Work in Progress - Buzz Part I

Maybe he isn't really dead, the Mean Girls say.  Denman Community is like thirteenth grade and you still see him there. 

Marianne freaks out about her age.  But going to an extension of high school isn't helping.  Delucca's friend from yoga class (Marianne's latest ex-boyfriend) and George not returning from Spain have pushed her to, "There's nothing you can do, I'm already here at fifty.  They know."

Patti, my sometimes counselor, sometimes psychiatrist, and sometimes book therapist suggests hobbies, for both of us. 

"Marianne works all the time.  She sells badly and buys worse than she sells.  There's inventory all over our house."

"I don't know how we eat," Marianne says.  "But we do, the home parties are the biggest waste of time.  I used to cook, but forgot how."

What she doesn't tell Patti is about Paella with clams and chorizo and yellow rice, the way the house smelled like an international food festival most nights.  But that hasn't happened in a long time.  I don't remember the leftovers from any of the museum restaurants ever being as good, and she never dirtied a pan for one of her boyfriends.

Good Times.  Patti tells us to remember what we did, "Where did you go?  What did you eat?" 

"We're supposed to pretend?" Marianne says.