September 15 - Brevity, spying, etc

Today is one of those days when I only have one concordant entry in any of the four main journals. There are some days where there are no journal entries, but we’ll deal with those when we come to them. There is a fifth journal (I know, you’re shocked) that I will utilize in the future provided that there is some level of interest in this blog. Honestly, I really hope that people can get a good laugh out of most/all of this, so please let me know what you think. Here comes round two. Enjoy!

Sixth Grade Journal – September 15, 1994¹
Today I have Advanced Youth Education at 3:30.²

¹ – There were daily topics for this class, but I never wrote them down. In some cases this makes it difficult to understand what I was writing about at the tiem. This type of entry occurs multiple times, so I’m inclined to believe that when Mrs Robertson was lazy she would simply ask us to write about what we were doing after school. Lame!
² – Beside this entry Mrs Robertson wrote, “I’d like for you to write more about it.” This will become a recurring theme that manifests itself in a variety of ways. I’ll go ahead and spoil it for you: I never really take any of her suggestions to heart.

BONUS ENTRY: Third Grade Journal – August 23, 1991
Today is August 23 Today I passed football with Sean Joiner boy that was realy fun! and me and Evan White spyed³ on some kids⁴

³ – Spying (that is, to have “spyed”) was one of my primary pastimes in these formative years. I notice now that I never really wrote down what anyone was doing during these spying adventures. This leads to me two conclusions, the first being that recess was exceedingly boring, and the second being that I was a weird kid. Shocking.
⁴ – I will admit that this journal is slow in picking up. The later entries in it are what really inspired the idea for me to undertake this whole project, however. I promise that they will eventually deliver. Just wait until we get into the “Player of the Day.” Just wait.

BONUS ENTRY: Eighth Grade Journal – August 28, 1996 (continued)⁵
A Staff⁶ Appeared In My Right Hand, A Brown Leather Book In The Other Hand. They Began To Change, Too. I Looked To My Right, A Greenish Purple Portal Opened. Light Blasted Through As A Person Fell In Front. Shielding My Eyes From Light, I Couldn’t Tell Who It Was. He Stood Up, It Was… “Nate⁷?!?” I Said. “How Do You Know My Name?” I Stood Up. “It’s Me, Guy!” I Said. “Yeah Right!” Nate Said And Punched Me. I Fell Backwards. “Dang! That Hurt!” I Thought. Then Nate Grew Bigger, Stronger, And Armor Appeared On His Body. A Huge Sword Appeared In His Right Hand.

⁵ – This is a continuation of the “bonus entry” from yesterday. I wrote in this journal both in and out of school, so it can be difficult to tell where the actual “free writing” starts and my attempt to expand the limits of Annoyance ends. There are some non-Annoyance-related entries, and while they are good, they are not particularly frequent. Also, in case you couldn’t tell, this is the part of the story motivated by the fantasy books (you know, dragons, spells, and all that jive) that my friends were reading at the time. Perhaps this blog should be titled “A Chronicle of Regrets.” I’ll think about it.
⁶ – This was the era where I developed my current handwriting style of using all capital letters. As part of this process, I clearly went through a period where I capitalized every single word. You’ll be happy to know that this makes reproducing these entries a pain in the ass.
⁷ – Another of my friends and fellow fighters in this story. Nate was a great friend of mine during this time whose family eventually moved away, bringing an unfortunate and regrettable (sensing a theme here?) end to our friendship. If my journals from third, fourth, and sixth grades actually included relevant details of my life, Nate would be a key figure.