The Clem

I ‘m so fed up with this job. It’s ridiculous. I come in at eight in the morning and don’t leave until eight-thirty at night. Working at the Santa Barbara Zoo, in California has been hectic since day one. But it was finally 8:30, time for me to leave. So I go home, take a shower, lie down, and prepare myself for another day with the zoo animals.

I wake up on this early Tuesday morning with nothing to wear. I realized that all of my clothes were starting to get worn down and raggedy from the gnawing and chewing of the parrots. So I pick out my favorite dark green work shirt and some old blue sweat pants. At the door I slip on my water boots and quietly squeak the door shut. I didn’t need a coat because it was warm all the time.

When I arrived, I walked in greeting all of my fellow co-workers. I peek into my boss’s office and let him know that I was here and already checked in. He nods and I close the door quietly. I go to the closet, grab the bird food and head straight for the bird sanctuary.

When I walk into the warm, chirping sanctuary all the parrots ram at me, filling every possible spot on my body with their clawing feet. I say a quick hello and get straight to work.

First of I give the birds their morning meal which is one-fourth of a bag of specially made tropical parrot food. Second, I wash the windows so that people can look in. This probably takes a nice few hours every day because the windows tend to be very huge. Third, I rearrange the equipment so they can be introduced to different living features. Finally, I sit down and observe what is going on. Then I notice that the parrot food had already disappeared, but the birds were still hungry.

So, I go to the closet and bring out another cup full. As I post myself in an upward position on the feeding log the parrots start coming towards me and I didn’t know what to do. They started gnawing and picking at my hand and arm. It was horrible. As I began to feel the horrible throbbing pain in my right arm, I start to holler. All kinds of thoughts run through my head; infection, swelling, and amputation. I started to get scared. But I took a quick look at my whole arm, including my hand, noticing it was just a small bite incision. I was relieved and let out a big sigh. I wrapped my hand and didn’t worry about it. Finally, another day was over and I was another day closer to retirement.

Jeanetta

“The day in the life of…”

Every morning it’s the same. I wake up to sunshine peaking through the blinds and something fresh baking in the oven. Today it was muffins.  My wife and son mean everything to me. Ever since my family and I moved to Brazil because of my job, I hardly get to see them anymore. Today’s my first day off in months. I’m really happy about that. I mean, I love my job being an engineer, but it’s been getting in the way these days. Sometimes I just need a break…

Since today’s my only day off in a while, I think I’ll spend it with my son. After I ate the delicious breakfast my wife made, and got ready, I decided to take my son, Kyle out for a walk.  Kyle loves when I hold him high up in the air while I walk. It makes him feel like an airplane. Especially when I make the “zoooommm” noises. My wife always tells me not to do that. She assumes I’m going to drop him.  But I think it’s better than him just sitting in the stroller.

After we walked around for hours, I got very hungry. I’m pretty sure Kyle was hungry too. I decided I was going to take him out to eat. He absolutely loves the restaurant around the block. So we went there. The waitress’s think he’s the cutest baby ever! They always re-fill our drinks for free. When we got to the restaurant and sat down, we looked at the menu. Of course, Kyle couldn’t read, but he loved looking at the colors.  I was in the mood for steak and cheese fries. It was their lunch special. I ordered Kyle a grilled cheese off the kids menu. It’s his favorite. After our food was brought to the table we devoured it. Well, I did. I had to feed Kyle his. He can barely hold a spoon. Within each bite, he asked for more. I could tell by the smile on his face, this was his favorite lunch in weeks.

After Kyle and I finished eating, I decided to take him home. Kyle looked really tired. I was too. When we walked through the front door, I saw my wife waiting for us. I felt bad that I didn’t get to spend time with her. I think the next time I get a day off I’ll spend it with her. But I doubt that will happen any time soon. Since today’s my only day off in months… I guess I’ll just have to wait.

Jamie

Weakly I stand up out of bed in the wee hours of the morning trying to get ready for a long day of work.  I’m a construction worker for the city of Denver, Colorado and today we are constructing a road through the Colorado Desert.  Twenty minutes later I’m on my way out the door.  “Bye Steve,” my wife and step-daughter said to me.

