As rewarding as the reaction to my nudity was it had only made the natives more restless. The camera operators -- one of them a woman -- were fogging ...their viewfinders, the men drooling like bassets over a steak. I was very conscious of the all-seeing lenses tracking me across the stage.Obviously Mom and I were in enemy territory, a conservative bastion long an outlet for venomous rants and dire predictions of the collapse of our society and culture.GabFest, our local TV station's community. Mom looked relieved. Dad shrugged. "If their gonna, they're gonna." Mom hit him. Repeatedly. At least some things had not changed.Sunday I was allowed to invite all four of my other friends over. The parents bowed out immediately. I was not restrained, as we figured some of them might freak. Kevin and I gave then a short version of what had happened, and what I had to accomplish. There were a lot of tears and way too much sympathy. Kevin finally spoke out. "Stacey doesn't need sympathy. She. She claims it took more of her time than the Will Smith movie.One of the other videos Mom edited is of Aunt Jo. That one stayed in the family, because you have to understand how awkward Aunt Jo was growing up. She claims to have found confidence in Uncle Lars' arms. Maybe. I think she always had that drill instructor side. It runs in the family. I think she learned to relax that night. She would never be pretty or petite or graceful, but she was just as good as the other guests fumbling through. As for Julie, not once did she join us, although I could tell from the sidelong looks she gave us from time to time that she was interested.It was still her lead. I know that, I keep repeating it, but I have to do that so that I remember that it is her lead. That said, I want to give her the chance to see something I'm pretty sure she wants to see but is afraid to ask about.That evening, once again, she'd been out with Stephanie meeting the boys, this time I think again for pizza after a movie..