Happy Halloween!

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Candy Galore

It's Tuesday evening and Tabitha comes bouncing out of her room with a carved pumpkin. “Happy Halloween! We need to go buy candy to give out to little trick or treaters!”

“Maybe we should get tricks. No one ever gives tricks anymore.”

“Yeah, we could go to one of those joke shops and stock up on little magic tricks and the like.”

“Candy! You can't forgo the candy! Do you think you could find a joke shop open now before tomorrow?”

“Yeah, my favorite part of Halloween is eating the left over candy.”

“As long as you don't stop answering the door so you can keep it all to yourself.”

“What kind of candy did you have in mind? No Mounds, I hate Mounds.”

“Take 5 bars!”

“Take 5's are good. M&M's are always a safe bet too.”

“Or, how about some of those mint Aero Bars?”

“Those are imported though. They're like $2 a bar. I don't like these kids that much.”

“Candy Candy Candy!” Billy jumps up and starts running around the room. “Candy Candy Candy Candy!”

“Billy want some Candy?” Sara says, grabbing a Hershey bar that's been in the fridge and waving it at Billy.”

“Candy Candy Candy Candy!”

“Anyhow, while mint Aero Bars are awesome, I think we'll have to go with something more conventional. We could just get a variety pack.”

“We could get a whole bunch of different type of M&Ms. Regular, dark chocolate, peanut butter, etc.”

“That'd be cool. Hey, what ever happen to crispy M&Ms?”

“Hmm, I dunno. I haven't noticed them anywhere. That'd be a question for one of those chocolate blogs.” Sara glances at the computer, and Billy uses that moment of distraction to grab the chocolate.

“Candy Candy Candy Candy!” Billy sits down and starts unwrapping the chocolate bar and eating it. “Get some M&Ms, and a variety pack. That should cover all our bases.”

“Make sure you get enough though. You wouldn't want to go through what we went through last year.”

“That's when Tab was giving away anything she could find in the cabinets because we ran out of candy? You should've seen that poor kid's face when he got a handful of Taco Bell sauces. Priceless!”

“Sure, until the next day when we tried to have lunch and realized she'd given away just about every condiment we had.”

“We couldn't just turn away the kids!”

“You know, some people actually just give away money.”

“Money. Bah Humbug!”

“Halloween just isn't Halloween if every little kid doesn't have a massive sugar rush.”

“Amen to that.” Billy says, throwing away the Hershey wrapper.

“And every big kid too.”

Fright Fest

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Fright Fest

“Hey guys! Guess what?”

“The sky is falling?”

“You got a raise?”

“Nope.”

“You're engaged?!”

“What? I'm not even dating anyone!”

“They came out with a new ice cream flavor?”

“Getting a boob job?”

Ann smacks Scott. “No, I won tickets on the radio for Fright Fest this weekend!”

“Oh, cool. I'm in. Roller coasters are fun.”

“I haven't been to Six Flags in a while. I'm not working Saturday.”

“I've never been there for Fright Fest, what's different than normal Great Adventure?”

“They have a couple of special rides and they have people all dressed up, especially at night, running around the park.”

“I hope it's not too scary.”

“Don't be a wuss! It's just the undead.”

“Sara will hold your hand.”

“I will?”

“You won't?”

“We'll flip for it on the way there.”

“Shotgun!”

“What? We're not leaving until tomorrow. You can't call shotgun. It's against the shotgun rules.”

“He can call it, it just doesn't mean anything.”

“Fine, but I'm warning you, I'm a back seat driver.”

“Gee, this is going to be a fun car ride isn't it?”

Casablanca

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Casablanca

Scott is rifling through the mail on the counter, and picks up the newly arrived Netflix envelope. He opens it, glares at it, and walks into Ann's room.

“Are you responsible for this?!” Scott says, holding up the envelope.

“I haven't touched the queue in a while, why what is it?”

“Casablanca? It's a zillion years old. I bet there are no explosions either.”

“I doubt it. Special effects weren't quite up to snuff back in 1942.”

“Maybe Sara did it. I'll go bug her.”

“You go do that. We could always watch something else tonight, but maybe you'll like Casablanca.”

Scott makes a snorting noise, and heads over to Sara's room.

“Sara! Are you responsible for this?” Scott asks, waving Casablanca at her.

