I was filling a prescription in the back of the pharmacy when an older gentleman walked in. T greeted him at the counter with a smile; this is the conversation that followed.

T- “Yes, we have that ready for you.”

Customer- “I thought you guys would call me when it’s ready?”

“Let me pull up your information and see if we have your correct phone number.”

“Sure, sound’s good.”

“Is your phone number 867-5309?”

I jerked my head around so fast, I almost gave myself whiplash. I couldn’t believe she had actually said that with a straight face. I was already signing the lyrics. It then dawned on me she didn’t catch it. I leaned back further to see if this guy would roast her or at least laugh.

“No, that’s not my number at all. That's not even close. I don’t know where you got that one.”

Seriously? He didn’t have a clue either.

“Oh okay, I’ll erase this and put your new one in.”

She added the new number, rang him up, and he left. The whole thing had gone completely over their heads, I was the only one that had caught it. I was standing there with my arms folded when she walked back into the back.

T- “What?”

Me- “Really?”

“What!”

“You have no idea what just happened do you?”

“No, what?”

I repeated the number.

“What about it?”

“Sing it.”

“What, the number?”

“Yes.”

She looked at me like I was crazy so I began to sing.

“867—”

​"Oh!"

I shook my head as it all came together for her, she began laughing hysterically.

“How are you still alive?” I asked walking back to my station.

Props to whoever put that phone number in.

Tell us a little about yourself. What are your favorite hobbies, favorite movie star, tell us one crazy thing about you, etc.
I’m Gabriela Kochanowski, a freelance illustrator based in Los Angeles, California! I have a degree in Illustration with an emphasis in Entertainment from Laguna College of Art and Design. 
A favorite hobby of mine would have to be going to music concerts or festivals. Music has been and always will be a big part of my life. Favorite movie star will always be Leonardo DiCaprio. One crazy thing about me... well I was born in
Poland! I came to California when I was 2.5 years old, so I don’t remember much, but I’m still proud to say I’m Polish! 
 
Why did you decide to start your illustrating career?
Starting my illustrating career wasn’t really a choice I kind of just fell into it. I always loved drawing and creating things from a very young age. When I grew older I fell in love with cartoons and animated films, so my goal has always been to get into the animation industry to help create characters. Right now I’m finding myself illustrating for children’s books and loving it, but I do want to end up at an animation studio at some point. (My dream is actually Walt Disney Animation Studio)
 
Have you worked with authors before?
Yes, I have illustrated for one other author last year and released a book with her. I am currently still working with the same author to create more non-fiction children’s stories based on her real life experiences. 
 
How many of your illustrations have been published?
I have illustrated for one book that has officially been published. It is called “The Baby Has Down Syndrome.” I’ve also had two sticker designs released on a website called “The Feminist Sticker Club” and its sister website “The Cat Sticker Club.” 
 
Are you working on anything new?
I am always working on new projects! Being stuck on one thing is not fun. I love to immerse myself in multiple projects, ideas, or personal sketches. 
 
Tell us about your services, in as much detail as possible.
 
a. What do you expect from the author when you start a project with them?
I expect the author to know exactly what they’re looking for in the illustrations. Having them explain what they envision for each page is very helpful for me as the illustrator. Makes my job a lot easier! As much explanation and detail from the author as possible will allow me to work quicker and come up with better ideas. Also, having a signed contract detailing the project/book does help. I’ve had authors email me and message me on Facebook interested in my services only to end up being ghosted or having them change their mind and go with another illustrator. This is very unprofessional to me. 
 
b. What should the author expect from you during the project?
The author should expect me to communicate well and ask questions when I’m unsure about something. I always try to update weekly or biweekly if possible. The process includes sending sketches first, color samples, final line-work, and final illustration. I always let the author have the final decision on which illustration they prefer for their book. 
 
c. How long does it usually take to finish a project?
Completion of projects depends on author timeline and/or illustrator timeline. I’ve completed a book within a month and I’m currently working on books that have taken longer than a year! I think I actually do prefer taking my time on books and making sure they come out perfect. Rushing a book is not fun, it’s stressful and I get so uninspired by it. 
 
d. Can you explain how the illustration project will work once started?
The illustration project works however the author and illustrator set it up. Like I mentioned earlier in section B- The process includes sending rough sketches first for the author to choose from. Next is usually color samples for the author to choose as well. Once the important details are chosen I create the line-work and color in the final illustration. I always let the author have the final decision on which illustration they prefer for their book. I’m sure this process is different for other illustrators, but I found that this works best for the authors I work with. 
 
e. Can you give us pricing?
For me, pricing can range anywhere from $50-$175 per page and totaling from $1,500-$5,000 for the entire book. It depends on how detailed the pages are and if it includes a background or not. To be completely honest, authors are getting a great bargain at this price. I have seen other long time professional illustrators and big time publishers quoting anywhere from $4,000-$10,000 per book for illustrations. The average children’s book has about 32 pages. 
 
f. Do you work across the US?
Yes! I live in California and work with clients all over the US. I communicate through email and it works very well for me. 

g. Would you like to share anything else about the illustration process?
No.
 
