This diary entry is part 2 of 29 in Lily's diary dated 10 - April 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!!!

You know, there are some things I don’t talk about.  One of those things is my coworkers.  I don’t know why, I just don’t feel the need to.  They’re pretty nice for the most part but I just go to work and do my job.

The other thing is that time between the time that I was taken on that first shopping trip, and the time I started this diary.  I’ve said very little about that time.  I’m not really sure why.  Maybe just because it’s not that interesting.  I mostly just spent that time holed up in my room, honestly.  I mean, Dave and Sabby tried to include me in their family as much as they could, but Beth and to a lesser degree David just wasn’t having it, and I didn’t really feel like I belonged.  It’s not that Sabby let Beth get away with it – she didn’t – but she couldn’t be there all the time, and Beth is nothing if not creative.

To Sabby’s credit, if I fired back every now and then, she didn’t yell at me.  Her attitude was, if Beth could dish it out, then she could take it.  I remember one time when Beth was making fun of me for something, and I just told her that maybe I wasn’t the prettiest girl, but she was ugly in a way makeup couldn’t fix.  She went running to Sabby, and all Sabby said was, “You deserved it.”

It wasn’t a fun time and I prefer to not remember it.

There were some fun times, though.  Sabby really did try.  She took me on a few more shopping trips – though none of them meant quite as much to me as that first one.  She got me chocolatey things every now and then – I think that’s one reason I like chocolate soooo much.  It was Sabby’s way of including me.  But it took a long time before I started to feel like a part of the family.

And I went to a lot of doctors and psychologists and psychiatrists.  None of them could figure out why I’d lost my memory, and they told me that the way I lost my memory was really strange.  They ran tests and poked and prodded me, and I spent a lot of time trying different things, the doctors hoping that maybe it would jog my memory.  But it never did.  Finally they just kind of gave up.  They started shifting to trying to help me to cope with my life as it is, rather than trying to find my past.  This diary was supposed to be a way to do that.

And, well, it seems to have worked pretty well, I think.

I made a few friends in virtual school, like Liz, and my tech friend that helped me set this site up, and a few other people I haven’t talked to much lately.  I think my tech friend was sweet on me, to be honest.  He was so nice, but I didn’t want to feel like I was using him, that’s why I pay for it myself now.  I truly didn’t want a boyfriend.  Jack was an accident.  A happy accident, but an accident nonetheless.

Well, that’s the story.  Not too interesting?  Maybe I’ll think of some stuff that happened then.  But, honestly… I’d still just rather forget.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 1 of 29 in Lily's diary dated 10 - April 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Yuriko!

April Fools!  I’m Lily!

But you knew that.  It’s all over this diary…

So I was honestly more happy that it was Friday than April fools.  Yay for Friday!!

Sabby’s still pretty ticked at me, but she’s getting over it.  I probably shouldn’t have done that.  I knew she didn’t like it.  And I think that’s why she was upset more than anything else.  Buuuuuttt…  it was April Fools!  I mean, apart from Halloween, what other day can I do that, and, well, not mean it?  I can’t imagine wearing that kind of outfit non-ironically.  I like pretty, fashionable things.  Not, well… that.

The big problem is, Jack did like that.  Really, really liked that.  I’m probably going to have to model it for him at least once.  Sigh.  I told him if I do that for him, he’d better dress like one of those BTS boys for me.  He gulped, but I guess he thought it’d be worth it.  I guess we’ve got our Halloween costumes figured out someday.

So, anyway, Sabby told us no girls over tonight.  Awww.  But I guess I understand that.  We haven’t had any actual family time in a long time.  It’s Liz, or Crystal, or Diana, or Allison,…  always girls in and out and I think Sabby’s a bit tired of it.  She likes them, don’t get me wrong, but she’s also kind of right.

And I think David’s a bit relieved.  Poor kid.  He doesn’t say much, but all those girls hanging around makes him a little uncomfortable.  Should we find him another friend too?

So we had a nice dinner and watched a movie.  Just the five of us.  Well, six, if you include Cat.  And it was nice.  I love my sisters, but…  I love my family too.

And you all too.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 31 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!!!

I put out an April Fools video!!!  And Sabby is MAD.

She’s not mad because I put out an April Fools video, but because of what I’m wearing!!!

I put on a maid outfit!!!

