I would really like to tell about today, but the words won’t together and descride it, so I’ve given up. Basically I went on a field trip, got a bit wet (one of my boots leaked) and my feet were really cold but we saw a little brownie and Josh Freeman poured a bucket of water on Mr. Marcuson, the biology teacher. Since it was field trip everyone was in a good mood, so Josh didn’t get in trouble, no one did I think, and there were snowball fights and stuff.

It was pretty fun. Quite possibly one of the funnest things that happened all year.

Today I made up a new word. Actually, it wasn’t just me and it wasn’t the only word I made up. It was just one of the two that were pronouncable. ‘Nerdeel.’ Isn’t that a great word?

I was at Youth Court and my client didn’t show up, so my cocouncil and I were playing Scrabble on the KPYC computer. At first I was playing the computer (it came up with the word ‘slut,’ much to my surprise) but then Karli got tired of stalking around and wanted to play too.

Regular words were too boring so we made up some new ones, including nerdeel and ‘mynq,’ which is a unique way to spell ‘mink.’ There’s probably someone out there with Mynq for their screen name though, so we can’t claim to be the first to think of it.

We made up a definition for nerdeel too. A nerdeel is a baby nerd, but it can also be a a really, really, really oddly shaped Nerd candy.

After that we started making really strange combinations of letters — you couldn’t call them words, really, because you couldn’t pronouce them unless you added about 5 vowels — mainly to get points. I filled in one whole side of the board and managed to have two triple word scores as well as the Q, the X and maybe the Z. I highly recommend computer scrabble for anyone who has a good sense of humor and a similarly minded companion. Just keep telling the game that the ‘words’ are OK.

The ice in the lake melted on Tuesday. It was sunny all week, but none of the teachers could be persuaded to let us go outside.

On Thursday, I was not, as usual, thinking. I was only answering, my mouth was just moving and I claimed that I was going swimming, as soon as we got home. ‘Oh really,’ Dad said. ‘I bet you won’t.’ ‘Yes, I will,’ replied my mouth. ‘I’ll get Amanda and Ariel to come with me.’ Later, when my mind realized what had happened while it was off napping, it was briefly horrified, then quickly came up with a satisfactory reason for the whole thing.

No one, said neighbor Mary when we passed her on the road, biking up and down to warm up first, had ever made it in before Memorial Day. ‘Ha!’ cried my mouth, my brain quickly seconding the notion, ‘I will! I’m a record breaker!’

So then I was rushing up to the house and put on my swimsuit in record time. Taking the last clean towel from my sister (Ariel, as it turned out, was at a violin lesson), I went down to the dock. My mother trailed behind, trying to figure out how to work my camera. My dad, meanwhile, had taken off down the road again, on his bike. I waited for a long while, pacing on the diving board. Amanda emptied her pockets, she was going to jump in with her clothes on. That was, I told her, a thoroughly stupid idea. Clothes get wet and they stay very wet, which then makes you very cold, especially if the water is.

Dad still hadn’t shown up. I grew tired of waiting. I was getting cold again. ‘Got goosebumbs yet?’ Mom asked. ‘Duckbumps,’ said my sister. ‘Well, then you have goat bumps,’ I retorted. ‘Moosebumps,’ my mother put in. We giggled for a while. Then I dived in.

It was cold. I regretted diving instantly. Suddenly the dock was very far away. I got turned around and back to the dock ASAP. I flew up the ladder, ‘Am I blue, Mom? I feel blue!’

Amanda laughed at me. About that time, my dad showed up again. ‘You missed it, Dad. I already went.’ He expressed disbelief. ‘You probably took a shower and then came out here to trick me.’

‘Nuh-uh, I did.’ ‘She did,’ said my sister. He still did not believe. Mary came by, walking her dogs.

‘Fine,’ said my mouth. ‘I’ll go again.’ ‘You’re stupid,’ said my sister.

‘This time I’ll just jump, then I won’t end up so far away.’ ‘I dunno, said Dad. ‘You don’t want to go so deep.’ Oh yeah, the water’s colder deeper, I remembered. ‘Do a scissors kick as you jump,’ Dad said.

But I decided to just dive again. That time I didn’t scream when I came up. I spit out water, deliberately forgot about the organisms that lived in water that I’d been learning about in biology, and headed for the dock. ‘It’s cold, Morgan!’ I skwawked at the lab who’d walked out onto the diving board. My voice sounded strange and distorted. Then I was out and standing in the air again.

At that point in time, Amanda still had not been in. She was standing out on the diving board, so I pushed her in. So she got to be cold too.

And that’s how I spent my Thursday afternoon.

So, I am sitting in Geometry today, half listening. Lesson 11-1, Proofs with Coordinates. Mr. Kennedy talks about lines and slopes. These are the parts of math I don’t like.

Why bother to tell the students that they have 26 days of school left if next you start a chapter on coordinate geometry? I liked Algebra much better. 12/3=4, of course. Wow, we just proved that this parallelogram is really a parallelogram, and not a renegade octagon in disguise.

Last semester I was thinking, you could name children or pets fantastic things from math. Horizontal & Vertical, the Linear Twins. Theorem would be a big orange cat, of course. x one, y one. y not two?

I should pay attention in class, of course, really I should. I’ll end up with a B again and Mum’ll unhappy at me, which’ll make Dad unhappy at me too and I’ll never get anything useful done.

That ‘minds me. I painted my lamp yesterday. (System of equations looks new. bother, now I’ll have to listen) (never mind) It’s very pretty now. Maybe I’ll take a picture of it.

Sky looks so pretty today, out the window. (hmm, he just changed -4 to -11 halfway through the equation. I dunno. Appears to have worked anyway)

Darn, homework. 7-12 & 14-16. The Shawshank Redemption. Carey brought movies and apparently it is okay to watch them, Mr. Kennedy says his eyes are closed. But now, “If X=(3,7), Y=(11,3), and Z=(4,9), prove that triangle XYZ is a right triangle.” Should have listened. And the movie doesn’t appear to be working. 10 minutes till the bell. I’ll have to do this 3rd hour. More importantly, I’ll have to remember to do it 3rd hour.

Looks like this guy is going to do something stupid, since he’s first shown with a gun and alchohol. Less than a minute to the bell.