April 6, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I was going to go on a date with Jack tonight, but he had to work!  Apparently we’re seeing an influx of people who want to see the eclipse, and the stores are a madhouse right now!  It looks like it might be cloudy, but there are still a lot of people who want to see it get dark for a few minutes, even if they can’t directly see the sun.

Next time, I guess.

So not too much interesting happened today.  The weather was very nice temperature wise but cloudy, so we spent some of the day outdoors.  We all took a walk and took Marie with us, and when we got to the dog park she had all sorts of fun with the other dogs.  It’s always fun to see how they all interact.  Most dogs there just want to play and be friends.

Maybe they’d feel differently if we were on their turf, but the dog park is neutral territory – everyone gets to have fun.  Well, except when there’s a Karen around, but that hasn’t happened in a while.

Actually, Karens have been leaving me alone lately.  I wonder why.

We had our post-mortem for the concert last week, the girls and I.  And Sabby too, actually.  The consensus was it went pretty well but we’re not really a band.  Problem is, I’m not sure, in our current configuration, that we’ll ever actually be one.  I’m heading off to Japan.  The rest of the girls will be around for a bit longer, but they’ll have to find a drummer.  And, let’s be honest, we’re doing this for Crystal.  It’s not like we hate it – it was kind of fun dressing up like a rocker chick and whaling on the drums for a few songs – but everyone but Crystal and maybe Beth are just doing it because we love Crystal.  There’s no shared passion or goal there… and I think it shows.  I haven’t said this to the rest of the group yet… maybe they read this but I don’t think they do.

And it’s not like we can just pull one out of thin air, either.  This is temporary.  Definitely for me, and maybe for the others too.  Crystal needs to find some people who want to be in a band with her, because they want to be in a band, not because they love her.  She’ll never be able to reach her (surprisingly considerable) full potential if she’s with people who are holding her back, for whatever reason.

Like I said, I haven’t said it in quite that way.  But they feel it too.  That sense of cohesion isn’t there.  We’ve got sister vibes, not band vibes, and it’s really showing.

Still, I really love Diana and Beth because they learned stuff just to support Crystal.  Diana’s not the hugest fan of bass guitar, but she’s practicing diligently and isn’t too bad, actually.  Beth, well, she does like singing, but I’m not sure she’d put as much into it as she is if it weren’t for Crystal.  and me, well…  I have stuff to do, and practicing the drums doesn’t fit into any of my plans.  At all.

Oh well.

Crystal will outshine all of us (in her chosen field, she’s not going to outshine me on the piano).  Far outshine us.  She needs to find people who are on her level.  That’s… really… not us.

Though Beth loves Crystal.  She might give it her all anyway.

Anyway…  I guess enough of that.

I remember, what was it, two years ago or so, when Crystal tried to, well…  off herself.  She’s come so far since then.  I mean she still has her moments and she’s not exactly the most bright and cheerful person… okay, well, she’s actually a bit of a downer sometimes.  But she loves all of us, and she finds ways to tell us that all the time.  She tries hard not to bring us down, but she also doesn’t hide her pain anymore.  We accept her for that.  That’s what sisters are for, right?

She’s sworn off men for a while, though.  The last one… well..  that soured her bad.  But she says it’s not permanent, she just wants to get her head on straight first.

okay…  bed time. 

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

Truth be told, I came very close, two years ago, to killing Crystal off.

But ultimately I decided that would take the story in a dark direction I didn’t want to go.  So she survived.  Wounded, but she survived.

There are many, many dark directions this story could take, and at times, almost did.  But same thing.  Ultimately, that would have hurt the story.  Not that my current choices are great, but still.

April 5, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I went to see the conductor today!!!  We did a playthrough of the concerto.  It didn’t go well, but no one expected it to.  Usually the first few rehearsals never quite go right while everyone figures out what goes where.  Mostly my fault, but I at least knew all the notes and was competent enough.  The conductor said it wasn’t a big deal, and I good enough we can work through it.