“Casablanca? No, not my type of movie. I put swordfish on the queue, but I didn't check what was coming next.”

“Tabitha! It must be her then!”

“We're watching Casablanca tonight then? We might need some caffeine to get through that.”

“You're telling me.”

Scott heads back to the living room where Tabitha is and tosses the envelope at her. “This is all your doing! How could you do this to me?”

“Huh? No, I didn't do this. I've seen Casablanca already. It's been a while though, I wouldn't mind watching it again.”

“What? It had to be you. Who else could it be?”

“Who else could what be?” Billy asks from the kitchen.

“Someone put this freaking movie on the queue.” Scott says, flinging Casablanca at Billy.

“Oh! It came. I've been wanting to watch this.”

“What? You pussy. Why would you want to watch that?”

“It's a classic. It's one of those classic movies that everyone has seen.”

“Classic is just French for bad.”

“I don't know if it's French, but generally classics are movies or books that everyone wants to have read but no one actually wants to read.”

“Exactly!”

“Well tough luck. We've already watched the other Netflix and sent it back. So Casablanca it is!”

That night...

Scott is in the kitchen mixing himself a drink and everyone else is around the television. Billy walks in and grabs the Netflix envelope.

“Casablanca time!”

Scott pours some more vodka into his drink and heads over. “Okay..let's get this over with.” Scott says, taking a big sip of his drink.

“Shit, it's broken!” Billy says, holding up the disc and showing Scott the crack in it.

“You and you're flinging it all over the place.”

“I was careful! I didn't do it!”

“What are we going to watch now?”

“Die Hard?”

“We've watched that a billion times Frank.”

“Die Hard for the millionth time is better than Casablanca for the first.”

“Amen to that.”

“I've got Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in my room that I haven't watched yet.”

“Better than nothing. That movie's a little weird though.”

“I don't think anyone else has seen it.”

Tabitha goes to get the movie, and Frank starts singing. “Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling..”

New Theory

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Billy

Subject: New Theory: Starbucks

I've been doing more people watching lately as I wander around after work. It comes as no surprise to anyone that there are Starbucks everywhere in Manhattan. This is especially true in midtown.

At every intersection you can see either a Starbucks, or a person with a drink from Starbucks.

It certainly seems true. If my roomies pay attention tomorrow, I bet they'll find that my theory holds true. I know I can count on Scott to at least validate my theory.

Keeping Tabs on Frank

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy

Subject: Where are you?

Ann, Sara, Tabitha and Billy are milling about the apartment. Billy is in the kitchen looking for a snack, Tabitha is pacing in the hallway, and Ann and Sara are playing Dr. Mario.

“Let's go to Catalina's and get some food.”

“You know I'm in for that. We don't have anything munchy here.”

“There's some granola bars, an apple, and a jar full of cashews.”

“Eh. How about some mozzarella sticks, French fries or something else wonderful?”

“Whatever. I didn't want you eating my cashews anyway. I don't really want to go to Catalina's tonight. I'm kind of tired, and I was there all day.”

“You were on lunch shift today? Should've said something, I could've come up for lunch.”

“It's such a long trip for you, I wouldn't want you spending too much of your lunch hour commuting.”

“Yeah, the train ride can be a bummer. No one would even miss me in the office if I was 10 minutes late though.”

“The wonders of anonymous cubicles.”

“They do have some benefits. Like making you feel mind-numbingly alone even when you're surrounded by 100 people.”

“You guys see Frank today?”

“No. He wasn't up when I went to work this morning, but I just assumed he turned in early.”

“It's hard to keep track of that one. He should have his own time zone.”

“Frank Standard Time.”

“I haven't seen him all day, and he's not picking up his cell phone.”

“When was the last time you tried him?” Billy asks, between handfuls of cashews.

“I just tried him a couple of minutes ago. It went right to voicemail.”

“Could be in the subway.”

“Maybe.” Tabitha frowns. “Do you know something Billy?”

“Hmm? What would I know? I don't keep tabs on him.” says Billy, who is now eating out of a pint of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.

“You usually know when he disappears though. Would you get a bowl already?”

“I only wanted a couple of bites.” Billy says, putting the pint back in the freezer.

Tabitha sighs, and picks up her cell phone again. “I guess I'll leave him a message. Not like he'll call me back anyway. Oh! It's ringing! Goody!”

Tabitha has a short conversation with Frank, and then hands up.

