May 31, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Some storms came by this morning and Liz was scared again.

I don’t really mind.  She’s taken care of me a lot, so I get to hug her and tell her everything’s okay as the booms happen.  she’s gotten better, but I think she likes being babied just a little bit.  That’s fine, I don’t mind.

The girls are over tonight.  I’m well enough that they’re not going to cause issues.  They’re all worried about me, but it’s okay.  I told them all about the stuff I learned, and they’re kind of amazed.

And a tiny bit jealous, but I put a stop to that.  It comes with a lot of responsibility and just a little doubt.

I’m not going to write much today, there’s not too much to say.

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

Everyone needs to be babied every now and then, don’t you think?

May 30, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I’ve been staring at that Lycoris Radiata for a while now.  Just staring at it.  It’s beautiful, but that’s all it is.  It feels like it’s staring back at me, but it doesn’t have any eyes, just that maddening soft glow that pulses inside it.

He told me it’s industructible and keyed to me – no one else can use it.  But I don’t even know how to use it!  It’s just a pretty flower sculpture!

Oh well.  I guess it’s nice to have around anyway.  I mean I’ve had it for a long time and it hasn’t done anything – good or bad.  It’s just been sitting there, on my shelf.

Anyway, something weird happened today.  I mean, weird even for me.  Mrs. X came by with some kind of special passport.  I don’t really understand it either.  It’s like my ordinary passport, but apparently it lets me travel anywhere in the world (that a US Passport is accepted, I’d better not get caught in North Korea) without having to check in with customs.  And to return to America, too.  It’s like a diplomatic passport on steroids.  She told me to keep it on my person at all times.  Even to hang it around my neck in the shower (sufficiently waterproofed, of course) and when I’m, er, with Jack.  I might make a little adhesive pocket to stick to my side.

She said “do not abuse it or it will cause a major diplomatic incident, and you do not want to be responsible for starting a war between the US and Japan.”  Message received.  She was being a bit hyperbolic but I get it.  No smuggling stuff in.  Not that I would anyway, of course.  I’m a good girl.

I didn’t even know one of those existed.  Neither did Dave.  Or anyone else I asked.  Even a net search only brought up rumors.

I asked her why.  She shrugged.  Said she the order came from higher up.

She’s… really high up.  How much higher up?

And why?

I’m… starting to wonder something.

Something really interesting.

But I’m not going to say it here.

Except to say…

I wonder if I’m not the only person in the world with one of these “gateways” inside me.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m not.

So… who else does?

Things sure took a weird turn.

Anyway, Liz is still over today, but I’m almost to the point where I can be alone.  It’s been nice having her around, and Sabby appreciates it too.  I can’t really return the favor but she says I really don’t need to, a walking temple needs to be taken care of.

Sigh.  I appreciate the sentiment, but I do kind of wish I wasn’t treated with kid gloves sometimes.  I’m still Lily.  I know Liz doesn’t mean to do it, but it would be really easy to worship me as an idol, and I don’t want that! Again, not saying anyone does, but it’d be really easy.  I’ve seen how they treat people they think are the next incarnation of the Buddha.

But she’s also my best friend, I guess that counts for a lot.

My head feels fine now, and I can walk a lot better.

That guy was not bailed out, it seems.  It looks like this was not his first time being arrested for DUI.  Or even his second.  At this point he’s looking at serious prison time.  I might have to testify in his trial, though I don’t see why I would.  I mean, I wasn’t even awake for most of it.  Maybe just for a victim statement or something.  I saw his mugshot.  He… did not look good.

Honestly…  I wasn’t hurt too badly.  I didn’t lose any body parts, losing my car wasn’t the end of the world, insurance took care of the difference…. I’m not really mad.  I’m just sad.  What makes someone do that to themselves?

