Weather: totally sunny and wonderful.

Reading: Janissaries, Jerry Pournelle

Listening to in the car: Duskin, Grace Livingston Hill. I am growing more impatient all the time with the heroine's stupidity.

Popcorn is the ideal supper. WHen served alon with a fresh salad and an apple, it is a complete meal.

I rememeber turning down popcorn once when I was six. I was at a drive-in movie with my mother and my three brothers (my sister ewasn't invented yet) and a friend of my mom's and her two kids. Mom's friend offered me a coffe cup full of popcorn and I refused it. It wasn't in a bowl, which is what popcorn belonged in. I was thinking I'd get to have a bowl instead but the womana shrugged and said, "Suit yourself," and pushed a handful of pocorn into her own mouth. Mom looked at me with some anxiety.

I wondered about that in a small part of my mind later on, remembering her face. And later I wondered if maybe the possiblity of future outings of the sort had something to do with my behavior or lack thereof. It was the only time I remember doing anything like that with my mom and instead of both my parents. We never did anything with that other family again either that I recall -- escept one time I went to spend the night with the girl my age, Joan, and she wet the bed. That was disgusting, getting wet with someone else's pee. I still remember the warm and sticky of it.

Mom and Dad only let me go to Joan's house in the first place because she was Mom's friend's kid. They knew the family, so it was ok. I was seven then, in second grade, and that girl was no particular friend of mine. I don't know why she invited me. Mom figured, I think, that her mom had something to do with the invitation. But it turned out that her mom was nowhere to be seen, and her dad shared a bedroom with a person the kds referred to as "the housekeeper." I told this to Mom and she said, "That's not right." I didn't know anything about it, but it seemed not right to me, too. I was anxious about it and Mom was disappointed in the situation. She had worried over whether to let me spend the night at another kid's house, and it had turned out bad, so her fears were grounded. "All the other kids get to do it," I'd protested.

I had wanted and asked to spend the night at Gayle's house, this new girl that I liked very much. Next thing I know, I am spending the night at Joan's house. My folks didn't know Gayle's folks, so it wasn't happening. I was unhappy about going to Joan's, but figured that it was a stepping stone to greater things. I did get to spend the night at Gayle's house in third grade, and thereafter, and we are still friends. My folks would only let me spend the night at someone's house once a year, if I remember right, and that was not nearly enough. At first Gayle was Jane's best friend, and Jane was her neighbor, too, and we were all friends all through grade school, junior high and high school. Jane invited me to spend the night at her house shortly after I went over to Gayles, and we might have gotten to be better friends sooner if Mom and Dad had let me do it. Jane drifted away from us as religious things became more important as we were all of different faiths, and Jane really got into hers. Gayle was quiter about hers, and I became an ardent Christian my senior year.

This started out being about popcorn. Popcorn is important to me as a comfort food. When I am feeling bored or frustrated or tired I often want popcorn. I crave things made of corn frequently (which some think is a sign of an allergy, or food sensitivity. They may be right, sice I get real sensitive when anyone tries to get my popcorn away from me). I like corn chips, too, and Fritos are the corniest corn chips, but they have too much salt. I like Schwan's frozen corn -- it's the best frozen corn. I like butter on it, but it's good without butter, too. I used to like canned corn better than frozen, years ago, but frozen corn's improved a lot since then.

Other good comfort foods are cookies and ice cream. Those make me sick if I eat too much, though, and popcorn doesn't. Popcorn is the ideal food, actually.