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LATEST UPDATE
(Wednesday, February 4, 2009)

This site is the result of an ongoing experiment in epistolary fiction writing. A few years ago, I got the idea of writing a novel in email (xo bri xoxo me xoxoxo love you christy), written in real time using messages sent back and forth between email accounts that I created in my characters' names.

The "novel" was completed, but the experiment continues. I like my characters, and want to continue to delve into them and work with them. More than that, though, I like the epistolary format. Letters (particularly email) raise a lot of questions that I suppose I'm trying to answer by writing these messages. What gets said? What gets excluded? How are stories and events communicated (or not communicated) between characters?

And are the messages stories... or can they add up, in aggregate, to a story?

That's what I'm trying to get at here.

Every one of these messages serves as both a FUN exercise in writing and an exploration of the epistolary form. I want to keep writing these messages and see what happens, what I come up with. As I write them, I find myself learning more and more about the characters and their nuances, and of course this in turn informs and enriches my OTHER writing.

I've given up on the notion of trying to make the messages on this page add up to coherent storylines. Somehow I feel like that's not the point. I'm not sure what the point IS, but I feel like the muse is leading me... so I follow...

Hope you enjoy it.

Please read the following...

IMPORTANT NAVIGATION TIPS:
It never made any sense to me, but on this site, new posts appear at the TOP of the index page...meaning that if you want to read the posts in chronological order, you need to read them from the bottom of the page UP.

An easier way, though, is to click on the links in the UPDATES section (always immediately below this top post). Those links will open the first message of the given thread in a new window; you can then navigate the threads by clicking on the FORWARD-BACK-HOME links at the end of each message. I will also link between threads.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading! --Max

UPDATES:

February 4, 2009 A follow-up email which continues the thread below. Christy writes back to Margo about Marty and meds: click here for the followup, and see immediately below (February 1) for the first two messages in the thread if you missed them.

February 1, 2009 Super Bowl Sunday. Christy is up, thinking about Super Bowl parties and sinusitis and Facebook... and so she writes Margo, and Margo writes back. Click here for Good morning, I guess.
(As always, see the characters' Facebook pages for related content... and see the previous update below if you have no idea what I mean by that. --m)

January 11, 2009 It's been over three months since I really wrote any new character emails. I haven't been IDLE, mind you; I've done a lot of stuff with the characters' FACEBOOK pages... fitting, because Facebook is a somewhat shallow tool. I've felt, the last few months, like I needed to be shallow for a little bit, step back from the characters, not go too deep. Take a breath.

(Inhale. Exhale. There. That's better. Now, as you see, I write.)

Anyway... I've written this before, but if you haven't done so yet, ADD MY CHARACTERS AS FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK. I'm not saying there's a great deal of CONTENT there, but there are some things on those pages that will be alluded to in the character emails (and vice versa), and if you don't wanna be totally lost, you need to check those pages out. Plus, it's kind of fun, I think, to see status updates for the characters pop up on your HOME page.

Which now brings me to... new character emails. Three, count 'em, three... all of them really inspired by the last four months of HELL I've been through, and the way that I've dealt with it (although, really, that doesn't come out DIRECTLY). Brian, the most un-tech-geeky of all my characters (except maybe their parents) starts the ball and this new thread rolling with this message: Internet.

October 1, 2008 Some things never change. Penn State Football on the tube at Brian's parents' house is one of them. Margo asks Christy Did you hear that?

August 28, 2008 This is the first time I've posted an update consisting entirely of Facebook status updates. A continuation of the previous emails and chat. Some new emails will be coming soon; in the meantime, start out by checking Maura's Status.

August 17, 2008 As I wrote below, "Maura" has gotten four friend requests on Facebook (actually five; one of them has been withdrawn) from total strangers. Everyone keeps telling me to CONFIRM the requests and see what happens. Somehow that seems too strange a commingling of fiction and reality. However, since I have to do SOMETHING with those friend requests... the thread continues... click here. More to follow as I write it...

August 16, 2008 A couple more emails to continue the thread started on August 13 and continued the 14th. This is also the first time, really, that I've used a Facebook status update in this blog. The first message here is a screenshot of Maura's facebook page. (Click on the reduced-size screenshot to enlarge it and read the page; click your browser's BACK button to return to the page. FORWARD and BACK navigation links between emails appear under the mini-screenshot)
Maura's status update is the first new message: Maura Ann Kelly is...

August 14, 2008: Continuing the thread started on August 13th with two new messages: Christy's reply to Maura and Rae's reply to Brian.

