“Rescue Me” - 8/29/07

This episode begins with Tommy dreaming that nearly all of his squad has been killed while responding to a fire. He sees them on the ground, and they’re all dead. Tommy’s a very troubled man and doesn’t seem to be going in a good direction. He’s supposedly quit drinking and is trying to become more spiritual, but his private life is a mess. He goes after every woman he can while Janet and his kids are on their own. His baby, Elvis/Wyatt is bounced around between Janet, Tommy and Sheila and you never see Tommy showing any special feeling for the baby. I think he’d like to get to a better place, but it’s going to take some doing on his part. But if he changes into some sort of ordinary, everyday-type guy, there would be no show. I like Tommy just the way he is . . . careening through life, making life-threatening choices on the job, struggling with his family and his relationships, and especially his comraderie with his fellow firefighters. Those scenes in their squad room are the best and funniest. I love the conversations between Tommy and Lou – they are quick and certainly very funny! Tommy can jump from comedy to drama in a second. I think he’s a fantastic actor in this and does everything right in his acting. The writing is so good – John Scurti, who plays Lou, wrote last night’s show. He’s a funny guy and obviously a very good writer.

Tommy sees Valerie again and finally finds out her name. The talk turns to Wyatt Earp, and Valerie says the best one was Kevin Costner. Tommy doesn’t agree with that, and finally Valerie says, “I’m bored – take off your pants.” When it’s all over, she says, “Oh God, that was amazing.” Tommy replies that it was a record – almost a minute. She sends him down to the corner store for a Fresca. I can’t understand why she never has Fresca on hand.

He returns to the firehouse and Lou tells him he seems pretty charged up. Tommy tells him he has 8 Frescas in him. Lou says, “Speaking of high, your new girlfriend came here looking for you – Fineberg’s daughter – and I don’t know what she’s on, but I think her purse may contain the contents of what used to be in Liza Minnelli’s medicine cabinet.” He tells Tommy the right thing for him to do is make another date with her – it’s the right thing for Tommy, the crew and Fineberg.

The family has another AA meeting. Tommy wants to talk about the higher power, and Uncle Teddy yells, “You mean the goddamn God stuff again?” Tommy tells them he prayed that week when he was saving the window washer hanging off a building. Uncle Teddy blows that off by saying it was technology and not God that helped. They get nowhere in the meeting, but there are some very funny moments as there always are in their AA meetings. I don’t think actual AA meetings are conducted quite the same way as the Gavin family does it. Tommy then goes to a bar where his dad has a club soda as he’s quit drinking. He asks Tommy about the meeting, and Tommy tells him it was about making reparations. He tells Tommy he’s apologized to the 5 Nazi pricks he killed with his hands in the war. He also apologized for calling Patton an asshole. But Tommy says, “You said he was an asshole,” and his dad says, “He was – no, I took that one back.” He apologizes for everything he did wrong when Tommy was a child. Tommy asks him if he’s scared of anything and his dad says death. He doesn’t believe in an after life. He says, “When you die, they stick your body in the ground and you’re worm food – simple as that. Death is a goddamn scary thing, Tom – the closer you get to it, the scarier it gets.”

Tommy meets Fineberg’s daughter, Beth, for another date. She’s very placid and quiet, nothing like their first meeting where she was all over the place. Tommy asks her how her job is going working with the kids she mentioned before, and she says she doesn’t have a job and can’t work. She cracks her knuckles and seems nervous. Tommy tells her on their first meeting she seemed a little more up and was really funny. He says, “You were really making me laugh.” Beth says, “Funny like Joe Joe Pesci funny, Buddy Hackett funny? Do I look funny to you? Should we all be laughing now?” During this, Tommy has been making a move with his arm around her and his hand partly on her breast. She seems to like it, but then tells him she’s on medication now as she’s bipolar. She says she goes off the meds sometimes, but her folks want her on them as they’re afraid she may snap and come into their bedroom and rip out their eyes with an ice pick or rip their chest out and bury it in the back yard right next to her ovaries! Tommy’s edging away from her and she asks why, telling him she could stab him with a fork. She gets up and says she should go and she’ll call him. She grabs the flowers on the table and makes a quick exit. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of her, hopefully when she’s off her meds.

So many more things happen here, but I write too much as it is. I love the show as is fairly obvious, and it seems to get better each episode. Everyone connected with this show deserves recognition at Emmy time. I hope some of them get it.

My day at the beauty salon

This isn’t that day. This day I was baking chocolate chip cookies for my grandson, Harry, who has the big stirring spoon in his mouth, and his friends, Reggie and Hayden, who are Rita’s kids. Rita is Teri’s good friend from way back. I don’t remember how many cookies we made, because most of the dough was eaten before it even hit the oven, but we had a good time. Reggie was clutching her doll, Wanda, Harry was grabbing the spoon any chance he got and Hayden was a little more polite – he’s older than Harry and possibly was trying to set a good example. Or he probably figured he’d just wait until Harry calmed down and then move in. I can’t remember it all – it’s like a blur when I bake cookies for them. There’s so much going on, that it takes a while to recover from all the excitement.

But back to the beauty salon . . . I have gone to my hair guy, Steve, for years, and he’s seen me through many different hair styles. Sometimes I show him a picture of some teenage girl in a magazine whose hair style I’d like. He tries to duplicate it and probably does, but it never looks the same on me. Could it be because I’m not a teenager? So the last time I went, I took the above picture of me with my then hair style which is pretty much the way I wear it now. He appreciated my help with the picture and got to work. The other reason I took the picture was because I usually take him chocolate chip cookies. I had called him earlier in the week to tell him no cookies this time, and he sounded disappointed. He loves those cookies and looks forward to them. So this picture is of me baking chocolate chip cookies. What could be better? I think he understood, but he’ll be expecting cookies the next time I go. No more pictures.

