I felt like updating my journal.

A lot has been going on in my life.

I'll start with the good news first.

Well first, I got a new computer. I love it! It's a 22' widescreen HP w2207h ([link]). It runs a lot faster then my last one. My last one was probably 12-13 years old. At first is was my uncle's, then my grandma's, then ours. So now I don't have two worry about my computer freezing up if I have two windows. But I don't have Photoshop anymore, since I borrowed it from my uncle, but that's fine. At least I'm able to buy songs from iTunes, since my last computer wouldn't even let me on iTunes.

Second, my dog Bebe finally met my aunt's dog, Lacie. They're getting along good. BeBe just doesn't like it when Lacie gets close to her food. But Lacie is like a mother to BeBe. Lacie watches her and what she's doing. Here's some pictures of BeBe, [link] [link] and here are some of Lacie, [link] [link]

A while ago, I had my lst LAYO concert. It's was my first year and I'm looking forward to next year too. I had a lot of fun. I made a lot of friends while I was there. My stand partner, Alex helped me a lot on my violin. I also ordered a CD of our symphony, I don't know when I'm going to get it though. I also have the Christmas concert. We only had two concerts this year out of four. We were suppose to have two other concerts where we play for elementary schools but on those two days we got cancelled from snow. so on our Spring concert (our last concert) we played songs we were going to paly for the kids plus the songs we were already playing. Three of my favorite songs that we played was Beauty and the Beast Waltz, Phantom of the Opera and Chorus Line.

I also had my Solo on Essemble about four weeks ago. My solo was at seven a.m. and I had to get there 45 minutes before my solo, so I woke up around 5:30 a.m. But I feel bad for my friend Cleo because she had a solo before me. I played Concertino for my solo. I had to wait 30 minutes but I found out that I got a 1, which means superior. My school orchestra also played there as a strings choir. We played a song called El Toro. For a month our class practiced that song everyday. My friend Kerina and know the song by heart now. My friend Destiny (our first seat chello player) and I had a solo in El Toro too. So both of us had two solos that day since she had a solo after the strings choir. Mostly everyone left but my friends Brianna, John and I stayed and found out our class got a 2, which means excellent.

I only have less then a month of school to go! Next year I'm going to be in high school. I'm not 100% sure which school I'm going to. My parents are thinking about moving to Shawnee or Bath. But if I don't move I'm going to Lima Senior High at M.I. our high school is confusing. Lima Senior high is made up of three small schools. Performance, Progressive and M.I. (Multiple Intelligence) Perfromance is just like a regular high school. Proggresive is for people who like doing things with their hands. M.I. is for people who want a college experience. So if you want to become a doctor, astronomer, etc. basically thing that requires science is for M.I. It;s cofusing really. Even though there are three different schools all the classes are spread out around the school. Like you may have science and algebra at one end of the school on the first story but your language arts and spanish class may be on the third story at the other end of the school. Not a lot of people in my town think this is a good idea. But I don't think the city knows what they're doing anymore.

Bad news... ):

Example of the high school, I think the city is wasting it's money on things we don't need. New Wal-Marts, Targets, Chuck E. Cheeses, etc. When they're not doing anything about the real problems. Every since the shooting of Tarika Wilson on January 5th this town has been going down hill. People are saying that the shooting is prejudice and/or racist since Tarika was black and the police man who shot her was white. At first the cop and his family was put into hiding by the FBI which I don't think is right. If you murder someone you should be put to jail, which is where he is now. Also, people have been caring more weapons for protection and more gangs have been coming into our town. We already had gangs before but on a low rating but in the past four months he number has increased. Our town now has Bloods, Crips, KKK, and I heard rumors about the 18th Street is coming. the other day while i was at my friend's house I was two cars go by with the Crips in them. Which is sad because both my friend and I live by an elementary school and middle shool.
Here is some more information about the shooting, [link]

And about three weeks ago there was another shooting. I don't know a lot but there were two brothers. and for some reason the one of the brothers shot the other and ran off. I don't know if they captured him yet. But a week later I found out the two brothers were my step-dad's friend's nephews.

When I'm 18 I'm planning on moving out of this town. Everytime I go outside I also walk on the further side of the sidewalk and I don't make eye contact with anyone. And I hardly take BeBe for a walk anymore because I'm afraid to walk around the block by myself. I can't wait for my summer vacation so I can get out of here.