August 13, 2008: Lots happening. First of all, I've created FACEBOOK accounts for my characters. If you want to keep up on their virtual fictitious goings-on, friend them! I created a Facebook group called Friends of Brian, Margo and Christy; the easiest way to find them is to click on that group. The Officers list on the right hand side of the page lists all of the characters with pages. You can either FRIEND me to access their pages, or FRIEND one or ALL of the characters to not only access their pages, but to get their "status" updates on your feed-homepage.

Fun. Really.

I have to mention this: I really debated whether or not to give the characters profile pictures or even avatars, but with Rita and Maura and Rae, I found, online, what I thought were suitable public domain pictures that seemed to be in character with what I'd written. Rita is the only character whose face you see; Rae's is (fittingly) blocked; and Maura... Maura, I thought, should have something a little daring and artsy... something in keeping with her established identity (on this blog) as a photographer and model.

I also started registering Maura and the other characters on Facebook groups and fan sites, just to give their pages a little more flavor... and of course, when you post on a page, your profile picture accompanies your post.

Well, apparently I chose the RIGHT PICTURE for Maura. "She" has gotten FOUR FRIEND REQUESTS so far, from people who clearly are not interested in reading my work, but who apparently think she is an ACTUAL PERSON. Probably more than an "actual person," but an artsy, bohemian, freewheeling actual FEMALE who just might... you know... be interested in...

Which Maura unequivocally would NOT be, as they would see if they read her profile. "IN A RELATIONSHIP" should tell them all they need to know; repeated references to "Todd" in her status updates might also be considered tip-offs.

Still, I apparently have created an enticing character, if the message that accompanied the friend request from one Mr. Brenno Thegreat, in Melbourne, Australia, is any indication:

Hi i like your back, wanna chat.

All of this AFTER I posted comments on Maura's page from Christy, Rita and Margo about her picture... AND after I posted a message on Margo's wall, from Rae, saying "yr niece has beautifully defined latissimus dorsi and gluteus medius muscles lol."

I don't know what to do about this. I don't think I'm going to friend them just yet. Part of me feels like what I need to do is tell them "Look, Maura's a fictional character... you aren't going to get more pics, or chat with her, or hook up with her, or have an online fling with her, or..."

But for now, I'll let it pass. It might be interesting to see how many more guys try to friend her.

Anyway...

Meanwhile, I've written a bunch of new character emails and rather than try to make coherent threads out of them, I've just posted them here in the order I wrote them. Start with this one from Maura to Rita: Monday night at Todd's, so peaceful.


July 30, 2008 This is a different twist on my character communiques (although it's one I used in the online novel): I created instant message accounts for Christy and Margo, and, with two IM windows opened onscreen, did a "chat" between them in real time. It's been a few years since I did this, and the first one I tried wasn't entirely successful (I posted it on my Deviantart page). This one, though, works a little better, so I'm posting it here. As I explained in the header of the Deviantart entry, the timestamps are real (this was written in real time); however, unlike that piece, I revised this one a little before I posted it.
I like this format because instead of the characters writing (essentially) letters, they're having a dialogue.
As with their emails, though, Christy and Margo don't use a lot of abbreviations-etc. Neither of them has (read: I HAVEN'T) bothered to learn shortcuts-abbreviations-acronyms-etc. The only ones here, really, are BRB and LOL and LMAO (or, in Fran's case, the transposed LMOA, which is an inside joke to her).
So: Christy is at home in Pleasant Gap, PA; Margo is on vacation at her parents' lakeside cottage in Ontario, with Brian and Becca; they're up in the morning, having coffee, and since cellphone roaming charges/international calls=$$$$$, they decide to communicate via Instant message.

July17, 2008 As I discovered earlier in the winter, sometimes I can't open my mouth and complain directly about certain things, but there's always my characters. Hence this new thread, two messages: Maura hurls Six F-Bombs at Rita, and Rita hurls a couple right back in her reply. Click here to read the first message.

July 9, 2008 Christy and Marty and Maggie visit Maura in Vermont. First message here: Hi from Vermont.

June 18-19, 2008 Sitting here, checking my email, eating Dulce le Leche... and I get an email from the Orioles, announcing that tomorrow night at the Yard is Nick Markakis bobblehead night. And since, in my fictional world, Rita has returned to the Warehouse to work in the Orioles' ticket and marketing office part time starting this week past, why not write an email? Thus my sitting at the computer not having a life, reading junk email and eating ice cream, becomes a new thread: Rita to Margo and Maura, telling them how Senorita gets busted by the intern and then gets the intern BUSTED!!!! with a followup from Margo.

