Bad Marie

Did you know that there's a book out with that title? (I have it out from the library but haven't read it yet.)

Don't worry--I haven't taken up smoking, though, like the Marie on the cover.

Those of you who know me well also know that I'm not a good liar. For example, we went out with our friends Brad and Catherine awhile ago, and Brad was sharing examples of practical jokes he's played on Catherine over the years (like hiding in huge piles of laundry and jumping out and scaring her...or putting a dry cleaning bag over his head and breathing in to scare her). For some reason, I find good-natured, clever practical jokes extremely funny. From now on, whenever I see a huge pile of laundry (or a dry cleaning bag), I will think of them. It made me think that we need a little more practical joking and silliness in our own lives...so that next week, when I saw that Mike had put out his trousers on the bed one morning...I hid them. When he came into the bedroom and did a double take, it was about all I could do not to burst out laughing. I didn't last very long (1 minute?) until I confessed and couldn't stop laughing. I'm a pathetic liar!

But maybe I'm getting better. Last week Chris discovered that his expensive ($80) graphing calculator had gone missing. It's not something we want to purchase again! Mike and Chris had scoured the nooks and crannies of the house looking for it. I kept maintaining that it would show up--I thought it was most likely squirrelled away somewhere under the piles of books all over Chris' room. Mike was convinced it was gone forever.

Thursday as I was driving Chris home from play rehearsal, it occurred to me that we should look in the car. I've been doing more pickup and dropoff than usual, between morning stage band rehearsals and afternoon play rehearsals, and one day his binder had fallen apart in the back seat. When we got home and he checked, he found it and shouted with jubilation.

I had the bright idea that we should tell Mike that it was stolen...we plotted and decided to tell him that Chris' math teacher had stolen it. So we went inside and gave him that story. We apparently are getting better at lying. But what probably helped was the fact that his math teacher is very quirky...so the story was believable. After a few minutes, we fessed up.

Mike can't believe that we lied to him. I can't believe we got away with it.