12-Year-Old Brandon’s Journal — Entry 34 — 3/9/1993

Dear Journal,

It is only eight more days until my birthday. Yet, I get one of my parties this weekend. The party I get this weekend is from my dad's side of the family. I get my mom's side of the family on Wednesday, my real birthday. Over Spring Break, my sister gets to go to France and Spain, but I get to go to the beach with my two cousins and my dad's parents. We did this over the last weekend of Christmas vacation. My grandparents are members of a camping ground up in Ilwaco, Washington. The name of the campground is Eagle's Nest. The last time we went we rented a trailer and we are this time also. I really love the rides going to and from. They also have cool go-karts in the town. My uncle says that they are even better than Malibu Grand Prix. There is also come slippery spots on some of the turns to make it hard. Last time I almost ran into a pole. It was a sharp turn and I didn't crank the wheel hard enough, but at the last second I turned away. My sister got black stuff all over the back of her shirt that was new from one of the cars. In shop I am making a clipboard I am making the smaller size and then I will make a a bigger size for my grandpa. My grandpa is funny, he eats pickled pigs feet. He had them last time we went to the beach. It was cool. We had to stay an extra day.

I haven't been back to that go-kart track in a really, really long time, but I'm sure if it is still around, they've made it safer, which sucks. It was awesome! The cars were fast, there was no seat belts, and the turns were designed to fishtail. Seriously, I'm surprised I survived going so many times when I was a kid.

I'm also surprised I survived shop class as well. Being as accident prone as I am, it's shocking nothing happened to me. I think the only injury I sustained was from a ruler another kid pulled out of my hand and a giant chunk of wood got stuck in my hand.