June 3-4, 2008: It's been a long time since I introduced a new character's voice into the email storyline. But... with my novel You Don't Think She Is on its way out the door to agents (Bon voyage, o book!), I have picked up a project that I started in January 2007 and abandoned last fall: Rae, a novel featuring Brian, Margo, Christy, Marty, Becca and Maggie c. 2007. I'm about a third of the way through it, maybe... but yesterday I decided that, in order to get a better idea of what makes the character Rae tick, I'd get her hooked up with a Yahoo account and bring her into the loop.
So... without further ado, meet the title character of my novel-in-progress: Carmen McRae "Rae" Sanchez, 24-year-old former music student of Brian's at Gettysburg. Her first email, to her former prof, is Ted Kennedy surgery a success.

May 27, 2008: I'm in the process of posting a bunch of new emails, but here's a sample one... and instead of posting the FIRST in the thread, this one is the NEWEST: Maura to Rita. In the emails that precede this one, you'll find out who is Sorry and why. Click here...

March 30-April 6, 2008: First of all, heartfelt thanks, Danita and Jane, for your Facebook "Superlatives" nomination (Most likely to fall in love with a fictional character). These are all the more touching because they were submitted independent of each other.
I appreciate it. Honest, I do.
Now... in the month and a half since I posted the messages in the last thread, I have written (just counted) one hundred-eight (108) character emails. There are getting to be too many messages to post here. I need to find another way to do this, for a lot of different reasons. The physical setup of a blog (oldest messages at the bottom of a single page) is simply not conducive to what I'm doing. I'm going to start looking for a new website or venue to host these things. In the meantime... of those 108 emails, I'm going to post a thread featuring a few recent messages that will give you a hint of what's been going on in my characters' lives the last seven weeks.
The start of this new thread: Margo and Brian return from a visit to see Maura in Vermont, and Maura returns the favor with a trip back to Pennsylvania. There are some things referenced in these posts that happened in previous messages a couple years ago, most notably Maura's "night on the town" in the pickup truck, which I've linked to... uh... in the previous phrase, as well as at the top of one of the messages.
The first batch of messages in this thread was posted on March 30, and I posted followups on April 1 and 6.
So... the first message of this thread is She's here!

February 13, 2008: Two messages from Maura, about 15 minutes apart... one to her mom, one to her best friend. Start with Mommmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

February 4, 2008: Started writing emails this morning with a message from Maura to Rita, and ended up with this mini-thread. Some stuff is alluded to here that happened in the big chunk of emails from December and January that I still haven't finished formatting and posting here. I hope it still makes sense though: Take a look at these.

January 28-February 2, 2008: Yeah, I have a big batch of new emails. Yeah, I've been writing and gathering them since before Thanksgiving. Yeah, I'm formatting them for this website, and yeah, it's a little time-consuming. But sometimes things take time because you're not really into them, as you realize when you write something you really connect with.
Like this morning. I logged into "Christy's" email account and found yet another spam to "her" about the Irish Lottery. I always wonder if these people would feel stupid at all if they knew they were trying to bamboozle a fictional character. (Every now and then I reply in my characters' voices, but I seldom get a response.)
Anyway, that spam to Christy starts this new thread: Batch: 074/05/ZY369, which I started on the 28th.

January 8, 2008: Stay tuned. Big batch of new emails coming soon. I've been writing and gathering them since before Thanksgiving. Formatting them for this website is a little time-consuming but I'm working on it, and hope to be done by week's end. (January 24: Formatting them for this website is EXTREMELY time-consuming; it's taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated... plus I'm writing new ones. So, like I said, stay tuned.)

November 22, 2007: Happy Friggin' Thanksgiving!

October 31, 2007: Life (real, mine) has settled down somewhat since I moved to Stowe, so life (virtual, characters) can continue online... this is the first new post here in over a month: Christy sends Margo online greetings for a Happy Halloween!!

September 23, 2007: I finally wrote a follow-up from Christy to Brian's e-mail Texting (see August 20 update). This email is not just a message for this blog; it's also in essence a novel excerpt: as soon as I wrote it, I plugged it into a chapter of the novel I'm working on, Rae. So here's Christy's response to Brian's Texting, imaginatively entitled... uh... Re: Texting.

September 8, 2007: The phone rings at Chez Pressley, and Becca has a boyyyyyyyyfriennnnnnnnnnd!!!!

August 23, 2007: One of the first times I've ever posted something on this site that isn't a character email, although it is an email of sorts. I was weeding through some emails in my account at my (soon-to-be-former) job, and came across this rather concise capsulization of the three main characters' traits: About the characters.

