Series: 21 - March 2023

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

And after all the fun and frolicking, it’s been a pretty boring day.  Beth and I are going back to school – I’m taking some more advanced business classes, and Beth is taking science classes.  She’s a bit frustrated because the science classes aren’t all that good at teaching science anymore, but she just kind of keeps to herself.  She’s really interested in theoretical physics, but…  she also says they’re really just guesses about how things work by using math and hoping for the best.  Apparently when things get that small or… well…  immaterial, it’s hard to actually design working tests.

She’s really smart!

We’re still planning for Beth’s birthday.  She keeps whining about wanting to know, but we refuse to tell her.  Why should we?  That’s the point of a birthday!  We get to celebrate her, she doesn’t get to decide how we celebrate her!  But we know she’ll love it.  We’re even… ummm…  no.  Not telling!

Tomorrow we’re taking her dress shopping though, and she’s getting a dress nearly as nice as the one they bought me for the Oscars!  She’s going to look like a supermodel when we’re done with her!  Well, honestly… she already does.

I’m glad I left LA when I did!  They had TORNADOES today!!!  Aww!!! Rebecca was telling us all about it on the group chat!

Well, gotta go, I guess.  Tomorrow’s a busy day.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

We bought Beth her dress today!!!

And she’s really really pretty in it!!! It’s a little like mine, but a little more sheer and sparkly black.  It’s a very grown up dress, and Beth loves it!!!  She’s looking forward to wearing it!!!

We also had to get the guys some special clothes too, but I ain’t telling!!! Hahaah!!!

Okay, short entry tonight, but it was busy today.  Tomorrow is a spa day!!!  And then Saturday, well… it’s the big day!!!

Beth’s really looking forward to it!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I didn’t write last night!  We had such a busy day!!!  Beth and I had a spa day!!!  We got cucumbers and massages and peels and all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff!!! I sent Jack a picture of me with a mask and he just said “Ewwww!”  But I told him he’d like the results.  He said I’m already beautiful enough!  Aww!!!  But I told him I would be even more beautiful!!!

He said he didn’t think that was possible!!!

Hahaha!!!  Good boyfriend!!!

So anyway, after doing that and some shopping, we got home late, and we were tired, so I just walked Marie and went to bed.

This morning, all of us except for Beth and Sabby went to the place we rented and set up!!!  There were goodies, and a stage, and we even set up a little red carpet!  Sabby was taking beth to get her hair done, and when that was all done, they put on their gowns and went to our space!!!

We even hired paparazzi!!!  They were on each side of the carpet taking pictures, and when she pulled up (in a limo!) she came out and they immediately started taking pictures of her!!!

The funny thing is – we didn’t tell her!  So she was surprised!!!  Hahaha!!!

All the men were wearing tuxes, and all the women gowns!!!  Even David and Allison!!!  Some couldn’t afford anything really fancy, but they wore their best anyway!!!  EVERYONE was there because we needed a lot of people for the ambience, and they love Beth, too!  Even Emiko and her family!  Even some people from church!

So Beth came in, and we all sat down, and the prerecorded music came up.  I had gotten some clips from one of those services where celebrities can give little 30 second blurbs!!!  So she got a greeting from Elon Musk1!  From Steve Wozniak!  From Neil DeGrasse Tyson!  From lots of people she liked and respected!  And then after all that, Sabby and I got up and presented her with an award!!!  It was the “Most Likely to have a Sixteenth Birthday and be Loved by Everyone” award!

Everyone started clapping, and we had easily 50 people there!!!

So she comes up, blushing, and accepted the award, which was a nice piece of glass shaped like a number 16.  But we told her to turn it over.

She did, started jumping up and down and squealing, and ran out of the building, jumping all the way!!!!

There were car keys!!!

We got her a car!!!

It wasn’t a new one, but, it was kind of like mine.  Reasonably nice and pretty reliable, if a little older.  But she didn’t care!  She got a car!!!  We had put a huge bow on it, and by the time we caught up with her, she was already outside and inside the car just squealing and… and crying!!!