“Adios,” I replied.

About a half hour later I was at my construction site, ready to work.  Even though it was 7:30 in the morning and I was still yawning, I was anxious.  But deep down inside I had a little weird feeling.  Once you sign in you had to work for four hours before you can get a break.  Anyway, I signed in and got to work.  We began to take out our long rulers and started to measure where the road is going to go and how long it’s going to be.  An hour went by and we were done with all the measurements.  We then brought out the claw trucks to claw out all the little plants and debris that was in our way.  Following it were trucks that had the big rollers on them to smooth out the land.  That took us about another hour to finish.  Our work started to get a little harder; we began to lay down rebar for the concrete underneath.  That took us about 2 ½ hours just to finish a one mile long stretch of road that was 20 feet wide, and that was just half of what we needed to finish.  It was lunch time now and I was starving.  So my three buds and I, Tom, Ben and Al, went out to grab something to eat.  About an hour later we got back to work, but before we could touch anything a bunch of cars and trucks were heading our way.

Everyone on the site stopped and stared.  They all shot out of their vehicles and commanded us to get down; all of them had fire arms pointing at us.  Everyone then dropped to the ground.  I wondered if they were the cops.  They’re definitely not the cops because they all took off a jacket and underneath that was the Russian flag. They were Russians!  I also wondered why the cops wouldn’t show up even though we are in the middle of no where.  There were also planes that moved in and landed; it seemed like a desert storm moved in.  They also had their own drill truck.  I guess they thought there was gold in the desert.  Five men began walking over my way.  I couldn’t understand what they were saying but they gestured for us to stand up and start digging.  The men stood guard and threatened us with weapons.  At least three or four hours went by and all of us dug a huge hole that looked like a crater.  I was exhausted, but I had to do something. Then I stopped.  The Russian looked at me funny and walked over to me.  My three buddies whispered “no”, to me.  The Russian gestured for me to get to work.  I still didn’t move.  He then pulled the gun up to me.  “Click.” I heard the next bullet move into its slot.  “BOOM.”  A bullet was fired, but I wasn’t dead.  The Russian was killed by a sniper in the mountains.  Other Russians were going crazy, shooting all over the place.  Construction workers were running around.  The next thing you know the American Air Force flew above spotlighting every Russian.  Marine forces were scattered everywhere.  All of the Russians surrendered.  Our job was postponed to the next month.  My friend Bob urinated on himself because he was so scared.  By the time I got home and got through all of the interviewers asking me questions, I was finally able to go to bed.  Usually a regular day at work would be just building houses and roads and stuff, but this day is a day I will never forget.

My wife then asked me, “How was work today?”

I said, “It was the best day of my life”.

Cordero

The shrill of the alarm clock sounded the same as it did yesterday. John stood up to stretch and he could see his stocky shadow on the nicely painted wall. He got fresh clothes out of his dresser and took a nice, hot shower. Afterwards he got dressed and went downstairs. He sometimes dreaded mornings because he had to cook breakfast himself, since he had no girlfriend. But, fortunately for him, he could cook well. So, he ate his breakfast and hopped in the car. He arrived at the Brazilian Animal Rescue earlier than usual. He kindly greeted all his co-workers as he walked to his corner office. He had a really high pile of papers waiting for him on the corner of his desk. He figures it must have gotten there right after he left work yesterday.

After about an hour of doing paperwork, John was ready to go out into the Amazon and help the animals. So, he walks over to his boss’s office and says,” Carl, am I needed here? Or can I go out to the Amazon now?”

”You’re all set to go help Bob and the guys out there. They found one of those Three-Toed Sloths earlier and brought it back.”

“Okay, Thanks Carl. See ya later.” John grabbed his jacket, hopped in the car, and was on his way. While he was on his way there he gazed out his window at the pretty blue sky. He could see the Amazon right down the street. He pulled up to his co-workers and got his gear out of the back of his car. As they journeyed through the rainforest, they saw many different animals and birds. John was gazing up above and noticed a bird in a tree. It looked like it was stuck or something. He called his team over and they set up the equipment so he could get to the bird. When he got to the top he saw that the bird’s wing was broken, so he picked it up and carried it back down with him. He gathered up the team and drove back to Brazilian Animal Rescue to get the parrot checked out. When he arrived, he gave the parrot to Maria, the rescue center veterinarian.

