Simple America

I title this with a one in anticipation of posting more.

Well I have not gone to work at all this week.

I missed Monday and Tuesday because of my van’s brakes. I turned on my car and the brakes light came on. So I looked at the brake fluid and it looked good. I added a bit just for the heck of it. Turn on the car and the light was gone. I’m thinking I ducked a bullet. First time I hit the brakes the light comes back on. Great. I just had the brakes worked on earlier in the year. So I dropped my kids and went to the mechanic. Closed on Monday. Shit. Well I’m not driving any more on bad brakes than I have to. I went home and parked. No way to get to work. Decided to pick the kids up early to avoid traffic. Made it home.

Tuesday take the kids to school. I’m having problems now though. I have to pump the breaks several times to stop now. And me driving on the freeway. Houston traffic is no fun and if you go to slow everyone cuts you off, forcing to hit your brakes. I was so glad to have dropped my kids off safely. Almost considered calling for a tow to the shop. But I came this far. I arrive some how and the mechanic went to look. The well that holds brake fluid is completely empty now. So at 8:15 I sat down in a most uncomfortable chair and waited. Mechanic came and told me that the brake hose broke and so did some kind of a valve. Not hard to fix just have to find the part for my 94 Quest. Nissan sold it for $152 but I have to wait 3 days for delivery. Ford sells it too for $262. Damn. So he starts checking junk yards. I mean forever. Finally, around noon he finds one on the far north side of town. That chairs getting awful hard, and there’s no eateries nearby. So we wait and wait. Actually he works on other cars while I wait. I wish I would have brought my PC. Could have looked over the latest edits of Skinwalker that were returned to me Monday. Instead, I read the entire Rippers book for Savage Worlds. Scary stuff here.

Three o’clock and the part is still not there. It was promised at three. I start thinking about kids. How do I get ‘em without a car? I call my sis-in-law and leave a message. Then I remember it Boys Scouts on Tuesday. So I call the office of his patrol advisor. My damn cell phone sucks. There is so much static. The receptionist cannot understand me. Call my bro-in-law and speak to his assistant. She cannot understand me either. Argh.

So I’m getting ready to ask to borrow the mechanic’s phone. But he is having problems with one of his dogs. He has three there to watch over his shop when he is not there. This is not a very good neighborhood. One of the dogs is fourteen-years-old and he is trying to help his wife get the dog in a carrier and then take the pooch to the vet to put her down. Poor thing is on her last legs. He told me the dog actually laid in ants earlier and could not even stand up to move away. So I watch this unfortunate incident taking place and then the part arrives. Its four o’clock. I verify with the mechanic that he can get the part on and leave me enough time to get my kids. He sez no problems. And he was right. The actual labor on this thing was under two hours, but it cost me two days. I called work to tell them I would be there in the morning. Strangely no one answered.

So I go get my kids and I’m starved. We hit a buffet, which I usually avoid. But I had a hunger on and I had to take care of it. Then we went to scouts and my son passed his board of review for tenderfoot. The meeting lasted only 30 minutes. It basically announced that the fishing trip for this weekend is cancelled because of Rita. I had never gone deep sea fishing before so it was disappointing news. We joked that we would not be fishing, but rather fly fishing.

So got home and I’m starting to take the storm serious. And I am seeing gas lines once again. So I went and got gas. Waited in one spot to fill up and then there is highway patrol car behind me with lights flashing. He said on PA but I could not hear cause I was a rockin’ in the car. Turn off the radio and stick my head out. He wants to park where I’m at. Then I notice the two trucks that are parked looking at the DPS officer. So I drove around to the other side of the pumps and it worked out as some became open. I filled up and left.

Got home and I’m still not thinking of Rita that much. I’m trying to open my blog but it would not open then. Then I remember lost will be on the morrow. So I go down to program the TV. And then the news is on. Whoa! There closing down all of the schools in the area that I work. That’s when it hit me that I need to find out what’s going on. The mechanic did not have a TV or radio on, so I was out of the loop. So I started surfing the net looking for information on my college. Nothing, but the rest of the county is closing. I see that the area I work will begin evacuations at 6:00 Wednesday evening. So I ain’t going to work and add to the congestion.

