Dear 123Greetings subscriber,

How have you been guys ?! Editor Bob is back to spread the joy. Oops….don’t ya all feel glum when I’m around, okay ?…am like a radio station, 24×7 I spread happiness, it’s just you guys gotta figure out how to tune in…. I don’t hear you, tell me aloud…..Yes ! you are right, get the newsletter every week to feel the joy…now hop on…let’s go for a joy ride.

Summer at its twilight and the Labor Day weekend looming at large…what more can you ask for, but to celebrate. Give it to Bob to plan the party. Let’s gather the hard workers, I opined, after all it’s Labor Day. That leaves almost all of our gang out…so got to rethink. Voila ! Hit on a plan…how about our folks ? Yes, all our parents getting together for an evening fun n’ frolic, beat that ! After quite a few back-pats, I gleefully drew the list. Megan took over the food menu and scribbled in five different languages…she is a multi-cuisine; she even penned down an Arab kebab. Steve’s dad was a Marine….wait for him to taste that…. Steve took over the bar and ordered all tongue-twisters brands though his choice of poison is lemonade. Grow up kid ! Kong moved around and paused at each one of us and gave a stare…of course, he is supervising. Grrrrrr….

D-Day. All the vintage cars were in our parkway. Our folks never part their outdated cars, do they ?! We assembled and my old man gave an approving glance at the arrangements. So far so good ! Meggie was the blue-eyed girl of everyone there and she was basking in all the attention. Girls always have their way, what say buds ? Moms sat around for shopping chatter while our old men moved to the yard where the grill was up and hot to roast the steak. Of course, they were multi-tasking with a beer in hand and an eye on the grill. I never knew guys were finicky about cooking. I mean, look at these guys who are at the wrong side of 50s go on and on about what is the ideal temperature for a tasty steak and there was a minor duel about the combination of barbecue sauce and marinade. Hmm… for these guys’ the sound and smell of steaks cooking on the grill is one of life’s sublime joys.

We sat down for dinner. The clinking of the fork and glasses followed soon after. Once the bar showed signs of bankruptcy, there was chatter. We were enlightened about each other by our parents. They started exchanging stories about their kids, especially, the stories of us doing the oh-not-so-good things. Of course, my folks imparted the King’s share of those…right from me getting locked inside as I went to take the shower and the Fire men had to break open to door to let me out and how I forgot to drape myself and gave the whole town a pleasant sight…! Everyone found the stories amusing except us, but we went along. Even Kong managed a grin and a “look.” All said and done, a nice evening though our biographies came out without prodding ! What’s a Labor Day if not some fun eh ?!

Rachel, my niece, is all excited about going Back To School. And I get nostalgic ! Miss the school, big time….hmm…bliss ! Remember the #2 Pencil with the “lead” in the front and “eraser” at the rear. Well, yours truly, used to sit through the class, listening or almost listening to the lectures and chew and nibble the pencil depending on my mood and either throw up, a lot of lead is not exactly friendly on the stomach, or get thrown out. I loved Ms. Mercy’s classes. She can make you doze by just opening her mouth. I mean, when starts with Shakespeare, I’m long gone to sleep. Just that, like Harry Potter, I carry this pencil and at one of those Mercy classes, I stuck it in my nose, not exactly, but just kept it at the entrance of one nostril and yours truly, Bob, bobbed my head all the way napping and got the pencil stuck for good. When I choked and coughed…all we could get was three-fourth of the pencil with eraser missing. Constant chewing has made the eraser flour-soft and it had found a home in my nose. Well, they had to dial 911. Bottom line, I got my nose cleaned at the hospital.

I wished Rachel luck and fun !

Wondering if Steve didn’t get me into any trouble this time ? Sample this. I and Steve decided to eat out last Friday after work and met up at our favorite diner. He insisted when I rang him to make the appointment that dinner is on him. For once ! Anyways, we got together and ordered like starving barbarians. When we cut into our steak, Steve started gabbing about the Milky Way and Mars. Of course, as you would’ve guessed by now, the check too was from somewhere there aka Venus. Steve protested loudly that he would take the check and so he did. And we moved on our way out… exactly three things went wrong. First, Steve didn’t wait for the receipt to sign. Two, he didn’t give his credit/ debit card, but his visiting card. Third, he forgot to bring his card. When they were on us, we didn’t even have time to react. It’s a Restobar and the bouncers weren’t real friendly. The journey back to the counter was a breezy one literally. They held us up by the neck and whizzed us there. Of course, I had to settle the bill and we scooted for life. And all Steve could offer as explanation was this, “Bob, didn’t mean it okay ?!”

Hmm…Never mind…you kinda expect it every week…wink* wink*

Kate and Megan experienced an early-Halloween fright last week. They were walking down the Kennedy Lane towards Steve’s abode when they saw at the roof a dare-devil figure, donning a white cloth, trying to do…err…what ?! He isn’t jumping, is he ?! But, he is waving alright, but not to anyone on earth for sure coz his gaze is fixed to the sky. Kate and Megan held each other’s hand tight and try to flee past the figure, but then they heard the eerie laughter. “Hoooooooooaaaahhhhhh !” Kate and Megan needed no prompting. They reciprocated in a much louder shrieeek… When the dust settled down, we found the culprit. It was Steve. He has read somewhere that the martians respond to signals from earth and our dear Stevie has draped his window curtain for a Martian look; for the signal, he has yelled. Not sure if the extra-terrestrial responded, but Kate and Megan surely did. And of course, they gave him the thrashing of the lifetime that he literally saw stars. Trust Steve to hit on a Bright Idea.

I did a “Top Gun” Tom Cruise entrance for my convocation. Yes, I was late. Well, I’m no Tom Cruise and I got an earful from Mr. Jonathan even on the Graduation Day. Blame the alarm clock. I mean, I had meticulously planned my schedule for the day last night itself and had kept the alarm at exactly 7 and as usual opened an eye at around 6:30. As was my habit, I waited for the alarm to ring and blare anytime. You know it feels so good to know that there is still time. And the half an hour to idle on bed seems like an eon when you have a nap with one eye closed. But this time it seemed to take a bit too longer. And I checked to alarm only to find out it was past 9. Hmm…technical fault ! Yup, I had set the alarm for 7 p.m. instead of 7 a.m. The meridian messed it up, not me. Not me ! Yell and justify how much ever you want, but my dean was in no mood to listen. Anyways, got my convocation with exactly three people wishing my achievement. Don’t ask me where my peers were, most of them would’ve got jobs by now !

Peace,

Bob
Editor, 123Greetings
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