February 10

Dear Eliza*Beth

Sometimes I just don’t know what to do, what to say, when I get your letters and answer them!!!!!!!!

Here goes:

I have only one set of eyes, MINE — and sometimes I see things that YOU don’t want to see…. YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND!!!!!! Am I supposed to just see things that are really major, really important, and not say anything??????????

And I know that things are bad for you, so:

1. I try not to be so extreme in what I say to you.

2. I try not to show you what I truly feel — how really happy I am sometimes, how sad I get over some things in my life. (The things that bother me seem soooooo small. My major shambles is that a Chee-to kisser broke up with me. Your shambles is that you are hiding behind sofas from creditors and not answering the phone. I could NEVER not answer a phone!!!)

I do get angry at you sometimes. I want you to yell, to be stronger, to march up to your father and tell him “STOP IT.” (I do know that you’ve been trying … but I want you to do something major, to say the magic thing that will make everything all better.)

Oh, Eliza*Beth…. I’ve just reread what I’ve written and realize that there is no magic solution AND I can see that you and your mom are trying, are changing — that you are both standing up for yourselves much more. It just feels like baby steps when what you need to do is to “take a really strong stand” to stop your father from doing what he’s doing.

Look, Eliza*Beth — I know that I don’t see things out of other people’s eyes. It’s sometimes hard enough seeing things clearly in my own life. (So … sometimes I’m a little nearsighted, and I’m not talking medically.) But you know that I care — and you also know that I’m right a lot of the time. Well, most of the time.

So, I really do think you should understand that I only say things to help you because I care. (And I really do think you and your mom should be doing a lot more.)

Okay, … now for the news you asked me to tell you.

The play finally went on…. I remembered all my lines. (However, when I looked at the video that Luke took, I saw that my bra strap showed for the whole first act. I am sooooo embarrassed!!!!!!) And then one of my “brothers” tripped over his shoelace and gave himself a nosebleed. (His shirt looked really awful and he didn’t have a change of clothes, so for the second act he wore a Brady Bunch sweatshirt.) Also, the dog peed on the stage … and Alex slipped on it. (Tsk. Tsk.)

The cast party was lots of fun — music, dancing (a little Chee-to throwing too). No slime, though, not unless you count Alvin “the Nerd” Henderson, who likes to “floss his nose” and who tells girls that he’d be glad to floss their noses. (It was funny, though, when he offered to floss Danielle Banford’s nose, since she is a very snotty person.)

I just got my ears pierced. (Again.) Hannah got hers done too. She’s mad at me, though, because I keep calling her Elizabeth.

Love,