“Well! At least he's not dead. He says he's at the Trop, but he wouldn't elaborate.”

“The Trop? He's either at a casino in Atlantic City, or at a baseball stadium in Tampa Bay. Since the Devil Rays are no longer playing, I'd go with AC. Of course, maybe he's in on these Yankee meetings to decided Joe Torre's fate.”

“His fate? Are they hanging him?”

“No, his contract is up and they have to decide if they want to give him a new one for next year.”

“And this is a big secret meeting?”

“It's the Yankees. They try to make everything into a production.”

“He hasn't been to Atlantic City in a while. Did he say when he'd be back?”

“Nope. He rushed me off the phone, said he had to get back to his hand.”

“He's probably been playing all day. Okay, I'm done Sara.” Ann says, putting the controller down.

“I crushed you that time. Annihilated you!”

“Lucky. Don't let it go to your head.”

Got Milk?

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Sara, Tabitha, Scott.

Subject: Cleaning

Tabitha walks into the apartment, her nose picked up the pine-fresh scent of cleaning supplies. Looking around she notices Scott is cleaning the kitchen table.

“Am I in the right apartment? Someone besides me is cleaning? Scott is cleaning? I must be dreaming.”

“I figured I was due to do some cleaning up around here.”

“That's very nice of...wait! What'd you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you spill something? Break something? What was it? What are you trying to cover up?” Tabitha walks over to the table and starts sniffing.

“Did you just..sniff..the table? Can't a guy lend a hand around here without getting the 2^nd degree?”

“You mean 3^rd degree.” Sara corrects from the couch.

“I had it right. First you came in here and gave me a hard time, and now Tabitha's on my case. That's two degrees.”

“Are you saying that you didn't spill something?”

“I'm just saying a guy should be able to clean his own table without being grilled by his roommates.”

“I'm surprised you even knew where the cleaning supplies were.”

“You had them under the sink. No creativity at all. Everyone puts their cleaning supplies under the sink.”

“Yes, you're so uncreative Tabitha. If Scott was putting things away, we could get the windex right out of the fridge.”

“And the ice cream would probably be stored in cabinets, and the milk would never leave the counter.”

“That's not true. Once the milk got chunky I'd probably throw it away.”

“Yeah, but you probably wouldn't empty the trash until it really started to smell.”

“Is there any other reason to empty the trash?”

“You know, some days I wish we could vote you out of the apartment.”

“Oooh! Survivor: 6^th Floor!”

“And that's how I'll catch you.” Tabitha opens up the trash and looks in, seeing two cartons of milk.

“Did you spill BOTH cartons of milk?!”

“No?”

“How'd you manage that? You know what, I don't want to know. You better be going downstairs to replace them.”

“I already got on him about that. I can't have breakfast in the morning without my milk.”

“I'll get the milk. Plenty of milk. We'll all get that milk.”

“Good. I'd hate for Sara to have to milk you in the morning.”

Tabitha walks into her room, ignoring Scott and Sara staring at her in shock at her comment.

My Boys and Porn

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: My Boys

“What are you watching?”

“My Boys.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It's TBS' first comedy sitcom. It's pretty good. The main character's a female sports writer for the Cubs, and she hangs out with her older brother and four male friends.”

“It's new?”

“Actually this is the season finale. It premiered last year, and then they finished the season off just recently with 8 episodes. The second season is in 2008 I think.”

“Ahh. Well maybe I'll watch it one day. You have the dvd?”

“Not yet. The season just ended like I said. I'll buy it though. You can actually watch all the episodes online, although I never really care for that method of watching tv.”

Ann watches for a moment. “Do you really like it or do you just think the girl's hot?”

“Both. I wouldn't watch just for a hot girl, there are plenty of places to look at pretty girls without sitting down to watch a bad tv show for 30 minutes.”

“Oh, I know. I remember the last time I used your computer when mine was broken.”

“Art! That was art!”

Scott wanders out from his room and glances at the screen. “Ooo, pretty girl. We allowed to watch porn in the living room now?”

“No!”

“It's My Boys! It's a good show!”

“Yipes! You two certainly are defensive today. There is nothing wrong with a little porn between friends.”

“You have some strange thoughts about friendship Scott.”

Apple Pie

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Tabitha, Frank, and Scott.

