Dear Lauren,

I'm sorry. I promised myself that I'd write to you on Día de Los Muertos since I didn't have time to build an ofrenda, but I got lazy.

Anyways, so much has happened in the past few days. For one, my dad finally came back from the hospital! We had to drive all the way to the medical center which was about an hour away. It was really annoying and nerve racking for my mom who hates having to drive downtown so she had to get her friend to drive us.

On the bright side, I saw an ice cream place as we came home called Cloud Creamery. It was decorated with all these pastel colors and a giant papier-mâché cloud inside. I'll have to ask if we can go there as well as the space museum the next time we travel downtown.

On the not-so-bright side, I also saw smoke all over the sky as we were going to pick up my dad. A fire must've started somewhere. At one point we got so close to it you could see where the smoke started although we couldn't see the actual fire or what was burning. I hope no one was hurt or died.

On Friday, I was walking into my Spanish class. My teacher was at the door and I was passing by her when some hair fell in front of my face. She brushed it away. At first, it was kinda weird, but then she said, "You're hair's so pretty."

Lauren, no words could express how happy I was. In my opinion, my hair is the most beautiful part of me, with the dark brown waves that curl into loose ringlets and the shiny tinsel making it seem more vibrant. I really like my hair, and I can't remember a single person noticing it in a positive way until now.

Sometimes I'm not a fan of the tinsel though. Instead of people calling me Dora the Explorer, my friend calls me Sparkle Hair because of the sparkly tinsel tied into my hair. In return, I call her dumb blond. In my defense, she thought Paris was in Europe and not France. She's kinda stupid, but we're still friends. I don't know what I'd do without her in orchestra. Speak to the jerk cellist? Certainly not!

I also finished my book trailer the new librarian is making us do in Name That Book. I spent way too long trying to figure out how to download one song as the background music. I think it worked out pretty well though. It's kinda bad, and getting it to switch slides in time with the music was torture, but it's probably at least a bit better than my friend's. No offense to her, but since she finished it first, I took notes on everything she could have done better since we were doing the same book and tried to avoid those mistakes in my trailer. I think it worked.

I've also started getting into cryptography lately. That's the study of codes and how to write them. It's quite fascinating. I've started studying it on my own. So far, I've learned how to write pigpen cipher, Elian cipher, templer cipher, vigenère cipher, and Caesar cipher. All of them are pretty easy to solve and break using frequency analysis, except vigenère, but you sort of have to use it. I'm interested in what the Great Cipher is. Maybe once I learn it, I'll use it for the puzzle I've created.

It's a lot of fun, really. At least for me it is. I do hope I haven't made the first puzzle so hard. That reminds me, I have to finish setting everything up. There's so much to do, so much left to cipher. I can't wait to show people what I have in store for them!

That's the first clue I've made in case you're interested. It might be too hard for you, so here's how you break it. You could a, use frequency analysis, or b, look at your keyboard, start at m, wind your way through like a snake, and then unscramble it. It sounds simple now, doesn't it?

My mom and I went to the park near the new location for my martial arts place. It was a lot of fun. We arrived late so all we did for the work out was some push-ups and a run. I ran the whole thing and even ran with a younger kid who was struggling until I accidentally left her behind. Running was actually a lot of fun, although I was a little disappointed in myself for being so tired until I learned that it was actually 3/4 of a mile instead of the 1/4 I thought someone had said. The lady who works the front desk even said that I looked like I hadn't even broken a sweat. I actually had. I thought it was supposed to be colder so I was wearing a sweater instead of something more summery. It'd be kinda weird if I hadn't sweated wearing something like that.

Afterwards, they were serving hotdogs for people to eat. I got one and tried to eat it, but my stomach started hurting a little while after that and my teeth still hurt from being tightened on Thursday. Eating still causes pain.

We also started our mask project in theater. It should be fun. We have to create our own original character and make a mask for them, so I'm doing Ali. I'll finish her backstory for the project later.

On Halloween, I was handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. It was a lot of fun. My neighbor and his friend got me some candy since they knew I wouldn't get any this year. It was only a little, but I'm still thankful. Sometimes I hate them, but they're so amazing sometimes. I'll miss them when they go to college. Only, what, one, two more years until then? Time passes too fast.

Anyways, that was my week. I wish you could tell me how your not-life is going. I hope you're good and well.