What has been your favorite project so far?
Not to be an author’s pet or anything, but truly my favorite project has been Laura’s Halloween book. I absolutely LOVE Halloween season. It has to be my favorite “holiday.” The colors, the candy, the costumes. I LOVE IT ALL!!! This has really been a dream book for me to work on. Definitely some of my best illustrations work is in this book. It’s going to be a beautiful and colorful book once published. I really can’t wait for it to be done, but I will also be sad that it’s over because it’s been so fun to illustrate these pages. 
 
What advice would you give upcoming authors?
Upcoming authors, if you are very serious about becoming published and getting your book noticed, please save up some money for your illustrator! It’s definitely not cheap and I know money doesn’t grow on trees, but this is a serious career. Illustrators probably need to pay their own bills, student loans, buy food, pay rent, buy materials, etc. Illustrating is how we make a living and it’s a serious job. I’m sure there are some illustrators that will do the job for cheap, but I guarantee you your illustrations will not turn out how you may have imagined. I always put in 110% for my authors and I try to go above and beyond to create great relationships with them. Illustrating is everything to me, but I do find myself struggling to make ends meet. I will be completely honest, it is HARD to make a living off of freelance illustrating. So treat us well please!
 
Personally, I have come to realize that I’d rather illustrate fiction than non-fiction! I love drawing fantasy and creatures that are out of this world. Drawing realistic stories can sometimes come to be uninspiring. (This is just a personal preference, but I will always illustrate for both!)
 
You can find my portfolio at www.gkillustration.carbonmade.com
On Twitter and Instagram I am @gkillustration
Thank you! If anyone is interested in working with me you may email me at gabrielakochanowski@gmail.com

Tell us a little about yourself. What are your favorite hobbies, favorite movie star, tell us one crazy thing about you, etc.

My name is George Lunsford. I am 52 years old. I severed in the U.S. Navy for 4 years where I was a Gunnersmate 3rd class. I severed aboard the U.S.S. Taylor FFG-50 with some of the best men, I have ever had the honor to know. I’ve worked numerous jobs in my lifetime and have been doing the same type of work for almost 20 years now. I am married to a wonderful lovely lady named Susan and together we have 4 kids and 3 grand kids. I am a very driven person. If I decide to do something, I work till I do it. I don’t really have hobbies I stay to busy. My favorite movie star is “John Wayne”.   One crazy thing about me? Well I am a kind of a nerd. I collect comics and action figures.

Why did you decide to become an author?

Well I have always saw things very different than most people. I see stories in everything, and I dream in color and in sequence. (meaning I dream in story form from the beginning to a conclusion). I have died in my dreams. I enjoy writing and one day while talking to my friend and publisher I decided to write a book and did.

How did you get into acting, producing, and directing?

I blame an old friend that had a local comic book shop. He did a commercial for his shop and asked me to be in it. BOOM I was hooked. I look for parts not having any idea how to find acting jobs or how to act. I finally found my buddy Dave Boyer. Dave wanted to be a film maker and I wanted to act so; off we went. We made a bunch of short film with him and I both taking turns writing the scripts. Then as I built my resume, I got bigger jobs. I have done commercials, music video (Steep Canyon Rangers- Long Shot), public service announcements, book trailers, indie feature films, and lots of shorts. I have been very lucky to work with film makers like Dewayne Ethridge, Chad Taylor, Mike Garland, and many others.  

When did you publish your first book?

June 2018 Legends, Myths, Monsters, and Ghost Volume 1 The Southern USA Edition.

How many books have you published?

I have published 2 books

Would you ever write in another genre?

I plan on doing horror, Sci-Fi, and action books.

Out of all the scary stories you’ve written about, what’s your favorite?

I have loved researching all the stories for my books. My favorite stories so far are Robert the Doll and the true story behind Jaws.

