Royalties

Yes, it is vaguely interesting how it is the Spanish language magazines that are full of photos of the royalties in all their splendor. I remember during high school leafing through the magazines in the waiting room of the dentist office, seeing the latest news in the saga of the Grimaldis, those most decadent and disgusting people whose claim to power is obviously not based on their own bad behavior. No, just being  a good person does not mean that Santa Claus will show up with diamonds and jewels for you. Those rich people, I would not want their problems. They have a lot of problems. But if royalties are want these rich people want, it begs the question of why they would settle in the United States. Why not move permanently to Denmark where there is already a king and queen in place to rule over you? We do not have that stuff here. Could it be that you imagine that you yourself should be the royalties? How pretentious and arrogant of you to suggest such a thing! How dare you place yourself in the seat of power that does not belong to you! You are not the president, obviously. Here in the democracy you are just one vote among millions.

Brizuelas

Yes, so far I have not had any reason to mention the Brizuela Bitches, those two nasty sisters who strutted the halls of high school as if they were the rulers of the future world and myself nothing but the maid. Ok so I exaggerate as do they. Mattie's locker also was near mine as if that mattered. They always treated me like garbage so it not really surprising that their wicked brother also esconced in his marble palace in Miami also has some distorted idea of what high school was like for me. So I never had a chance to witness to his imperious, nasty witch sisters, obviously, or his wicked witch wife either for that matter. It is not like I did not have good intentions but the reality is that these people are not interested in being friends with me. They only want to conquer and rule. That is the only thing the care about and that agenda does not mix well with the missionary mindset, sad to say.

Indian Natives

In my very recent research ramblings I have learned of the existence of the Caddo Nation. This is a meshing of several native American tribal groups who once inhabited what is now East Texas and other parts of the central United States such as Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Most of those peoples were removed to Oklahoma where their languages are blended together, sort of. Anyway, the word Texas or Tejas is loosely based on a Caddo word meaning friendship. The word Caddo itself is the native American term for the "real chief" or the "real Caddo." So, anyway, isn't it funny that this word "Caddo" also sounds vaguely like the surname of my ninth grade classmate, "Catto," but only if you have a lisp or some other speech impediment? Obviously, Mr. Catto is not really the big "chief." He is only the hired hand, the self-described "Ambassador At Sea," a very appropriate title for this autobiography because it accurately describes how this ambassador works very closely, hand in hand, with the wealthy people who have all the money stashed away in the offshore banks, not having much to do with or having the slightest thought or care for the common folk, the lower class poverty stricken populace of more native American genealogical extraction who will never have a chance to rise from the ranks, the bottom feeders of society, the catfish scavenging at the bottom of the stream for any leftover scrap that might be found, not that I would know anything about this, never having heard this word until recently. So the rich people of the country belong to a different world than the poor people but we always knew that. The Bible says: "The poor you have with you always." There always will be poor people who can't get out of the slums and ghettos. There always will be these Rich Bitch Republican trash (or was she a Democrat, like I would even know exactly who you are talking about) who can never get any respect even though they try so hard, not that we wanted it to be that way but it was their choice. It was not like they would ever let us tell them what to do, or rather what not to do. So typical of these Brash Trash Rich People to dump their garbage on poor people like me, as if I could afford to pick up the tab for all their libel and slander when I do not even know what they are talking about.

Strangers

Yes, it is sort of strange that I would get some bizarre messages from the people of San Bernardino of whom I remember almost nothing. Sherri Turnbull, for example, is a dim blur in mind, some silly junior high conversation about boys and dating rules, nothing that I can remember clearly, as if Sherri had anything to be so high and mighty about. And all those other people, Jack, etc. It kind of hurts for them to be attacking me in this way when I did nothing to them and I cannot think of any reason to attack them except in self-defense because they are attacked me first, not because I ever think about them very much actually, sorry to say that. They might have been my parents' supporters but they could not care less about me. In all the time I was at SCC it was like I did not exist to them. They would prefer the accomplished pianists such as Lynda, perhaps, so fine, I cannot compete with that so I am totally baffled at why I should care about them anymore. They have their Lynda and so they do not need me for anything, obviously.

And Who Is Calling Who A Thief?

Yes, and who is calling who a thief anyway? From the very beginning Pastor always hoped and prayed that I would not pay my tithes and prove myself unworthy so that therefore Pastor would feel himself under no obligation to be nice to me in any way and would not feel the slightest tinge of guilt in praying for my future despair and heartache and that I would be in future divested of any potential future inheritance, and that all favor and influence would be afforded instead to the rich people who have their the sights of their double-barreled guns aimed directly at my backside. Yes, I felt the sneering contempt of certain people and it is still there sort of, not that I could exactly say exactly what I mean when I say this. Come to think of it, everyone is already set on this course of action so there would be no reason for me to protest if my mother wants to sign it all over to my sister like they want. At least I have no children to inherit this curse so it is not going to be a problem for future generations.

Weed

Yes, that was rather disappointing. The seed that Mr. Schaeffer gave me was only a weed. It was for 10th grade biology class. I cannot speak for the other students' seeds but mine was only a weed. We were given a seed and a little potting soil thing in which it was to germinate and its emergence to be recorded daily on a log book to be turned in a few weeks later for a biology class project. So I did plant my seed and recorded it more or less although maybe not quite daily. Later, the gardener planted the little seedling out in the garden and it grew quite tall, maybe four feet tall, and began to multiply into a sort of thicket. However, there was no flower or fruit to be had. So eventually we had the gardener remove the weed from the garden because it did not fit in the garden. I never did find out exactly what it was. Mr. Schaeffer's little secret, as he said in the first place, so no reason to ask. Also no reason to imagine some other symbolic thing, such as the idea of me being a weed. How insulting! How dare you call me a weed, you noxious pestilence! So there.

Blackmail

Yes, I do wonder sometimes why I am being blackmailed by all these boring Luna people, as if I did anything to them. It was very nice of Myrlena to explain to me what those words meant when actually she did not have to do that. She could have just said to look it up in the dictionary. I am sorry that she was embarrassed but I would have been too if I had been called upon to explain the sewage continually flowing from the mouths of Thomas and Raymond. I myself probably would have directed people to the dictionary in that situation. Fortunately no one asked me so perhaps they are more familiar with the colloquial English than I was at the time at age 14 with the colloquial Spanish. I had never heard such words at church or among church people so had no idea of the meaning and was seeing nothing in the context of the classroom with which to associate that. At least I did ascertain the meaning and thus prevented myself from repeating the sounds like a parrot without knowing what it meant. It is important to make sure you know what these words mean to avoid misusing them. I fail to see what that minor incident has to do with money or anything else. If the Luna people are imagining that I have some offshore deposit with which to pay them off they are sadly mistaken. I have no money for them. It is not like I am a manager of a translation company. If I were a megacorporation like McDonald's and the design of my coffee cup had precipitated burns then perhaps the deep pockets of corporate America could accommodate this but as for me I fail to see why this matters. The choice of words was his, not hers, so it wasn't her fault, and the cultural norms of that era say that it is not his fault because such behavior was typical among that high school peer group, so basically no one is at fault as far as I can tell. It was sort of strange that I was promoted to honors science shortly after that by Mr. Freund. Obviously there was no connection to that incident. I don't think that I ever discussed that with anyone at school after that. It would be embarrassing to repeat that conversation so obviously there was nothing else to say about it. I could apologize to Myrlena but she died so there is nothing else to say about that.