My appointment with the oncologist

I wrote about my oncologist’s appointment last year and thought I’d do it again after my last week’s appointment. I go twice a year which is really two times too many, but it’s necessary, so I do it. This time I was worried that maybe I’d gained weight since my last visit, so I wore flip flops which I took off before being weighed and no bra. I don’t know how much my bra weighs, but it must weigh something and every ounce counts. Fortunately, I weighed the same as last year.

The office was filled with people waiting to be seen by a doctor. There were elderly people, not so elderly people and even one young man who was completely bald. Some were in wheelchairs or walkers and not having an easy time of it. I was thankful I could walk in unaided. I sat there for about 45 minutes after my blood was taken before they called me in to see the doctor. While I waited I checked out the magazines. The last time I wrote, I mentioned how they had no interesting magazines anyplace in the waiting room. Nothing had changed. The only literature was magazines on healing, cancer, coping with cancer, life, health and that sort of thing. What they need is something to make people laugh or at least hold their interest . . . something like Esquire, GQ, Star, People, New Yorker and others of the same sort. I know I don’t want to read how to cope with cancer when I’m in the oncologist’s office. I already coped and don’t need to be reminded.

So to entertain myself, I found a newspaper on a table which was turned to the classified ads which I never read . . . but I was desperate. I picked it up and it was turned to the want ads for people looking for employment. It was quite interesting. There was an ad for a Nurse Manager at the Oregon State Penitentiary with what looked like a pretty good salary. It read, “Join us and have hands-on involvement in critical decision making.” I decided I wasn’t quite ready for that yet. There was one for Front Desk Manager at a resort in Bend with free golf and one for Outside Sales which sounded good until I realized it didn’t mean it was actually outside. There was another one for a bartender at a fun, busy bar – great personality required. That sounded like I might like to spend time there, but not to work. And then I came to the very best one in sales at a car dealership. I could make $10,000 a month and possible commissions and would be trained for the job if I had the right attitude. For $10,000 a month, I could have any attitude they wanted!

By this time I was really into looking for a job. I had never seen so much opportunity right in front of me. But then I was called back to see my doctor which was the reason I was there in the first place . . . not to job hunt. The nurse took me back and I remarked that they should have some interesting magazines out there and named a few that would make people laugh and think about something other than cancer. She gave me a glazed look and said she would tell someone. I didn’t ask who. So next time I go, I’ll see if they took my advice. People need something to make them laugh or think about something other than the reason they’re there. Cancer is such a horrible, insidious disease and affects so many families that there has to be some humor in any situation at times. If you can find something to laugh at during your worst times, you’re going to make it.

“Rescue Me” – 8/22/07

This episode begins during a family AA meeting at Tommy’s dirty apartment led by Mickey Gavin, Tommy’s cousin, the defrocked priest. Subject is about a higher power . . . God, whatever. Sean says, “God for me is . . . he’s just this huge, kinda all powerful cloud . . . he’s this giant cloud of pink gas!” The group takes a vote and votes him out of meetings. Uncle Teddy’s wife sees a rat and jumps on the couch, a fight breaks out and Uncle Teddy tells Tommy’s dog to go find booze. Meeting over.

The scenes in the squad room are the best in the show. I look forward to them every week. That’s where I think the writing really stands out. All the characters are different and so funny as they react to each other. In this one, Black Sean brings up the fact that only 2% of the new probies are African American. He says he was the only one in this class, and Chief Feinberg says he was the only Jew in his class. So Tommy relates his feelings about what firefighters face and all the perils that accompany the job. He says you’re pulling people out of buildings all the time and you don’t notice their color or ethnicity. You’re so busy there’s no time left for family. And there’s not enough God to go around. He says, “Did you ever think that maybe the reason there ain’t more Chinese, females and black firefighters is because they just don’t want the goddamn job? Food, fire and sex is all I got.”

Another hilarious scene is when Tommy and Lou are walking through a smoldering building. Their conversation is so funny that I was laughing out loud. Lou’s a real character, and he and Tommy have great scenes together. I don’t know how Denis Leary and Peter Tolan can keep up this quality of writing – sometimes serious and touching, but always crazy humorous!

Tommy wanders into a church and sits down just as his cell goes off. He runs into a little room which is a confessional – the priest’s side. He takes his call and as he finishes, a woman comes into the other room and gives him her confession! Her worst sin is thinking impure thoughts while watching the last episode of “According to Jim.” She says she won’t watch it anymore, but Tommy tells her God would want her to watch it. He tells her to say the last couple lines of a Hail Mary and then says she’s set. He finally gets out of the confessional booth before he gets another customer. In fact, there was a man waiting outside for his turn.

Tommy calls Mikey and tells him he needs to get out of the house now that his knee is a little better. He tells him to get dressed up, go to a bar and meet someone – preferably a woman. So Mikey goes and meets a woman older than he, but she has long blond hair which probably makes it ok. She hits on him, telling him he’s super cute, boyish with soulful eyes. That’s enough for him! She asks if he’d like a little mother/daughter action. He likes the sound of that, thinking she may have a really hot daughter. They go to her place and she calls down the hall, “Mom, you still up?” Her mother comes out of her room and says, “He’s delicious!” The scene ends there so we don’t know what happened.

