conversations, real and imagined.

"So, where would you be if you werent' here?"

"Hmmm. I don't know... let me think.... Well, I would live in the City, that's for sure, and not downtown, although I do love downtown, so Bohemian...and I wouldn't be working at a regular job, so to say, I'd be working in a coffee house or a cyber cafe or maybe I'd open up my own coffee house/cyber cafe, a place where people would gather and create and share and read and be heard.. a place where I can clack away and work on that third book in my most recent published series, the first series having done so well..and I probably wouldn't be married, no, but I would have a string of interesting lovers who I would refer to as the flavor of the week, jokingly of course..and I'd have lots of friends from all over the world that would come and visit and we'd have the best time and ... "

...........

"What exactly is your problem with the class?"

"I don't want to sew, so I'm not going to."

"Well then why did you take Home Economics?"

"I want to cook and we cook the second half of the year."

"You realize that you may fail for the year if you refuse to sew."

"Yea, but I'll cook, so I may have a shot at passing the class."

"True, but barely and with a D that will really effect your grade point average and this is an important year that colleges will be looking at, so don't you think you can at least make an attempt to sew something since it may effect your future? Haven't we talked about how what you do today will effect what you will be able to do tomorrow? You have said to me numerous times how you want to go away to college, yet here you are doing something to sabotage your own goal. Does that make any sense to you?"

"Huh?"

"Does it make any sense to you that by purposely failing this class you are pretty much ensuring you will continue working at Dairy Queen and end up going to community college rather than going away to college like you always wanted to?

"um. no."

"Of course it doesn't. Now knock it off and go back to class and make a freaking oven mitt or something already, ok?"

"ok."

"duh."

..............

"Time to wake up sleepy head!"

"Not yet, mom."

"Why? Are you still tired?"

"No, I'm just not done yet with my dream."

"No, babe, neither am I."