The Life of Me

(Okay, first of all, yet again, I have to start this stupid entry over 'cause this freakin' computer deleted the thing before I published it!!! GRRRR!!! COME ON!!! IT'S THE 21st CENTURY!!! MAKE THIS THING WORK!!!) (Sorry...)

Okay. So, I think I'm cursed. I can't remember the last pencil I had whose (what pronoun??? "That's" means "that is...") lead (graphite) wasn't broken into like, 1,000,000,000 pieces. I'd sharpen it to a perfect, sharp tip, and then, as soon it touched the page, PLOP. It would fall out. It drove me nuts. Especially when I didn't have my own pencil sharpener and I had to borrow someone else's. So I've been trying to only use mechanical pencils for a few years now. (I actually just got a bunch of new mechanical pencils for school, and I kept one at my desk at home--it was the black one--and I lost it. (This was about a month ago.) I couldn't find it anywhere! I was so mad... Even though I had three others that had been there for a while... I found it today, in my desk drawer... Hee hee) Anywho, I also recently found a non-mechanical pencil that I used at school a few years ago, and it was nice and sharp. So I've been using it, and sharpening it after every use. It's been pointy pretty much constantly. But guess what? I dropped it! I know. What was I doing? I was so careless!!! And the tip broke off! Just the very pointiest part, but it was enough to make the pencil unpointy! I panicked, grabbed the pencil, grabbed my green pencil sharpener, and tried desperately to sharpen it in the little hole. But it wouldn't sharpen! I was so stressed... I tried everything! I moved it around in the sharpener, I twisted fast, slow, hard, soft... It was no use. Finally, I did the very thing that I dread doing most of all when sharpening pencils--I used the bigger hole. It was so painful to do, and to watch as I pulled out the pencil to see the little cone of wood turned into a little dome-ish shape of wood, but it had to be done. Then I put it back in the small hole, where it sharpened pretty well... But the wood got all lead-y, and the lead (graphite) is a little twisted-looking, but it's pointy. So it's all good.

But I love electric sharpeners. Aren't those just great? Except for the fact that they're loud, obnoxious, make a mess when you try to empty the little container, and tend to over heat... But they're still great fun! And it feels cool to press your palm up against the eraser when you sharpen a pencil. And, oh my gosh, one of my friends--I actually don't remember who it was... Heck, for all I know, it could've been an enemy... Let's just call it an acquaintance--had this snazzy electric pencil sharpener, but it was in little-pencil-sharpener-with-the-container-thingy form!!! It was wonderful!!! I don't even know if I ever used it, but it was awesome!!! I want one!!! (All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth a snazzy mini electric pencil sharpener!)

-Sue Donimm