Are you planning on publishing another? Tell us about it.

I am working on Volume 3 of my book series “Legends, Myths, Monsters, and Ghost.” I hope to release it in November.

Are you traditionally published or self published?

That’s a tricky question. I have a small publisher. I do most of my own marketing. I set up my signing events and interviews. My publisher handles the setup which includes formatting, cover, ISBN number, and handles the stuff with the distributor.

Tell us about your radio show!

My talk show is about all things creepy. The show covers cryptid creatures, curses, hauntings, UFO stuff, serial killers, and anything else I can come up with. I talk about this stuff from all over the world not just America. I have over 37000 listeners in 187 countries. My show comes on every Tuesday night at 8 PM EST on WBUZ95.com.

Tell us about your writing journey, in as much detail as possible. How did you find a publisher? When did you decide you were ready to publish? What was the hardest part in the publishing experience? Easiest? Did you edit your own work or did someone else? Did you do the cover design? How long (from start to finish) did it take you to publish your first book? If you could do anything different, what would it be? Would you like to share anything else from your publishing experience?

My friend Alfred Adams was publishing books of biographies of famous people. He wanted to have a script written on one of his books. He saw my page on production hub and called me up. I worked on the script and become friends with Al. I turned the script in and that was it. Later on, I decided to write my first book and Al said lets do it. The hardest thing was all the research. I found different story versions for every story. The easiest thing was the writing. I love the writing. I am a very lucky man My lovely wife does all my editing and let me tell you she can be tough. She is not a yes woman. After the first book she toughened up now she makes sure it is all right before it goes to print. My covers are done by the same guy that does the formatting. This series of books average 6 months to write and research then a month or two for set up and to distributor. So about 8 months total. If I could change anything it would be, that I should have started writing sooner. If I could give any advice it would be find a small publisher or self -publish. Watch these publishing companies that charge you thousands of dollars you don’t need them.

What advice would you give upcoming authors?

My advice to new authors is WRITE. You need to put your ideas on paper or on a computer. You can always go back and organize it and spell check it. Don’t let anyone discourage you, take classes, and never stop. Don’t get frustrated with lack of sales or interest in your book.  Just keep going and one day you will have a best seller.  If you do make it to be a professional, don’t let it go to your head. Get your book to reviewers.

Tell us about your first book signing.

My first signing was at the Bigfoot festival and I had 25 books. I sold all my books with in 10 minutes of the festival starting. My first book signing at Barnes and Noble I sold 9 books.

Is there anything else you’d like to share or want the readers to know?

I just want to thank you for this interview, and I hope everyone does well with their books. My God bless you all. 
 
Thank you George, it was a pleasure!

Years ago, when the third Jurassic Park movie came out in theaters, I accompanied my mother and her best friend. We had seen the previous movies and we were all excited to see the newest one. My mom’s friend, will call her Bee, loved movies. I do remember her making the comment that she didn’t do well with scary movies but I shrugged it off, this movie wasn’t that scary.

We seated ourselves to the right side of the movie theater, where there were only two seats per row. My mom and her friend sat behind me while I sat and watched on in amazement.

We were sitting there, not even twenty minutes into the movie, when things began to get good. They had landed on the island and sent a guy out to search the woods nearby (I already knew that probably wouldn’t end well).  Then you hear something big coming, they all begin running towards the plane to get away, leaving said guy in the woods to fend for himself. Well, low and behold when they take off down the run way, the guy comes running out of the woods, flagging them down for help and as the plane lifts off, a giant dinosaur comes exploding out of the woods after him. The dinosaur snatches the guy up in one bite while simultaneously crashing the plane. Fine. I can handle that, something like this would have to happen at the beginning; I was prepared for it.

What I wasn’t prepared for, was the blood curdling scream that erupted from behind me.

I did one of those vibrating jumps you do when something really scares you and almost came up out of my seat. I looked behind me, only to find my mom’s friend had launched herself backwards in her chair (trying to get away from the dino I suppose). At first I thought someone had grabbed her or something. I’m glad the chair was bolted to the floor or she would have landed in the lap of the person behind her. She looked like she was about to climb over the back of the chair and run anyway. She was still screaming, eyes wide-almost popping out, with her fingers clinched down on the arm rests.

For a split second, her reaction made me think she had seen something else in the theater. I jerked my head back around to scan the crowd for something terrifying enough to match her scream. Nothing.

Every time the dinosaur would roar, she’d scream. When the dinosaur would try to eat one of them, she jerk sideways like she was on a simulated ride.