This episode ends with Tommy hanging off the side of a building, trying to rescue a trapped window washer. Tommy’s scared of heights, so he’s having a hard time of it, but we know he’ll make it . . . he always does. I absolutely love this show which is probably very apparent from my writing. I wish it would never end!

“Damages” – episode 5

This one begins as usual with Ellen, still in the interrogation room, telling her attorney, Hollis Nye, that someone tried to kill her – she didn’t kill David. And then we see more scenes of Ellen and some person fighting with a knife with blood all over, Ellen screaming and dog barking from out on the deck. After that wake-up scene, it turns back to what led up to all this mayhem.

There’s a good scene with interesting dialogue between Frobisher and Ray Fiske. Frobisher wants to pull the offer, and he launches into football jargon. He asks Fiske if he ever played team sports and Ray says fencing. Frobisher smirks at that and says Fiske is using “prevent defense” where you’re not playing to win, just playing not to lose. Fiske replies “I’m afraid you lost me there, Art.” Frobisher says he wants to play man to man – “Blitz the shit out of them.” He tells Fiske everything should be ok now that Katie Connor is gone, and they should go to trial. Fiske replies, “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s tail all week.” To which Frobisher says, “I have no idea what that meant.” Fiske replies, “That means we got lucky.” Frobisher is going ahead with the trial anyway.

The show moves along like a train out of control. Tom quits and takes an offer from Martin Cutler as partner in his firm. Patty’s clients fire her and hire Tom. This was obviously a set-up by Frobisher or possibly Patty. Patty tells Tom he is a No. 2, not a No. 1. That’s his talent, his limit. So Tom visits Patty early in the morning with his list of negotiations for his return to her company. She agrees to all except partnership. His name won’t be on the door - it will still be just Hewes and Associates. Tom accepts. She smiles after he leaves as if she planned the whole thing which she probably did!

David tells Ellen what Katie said about Gregory and how bad things really are. Ellen goes to Patty and tells her everything and is surprised to see Tom back at work. They say they’ll get right on it. They had known this all along but were waiting for Ellen to confirm everything.

Gregory is beaten up by Man in Stroller’s thugs and warned to play along with them and not to call Katie anymore. The Man in Stroller is the missing link in the trial and can be brought down by Gregory if Patty ever gets Gregory on the stand.

The last scene has Ellen’s attorney telling detectives that someone tried to kill Ellen in Patty Hewe’s apartment. The detectives go there and find no body. The scene returns to actual time this occurred. Ellen’s struggling with her attacker and apparently kills him/her. There’s blood flying all over, and Ellen’s screaming. You hear a voice-over of Ellen saying “I’m so sorry, Miss Hewes,” and also Patty saying, “Trust no one” as she had told Ellen before. The scene ends with a horrible shriek from Ellen.

I don’t know what the hell to believe anymore. Patty’s extremely devious and seems to plan every move that’s made by anyone, even though it’s not apparent on the surface. She can have horrible things done at her direction and still come up smiling. She is one, cool bitch. This is a show that would be impossible to stop watching. I call it a winner!

Caribbean vacation at Capitan Lafitte

When my grandson, Harry, was only two months old, I went with Teri, Mark and Harry to Capitan Lafitte which is a small resort about 45 minutes south of Cancun. It was rather secluded and perfect for us. We were right on the beach with only a few steps to the water. There was a small outdoor bar with Victor, the bartender, who was very nice. We spent some time there with Victor. We arrived during a monsoon or something similar, and the next morning at 4:45am we awakened to flooding in our rooms. So we mopped for a while.

One of the photos above is of Mark letting Harry test the water in the pool. Harry did quite well at the resort – I didn’t take Teri out of the house until she was 3 months old, but things are different these days apparently! I baby-sat one afternoon and lay on the bed with Harry who was busy with his pacifier. I read to him from my book, “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” which was written by Judith Rossner about a 28-year old, prim school teacher in New York City in 1973 who was very proper during the day and at night would cruise the bars, looking for the perfect man she called “Mr. Goodbar.” After sex, she’d kick him out – no one could ever spend the night. But Richard Gere came over – not really Richard, he was just in the movie – and became enraged when he couldn’t stay the night, so he hit her over the head with a lamp, smothered her and stabbed her. Before that happened, I think she maybe thought he was “the one.” But not the right one obviously. Harry seemed to enjoy the story, and maybe someday he’ll see the movie. I certainly hope so. After book time, I showered while Harry sat in his carry seat right by the shower so I could watch him. I found my notes from that trip where I wrote, “I showered while Harry watched – he liked it.”

One day we drove to Tulum where we saw some ancient Mayan ruins. On the way there, we were stopped by Federales, the sinister-looking cops carrying rifles, who are all over that area. I guess that’s the one road that goes to Belize and has much drug traffic. Fortunately, they didn’t arrest us, but they gave me a scare. The ruins were big and impressive, and I could hardly believe I was actually there. Mark had rented a Volkswagen – they have no other cars in that part of the country as far as I could tell. It was fine except for the fact that it wouldn’t go in reverse, so Mark had to push it each time we had to back up! I assume all Volkswagens are not like that.