So this morning I dropped the kids off. I’m thinking I will drive to Ed’s place. But he has family and friends and it might get crowded. So I consider alternatives too. Maybe I should go stay in an Austin hotel or in Bryan. I go by Lowes, because I have a couple toilets that need a little fixing. I think a new flapper will improve ‘em. Lots of people are there buying plywood so they can cover windows. There are no D batteries left and I grabbed some AA batteries. Keep the boy’s Gameboy powered and he won’t be as bored. Improve his chance of surviving by not irritating me.

Then I figured I would go b the grocery store and buy some plates and other things just in case. It looked like Christmas with free turkeys for sell. I had never seen such a line at this store. So I left. I can make it alright. Besides I’m leaving town I’m thinking.

Get home and my wife calls. She wants to see if I need a hotel. She has lots of points with Marriott as a platinum member. We are not finding anything on the web in the entire state. Finally she decides to call. Austin is $300 a night and Bryan is $170. Talk about gouging. It’s cheaper to fly up to Detroit. That may be my plan if Ed’s place is crowded. We’ll fly up there and drive over to Toronto and spend some time with the grandparents and number one son.

This is the weekend of the Autumn Moon Festival. It’s a fun time to be Chinese, even if you are only half Chinese and for yours truly it is my better half.

Saturday morning began in a rush as one of the Boys Scouts of Troop 80 was working on his Eagle project. He requested the assistance of all scouts and leaders in the troop. My son has the goal of being an Eagle Scout, so I see no better lesson than helping on this task. The Eagle Scout is quite prestigious and it is even signed by the President of the United States. It looks very good on college applications and resumes. It conveys leadership and I did not realize how much work went into one of these until now.

A month ago this boy came to the scout leadership committee of Troop 80. There he presented his project plan to the adult leaders. He had already been working on plan for several months. I’ve seen business plans that were not this thorough. It presented how he intended to repair the bleachers at a Junior High School in Houston. It had photographs of the bleachers; it included cost estimates for materials, labor time considerations, food for the workers, and raising the money to cover the expenditures. It went into safety and work processes. I was quite impressed. At that time the committee, made a few very small corrections and approved the project.

And yesterday we worked on it. My son and I were late as he focused on cartoons more than responsibility. With a little help from the remote control and a pair of ear plugs I was able to get him out of the house. We arrived just as they were driving in the lumber for the benches. We snarfed some donuts as the project leader gave us the safety briefing. Over the next six hours we worked and replaced all of the old wood on the bleachers and now they were much nicer to sit on than before. The old wood was gnarled and splintered quite easily. Over the course of the day a dozen boys and half a dozen leaders provided their labor to this task.

I hope my son realizes what lies before him. But he has a few years to go before undertaking this task. There will be more boys with tasks I am sure.

Got home and we relaxed a bit. I actually showered and was getting ready to take a nap when my wife’s friend called. My wife was sleeping and I did not want to wake her, because if she wanted to get up she would have taken the call. I just know her. The friend said that my wife’s little group of Taiwanese buddies were getting together at Ichiban to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival. I told her we would be there. She sounded skeptical, as my wife’s friends don’t always seem to know what to make of me. Chinese don’t seem to understand the gamer boy mentality. Too focused on making money and/or work. I assured her we would go or call as soon as we knew we could not make it.

So I took a nap and woke up in time to go to Ichiban. These friends and my wife used to all work together at BMC Corporation and couple of them even worked with her at Bechtel Corporation. All of our kids have been together for the longest time too. All of them stayed with the same baby sitter when these kids were toddlers. In fact the Ichiban owner was the kids baby sitter. She saved the childcare earnings from us and bought a restaurant and we enjoy visiting her here. Of course she always likes to see the kids. I have always enjoyed her company and she is good at gambling and making money. She never loses at the casino, though she knows the important concept; when to walk away. Now adays she no longer gambles and she works pretty hard. Though she speaks very little English, she and I have an innate ability to communicate with each other.

The food was good. My wife and I share some seafood udon, shrimp tempura, and sushi. It was good eating. The owner gave us some red bean soup for desert. This one fellow brought in six-pack of Kirin and that was pretty smooth. And of course there was moon cake. Now I cannot eat most moon cakes, because they are cooked with pork lard and it just clogs up my whole system. The first time I ate moon cake it put me in bed for three days. But last night one lady brought some pineapple moon cake that was cooked in a vegetable oil. That stuff tasted good. How nice to have moon cake for a change.