About that time, another dinosaur appeared and I can’t remember what all happened but there was running and screaming and dinosaurs fighting. There wasn’t a break in the action for a bit. But I didn’t see much of the next scenes because I was too busy bouncing back and forth from the movie to her. She screamed like there was a dinosaur in the theater with us. At one point she jerked so hard she kicked my seat. My mom was laughing at her and I couldn’t help but giggle. She grabbed her chest like she could leave us at any moment. I thought we were going to have to take her out of the theater.

Finally, the people got to somewhere safe and I heard Bee gasp for air.

“Oh that scared me,” she whispered.

I settled down into my seat with a smirk. If that first part scared her, she was about to go on a wild ride. The next hour was filled with screams of terror and roaring dinosaurs, I enjoyed every moment of it.

We were camping at our favorite lake one summer when my brother decided it’s high time for me to learn to ride the buggy board. I had never ridden one before, I always watched in awe as everyone else did though. It seemed like so much fun. They were pulled behind our boat, jumping waves, riding easy, smiling the entire time. After they all got off, they’d always talk about how much fun it was and that they wanted to do it again.

I never got on one, honestly I was too afraid. I couldn’t swim and I knew if I ever tried it, I’d drown myself. Secretly, I wished to ride one, one day. When he told me that I was going to ride, I refused at first. It wasn’t until he told me that he would be riding it with me, that I agreed. We jumped in and he got me settled on the board. He told me to hold on and not let go, while I rode he would steer. Then we were off. He kept the front of the buggy board up while we raced through the water, I remember him screaming into my ear as we shot across the lake to not let the board nose dive down. Got it. We bounced along the lake with the occasional wave almost throwing us airborne. It was fun.

And then he let go.

The last thing I remember him saying was hold on. And that, ladies and gentleman, was the only thing I remembered. In a split second he was gone, I was left to fend for myself in the cold, cruel world; where life lessons were about to be learned. Before ever riding a buggy board, I had come to the conclusion that riding it would be very bumpy and chaotic; during our ride, I was pleasantly pleased to find out that it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it to be. Well, that’s because my brother’s weight was offsetting everything. When he let go, things changed. My fairly smooth ride turned into what I could only describe as a Sunday drive straight through a tornado. My scrawny 80 pounds did nothing for me. I was about to take the ride of a life time. All I could remember to do was hold on!

I bounced a few times, which wasn’t bad. I had already bounced a few times before and it was fine, I could handle this; everything was under control. I wasn’t until I hit a wave head on and was completely airborne that my brain started sending out mayday signals. When I landed the first time it knocked the breath out of me but I held on. I was sliding sideways then, crashing through waves that tried their best to take me out; but I held on. Another wave came and sent me airborne again but this time when I landed I felt myself slipping off. Not today. I mustered every ounce of strength I had and pulled myself up farther onto the board, digging my fingernails into the foam board. And then it all went terribly wrong.

Remember earlier on when my brother told me to keep the front of the board up? I didn’t. When I pulled myself upward, I pushed the nose of the board down. And that’s when I learned why you should keep the front of the board up. I felt the board jerk a few times before the front dipped down and was quickly sucked under the water, I along with it. I was only under a few seconds (all the while in my head I’m thinking, just hold on) before the board shot up completely out of the water; my brother told me later it reminded him of a dolphin. My entire body was airborne. With as much momentum as I had going, my feet shot up behind me past my head. I almost flipped off the board but I held on. I came in for a landing, only I didn’t land on the water; I plowed through it. So here I am gliding through the water, plowing through schools of fish, just praying that the board would come back up soon. I remember thinking; as long as I stay on the board, I can’t drown. Really-though?

The board jerked again and I catapulted upward out of the water and into the air again. For the next full minute I did this over and over again, I’d get sucked under and then I’d spring back up. My wet hair had plastered itself across my face, I couldn’t see; water assaulted me from every direction, I couldn’t breathe. My worst nightmare however was coming true; my solid grip had been broken by the last hard landing. I was sliding off the back of this thing and there was nothing I could do about it.

Finally, I made peace with it and accepted my fate. I let go. I slid right off into the cold water, the waves I thought that would over take me weren’t there. In fact, letting go was the smoothest part of the entire ride. Funny how life works. I waited there to be picked up, the boat (which now had my brother on it) pulled up beside me and they pulled me onto the boat.

“Are you alright?” My brother asked.