It had been a more hectic day than usual and John decided to take an early lunch. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon and he usually took lunch at 4. He had a turkey sandwich and lemonade. At 3:15, he decided it was time to go back to the forest. So he gathered his stuff and went back. When he got there he decided to just  look around to make sure there weren’t any more injured animals in the area. He journeyed around the forest for a long time picking up litter and harmful objects. After it started getting dark he decided he would a call it a night. So, he drove back to his work, checked on the parrot he had brought in earlier, and then went home.

When he got home he went straight upstairs so he could take a long, hot shower to wash off all the dirt from the day, like he usually did. When he got out, he got dressed then cooked himself dinner. As he ate his dinner, he watched the news to catch up on his recent events. He watched television for a little while and then decided to go to bed. It was around 10:30 when he called it a night. He wanted to make sure he got enough sleep so he would have enough energy to go to work tomorrow.

Mikhala

I wake up to see that rain has seeped through my hut again. As I rub my nose I feel something wet. It’s another nose bleed. Maybe it’s the heat. In China the heat is out of this world, well the part that we live in. This is my fifth nose bleed in three days. I turn my head to see mother and father working very hard for little pay. When I turn my head back I see that a net is over me, so I start to panic and cry. Mother runs over in a hurry because she heard me crying. She came over, took the net off me, and started to breast feed me.

Now it’s lunch time! For lunch I have smashed rice and water. Our water in China isn’t clean; well the part that we live in doesn’t have clean water. I hate that I have to have smashed rice; I have it all day and every day. Sometimes if I’m good my mother  will breast feed me. After lunch she will wash me up in a bucket of water. We don’t take baths every day. My family and I have baths once a week. Once I am all nice and clean, my mom puts me in a basket that she hand wove. After she puts me in and puts the blanket over me, she sings to me in Chinese so I can go to sleep. She gives me a kiss on the forehead and tells me she loves me.

Dinner time is finally here! Now I get some real food! My dad helps out an old man with his chicken coop. Since he can’t pay my father money, he gives him chicken to take home to me, mother, and my older brother, Sean. Most of the time we will have vegetables with the chicken. My mother grows her own vegetables. Well since I’m not old enough to eat by myself, mom will smash up my food, and then feed it to me. But every day I just look and just wish I was a little bit older. Now that’s a day in my life.

Tiasia

Life has been rough the past year and a half. After my boyfriend left me and my parents died in a horrible accident, we tried our hardest to survive the streets of Oaxaca. My son, Pablo and I try to find an empty, abandoned house trying to keep warm with the little blankets that we have. In the house that we found there is a little metal garbage can with burn marks in it. It’s probably been used for making a fire from the last people who lived here. So I did the same thing and made a fire. My son whimpers and cries on his sick and empty stomach. I stare into the fire thinking how and where we’re going to go next. We can’t stay here forever and my son needs to see a doctor. In the bad economy and shape that the city is in, it’s going to be extremely hard to find a job. We need fresh food, water and shelter. Every day is a struggle for Pablo and me.

The next day I try to find a job in the grocery stand or somewhere to get some money. I take Pablo with me because I don’t want someone to take him when I’m not looking. Walking through the streets I see a stand with a weird old man. The old man looks weak; I thought to myself maybe I can help him. I walk up to the man and ask for the job. “I’m a good organizer,” I said, “and all you have to do is pay me a little money and the left over almost rotten fruit. Please I’m desperate,” I begged him.

The old man looks at me and my son for a couple minutes and said, “Okay you can work here for little money and the rest of fruit but the baby will have to go. I can’t have a sick baby in my stand. It will scare the costumers away. They will think that my fruit is bad.”

I look at my baby thinking what we were going to do. If I leave him at the house he might cry and someone might try to take him. “I will clean him and make him look all nice. He won’t look sick once I feed him some fruit and clean him up a little. He won’t disturb the costumers.”