Yuki came with me and brought the arrangements for her songs.  After she sat patiently through my part, she handed the parts and scores out.  And… they read them!  I mean, it wasn’t perfect, but they got the hang of it pretty quickly.  Yuki said she wants to talk to the conductor about how things are a little different with j-pop, but she was pretty happy.

The conductor seemed impressed too.  He said they were good arrangements.

As we were going home, she told me how impressed she was that I got to perform with an orchestra like that.  I said she’s going to get to do the same thing, but she said it wasn’t the same thing.  She’s just singing and dancing, what I do takes skill.  I guess I couldn’t argue that.

Her idol friends are coming in a couple of weeks and they’ll stay for a month or so, long enough to do the rehearsals and perform.  That should be interesting.

And that rumor is ALREADY on LINE.  How the….  how do they know it so quickly?  Japanese otaku are already saying they want to buy tickets.  And not a small number of them, too.  Austin should give me a medal for promoting tourism.  They’re saying “Yuki and train onee-chan are having a concert!!!”

Geez…  Well, so far I haven’t had an actually obsessed otaku go after me yet, but sadly, there may be a first time for everything.

Jack’s prom is next Friday.  I’m not really nervous or anything, but… I’ve never been to a prom.  And I haven’t really met many of Jack’s friends at school.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  But he says it’ll be alright, he only says good things about me.

THAT’S WHAT I’M WORRIED ABOUT!!! Grrrrr….

Anyway, my dress is ready and I’ve got a hair appointment and everything, so it should be fine.

Okay!  It’s Friday night and most of the girls are over.  I’m full of pizza and chocolate, now time to play games, watch anime, do hair brushing and nails, and giggle until Sabby slams open the door and tells us to go to bed.

That happens a lot more than either Sabby or I would like…

Oh… ummm… wait.

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DANCE!!!!

OH NO!!!

Yuki is (or at least was) a professional dancer.  Maybe I’ll ask her, but it’s also maybe not her kind of dance…

Love you all!!! ❤️

April 4, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Looks like it might be cloudy for the eclipse!  AWWWW.

Anyway, it was a quiet day.  Just practicing and, well, practicing.  Did I mention practicing?

There’s not much to talk about today.  It was a boringly boring day.  I don’t always like them, but interesting days seem to be a bit annoying lately, and there are far too many of them.  So I’ll take a quiet day.  For once.  It was a boring day yesterday too, I didn’t even post.

I guess I’m going to go to bed.

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

I need to add an “April” series.  But I can’t be arsed today.  I’ll do it tomorrow.

April 2, 2024

This diary entry is part 27 of 27 in Lily's diary dated 33 - March 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I’m pregnant!!

Well, no.  But April Fools was yesterday, and what’s the best April Fools prank than one not on April Fools?  …  that sounded better in my head.  Sabby will probably kill me for that.

Besides, you saw how I was when I was actually scared of that.  I wasn’t nearly this flippant.

Speaking of pregnant, Anathema wants me to be one of her bridesmaids.

I don’t know what a bridesmaid is.

I’ve never even seen a bridesmaid.

All the stuff I’ve seen on the net means they have to wear hideous outfits and do everything the bride says.

But Anathema doesn’t seem to care about all that.  She’s not even really interested in a fancy dress and all that stuff.  She says “I’m pregnant, I don’t even really know who the father is, why the heck would I wear white?”  Well, she used a slightly stronger word.  All she really wants is Joe and a nice memory, and she says she can get a nice memory without making everyone else do everything she says so she can have her special day.

… she really has changed.

So if I just have to support her, well, I can do that.  I’ve been doing it already, anyway.  She and Katie have been talking a lot too.  Katie’s baby is like, what, a year old now?  So she has a lot of experience at babies.  Heck, we all do, she brings little Sabrina over every now and then for us to babysit.  I don’t talk about it much because it’s so… well… common now.  She’s toddling around like a mad-girl and getting into everything.  Cat hates her.  Marie loves her.  She’s not great at throwing the ball, but, she does throw the ball.  And Marie’s very easy to please.

