Nicole Michelle Aldape writing.  I hope you haven't think I died or dropped off the planet .... I am very much alive!

Holy cats! I was just looking at past journal entries (all written betweeen the ages of 10 and 11 years old), and I realized something: I haven't written since.  No wonder people think I have died or disappeared altogether ...

I am now living in Galveston, Texas, with my mom and my step dad, Harold Levesque.  So I have a dad again, but it's not the same.  I still miss my real dad, Arturo, who died 8 years ago, on Easter Sunday: he died in a car wreck on his way home from Mass.  So I don't really do Easter Sunday; it brings me back too many painful memories.  

I miss Nashville, but I like Galveston.  I like hearing the sound of the waves from the Gulf of Mexico hitting the shoreline, and I love the warmer weather, too.  It's a lot easier on my joints.  I can still get around, but I use my wheelchair mostly.  For short trips (like around my house), I use my crutches.  I'm still not that steady on my feet.

I graduated from high school last year.  Right after that, Mom and I moved to Galveston.  Mom lost her job, so she was forced to locate elsewhere.  It was very hard (at times it still is), but I'm slowly getting used to my new surroundings and I am finding I like Galveston more and more.  There is so much to do here!

I sometimes hear from Ronee', but not nearly as much as I used to.  She now lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, where she is attending college at the University of Lousiana-Lafayette, where she is majoring in music/voice and minoring in jounalism.  She is engaged to Michael Stinkowitz, her longtime sweetheart; they got engaged nearly two months ago and are very happy.  I miss Ronee'; she and I have always been very close.  I wonder if she even thinks of me.

Johnny, Ronee' 's brother, got married last month in Nashville; he and his new  bride (Rebekka) just got back from a two week honeymoon trip to Alaska.  Johnny is doing quite well for himself, even with having a progressive neuromsuclar sisease (Duchenne muscular dystrophy).  They'd like to have kids, but there's a chance that the disease could be psased down to one of their kids, so Rebekka and Johnny are planning to adopt.  So life is good for him as well.

I am taking some entry-level courses at one of the local smaller colleges here in Galveston, but am not so sure what to do with myself.  It is a lot harder than high school ever was; I don't know how Ronee' can handle such hard courses, but then she's a lot smarter than I will ever be.  So it's a lot easier for her than it is for me.

I haven't found anybody yet, in terms of boyfriends, and I still live with Mom.  The only differences is I live in Texas instead of Tennessee and I have a father figure in my life again.  He has two kids (both younger): Travis (16) and 12-year-old Emma, who is disabled with CP and is in a wheelchair.  She's okay, I guess, but she reminds me too much of Jodie, Ronee' and Johnny's older sister.  She can't do a lot for herself.

Well, I am going to go.  We will eat supper within the hour and then go to Mass; that's at six.    I will write in here another time; sorry it's been way too long, but I've never been good at keeping up with things.  I'm in too much pain, for one thing ...  Take care and God bless!

~Nicole Michelle.  :)