I smiled back. She said, ‘Hi, how ya doin’ Carl?’ ‘Good, and you?’ ‘Did I ever tell you my dad’s name is Carl? He’s in Afghanistan ....I’m lookin’ forward to break but since he won’t be home, there’s no reason to go home. Where are you going over break?’ ‘I don’t know,’ I lied. I was headed home to Keokuk , Iowa to visit my folks. ‘What are you gonna do since you aren’t goin’ home?’ I asked. Silly question but I never was very good at small talk. ‘A bunch of us girls are going to the Big Easy. Thank you." Then I spoke again, "So, the ballot box is now in the corner... Well okay, truth be told, it is Derek's lunch box, but he has donated it for the cause." I looked over at Derek Williamson, another of my senior software designers, "Thank you Derek." Everyone laughed. It seemed they got my joke about Derek and the elaborate lunches he brought every day. Derek laughed along replying, "You guys just wish you had a wife that could cook as good as mine." I continued, "There are no fancy. "I'm glad I got out of rehab soon enough to be here." This is for the feast of Saint Andrew," Manson replied. "He's a patron of those who suffer from gout and sore throats, fishermen and the unmarried. He traveled much of the ancient world to spread the Gospels and charity under threats and persecution. I felt it appropriate to hold a fundraiser party against the recent Proposition 8 in his name." I thought you were a Satanist," Tea Leoni said."That doesn't mean I can't also revere other. Cassia Des’Cantier strode out of her front door. She was not in a good mood, which was not unusual for any day she had to leave the house on top of the hill and go down into the village, but today it was especially bad. She’d had a nightmare last night. She was trapped in a room without doors or windows, and the walls began to close in, suffocating her. This made her awake with a fright when she believed herself to be crushed, but also an anxious claustrophobic feeling as well. She was.