August 20, 2007: As so often happens, now these messages are becoming THREADS. I've tried to tie them together.
First, Brian obliquely responds to Margo's email below (August 13) with one of his own, to Christy: Texting. That message links to the first of two follow-ups to Rita's "So who's the baby??"... or you can start by reading Brian's reply to Rita here.

August 15, 2007: New mama Rita has a song stuck in her head: So who's the baby??

August 13, 2007: Margo to Christy: "I'm gonna get him one whether he likes it or not:" Monday

August 9, 2007: Rita's baby! IT'S A... I'M A...

August 7, 2007: "You don't always solve problems by talking about problems..." Three emails between Christy and Margo, about job offers, Maggie's three-year-old fits, and peanut butter toast, starting with: Job.

July 25, 2007: Rita's brush with greatness at the B&O Warehouse. Two messages: Rita's email to Margo, and Margo's reply. The thread starts with... Be jealous!!!!

March 11, 2007: First new content in a while... two threads that sort of lean on each other: first Christy and Margo's Happy Sunday Woman! and then Margo and Brian's The Exam

All contents of this website Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007 Max Harrick Shenk

Re2: Good morning, I guess

From: Christine Kelly-Morone (christyswims@yahoo.com)
To: Margo Pressley (ledoux67@aol.com)
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009 6:55 AM
Subject: Re: Re: Good morning, I guess


Hi Margo, I'm back from my swim and enjoying the early quiet before we get Maggie moving. It's 6:30, right before when things really start moving here, I don't know why I am online trying to write an email. I don't know how I imagine I can possibly get anything of any substance written before things really start to move. Marty is already up and in the shower, getting ready for work, we get Maggie up at around 7 and one or the other of us runs her to school (ideally it's Marty, lol, but as you know the school is one direction and he goes the other, it adds ten minutes to his drive if he takes her, so usually he goes and I take her).

But I clicked the computer on, Stevie sent me some pictures of the super bowl party at mom's and I was looking at them, downloading them, and then of course I have to go on facebook and check THAT, and while I was at it, I realized that for all the times we've talked the past couple days, I still didn't really tell you what happened with Marty and his cold. It seems to have subsided but after we sent these emails back and forth on Sunday I just asked him straight out "Marty, why don't you just go get meds?" and he of course said exactly what I thought he would: "You know I can't stand taking meds. I like trying to heal things naturally." ANd I said "But it's not healing naturally. And you know as well as I do that if you let this drag out it's going to turn into a sinus infection and then you'll HAVE to go to the doctor."

"I know, I know." Getting annoyed with me. So then I got right to the heart of it. "You know Margo said Brian does the same thing. What IS it with you guys anyway?"

So now he REALLY gets his ass up in the air. "What do you mean, what is it with us guys?"

"I mean why don't you just go take care of it. Do you want ME to take care of it?"

"It's MY cold."

"Well I'm glad you're taking ownership of it" lol I thought that was pretty good "but it's driving me nuts too. I don't like seeing you sick and sniffling, I don't want you to get a sinus infection, I don't want you to get sick and maybe give MAGGIE something, and aside from all that, last night I could barely sleep with you snorting and sniffling next to me."

"Sorry."

"It's ok Marty, but I just don't know why you don't DO something about it?" And then I asked the question. "DO you want ME to do something about it? Like get you stuff for it, or make the appointment... or kill you if you don't do something about it?" lol.

And he got all bristly, which made me know I'd struck a nerve. "I don't need you to take care of me."

"OK, fine. Then take care of it yourself. But take care of it."

So now he gets all mopey and excusey, as you would say. "I just don't know what to get, that's all. I get all confused by the choices."

So I said "Do you want me to go with you and help you pick something out?"

No he didn't, you sure, no I'll go, well you haven't yet, Marty, let's just stop on the way to breakfast and get you something. OK. So long story short, since I'm looking at the time (6:40), I did what you said, we left for breakfast and the BJC early and stopped at Giant on the way into town, and I took him by the hand and marched over to the meds aisle and just asked him. "OK, what have you tried here that doesn't work? Does Robitussin work?" "For coughs yes, but not on sinus." "Well what about the tablets? Which ones have you tried?" "Sudafed makes me feel whacked." Same as you said Brian reacts. "What about Benadryl?" Anyway it turns out he's used Tylenol sinus before and it worked, so we got that and a bottle of saline spray since he wants to "heal naturally." Maggie loved that. "What do you do with THAT daddy?" "I squirt it up my nose." "EWWWW! Can I watch?" lol. So he took her back to the bathroom at the diner and squirted saline up his nose, and she comes running back out "Daddy sprayed water up his nose and it went all down his chin!" lol.

