Veronica is working on a puzzle of the United States. As she's been playing this game frequently (well, she sits on my lap and I place the states), she's beginning to learn some of the states. Ohio is where we live! Grandma and Grandpa live in West Virginia! Debbie's in Arizona! And so on and so forth, including places where we know no one, such as Kentucky.

So on her puzzle tonight, she pointed proudly at the one north of Texas, shaped like a saucepan, and said "That Oklahoma."

"Yes, Veronica, that is Oklahoma."

"Yeah." Pause. "It scary."

"Oh," I say, stiffling a laugh, "it's scary?"

"Yeah," she replies. "Scary and sad."

I lost it then. I've been there before, she has not, and yet I think she captured it about damn near perfectly.

He he he....