y is for why in heck do i have to pay attention to this crap?

once upon a time (fifteen years ago) in a land not so far from here (here being a suburb of the nasty metropolis that is houston) there was a girl who was, more often than not, focused on the stories she preferred to know rather than those her professors wanted to teach. their stories were long and boring. so she read romance novels and watched a lot of romantic comedies because they made her happy.

and she hadn't had a whole lot of happy.

every now and then, especially if she had to study, she would take some time to write out a scene she had playing in her head.

one such scene involved two adults and a young boy: kate, dominic and will. she wrote this scene one night in late april, on the eve of one her finals. when she finished jotting it down in her notebook, she ate, she studied and then she went home to type up what she'd written.

and there it sat, in her small macintosh computer. saved in a file with all the other scenes she'd started but never finished.

five months later, she was told she would have to write a short story. she thought and thought and thought all day about what she could write. which scene she would choose. she went home, read all the scenes she'd saved in that file and decided that kate's was probably the best.

so she spent a semester turning three pages into twenty-three.

it was a very long short story.

so she tweaked it to twenty and turned it in, certain that her professor was not going to be pleased that she'd written so much.

but he wasn't unhappy. in fact, he liked the story quite a bit.

the girl decided to turn the story into a novel.

and then she thought she should write three. because writing was fun and easy.

so kate became catriona, and dominic became kyle, and will ... well, will became a cause for cate to grieve.

why the name changes? because the girl had read and seen too many stories about couples who were named kate and nick. she couldn't have her story lumped in with theirs.

and she made up new characters, isabel and reese and august and matthew, whose stories would be told separately. only isabel was initially called blake (for like a month or so, and then the girl wised up and realized that that name didn't fit her character at all).

and then, (four) years later, the girl realized that august would never take the slimy, skulking, manwhore that is matthew back after he was so slimy and skulky and manwhorish, so she made up seth. and then she took pity on matthew and made up piper, who has a daughter named hannah.

names are not easy things to come by. the girl questioned her choices repeatedly. she'd bought three different baby name books. she spent hours writing down all the names she liked, then eliminating those she liked less and less and less until she had the handful she needed.

the girl is still struggling with the stories. because writing a novel's not always as fun and easy as writing a scene.

the other day, the girl learned that in the television show charmed (which she'd only seen once or twice ... years ago) there is a piper who is a caterer.

this past week, the girl spent some time resting and watching reruns of grey's anatomy (the girl's been sick with yet another sinus infection. joy. and she wanted to remember why in hell meredith would want to be with derek. she hasn't figured this out yet.)

and what she has been reminded of this week is that her isabel spencer (circa january, ninety-six) looks a lot like the isobel stevens (circa march, five) in grey's (minus the curvy body ... isa's pretty straight and narrow). and her reese macallister (also circa january, ninety-six) has four sisters, like derek (circa march, five) does in grey's. and piper's daughter shares the same name as izzie's daughter.

and the girl is not happy. the girl really does not want to change their names (or their family dynamics, for that matter).

so. how much would it bother yall if i left'm like they are?

this was a matlock project. learn about that here.