Life hurts sometimes.  You meet all sorts of people.  Some are really nice, like Dave and Sabby.  And some…  I saw that some semi-famous YouTuber was arrested a few days ago for possession of a large amount of cocaine… amongst other things.  Some people were ready to throw the book at him.  Others were just…  sad.  That’s what addiction does to people, right?  It destroys them, from the inside out.

I’m glad that didn’t happen to Crystal.  I can see how it could.

Anyway…

I’m going to try to venture downstairs tomorrow… maybe take a short walk.  The doc says I should be fine to try.

Love you all!!! ❤️
From the creator:

And some plot points I didn’t even know needed to resolve are starting to resolve.  It’s kind of amazing how that works, actually.  You’re gonna love the next few months… maybe.

This is the first of a few times in which if this were anything like reality, Mrs. X. would have told her, in no uncertain terms, DO NOT POST THIS IN YOUR DIARY.  Technically, even the existence of that passport is a government and diplomatic secret (in-story, I’ve no idea about real life).

But how would I be able to tell her story if she didn’t?  I’d have to tell it here or in a meta-diary, and I just don’t feel like setting that up, especially when we’re in the home stretch and the story is ending in a few months.

So she’s telling the world.  In story, she said nothing.  It has to be that way.

May 29, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Yes, I’m still lily.  Walking shrine or ark or whatever, I’m still Lily.  I’ll always be Lily.  I’m just a Lily with a job, even if I really don’t know what that job is yet.

I was talking to Liz about all this while we were supposed to be sleeping last night, and she told me she thinks I have some of the special characteristics I have because what I am can make me a target, and it’s not fair for me to be a target without having a way to defend myself.  I guess that makes sense.  But it also means I have a responsibility, and he would be pretty mad at me if I screwed it up.  So, I guess I can’t.  I guess my job, like the one I have at church, is to just be, well. me.

I can do that.  I think.

Maybe.

I did ask him if it’s alright for me to go to Japan with all this, and he said it doesn’t really matter, I can go anywhere and do anything I want to do… when I’m supposed to do something, I’ll know.  This wasn’t intended to take up my whole life and make it so I can’t live it.  It’s also really hard to impossible to abuse (if I try it just won’t work), but if I try, we’ll have words.

I guess I wouldn’t expect any less.

I’m not that type, though.  I’m flawed in some ways – I can be a little clueless, a little selfish, just a bit hedonistic…  but I’m not a bad girl.  At least I don’t think so, and no one else seems to think I am either, so I guess I’ll be okay, maybe.

Anyway, I have a life to life.

Liz is going to go back to sleeping at her house after this weekend, and I’ll miss her.  It’s nice to have her next to me.  I feel…  a little safer than when she’s not.  And I know she feels that way, because some storms came through last night and she was holding on for dear life.

She’s really scared of storms.  I don’t know how to help her with that.  Maybe… hmm.

She’s better than she was, but she still whimpers a little at 3 am, especially when the phones go off with severe thunderstorm warnings.

What’s a severe thunderstorm, anyway?  I guess I should look it up.  I mean I know they can have wind and hail and tornadoes, but what makes them severe when other storms aren’t?  I’m sure there’s a reason.

Oh… Anathema and Joe came back.  I haven’t been able to go see them because, well…  but she seems happy.  They’re setting up in his base housing.  That means she really can’t work at the shop anymore because he’s like sixty miles away, but…  we’ll still keep in touch.  We’re helping her move this weekend.  Well, everyone else is.  I’m probably going to be still limping around the house.

Funny how for all my “gifts”, I’m still limping.  I guess I wouldn’t have had that chat with God if it didn’t happen, but still.  I guess there are limits.

Anyway,

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

Well, we learned a lot.  But… there are a few things that I haven’t yet revealed.  I didn’t even really know myself until recently.  But the story should resolve, well, nicely.  And they’re really big things that will completely change the course of the story and her life.

