When 'Muters Ruled the Earth [10.2.08]

Most of us down in the 'muter lounge consider ourselves the same family. Spending time in the windowless dungeon could be a real drag to some, but to us, it is one more opportunity to spend time with each other. Today was of particular interest to me, simply because we found a new way to pass the time. Usually we revert to doodling on the white erase board or playing the top 100 song game on the i-Tunes web site, but today was the first day we had ever considered playing Family Feud - as a family. We gathered ourselves in the back corner of the room and warmed ourselves up by owning new identities such as "Auntie" or "Grampa" followed by our names. To make today's journal even more interesting, a laptop camera was set up for comedic effect. Yet, come to think of it, we wouldn't have acted any more or less normal than we did on camera. Perhaps the on-line version of "the feud" was so thorough that we ceased to remember the fact that we were being recorded. Nevertheless, we found ourselves faced with the possibility of earning triple point values during round four. The question was challenging: name something that one would expect to receive in the first class of an airplane. With a full twenty-five seconds on the clock, I screamed "hot towel!" Being the Aunt, I felt like I had just led my family to victory. Alas, my answer was quickly met with that annoying buzzer - the universal sound of failure. Regardless of my poor judgment, our dysfunctional and completely unrelated family found success in the first of two "fast money" rounds. After winning the hypothetical twenty grand, we let out a simultaneous screech of dominance similar to that of a family of velociraptors - or at least that was what the computer microphone had portrayed. All in all, I learned that fake families are interchangeable with real ones: they are sometimes wacky and maybe even ridiculous, but once they are in, they are yours to keep, and there is nothing you can do about it. Then again, if you could change it, would you?