One day we went to Coba to see some ancient pyramids. But we got there right at closing time so couldn’t see much. We did see Iglesia, the second tallest pyramid there. I’d never seen anything like it. One of the pictures above is of Teri feeding Harry on the steps of Iglesia. To get to Coba, you turn west off the highway and go 30 miles perfectly straight without a single turn. We went over a couple “sleeping policeman” speed bumps - one that we hadn’t noticed. We hit it at about 40 mph and Harry and I almost went through the roof of the car! We saw men on bikes carrying guns, dirty little villages with hogs and dogs in the road, vultures everywhere, and when we slowed down once, a little girl threw a stick in the window at me – I still have it. We were in an entirely different culture, one that I had never before visited. It made me feel very fortunate for what we have at home. When we were going to leave Coba, it turned out the keys were locked in the car and we had no way to get in. There were people all around us, but not many spoke English. We went into a little store, and they finally knew what we were talking about and said they’d help. So back out by the car, I was holding Harry and all these little kids kept crowding me and wanting to touch him. I jumped around and didn’t want anyone touching him! He was too young and little, and no one was going to touch him if I had anything to say about it. Finally, we got into the car and got out of there. I don’t think Mark had to back up that time.

The day came for us to leave, so we went to the bar and said good-bye to Victor and had our final drinks. It was a wonderful vacation, and Harry survived it all. It’s too bad he can’t remember any of it.

“Rescue Me” – 8/15/07

Show opens with Mikey calling the squad room. He’s home recuperating from an injured knee from when the fire truck ran into a car carrying the woman with tomato soup all over her chest. He’s lonesome and depressed and asks Sean and Franco to stop by and see him, but they give him some excuse not to. Tommy calls Valerie (Gina Gershon) who put her business card in his pocket when he was out with Chief Feinberg’s daughter. She says come over right NOW! She doesn’t want a date, food or drink. Valerie comes into the room, shoves him into a chair, jumps on him and they have sex. She then throws herself on a bean bag chair and screams at him not to touch her as it takes her 2 hours to recover. She says she might be able to blow him in half an hour, but nothing else. He stumbles out the door as he’s pulling his pants up. What is it with Tommy? He keeps hooking up with nutcases. He should keep his pants zipped for a while . . . a long while. Tommy’s having some hard times and will probably continue to do so unless he cleans up his act.

Tommy and family hold intervention at his apartment for Maggie and Uncle Teddy. When Maggie arrives, she asks what’s happening, and when she hears it’s an intervention for her, she’s ecstatic and yells, “I’ll do it! I’m tired of this shit . . . wakin’ up God knows where, with God knows who, havin’ done God knows what, feelin’ like an atomic bomb went off inside my skull. I’m finished! Box me up and ship me to rehab!” Everyone finally decides there are enough drunks right there in the family, so they’ll hold their own AA meetings 3 times a week . . . so no rehab.

Franco cooks dinner for Natalie and tells her she was right to make him go see Alicia now that she’s back in town. It made him realize he loves Natalie more. Natalie says, “More?” He tries to get around that, but she kicks him out. Engagement off.

Tommy clears out of apartment, leaving his family pictures in a bag on the floor and throwing his keys on the floor as he walks out. Why didn’t he take the pictures? He moves into a dirty apartment and pays rent for a year. Then he walks to hockey game between the NYPD and FDNY which is the 1st Annual John Gavin Memorial Scholarship Game. Tommy’s playing with the cops for his dead brother, John, and the FDNY guys are out to get him. But Tommy comes out on top and wins the game. During game, Mikey calls Franco and asks him to come over later. He says he’s taken a few pills and is drinking vodka. Franco says he can’t because he’s moving in with Black Sean. Mikey can’t understand why he wouldn’t move in with him. The guys ask Franco how Mikey is, and he says, “Still gay.” Those guys can be so heartless without even realizing it

Katie, Tommy’s daughter, goes to see Sheila who lets her hold Elvis which is the baby’s new name. Katie runs out with Elvis and jumps into waiting car and Janet drives off with Sheila running behind screaming, “That’s my baby! He hates you!”

Chief Feinberg calls Tommy into his office and chews him out for the way he treated Beth on their date. Tommy didn’t even touch her, and that’s what makes the chief angry. He’s a real dick around Tommy and always on him. Speaking of dick, it’s known that he has a very large penis and seems to be always zipping himself up when the guys see him. I don’t like him and would like to see him removed.

Sheila calls Tommy and tells him to get her baby back right away. She’s out of her head and screaming. That’s when Tommy finds out the name of the baby.

The crew goes to a fire, and Tommy goes into burning building when it was too risky. But he makes it out with a guy on his back that he saved. Feinberg is watching and not liking it. He chews Tommy out later in front of everyone. He tells him not to pull a Steve McQueen ever again. Sean asks Lou, “Who is Steve McQueen?” and Lou smacks him over the head. Lou and Franco go to Feinberg’s office to talk to him about solidarity and everyone getting along. As they go in, Feinberg is pulling up his pants, fastening his belt and zipping up! What’s with this guy? Franco and Lou stumble out without saying a word.

Janet calls Tommy and says she needs money for Wyatt – baby’s name. So baby has two names now. Tommy says not until she gives baby back to Sheila, but she says no and hangs up. In the meantime, Mikey goes on crutches to roof where he looks over edge, contemplating suicide. He goes back downstairs and tries to slit his wrists in the bathtub, but he drops the razor blade and cuts his butt as he tries to get out of tub. He then calls Tommy and says he’s cracking up, missing his mom and asks Tommy to come over. Tommy rushes over and sees blood on Mikey’s pants and says, “If you try to commit suicide, you cut your wrists, not your ass.” Tommy grabs him, drags him up to roof and makes him show him where he was going to jump. Mikey sits on roof floor and Tommy sits on ledge and drinks the vodka, asking Mikey for a cigarette. Tommy gets very philosophical, talking about how parents are supposed to die before their children as Mikey’s mother did. He talks about 9/11 and how so many parents had to bury their children which isn’t right. He talks about Connor, his little boy, who was killed by a drunken driver, and says he’ll never get over that. He drinks some more and then puts the bottle down and asks Mikey to step on his cigarette which he drops on the floor. As Mikey is looking down at the cigarette, Tommy stands up and falls forward off the ledge! When Mikey looks up, Tommy’s gone. He looks over ledge and sees Tommy part way down on something that caught his fall. He says he’s all right. I don’t know what he fell on, but it’s breaking away from the building as he’s speaking. Tommy recites the Lord’s Prayer as he waits for help. I think Tommy’s having a meltdown or will be soon. Too many people are taking too much of him, and he’s not making the right decisions for himself. Let’s hope he gets things together very soon. I think he could use another date with Beth – she was a real fruitcake, but so funny! He could use some funny.