The old man looks hard and long, thinking. Mt throat was dry with nervousness. …… He spoke, “All right you and the baby can stay here.” I jump with happiness. I clean Pablo up and started right away.

Years have gone by and I am still working at the stand. I have enough money saved to get some old furniture. I live in the same house but it’s homier with all the stuff in it. A couple of years working at a fruit stand has really paid off. My son is now seven years old, turning eight soon. He helps me and the old man with stuff making the stand a lot easier to maintain. The strange old man is now like a father to me. I’m glad to have found him. He has helped me with a lot of stuff. I’m so blessed to be here at the stand.

Brianna B.

Dear Journal,

My name is Desirae and I live in Texas. I’m very happy now and I have a better life. I used to live in Mexico and that was the worst life ever. I never liked living there. I had no friends and my family was nowhere to be found. The killer part was that I was only eight. What do I look like?

Back in Mexico, my life was going okay until that quarrel between us and the town nearby. They came unexpected and we were nowhere near ready. I was sleeping in my box behind the dumpster. Nobody ever thought to look there. That was the only place I felt safe. I was sleeping peacefully until I was awakened by the sound of a bomb. What was going on here?

As soon as I heard the bomb, I jumped up. Once I got up I ran and didn’t know where I was going. The bomb sounded so close. I just wanted to get away. That was the first time I felt like I was in danger. Suddenly I stopped and then I started hearing them all over and people screaming. I had to find a safe place to go and quick.

I kept running until I got to about the end of the town. I found an old abandoned garage. I walked in and out came a dog. You could see the ribs. The dog looked homeless but maybe it had lived there. I looked through the garage and found a blanket and box. I made myself a little bed in there. I cuddled with the dog and soon enough we both fell asleep.

I’m not sure how long we were sleep, but it was long enough. I woke up and the town was silent. The attack was over. I got up and the dog followed me out the garage. I didn’t go all the way out, just enough to see. As I looked around I had never seen anything so bad. Mexico looked horrible. I thought I looked bad.

I walked around with the dog so see what had happened; there was not a single person I could see. Nothing was there. The buildings had collapsed. Not a thing stood tall. The town scared me so I ran and started to cry. As I ran I tripped on the curb and fell flat. I laid there and cried. While I was crying I heard a chopper. It landed behind me, and I got up and started to run. The men in the chopper yelled, “We’re here to save you!” I stopped and ran back. They took me somewhere safe and clean.

I felt so much better to be away from there. I mean I loved Mexico, but it was too much. I was still young and I had my whole life ahead of me. I wanted a family and to be loved, and that’s where they took me. I have a nice, new family, and I’m happy.

Sincerely,

Desirae

Jamecia

“Chin Li!” I woke up this morning to my father calling my name. “Get ready. I need to go buy some things and you’re coming with me.”

On a weekend in Beijing, it would be a very busy day with a lot of people out. Today would be tiring, but being only six, I didn’t mind. I hopped out of bed and dressed myself.  Finishing putting my hat on, I walked into the kitchen and sat down for breakfast. I was having zhou. I like zhou a lot. It’s a watery rice meal that can be flavored with many different things. I eat it almost every day.

I was right about how busy it was. It was incredibly crowded. People were packed so tightly on the sidewalks that if Dad hadn’t been holding my hand, I would’ve been lost.  Walking was pretty much the only way to get around. Driving in a car would have been just as slow because there are many people in the streets too.  Also, we couldn’t ride a bus because how close the stores were.  Besides, walking was okay in weather like this. It was early spring and the cool air made being in such a large crowd not too hot. We went to several stores but Dad didn’t buy much because he would have had to carry it around with him. Later, we stopped for zongzi. This is another one of my favorite foods. After a long day, we went home.

It was about seven o’clock when we got home, so I started getting ready for bed. Today was very tiring, but so is any day walking around in such a big city. This is what goes on every weekend. On weekdays, I go to school, but that is a whole different story.

Emily

This morning I was startled into consciousness at 8:00 am by the continuous honk and beeping of the traffic outside by bedroom window. And just as soon as I was just pulling out of my groggy state, my alarm clock went off. It scared me so much that I fell off of my bed. It wasn’t enough to ruin my day though.

