tonight we took our first excursion on
frontrunner. boarding in
farmington we headed to
slc,
final destination, trolley square, for
ali's bday celebration. already on the train sitting near us was a very social, talkative woman. she told us all where she and her family had been and asked where we were going. i politely and in a very friendly manner answered, "dinner in
slc to celebrate a 17 year
old's birthday". a few precious moments passed in silence. reed and
cindy were sitting a few rows away from me and i was facing mom where we sat across the aisle from the talkative women. this creature says "let me guess" and points first to
cindy saying "mother" then she turns to me and with a very proud and pleased look says "grandmother" and then points to mom with a nod of her head and says "great grandmother"! i
believe my jaw dropped and with a
deflated demeanor and ego told her politely, "no,
i'm a sister" as i point to cinny! what i really wanted to

do was smack her upside the back of the head and say "get your eyes checked, you old bat!" to add insult to injury, when the story was repeated to John Michael his immediate response was not to
console his dear auntie and reassure her self image but rather..."way to go
cindy!"
i dunno, maybe the women was right, later this night while watching the
olympics and the men's gymnastic quest for a medal, the announcer commented on how the latest program was the perhaps the best program of a young man's life....my brother john and I missed it ... we were talking about gout!