MOVING DAY

DATE: MARCH 10, 1998

I spent all of yesterday over at the old house cleaning and mucking-out. It turned out to be pretty fun. It was just me and Dad for most of the day. We still had all of the junk over there that we were originally going to yard sale. And then putting on a yard sale seemed too hard---so we were going to take the junk to the D.I. Then even that seemed too hard and too far to drive, so Dad decided to haul it all off to the dump.

Well, we start hauling the junk outside, and Dad turns to me and says, "Awwww, go ahead and make up a sign, Janna, let's sell this crap. Even if we only make a couple of bucks."

There was nothing decent to make a sign with, so I rummaged and found 2 trashy pieces of paper and some old craft paint and cobbled a couple of tatty signs together, using a piece of toilet paper as a paint brush.

We hung one of the signs on HWY 59...excellent for advertising to Our Friends of Colorado City (monarchs of the yard-sale-world). The other one we put on the windshield of my car which was parked out front. Dad was loving it and was giggling constantly.

Even though it was a Monday, and we started at about 10:00am, and hadn't even advertised in advance, we ended up making about $110.00 dollars and getting rid of most of the pile of junk. Pretty nifty.

Neither of us wanted to sit with the yard sale though. I kept saying I'd clean and he could sit there, and he said, "No, I'll clean and YOU sit there." I did NOT want to be the Yard Sale Girl, but I was stuck with it. I can't believe that people bought some of that crap.

Near the end of the day, I started selling everything that was left for a quarter. We made approx $20.00 bucks that way. Do you REALIZE how many grotty pieces of .25-cent junk you have to SELL TO MAKE FREAKING $20.00?

I also sold all of my manky old clothes and only kept the things I actually wear. And it sold. Someone out there is going to be very poorly dressed.

The old house is now totally empty and pretty much cleaned. But even clean, I know that I would be discouraged if I were moving in there. I think it'd discouraging to move into anywhere that isn't brand new, or recently built; there's grunge that can't be gotten rid of.

It's unsettling to think that after today, we won't be going back to that house. We can't just walk in. We'd have to knock and be invited in. It'll be someone else's house, their home, and they would live there and bash around all those familiar rooms.

ELEVEN

DATE: JANUARY 01, 1998

I found my old journal and it has exactly one entry in it (I am not a frequent writer). So I thought I'd transcribe it here, as my first blog entry.

I was 10 or 11 years-old at the time and I've entered this exactly as it was written---spelling, punctuation, missing words and all:

The 4th of July was soooo fun this year. We don't have to do any work except just sort of pick up. In the morning me and my mom and dad went to the park (the 2 oldest boys Aaron and Andy were gone camping so it was fun) and watched my mom and my Aunt Joyce sing a song about the Statue of Liberty (My mom mad the song up she's a composer too!) it was pretty.

Then we watched my sister (Katie) perform. After, my mom gave Kendall and me $2.00 to spend on tickets. We got ten with it. I won Kendall a couple of prizes then both of us went home. At home I got $10.00 of my money to go by fireworks at a stand. Kendall came with me. I bought a whole bunch of fireworks.

After I got home I ran into some of my best friends. Earl Farnsworth, Linda Reeve and Sage Reeve and Shea Farnsworth and Kelly Williamson. Earl is madly in love with Linda, but she doesn't like him for a boy-friend. She likes Jeff Stratton better. Jeff is Earl's best friend and is better looking than Earl that's why so many of Earl's girlfriends fall for Jeff. Earl doesn't know that Linda doesn't like him for a boyfriend, and it would kill him if he found out, so we have to keep quiet.

Well, anyway I donated my fireworks to thier party and they let me in thier club (Katie is already in) In it you always wear a bandana around your neck tied in a knot and sunglasses. Our party was going to be right after the big fireworks. We all went over to Earl's house to store our fireworks and Earl's little brother (James) started to follow us, so we ran to Lin's and hid in thier bathrooms.

Then we went over to Kelly's apartment and danced to some rock-n-roll. After we came to our house and listend to rock-n-roll while we talked. Then we went over to the Gee's house and Katie got her babysitting money which we bought a pizza and Ice-cream with for our party. She and Earl and Kelly had to go home then so me, Katie, Sage, and Linda sat and talked. Pretty soon they had to go home.

About at 9:00 pm. we all met again to walk up to the Ball field to see the fireworks. It was along time before they started, so we all began to sing and shout and make fools of ourselves while we waited. Soon Mr. Hill (a drama teacher in highschool that everyone likes. he's weird!!) showed up. so we all started to yell "Mr. Hill is a wierdo. Pretty soon he came running over and tackled us.

Then the fireworks started. They were neat. We started to walk home before they ended so we wouldn't get caught in the traffic. When we got home it was party time! Earl brought punch and Katie cooked the pizza. Linda and Sage brought over mine and thier fireworks over and Shea and Kelly showed up.

After we eat and talked, we went out and let off fireworks. they were cool. We had tons of them (mostly mine) at midnight my dad came out and told me and Katie to come in. It was embaressing to have a parent come out like that and we weren't done yet, but we came in anyway. It was fun. Oh I forgot when we were lighting off fireworks James came over. He's a bratt and a copy catter. Well goodnight. bye