Looking Backwards

During my vacation at home I unearthed some of my old journals and had a wonderful time reading through them and rediscovering the thought processes I had as 12 year old. Some of the things I wrote are so melodramatic that they are actually painful to read! And yet, it's also fun to see what different things stood out to me and made an impresson on my mind. So here's one of my very first journal entries, complete with bad spelling, incomplete thoughts, and all the drama and excitement you could ever wish for! :)

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2/7/1994
(I would have been in the 5th grade)

I used to live in Tokyo, Japan. I lived there for 3 years. We moved there in August of 1990, I was 7 1/2, now I'm 11. My birthday is September 12. I was born in Maza Arizona in 1982. When I was only 2 months old, we moved to Redmond, Washington. In 1985, my little sister was born, so now there were 4 kids. (My older brother Curtis Steven Gasser, Debora- Debbie for short- Merie Gasser, me, and my little sister, Krista Leigh Gasser.)

We were in Redmond for 7 1/2 years. When we lived in Tokyo I used to be able to have piano lessons from sister Harrington, my upstairs nabore.

My apartment was 4 stories high and had blue rectangle tiles. The floors in the genkong was marble. The elevator was the slowest in the world. I had to share a room, and would fight alot over nothing. (which we still do.) It was really fun. I lerned Japanes too.

When we came back to america, we got a dog. She was a white German Sheperd, she was really pretty. We got her when she was five weeks old. All our other dogs never worked out. Our first one was a duchund and she wouldn't eat. Then we got a golden retrever. We kept her for a bout a year. I used to help her lap up her water when she spilled it, and help her eat her dinner. My parents just got two busy trying two take care of three kids, and another on the way, so we had to get rid of her. Then we got Skye, a little five week old German Sheperd. We got her from backyard breeders, and it turned out that when she was tired she would snugle up with you, and when there was someone at the door she would bark. The only problem was, even when we first got her she would bite. At first we just thought it was little nips that every puppy gets, we were wrong. Before we knew it she turned into a living nightmare unable to stop.

Skye would go around clinging to your pant-legs unwilling to remove her tightly clenched teeth. One day in October, shortly after Halloween, I went down stairs to get some Halloween candy for my snack at school. I heard someone coming down the stairs, and turned towards the doorway to see who it was. There was Skye standing in the doorway. Suddenly she laid her ears back and ran toward me. She chased me up onto the couch and was biting me. I rolled over on my back and started kicking her trying to keep her of the couch. I called for mom. Skye stopped and pricked her ears towards the doorway, listening to see if anyone had heard my cry. Realizing that knowone did she faced me again and let her tounge hang out in a horrible smile. Then she gave me a look I'll never forget. A look that seemed to say "Knowone can hear you. You can't run know. I've got you and I'm going to kill you." It terrified me, and I was frozen with fright.

She leaped up onto the couch and ripped my shoe from my foot. I only had one foot left to fight with, if she tore this shoe off I would be a dead man. Despratly I screamed for help. I let out a faint cry of hoplessness, tears filled my eyes. Skye grasped my leg in a firm grip. In pain and agony I cried for help. Then I heard pounding on the steps. It was Debbie. Skye had heard Debbie coming down the steps and emedently stopped. Debbie and grabbed Skye and through her to the ground, yelling at her. She locked Skye in her crate. After that she sliced Krista's hand, luckly she didn't need stiches, was when we decided that we had to get rid of her.

I miss Skye more than ever though. Somehowe I just got so attached to her, I couldn't stand leaving her. I don't think I'll ever love a dog as much as I did Skye. She was a one of a kind dog, and I'll never forget her.

Now we have another german sheperd. We named her Nikki. She's really sweet, but I don't love her as much as Skye.

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Looking back, there are so many things that make me laugh! If I could have scanned the entry and posted it the way it looks, you would have also been able to see the editing marks that I made on it to indicate new paragraphs, capitalizations and different recommendations for punctuation.

I think that if I had to choose a favorite part, it would be when Debbie sliced Krista's hand open after rescuing me from Skye's vicious attack! No wonder we gave her away! :)