You see, what I thought was that an April Fools video meant that you had to do something that was entirely unlike you, or something like that.  And putting on a maid outfit and having blue hair and cat ears is entirely unlike me!  I’d never do that normally!  So I thought that’d make a great April Fools!!!  And Liz had one from Halloween that, well, kinda fit me.

Sabby, well, doesn’t agree.

I kinda wish I’d done what I’d originally thought and had the Texan Tinkerer (that guy I know) just ramble on about silly stuff like I would.  But we agreed that it just seemed… weird.

Like wearing a maid outfit isn’t?

Umm…  I think I messed up.

Oh well.  Sabby made me serve dinner in the outfit.  She said if I was going to dress like a maid, I might as well act like one.  After dinner she made me change out and then sat me down and had a long talk about how boys are silly billies and those kinds of things don’t go away even after I change out of the clothing.  I don’t understand.  It’s just a maid outfit!!!  It’s not like it’s a swimsuit or that lurid purple thing we don’t talk about!!  We didn’t fight, I just agreed, but I still don’t get it.  Why was she so upset?

Anyway, I guess I know what I’m not wearing for Halloween.

Irasshaimase, goshujinsama!!! Hahahaa!!!

I know Sabby’s pissed.  But…  I am cute as an anime character.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 30 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

So I didn’t post yesterday.  Frankly, I was busy.  I went over to see the guy who I’m going to do the April Fools crossover with, and we recorded some stuff.  He gave me this script to read – and it was insane!!!  It had some words that he had to teach me how to pronounce!  But it’s funny.  He explained that it’s an engineering in-joke, and I guess I understood it once he explained it to me.  The way he explained it is, the way it sounds to engineers is the way real engineering talk sounds to ordinary people.  We’re still working on what he’s going to do for my channel though, that’s a bit harder to figure out.  I wish I know what a marzlevane or a dingle arm is.  Haha!  Dingle arm!!!  I still giggle at that.

He showed me his lab too.  OMG it’s like the lab that Dave built for us, but with so much more stuff!  He showed me some gadgets that I still don’t know what they do, but they look really impressive!!  He told me about some projects he wants to do, and…  maybe I’ll help him!!!  Or maybe not.  I do have a lot to do.  But he seems nice.  Many guys like to, well, stare at things they have no business staring at.  I could tell he noticed, but he didn’t make a big deal about it.  I appreciated that.  It’s okay if they notice!! I mean, I’ve got things they’re programmed to like!  But, just move on.  He did that.  That’s all I ask!!!

He gave me some ideas for stuff to do on my channel, though.  I guess I’ll have to think about it.

Oh!  I forgot to tell you!  My piano teacher wants me to do a recital!!!  Apparently I’m good enough to do a full concert!!!  So I’ve got a few pieces to learn!!  But I’ll have to do a bit more practicing than I have been!!!  It’s in a couple of months, so I have lots of time!!!

No time to waste, though!!!

I wonder if there are Japanese recitals.  Hah!  Probably not.

Ever get that feeling that something big is going to happen soon, but you don’t know what??

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 29 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

And tornadoes do suck!!!

So today Maria went back with the insurance adjuster while Diana was at school to start getting approval for repairs on their house – I guess insurance was slammed and this is when they could get the appointment.  It’s going to be a few months before it’s back to normal, but the good news is that the insurance has found them some long term housing until their house is livable again.  Aww.  But at least there’s that.  They don’t have to stay with us anymore.  I’ll miss Diana.  I told her she has to teach me or Sabby how to make those delicious tacos.  And she said that we’re going to have to have some chocolate together someday.

That settles it.  She’s my sister.

Anyone who wants to share chocolate is a sister.

Jack couldn’t apologize enough for having such a bad idea of what a slumber party is, but I told him it’s alright.  He didn’t know.  And it’s not like boys are told much about the inner lives of girls, especially boys that don’t have teenage sisters.  But I told him he knows now, so he’d better get those ideas out of his head.  MISTER.  He said that I probably have ideas about how boys are too.  I said, yeah right, you just think about girls, eating, cars, and sleep.

He got quiet.  Then said I wasn’t wrong.

It’s not that boys aren’t complicated, but they’re complicated in a different way.  Not that way.  That way they’re dead simple.  Keep them fed and… well… fed…  and they’re pretty happy campers.

Oh and I video called with Grace tonight!  She wants choc’late!  And she’ll get some!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 28 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!!!

DAVE GRILLED!!!