“Damages” – episode 4

Scene opens with Katie at a club in Palm Beach on 6/19/02. She meets Gregory, they drink, do drugs and end up in parking lot where they see Frobisher and another man in a limo. Next it jumps to 6 months previous to present day time – this gets slightly confusing! Katie is questioned by Patty’s crew, but not truthful. Patty starts to leave the room, but grabs a ding dong. I guess this episode is called the “Ho Ho” episode, because Patty says the ding dong’s delicious but tastes like a ho ho.

Present day time – there’s a quick shot of Katie at the morgue, identifying her brother which is a horrible scene.

Back 6 months – Katie talks with Gregory and wants him to speak with Patty and tell her what he saw in the parking lot. Gregory won’t as he doesn’t want to become known because of his imaginary wife, and also doesn’t want his name plastered all over the news. Actually, I think he’s working for Frobisher because Tom Shayes turns up information showing he had Frobisher stock and sold it right before Frobisher’s company went down the toilet. He was probably hired by Ray Fiske, Frobisher’s attorney, back in 2002 to get close to Katie and feed her false information. Can anyone be trusted?

Tom asks Patty for help in getting his daughter into a prestigious school in Manhattan, but she blows him off since he’s supposed to have been fired . . . but he actually wasn’t. Tom later runs into Martin, the attorney that Patty wiped out in the first episode who offers him a job in exchange for helping his daughter get into the school where he has significant ties. Tom turns him down but later I think will accept.

David, Ellen’s boyfriend, talks to a girl in the hospital who comes onto him. He’s taking care of her grandpa - - or does she really have a grandpa there? Was she hired by Frobisher or Patty to do dirty work? She bends over and lets him see her thong and you know nothing good is going to happen with those two.

Katie meets Gregory again and he says he knows who the man was in the limo with Frobisher – Luke Richards. He says he recognized him from pictures on TV. But I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth, so that can’t be true. But Katie believes him. He wants her to back out of the whole thing with him, but she won’t.

Katie is questioned again and is shown pictures of possible suspects. She identifies Luke Richards, assistant to Frobisher’s broker, as the one even though she didn’t see him. She’s going on what Gregory told her which is the plan Gregory had all along - to discredit her in her deposition.

Tom calls Martin and says, “Make me an offer” after Patty has him doing more errand-boy work rather than attorney work which he wants to be doing.

Patty holds a mock deposition and the guy playing Ray Fiske, Frobisher’s attorney, tears Katie to bits. He brings up her cocaine addiction, her stay in rehab and her abortion six weeks after the night with Gregory in Palm Beach. Katie loses it, fake Ray Fiske says she’s not ready, and Patty says to practice again.

Present day – Katie looks at Ellen behind glass in the interrogation room. Detective tells her David and Ellen had called off their engagement – Katie didn’t know that.

Back to the deposition – she has the real one with Ray Fiske who gets nasty with her, but she gives it right back to him in a nasty, sweet way. She describes the exact time she saw Luke Richards get into limo in parking lot with Frobisher. Fiske produces a photo of Richards at an ATM in Atlantic City with a transvestite hooker hanging on him. The date and time is printed on the picture which is in direct contradiction to Katie’s story. Katie is out of it – probably realizing she’s been set up in a bad way. She jumps up and says, “This is bullshit,” and storms out. Ray looks around and says, “Hear that, Patty? That’s the sound of the zeros dropping off of Mr. Frobisher’s revised offer.”

Gregory’s standing at river bank and Peter Riegert walks up pushing a pacifier-sucking baby in a stroller. He tells Gregory he heard things went well and Gregory says for them to leave him alone now – it’s been five years and he’s sure Katie didn’t recognize him. Gregory remembers how he gave Katie some pills to help her sleep after their night of sex before her big catering day. She took a couple. That’s when Peter Riegert walked into the house and saw Katie passed out on the couch snoring. Peter tells him they can’t leave him alone and walks off. Peter must be the guy at the bottom of the whole thing, and they can’t let him be identified by Katie. But did Katie see him while she was snoring? And who is he? And who’s the baby?

Tom confronts Patty as to why she let Katie testify when she knew Gregory was the missing link and Katie would be lying. She says so Ray Fiske would think they had nothing and would pull the settlement offer which is what she wanted all along.

Katie tracks down Gregory playing baseball in the park and yells at him. She finds out he’s not even married as he has said all along and gets really pissed. She tells him to go to hell and storms off.

Next scene, Katie’s packing car and getting ready to leave town. Ellen and she argue and Ellen says all the wanted was for Katie to tell the truth, and Katie says what Ellen wanted was to impress Patty. She leaves and David gets mad and yells at Ellen.

