislike for her stemmed from elementary school. I really don't know why.
Landa: Looks like I even lied to myself in these journals. I didn't really like this girl. She was popular and I was not. She sat in the front row on the far left in my 9th grade English class. The day we heard she was killed we all stared at her desk. Finally the teacher made the row move up. The girl who had to sit in Landa's desk cried and cried. I think the teacher should have left the desk empty. After my grandfather died the following year I discovered that he was buried a few yards away from Landa.
Oh, and the boy who got out of the car when I did when I was dropped off for the science museum field trip was Warren M. Another crush of mine.
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