My Manuscript

Recently I had a friend encourage me to write a book. So I did. The manuscript follows:



"Miss-Middle-Aged"


"Once upon a time there was a middle-aged woman whose emotional maturity, and sometimes her wardrobe but certainly not her face, were stuck in 9th grade. She schlepped (and slept) around her house searching for the inspiration which would finally show her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Inspiration proved fleeting and once again she resorted to rearranging the furniture (some claimed she lived on Titanic Avenue) and watching "Judge Judy" on one of the 4 TV sets in her home. Such televisions were strategically placed so that she did not have to walk more than 7 steps from anywhere in the home (7 being God's number of completion as indisputably evidenced throughout the Holy Scriptures, and therefore guaranteeing His Divine Blessing when applied to one's life) before having a clear line of sight to a screen, as, according to her very own lips, "you never know what fascinating pearls of wisdom are going to emanate from Judge Judy (or Dr. Phil), and I don't want to miss a single one!" For this very reason she has been known to have 3 or more of the TV's on at the same time: same Bat time, same Bat station---"Holy Tuna, Batman, that lady's gone w**nkers! Let's jump lithely into the Batmobile and z**m over there to rescue her from herself!!"

Unfortunately for Miss-Middle-Aged, Batman and Robin were distracted by an ACTUAL emergency(something about a poor widow or hungry orphan?) on their way to rescue her from herself , and so there she remains to this day, shopping for fabric online and watching Judge Judy ferret out the truth, with an occasional foray into the world to see what treasures (junk) she can find at Thrift Town---because her closets and garage are just not quite jammed full enough yet. As she says to all the neighborhood children, "Stuff is the stuff of life...particularly in groups of seven."

The End


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It's gonna be a big seller, I can tell...I see it as a children's book, billed as a "cautionary tale for our times." It will be slickly packaged and hip-ly designed (by Sharp Seven), heavily marketed to evangelical Christian parents, and the book will come in a set with non-action figures: a couch, 4 TV's, and a lumpy wrinkled lethargic 40-something woman wearing Doc Marten's. Sales will be ginormous, profits even ginormous-er! Pre-order yours today!!---tell your Pastor, your Youth Pastor, your Children's Pastor, your Worship Pastor, your Administrative Pastor, your Small Group Pastor, your Potluck Pastor, your Coffee Pastor, your Janitorial Pastor-----tell them all, every one, especially if you can do it in groups of seven!

"Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

That is how Buddy answers the phone, and it is one of my favorite lines in the movie Elf with Will Ferrell. Craig, Jordan and I just finished watching it. It now fits in the catagory of "classic" christmas movies that I can watch every year--along with Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. I don't usually respond to slapstick-ish comedy, but those two actors crack me up. Isn't laughing grand? I need more of it in my life--the kind where you laugh until your eyes flood and the dog gets nervous. Speaking of which, we get to go see Billy Crystal's one man show next week!!! My neighbors went this week and said it is like 3 hours of belly laughs--yippee! Those same sweet neighbors, who live directly next door to me, drove all the way into San Francisco today to come to my sale (see below), and be supportive! They have taught me so much about how to love my neighbor, just by watching them love theirs.

Today I participated in a Holiday Trunk* Show in SF. Of course I was nervous since that is always the case when I'm putting myself "out there." But it was fine, my mental goal was to sell 2 medium-priced bags, and my goal was exceeded...so another couple months of web hosting/credit card processing fees go in to the bank. Good thing I'm not actually having to support myself with this biz cause I would so be homeless and skinny.
*why these things are called "trunk" shows, I don't know...when they started were people taking their wares out of a trunk?...or perhaps they were started by elephants.

Speaking of supportive, my RFL came to the trunk show with me to help me unload/load, and so I wouldn't have to go alone. He's an awesome guy. I hope to never have to do with out him.

Holy Mackeral, Batman, only 2 weeks until Christmas!!

Meet the Parents

Last night we had the much-anticipated meeting of Jeremy. He seems like a really nice young man, and cute as can be. Oh, right, you don't know Jeremy either!--silly me. He is the 24 year old, this close to being divorced, Air Force veteran who shares a mutual attraction with my daughter. My 18 year old, just fresh from high school, lives under my roof, mess with her and I'll kill you, no really I mean it, daughter. No, really. Because I may not be able to whip up a gourmet feast for fifty of my most intimate friends like Martha (and her staff of hundreds), but I'm bettin' I can do time better than her, and a lot more of it. Which I spelled out to Jeremy...nice to meet you, I don't mind going to jail, would you like some more corn?