Joycee’s Reviews > A Place Called Home > Status Update

The holidays pushed them all forward. Halloween, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Each one a nodal event in that it was the first one without Gabe and Kathy. There was no struggle involved in enjoying themselves, only in not feeling guilty for it.

their misfortune, our blessing.

What do you do with that except thank God that you're able to move on?

This was just two guys getting together for a beer. Apparently, neither one of them thought of Joel as a guy. Every man was just a guy at heart. Joel Strahern dressed better, was all.

~~~~~Strahern.

Baker.

That's about the extent of my macho posturing. Call me Mitch. Joel.

Gina wasn't wearing her heart on her sleeve. It was in her eyes.

You should think about decaf.

I do think about it. I just won't drink it.

We've gotten so used to the Net and cell phones and immediate accessibility that self-reliance is an afterthought, not the first choice.

"Are you angry at me?"

"No, not yet. I'm working on up to it."

"Let me know when you're up to a full head of steam. At that point, I want you to imagine a pressure ten times greater and then you'll have some idea how ticked I am at you right now."

It's taken a long time to realize I don't need to worry about how other people judge me.

What I haven't figured out is whether I should tell them so.

You were thinking hard.

No. Hardly thinking.

I do that sometimes too.

Aunt Thea has cable mouth. You know. Like cable TV. The channels where you can say anything.