There’s a problem with doing the story like this, in the format I did, though.  There are some things she posts that if this were reality would be a very bad idea.  I mean, colossally “you-are-such-a-moron-little-girl” bad idea.  She’s had a few of those in the past, and I’ve even known I was sacrificing reality to tell the story.  Truth is, I can’t do otherwise.  To tell the story how I want I have to break the three and a half wall or something like that.

One of those moments is coming up in the next few months.  You’ll know it when you see it, and I’ll call it out here, but if this were real life, not only would she probably not post it, she’d probably delete her diary, get off the net, and we’d never hear from her again.  But because this diary is the only way I can tell her story, she will need to talk about things that could, (won’t, but could), get her into a whole metric buttload of trouble with a bunch of three letter agency people you wouldn’t want to get into a whole metric buttload of trouble with.

But, it’s fiction.  It’s a story.  And, her story needs to be told.  Here.  So, there will be some allowances made for that.

I have no other way to resolve that problem except to just not mention it or not tell parts of her story that need to be told, and that is not acceptable.

May 28, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!!

I went to the doctor today!!!  He said I’m recovering fine.  I can move around better today, all the swelling seems to have receded, and he said my concussion is a lot better.  He says I shouldn’t be alone for a couple more days but I should be okay by the weekend.  Maybe I’ll still be a little sore, but he just says some ice and some advil and I’ll be good as new.

I have Liz’s recital coming up.  I think I’ll be fine for that.  After all, I get to sit down at the piano. Right?

Anyway, I’ve been teasing something important.  Y’all might think this is the most important thing ever, but to me…  I have so many weird things happen to me that this is kind of, well…  expected, I guess.  Not normal, but expected.

I wasn’t really unconscious when I was out.

I had what they call a “near death experience”…  though I was told that I wasn’t near death, but it was a good chance to yank me out of my body for a while so we could have a chat.

Who’s “we”?

Well, me and God, of course.

Of course.  How could it be any other way?

I can’t really tell you everything we talked about.  Partly because it’s personal, and partly because, well, we didn’t always use words.  But I know who he is now.  He’s… what’d you’d expect, and, well… not.

He lives in a place where time both doesn’t matter, and does.  I can’t really explain that, and he said there aren’t really words in any language to explain that concept, nor can there really be words.  Not in the way we know, anyway.  When my first adopted parents opened that gateway, they tapped into energies they don’t understand.  I didn’t really completely understand the explanation, but it wasn’t really energy they tapped into.  It’s just that when that realm interacts with ours, it manifests as an energetic burst, because that’s where creativity comes from.  It’s the realm of creation, and our realm is the realm of created, and when creation impinges on created, well, stuff happens.  Lots of stuff.  Nuclear reactor or even explosion type stuff, but different types of energies.

My first adopted parents were, well, “made to pass on” was how he put it.  It’s not so much that they died, but that they were directly hit by the energies of creation, and a part of the energies of creation is destruction, so they were, well, destroyed.  I wasn’t because I was on the periphery of the gateway, and because I was an innocent bystander.  But he figured he could use that, so he, well, how did he put it… “imprinted” me.  I have a small gateway to the creative realm inside my head.  For all intents and purposes, I am a gateway into the created realm.  They were destroyed not only because of what they’d opened, but because of the fact that they’d opened it.  That is not for human use right now.  Maybe someday.  They’re not the first to have discovered that, and the previous discoverers met the same fate.  They didn’t go to hell or anything, but they can’t stay here.  Not with that knowledge.

He said that someday I’ll die, but…  I can’t be killed.  I asked him why, and he just shrugged.  He said the creative realm only accepts destruction when it’s in place to make something even better, and because I’m a direct gateway, I can’t be made better, so I can’t be destroyed.  My body will still age out like any other body, but there’s a reason I’m a gateway to the creative realm, and he won’t allow it to be destroyed by the forces of evil that are always attracted to it.

By which I mean, I know why I’m a karen magnet now.