I think I’ve told you in the past that I love it when Dave grills.  He’s so good at it!  Maria and Diana joined us for our grilling and they loved it too!!! Everyone loves Dave’s grilling!!!

But Diana made us some chips and homemade guacamole too, so we had a different set of fixins.  They also took the chicken he grilled, pulled it apart, seasoned it, and turned it into tacos!!! OMG!!! Soooo good!!!  I had no idea you could turn Dave’s grilling into something even better!!!

But otherwise it’s been a pretty quiet day.  We all pigged out on leftover cake too, and otherwise I just worked and did lazy Sunday stuff.  Well, except for me – after I got home from work, you saw what I did!!!  Giving this site some love has been long overdue!  I’m not entirely happy with it, the colors could use a bit of tweaking, but it’s good enough for now.

I don’t have too much out of the ordinary planned for this week.   You know, school, lessons, that kinda stuff.  I hope that’s not…  umm, what do they call it?  foreshadowing…

Anyway, I’m going to go now!!!  Liz is over and we’re playing games!!!

Oh oh oh!!!  I know what I’m going to do for April Fools!!!  I found a guy who lives locally who has a YouTube channel too, and we’re going to collaborate!!!  He’s a friend of Dave’s so he’s alright.  I don’t understand any of his videos but he can be funny!!!  Dave showed him my videos too and he thinks I have a cute snicker!!! Hahaha!!! It’ll be fun!!!

And don’t be jealous, Jack!!! He’s older than Dave!!!  He just wants to do something funny for April Fools!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 27 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

I REDID THE PAGE!!!!!!

It’s got a new picture of me!!!  The diary is now scrollable!!! And the most obvious change – it’s my handwriting!!!  YAAAYYY!!!!

I’m a little concerned it might be hard to read, though.  If you think it is, please tell me – I’ll leave comments open on this page only for a while – and I’ll tweak it as needed (I turn comments off not because I don’t want to chat with you, but because I prefer to do it on Facebook, where it’s easier to deal with spam!).  Dave was telling me about a concept called “friction”, and he said my diary has a lot of friction.  I think I know what he means.  So I tried to reduce it!!!  I don’t know if I did completely, but we’ll keep trying.  I might do some color tweaking.

I’m wearing the same dress now that I do sometimes on YouTube!!!  And… and I added a header image!!! So fun!!!

I’m going to have to go through my old posts and make a few tweaks, turn a few knobs, push a few buttons, spit on some stuff… but I’m trying!!!

Well, I have to go now, I’ve got things to do.  It’s warm and Dave wants to grill!!! YUMMMMMM!!!!!!

Love you all!!!! ❤️

This diary entry is part 26 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!!!

And I can’t decide whether to be angry with Jack or not!!!

But it was an honest mistake, and he is a boy.

So it turns out he’s got a very, very wrong idea of what girl slumber parties are like.  I guess I can’t blame him too much – all he’s ever seen was on television, and this awful J-Pop video called “Heavy Rotation” where a bunch of teenage girls sit around in lingerie eating sweets and taking baths together and kissing mirrors.  Well… we do eat sweets.

But NO!!! That’s not what it’s like!!!

We don’t wear lingerie!  We don’t HAVE lingerie!! I’m the oldest of us and I’m sixteen!!!  Well, there’s that purple thing Liz gave me last year, but we don’t talk about that!!!  We have jammies!!!  Soft, comfortable fleece jammies!!! That cover everything!!! Sorry if that’s disappointing to you silly billy boys like Jack, but it’s the truth.

AND ONE OF US FARTS!!!!

Not telling who, but every now and then someone stinks up the room!!!

THAT’S what a slumber party is like!!!

We girls just like to stick together and be friends and… well… we’re warm!!!  That’s it!!!  No mirror-kissing or… well, yeah.  There is cake eating.  I’ll give you that.  We pigged out last night.  I think that’s why the room went stinky.

But there are sweet moments too.  Diana seemed a bit hesitant, but we all settled down and she fell asleep.  This morning I felt someone cuddled up to me, snoring softly.  It was Diana!  How sweet!!!  When she woke up, she yawned and told me she’d never slept that good.  She’s an only child, and while she has lots of cousins and extended family (she says that’s common for people like her!) she doesn’t really have anyone she’s that close to other than her mother.

I asked her why she needed to stay with us if she had so much extended family.  She just sighed and said it was a long story.   And wouldn’t say anything more.