We took up two tables, so we had an adult table and kids table. After a while the kids took over the sushi bar and played cards there while the adults chatted. I felt sorry for my daughter. She seemed out of place. I learned later that all of the girls go to the same school and are in orchestra together. They all talked about school and she could not relate. Kids grow up and apart.

When it was time to leave we headed to the parking lot. Giving a fond farewell to the owner first of course. Outside the moon glowed with a passion. I wanted to grasp it in my hand and stuff it in my heart. Beautiful. But then as I am wont to all my thoughts turn to werewolves and then of course the skinwalker. I am so haunted. I had to let the wife drive home. I only drank two beers, but the kids were like “can you drive home”. Just to ease their minds the missus drove home. I hope they keep that objectivity when they drink.

Good news today. I finished the appendices for Skinwalker. I did everything that needed to be done in that area. I am expecting the text edits to come back to me today or tomorrow. So I don’t have much time to relax. And really I should think about Fire in the Hole rather than a break.

My wife took her Project Manager Certification Test today. She passed it too. Now she can relax more too.

Okay folks we are going to play a game. You can only play if you listened to the Bush speech from New Orleans or you have read the speech in its entirety. If you only have second or third hearsay of what he said, don’t play. Don’t feel mad. Go now and read it here at CNN and then come back to play.

Here’s the game which I am stealing from the Laura Ingraham show. Give your one word description for the speech. Only one word. If you use two or more words then you’re cheating and nothing will happen, except you won’t sleep for a week. You can discuss your word choice after you provide your one word description with a single paragraph.

I’ll start:

Thievery

That’s how the government pays for everything. They rob Peter to pay Paul. I am certain that good hearted Americans can rebuild the Gulf Coast better than any government could ever hope to. Now we are asking the corrupt Louisiana government to take in billions (around 200 for all three states) and build the Bush vision. The same government that has kept the poor of NO down looking for handouts is being trusted to uplift them. I don’t see that happening more than in a few photo ops. Can we have a Corruption Czar to make sure the money goes to where it is needed? Just what we need more government watching government. The dog is chasing its tail.

OK. Now you see how to play. I look forward to your comments. And remember this posting is for the one word game. It is not a political debate beyond that one word and one paragraph. Lets keep it short and sweet friends. Only play once. I am not going to make any responses either to be fair. I’m just curious.

Well went back to work. Same old shit. Fortunately, I learned a few more details regarding an audit area that I am focusing on and I am not going to have to expand my testing yet. Phew! Such a pain, but you got to comply to the rules when the feds are involved.

Yesterday was restful. Slept the entire mornin’ after depositing the kids at school.

Then I went and caught up on my 12 to Midnight email. Jeez, I had over 60 letters since the weekend and only two were for Viagra. Deleted them and saw a big debate had occurred and me totally oblivious to it all. There is an egroup I subscribe to, the Savage Writers, which is for the freelancers and licensees of the Savage Worlds system. 12 to Midnight and Reality Blurs had discussed doing an ezine akin to the Modern Dispatch. The working title was the Noble Savage. Just like Modern Dispatch we wanted to get four publishers together and each of produce an issue every four weeks. Actually this idea had been first discussed at a dinner with Shane Hensley at Gencon. Some thought it should be free. I told them at that time that freebies don’t attract new fans. You mostly get bored teenagers that never come back and buy product. Still in the emails there is a faction that does not want to listen to our experience. Then another group wants to see it done monthly or twice a month. They think the layout is too time consuming. No consensus seemed to be forthcoming, so we voted to not be a part of it.

Instead we will do plan B, which is to publish our stuff in a title called Midnight Tales. This takes our Modern Dispatch material and converts it from Modern d20 to the Savage Worlds system. Savage Worlders deserve more Pinebox material and this should make them happy. Me and guys wrote some neat stuff. It’ll be fun.

Finally, got the contracts filled out and printed. Won’t be able to get them in the mail until Friday. Need to stuff em in envelopes tonight.

The exciting news is the artist for Skinwalker’s cover is settled, providing she likes the contract. I can hardly wait to see the first sketches. See if she captures the description we provided. I’m pretty sure she can. I may post some of the sketches here if my partners don’t mind.

Me and Preston IMed for quite a bit. Discussed the Noble Savage deal. Also I ran a cash flow. I am going to do this every month from here on out. It will give the other guys an idea of where we stand at the bank. They had a few worries and this helps to remove them or increase them depending on the coffers.