He said I actually did die that day… sort of.  But it was as I kind of suspected… only parts of me died, and then were replaced by other, better things.  Like that gateway.

The thing about the creative realm, he said, is that while it attracts evil, it also attracts good.  That’s why I’ve had so many improbably good things happen to me ever since I was found.  It’s also why I’ve ended up with my share of, well, car accidents, karens, and other odd things that probably could have destroyed me if I were anyone else, but I somehow survived all of it mostly unscathed.  Well… I know how, now, I guess.

So, the most important question:  I asked who he is.

He wouldn’t tell me.

Awww.

He did say that I can think of him as Jesus if I want, and I wouldn’t be wrong.  But there’s a lot more to him than that, and he doesn’t want me to get caught up in Christian worship culture, etc., because that kind of tends to force people into boxes, and my gift is not meant to be forced into a box.  It’s meant to free people from boxes, like I did Anathema.

And then he showed me heaven.

I…  really can’t describe or explain it.  I really don’t want to.  Except to say that if everyone knew that was awaiting them when they died, maybe they wouldn’t hate this life so much.

He told me a lot of things, some of which kind of blew my mind, but I really can’t say much about them.  Some things were just for my ears.

I did ask him what that lycoris radiata is that I found on my chest that one night and is sitting on my shelf (you forgot about that, didn’t you?)  He said I’d find out soon enough, it’s a gift to make up a little for everything I’ve been through.  He said it might make life a little bit easier in a few months.  I wonder what he meant by that.

I also asked him about the milkshake.

He said he wanted to give me a milkshake.

Awww.

Well, maybe he’s not such a bad guy.

Anyway…  that’s what I found out.  There’s a lot more but I’m going to keep it to myself.  For now, anyway.

I did tell Liz, though.  She just listened thoughtfully, said “only you, Lily”, and dragged me to the shower.

I guess I smelled.

Talk to God, then get dragged into the shower by your best friend.  I guess life doesn’t stop happening after you die.

I think she’s envious of my floppy bits, though.  Aww.  Hers are just fine, I don’t know what she’s complaining about.  She didn’t honk me, but she kind of jiggled them around and said “you’re so lucky.”  No, not that way, silly-billies, just in a curious “I wonder what it’d be like to have these” way.

Am I though?

Hah!

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

You’re just fine, Liz.  Your boyfriend is very happy with what you have.

But… I can’t imagine girls don’t think that way sometimes.

May 27, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Today was memorial day.  Dave grilled. They helped me downstairs and I had lunch with the family.  I’m still in a lot of pain but improving every day.  Everyone tells me I’m really lucky, and I guess I am.

I swear if it weren’t for Jack I’d marry Liz.  Well, not really, but she’s been really taking good care of me and I really appreciate it.  I mean, who else would jump in the shower with me and make sure my back is washed?  Even Saby was kind of amazed by that.  That’s a good friend.

I washed all the important parts by myself though.  She did help me stand though while I did, so there’s that.

Jack was drooling when I told him.  Sigh. Boys.  I told him I’m not that way and even if I were I wouldn’t be that way with him.

Doesn’t matter to a boy, though, I guess.

I’m actually a little bored, I’ve just been playing on my tablet and sleeping.  I talked to the lawyer about suing the guy and he said that he’d rather let the insurance company deal with it first, and if they can’t get their pound of flesh, then we’ll step in and get ours.  That makes sense, why should we pay for a lawyer when they’ve got five dollar a word attack lawyers on the payroll?  Liz and I watched anime all day today.  It was fun.

We’re still going on the road trip… it’s just going to be put off for a little while, while I heal.

Anyway…  I’m going to sleep.  Liz is still here.  I don’t know what I’d do without her.  I can walk but it’s still difficult, they got me a cane.  I feel so old now, and I’m only eighteen.  Sigh.

Love you all!!! ❤️

May 26, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

My head is feeling better.  My bones really aren’t.  I’m lucky I didn’t break anything.  I’m… just lucky in general, I guess.