“Yeah,” I managed.

“Why didn’t you just let go?” He asked, he was already horse laughing.

“Because you told me to hold on,” I countered.

“I didn’t mean like that.”

To this day, I can’t get near a lake without him giggling. 

While working at the grocery store, the one thing that I had come to hate was how the sun would shine right through the ceiling windows during certain parts of the day. If you were unlucky enough to get the one register at the end, the sun would blind you until it had moved past the window. This would last a good fifteen to twenty minutes.

This particular day I was (un)lucky enough to get said register. Of course the sun began to rise right during rush hour. I scanned items while squinting and fought off the oncoming migraine that came with working at this register. Finally, there was a lull in the crowd and I was able to rest my eyes for a second.

A man wearing a black-leather biker jacket came through my line soon after. He was about two twenty, maybe a little more, six foot tall, bald, with a trimmed beard. His sunglasses rested on the top of his head. This man seemed rough and tough, with a no bull attitude. I did my usual, “Hey, how are you?”

“Doing alright,” he told me as he pulled his wallet from the back of his pocket.

While I waited for him to find his money, I rubbed my eyes and sighed loudly.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked handing over his cash.

“This sun is killing me.” I told him pointing up to the ceiling window.

I didn’t really feel like I needed to explain that anymore than I did. I was obviously wrong. I was handing him his change when I noticed he was staring at me with an odd expression.

“What?” I asked.

“The sun,” he spoke looking back up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, it’s killing my eyes—”

Before I could finish, he interrupted me with an abrupt, “You’re a vampire!”

I watched in stunned silence as this six foot tall, two hundred pound, bald, biker man slung shot himself back and forth in my line yelling ‘vampire’; all while flapping his arms like a bat and bobbing his head up and down. He then grabbed his bag full of bread and meat and left my line, I could still hear him calling out vampire to himself as he exited the store.

Why me? 

My first full week at the pharmacy was just about to come to an end, I had learned many things that week and met a lot of new people. T was one of them. I had worked with T the entire week, when I did have time to look up from my training she was either helping a customer or checking medications for those waiting. She seemed nice, the customers loved her, and she genuinely seemed to care about them; other than that though, I didn’t know much about her.

Little did I know, there was so much more...

That night I was cleaning the front of the pharmacy before closing. That included dusting the shelves, ordering the medications for the next day, cleaning the windows, and vacuuming. Last on the list of course was vacuuming. There were no outlets at the front of the store, so I had to stretch the cord over our front counter and plug it up beside the register. After I did this, I had to go to the back for something. The pharmacy was empty, so I wasn’t worried that a customer would trip over the cord; I had some time to get what I needed and come back before anyone walked in.

As I made my way to the back, T was making her way to the front.

“I have the vacuum plugged up, don’t trip over the cord.” I told her.

She looked me dead in the eye and said, “Okay!”

For whatever reason, the way she said it made me feel a little uneasy. I turned around to make sure she cleared the cord on the other side of the counter, just in time to witness her not only trip over said cord but swan dive forward into the floor. Had she been on the diving board, I would have given her a ten out of ten. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t water where she landed but concrete. When she tripped her head shot back and her arms flung themselves to the side, just as she disappeared behind the counter. The first thing that went through my mind was, well I’m fired. I had killed the stores only pharmacist besides the owner. Suddenly, she popped back up exuberantly and shouted, “I’m okay,” and waved at me. She continued her walk to the front of the pharmacy as if nothing happened.

I stood there stunned at what I had just witnessed, I finally managed a, “Are you okay?”

“Yep,” she called.

That was the first of many incidents...

When I attended high school years ago I always seemed to get the coach that was dead set on getting me (and my classmates) to exercise or move around. I was not a fan. Our class was an all girl glass and there were about thirty of us. One particular afternoon, our coach decided to make us hike up a small mountain beside our school. At the top of this mountain was a small gazebo type deal where we stopped to rest and eat. We didn’t stay long and soon it was time to hike back down.

The path was pretty well cut out for us, there was always a danger of running into spiders or snakes though; we lived in the mountains. So we were ever vigilant to watch for these creatures. I was a lazy child and it took plenty of encouragement (or was it threats?) to get me to hike or move in gym class. Good luck with getting me to run, they’d need some incredible motivation to make that happen.

About halfway down this mountain we took a short break, just to catch our breath. I remember panting a little from the steep descent. Although I don’t like exercise, I do love nature. The sound of birds fluttering about and singing filled the air as the wind blew gently through the trees; it was such a peaceful moment, until the screaming started.

