Posts by Jonah

I went down to the Sanger (or however it’s spelled) theater this
afternoon. I tried the back door but it wouldn’t open. I walked around to
the side and saw Stephen walking toward me. “Am I glad to see you!” he said.
He couldn’t find anyone who knew anything about anybody that had anything to
do with the play. So we walked around the block trying to get in. Finally we
found an open door. No one was inside except some sweaty construction workers
cutting carpet on the stage. I found a phone and called the theater
department and found out that the bus full of people had just
left. So Stephen and I just sat in a couple of box seats until finally another girl
walked in. Then we went outside and waited by the door to the costume
building. A couple of other people showed up, and then the van came. After
that we all went upstairs to find costumes. I didn’t get mine until everyone
else was ready to leave. It’s a gaudy yellow dress for the procession which
I’m in when I’m not a dwarf. Stephen got his about that time as well. We had
to wait quite a while before anyone was free to help us.

Thursday, August, something or other, 1994

Dear Stephanie,

I’m bored. Bored, bored, bored. Well, not really. Just somewhat.

I felt like some ice cream, so I went into the kitchen to make some. I couldn’t find the recipe book, so I just kinda winged it. I didn’t measure anything. It’s in the freezer now. Hopefully, it’ll turn out okay.

Nathan came over today to ride Shelly. Before that, he registered at UM. It’s about time. School starts in less than a week.

Ben downloaded a neat game off of Trader John’s. It’s Laser Chase, that game that they played on motorcycles in the movie Tron. It’s fun because two people have to play it. You have to move around the screen, leaving a trail behind you, and neither of you can bump into the trails or the walls. The trick is to out maneuver your opponent into trapping him. The first day we first got it, Ben and I played it for about an hour. Then Mom and Ben played for a long time. Ben is easy to beat because he usually just ends up selfdestructing. But he’s getting better. Nathan’s good at it, but he usually ends up killing himself by taking inordinate risks.

I’ve been doing a typing job for Dad, the manual for the Sales Reps. We got a copy of the one they used at Star Song, and Dad’s going through and altering it specifically for Integrity. I finished up the first draft today, and Mom took it into the office. Dad was pretty impressed. Too bad he’s only paying me $25. It’s about 18 pages long so far, but there are still a couple of parts that are missing. Nathan said it looked more like a $35-40 job. But I don’t mind. I enjoy doing something creative around here.

Like cooking. Tonight I made a rather big meal: sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, squash casserole, and smoked turkey. “When are we going to eat?” Ben asked me as I got on the Neutral Zone. I told him we would as soon as Dad got home. “He’s not coming home till late,” he replied. “Didn’t you know that?”

So it was just the two of us and all that food. Oh, well. At least we’ll have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow.

Yum. The ice cream is delicious.

Nathan was over last night, and we watched Home Improvement and Cristy. Later, we were all in the den together. Out of the blue, Dad asks,
“Joanna, where are you?”

“Right here, Dad.”

“No, where are you in the typing job?”

Later on, he went to bed but then came back out and stood in the doorway. “Do we have a cat?” he asked.

“Yeah, Dad, it lives over in the barn.”

“Okay, I was just wondering if we still had a cat. I hadn’t heard anyone talk about it for a while.”

Tuesday, May 3, 1994

Well, we had fun yesterday. Stephanie and I went over to Nathan’s house for the first time Monday afternoon. Eric and Carolyn came, too. It was neat to meet the rest of his family. His parents are really funny. They spent most of the time making Nathan embarrassed. His dad is a police officer who works in forensics and is on the bomb squad. They have guns lying everywhere around their house. We went out and shot a Glock, a couple of twelve gauges and another .33 handgun that I don’t know what it was.
We also shot Nathan’s dad’s replica Colt Navy revolver.

We watched Leslie Nelson _Bad Golf Made Easy_, _Victor Borge_, _Hudson Hawk_, and _Son in Law_ (Nasty, nasty, nasty…). For supper we had a turkey that Nathan’s dad had smoked that day. (He would say, “I got to go check on the turkey. No, not Nathan. The one in the smoker!”) Stephanie and I had picked blackberries that morning and made a cobbler, so we ate that after supper.

Nathan’s mom is really funny. She was talking about all the fools out on the road now a days and said, “Once this idiot in a van pulled out in front of me, and I felt like going, click, pow! pow! pow!” as she demonstrated, using her trigger finger.”