Friday shoot out

is tomorrow.  

I feel like kind of like Punxsutawny Phil, climbing out of a hole and blinking to see if I have a shadow.

The theme for tomorrow's Friday Hometown Shootout is "Things I like to touch."   I've been really out of touch lately, rolled up into a tight little defensive ball like a punxsutawny hedgehog.

BUTLER: "Punxsutawny Phil isn't a hedgehog.  He's a groundhog."
I almost jump at the sound of his voice.  "Butler?  Is that you?  Where have you been?" 

BUTLER: "Just sitting here, keeping the coffee warm and watching you curled like a fetus in your little feeling sorry for yourself world."

Like I need Butler's little critical remarks.  I go back to pondering tomorrow's shootout.  Like I have time to do anything about it.  It's already Thursday.  Like people on the other side of the world where it is Thursday night are already posting.   And why am I starting every sentence with the world "like"?

Things I like to touch?  What kind of a stupid theme is that?   Who on earth suggested that dumb, nonphotogenic topic? 

BAGMAN:  "I did, of course!"  

"Bagman!  Like what are you doing here?"

BAGMAN:  "Getting ready to kick you in the butt if you start another sentence with "like!"

I groan.  I have a headache.  Did Bagman, Butler, and I really suggest that topic?  I half remember Ginger writing me earlier in the week to ask if I would say something about it on the Shootout Page. I remember politely refusing because I was too busy or something.  Then, for the last three days, wrestling with myself over whether I could really avoid participating in a shootout topic that I had suggested. 

I stretch my mind to get in touch with who I was when Bagman suggested that topic.  Like I must have been feeling particularly bawdy. 

WHAM!   Bagman's foot to my posterior sends me halfway across the room.

I turn to glare at him but Butler stands between us and thrusts a camera into my hands.  Okay, okay.  I get  it.  Well it won't be much. And it won't be bawdy.  And I really just want to go back to sleep.  I look at the camera and then up to Butler standing over me and say, "How do you work this thing anyhow?"

BUTLER:  "You're really getting to be a pain in the ass these days."

Angrily, I snap back, "Like I really give a...."

WHAM!