If you ask me what I was doing right at that precise moment it happened, I'd absolutely tell you that I was chopping vegetables, simply chopping vegetables. Sure I was completely up and in my head at the time, but Maura was totally to blame for it...she was totally to blame for all of it...

The previous Saturday

As per our usual Saturday, Maura had run me ragged. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, I liked to refer to these days as "errand days." The light at the end of the tunnel, Saturday night cooking at Maura's. We'd eat dinner, have some drinks...stay up to late watching television and then to bed. Nothing could beat it. That particular night we were watching Say Anything.

Remember the scene where John Cusack holds the boom box over his head and its blasting "In your eyes"? Of course you do, because more than most likely you are not named Maura. :-) Anyway, when the scene came on I mentioned something along the lines of "ooooohhh, this song made it into every mixed tape I made for years."

Maura, reached for the remote and paused the dvd, "mixed tape?" Her brow furrowed in thought.

"Yeah Maur, a mixed tape." She continued to look at me in a state of confusion and I smiled, google mouth didn't know everything.

"Mixed tapes were a big deal growing up. You choose songs, mainly mainstream songs and record them in a sequence that makes sense." She looked at me even more confused...truth be told, I was confusing myself. I opted for the simple explanation.

If you liked someone, you would make them a mixed tape. You'd record every song that reminded you of them and then listen to ad nausea."

I smiled brightly at her and she looked at me and asked, "Did you give the tape to the person?"

"Hell no," I said as I got up to get another beer. She stood and then followed me to her kitchen.

"So what is the point? If you don't give it to them, why all the work?"

"Ummmm, because..." I stammered and then it came to me, "because it's just something to do. It wasn't a big deal."

Maura looked at me quizzically and then told me very matter of factly, "A mixed tape is done to set a mood, tell a story. For all intensive purposes, the songs selected would tell a story without having to actually express your actual thoughts into words, correct?"

I smiled, "See, you got it."

Maura stared off for a few seconds, it felt like minutes. Then she looked at me with a rather determined look on her face, "yes, Jane. I do and now I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'm going to create a 'mixed cd' but I need to concentrate and you'll distract. Come over for dinner tomorrow, I'll send you text tomorrow at noon with what you'll making us for dinner."

Then she all but shoved me out the door.

Stranger things were to come...