So…  now I have another sister.  But she’s a temporary sister.  We just met and who knows if we’ll keep in touch after she leaves.   But hey, it’s like I said.  You can never have too many little sisters.

I just with Grace could have come for Beth’s party.  She would have loved it!!!

I left for work in the morning and everyone went home while I was gone.  When I came home, Beth gave me a big hug and thanked me for making it the best birthday ever.

I told her I didn’t do much.

And then she said the nicest thing ever.  “You made things better just by being here, Lily.  You always make things better just by being there.  It’s who you are.  It’s why I love you.”

I cried.  I legit cried.

Love you all!!! ❤️

This diary entry is part 25 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

And it’s Beth’s15th  birthday!!!

So after Diana got back from school, Liz, Crystal and her parents, Emiko and Aika and Mika, Allison too… everyone showed up!!!  Sabby gave us the day off because she wanted to spend all day baking.  We made her promise not to go overboard.  She just looked innocent.  And went overboard.

OMG the cakes!!!

I don’t know how she makes so many cakes with just one oven!!!

Anyway, after everyone showed up, we had pizza for dinner, and then cake for dessert (CHOCOLATE!!!) and then we gave Beth her presents!!!

She got soooo many presents!!!!

But I think the best thing is how meaningful they were.

Liz got Beth a music player.  But it was loaded with lots of different world music!  Chinese, Japanese, Korean…  OMG.  I’ll have to, er, “borrow” some of those myself!!!

Crystal still doesn’t have a lot of money, but she got Beth a little locket that said “BFFs”, with little pieces that fit together.  I think Beth almost cried.

Aika and Mika don’t know Beth very well, but they gave her a chopstick set.  I… don’t know?  But it’s the thought that counts, and Beth accepted it happily.

Allison gave her a book.  Of course, if you want to give Beth something she likes, give her a book!!!

And I got her one of those plexiglass blocks that contain every element in the periodic table.  It wasn’t anything really special, but she seemed to like it.

Of course Diana didn’t get her anything, but no one expected her to.

After the presents were given, we played games!!!  Girl games!!!  David was invited, but he… had other things to do.  Don’t blame the poor kid.  OMG Me, Beth, Liz, Aika, Mika, Diana, Crystal, Allison… SO MANY GIRLS!!!!  It’s soo much fun!!!  Poor Sabby having to put up with all the squealing!!!  I think Allison got a bit confused, and then at some point we split into two groups…  The younger girls, Allison, Aika, and Mika, and the rest of us older girls.  That seems to have worked out.

Now we’re going to brush each other’s hair, tell stories (Allison’s good at that!) and make a girl-pile!!! OMG I LOVE GIRL PILES!!!!  I think Diana’s a little hesitant but she’s got her jammies on just like the rest of us.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 24 of 31 in Lily's diary dated 09 - March 2022

Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

So this morning I went off for a run, and when I got back, Maria had gone to work and Diana had gone to school.  Sabby decided that everything was well in hand, as far as debris cleanup went, so we headed off to the temporary shelter to see if we could be of any help there.  They had that well in hand too, so we went off and at least got some snacks for everyone.  They seemed appreciated.

After we got home, we studied some more, and then Diana came back home.  After we did our schooling, we spent a little time getting to know her.  She seems like a nice kid.  I don’t think she’s as smart as Beth or Crystal or Liz, but she’s pretty good at cooking!!!  Much better than me and Beth!  Sabby let her make a Mexican dinner, and she knocked it out of the park!!!  So yummy!!!  Maria came home and we all ate.  Diana explained that sometimes she’d come home and her mother was still at work, so she made dinner.  Seems like they have a bit of a tough life.

Well, a tornado doesn’t make it any better.

The NWS just released their assessment of the tornado – it was almost an EF-3!!  Peak winds of 135mph!  Wow!!!

So we’re going to watch a movie.  We asked Maria what her favorite movie is.  She liked Spanglish.  I just checked back and we watched it on October 22 (this diary is handy sometimes!) and that’s when Liz confronted her parents, and that led directly to my meeting Jack and… well… Spanglish changed my life!!!  I should tell Maria that!!!

Beth’s birthday is tomorrow!!!  We’re having a party after Diana gets home from school!  Crystal and Liz and Diana and even Mika and Aika will be there!!!  It’ll be fun!!!  And we’ll all sleep over too!!! It’ll be a HUGE girl-pile!!!  Sorry jack!!!

Love you all!!! ❤