I'm almost 17 years old, and I'm taking this course because my school counselor recommended it "for various reasons." One is to help me get into college, although at this point I doubt that I'm going. The other is to have contact with people in other parts of the world, and *that* is something I do look forward to.

I live with my family. I have an older brother, Rolly, who is 19, and my little sister Bibi, who is ten.

Our home is in Timbuctoo, California, in the old gold-rush country. In the 1850s it was a booming place and had its own Wells Fargo office. Now we don't even have our own post office, so you can imagine how lively things are.

You can still see the Wells Fargo building, which is quite historical, even if it is just a roof resting on the ground. There's a fence around it, so no one can go in and mess it with it. Or climb inside and steal something. (Just joking, of course!)

By the way, I wrote that stuff about Wells Fargo because my mother recommended that I try to describe the "bucolic delights" of this outback each time I write.

"Bucolic delights" is my mother's phrase. Part of the reason she thinks this is such a wonderful place to live is that she travels a lot for her job. She sells medical equipment, which you would think is a dead-end job. I mean, after all the hospitals and clinics buy their equipment, the market is gone, right?

Apparently not, because somehow she goes on selling.

My father is an engineer. He works at Beale Air Force base, which is close by. He always says, "I'm a civilian, and I'm civil, but I'm not a civil engineer."

My main project this summer is to find a job other than babysitting. There are some problems with that: there aren't many jobs other than babysitting, and I have to take care of Bibi most nights. Even though I don't get paid for *that*, I can take her with me if I babysit someone else.

There's actually a ton of money in babysitting, but it's a job that seriously impacts one's social life.

And way out here in the sticks, there is not much social life to be had.

Hmm... what else to say?

I'm related in some way to Tito Nieves, the salsa singer who sang on "I Like It Like That" -- so when you hear that song, think of me. I know I do.

Hey, Stormy, what will you teach in high school? You didn't say. We don't have any library-related classes at my school.

Laters,