Confused I looked up to see one of the sweetest girls in our class, standing a good 3 feet away from me, screaming her lungs out. I thought maybe a spider had dropped on her or maybe she had seen a snake, until I saw something in her hair. I squinted to see what was crawling through her dark hair as more of them appeared. My heart climbed into my throat when I realized there were about ten to twenty yellow jackets crawling out of her long curly hair, she was screaming because some of them had gotten into her shirt and had begun stinging her. Apparently when she stopped, she stood right on their nest in the ground; which started an all out war. One in which we had no chances of winning.

A little background on myself, I’ve cleaned out snake pits, I’ve worked with spiders, and I’ll sit on my porch and watch three to four hundred pound black bear walk by. Put a bee within a mile of me and I’ll practically kill myself trying to get away.

I watched as these bees stormed out of this hole in the ground, as if it were the gateway to the pits of hell itself. Into the air they rose, dozens of them, tiny bringers of swift and painful punishment. They were bent on revenge and blood. Two girls rushed the one who was being stung and began slapping them off, while our teacher fought off the ones in her hair. These women have courage I’ll never have. But the bees kept pouring out of the ground in multitudes, the buzzing sound shot a since of doom into the air around us. The tiny wings of war made circles around us, I’m assuming to decide which of us had to go first.

The teacher finally shoved the girl away from the nest.

“Run!” She shouted.

Say no more. The woman had tried all year to find the proper motivation to get me to run and this was it. I can’t really remember ever moving that fast, most of it was a blur. I remember our coach telling us as we were hiking up to stay on the trail and take it slow and easy, there were several places where you could trip and twist an ankle, there was poison oak and snakes off the trail that we couldn’t see. None of that mattered now. I (along with my whole class) sprinted off of this trail, straight down the mountain. I dove into the bushes and trees, without a second thought of what could be in them. I was pushing through branches, storming down uncharted paths, and leaping from one trail to another below. I didn’t bother to look and see what was in front of me because I knew what was behind me.

I never broke stride. I could hear about ninety percent of the girls in class (most were behind me) screaming as if something were killing them. I learned later, they were being stung. I will say, I did not scream. I didn’t have the time or the energy; I was conserving all my strength for this long mad dash that was before me.

There was a girl that had gotten in front of me, several times she tried to stop and ask if there was a bee on her. I had no time for that. Keep moving honey, you’ll know if I see one. The most terrifying part of it was that, in the brief seconds that there wasn’t screaming, you could hear the bees. They were RIGHT BEHIND US.

When we finally hit the clearing, there was a small path that led to our football field. Of course around the field was our track, I can’t remember how many miles they said it was but it was more than I ever cared to run or walk. Once the girl’s shoes hit the pavement they stopped, they panted for breath as the rest of the class caught up. Not me, I kept running; I had no plans to be caught by a bee that day.

​On a side note, there were only three girls that didn’t get stung on that hike. I was one of them.  

My friend and I decided to grab some dinner after work one night.  A little back story on our friendship we are opposites in every way. My friend, we will call her T for now, is an extrovert, happy, bubbly, talks to EVERYONE, and makes new friends easily. I myself don’t go out into public unless I have to, I make a beeline for whatever I’m there for, refuse to make eye contact, and talk as little as possible before running for the exit.

I’m use to her habits though and I suppose through our friendship, I’m not as bad as I use to be. Of course now that I think about it, I could be worse. Who knows.

Anyway, we were seated and looking at the menu when I began to chastise her for talking to strangers. Talking to someone is one thing but sometimes she gave away a little more information than she needed to. Simply things strangers don’t need to know.

“I don’t do it all the time.” She said defensively.

I felt my face twist as I looked at her but I remained quiet. Our waiter came out to take our order and as he approached the table he smiled.

“Hello ladies, my name is John and I’ll be taking care of you tonight.”

Before he could finish his spill my friend points to herself, “I’m T.”

She then pointed at me and said, “That’s Laura.”

She literally just introduced us to our waiter after defending herself. I wasn’t sure which part of the whole scenario to be more upset about. The waiter seemed stunned and also uncomfortable.

“Okay,” he said, “What can I get for you tonight?”

Clearly he didn’t care who we were and that was the first time in his life his customers had introduced themselves. As soon as it was out of her mouth, T realized what she had done and looked at me sheepishly. I didn’t say anything as my disapproving glare said it all.

I rest my case.