Kitt

I don't know if he has written any more on this one yet, but I keep reminding him that Luke and friends are still simmering on the back burner.

Catherine seems like the kind of gal would end up being called Cat and not Cathy. She seems a bit hard around the edges, but I get the impression inside she will turn out a bit soft and gooey! Looking forward to more!

Honest to goodness, it's the absolute ultimate!

I agree with everything you said except this. Someone like his mother would be detrimental to his career, his family as it exists outside the immediate relationship, and to his mental health. I think if he had a partner that wasn't sleeping with anything that smiled prettily at him that Wade could be quite happy and not be HAVING "personal affairs" to turn a blind eye to. And you are right Matt's being BMOC would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that he has (for now) Wade. I know the word fidelity just does not seem to fit into the CAP family vocabulary as it pertains to romance, but it certainly does as it pertains to family. Matt doesn't seem to get that. He needs to get his act together and start behaving like a member of the family. If he wants Wade to be considerate of his opinions on grad school, where they live, and the rest, shouldn't he be there for Wade too? Something else to consider that no one has touched on yet. Wade has a son that is about a year old. His partner SHOULD be looking at that child as his son too. Matt entered into that threesome with Tiffany with the intent to get her pregnant. He could just have easily turned out to be the dad. Yet we see no indication that he even admits Reilly exists. Had it been his little swimmer won the race, would he still be sleeping around and partying like a rock star? Kids just don't fit with the BMOC image i guess. Yes - people will say "well they didn't and he isn't the father," but I ask - isn't he? I would expect my partner to be a responsible parent no matter who's DNA completed the equation. Shouldn't Wade want the same thing?

The '94 version of The Little Rascals ?

Oh good gravy - there goes trying to teach kids to be discrete!

What Rustle said! We are all pretty friendly people.

Ding!Ding!Ding! Sheep's turn!

All of that just reinforced my opinion. Spiders bad, vacuum good And someone else gets to empty the canister- just in case they survive the ride!

Ok - in that case how about- "God damn it, I knew I should have listened to my mother. I could have been a cosmetic surgeon and been up to my neck in tits and ass!" Have a great trip Mickey. Get some tan and have a margarita for me!

I think Mickey headed south away from the snow!

I stand corrected

Thank you for the info on grad school admissions Tim. I will bow to your knowledge. Other than that - YOU were the one who brought up top tier-B schools, and that Matt should have the grades for them. If you look - it was not a misunderstanding of what you said or a misquote. It was a direct quote of your post. I simply asked why Wade should settle for that if he has tier-A grades?

I would be interested in what went on during the weekend away with Frank. We already know Matt has blown off at least one of the instructions Frank gave him at dinner, to leave the hockey team. We know that the appointment with the shrink Stef made for him conflicted with practice. I would love to know if he kept it or did he put the team first again? Nothing has been said about him bedding anyone since Halloween, has he complied with Frank's demand he "stop being a slut"? He may have been trying to reach out to Will when he canceled the car and decided to pick the guys up at the airport, but it was a bit backhanded. Knowing Will is pissed with him and having been told to stay out of his face, I wonder why it didn't occur to him that changing the plan without telling Will would set off Will's temper again? Senior year as I remember is when decisions like this are made, and by the time the senior year had started 911 had occurred and things got out of control fast. It was said on several occasions in the text that Matt had been turning away from Wade, that they were barely speaking. Makes discussions about grad school very difficult when you cant get the other guy to talk about what's happening on the weekend, let alone next year. I also wonder why Tim seems to think Wade should compromise his academic goals for Matt's benefit? Why should Wade settle for a B-tier school when he can get into the A list?

There are some other easily done things too - Stay home if you can but if you have to go out - gloves and hats are necessary. Most of your heat loss is out the top of your head. If you MUST go out and drive - take a few things along with you blanket water cereal or granola bars A lot of southerners dont have things like ice scrapers even available in local stores. A plastic spatula, the ones meant for non stick cookware makes a decent substitute in a pinch. So does table salt on those icy front steps. Ashes from a fireplace or fire pit works well on ice too. Just make sure they are no longer hot, especially if you are scattering them on wooden steps or decks.