He said that the saline helped a little but that the tylenol really helped, by the time Maggie and me got back to the game (I was just going to pick him up after our afternoon together but Maggie wanted to go in and see the band so we went back for the second half, so glad we did, it was a big win and we were there, the place was rockin! Was I the one who complained about having to go to basketball games on super bowl Sunday?) he said his sinuses felt almost clear, then he kept on top of it

I'm glad we took care of it, I swear to god if I'd seen him sip one more cup of mint tea. HE DIDN'T EVEN FINISH IT! I said "Marty in order for it to do you any good you need to drink it HOT and let the steam work."

So Monday when he came home he'd gone to the health food store (SAME AS BRIAN!) and he'd gotten some kind of herb tea that his brother recommended. So I guess all I had to do was light a fire under his ass and he did the rest.

Annoying but at least he's not sick and mainly MAGGIE didn't get anything. I know you don't "catch" a sinus infection and there's more chance of her getting something at preschool than at home, but still.

It's 6:53 and I think I'm going to be a good mom and make oatmeal for my family.

Funny. I can see three clocks where I'm sitting. We have a kitchen clock on the wall, then there's the clock on the microwave, and then the time in the corner of the computer screen. The kitchen clock says 6:55, the microwave clock says 6:53 and the computer clock says 6:54. So it's 6:54.

Anyway had to tell you all that.

Talk later today probably! xoxoxoxo love you christy

P.S. thanks a whole bunch for sharing the Stalin comment with Maura, lol. I don't remember ever telling her that, she seemed to think it was funny though so no harm done.

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Re: Good morning, I guess

From: ledoux67@aol.com
To: christyswims@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 7:49 am
Subject: Re: Good morning, I guess

First of all, facebook makes me ADD. Not "add" like add and subtract but A.D.D. As in I go on there and I see all these updates and groups and notifications and messages from people and I want to reply and before I know it, I've spent an hour online on facebook and I not only can't remember what I came online for in the FIRST place... I don't know what I've DONE in that hour that was more important. You know?

I agree that it is good for being shallow, which as you said in some cases is a blessing. How much contact do I WANT with Jen Rice, you know? Or your sisters (Kathy being the exception... I like hearing from her) all of whom friended me.

But the real issue here is...... MARTY'S SNOT!!! lmaaaao.

You KNOW what it's about, just like you know what it's "about" whenever I use to complain about Brian doing the same thing. I don't know what it is about those two with their sinuses and not wanting to just go to the doctor and smack it out of their systems with meds (or like you said even go to rite aid or CVS or bwahahaha Walmart and get something over the counter) (or go to Brian's stupid HEALTH FOOD STORE and get something, did I just call it "stupid," oopsy, baby burped, lmaaao)

(Another aside: YES, IT IS STUPID!! I like healthy food as much as the next person (if the next person is the hamburgler, lmaaao), I am all for natural food, natural remedies, no preservatives or additives, organic produce, garm raised (also FARM raised, lmaaao), free range, etc etc etc etc. Esp when it comes to putting things in Becca's body.

But try as you might and go down that path, SINUS STILL HAPPENS. And when you're there feeling like you have a bowling ball behind your nose and that flaming drippage is going down the back of your palate, who cares if it's NATURAL??? I just want it to WORK so that it ENDS!

What it comes back to for me, if you don't mind my ranting lmaaao, is what I wrote on the board at that Fresh Fields that one time that Brian got so pissed off at me about. I don't know if I told you that. We were at a Fresh Fields down in Philly when we were visiting Tony at school one time, and they had a comment board out front, and I'd just been walking around looking at all this Organic, Fresh, Good For You food that was probably raised the same way as the stuff in the Giant down the pike, but cost TWICE AS MUCH of course. And people just seemed rude, pushy... they looked like they NEEDED something like that. Anyway after seeing about twenty signs with the phrase "Good for you food" on it we checked out and as we left THAT was when I saw the comment board. So I wrote on a card: "If your food is so 'good for you' then how come everyone I saw shopping here looked so pale, pasty and miserable" lmaaao. THAT'S why it's stupid. ANd Brian got pissed that I dropped the card in the box but since then he has come to my point of view, sort of.

"It's like NPR. It doesn't make a person better. It makes them THINK they're better."

He's smart like that.

But when he gets sinus he STILL won't do the smart thing with THAT, which is make an appointment at the doctor's (and Christy, both of our husbands work at colleges... they don't even NEED to go to a doctor's... they can go to whatever free clinic is on campus and just get free meds there).