She hopped out and hugged all of us, sniffling.  “you really love me,” she said.

“Of course we do,” I said,  “Let’s go inside and have some snacks.”

So, we did.  And the afterparty was great!!!  We had hors d’ouevres, and lots of chocolatey stuff (I wouldn’t have had it any other way), and fancy non-alcoholic drinks – baker really outdid herself!  The whole thing was expensive so we couldn’t afford a full catered dinner, but everyone was happy.  My tech friend even volunteered to be a DJ and everyone danced!!!

David and Allison even danced!  It was cute!  Grace was just kind of wibbling around, not caring about anything.  And Jack and I, well, we danced a lot too.  He told me that I really was even more beautiful.  Suddenly it was really hot in that room!

We even invited her boy interest, and he asked her out on a date!!!  She said yes, and gave him a big hug!!!

When we came home, Beth hugged all of us.  She said “I don’t know how I’ll ever top this in my whole life!”

I said “Well, let’s see how your date goes.”

Sabby smacked me and Beth blushed prettily.  “No grandkids yet,” she said, sternly.

Beth blushed harder.  I’ll have to have a little more, er, practical talk with her at some point.  You know, about things Sabby won’t.

She doesn’t have her license yet, but neither did I.  I mean, she just turned 16 today.  She’s got a few more months to go before she hits the six month requirement with her permit.  Still… at least now she has her own car to crash.

Hahaha!!!

We sent pictures to the group chat and Rebecca and her friends thought it was a great idea!  Unfortunately, Robert maybe not so much, because I have a feeling Rebecca’s going to try to top that next birthday!  Well, Robert’s okay, but he deserves it a little!!!

Okay!

Love you all!!! And especially Beth!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

And I’m… well… confused.

Beth seemed very depressed today.

I don’t understand!  I mean, she had such a good day yesterday!  We threw her a huge gala, like the Oscars!  We gave her a (okay, not the most expensive, but nice) award!  She got a car of her own!  She had everyone show up, and even some people she didn’t really know!  She had food and chocolate and even got asked out by her boy friend (not boyfriend, it’s different!)  She got everything she wanted!

And… this morning, she was just kind of moping around.  She didn’t want to do anything, and she was even a little snippy.  Not rude, but she clearly didn’t want to be bothered.  She ate breakfast, went to church (where the pastor actually made a sermon up based on that ceremony, which was nice but really silly), and that just seemed to depress her more.  We came home and she just went up to her room, and I haven’t seen her much since.

I knocked on her door and asked her if she was okay, and she said yes, but she wanted to be alone.

Sigh.

I asked Sabby if she knew what was going on, and she didn’t really.  But she told me that sometimes it’s when you get everything you want that you feel the worst, and, well…  I don’t really understand that, but Sabby’s pretty smart about these things, so, she’s probably right.

And then she said that Beth’s sixteen and when you’re sixteen you get moody, and then she looked at me meaningfully.

Dangit, Sabby!!! Hahaha!!!

Maybe it’s because I don’t have everything I want, and I can’t have everything I want, that I don’t understand.  Oh well.

I need to look up the manuals on Beth’s car so we know how to change the oil.  It’s in the driveway now, and we’ve got four cars now, and the neighbors are giving us dirty looks.  I don’t really care, but Sabby’s a little peeved.  If we can fit four cars in our driveway, it’s none of their business how many we have!

David’s a bit jealous, but he’s ten.  He’s not driving for a while, and that’s just how it is.

Maybe I should get Beth a shake.  I haven’t seen the owner in a while anyway (though he did come to the shindig yesterday!)

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

Beth seemed to be doing a little better today, but she still seemed really off.  I drove her to her classes today, so I had a captive audience, and asked her why she seemed so down yesterday and today.

She was really quiet for a while, and when she turned to look at me her eyes were wet.

