"...just like that girl in Napoleon Dynamite."

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Linnea had spent the night Friday evening while OLeif was gone and the two girls had the apartment to themselves for several rounds of Catchphrase and Jolly Ranchers. And now they sat with potato ham chowder over “The Three Stooges” for lunch while the gray warred with the sun over celestial territory. They had awoken to swirling snows in that same fog gray that morning. Linnea was also insistent on a side-pony tail that morning, instead of one of the usual do’s.

“I want it just like that girl in Napoleon Dynamite,” she told Collette. “She was so beautiful.”

The evening before they had spent at Cracker Barrel sharing some roaring laughs by the fire, all but Carrie-Bri who was still at work, and OLeif, who was to see Ricky Scaggs at Sheldon Hall.

In the shop, Joe examined the antiques hanging from the ceiling and the Coca-Cola memorabilia, while Collette looked over the figurines of baby elephants and kittens made of a substance like milk under glass. Rose was quite interested in the banana “cooticle” cream, as she called it, from Burt’s Bees.

Mom and Dad were almost enthusiastic about the new desserts.

“Coca-cola cake!” Dad exclaimed, “That’s what Mom used to make.”

“Oooh! Peanut butter pie,” Mom nearly gushed as she saw the ad on the table.

Back at the house, before Carrie had left for work, however, they all managed to have contests on who could open one’s mouth the widest, in the mirror. Carrie won by a long shot.

Then Francis came marching through the living room with a music stand hoisted on his shoulder, aiming at passer-by with the base.

“Hey, Collette!” He called. “Look at my bazooka!”

Meanwhile, Carrie and Joe discussed choir concerns, swapping stories, discussing the old days and the new people, the funny things.

And then it would be off to the theater for “Phantom of the Opera” – OLeif, herself, Carrie-Bri, and Eve.