In one of final scenes, Patty and Ellen are talking and Patty says there’s an important lesson to be learned from all of this which is, “Trust No One.” For the finale, there is a montage of scenes rolling by very quickly, one of which is of David and the slutty girl from the hospital at the river bank. She’s definitely putting the moves on him. And I think Peter strolls by with the pacifier baby.

This show has so many twists and turns, it almost leaves you dizzy! I don’t think there’s one character that won’t end up being corrupted by the end of the season . . . that is if there’s anyone still alive. Stay tuned!

“Saving Grace”

Last night I watched the show and turned it off before it was through. I’ve watched each episode up until that one, but just couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put that one on television. It appears that the object of the story is to make everyone Catholic, or if not Catholic, religious in a big way. Grace (Holly Hunter) is a wild one – drinking, smoking, sleeping around, swearing and switching her long, messy hair all over the place. They should have stopped there and it could have been good, but they brought God and religion into it. Grace doesn’t believe in God, so each show has her big guy angel appear and sprout big, white wings. Then they have a little talk about God and religion which doesn’t interest me in the least. Am I the only one who feels this way? I wrote about it after the first episode and said mostly the same things, but I was hoping it might change direction a little . . . but no luck.

If I wanted to learn about religion, I wouldn’t look to television for it. “Saving Grace” has turned into one big revival meeting which I will no longer be attending. It’s probably getting some run-off from “The Closer” which is an excellent show, but that’s it for me.

A few years ago I was staying with my two grandsons while Cindy and her husband were gone for a couple of days. I was through with my chores, and Larry, their wonderful dog, and I lay down on the floor for a well-deserved rest. I looked back on my life and wondered why things had turned out as they had. Why had I never won the lottery – I bought one ticket a month so should have had some luck along the way. And I don’t think I had ever grasped the correct dating concept after my divorce such as dating reliable, trustworthy, single men as opposed to unreliable, untrustworthy . . . and sort of married men. And why couldn’t I ever get a tomato plant to grow at my condo? And why did the bicyclist yell at me and give me the finger when he rode in front of my car? And how can I go so quickly from crying at a Hallmark commercial to laughing out loud at “The Office?” I also wondered why everyone in the world hates us so much, but I think we all know the answer to that one! That was enough reminiscing – I had other things to worry about.

I had an appointment coming up with a physician who had operated on me a while back, and I was always a little leery of seeing him. He had told me when he sedated me before the operation that I would still be able to talk to him throughout the surgery. This was not at all reassuring to me at the time as I would remember none of it after the operation. Would he ask for my political affiliation? Would he ask for my pin number? Would he ask about my sex life, and was I getting any, and if not, why not? All those questions were of a big concern to me. As far as the operation part, I had complete confidence in my physician, so that was no problem. I asked him about it later, and he was very noncommittal, so I assumed all my secrets were still intact. But why does he give me a funny look every time I have an appointment with him . . . why the secret little smile. . . what does he know about me that he shouldn’t?

I began to feel better, and Larry and I lay on the floor until it was time to get dinner. I will never forget how much comfort Larry brought me. Dogs are very special.

My Health Book

I recently found a Health Book notebook that I made when I was in the third grade. It covers many topics, a few of which I’m going to list below. I also did all the illustrations which are much better than I do now, even when I’m really trying! The picture above was on the page of Health Rules about drinking. I think the two guys are drinking whiskey as there’s a W on each bottle. One of the guys is getting ready to fall on his face. I don’t think I knew how to draw him on the ground, but you get the picture.

Healthy Minds

1. Do not think bad thoughts
2. Do not say bad words
3. Be kind to animals
4. Always think nice thoughts

Calmness and Health

1. Do not get excited
2. Do not walk up and down and look worried
3. When you are excited, sit down and stop being excited
4. Do not look worried and be mad all the time

Health Laws

1. Do not spit on the sidewalks
2. If you are sick or have measles, do not play with other children
3. Do not smoke while you are children
4. Do not drink whiskey or any kind of bad drinks

Health Rules

1. Don’t drink whiskey
2. Don’t drink any kind of beer with alcohol in it
3. Don’t drink when you are steering anything or riding in anything
4. Don’t drink beer

I say these are rules to live by, and they’ve stood the test of time.

“Rescue Me” – 8/8/07

This episode begins with Tommy returning home minus the baby. Janet jumps all over him and finally realizes he has given baby to Sheila. Thus begins one of the worst physical fight scenes between a man and a woman I have ever seen! It was almost too realistic, and I can’t imagine either one coming out of it without some bruises. Eventually, Janet grabs a cast iron skillet (it looked like one) and bangs him over the head, knocking him onto the kitchen table which collapses under him. She stands over him and screams, “He’s my goddamn son, and he came from me. I decide what happens to him. I decide who raises him, not you – me. And I don’t want that filthy whore’s goddamn hands on my son. This is it.” She runs out with her daughter, jumps in the car to leave, but Tommy manages to get out there and stand in front of the car, so she runs into him. He’s not hurt too much, so she leaves.

Tommy goes back upstairs and enters into a period of hallucinations where he sees his dead friends and relatives who are all angry with him. They tell him he thinks of no one but himself and has let them down. Tommy imagines a fire and takes an axe to break through a door where actually there is no fire. He finally falls asleep, but he didn’t take a drink. Mickey, his AA counselor cousin, comes over in the morning and takes a look around and says, “Time for a meeting.” Tommy agrees but has to put the axe away first!

