Mercedes: I called Ell and Rudy, and let them know that I had things under control now. It wouldn't be necessary for me to 'quit', but I wasn't ready to leave on tour or anything like that quite yet. Rudy let me know that he had done damage control early just in case I had changed my mind. I let him know the new number, and told him that I wouldn't do anything aside from recording for at least a month. Rudy understood, and that was done with.

Now, I looked around the house. I know I didn't fire the maid. "Hello!" It could be one of my kids, my friends, who knew... I thought it might be time to change the locks though. Oh Christ, come on, I'm not laughing, come on out! I turned on the security system, and did a scan of the house, who's here. It was Loren, I breathed a sigh of relief, yes yes Loren, I'm ready for the party. Yes, I have a date. Now, why don't you tell me which song it is that you want me to sing for Pat on Wednesday? We talked about the party, Russ's wedding, my date. Loren it was all a huge mess. I love Russ, he's my friend; he's also in love with my sister. Oh well, crap happens, It's weird, BJ is so young, and he's the son of Dee's best friend. She told me to keep talking, what is it about him that has you all wound up? Loren, he has an amazing sense of self-control, patience. He makes me feel young, in fact, I might say that he could be delusional about my age. The day I met him, he told me there was nothing old about me. I suppose if I didn't have grandchildren he might be sort of right, but all that age stuff aside, he is amazing. Oh, and I'm having the locks changed. No more unwelcome guests! We laughed, and Loren went home feeling good about Patricks party, everything would turn out just fine.