I'm a bit older than most of you, and can remember a time when there were what we called block moms. My mother was one of them. If a child arrived home from school and found no one home they didn't need their own key- they just came to our place, sat at the table with us and did their homework. When their own parents made it home they knew to look at our house first. It was never something that was organize and set up - it just sort of happened. I had two friends within 5 blocks that I called their mother mom and they did the same with mine. All the ladies just mothered us all. LOL could be a tad annoying occasionally since the mom's all stuck together.

The glitch with that is seeking help is not a strong point of anyone in this story. Every single one who is in therapy had been more or less forced into it by someone that cares about them. Therapy was recommended, and an appointment made for Matt by Stef back when Matt had his discussion with JP. The only hint we have had about it is Matt's whine about it conflicting with hockey practice. As it the usual for this family, when help was offered, in several different forms, it has been firmly rebuffed. ok - Mark said the same thing in one word LOL

Wade is angry with Matt over so much more than the one aborted conversation about grad school. You cannot look at one specific incident and make sweeping assumptions. The conversation you sighted that "didn't take place" is a symptom of the much bigger problems they have.

I think much more important than what school Matt wants to go to would be his ability to see Reilly. Romantic relationships can and do survive distance and separate schools if the people want to make it work. His son, on the other hand, is a completely different situation. One I can easily see resolved by Wade being accepted to Stanford Law, ranked #3 in the country behind Yale and Harvard. Would be a step up from the school in DC he was considering in this chapter, presents the least upheaval in both his life and his sons, and keeps him close to his extended family and his newest brother.

I seem to remember a big discussion between Matt and Wade a while back. I can't remember if it was at the end of Millennium or early in Paternity, but Wade was less than thrilled with Matt's promiscuity. He had agreed to the no strings sex, but I got the impression at that point it was because he sensed if he pushed a more traditional relationship he might lose Matt. They later amended the agreement to allow one to label someone off limits if they thought the person a threat to the relationship. I hardly think it unreasonable for Wade to expect that Matt would eventually outgrow this need to party like a rock star. It has been said, both here and in reviews, that Wade is being self centered in planning his graduate education without taking what Matt wants into consideration, and that he in fact refused to listen to Matt in the truck on the way home. That is very hard to do when one is being shut out of someones life every time they turn around. For weeks now Matt has been pushing Wade away, wanting nothing to do with planning a future. This started long before 911 so lets not blame it on grief. I'll admit, grief isn't helping anything, but this started a long while back. Now that Wade has hit his limit, it's him being inconsiderate of his lovers feelings? I have always thought people who decided what school to attend based on where a friend or significant other goes to be somewhat short sighted. If all the other factors are equal, comparable curriculum and reputations etc., then by all means chose the school your lover goes to. But if it comes to a choice between a really good school for your chosen career, and one that may be great for your lover but only acceptable for you, you would be compromising both your futures to choose the latter. Not all schools can be great for everyone. Harvard may be a great law school, but MIT would be better for someone looking at technology wouldn't it? Matt may not be Harvard material, but then, Wade may not be an appropriate student at what ever grad school Matt chooses.

I can't help but see the Hayes legacy of self destruction wandering back into the story again. Jeff lost his battle with heroin. He may have realized at the end just how much he was hurting JP and the rest of the family, but didn't have the personal fortitude to fix things. In several stories Robbie was so self destructive it almost cost him his relationship with both Brad and Will, and in spite of everyone smacking him upside the head he plowed on thinking he was completely in the right. It took something as horrid as one of his sons being molested before he pulled his head out of his ass and started to repair relationships. He had finally made it back to a good place and 9.11 struck. Now I see Matt in similar self destructive behaviors, refusing to listen to the people around him and plowing on thinking he is in the right. Will it take something equally as disastrous to get his attention?

Seems the battle lines have been drawn. It appears Matt has little intention of changing things, Frank seems to have decided Will is the enemy and will apparently support Matt, Wade has decided he needs to do what is right for his own future academically, and poor JP is going to be stuck square in the middle. Seems things will get much worse before they get better. The only bright spot I see at the moment is Frank coming back to life. For a reasonably uneventful chapter as CAP goes, it was pretty full of drama, although I can't say any of it was unexpected. Enjoyable as always! Thank You

Yup! your turn!

"Three itty bitty kids with shovels walk right into our hideout and get the drop on us."

Is that why my husband still keeps me around after 35 yrs?