last night karey and pete were going to memphis bbq. karey said she would invite me but knew i had no money. it turned out that heather and randy were going to go eat somewhere, so they all went together. i hung out with elicia. we were talking about this family at her work who were having some troubles. i felt especially bad for the little boy who was of course carrying the burden of the trouble on himself. then we started talking about elicia's family and what it was like when her dad left them. elicia was eating a grilled cheese sandwich. i want a grilled cheese! i suddenly declared. so i made one. a frying pan one, not sandwich maker one. i dipped it in ketchup like in the old days and it was gooooood. elicai and i were going to go get a movie but had been talking so long and then got caught up in amy grant's three wishes on tv. it was about these marines coming home from iraq. just as i was wiping away a tear that i shed in sympathy with a young mother whose husband was killed, we heard voices coming up the front steps. the voices stopped and fumbled at the lock and elicia looked at me like i should help them. i was sitting quite comfortably in the oviat orange chair with the big pillow resting snugly on top of me and on top of that was the empty plate with smears of ketchup on it. they don't need help, i told elicia, they've got keys! karey opened the mail slot just then and said thanks for helping us! no problem guys. they came home with multiple styro-foam containers of meat. karey showed peter her new computer and randy sat with us for a while. he told me he had a new book for me in his car but he wouldn't go get it unless i said it was next on my list to read. i have to commit right away without knowing anything about it?? yes. he said. well what's it about i asked. it's about a family and some miracles. ok fine i said. go get it. i kept telling him to go get it until he finally did. ok! he said exasperated. you're so bossy! he exclaimed as he went out the door. i've never thought of myself as bossy, but it's not the first time i've heard myself described thus. elicia said she thought randy needed a bossy woman. we laughed about that while he was gone and she said she would tell him that when he came back. i said no don't and she said ok i won't and that is just when randy came in. he said were you talking about me and elica said yes. what was it? he asked. i'm not going to say, said elicia. of course randy wasn't going to let this end. so elicia told him he needed a bossy woman like sara burnham. well of course this topic was unendingly interesting to him and he kept asking her questions about it and basically beating a dead horse. i mean she was just making a comment as passing as elicia tends to do at times. it wasn't well thought out. when she was explaining her reasons to him she said because he was so passive. everytime she said he was passive i kind of cringed because who wants to hear themselves be described as passive? i tried to keep it light and i tried to change the subject many times. but randy is the king of the dead horse and even when he had gone downstairs with the girls for hours and came back up he still brought it up again. sigh. elicia had backtracked many times by now and said assertive was what she really meant but randy always brought it back to bossy. i told him to quit it. i said see you tomorrow, except i won't be there (i'm supposed to go out with fatima, but she won't call me back). and so he headed out. we're going to have a book club about the book he gave me which is called peace like a river. in the interm of randy leaving us and going downstairs elicia and i decided to just watch one of our own movies since she had to get up to go to work today. she had never seen return to me, so we watched that. you and karey each have return to me? she asked when i was down on the floor in front of the movies and naming the romantic comedies that we had (that was her choice of genre). yes. i said and didn't explain. i enjoyed watching it with her for the first time. i enjoyed all the antics of the oldies as i always do. it's a sweet if, sometimes cheesie movie, but cheese can be good. after the movie and after randy left, i took the book and read it until around 2 ish, read some book of mormon and went to sleep thinking i had to stop this late night streak. and this morning i woke up with angry red marks in the palm of my hand where my nails had been digging into my flesh. i do that sometimes. why i was making such i tight fist in my sleep, i don't know. i sat up and got all caught up in my scripture reading and wandered into the rest of the house in time to see sarita leaving for the dentist (it was quite a shock to see her dressed at 11 on a weekend) and karey leaving to pick something up at pete's. heather's probably at her volunteer thing and linda is probaby downstairs on her computer. elicia's at work. and WHERE IS FATIMA?