Wow, three months???? Geez....

I have to do a better job at posting now.  Seriously.

Anyway, things are still crazy here.  Vee, my human, is still jobless, and the truth is, I haven't seen her since Easter.  I don't know what's going on.  I wonder if she's forgotten about us. 

School is out for the summer, and our future is still up in the air.  It's strange, this state of things, not knowing what is coming from day to day, or even how long I'll even be here.  It's the not knowing that's killing me. 

Vee's behavior is quite strange, for sure.  The fact that I haven't seen her since Easter is troubling.  Harriet says she hasn't seen Vee in even longer. 

I'd like to know what's going on and how to even deal. 

Sorry for disappearing again...

...but there are still A LOT of things going on in the Human's life. Vee is still on her job search and is currently getting over her 2nd sinus infection in as many months.
Anyway, on my end, I have indeed left Adams Middle School and am currently enrolled at Innerstar Magnet Academy, where I started after Christmas. It's a boarding school for gifted and talented girls, and I'm thrilled to have gotten in. However, I do miss my old friends back at AMS.

This is one of my two new roommates, McKenna Marie Brooks. She comes from Seattle, Washington, and is VERY unlike me. She is a three sport athlete -- gymnastics, cross-country, and tennis, but gymnastics is her favorite. She left behind five-year-old twin sisters, Maisey and Mara (seriously, what kind of names are those?) She and her friends, Mia St. Clair and Natalie Spencer (yes that Natalie, her parents transferred her too) make up three-fourths of the Shooting Stars gymastics team at IMA. And they're ALWAYS together. She's a cheerleader, too. She's a three sport athlete and I'm a total klutz at ANY sport. Sigh. She seems so... perfect. Sigh again.

In my next post I'll introduce you to my other new roommate at IMA.

I look at the girls here at IMA and sometimes I don't think I measure up. They're all super perfect or super talented or three-sport athletes or musicians or actors. I'm none of those things. When I look at the girls at IMA, sometimes I wonder how I even got in.

An unexpected turn

My family research project took an unexpected turn last night. And I got my first big break.
My dad emailed me this photograph. "Who was she?" I asked.
"Marie-Grace Rousseau Gardner Hotchkiss."
HOTCHKISS?
"She was my dad's great-grandmother. She was originally from New Orleans but she was raised in Pennsylvania. After she'd returned to New Orleans, she met John Peter Hotchkiss (of Quaker descent) when she was seventeen. The next year she married him and returned to Pennsylvania with him. The records say her name was Mary-Grace Hotchkiss, but that was because when she got to Pennsylvania she Americanized her name." According to the records, John and Mary Grace Hotchkiss had 6 kids.
Hmm, that explains why after the divorce my dad decided to come to Louisiana. Turns out I'm not the only one researching this family.

Bittersweet

My Innerstar gear arrived yesterday.

And today is my last day at Adams Middle School. After the holiday, I'm going to start school at Innerstar Magnet Academy.

You know what's strange? I spent two years trying to get away from AMS... and now that I've gotten my wish, it's almost like I don't want to go.

For starters, I'm going to miss my BF Harriet loads. Unless she finds a way to get into IMA... but that's not likely at this point. IMA is for gifted and talented girls.

Then, who is going to finish the yearbook?

Oh, and one more thing. I still haven't finished that family history project, and it bothers me. Some of the other kids have come with fascinating stories. Harriet's ancestors had been enslaved. Kat Engel's family comes from Germany and Norway. Lindsey's family is Jewish. Kate Osborne's great-grandparents survived the Great Depression.

So I haven't done a single solitary thing for the project because I've got nothing interesting to add.

Family Ties

Since the holiday season is about celebrating families, every student at Adams Middle School has been given an assignment. We're to research our family histories. The project is due the week we go home for Christmas break, and some of the best essays will be read aloud at the annual Christmas pageant this year.

My problem is, I have no clue how to even begin.

I know from earlier research that the name Hotchkiss is English and Scottish, and that my father, Donald Leroy Hotchkiss, comes from a long line of Pennsylvania Quakers. There is this one site, hotchkissclan.org, but it doesn't tell me very much. Also, I don't know much about my mother's family. My mother, Jillian McCaughey Hotchkiss, is not very open about her heritage. My mother and my cousin Nicki's mother are twin sisters. Identical twin sisters -- in looks only. Personality wise they could not have been more different. Sometimes -- and I hate saying this -- I wish Aunt Joan was my mother.

Catching up -- part deux

The other part that has happened is that a bunch of girls have left. There are only a few of us actually remaining. Hilary's gone (again), and quite a few others have left, but I didn't know those girls well. Hilary's departure left the presidency open for me.

Meredith Hopkins no longer attends Adams Middle School, but that doesn't mean she's no longer a problem. Apparently she's now taken to calling me nasty names through my IM. How she got my instant messaging name and account I don't know. And I don't have a Facebook. Given what I've heard about Facebook, I'm kind of scared to get one.

Safe to say the "Pretty Girls" are no longer what they once were. Meredith was so upset at Natalie for becoming cheer captain that she transferred to Hillside, the private school on the other side of town, and, I heard, became cheer captain THERE. And, I'm told, Meredith and Natalie are no longer on speaking terms, even though they live in the same neighborhood. I think Natalie's gymnastics training helped her become cheer captain. As for the third girl, Sasha, she spends most of her time now with glee club -- and the new girl, Cassidy Fitzgerald. And in my book, that's a GOOD thing.

Speaking of Natalie, she and Harriet (yes my best friend) take a yoga class together and have the same PE period. I thought about signing up for the yoga class but with all my duties I've been much too busy. It's actually kind of weird seeing them laughing and talking together.

And I have more news. Remember Antoinette, the French exchange student who spent time here a couple of years back? Well, she applied to attend Innerstar Magnet Academy -- and got in! So, she'll be at IMA when I get there!

Oh, and just this morning I learned that my twin Robyn Pickering's dad passed away suddenly of a heart attack.

Catching up

Okay, I promised Sabine at AG Playthings that I would be doing an update entry. Vee's health issues and my own busy life have seriously cut into my computer time. Trouble is, I may have to do TWO because so much has happened since I last wrote here!

I may have stretched myself TOO thin. That's because I'm now (finally) Student Body President at Adams. Yes, I got elected to the position pretty much by acclamation (sp) because no one else ran. You got that right. No one else ran. Right now, for example, I'm coordinating the holiday food drive.

Also, I'm in charge of all of Adams' student publications. That means the newspaper, the yearbook, everything.
And that isn't all. I'm also president of Jr. Beta club (which is an honor society for kids who have been on the honor roll) and volunteer in the library.

And you'll never believe what ELSE has happened. Natalie Spencer (yes that Natalie) is now captain of the cheerleaders. She beat out Meredith and boy was Meredith ANGRY. Meredith was so mad that she transferred to the private school on the other side of town, our biggest arch-rivals, Hillside Academy. Harriet says it's karma. I say Meredith got her just desserts. But Natalie being cheer captain is just so... weird. It really is. And it's even weirder cause she's kinda sorta dating Ethan Bergman. As in my friend Lindsey's older brother.

And to think, Natalie looked like THIS when she got here. Sigh.

Oh, and one more thing. When I came back this new girl, Cassidy, had formed a Glee Club, and Harriet of all people had joined it. I don't know her that well, but the other day she asked ME to join. Seriously. I can't sing a lick. Neither can Harriet actually, that's why she eventually quit the club. Anyway... I think she's playing Clara this year in the Nutcracker ballet.