Hot House

These days it's over 100 - even hotter in our house - and my shirt sticks to my back all the time, even at night. The fans are going nonstop, the icecream is being eaten round the clock, and we look at each thing we're about to eat and one of us says, "How would this taste partially frozen?" To spare you the experimentation time I'll just tell you that almost every fruit tastes good partially frozen.

Going to sleep is hard. We have one fan in our bedroom and each want it pointed at us. It can oscillate, but we all want to be greedy and have it all to ourselves. Alex goes to bed earliest, and sets it up pointing at her for an hour before Dani comes in and switches it. In the very early morning it's not too hot yet, except then I shower and so does Dani, which makes it humid and steamy, even with the window open.

Alex has talked Dani into taking the shirt she's left out the night before and putting it in the refrigerator when she gets up, so Alex can put on a cool shirt each morning. For me the worst part of the day is after school. Going home before I go to work is not working for me. It's a sauna at home and even with Aunt Elaine keeping the lights off all day there's still a stenchy wave of heat when you open the front door to walk in.

We are all set for the summer. I am going to watch Nora again during the day, and then work at the diner at night. Since there's no school, they are allowed to have me working more hours. Craig invited Danielle to mother's help his wife and their baby, which Alex is very jealous about, so much so that she offered to give up camp to mother's help also. But ten is too little to mother's help, and that would just mean less money for Danielle since she'd have to split it with Alex.

Danielle was going to be home alone in the morning until it's time to leave for Craig's house, but when I pointed that out she quickly said no. She is going to give herself $10 each week from what she earns and has decided to leave when Alex and I do, and go sit at Starbucks each morning.

Excuse me now, please. I have to go put my shirt in the freezer.