But I can make it to the bathroom and Sabby brings me food and snacks, so I’m doing okay.  I miss running though.  It’ll take me a few weeks to be able to run again.  Sabby’s going to let me use her exercise machines when I feel up to it so I don’t completely lose my touch.

Liz is still taking care of me.  She didn’t go home last night.  Aww.  She said she’s going to stick around until she feels like I’m safe.

I don’t deserve such good friends.

I’m… not really mad at the guy who did this.  Unlike the other guys who assaulted me, or tried to anyway, he wasn’t going after me.  He was just being stupid and I was in the way.  I guess I even forgive him.  But I don’t want to see him get away with it.  He won’t learn anything if he gets away with it.  I guess I will go visit him in jail or prison or wherever and tell him that.

He’ll probably be mad but I don’t care.  He could have caused a lot more damage than he did, so getting told off a bit is the least he deserves.

But I want nothing to do with him unless he’s behind one of those thick plexiglas walls.  I don’t know how dangerous he is.  Maybe he isn’t if it’s his first offense, but it doesn’t sound much like it is.

Oh well.  I’m still going to Japan, and that’s the important thing.

Anyway, the insurance company did total my car, and I’ll be getting a check for it.  That’s going into my savings so it can earn interest until it’s time to buy a new car.  Or at least a different car.

Anyway… I still have important stuff to tell you, but…  that’s going to take a lot of time, and, well, both Liz and Sabby are about to rip the tablet out of my hands and forcibly put me in my pajamas, so…  I guess I should go.  Some other time.  Liz is going to help me shower, which is nice of her, but it’s a little embarrassing.  At least it’s not Jack.  That would be something very different than embarrassing.  Liz and I are very close friends but some parts of me I’ll wash myself.  Haha!!!  She’s going to help me stand up and wash my back, though…  and at least that’s less embarrassing than if Sabby were to do it, so…  maybe someday I’ll need to return the favor.  Hopefully not.

No, silly-billies, stop it.  That kind of thing is pretty normal in Japan between friends and/or sisters, especially in an onsen, so get your mind out of silly-billy land.  And we went to that onsen in Enoshima.  It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before…

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

Really, stop it.  That kind of thing is a little more intimate than appropriate in western cultures.  As Lily says, it’s a lot more normal in Japan.  Liz is just being a good friend, and as Lily says, stop being silly-billies, it’s not becoming.

Okay, yes, a very good friend, granted, but still just a good friend.

May 25, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I’m back from the hospital.

I hurt a lot.

My head hurts a little…  my leg hurts a lot…  I have to use crutches right now.  Going up the stairs wasn’t easy, and I’m not going downstairs any time soon.  Nothing’s broken, but everything’s purple and swollen.  Docs say it should start to heal in a week or two.

Liz and I were going to go on a road trip.  That’s not happening now.  She’s over now and taking care of me.  Awww.  I told her she didn’t have to do that.  She says yes, she does… I’m her best friend.  She’s lying next to me reading a book.  She says hi.  The other girls came to say hi, but Sabby thinks I need to rest and too many girls here will be too much noise.  She’s probably right as usual.  So Beth’s over at Diana’s with Crystal and they’re having a sleepover there.

I was not held to be at fault in the accident.  The other driver ran through a red light without even braking and was stumbling drunk.  He tried to get away from the scene but ended up falling on his face and passing out.  Needless to say but I will anyway, he was arrested.  I didn’t know any of that, though.  I was out.  I remember nothing.  Story of my life, right?  The police say he’ll be lucky if he gets less than five years – not his first DUI unfortunately.

Unfortunately, he was driving without insurance, but I have uninsured motorist coverage.  Dave insisted on that, bless him.  So I guess my insurance company will be coming after him too.  Good, I hope they get their pound of flesh or two.