Besides, I’ve had so many other things to talk about and my posts get long enough as it is, without tossing a baby into the mix.

Katie’s letting Anathema babysit sometimes.  She took some convincing because she remembered how Anathema is, but we told her the story of how Anathema came to change, and, well., Katie’s not an awful person.  And Anathema does have a reputation.  But after giving Anathema some baby classes, she’s doing fine.

I wouldn’t want to be the guy that gave her the baby, though.  She gets this glint in her eye when she talks about finally being able to get that DNA test.  I’d say poor guy, but, well, he’s nowhere to be found, so…  yeah.  Throw the child support book at him.

I asked Miki how she felt about that concert, you know, with the bunny suits.  She just shrugged and said “the otaku pay for my chicken nuggets and matcha cookies.  Least I can do is show them a fluffy tail.”

Can’t argue that… I guess.  And while the bunny suits are sexy, they’re actually not very revealing, really.  Well, surprisingly so, anyway.

Anyway…  I practiced a lot today.  First rehearsal with the orchestra is next week.  I hope it goes well.

Love you all!!! ❤️

 

April 1, 2024

This diary entry is part 26 of 27 in Lily's diary dated 33 - March 2024

HI! It’s me! Lily!!!

I’m pregnant!!!

Hahaha!!! I’m not!  April fools!  I didn’t have time to think of something fun so that’s about all I could come up with.

Sabby got a little mad at me for posting anyway.  She says sometimes I skip nights, so it wouldn’t have mattered if I skipped a night.  I said it really didn’t matter, and she kind of ran off and slammed the door.  She hasn’t taken a bath because of me in a while.  She didn’t even go off on me, she just turned around without a word.

I think that hurt worse.

Finally she came in my room, and told me something like “You’re sad because you’re going to have a lot of lasts, how do you think I feel?”

And now I feel awful.

I mean, this was the last Easter we’ll spend together for a while.  And that’s what Sabby was protecting.  We made up, but I guess I need to be a little more careful.

Sabby offered to cater Joe and Anathema’s wedding.  She can’t offer gourmet food, but she can make the cake and some sweet treats.  They accepted gratefully.  They really don’t want anything fancy, just something meaningful.  And that’s good, because Sabby and I can only afford so much.  But we’re not in disagreement about any of it.

Sabby and I rarely have those kinds of issues with the business.  Yeah, we disagree sometimes, but each of us knows that the other has the best interests of the business at heart, so we work through it.  I haven’t been able to spend all that much time there lately, though, and I’ll probably become a “silent” partner by the time I go to Japan, but Sabby’s pretty competent, it’ll work out.

We had a really nice feast yesterday, after we went to church, and…  it was a nice day.  Even if I did piss off Sabby.  Today, though…  I just practiced.  A lot.  I have to make up for lost time.

Miki had an Easter concert.  In typical Japanese style, they didn’t mention “He is risen” or have a cross or anything like that, but they did dress up in bunny suits (you know, the moderately ecchi kind that are skin tight leotards, fishnets, and bunny ears with a puffy tail) and ran around the stage collecting eggs.  I saw a video.  It was somehow cute and hot all at the same time.  Which, I guess…  that’s Japanese idol culture for you.

It got really funny when two idols found the egg at the same time and started fighting over it…  let’s just say the producer wasn’t to anxious for them to stop, all that was missing was pudding…

Hah.

Anyway, I gotta go.  Much to do this week.  And some storms are fixin’ to come…

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

I haven’t seen a concert like that.  But it’s not out of the realm of possibility, by any means.  It’s exactly the kind of thing Japanese idols would do…  they love a good western holiday, but only for its outward trappings.  It has no real meaning to them, and they seem fine with that.