This one's for you Debbie

So I'll be honest. I love a good inside joke. It's not the idea that you and I are laughing at something that no one else gets, it's not that I love excluding people. I love seeing something, laughing at it and then making reference to it when reminded of it so you and I can laugh about it again and again. I'd like to invite you in on one of my favorite inside jokes.

My sister Britney is a very thoughtful person. One day she decided to call my other sister Stephanie just because she was thinking of her, to see how she was doing. She calls, "Good morning.....oh I'm fine, how are--oh my goodness are you sick?" Imagine now a voice on the other line, not the normal voice of my sister Stephanie you'd expect. Instead it was the voice of one who's been smoking...for 60 years, and now has laryngitis...and sinusitis...and used to be a man. This voice sounded terrible. "Oh my goodness--how long have you been sick??" the very thoughtful Britney responded into the phone. "Oh dear, you sound terrible! I'm so sorry!" Then, on the other end of the phone you hear, "Who is this?" Britney responds, a little surprised, "It's Britney...why? Who is this?"

Then, the voice: This is Debbie.

Poor sick Debbie. Debbie, I hope you're feeling better. I'm sorry Britney called you that early morning when you were feeling so poorly. But I want to thank you for providing Britney and me with many laughs, laughs that will last us forever. Five, maybe even ten years from now, Britney and I will continue to call each other and with deep husky very ill-sounding voices say, "This is Debbie..." So Debbie, this one's for you.