an open letter to chuy

Dear Chuy,

Happy Birthday.

What do I get to look forward to on your birthday? Why this!

Freezing Streets Cause Deadly Accidents

Austin’s freezing drizzle made driving treacherous early this morning. At about 1:15 this morning, a minor accident in the Southbound lanes of I-35 near 290 turned into a 35 car pileup that claimed the lives of a 30 year old man and a 19 year old woman. Another fatal collision involved an 18-wheeler near 183 and Evelyn Road in Mustang Ridge.

So, it looks like my dad is coming to pick me up when all of his work gets done in Round Rock, and then we will slowly make our way towards Houston. Then my mother is going to drive me back to town and stay the weekend with me. Good news: no driving… Bad news: that play that I was working on for you to direct is getting pushed back again probably because of the weather.

Although last night I thought of a new ending, since I’ve resigned myself that I cannot make it snow in Hyde Park and clean it all up within five minutes.

Thanks for you and your wife staying up very late with me and playing Monopoly last night. I have a hard time sleeping when Eric’s not around. Good thing we stayed inside, huh? My father said that the accidents were so bad here they were on the Today show this morning.

Have I told you what interesting e-mail I get? Yesterday’s email for example, taught me things I just didn’t know before:

[readermail]Hi Pamie–You’ll be amused to know that the medical term used to describe the sensation of bugs crawling on your skin (in the absence of real bugs crawling on your skin, of course) is “formication”. No kidding.
http://www.uia.org/uiademo/hum/m4094.htm

Possible contexts: “My shirt made me formicate”; “I’m plagued with formication by the very mention of Jesse Helms”

Just thought you needed to know.[/readermail]

[readermail]pamie-

If your cats are anything like my hellion, Bubba, you might want to stay away from those Pappazan chairs. My husband and I have a full size one of those. We have to keep it sitting like a basket instead of chair or the cat will wake us up with a crash. I’m surprised he hasn’t broken the chair yet. Here’s what he does: He runs as fast as he can and jumps into the middle of the chair, where he immediately propels himself to the top of it, hitting it as hard as he can. He then rides the chair to the floor and takes off as fast as he can like he never even slowed down. This is the same cat who steals quarters and has a tendency to bite people who stare at him. He’s a very odd cat.[/readermail]

Where else can you learn so much? I’ll tell you, nowhere. Squishy is all you need. Anyway, have a safe trip and keep warm. Give your family my love. I’ll see you when we all get back.