I’m not going to replace the car, though.  I’m going to Japan in a few months and I don’t need it.  I can borrow Beth’s or Sabby’s, or take a rideshare, if I really need to go somewhere.  I’ll replace it when I get back from Japan after I graduate.

I have other things to tell you….  but they can wait.  They’re important, but they can wait.  I’m tired.  I have to take some painkillers and go to sleep.

Love you all!!! ❤️

Maybe you love me too…

From the creator:

I wonder what important things she has to tell us?

News from Sabby

Hello, Lily’s readers.  This is Sabby.

Lily was in an accident last night.  She was coming home from Liz’s graduation and was T-Boned.  Fortunately it was on the passenger side, so while her car is totaled, she is not seriously injured physically.  She has some bruises and she might be limping for a while, but she’s mostly unharmed.  The airbags worked.  She did suffer a concussion though and was unconscious for most of the night last night.

She woke up this morning.  She’s not very lucid, but she’s improving.  She’s going to be in the hospital for a while longer, but she wanted me to write and tell you all.  This diary is very important to her and she, well… she means it when she says she loves you all.

I’ll be bringing her tablet to her, maybe she’ll post something tonight if she’s feeling up to it.  If not, she’ll post when she’s ready.  I’ll let you know if her condition improves or worsens otherwise.

I don’t get a chance to post here very often, partly because she’s really territorial about her diary, and partly because I let her have that part of her life for her own.  I do read every day, though.  I can’t believe it’s only been about four years since she was found, it seems like so much longer.  Beth and David are my biological children, but I didn’t know I had a Lily-shaped hole in my life and heart until she came into both.  Now I have three children, and I have had three children ever since I first met Lily.  Not from when I adopted her, she was my child long before that, even if neither of us really knew it at the time.  I can’t imagine life without her and I was so scared last night when I found out she was hurt.  Seeing her in that hospital bed with all those tubes so vulnerable… it broke me.  I don’t know if I’ll ever forget that horrible feeling.

Liz and Jack are visiting her right now.  I came back to get some of her clothes and effects, and to write this, because she asked me to.  I need to go back to the hospital.  Beth and David are coming with me too.

Beth is really worried.  I remember when she first met Lily and hated her so much.  But she’s grown up so much, too.  All my children have.  Jack, well… if I didn’t think he loved her before, I do now.  He won’t leave her side.  He almost fought the nurses when they told him to leave, until they gave up and just let him sit there.  He’s been holding her hand this whole time.  He’s…  a little rudderless and lazy, but… his heart’s in the right place.  It always has been.  Even if he’s a teenage boy and doesn’t know what to do with it half the time.

The nurses tried to get me to have him evicted as her mother, but I told them she’s been with him for two years now, he clearly loves her, just let him be.  He’s not going to try anything with everyone there, and she’s holding his hand back.  Every time he touches her she seems more at peace, and I’m not going to take that away from her.

Lily says “love you all”, and she will post when she’s ready.  If I don’t post it means nothing’s changed.  I promise I will tell you any important news.  Any prayers would be welcome.

From the creator:

Lily is a fictional character, please don’t waste your prayers on her.

This is a hard arc to write, but it’s absolutely necessary.  I won’t tell you how it ends, but I will say I know when the story is going to end and how, (that has been decided a long time ago) and that is not in a few days with a funeral.  This is necessary for the plot, so Lily will have to go through this.  Sorry, Lily.

My town had an EF-2 tornado on Wednesday.  I was mostly spared, but a lot of the town is damaged or destroyed, due to either the tornado or straight line winds.  If you do want to use a prayer, that wouldn’t be an awful place to put it.  That’s also why I didn’t post.

May 21, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Well, they’re gone.  Suzuka and Haruna are back home.  There were lots of hugs at the airport, and Haruna told me that I have a gift.

I guess?  I mean, I’ve been told I have a gift, I guess I have a gift… but I don’t really think of it that way.  It’s just who I am.

