July 29, 2007 @ 4:09 pm | Filed under: Friends

"Hm."

Mike cut his eyes in my direction as I took out my newly purchased black sunglasses from Charlotte Russe and slid them into place as we backed out of our driveway.

"What?" I feigned innocence, even though I know this man well enough to know just exactly where his thoughts were headed. The new sunglasses were not, um..a hit.

"All I can say is that you better not be wearing those and start making any sudden buzzing sounds. I may have to swat you with a damp dishtowel!"

Now to truly understand and even appreciate this feeble attempt at making fun of my oversized sunglasses, you’d have to live in North Texas and be experiencing the "summer of the flies", as it’s come to be called around our house. They are everywhere this year and seem to have a much longer life expectancy than those of my childhood. Mike gave up on traditional fly swatters and has been having much better luck with swinging his damp dishtowel. More than one poor fly has been caught unaware, and now I, myself, had just been put on notice.

So I did the only thing a girl can do in such a situation. I placed the blame elsewhere. "Well! Dawn made me buy them!"

But I have to admit, I was laughing by this time and even had to agree. I did look a bit like a fly. I had stood, just hours before, in the store with Dawn as we tried on pair after pair after pair of these sunglasses.

"I don’t know." I was dubious, at best. "I just don’t think I can bring myself to wear these – they’re HUGE!"

"That’s the style! Everybody’s wearing them." Never mind the fact that Dawn looks like a rock star in hers while I resemble…well, a FLY!

"I know, I know. But look – they take up half my face!"

"Just think of it as me giving you a hug every time you wear them."

Since Dawn is one of my best friends and since we live hundreds of miles apart and since these shopping days are few and far between…

I bought TWO pair – one in black and one in brown. A girl’s gotta match, you know…