Rule #5

My TV Boyfriend

If you watch NCIS*, you know about Gibbs' rules. Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the Boss, a very special Special Agent, and he has 51 rules that he and his team live by.

My cousin Rose just began watching NCIS recently and recommended it to me in a letter. (She and I have been regularly putting pen to paper and sending one another snail mail letters since the late 1960s.) I told her I couldn't believe that she didn't know Mark Harmon is my TV boyfriend and that I am the lay priestess of all thing NCIS! Since then we have been writing one another notes that include decidedly fan girl elements as we gush about our show. Lately we've been discussing what guest role Robert Vaughn should play. We believe it's inevitable that he appear since David McCallum (Ilya to his Napoleon back in the Man from UNCLE days) is an NCIS regular.

Anyway, I digress. I just got a note from Rose yesterday and on the back of the envelope she invoked Rule #5: You don't waste good. Then she scrawled, "And you are GOOD, Gal!"

That touched my heart.

For now that mother and my uncle are gone, the one who has loved me the longest and most steadfastly is my cousin Rose. And as far as family goes, she, my late uncle and my Aunt Jo are the ones who have accepted and at times even admired me for all the qualities that left my nuclear family wringing their hands and shaking their heads.

While it's unrealistic for me to act as though the shit with my sisters isn't happening, I must also remember that Rose knows me, loves me, and thinks I'm GOOD!

*And if you don't, you should!