Marty does mint tea. Brian pounds down the OJ. Which, like you said, just makes him pee. Which is not a problem, because the other thing Brian does when he feels it coming on is takes showers and blows his nose down the drain (a doctor one time told him that was "the best thing to do for sinus" and gross as it sounds, it seems to work). So he just pees in the shower, lmaaao.

But he's the same: pounds down the fluids when it gets really bad, but he won't go for meds. And sometimes the shower therapy works, but sometimes it doesn't.

WHich brings us to what you said about Marty, and your solution, what you said you know will happen. It's a rock and a hard place, Christy. He says he doesn't want meds, and you know whatever you bring back if you buy it for him he will have a problem with. BUT IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING, HE WON'T EITHER, AND HE WILL DRIVE YOU NUTS. And then get sick.

It's not the sort of thing you can say "Fine, if you want to suffer, suffer" because as you found out last night, when he suffers, you suffer right alongside him.

So you need to do what I did with Brian first time he got really bad sinus. You have to be the mommy on this one. You need to DRIVE HIM to Rite Aid-CVS-Giant-Target-Walmart-whatever and walk him to the cold meds section and ask him which one he wants YOU to GET HIM. That way next time it happens you will know. Example: Brian can't do sudafed; that's what I get, and it doesn't bother me, but it makes him feel crawly and nuts. So I know that I need to get him something without the med that's in sudafed (pseudoephedrine, I think it's called. This is why I'm an LCSW and not a psychiatrist, lmaaao... I can't keep meds straight).

Anyway, once I did that, we didn't even need to get into the whole argument anymore. When I notice it coming on I just do what I would do with Becca: "Do you need meds? Does what you had before work? Why don't you go get in the shower? You need some saline spray?" Usually it doesn't even get to "You want me to call and make the appointment or are you going to go yourself?" (Have you tried THAT tack? Maybe just the THREAT of you calling FOR him will make him make the call himself.)

THIS is what bugs me Christy: you know, we ALL had our moms take care of us when we were little and we got sick, but why is it that when we grow up, we MOMS can take care of ourselves but the DADS still want MOM???

Anyway, do it now. Do it this morning. Before breakfast, YOU DRIVE the three of you to whatever pharmacy is on the way and pick out something while he's there. Because if he's sniffling and rattling (coughing?) all night then he is well on the way to a sinus INFECTION. So now is the time to knock it out of his system.

Of course maybe if you slug him in the jaw really hard THAT might knock it out of his face too, lmaaao.

Anyway, after typing all this I tried calling again and your phone is still off. So I'll just hit send.

We REALLY wish you could come down today but I totally get what you're saying. I know what you mean about not wanting Maggie to miss school. (I will ignore your sniping comments about me, lmaaao) And yeah, you and Marty and Maggie are a family unto yourselves, but that doesn't mean you don't want the BIGGER family around on special occasions.

Instead of saying what you know, which is "I wish you lived closer too," I'll ask: has Marty continued the job search or is he going to stay put up there?

Anyway, we'll miss you today. It's barely 7:45 am and already it smells beefy here, lmaaao. Brian has already browned the beef (four pounds) and he has two big pots of chili rollin'. We will have the usual guest list: Danny and Ronnie and their two, Dan and Laura, Mom and Dad, Karen, Roy, Tony and Rita and Dannydan. Should be a blast.

Wait a sec... BRB.

Back. WHen I hear the word FUCK! being hurled from the kitchen, I know there's a problem. Brian soaked the beans overnight but he forgot that you need to COOK them after you soak them. So no biggie. He just has to let them roll for 90 minutes... they'll be fine. But he's like me; any excuse to hurl an f-bomb when Becca's still in bed, lmaaao.

We were just talking in the kitchen... he was thinking he might ask his dad if he wanted to come out early to watch PSU-MSU but I said "Brian, do you want your parents here from noon till 10 pm when the football game ends?"

When the question, or the proclamation, is really "Brian, I do NOT want your parents here from noon till 10 pm when the football game ends!!!" lmaaao.

Anyway, it was a nice thought, but that's not happening.

Anyway... if Brian's f-bomb didn't get Becca moving, we'll get her up soon... the chili's rolling so we'll wait for the beans to cook and then dump 'em in the pots, put them on low and go into town and meet Mom and Dad for breakfast at the Avenue, then come back out and get everything straightened up for the game.

We'll miss you and wish you were here and of course I understand... but if you guys change your mind at the last minute (you did a couple years ago) just call and come down. Like Brian said he told you, you can stay here. But I don't blame you for not wanting to make the drive-have Maggie miss school etc.

Talk later today. Do what I said with Marty and let me know what happens! xoxoxoxo me!!

