TheBanyanTree: The Business Continues Part 2

[Pam North]

So the last two days have been touchy.  She goes to bed sad and
depressed, and wakes up feeling refreshed in her sadness and
depression.  Which just makes me all the more determined to stick by
her and cause a smile.

Yesterday afternoon, in an already cheery mood, she left work early to
go to the courthouse and get car titles transferred over from Miller's
name to hers so she can sell them.  Turns out, once they got their
hands on his Will they wanted to Probate it and all kids of legal
crap!  She's pretty tired of telling the same story over and over and
answering the same crappy questions.  And when she's already feeling
low enough and cried off all her make-up, some bimbo clerk looks at
his death certificate and says, "Oh!  He was so young!".  Great. 
Thanks.  No kidding!!!

Needless to say, by the time she got home her mood was bottoming.  She
wanted to just go to bed and sleep, but she recognized that for
depression and knew it was a bad idea.  And she needed to pick Zach up
from ball practice.  So we sat around moping and eating cashews,
trying to decide what to do with ourselves.  And finally came upon the
idea of going to the baseball game in the next town.

(Note:  They have a new baseball team - and I don't know if it's a
Triple-A league or what!, just that it consists of college players on
summer break, playing for scouts and hoping for the big leagues. 
Molly got a job working all the games in concessions, sales, whatever,
and even Jerry (that's her dad for ya'll who might not know) got hired
on as the "Operations-Chief-Jack-Of-All-Tasks" supervising the kids
and a myriad of other things.  But it's baseball and he's loving it! 
Meanwhile, he 'hosted' one of the team players, Geoffrey, and the
whole family is living a baseball summer.)

So I convinced Diane to call one of the other moms to get Zach home
from practice (which is what I had already done after dropping Charlie
at his practice!), and we headed to New Bern and the game.  Now.  I
organized a July 4th cook out at Diane's, but I invited *my* friends! 
SHE has the pool for cryinoutloud!  And I invited Jerry.  He is really
funny and a great friend and neat to hang out with.  (Sorry, I just
can't get romantic thoughts going for him.)  And we all had a great
time until late into the night.

And in the hot, humid evening, she and I watched our River Rats beat
the other team by one in the bottom of the 9th!  Yippee!!  (Too bad
Geoff went oh-for-three!)  We left to come back, and Diane asked Jerry
if he was going to stop in when he dropped Molly off after they were
done closing up.  It was already after ten!!!!!  *I* am a weeny who
needs sleep!

But we came back to my house, I made sure to leave the garage door
open and the light on so Jerry would know we were up, and we entered
my house.  Charlie was on the computer, and her youngest daughter
Sammi Jo was in Molly's room taking photos of the baby kittens. 
(Meanwhile, Diane and I are working conscientiously to hook these two
up!  And there's Sammi Jo, who professes him goofy (ok.. my words but
I think she does, judging from her looks...), showing up when only
*he* is home!!  Hmm....???  Maybe they're just working on being around
each other and getting comfortable to get past that first awkward
stage?!  We didn't say anything....)

And then Jerry and Molly show up.  And the laughs started!  Jerry was
just what Diane needed!  She's tired of looking at my face and telling
me her stories... she needs fresh blood, and he provided it!  And he's
a male.  Sorry.. fact of life.  Sometimes hanging out with a guy
around and laughing and telling stories can be motivating to the
spirit.  She's thinking her life is over now and she doesn't want
another man, she doesn't want to be alone... she's all jumbled.  But
having him around was great medicine.

And guess what we did!  Come on!!  Did you guess???

Wrong!  I didn't think you'd be able to....


We watched The Wedding Video!  That's right!  I'm not sure *how* the
conversation came around to it, but we ended up breaking out this
seventeen year old, poor quality VHS tape of the day he and I got
married.  And we had great laughs!  Turns out that there were quite a
few folks there that we no longer remember!  And I made sure to point
out when we were dancing and bickering already during the reception! 
It was a doomed marriage from the start.....

Then Molly asked about my dress and I told her it was under the
laundry room in the garage, and she and Sammi went digging, they found
it, brought it in and unpacked it!  It's been 'preserved' since 1988
and actually, I always wondered if it was even in there!  You couldn't
open it or you'd break the preservation, but without it, how could you
ever know it was even there?!?!?!  Oh... who cares.

Molly tried putting it on, and she wasn't close.  Of course there's a
couple of inches and a couple more cup sizes difference in her bosoms
now and my pre-child bosoms then!  Sammi even tried it on, but she
couldn't close up the back either, and I think this child is petite!! 
Oh my!  Evidently, back then I was close to anorexic!  I'm not sure
HOW I ever wore the crazy thing!

So that was our evening.  And this morning I got another email from
Diane.  "Thanks for last night!  I had a great time!"  Ahhhh...

Mission Accomplished!

Pam