Picked up the kids and nuked leftovers. Did not want another long night with dishes. Then went to work on Skinwalkers, but Jane IMed and she was talking about cobras and such. Really interesting to hear or read rather her encounters with them. So another night with nuthin done there. My problem at the moment is I do not like the spell list I wrote for the Shaman. Really want to make some changes here. But not sure what yet. Traditionally Shaman have been the links between man and the spirit world and I do not think the lists I wrote first adequately portray that. Fortunately all of that information is system reference document (SRD) material. That means once I can identify what I need, it can be cut and pasted into my text.

Tonight is Survivor. A good show for writers to watch. I like to see how humans act under these circumstances.

Its come to my convoluted attention that it’s Tuesday. When I take the twos out that means its second Monday and I’m miserable. Another late night date with dinner dishes. Dishes from a meal I came home too late to eat. Do I clean or do I exterminate? Not the people, but the ants that will invade if I leave a mess. So I clean up and bow to the clock at 1 in the morning. I’m too old for this.

I need to drop 10,000 dimes and get the system working. Then I can lose the 250 km drive every day.

But today I’m dragging. Even fell asleep while blogging. Totally unacceptable.

I need to write. I still have contracts to prepare and send. I can almost close the book on 12 to Midnight’s July. There’s art, no art, more art. Maybe a simple black page to match my soul and drop of my blood will do.

I have more commitments after the Dad’s Club meeting. No faux pas, but there is still time. I’m me after all. And they are they.

Scouts kept me busy until a quarter to nine and scouts again tonight.

People coming by, seeing I got food, but not seeing I got my mind flowing. Disrupting with their Godfather reviews. A fake smile and wave and be gone go to the loo. I have things to do.

I’m a spigot and at times like these I have to spew. Don’t have time to deal with people that don’t understand me or want to.

I’m not compassionate, much as I would like to be. I just want to leave. Never set foot in this town. Just another spot I recognize on the traffic report with a flash of joy that I’m no longer on that road.

Someone rescue me from me.

Saturday flew by. Finally, got Mrs. SA to sit down and watch Firefly but she zonked out. She is studying for a Project Management certification all day, so try again some other time. Daughter called around 1:30 am and gave us her location for the sleep over. So off to bed and Sunday manic Sunday.

I woke up with goals to achieve on Sunday. Planning my week out is my first goal of the morning and it would turn out to be one of the few goals I achieved.

My son wanted to play a card game I picked up at Gencon called Battlegrounds. This game lets you fight fantasy armies against each other and it works a lot like a miniature game. It’s a game I had considered designing, but art kills me on this stuff. If I ever get a slave they are going to be an artist. I figured a game ought to last one hour, which would free me up to work on list. The game lasted three hours. Just getting used to the rules probably took up an hour. Still fun, but I needed to get some other things done.

Finally, got to my office upstairs and I looked at the things I needed to do. Finish Skinwalker, get a contract prepared and mailed to a freelance writer, pay bills, and put my Quicken software through a migration process so I could keep paying my bills online and download bank transactions. And with any time after that figure out where the clients for the Firm might be. My marketing abilities plain suck, but my desire to spend a $1,000 on a marketing service is nil, ugh. I just don’t want to waste the money, but I need marketing.

I figured I better pay bills first. Especially with the migration taking place. If something went wrong I might not be able to pay for a couple of days. Only had one bill to enter and it would later turn out that I needed to cancel that as part of the migration process. So I downloaded my transactions and paid my bills.

The bank has sent me several emails and made just as many phone calls about the migration. So I went to the website and prepared to do the process on my own. This was the start of a four hour process in which I required the services of four different people in three different departments to get my Quicken ready for the migration. I must have hit every snag you possibly could. But I must say all of the bank people were professional and they did an excellent job. They are to be commended in their efforts. I can even download my credit card transactions, which I could not before. That’ll be a time saver.

But it took four hours and drained me. Then my wonderful wife cooked an awesome Chinese meal, which I had to eat cold since I was working with the bank. My daughter did not eat either as she came home with tales of discovering Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dats ma girl. She passed out and slept more than 12 hours. This morning she asked how she got to her bed. I told her that she laid down on her own. My son and wife had already eaten, so I ate alone while looking over the Sunday ads for Best Buy and Circuit City. Well the bad thing about an awesome meal is the incredible amount of dishes that have to be washed. I already assigned my son to fold clothes. He may have done 25% of what I expected. So much like me. Sleeping beauty was of no help, so I cleaned dishes and took out the garbage and its 11 at night.

