Maricel listened quite patiently...

when I talked about the accident. She has this way of listening. You can tell she's not just waiting for your lips to stop moving so she can talk. So is she a great listener or does she have a great fake listening face? Great listener. She can repeat stuff back to you. Guess I better get good at listening. Huh? What did you say?
See you in the funny papers...
Simon

We sat down at the dining room table and menu planned for the week...

I have gone strangely domestic in a very short period of time. Maricel has this wacky idea that you go see what you have in the kitchen and then look through your cookbooks to see what you can make from it. Who da thunk it? Then she made me take another walk. But I detoured her to the dairy bar for chocolate sodas. You cannot defeat FATMAN! She got a small, though. From the picnic tables at the dairy bar I can see the spot where Danny Anderson's parents got killed. I was freaking standing there on the corner waiting to cross the busy four-lane Anthony Wayne Trail to go see a friend that lived on Filbert Street. And I remember thinking that the guy in the blue van was going to hit the car because he blew through the damn light. I didn't really even have time to jump before I heard the wicked crunch and shattering glass. Cars crunching up like they were aluminum cans in a crusher. Back in the P.C. (pre cell phone) days, you couldn't get help so easily. But people who lived nearby called the cops. I went over to the cars with maybe four other people who pulled onto the median and got out to help. The cars were smashed up so freaking bad, you knew there wasn't a damn thing you could do. I just stood and watched. I couldn't believe they pulled someone alive from the flipped over flattened car. I didn't recognize Danny at first, then all of the sudden I put the pieces together and did. Then it hit me that his parents had to be dead. I told the paramedic I was his friend and asked if I could go to the hospital with him. The guy looked at me incredulously and asked if I'd been in the accident. I said that no, it was just a conincidence. He said I probably didn't want to see my friend like this. I think he figured Danny would be dead before they got him to the hospital. So did I, which is why I wanted to go. I ran home. The only time I'd run since junior high and the only time I've really run in the intervening years except when I heard someone breaking into my store. But that was just a short dash. I ran like three blocks that day. God, that was an awful day. Nothing funny about that one...
Simon

Watched V for Vendetta...

Maricel didn't care for the movie. She's decided that Alan Moore is a communist. Looking at his picture he does look a bit like Karl Marx. Communist isn't quite the joke word to Maricel as it is to be. But Marxist guerrillas aren't killing anybody I know. For those who pay way too much attention to my ramblings, my aunt and uncle weren't at Sunday dinner because they didn't want to leave Brian. Mom took some food out to them later. She called to say the cake Maricel and I sent was well-received. She apoligized for bringing my sister into this world. Well, not exactly. She apologized for my sister upsetting Maricel. Maricel was fine, I was the one who flipped out. Maricel could get another guy. I've reached the pinnacle here. I can't do any better.