“My birthday was so good!”, she said.  “It was everything I ever dreamed and it was absolutely perfect and I got absolutely everything I’d ever have wanted.  It was a perfect day.”  She sniffled.  “And the next day I woke up, and I looked around, and everything was exactly the same.  I got everything I wanted and everything was exactly the same.  Is that.. is that how it’s going to be whenever I get something I want?  I’ll spend so much time looking forward to it, and then I’ll get it, and I’ll wake up the next morning and… and…” she sniffled.  “it doesn’t really change anything, does it?”

“What did you want it to change?”, I asked.  Beth was really confusing me.

She shrugged.  I was turning off onto the 290 exit and had to merge onto the frontage road, so it was quiet for a bit.

“I don’t know,” she said, quietly.  And she didn’t say anything more.

I don’t understand Beth.  I really don’t.  She gets so jealous, she wants to be included, she hates it when people have or do things she doesn’t, but…  but then she gets what she wants and she spends the next two days moping around.  Maybe she’s moody?

We pulled into the parking garage.

“Do you remember that movie we watched a long time ago?” I asked.  “Contact, I think it was?”

She nodded.

“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix.” I recited. “You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”, she asked.

I sighed.  “You got something valuable on your birthday, and it wasn’t an award, it wasn’t the car, it wasn’t the food or the dancing or even the date.  Maybe you got everything you wanted, but the thing that you really needed, the thing you really should value, is the thing you’re not.”  I turned towards her.  “You got more than fifty people there who were there to celebrate you, Beth.  You.  No one else.  That’s the valuable thing you got, Beth, and you can’t crash it or scratch it or throw it away, and no one can take it from you.”

She was quiet for a moment.  Then she wiped her eyes.  “Let’s go to class,” she said.

And, well, we did.

I don’t know if it helped.  But I tried.  I don’t really understand, but I tried.  Why can’t she see that we love her?

But when we got home, she gave me a hug before she went up to her room, so I guess there’s that.

Oh well.  Marie needs a walk.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

I’ll be honest – of all the people I’ve grown close to since I was found and adopted, my relationship with Beth has been the rockiest.  Liz and I have always got along really well.  David and I, well, we’ve never really gotten along, but we’ve never really been at odds either.  He’s just David.  You can’t really be mad at him for being him, because that’s just who he is – and he’s kind of mellowed out a little over the past year.  Maybe his girlfriends have been good for him, the little player.  Emiko was a little rocky, but we got to know each other, and we get along pretty well now.

But Beth really hated me when I first arrived.  She has an acidic tongue and isn’t afraid to use it.  She called me names, she tried to bully me (but mostly failed because I’m bigger and because Sabby put a stop to that really fast), she wanted nothing to do with me.  Eventually she warmed to me – that story is at the very beginning of this diary nearly two years ago now (has it been that long? really?) but our relationship has definitely had its ups and downs.

I forgave her, obviously.  But I’d be lying if I said I completely forgot.  She really hurt me, back then.  And I didn’t really do anything to her, either, except for to exist.

But she’s always kind of been a striver.  People tell me that I’m kind but gullible, and I guess I am.  Remember last birthday, when they threw a surprise party for me, and Liz pretty much literally all but told me, and I never guessed?  And every game of truth or dare people seem to get me to do things I wasn’t really planning on doing, and I know that, and I do it anyway.  It’s the only time Sabby’s really been angry with me, is when I let people take advantage of me like that.  And wandering around Robert’s house pretty much naked?  She’s right, I guess.

But that’s a.. what’s the word?  Tangent?  Yeah.

I’m gullible, but Beth’s driven.  She’s really smart and she really wants to succeed.  She certainly seemed to feel held back at school, especially when they were doing remote classes, but she’s always trying to better herself and experience new things.  I think it’s a bit hard for her because she doesn’t have the same kind of opportunities she would in high school, even though she felt a little hld back.  I think part of the reason she gets so upset when she’s left out, is that she’s so driven, and hates to see other people get opportunities she doesn’t.