Tommy calls in sick for work and tells Lou that Janet hit him. Lou says. “Was it a baseball bat, spatula, gun, tea kettle?” The squad hears the conversation, and screws up the facts, as usual. They go to a fire and hit a car with their truck. A woman gets out, all covered with what looks like blood. Lou grabs her and tells everyone she’s in shock and that they’ll take care of her. She keeps saying she’s all right, and he looks at all the blood on her chest and runs his finger across it which he then sniffs and tastes! He says, “Tomato soup – delicious – got any left?” She tells him it’s home made.

Tommy walks into squad room where all the guys are talking about what happened to him. So Tommy says he wants everything out in the open about what happened between Janet and him. He asks what the guys think went on:

Lou: Well, there are several schools of thought on this. There are those who think that she stabbed you, and there are those who think that she hit you with a baseball bat. And Mike thinks that she hit you with a gun.
Feinberg: What happened to the tea kettle?
Tommy: Why would she hit me with a gun?
Sean: Well, maybe she didn’t have any bullets.
Tommy clears it all up and tells them she ran over him with her car. I think I like the scenes with all the guys in the squad room the best. Tommy is always hyper and the crew is so funny, always talking fast – they make me laugh every time they’re together. And Lou’s character is written so well for him. He’s hilarious!

Tommy decides he’ll date Chief Feinberg’s daughter just once, especially because the chief sort of blackmailed him into it. He meets Beth (Amy Sedaris) for lunch. Amy Sedaris is one if the funniest actresses I’ve ever seen. I used to watch her in “Strangers With Candy” which was a very crazy show. I wish she could be in the show permanently as she would add levity which is needed at times. I laughed out loud throughout the entire scene. If she were on more, maybe we’d find out if it’s true what Lou said about Jewish girls. Tommy and Beth are talking at the lunch table, and Beth talks fast, giggles all the time, erupts with laughter over anything and appears to be quite manic. She says nonsensical things that seem to come from way out of left field! She gets a call from her shrink on her cell, and they talk about medications. Tommy notices Gina Gershon across the room and she notices him. Tommy sees smoke down the street and races to it and up into a building where he rescues a guy before fire department even arrives. He comes back to Beth and she notices his hand is all bloody. About that time, Gina leaves and puts her phone number in Tommy’s shirt pocket as she passes him. Beth doesn’t like that, but rushes off to get something for Tommy’s hand. As the show ends, Tommy’s staring at his hand and poking his finger under the bloody skin - another weird ending with Tommy, but one leaving you eagerly awaiting the next episode.

“Damages” – third episode

This show just keeps getting more exciting every time! The episode opens in present day time with David, bloody and dead in the bathtub. Ellen is standing over him, holding the Statue of Liberty bookend which obviously killed him.

Then back to 5 months earlier where Patty finds out she needs more information on Frobisher before they can go to court, and she has only a few days to get it. So it’s crunch time for everyone. About then, Patty opens a box sent to her that contains a grenade. It turns out not to be a live one, but everyone clears out and moves to her apartment to work She is assigned a secret service agent to follow her everywhere, all the time.

Katie’s friend, Gregory, from Florida appears on the scene, and it turns out they have been in contact recently, and Gregory is more than a one-night stand which Katie had told Patty. They make love while Katie’s dog watches close by, yawning all the time. He says he knows nothing and doesn’t want to see Patty. He wears a wedding ring. What is up with those two?

Frobisher screws around with his attorney, making him think he may have been responsible for the grenade. He tells secret service he’ll give them access to all his information, and then tells attorney not to do anything. It’s no wonder Ray, the attorney, looks so pale and listless all the time. Ted Danson is so evil and smarmy in his role!

Back to present day – Mr. Nye, the attorney, goes to see Ellen where she’s being held and asks her why she didn’t call Patty. All she says is, “Just get me outa’ here.”

Back to earlier times - Patty talks to her secret service guy and tells him how she was attacked years earlier by a CEO she had just demolished in a court battle. He slashed her as she was leaving the courthouse. Patty says, “Taking power away from a man is a dangerous thing – someone always pays.”

Patty’s son is a real fruitcake. Patty and Phil, her husband and Michael’s stepfather, meet with school officials who tell them Michael hacked into school records and stole information about everyone who worked there or attended school - all kinds of personal information. There were many other offenses, and Patty and Phil are hoping they will suspend him, but the school decides to give him another chance. Patty has Uncle Pete dig up more information on Michael which is really frightening.

In the meantime, Phil is driving out of the parking garage while the “Dying Aria” from La Boheme is playing. As the car moves out of the garage and turns the corner, the singer reaches the climax (not hers), and as she hits the very high note, you hear a crash. As soon as I heard that music getting louder, I knew bad things would happen. Phil ends up in the hospital with a bloody forehead. He had been reaching for his glasses in the glove compartment, and there was a grenade there instead. He crashed the car into something and hit his forehead on the windshield.

Patty has dinner with Michael and asks him why he is behaving so badly. He says he tries to make himself stupid as he’s scared of being smarter than his mother and afraid she’s going to realize it. This is one nasty, hateful, screwed-up kid. He tells her when he makes her laugh or get angry, he’s controlling her! Is he some kind of pod person or what? She gets nowhere with him and tells him it has to stop right now. He walks out of the restaurant and a guy drags him into a waiting SUV that speeds off down the street. Patty comes out of the restaurant and talks to a man with papers that have Claremont Reform Academy as a heading. It’s an enrollment agreement. So Michael will be away for a while, hopefully a very long while. In the information that was given to Patty, it apparently showed Michael buying the grenades on-line. So he was the one. Patty signs the enrollment papers there on the street.

