The Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches Read Free Page A

and foolishly made a goal about dating. I should’ve known that female-male attraction can’t be goaled into being. Finding the right guy to date—someone who really curls your toes, as Rose would say—should never be part of anyone’s must-meet annual goals. Love doesn’t work on a schedule.
    Trust me on this. Let me tell you how Becca set her goal. She has always wanted to become a lawyer. She was already taking some prelaw classes at UCLA, so she set her goal as being chosen to be an intern with this local judge for next summer. That’s a perfect goal—it’s a clear step in a clear direction. The judge always selects two prelaw students towork with her from June to September. It’s apparently a big deal because the judge is one of the best, according to Becca, who knows those kinds of things.
    Getting that internship is a sensible goal, and Becca says she’s sure to get it, given her grades and references. Her grandfather knows someone who knows the judge and is willing to put in a good word for her. Becca called, and the judge’s law clerk is sending the acceptance letters out this week, so Becca will get hers in plenty of time for our Sisterhood deadline of next Thursday.
    If it was me, I wouldn’t be so confident, but Becca gets what she wants, and I have no doubt she’ll get this.
    If I weren’t so happy in my job as Uncle Lou’s partner, I would have chosen a goal to advance my career, as well.
    Not that all of our goals are about jobs.
    Carly decided to get a Maine coon cat. She’d always wanted a cat, she told us, but she couldn’t get one because she’s allergic to cats. The Maine coon cat, however, is a purebred that has different dander than other cats or something. Anyway, it has the long hair Carly likes but is still okay for people with allergies.
    At first, I was skeptical. I couldn’t imagine Carly having any animal with coon in its name. I mean, Carly is just so classy. But then Carly told us that thisparticular breed of cat is said to be descended from six house cats that Marie Antoinette sent to Wiscassett, Maine, when she was hoping to escape from France during the French Revolution.
    Isn’t that something? The cats were to be there to welcome Marie when she made it to the New World. Now that sounded more like Carly. She likes movie stars and royalty. She’ll love having a cat whose ancestors had waited for Marie Antoinette.
    Of course, the cat was not cheap. It cost Carly two thousand dollars, and it took her months to find one. In fact, she just got her cat a week or so ago. She had to fly to Seattle to pick it up.
    I was happy for Carly when she met her goal. I even sent her home with a small piece of fish from the diner after our meeting last week.
    Carly was the first one to meet her goal.
    When we set our goals, Lizabett surprised us by saying she’d always wanted to perform in a ballet, twirling and dipping around onstage in a costume. Her eyes lit up just talking about it. Her leg had healed just fine after the surgery removing her tumor so, of course, ballet had to be her goal. She’d signed up for classes before the month was out at a community dance studio over in Sierra Madre.
    Lizabett is performing next Wednesday in a production the studio is doing of Swan Lake. When the performance date was first being discussed, Lizabett told the other ballet students about her goal and theyvoted to move the production forward a few days so she could meet it. She’s so excited. She showed us a picture of her costume last week—it’s all white net and froth. She’ll look adorable on stage.
    Next Thursday is the date when the goals are due to be completed, and I’m the only one who hasn’t done what I’d said I would do. You would think I would get some extra credit for writing up this description of how we started the Sisterhood, but no one seems willing to let me slide on my goal. And