A couple of days ago Bethany was supposed to call around this time. When she finally did, there was so much anticipation in her voice. I could hear her jumping up and down on something that sounded as if it hadn’t been oiled in years. After awhile though, I got her to take some deep breaths so she could explain. I already had a feeling of what she might be so excited about and I was hoping I was right. She then told me the exact words that I had been begging to hear for days on end. Those words were that she and I had gotten a call back to our high school Shakespeare play, Macbeth, that we had tried out for a few weeks ago.  We had gone to the call backs and we both made it and I got the lead part as Lady Macbeth.

Today was the day of the whole dramatic play. Ever since we heard that we made it we have been practicing so hard and working so much that I’m exhausted. I still had to get up though and get ready. So I quickly got dressed and reviewed my lines over in my head for about the zillionth time. I read my script over and over as I descended down the stairs to get breakfast. Since it was so early, most of my family was still asleep. Unlike myself, my family is a family that has many late sleepers. I love getting up early and watching the magnificent sunrise. Anyway, since it was Saturday everyone else was still asleep so I had to fend for myself for breakfast. I rummaged through the fridge and found some eggs and orange juice. I also dug some bread out of the bread box to make some toast for myself as well. As I ate my breakfast I was reviewing just how hectic my life had been lately and how it all surrounded the play. Almost everyone was excited for my big debut; everyone except for my two little twin brothers, Mason and Ian. They were both whiney as usual if everything wasn’t all about them. I actually don’t really care anymore; as long as I’m excited. After daydreaming for about half an hour, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and I wondered why my mom or dad or brothers were up so early. I glanced toward the clock and it read 9:53 AM. I was late! So I grabbed my purse and keys and ran to the front door.

As I pulled into Bethany’s driveway, she excitedly rushed out of her house screaming, “TODAY’S THE DAY!!!” I pulled her into my arms to greet her and mostly to get her to calm down. Eventually she did and went inside. We sat down at her kitchen table while her mom poured us some juice.  We chatted for awhile, reviewed our lines, and pretty much hung out like regular teenage girls. We never stopped talking until she reminded us that we had to practice more so we can be perfect during our actual play. We reluctantly did and by 3:00 PM we knew our parts forwards, backwards, and sideways. We then took a small break and relaxed a little more and at 4:00 PM, It was time to get to the school theater, a.k.a our school large auditorium, anyway.

When we arrived at the school there were a few parking spaces filled. The play didn’t actually start until 6:00 PM, and I was starting to get butterflies in my stomach. Of course, since we were part of the show, we entered through the backstage. Bethany said she felt like a secret agent or a movie star trying not to be seen. And to tell the truth, so did I. As we arrived backstage the room hummed with excitement and anticipation. Bethany and I were supposed to find our director and check-in. So we wandered around, weaving in and out of the crowd. About half an hour later we finally found her and she told us that we had to quickly go to our dressing room, otherwise known as the English classroom across the hall, and change into our costumes because we were late.  It took us a few minutes to get to the back door of the auditorium and to actually get out.

When we finally did and we glanced around the halls there had to be at least sixty kids around us, plus the ones inside made it feel like we were being swallowed into a sea of students. We had to snake ourselves through that crowd as well and eventually we got to the room that would have been a couple of yards across and down the hall. I had no clue what time it was but I knew we were late. I glanced around the small purple room and found few people left in it, which wasn’t very surprising because everyone else was in the hall or auditorium. The few who were in there just glimpsed at us and went back to putting on the heavy make-up or putting on the extremely big jewelry pieces that went with their costumes. I was quietly scolding myself for not being one of the first people there since I was Lady Macbeth. I got over it and hurriedly put on my dress, make-up, jewelry, etc. As we were finishing up I heard that the pre-show had started. My dress was a fancy lace with a few tears from being used over the years. I actually had a pretty simple outfit compared to Bethany. She had a gigantic headpiece and by the time they were welcoming everyone and introducing who was who, Bethany was dressed and was helping me put my finishing touches on my wonderful costume and I gazed at myself in the mirror.

Allie