Maybe I can write a small rules section, oh the hope of the unworthy. But no my wife is going to take the truck in for alignment on Monday. She needs the coupon I had Saturday. I looked everywhere, Jane knows, for this coupon. My computer bag, my computer, pants, wallet, even the truck. Damn I lost it. Was a good deal, $99 for a lifetime warranty on an alignment. My truck is only 2-years old. Typical of my day. Probably dumped it with the trash. Ai yah!

So nothing for 12 to Midnight got done yesterday. I cannot think today. I really want to get the freelancer a contract so we can look at his book. If it is looking really tight, we might be able to sale another product this year, though it is unlikely. But I think his idea has potential and we need other writers to fill in the dead times while we work on our secret project. Ed called me with another cool idea yesterday. My mind feels so numb lately. Cannot remember the last idea I had that was worth a squat. Maybe should dust off one of my novels and finish a book. Hell, I stuck with Skinwalker for two years now a novel ought to be a peace of cake. The writing is so much easier. And then screenplays are even simpler to write. When LyN finishes her thesis, we get Kracker and go after that. Adventure mods have to be one of the toughest writing styles out there. All of the protocols and situations that have to written for.

Don’t know if I can work on the contract tonight either. St Agnes has a Dad’s Club meeting and I should go. I want to support the school, though I always feel a little awkward as a Protestant at these things. Especially when they pray and cross themselves, and all the amens. We just don’t do that thing at my church so it’s alien to me, and I feel like a freak. But then again they don’t bitch about my money and I do want to support my daughter, so I’ll be there.

Once I can break away from that I need to go to the Scout Committee Meeting also tonight. Not looking forward to that either. It’s just taking up time is all. But it is important and I do not want to diminish its value to the boys. But I really need to get the contract out. And as the guy in charge of registration I need to be there.

Oh well I may just come down with a case of idontcareaboutdisstupidjobitis tomorrow or the next day. And people wonder why Papa Bears growl.

My daughter is at the Orientation Dance for her school now. Her big sister and a friend came by and picked them up. Funny thing is my daughter is bigger than her big sister. Cute kid though. I got a snapshot of them before they left. She won’t be back tonight as they are going to sleep over in Kingwood. That’s an hour’s drive from Sugar Land. Going from southwest of Houston to the northeast.

Hope she has fun. I told her last night at the football game that if she ever has a problem to call me. I’ll pick her up and no questions asked. Told her I definitely want this to happen if drugs, alcohol, or boys show up. Now I have to trust her. And I do or she’d be home at one tonight instead of noon tomorrow. The biggest concern I have here is I suspect my daughter is one of the youngest, if not the youngest girl at the school. She was the youngest kid in her 8^th grade graduating class.

The football game was a romp. Strake Jesuit defeated St Thomas 48 to 6. The game was really over in the first half minute of the game. Strake has an field goal kicker. Boy kicked a 45-yard field goal. Also booted the ball into the end zone on most kick offs. He should have no problem getting a college scholarship with that leg. I let my daughter hang out with her friends. My son tagged along. He is going to end up at one these schools most likely, so I let him get a look at them. I let him choose where we sat. Big mistake. We sat on the first five rows, had to move several times so I could see around all the kids. I would rather sit up and watch sports. When you look down, you have a better view on the formations and can identify the types of coverages, and a lot of other details that are hard to pick up on at ground level. And then he whined the entire game about wanting to eat. His momma fed us real good before we left so I knew better. I might just leave him at home next time.

The game was played at Rice Stadium. I spent quite a few afternoons here as a boy watching Southwest Conference Football. I miss the old Southwest and the rivalries it included. I realized that I have not visited this stadium in a long time. In fact before my daughter was born. I came here for a University of Houston vs. Rice game. Andre Ware was the quarterback then and I remember hanging around after the game waiting to see if he would come out on the field. He won the Hiessman Trophy and this game pretty much iced it for him.

The kids at the game were pretty rude for the most part. They would walk in front of you right during a play. They would come and stand right in front and chat with friends. I only saw one boy the whole night that appreciated the fact that I was watching the game and he moved aside. He was appreciated. Hope my daughter was not acting the same way. She said she walked around the stadium about four times looking for friends. I asked her if she saw any of the game. She just smiled back at me.