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Good morning, I guess

From: Christine Kelly-Morone (christyswims@yahoo.com)
To: Margo Pressley (ledoux67@aol.com)
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 6:29 am
Subject: Good morning, I guess

Hi Margo, it's early, 5:25 (funny, I always get up to look at the clock, forgetting that there's one right in the corner of the computer) and here I am, up and wide awake. The coffee was a part of that, lol, but mainly it's just like I always say, I am so used to Mon-Sat getting up at 4:30 am to get into the Y that Sundays I can't even sleep in. Esp this morning, or last night, Marty has bad sinus and his nasal passages were rattling all night. HE can't hear it of course but I was right next to him, kept waking me up. So when I got up and saw it was 4:25 I thought "Well at least I can go swim" and then realized, D'OH!!! Sunday.

So I went online and glanced at facebook. You know, that's fun for what it is and it's gotten me back in touch with so many people, and god knows it's a lot less painful to glance at my updates page and see "Mary Ann Kelly Harper is watching THE VIEW! Go Elizabeth!" (one of her actual updates last week) than it is to call Mary up and spend a half hour of my life TRYING to talk to her and getting half answers, half her attention because she IS watching the view, go Elizabeth, blah blah blah.

When I saw "Go ELizabeth" I thought "Why is she calling Betsy by her full name?" I'm just not tuned in.

Anyway for that it's been great, getting in touch with people and keeping in touch with other people who I'd rather keep at arm's length most of the time, God forgive me for saying that.

But I'm noticing that I'm leaning on it too much to keep in touch with some people I really WANT to be in touch with, Maura of course, and a little bit you and Brian. I'm not writing as much and that's what I LIKE to do. THe phone calls too of course but lots of times I don't feel like they're totally convenient. I know you say "call anytime" and you always pick up, but if you're at school I don't like to pester you, and then if you're driving home in winter I just think of you heading down 233 (? I can never remember route numbers) past the fairground and along the creek, just picture you trying to handle the cell phone and dealing with Becca and next thing we know, you're hurtling down through the pines and over the rocks into the icy cold water, lol. Another "worst case scenario" but you know how it is with the phone. It IS like Brian always said: just because you HAVE one doesn't give you license to interrupt someone's life with it. Just because I want to talk doesn't mean it's convenient for YOU.

And I know that the two people I talk most to (well two of the four anyway, along with Maura and Mom) you and Kath both have no problem saying "Chris, I can't talk right now" or "Woman can you call back?" But sometimes I don't even bother making the call if I think you or her MIGHT be busy.

So that's another reason to facebook.

But lately all it seems is we've been trading stupid lists and smartassed comments, which make me laugh but I miss real contact.

And that brings me to what is REALLY upsetting me, lol, here it is, another super bowl Sunday and Mom is having a big party in Fairfield, you guys are having a big party where YOU are, and what do WE have to do? Marty has blue band pep band for PSU Michigan at the BJC.

(I said "Michigan," actually it's Michigan State)

So that ties up the afternoon, and it's an early start time (noon) so we could do what we did a couple years ago and drive down for your party and the game, which was fun but getting back late is exhausting, it's hard to get back in the groove Monday, don't want to call out and have Maggie miss school, she likes school and esp likes MOndays believe it or not because she's been doing all these things all weekend and missing her friends and wants to see them and catch up. I remember that feeling even in high school. You hated getting up but you couldn't wait to see everyone. Even you, lol.

SO all weekend between his sinus and him having to do the band this afternoon I've just been in a pissy mood. I guess that should have been my facebook update huh, "Christine is in a pissy mood." Then everybody could comment on THAT.

As you can see I am STILL in a pissy mood.

ANyway, I would like to be coming down there for your party but we won't be, we will go out for breakfast, drop Marty at the BJC and then go to the bookstore and have a hot chocolate and look at books, I think they might even have storytime this afternoon at 1, then run over to giant and get some things for the game, come back in and get Marty and have our own super bowl party, which is fine, it's family, but there's another thing about facebook, it makes me MISS EVERYONE WHOS FAR AWAY EVEN MORE!!!

Maura posted that list of hers (and that picture composite, did you see that? Had to put her bare boob on there, lol) and I read it and had to call her, it made me cry, not that I was sad or anything, just made me emotional and made me love her, but made me WANT TO GIVE HER A HUG AND BE CLOSE TO HER, AND THERE SHE IS, FOUR HUNDRED MILES AWAY IN FUCKING VERMONT!!!! And Kath down in Harrisburg (she is working today during the game) and Stevie and John and Mom and everyone getting together at Mom's. Marty's parents probably won't watch it, they don't care, I think actually he has a concert tonight.

