Monday morning Timmy and I were cleaning up the Bird's Nest after guests for the long weekend. He was reading from our guest book, but was having a hard time deciphering the handwriting of our latest guest. He does this to me all the time. He will pick up my grocery list and say "brood" for bread or "malt" for milk. He has that perfect handwriting of an artist and no patience for my scribbling. Well, even I couldn't read what the "pleasing sounds of birds and ????" were and suddenly it brought me back to last Christmas in Ria's car heading home from our annual Christmas trek to Beacon. Regina was in the back seat and we were headed a few miles towards home when Regina remembered she hadn't eaten all day..playing with her cousin Katie had made her forget lunch. So she started in the whining about Burger King as we drove through Poughkeepsie. "We''ll stop in Hyde Park," Maria told her, "there's a Burger King there". "Ria," I whispered, "I think that's a MacDonald's". The kid heard me and yelled "I hate MacDonald's-I want Burger King. They have the best fries." "There's one in Hyde Park", screamed Ria back, "I'm pretty sure anyway," she added. But when we got to Hyde Park, there it was, a MacDonald's. Regina had a fit...."you told me it was Burger King,,I hate MacDonald's". "Well," said Ria patiently and firmly, "It's MacDonald's or nothing til we get home." Regina grunted and we turned in and got in line behind several cars for the drive-in. Maria started to giggle and turned to me. "Laura gave me the greatest tape for Christmas, Ma. It's Dane Cook (I had never heard of him) and he's talking about working at Burger King. He was 17 and his brother was manager and got him a job there....but he was embarrassed to be working at Burger King, so he called it the BK Lounge and said he was a bouncer for the BK Lounge. But, Ma, the funiest part was his brother always made him work at the drive thru...which he hated. People yelled at him, I said large fries, MF'er and screamed into the mike. But worse, he said, were the people who whispered, and he goes, extra cheese, extra pickles, all in whispers. He said he thought they were talking dirty to him....like chicken tenders and put extra pussy sauce on the meat. Well, Ria and I got laughing so hard that by the time we got to the window, Ria could hardly put in the order, but she spoke loudly and clearly giving Regina's order. And the kid got her fries and stopped whining and Ria and I laughed the rest of the way home....It was the unreadable guest book that brought that back to me and it gave me a chuckle. I turned to Timmy, and pretended to read from the book, "Thanks for the worst stay of my life...the f... birds woke me up early after the shitty refrigerator ran all night." I think that's what my life is going to be from now on, little snippets of shared times with Maria. Thanks Dane Cook for making me and Maria laugh.