I spent most of the day at car shops. My truck needed new tires and two new shocks on the front. The shocks really surprised me, but I got it confirmed at two different shocks. I guess I will stop speeding over speed bumps trying to catch some air. But the cool thing about getting stuck in the shops was my wife let me use her wireless modem. I was able to blog, IM, check my email while stuck waiting for my car. I IMed with Jane who showed me her bedroom with her cam. She had just cleaned it and she was also showing off her new bed. Looked pretty comfy in their.

Once I caught up with the blogs I hit Skinwalker which is getting down to the nitty gritty details. Today I have finally finished the character stats and monster stats. I also double checked the CRs for the creatures and completed the magic items. The Shaman class and Skinwalker class look pretty good. Now I just have to make sure all of the spells fit Modern d20 and double check the organization write ups. Lot of nit picking, but its got to get done. Its sitting at 141 pages right now. Once it gets laid out that ought to shrink to around 110 pages. Also Trey and I chatted on the phone a couple of night ago and we now have the stat block protocols established. Though I did find a couple of things that were missed and we can add that to the style guide easily enough. I am so looking forward to getting this out the door.

Learned some bad news on the artist I wanted too. She is working on a children’s book so we either have to wait or find another artist. Artist always seem to be the most difficult thing for us to get on board. What I would give to be able to draw.

My daughter is freshman in High School. Thus she is a fish. At her school to help the new girls make the transition to a new school they are given a big sister. The fish do not know at first who their big sis is. Monday was a holiday, but they received a letter on Friday to mull over the long weekend. They tried to use this to determine who their bid sister might be. My daughter was worried that her big sister was preppie because of the ink colors she chose and the fish stickers that covered the letter’s envelope.

Tuesday was baby day. Gifts were left to the younger girls in class rooms. My daughter was given a baby bottle and bib which she had to wear all day. It was cute, blue with fish covering it. She also received some candy. She was worrying more and more that her big sister was preppie.

Wednesday was a beach theme. My daughter received a pail and shovel like you take to the beach and some cute sun glasses with 3 inch long sun ray fingers emitting out of it. Really gaudy looking and she had to wear them all day. Some girls received bikini tops and they had to wear them over their clothes, or they might have been given a poster to wear. My daughter also received a big bag of skittles. She was really enjoying the week.

That night her big sister called to speak with me. My daughter did not know who called as she worked on her homework. She informed me of what would happen Saturday. The big sister would pick up my daughter at 6:30 and take her to dinner. After that they would go to the Orientation Dance. If they find a home they are going to have a sleep over also. I thought about offering mine, but I got too much going on right now. So we hung up and I told my daughter that her big sister called. She kept pumping me for information after that. But I did not let the girl’s name slip.

Thursday they had a luncheon where the big sister revealed themselves to the fish. They ate Chick-Fil-A as they got acquainted. My daughter did not give out a whole lot of info on this meeting. She was pleased by the fact that her big sis is not preppie and is actually shorter than my daughter. She also likes to read fantasy and anime, so they should get along there as well.

Today I dropped her off. She got to wear blue jeans and flip-flops to school. The fish are going to have breakfast with their big sisters. She also had a coloring book from baby day and the pail. There are signatures that need to be made on both items. I forgot what happens when this is done. She looked so cute and excited.

Tonight we are going to Rice stadium on the campus of Rice University. My daughter is excited about this also, as she would like to go to College here. But the reason for our trip to Rice is to watch Strake Jesuit play St. Thomas in football. This is a big rivalry and it’s kind of interesting as the boys from both campuses are likely to be at the Orientation Dance on Saturday. Be interesting to watch the game as well as the interaction in the stands. I plan on taking my computer so I can edit Skinwalker while my daughter socializes. Of course she might surprise me and sit with me and watch the game. Nah!!!

I’ve really been noticing girls a lot lately. At her school and the college that I work. It seems they go through a transition from sweet innocence to a bolder womanhood during this time. A girl always looks at those she passes in the hall, ready to smile, eager to exchange a greeting with anyone so inclined. They still have a trust in the goodness of the world. But the woman persona never looks someone else in the eye. They turn their head away to avoid a greeting from a stranger. Its not rude, its wary, they have become aware of the shadows that surround them. Sad more than anything. Hope my daughter can stay sweet for a while and remain a girl.