And then you, my other family, getting together there at your place, which is always fun, or at least it was last time the Steelers went to the super bowl.

And here we are, up here.

That's what it is, again. I love it up here until something is happening where I want to BE WITH people I love, and I feel cut off. Shouldn't Maggie and Marty be enough? BUt I want them to be with people I love too.

ANd now my coffee's cold. BRB.

Back and now it's too hot, lol. I'm like GOldilocks, I want it to be JUST RIGHT.

It is so quiet here, I know you don't want to hear that, lol, given how LOUD you said it was yesterday. THat was kind of how I felt yesterday morning. I was bugged about a million other things (all this that I just whined about) and then Maggie was making noise, Marty was playing records, the TV was going (its funny how no matter how many times I turn it off, it seems to come back on), I talked to Kath and missed her, talked to Maura and missed her. Then Marty and his sinuses, he's just like Brian, will NOT just suck it up and go to the dr and get meds and knock it out of his system, he has to suffer through it, which means we ALL have to suffer through it. I hate how that sounds, it's his cold so it's worst for him, but he could make it easier by just going and doing what I do, or what WE would do for Maggie, just go to the dr and get some antibiotics.

"But I don't like putting that stuff in my system." Fine, be homeopathic, (is that the word I want? No, I just looked it up online. You know what I mean, though, try NATURAL healing. But he DOESN'T. Except for seeing him drinking big mugs of mint tea all day, he doesn't DO anything. Except pee, lol, maybe he thinks it'll drain through his penis, lol, I don't know.

THat's one reason I wish Kath would come up. All I'd have to do is mention it to her and she'd come up with a handful of samples for him.

I swear what it is is that he wants to be babied, and I'm not doing it. He wants ME to call and make the appointment, wants ME to get him some kind of meds or treatment or something. Doesn't want to go to the bother. But instead makes himself miserable and DRIVES ME NUTS AND KEEPS ME UP ALL NIGHT SO I CAN'T SLEEP! AGHHHHHHH!!!

So it took me a half hour of typing to get to the point, but there it is.

I'm going to ask him "Marty, what do you want me to do here? Why don't you just go to the doctor?"

"I don't like going to the doctor. I don't like taking antibiotics."

"Then why don't you just run to Rite aid and get some saline spray and some tylenol and robitussin instead of DRINKING A GALLON OF MINT TEA (which he lets get COLD half the time anyway, which defeats the point) and peeing all day???"

Watch what will happen Margo. THat'll be one of our stops while he's at the game today, Maggie and me, we'll go to rite aid or to the pharmacy at Giant and get him saline spray and robitussin and some kind of antihistimine tabs.

He should get them BEFORE the game.

But if I get them for him, then they'll be wrong. "I can't take that kind, it keeps me up." "That kind doesn't work."

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH again.

So how are you doing? lol.

ANyway wish we could be there today. Your super bowl parties are always so much fun and I hate to miss it. But it's just too hard to make the drive down and back.

If we were just 45 minutes closer. Wish he could find a job in say Carlisle.

I just looked at my facebook page and saw that Brian is up browning the beef already for the chili. "Why don'tchall come down after the game? You could still make kickoff and stay here overnight if you want."

Let's see... I'll reply "Because that bitch of a wife of yours wouldn't go for it" lol.

I replied but he's not online anymore.

FUnny how facebook also gives you insight into how people are online and when. You are on all day, I click on anytime during the day between 8-3 and you're online. Brian seems to come on first thing in the morning or when he goes to work, and then last thing in the afternoon and maybe last thing at night. Kath's times match her shifts. She does her three 12 hour days ON and then three days off. She is never online those days that she's on at work but then the days off she is sometimes on CONSTANTLY even when she's sleeping. Mary and Betsy and Paul are on all the time, again even when they're sleeping. They just leave their computers on 24-7. Maura goes on for an hour before she goes to work and then maybe when she comes home.

And I don't know what I do, lol.

Wow. Hard to believe it is only 6:25, it seems like I have been typing forever.

I put FRANK SINATRA AND ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM on thinking that "One Note Samba" was on it and it's not, that's a short album, ten songs but I swear it's not more than 25 minutes long. Anyway I put it on when I nuked my coffee and it's already done playing, now it is totally quiet again. Are you jealous, lol?

WISH WE WERE THERE today and hope you have a good one, a fun party. Maggie and I will have fun while daddy's at the game and then we'll have our own little party up here. Sorry we won't see you, tell your folks and all we said HI.

Talk later I'm sure. xoxoxoxoxo love you christy

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