Subject: The Apple Pie

The following is all an IM conversation. I've left out our real screen names. I'm worried about stalkers, Scott just thinks it'd be a good way to meet girls.

Tabitha: Can you take the apple pie out of the freezer? It has to defrost before I bake it tonight.

Ann: We're having apple pie tonight? Nice. Sorry though, I'm not home. I went to the library to try to write. The apartments too distracting. Try Frank, he was having a loud argument with a video game when I left.

Tabitha: Okay, I'll try him. What are you writing?

Ann: A little of this, a little of that. ;-)

Tabitha: Gee, that sounds interesting. Good luck.

Tabitha: Frank? Frank! Are you there?

Frank: Yeah, I'm here. What's up? :-)

Tabitha: Could you please take the apple pie out of the freezer so I can cook it tonight?

Frank: Apple pie? That sounds good. Do we have any ice cream to go with it?

Tabitha: I'm going to pick some up on my way home. But it's pointless if you don't take the pie out of the freezer.

Frank: No can do. I'm not home.

Tabitha: Ann said you were home fighting with one of your video games.

Frank: Ahh yes. I kept getting shot, and it was frustrating. I decided to go to work instead, I'm at Starbucks.

Tabitha: Starbucks? Scott's? That's right around the corner! Can't you just run home? :-P

Frank: Nope, It took me too long to get into this room, and it's going great. Sorry.

Tabitha: Well was anyone else home when you left?

Frank: Just Danny

Tabitha: I don't think your refrigerator magnet is going to be able to defrost a pie. :-P

Frank: Well how would you know, if you haven't asked?

Tabitha: *roll* When is Scott working until?

Frank: I believe he's off at five, which is shortly.

Tabitha: Perfect. Could you tell him to take the pie out? I'm sure he'll say goodbye when he leaves.

Frank: Yeah, sure. Now I'm going to ignore you. You're distracting me from my hands.

Tabitha: Raise Raise Raise!

Later...

Frank: Hey Tab, It looks like Scott left without saying anything. I didn't get to tell him about the pie.

Tabitha: Shoot. It appears he's online, so maybe he'll respond.

Frank: You could always call him.

Tabitha: I could. Of course, I'm in class right now 'taking notes'. It might be a bad idea to make calls too.

Frank: Sounds like a rocking class.

Tabitha: Hey, could you take the apple pie out of the freeze to defrost.

Scott: Pie? Sweeeeet! Where is it?

Tabitha: The freezer.

Scott: Yeah, but where in the freezer? There is a lot of crazy things in there.

Tabitha: It's the pie shaped thing, that says Apple Pie on it. Crazy huh?

Scott: Right, and you want me to put it in your room?

Tabitha: No, just leave it on the counter.

Scott: Can I have a piece?

Tabitha: It's not even cooked yet!

Scott: You need to cook apples? They're a fruit right?

Tabitha: You cook them so the apples become softer and take on the spices and flavors.

Scott: So I can't have a slice then?

Tabitha: No. Patience is a virtue...There is some apple sauce on the bottom shelf of the fridge if you need to sate your apple craving.

Scott: Apple sauce huh? I guess that'll have to do. Don't forget ice cream.

Tabitha: Oh, I won't. :-P

Scott: Get the choco-vanilla swirl stuff.

Tabitha: I know, We've done this before Scotty.

Scott: See you soon then. Hurry.

Tabitha: Relax! And don't eat the pie!

Ann: Hola. Why is there a pie on the kitchen floor?

Tabitha: It's on the floor? *swear* I told Scott to just leave it on the counter.

Ann: Floor, counter...same thing right? I'll ask him. Talk to you later.

Ann: Scott...why did you leave the pie on the kitchen floor?

Scott: I put it on the counter like Tab asked.

Ann: No you didn't, it's on the floor.

Scott: How do you know?

Ann: Because I just saw it there.

Scott: You're home?

Ann: Yes, it appears that way. :-P

Scott walks into Ann's room. “It's not on the floor. It's on the counter.”

“I picked it up. It was on the floor, trust me.”

“Okay. I took it out of the freezer, then went to get the apple sauce Tabitha mentioned.”

“And put the pie down in the process didn't you? Distracted by apple sauce.”

“Well, it was good apple sauce!”

“Was it? Maybe I'll have a snack before dinner.”

“Oh...Umm...sorry. I finished it.”

“Why am I not surprised?”