And let’s face it, I’ve had a lot of opportunities.  I mean, co-owning Sabby’s business with her, going to Japan, going to Orlando, going to LA, getting to go to the Oscars…  that’s really something, I guess.  And Beth, well, what does she get to do?  Go to classes, I guess.  She’s about to start singing lessons, which is good because she loves to sing.  And she’s good at it too.  And, well… what else?

Poor Beth.

I don’t think she’s happy unless she’s working towards something – apparently, when she achieves what she’s worked for, it upsets her.  But then she finds something else and it’s all good again.

I don’t understand her at all.  But I guess it takes all kinds, right?

I’m not Beth’s teacher, Sabby is, but I don’t think we’re doing right by her.  I don’t think she’s thriving, and I want her to thrive.  Like I am!!!

I really don’t.

But next time I go to see Emiko I’m taking her with me.

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

But it wasn’t me! Lily! Last night!!!  I had technical problems and couldn’t upload a post!  I had to upgrade a plugin or something!  It was annoying!!!

But here I am!  Your favorite seventeen year old half-Japanese girl named Lily, and Yuriko at the same time!!!  How many other seventeen year old half-Japanese girls are there named Lily AND Yuriko? I don’t know! I’d guess none!  Hahaha!!!

Well, it’s kinda late, so I won’t write too much.  I wish computers would work all the time!!!  Beth seems to be doing a bit better.  I talked to Sabby and said I didn’t think she was being challenged.  Sabby said, isn’t she taking college courses, those aren’t challenging? I said, well, kind of, but if we’re being honest some of those people can barely read, and she’s a lot more driven than that.  Sabby said she’d think about it.

Sometimes I don’t think Sabby takes me seriously.  Oh, I mean she does sometimes, but I’l still a seventeen year old girl, and, well, she’s not!  So I tell her my concerns, and she’s as likely to tell me I’m imagining things as she is to take me seriously.  I may be wrong, but I don’t really imagine things.  Sigh.  But Beth is her daughter, so I guess at some point I just have to trust her to do the right thing.  I can go to bat for Beth, but ultimately, she’s the umpire…  or something like that.

But I guess there are things I can do too that aren’t stepping on Sabby’s toes.  Well, too badly, anyway.

Okay!  I’m sleepy!!!

Oh!  Allison wanted me to make it very clear to everyone that while she and David danced, it wasn’t a slow dance!  David doesn’t really know how to dance anyway.  Maybe someone should teach him.  Her blue dress was really pretty though!

Love you all!!! ❤

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

It’s Friday!!!

And all the girls are over!  Liz, Diana, Crystal, Beth…  and we even set up a video with Rebecca and her friends and even Ai!  Allison couldn’t make it, but she said hi!  She did join the video chat for a bit to meet everyone!!!

Ai seems a little… confused… by Rebecca and her friends.  Yu was actually kind of gushing, I think she’s a worse weeb than Crystal!  But mostly I think she’s just trying to find her heritage.  But there was just so much chattering going on and it was early Saturday for Ai, and eventually she just said she had to eat breakfast and left.  Aww.  I’ll have to talk to her later.  Rebecca and her friends are a force of nature!!!

We ordered pizza tonight, and have some ice cream and other snacks too, and everyone pigged out!  Now we’re all in our pajamas and very much not playing “truth or dare” (Sabby outlawed that game, and probably a good decision if I’m being honest).  But we’re having fun anyway.  Beth’s really getting along with Kari, they’re about the same intelligence, and Britni, well…  she’s sweet, anyway.  She really is sweet, but we’ve kind of given up explaining stuff, and she really doesn’t seem to mind just watching everything happen around her.  She’ll make some guy a good wife, but, well… he’d better make a good living.

We’re going to bed soon.  Sabby’s about done with the squealing and chattering anyway.  Hahaa!!!

Okay!  Time for bed!

Love you all!!! ❤