Celebration at the compound!

My two daughters, Teri and Cindy, were with me last weekend and we had a wonderful time. That rarely happens . . . I don’t mean it’s rare that we have wonderful times . . . it’s just that they both live in other states so we’re not together very often. Saturday afternoon the girls went shopping while I got ready for Doyle and Diane to visit and meet the girls. When everyone was here, Cindy modeled the clothes she had purchased at a vintage store. One was a black outfit with pants and panels of thin material hanging to the floor that swished around as she twirled. It was quite a show! And Teri announced that she went to the “Cancer Pants” store and bought a sweater. I asked what that meant and they explained that when I was in the hospital getting rid of my breast cancer – the lump – they both went shopping together which is what we do in times of stress. It was then that Teri bought some pants she really liked, and she called the store the Cancer Pants store. Makes sense to me.

So we all had hors d’oeuvres and wine and had a great time. Later on, Doyle and Diane went home but we kept on partying. During that time, we started talking about Betty Broderick and her two miniseries on TV that we all watch over and over again. I’ve written about Betty before. She was married to a prominent attorney, Dan Broderick, in San Diego who divorced her and married his assistant, Linda. Betty was a real bitch and did horrible things to Dan and his new wife. She drove her car into his house, broke in and trashed everything, put filthy messages on his answering machine that her kids heard, burned his clothes and on and on. Meredith Baxter played Betty Broderick and was fantastic in the part. She was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Betty in the TV movie in 1992. Betty finally sneaked into Dan and Linda’s house one night and shot and killed them. She was such a bitch and did such horrible things that it was almost scary to watch the show, but at the same time extremely entertaining. One time Betty went to Dan’s office for some celebration and he wasn’t there. When he got home that night she confronted him and said, “You bastard! Who goes to lunch for seven hours and with a 19 year old whore to boot?” Dan had taken his assistant to lunch. She left messages on his answering machine at his new home that her little boy heard. Some of which were: “Are you with the whore now, Dan? Are you makin’ it with that dog meat on the stairs now, Dan?” She was not a nice woman, but we loved her!

After another glass of wine, we decided we had to do something to keep the Betty Broderick cult going. So we decided to start a sorority. None of us was crazy about sororities – in fact, we don’t like them. But this would be an exception. We decided to name our sorority I Eta Pi. Cindy’s the president, Teri’s the godfather and I’m the housemother. Cindy thought initiation for new members should be having them watch the 4-hour miniseries straight through without taking a bathroom break. I think she may have thought better of that by now. She left my house Sunday and had her first sorority meeting that night in her home in Tacoma. Two other women were there and they watched “Old School” as part of initiation. At first Cindy said all members had to be divorced, but not everyone can be that fortunate, so she may have to relax the rules a little. After all, the godfather is married. This is all in the early stages, so I’ll be having more updates as things progress. If only we could get Meredith Baxter to come to a meeting sometime. We must work on that.