Dear Reader Column 08-09-06

Join my email book club. Over 330,000 people read 5-minutes a day. To see what books I'm featuring this week, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/

Dear Reader,

Some people are a natural and the desire is built-in. They walk right up to a stranger, say hello, introduce themselves and strike up a lengthy conversation.

And that's what John did. My husband was outside taking the trash to the curb, John walked by, the two of them (they'd never met before), talked for an hour and by the time my husband came back in the house, we'd been invited to a party--and I was supposed to bring my famous skunk beans.

First time party invite, first time opportunity to make an impression on new friends. I wore a great looking white summer skirt with a halter top and my husband--he got locked in the bathroom.

It wasn't the bathroom on the first floor, the one that other party guests were using, the bathroom that people could've heard him pounding on the door for help. No--my husband wandered upstairs to the second floor bathroom, pushed the door closed and as he was getting down to business, he noticed the bathroom door handle sitting on the top of the toilet tank. Strange place for a door knob, but not to worry, my husband thought he'd merely slide the handle in the bathroom door when it was time to leave, and he did just that, but the door didn't open.

"There's that moment," as my husband said later when he was telling the story at the party, "there's that moment when it hits you. I'm locked in the bathroom. It's pretty quiet up here, pretty noisy downstairs--there's a party going on, no one knows I'm up here, and I don't have my cell phone."

"HELP! HELP!"

But none of us heard him.

You'd think a wife would miss her husband, but I'd struck up a conversation with a man from South Africa, so I had no idea my husband was locked away in the loo.

Push, heave-ho, my husband tried to open the window--but our new friends' home was historical, the window was old and it wouldn't budge. But then he looked down and noticed three people walking by on the street below, and thankfully they looked up and spotted my husband swaying back and forth, in a game of bathroom charades. He was holding the door knob in one hand and turning his other hand back and forth with an imaginary key. Finally someone guessed the right answer and the three strangers knocked on the door and informed the host that someone appeared to be locked in their second floor bathroom.

Yes, some people like our new friend John, are a natural, they can walk right up to a stranger and strike up a conversation, but I think it takes more talent to get three strangers walking by on the street to play a game of charades.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected] 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Sample The Good Good Pig and then send me an email--make sure to include your thoughts about the book. I'll forward your comments to the author and then enter your name in a drawing to win a copy of The Good Good Pig. I have 25 books to give away to readers. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=10

Comments

[Joanne]

So interesting -- really quite everyday America -- but well written. Thanks for sharing!

[Joanne]

that didn't sound the way I meant it to...so sorry... I meant you took what could've been an ordinary situation and made it quite humorous and interesting...yes thats better I think=hope...

[Josefina Rodriguez]

Does Skunk Beans smell good?
Skunks smell awful round here!