Must Write Fast

I have 14 minutes left on this library machine. I wasted most of an hour playing ... well, you know what I was playing.

Scrabble has become kind of a curse word in my family. I'm afraid to say it.

Anyway, we are in Joplin, Mo., where Rex is a presenter at a conference. Kayti and I came out with him because I wanted to check out the area as a possible relocation spot.

So far, I am uninspired. In a gift shop today, where Kayti dragged me for some Webkinz event, I felt like I was speaking a foreign language when I tried to communicate with the clerks.

I'd love to recreate the whole conversation here, but now I have only 12 minutes left.

Suffice it to say, they don't have many people like me out here. This is white-bread country. It's the Midwest. People shine their sinks and clip their hedges and raise good, wholesome citizens. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Maybe I just haven't run into any pockets of kooks. Where I can feel at home.

OK, down to 10 minutes now.

I had the same problem at the Denny's last evening, where Kayti dragged us for supper. (I stuck with just coffee. The greasy smell alone was an entire buffet to my stomach.) Usually, we get along very well with waitstaff. But at this place, even Rex -- dear, sweet, inoffensive Rex -- put them off.

So, in the 7 minutes I have remaining, let me affirm that this is indeed the Show Me state, as in "Show me the door."

I'm outta here!


xxxoo, Debbi (never Kayti)