亲爱的日记,

Yesterday morning Nicci came in my room around 11:00 to ask me if I was going to get up and go play tennis with Mom, Dad, and him. Of course I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and we left with nothing but tennis rackets and balls. We got out to the high school and hit some balls over the net and just practiced, only for about an hour before we all got really hot and dehydrated and had to go home. It was fun, but we were totally unprepared for the weather. We got home around 12:30 and even though I had only gone to bed at 4am I stayed up and worked on my Madcactus art. Around 4:00 pm I woke Mom up and she and I went out to Inwood to get Candace for dinner, Harpers Ferry, and a sleepover.

When we got home Mom made pasta for dinner. After dinner, around 6:00, we all got in the car and went on our way to Harpers Ferry. It took forever to finally find parking, and we ended up by the train station around 7pm. The ghost tour started at 8:00, so we walked over to the Potomac and went less than halfway across the bridge into Maryland (not all that interested in going so far; we were in for a lot of walking anyway). After the bridge we walked down toward the engine station (John Brown’s Fort) and then walked up by the wax museum and back down toward the general store and the train station. We stopped at the ice cream stand thing to get slushies and ice cream, and by the time 8pm rolled around the ghost tour woman was there and we were on our way around the Ferry.

There were some very interesting stories. There was one about a captured Union drummer boy who was killed by his jailers while they were drunk, who accidentally threw him out off the balcony and over a cliff; one about a strange medical doctor who wished to be buried standing straight up and who paid for a man to sit by his grave for 9 days and 9 nights to help him when he rose from the dead; one about a park ranger from the ’70’s who heard a baby whimpering and buildings collapsing in his ranger’s quarters to learn from a booklet written by an Annie Marmie (or something similar to that) that a baby had been killed in its mothers arms on that land from Civil War fire; even one story about a malignant soldier’s spirit in the Harper house, alongside a slew of harmless ghosts that supposedly reside there; and one about a priest who haunts the only surviving church from the Civil War Era (they struck British colors so that neither side would shoot at them).

The tour lasted about an hour and a half. Once it was over we walked by ourselves (Mom, Dad, Nicci, Candace, and me) to the Saint’s church so that I could take some pictures. I took pictures of some of the other places, too, on our way back to the car. The trip was well worth the $5 a person. We got home around 10 or 11:00 and Candace and I stayed up until midnight talking and eating from orange. I was peeved that I had a dream about Tyler; I can’t imagine what I had been thinking before I fell asleep last night.

This morning I woke up to Brittney’s door (I sleep in her room while she’s away) flinging itself open after I had already woken up once to have oatmeal. I got up and eventually Candace got up, and around 1:00 Mom dropped us off at the mall. Candi bought cigarettes and we got 20th Century Masters CD’s (they were 3 for $20) and she got Motley Crue and Pantera CD’s, then basically after that we went to drop her back off at her house, where she lives with her maternal grandparents. After we dropped her off it was looking like an ugly storm, so Mom and I stayed home to have tea and wait for the rain to pass until about 3:00. Then Mom took me to JD’s house for his birthday cookout.

I got there after food but before cake. Krispy, Hambone, Ron, and Gnorski were already there, as well as some of JD’s extended family members and a few other people I didn’t know, like Hystry. So we sang “Happy Birthday” and ate cake, then Raymond and his girlfriend showed up. JD wanted to show them his drum set, Ron showed Raymond Assassin’s Creed, and then we all went outside for the yearly water balloon fight. This year I brought extra clothes, so I didn’t feel too bad getting soaked. And I did indeed get amazingly soaked. At first just the boys were playing, but eventually it came my turn and Gnorski dragged me up out of my chair. The first balloon was so big that they didn’t want to actually hit me with it ’cause they thought it’d hurt me, so Hystry got the task of popping it over my head. But he missed and somehow got like the backs of my legs.

Ron filled up another balloon and someone threw it at me (granted, they had my attention), and the thing popped me across the face but it didn’t pop. It actually landed on the chair next to me. The side of my face was almost numb, and we were all laughing. Raymond’s girlfriend asked me if I was OK, and I think so did everyone else, ha ha. That one they popped over me too. I was not actually hit with a single balloon that popped. Then again, none of the ones I actually threw popped, either. They went through a lot of trouble to get Raymond’s girlfriend ballooned, and when they did all kinds of hell broke loose. It turned into a free-for-all and everyone got really soaked. I didn’t get to pick up a single balloon, and I actually hurt myself kicking one, but I still had fun with it.

After that Ron brought out his orange and they tried that while Hammy and Gian were filling up more balloons. I just kinda watched them do that, ’cause I’ve never had amazing luck with putting water balloons down. That seems to be the only time they’ll pop for me. Anyway, Raymond and his girlfriend left before that battle broke out, and Krispy had had to take Hystry home before the second battle. JD’s mom had gone to work for like an hour (hence the orange) and so we were free to create chaos. Which we did, including Pockets with the hose, which he had accidentally shot into the dining room, not knowing the window was open. By the end of this one we were all drenched, and we finally cleaned up and went in to change and warm up.

We just kind of kicked back after that and played on the computer, watching videos, listening to music, and saving pictures. Ron and Krispy left around 7:00. I had to leave at 9:00 but I made sure to get Gnorski all wound up (about whether a Jeep was a Jeep or an SUV) before I left. I was thoroughly amused by this.

I’m just kind of sad, now that I realized that this could be the last time I see any of them before, you know, next summer. Total bummer. Then again, it probably would be really the only time I’d get together with them all anyway. It was definitely a bang of a way to say goodbye. This whole weekend was worth the effort and planning.

送别,

Lindsay,

the Madcactus.