Another email from Rebecca.

Dear Mander,
 
Thanks for your last e-mail. Sorry it took so long for me to write back, but books have "taken over" here for awhile. I never did finish our Summer Reading Assignment. Part of that was probably due to the increase in stuff I wanted to read suddenly appearing. Don't know why I bothered, or why Mom even helped with this: while I still had Paradise Lost and Dracula at home, and I had just finished the first title, Mom and I went to the library and ordered a new bunch of videos and books. They were delivered to our library last week, and we just happened to pick them up on the same day; I know because we can only keep videos for 1 week, and ours are due tomorrow. The videos, and most of the books, are about the Marx brothers. Remember our IM chat about them? They are very funny guys! I have watched the videos, or at least one of them, every night since we got them.
 
One of the videos we have is "Horsefeathers." It's a movie that all the actors of the Marx brothers' family star in, which would be 4 of them, all guys, and takes place in and around a college campus. I liked it. I also enjoyed the other 2 videos we got from the library which actually came together. It's the Best of I Love Lucy collection; which includes the episode where Harpo Marx, the mime of the group, guest stars. Yes, all of these are done in black-and-white. "Horsefeathers" was made in the 1930s I think, and the I Love Lucy episode was made in 1955. I truly believe that the golden age of film and television was between these 2 dates. Back then, there was no bad language, severely graphic violence, or anything like that, and all comedies were funny, especially when anyone I already mentioned was in it. They were popular.
 
Friday: Anyways, I ended up not going out to dinner at all for my birthday. But I think that the shopping spree I was given made up for it. What did I buy anyway? Well, I ordered a couple things off the Internet; including: Harpo Speaks (an autobiography of Harpo Marx), and Harpo in HiFi/Harpo at Work (two albums from the 50s squished into one little CD of Harpo Marx playing the harp.) I knew I had to order the stuff because I checked every store from here to Port Richey, and nobody had it in stock. I'll be getting it all very soon.
 
Saturday: was the Gulf High Band picnic at Starkey Park. So my weekend wasn't a total bore.  The picnic was fun! I walked all over the place on the nature trails 3 times, and had the usual picnic fare (hot dog, hamburger, cake, brownies, Gatorade...). We celebrated two more Band birthdays so there were two birthday cakes. Yum! I love that park; been going there since I was too young to remember, most likely. Have you ever been there? If not, I must take you sometime. I love it so much that when I followed a friend out to her car to get something, and she let a paper cup fall on the ground, I freaked out saying,"that's it! when i grow-up, i'm going to be a park ranger so i can yell at people like you about littering." Needless to say, but you know I'm gonna say it anyway, I picked up the cup and tossed in the nearest trash can. They have plenty of those around. Did I see any wild animals? Yes. A turtle! He was right on the side of the road, and I got to see him quite a few times because right before the food was served, someone realized that we had no plastic picnic silverware! So Mom and I volunteered to go to the nearest grocery store, which of course was a Publix, to go get a box. We walked out with a cake server/slicer thing, two serving spoons, and a huge box of heavy-duty Publix brand plastic utensils. There's 96 of everything! When we got back, another parent had arrived just as we were leaving with some picnic utensils, but not nearly as much as we brought. But of course, not all of it was used. There certainly wasn't any 96-member crowd at our pavilion. Mom was the one who brought the raw hamburgers- 40 of them. We had leftovers to bring home after that! Then again, not everyone likes burgers. Boy was that fun! And there was never a dull moment. I learned something new: my clarinet buddy Lindsay Woods likes mayonnaise on everything! For as the party was winding down, some of us got hungry again and she had a hot dog with mayo on it, and then a hamburger with mayo and ketchup! She acted surprised, "am i the only one who likes mayo around here?" I replied, "yes, but not on that." For dinner at home that night I had a leftover hamburger with cheese, ketchup, and mustard.
 
Well, that's all I can say for now. I'm running out of time because I told Mom that I needed the computer to type up my paper for Ms. Foote, and school starts tomorrow! bye
 
Love
 Becca