From the journal of Jenna Bless, May 14

May 14, 2017

I woke up this morning in a house in Aspen. This morning, Amanda, Jesus and Anthony made us and the other group breakfast and we all ate here in and around the house we took over. I spent the meal talking to Sean, Margaret, Elisabeth and Eric, the ones around my age. Sean is closer to my age while the others are just a few years older than us, they have already graduated from high school while Sean and I have not. It was really nice to talk to people who understand all my references and know the pop culture that I grew up with. I know that we were all talking and getting to know each other for over three hours, but it seemed like no time had passed when it was time to break it up.
The others had to send out a patrol, they have them scheduled, to make sure all is safe. Williams and Gary volunteered to go with the scouts, they said to get a better lay of the land. But I think they want to see how much these young people know about these things. Williams was a prison guard and Gary was a Deputy so they will be the best people to teach us all about patrols, scouting and anything else they think is needed or useful information.
The two of them left less than a half hour later with Sean and Carol, the scheduled patrol/scouts, and the rest of us decided to stick close to our new house. Elisabeth invited me to their place to watch a movie and I checked with Williams before he left. He said it was fine as long as I only went there and was even careful of the ones who were over there, at least until we knew them a little better. He made sure I had my knife, pistol and a walkie to keep in touch with the main part of our group.

We chose Happy Gilmore to watch since it was funny and had no zombies in it. I haven't laughed that hard in so long. We are popcorn, candy and chips while drinking soda. My sides hurt by halfway through and I had a really good time. Sean and Carol came back about minutes in and Sean joined us in the theater while Carol went somewhere else. After the movie was over, they invited me to stay for another one, but I had promised Williams to come back right after the movie, so I said my goodbyes and went back next door.

Mid afternoon, we were getting ready to eat a late lunch when they all came over with a giant bowl of mac and cheese. They stayed for lunch and that spilled into dinner. I think the decision has already been made. We all get along, they need more people and I need people my age. I don't think it will be long before we all are living in their compound. The guys have already started talking about how to use our supplies to make the wall/fence more secure. The kids are already questioning Sean about any play structures he remembers seeing and making their plans more complete with this new information.
I can't wait to move in there because they have hundreds of movies and books. Sean is really cute and nice and I want to get to know him better. Elisabeth, Eric and Margaret are nice too, but Sean is just a year older than me. Please, please, let this work out and not be a mistake. Let us all be able to survive together and live better here than on the road. Please, please, please.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.