October 23, 2002

Today is the day treat yourself to a second piece of gum.

Send me questions. Jim, Lauren, Steve, Matt and the rest of you. Bad news. My obnoxious calling-people-out-by-name tactic yesterday actually worked, which means I will continue through the week if I don't get more feedback. Tell your friends; this is one of those times where I am looking for quantity, not quality.

Oh, who am I kidding, it's always those times.

Before I make with the serial story, I have a long-overdue thank you. I seriously do think that the only people who read my little site here are my friends and family, and it blows me away to know that people, people I have never met, link me from time to time. I cannot return the favor, at the moment, by providing my own links page, because there are several species of monkey more website proficient than I, but I am just going to make a quick list of shout-outs here to the people who help me out that I haven't mentioned before:

lifeofthepartyportal, teammonkey, goingSOLO, reddress.net, ludickid, Heath Row's Media Diet, zendude, popscratch, bill turner's brilliant corners, inelegant, capn design, maud, salamander.

If there are more of you, thank you, thank you. As we say on Sundays, peace be with you.

24

"Are you all right, George?" Mrs. Foreman asked, sweetly. "You look like you're not feeling well." She had seen George rolling his eyes and it did not miss her, even though George thought his simple mother was simply looking out for his best interests.

"No, I'm fine," he said brusquely. "So anyway, that's great about you guys, with the, um, Cherokee Circle Bugle and Readers' Digest."

"And the Herald!" added Barry.

"Yes, and the Herald," George mumbled. His mother stood up to begin to clear the table.

"No no, honey, sit down," said Barry, staring hard at George. George stared back, either not understanding or doing a very good job of it.

"Yeah, wait until I'm done talking, at least."

Barry and Esther wished that they were on their cruise.

"So, anyway, how did it happen?"

"Hmm," said Barry, sitting back and stroking his chin. George knew he'd get nowhere with him; his father could never remember anything.

"Mom, when did you write that article for Readers' Digest?"

"It wasn't an article, it was a joke."

"Whatever."

"Well, sweetie, let me think. Well, actually, I think it was Mother's Day."

"Mother's Day?"

"Yes, I'm not really sure why. I had a lovely day; your father took me out for a romantic dinner," she said, casting a warm glance towards her husband. George didn't know why his parents were acting like a couple of ridiculous teenagers. Other parents their age maintained a magnetic repulsion from each other, staying at opposite sides of their houses at all times.

"And what else?"

"Well, I got home and I received some lovely flowers from you, George."

George managed a hopefully-sincere smile. He had no idea what the flowers looked like. His assistant had picked them out.

"Glad you liked them."

"Well, I just put them in the den and for some reason I was struck by...by..."

"Inspiration?"

"Well, I suppose so. It was unusual."

"And it was after you got the flowers?"

"I think so."

"And I wrote my piece for the Circle the next day. Maybe those were some magic flowers you sent, George!" chimed in Barry.

George suppressed a laugh at hearing his father use the word "piece" in reference he wrote for the condo association.

"Well, that's nice Mom and Dad. So, what's next for you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what little hobby will you try next?"

"Well, George, we don't know," said Ester. "We might keep working on this. Who knows. Your father and I might work on something together. Why not? We're still young."

"Are you kidding?" said George.

Mrs. Foreman stood to clear the table. This time, Barry jumped up to help.

"You guys are just leaving the table?"

Esther said through clenched teeth, "If you want to talk to us, George, you can always just help clear the table and come near the sink."

George sighed heavily, picked up his plate as if it weighed 100 pounds, and walked towards his mother, who accepted the plate with a smile.

"So," said George, forcing an uplifting tone, "Do you know if Meredith got inspiration from 'magic flowers' too?"

"I actually don't know," said Esther. "She's been so busy working on her book. Don't you think it's just exciting about her?"

"Yes, isn't it?" echoed Barry.

"Isn't it?!" said George. He would kill himself if he had to go do this with his sister.

"So, um, you guys are definitely leaving for your cruise tomorrow?"

"Well, George, we were going to do it tonight, but, you know..."

"Right, right."

"Why do you ask?"

"Can you guys ask Meredith how she started writing?"

The reaction was not good. The elder Foremans did not comply with his request. Some words were said.

George flopped down angrily on his huge bed. Some people were so selfish.