While I'm not a chicken by any stretch of the imagination, I am, however, very short (I am fourteen but look no older than ten on a good day), have sallow skin, blond hair so pale it turns snow white in summer, light blue eyes, and ... you guessed it, I wear big glasses too, just like the little cartoon chicken.

I'm just not nearly as smart.  In school, I pull mainly C's and B's.  Hardly genius material.

Anyway, back to my story.  I live in Beaumont, Texas, with my parents, George and Imogene, and my little brothers, Taylor (11) and Isaiah (5).  No girls in my family, which suits me just fine.  My one brother (Isaiah) is disabled: he is blind and has cerebral palsy.  He cannot walk.  He can talk some, but it takes too much effort, so he mainly stays silent.  It bothers me sometimes because Isaiah can't play football or run or skate like Taylor or myself, but we do everything possible to help him try to reach his full potential.

My mom is a homeschool teacher; my dad, he works in the oil business.  He's gone a lot of the time, so it's usually mom and us kids who have to fend for ourselves until a.) he comes home, or b.) he sends us some of the money he makes at his job; this is what we live on.  We're not hard up; dad makes great money at his job.

That's good because Isaiah has a lot of medical expenses, and we need the extra money to pay 'em off.  There's just not much left over, and I get mad at Isaiah sometimes because I think he's just an added burden.  Things would be so much easier if he wasn't around.

Beaumont, Texas, is cool: warm and mild in the winter (as compared to a lot of the country), and hot/steamy in the summer.  Fall is probably the best time around here.  You also have great seafood, and there's always something happening every weekend.  I love the festivals, especially the Cajun music ones; I love Cajun music.  My best friend at school, Canray Brousseaux, is as Cajun as they come, and sometimes he and I go squirrel or raccon hunting on the weekends during hunting season.

Besides hunting and Cajun music, I also love to play football, baseball, and soccer, write stories or poems, draw, play with my brothers, look for pretty girls whenever we are at the mall (or at some festival), and spend weekends watching garbage on tv, just so we can forget about school .... for a little while, that is. 

I sometimes get teased by the kids at school about being small, but Canray, he sets 'em straight.  You'd best listen to me: it's not nice to piss a Cajun off.  Trust me.  It's not pretty to see Canray (or the Cajun kids) blow their stacks. 

And you don't want to be on the receiving end of their rage.  Then you will learn what "Raging Cajun" truly means.  :)

The only bad deal about living in Beaumont, Texas: we can get hurricanes sometimes.  We got visited by Rita and Ike several years back; tore the shit out of our trees and shed, and flooded us out to where we had to spend some time in a shelter until the winds/flooding subsided.  It was scary!!

Well, gang, I gotta run: gotta get ready to catch the bus in less than a half hour.  I write in here again soon; until later, this is Paulie Eggstrum saying over and out!  Toodles!

~Paul (aka "Egghead").  :)