Hurricane season has begun, and once again, I am disappointed. In case you're not familiar with the process by which the depressions, storms, and hurricanes are named, let me tell you. Of course, the numerous storms in each hurricane season are named in alphabetical order. Furthermore, the genders of the names are alterated. Even furthermore, the genders of the names starting with a specific letter are alternated annually. Hence, one year you'll have the storms Alan, Betty, Calvin, and Deidre. The next year it will be Alexis, Brian, Charlotte, and David.

Unless we have a year full of horrendous weather, the storms rarely go past the middle of the alphabet. I doubt we'll ever see a Hurricane Xavier. However, names that start with early letters have that slight chance of becoming meteorological nomenclature. And that's where my goal comes in. My name is Amanda. It starts with an "a," like "apple"! Thus, it's possible that one year, the first storm of the hurricane season may be named after me! Imagine the possibilities! Hurricane Amanda, with windspeeds of no slower than 500 mph, is wreaking terrible destruction all along the southern portion of the United States. Many citizens claim to have seen mammoth oak trees uprooted like weeds. The National Weather Service has released a statement saying that Amanda might just be the storm that ends up altering the basic shape of the United States of America. Wow. I'd be impressed! But what if ... Tropical Depression Amanda has been declared "just barely a breeze" in the Atlantic Ocean. The storm qualified as a tropical depression, at least for a little while, until it "whimped-out," as meteorologists have come to say. Many of our experts are getting quite a chuckle at Amanda. One said, "I really believe that we just named a bunch of rain clouds in the Atlantic -- a total waste of a perfectly good storm name." Amanda poses no threat to the United States. In other news, a new term has taken America "by storm"! The name "Amanda" has come to be another word for someone who "thinks they're smart, but who's really a loser and a waste of everyone's time," according to some teenagers. The origin is obviously from Tropical Depression Amanda, who has proven to be a "loser" of a storm. I hope I didn't write that as therapy! I think it's funny.

So this year was supposed to be my year. The storm starting with "a" would be a girl's name. Allison got it. It was a pretty bad storm, too. Flooded everywhere in Louisiana and really in Houston. People died. Where I am, we just had rain for a week. I'll have to wait another two years because next year it will be a boy's name that starts with "a." It's a fun goal to have, I'm telling ya ...

In other news [haha], I TOLD you I'd get my hands on that Pink Floyd lunchbox! I didn't even ask him, but my uncle graciously ordered it for me. He is a cool uncle. I love him!