Some people eat meatloaf, and call it comfort food. Others like to try and re-create life as they knew it fifty years ago to make themselves feel all warm and fuzzy. I like to watch the Bonnie Hunt Show. I had never considered why Bonnie Hunt made me feel good before. I just assumed that I was being entertained during one of the most starkly bad programming periods of the day, and just about anything would be amusing. It took Mark to point out exactly why I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame, "She sounds just like your sisters!" he squeaked. It's true, she is all my seven sisters rolled up into one woman. She is loud, and my sisters are loud, she's funny, and my sisters are funny, but most of all she sounds like my sisters. It is the unmistakable nasal tone of the Midwest, and the Chicago area in particular that I hear every day on the television. Creepy isn't it.So every day I get reminded of Christmas and other holiday's past. Those raucous times, when my sisters all get together and start talking and laughing at the same time, kind of like the View on steroids, except without the obnoxious View hosts. I'm telling you, a family party wouldn't be the same without that shrill, twang of Midwestern female voices filling the house, at decibels well beyond the comfort level. And what of the brothers, husbands, and other various men-folk? Well, that's what basements, rec-rooms, and garages are for. Especially if there is a working TV with a football game on it. My only problem at these gatherings, is that I could never decide which room I'm supposed to be in.
