Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

I forgot to mention, we got thunderstorms!  Where I live, thunderstorms in the summer don’t happen a lot, and it’s usually really hot.  But this year we’ve had a lot of rain, and it’s been cool!  Or at least cooler than last year!  When I run I’m not a huge sticky pile of sweat!  Except when it’s really humid.  The other day I was running and I saw lightning and heard thunder!  I ran right home!  Storms are scary!  Not too scary, but scary!  Especially when you’re outside!

I don’t have many memories of thunderstorms, obviously.  One came through earlier this year and the sky was this scary bright blue color!  And a hailstorm came through in my area too!  Cars got damaged!  It’s scary!

But Dave told me something that helps.  If you can hear the thunder, the lightning’s already hit.  Thunder can’t hurt you!

So many things have been happening, I can’t keep track!  The Karen I talked about yesterday was charged with a few things.  Assault on a minor (me), resisting arrest, assault on a police officer.  I don’t understand Karens!  They seem to get an idea in their head and will defend it to the death, even if it’s wrong!  We don’t know when the court date will be, but Sabby doesn’t think we’ll be asked to testify.  They have video, and the other charges don’t need us to be there.  But if we’re needed, we’ll do our part to put her away!  My arm still hurts a little!  I guess she was released because Sabby got a call from her lawyer.  Sabby gave her our lawyer’s number and told her to go away.  I love Sabby, but she’s scary sometimes.

I spent some time with Liz yesterday, and it was nice to spend time with her.  I told Liz about Beth, and Liz wasn’t sure what to think.  She hasn’t forgiven Beth yet on my behalf, and Beth did say some absolutely rotten things about and to me.  But I asked Liz if we could take Beth with us.  She said sure, but she wants time with me as well, Beth is not her best friend.  I agreed, and made sure Beth understood.  We went over to Liz’s house (she lives on my street) and we played games.  Beth and Liz seemed a little awkward with each other, but I guess that’s to be expected.  Beth apologized to Liz, Liz wasn’t quite ready to forgive but she said she’d keep an open mind.  Beth seemed sad at that, but I told her that’s the best she could expect, and she seemed to understand.  Turns out Beth is actually crazy smart.  Immature, I guess, but smart.  We played some board games, and she held her own!  Even Liz was impressed.  A little upset, but impressed.

I asked Beth what she does with her friends all the time.  She says they just go to the convenience store or the library and talk about boys.  She confided in us that it’s not one of her favorite things to do, but it’s what her friends like to do.  She thinks boys are cute, but doesn’t really see what the big deal is.  Turns out she doesn’t know anyone as smart as she is, and she’s settling.

Liz didn’t look happy to hear this.  I know Liz is smart too.  This may be the best or the worst thing ever.

Anyway, I guess after the past few days, boring is good.

After we got home, Beth and I brushed each others’ hair.  I am growing to really enjoy this nighttime ritual with Beth.  She is quite a bit smaller than I am – I’m tall and wiry, she’s shorter and a still has a bit of her baby fat, but she’s surprisingly cuddly. She also lets me practice braiding her hair.  I’m getting better at it!  Almost good enough that the braids survive walking out the door.  Not quite, though.  I really don’t know what it is about us girls having our hair brushed, but it is soooooo relaxing, sometimes my eyes droop closed and I just melt into a little puddle of bliss.  When that happens, my head just starts flopping and she can move it any way she wants, and I don’t even care.  Sometimes Beth will even be saying something and I just zone out and her voice turns into this soft background noise as my mind starts drifting with all sorts of flittering thoughts that make no sense.  It’s so delightful.  She tells me a similar thing happens to her.  I love sharing that.  I sleep better after one of those hair brushing sessions.

I asked Beth to lend me her favorite book.  After some thought, she pulled “A Brief History of Time” from her bookshelf.  What’s a little light reading between sisters?

Anyway, a boring, girly update for today.  Maybe next time I’ll do a boyly update.  Cars!  Fights!  Girls!  Nah.  I’ll leave that to the boys.  I’m a girl, so my updates are girly.  Neener neener.  And I don’t understand boys’ fascinations with our bodies anyway.  They’re just bodies!  We’ve got some floppy bits and some girly bits and some skinny bits and some thick bits.  What’s so great about that?  At least it didn’t storm this morning, and I got a good run in.

Love you all!!!  ❤️