We talked a lot last night, in the hotel room.  Haruna is going back to school  She says she wants to be a nurse or something.

I… that’s not for me, I don’t think, but hey, if she knows what she wants to do, she should do it!  I heard of another idol who graduated and became a nurse.  I bet she has the happiest patients.  Suzuka…  she’s still Suzuka, I guess.  She’s a little more rudderless than Haruna, but she seems happy that way.  She did say she wants to pick up the guitar and maybe see if she can be in a band.

That’s a lot of work and it doesn’t make much money… but I’ll go see her perform.  Seriously.  I will.  I’m going to be in Japan anyway… maybe she’ll perform in that live house in Shinokitazawa where Bocchi “performed”. That would be cool.  She’s already been an idol, so she’ll have that draw, anyway. 

It is a lot of work.  But it’s her dream, and she put if off long enough, she said.  Crystal and her band kind of inspired her.

Not gonna lie… Crystal kind of inspires me, too.  Remember how I said how driven Suzuka and Haruna are?  Crystal’s that way.  She’s got the work ethic of an idol.  I think, more than ever, she’s going places now.

Maybe I’ll take her to Japan again someday and she can play with Suzuka.

I…  practice a lot.  I have a lot to catch up on, and the pieces I play are really difficult.  But I don’t have that kind of work ethic.

Speaking of which, Haruna, Suzuka, and even Yuki were really impressed.  They said I play piano better than anyone they know, and the audience was spellbound.  That’s always a compliment coming from idols.. but… I guess?  I don’t really think I’m all that special.  I’m just a girl who can play the piano.

But they don’t see it that way.  Haruna said she’s been around a lot of entertainers and performers as an idol… some really famous ones… and I have that same kind of presence.

Wow.

They also had really good things to say about Beth too.  So do I.  She’s come a long way.  She’s not like, oh, I dunno…  Florence Foster Jenkins?  Hahaah!!! No…  she’s not like…  well, someone who sings opera professionally… but she’s good.  The audience was spellbound for her too.

Oh well.  They’re back home now.  I’ll miss them.  But they need to be home.  That’s where they’re going to shine.

Okay.. two graduations this week, one tomorrow and one on Thursday…  I think Jack’s is tomorrow.  Then…  then the next piece begins.

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

And the next piece begins.

May 20, 2024

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

We’re in a hotel in Houston tonight, me, Suzuka, Haruna, and Yuki.  Their flight leaves at stupid o’clock tomorrow, and we need to drop them off.

I’m glad Yuki’s here.  I might cry a lot tomorrow.

But Haruna’s crying a lot tonight.  She’s really weepy for some reason.  I guess she’ll miss me.  She said that when I go to Japan to look her up, we’ll be besties and she’ll show me all the good spots.  I mean, I have family there too, but that’s a nice offer and I’m going to take her up on it.

I have lots of friends in Japan.

Suzuka is a little more reserved, as she always is, but she said the same thing applies, to look her up when I’m in Japan.  They’re actually not best friends, but they get along well enough, and both of them accepted the offer to do the idol thing.

I asked them why they agreed to do it even though it didn’t pay much.  Haruna just shrugged and said it was something to do.  Suzuka said she wanted an excuse to go to America.  So I guess it all worked out.

We took them souvenir shopping today and they loaded up.  There’s a Buc-ees on the way and they got another industrial sized bag of beaver nuggets.  And a couple other things.

I have at least two graduations to attend later this week, and…  Liz and I are going to do something fun next weekend.  We haven’t decided what, but I think both of us deserve it.  We haven’t spent a lot of time together lately anyway.  She had to do her school stuff for graduation, etc… and that’s not an issue anymore.

We’re going to bed now.  Stupid o’clock, remember?

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

And so closes the “idols come to visit” story arc.

Truthfully I didn’t feel like I did a very good job with it, but I guess it was good enough.  I kind of feel like I could have done more with their characters.  But, alas.  At least for now, I didn’t.