Back to the present – Ellen tells Attorney Nye, “I didn’t kill David – someone tried to kill me.” One scene at the end shows detectives saying they know she didn’t kill David because a neighbor heard a big fight going on over there, and then she stormed out, leaving her engagement ring. The last scene is horrible - lots of screaming, Ellen falling all over the place and bloody, dog trying to get out, more screaming and then that was it. A terrible way to end, but it sure makes you want to watch next week.

Bonding

I was recently looking through old photo albums as I occasionally do when there’s nothing I want to watch on television which, I must say, is extremely seldom! I just came across this photo of Pat, my oldest grandson, who is all grown up now, I think, although I very rarely see him. But Cindy, his mother, tells me he’s a big boy now.

I thought this was a very sweet picture of mother and son in a bonding moment. Cindy is apparently shaving her legs in the tub, and Pat is answering all of her incoming calls. Now what could bring a mother and son closer than that? Pat loved phones from a very early age on, and was always practicing when he could get his hands on one. When he would be visiting and I was babysitting, he practiced but I could never get him to take down a message . . . probably because he hadn’t yet learned how to write. That all came later. I wonder if Cindy got any of the messages while she was in the tub.

I don’t think Pat has the beady, red-eyed look he had in the photo anymore. That was just my way of taking pictures at that time. I think he looks quite normal and very good-looking now, at least he did the last time I saw him.

“Rescue Me”

Last night it started in a very dark and horrifying way with a huge fire that killed seven children and a woman. The scenes showing the fire and the firemen seemed so real that I just sat there, sort of stunned as it all played out. Black Sean, the Probie, who took the other Sean’s name, worked closely with Tommy and actually saved his life. This will take them out of their contentious relationship for a while. After the fire, Tommy calls Janet who is screaming at their daughter, Kathleen, who is a little bitch most of the time. Tommy asks about the baby and Janet says he’s asleep – she gives him Benadryl so he won’t cry all the time. Janet seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into depression. She doesn’t love the baby, no one does, and he has no name as yet. After the disappointing phone call, Tommy reads from his AA book that he got from his AA counselor, Mickey Gavin, his cousin. Tommy doesn’t believe in God, but he reads this book sometimes. He’s reading a part about God and faith and one passage reads, “This faith you must pass onto your children who do not have the power to find it on their own.” Tommy has very conflicting emotions concerning God and religion. He seems to be searching for something while professing he believes in nothing. I worry about Tommy and his family, especially the no-name baby.

At the squad’s basketball game, Lou’s horny girlfriend, the ex-nun, is sitting in the stands and raising her skirt slightly with her legs apart for Lou to see . . . or probably anyone else. During the game, the team has a huddle and Lou draws a giant vagina on some paper. He tells them the reason they play sports is to meet girls, so they should look at that vagina and go score more points so they can all get laid and make more money! After the game, Lou meets the horny girlfriend in the hall with his squad standing behind him. He tells her they should break it off and she agrees. As she walks away, she says she needs to get her handcuffs, her whip and her leather lingerie back . . . also the box of edible panties. Lou says he ate all the panties and Franco asks if they were chocolate flavored. Apparently there were many favors!

Franco meets with Alicia who is back from Europe with his little girl. She wants him to move in with her and his daughter, so he tells her about being engaged to Natalie now. He goes home where he finds Natalie asleep in bed alongside her autistic, Tourette’s syndrome-afflicted brother whom she takes care of every day. Franco gets a beer and sits down and just sits. You wonder if he’s wondering whether or not he made the right choice.

Sean tells Mikey he broke into his house and the locked closet where he found pictures of Mikey’s gay parents. He says he thinks that’s why Mikey is gay. Mikey says he’s not and says just because you have gay parents doesn’t make you gay. But Sean tells him it increases your chances. He also tells Mikey he burned the house down by accident. Mikey doesn’t seem too upset about that. Those two aren’t the swiftest guys in the firehouse.

Tommy calls Sheila who mentions the “Baby Fire” the media is calling the fire where the seven kids died. He tells her the fire was awful – they were dropping kids out the window as the truck drove up. He asks Sheila if she still wants Janet’s baby. She offered before and said she’s the only one who loves the baby, and he loves her – he never cries with her. She says she does want him, but Tommy says he can’t do it and hangs up. He packs some baby stuff and takes the baby out to the car and starts driving. Mick, his AA counselor calls him and mentions the “Baby Fire,” which sets Tommy off on a rant about God and how he could let things like that happen. He says why don’t they call the fire a, “God doesn’t really give a shit about poor black kids’ fire,” type of fire rather than the other name. Mick and Tommy argue about God and Tommy finally says, “Nobody knows nothin’, Mick – not until it happens.” And Mick replies, “You’re wrong. Everything happens for a reason.” Tommy drives to the river and puts the baby in his car seat on a bench. As he’s standing by the railing, his dead brother, Johnny, appears and lists all the reasons Tommy should put the baby in the river even though they think it’s his own baby. He doesn’t think the baby has a chance with a mother who doesn’t love him and Tommy as a father. He says “Do it for me.” Tommy picks up the baby, and dangles him above the river. Of course, the show ends with that picture, and we’re left with a sickening feeling, wondering just what happens.

This show began on an ominous note and ended even more so. Tommy needs to get his act together and Janet definitely needs help. It seems as though nearly all of the squad has something going on that brings them down in some way. As far as I’m concerned, this was a cliff-hanger to end all cliff-hangers! I can hardly wait until next week.

“Damages” – episode 2

I just watched the second episode and was glued to my couch – I couldn’t even take a bathroom break. After last week’s shocking episode beginning with Ellen tearing through Manhattan, covered in her boyfriend’s blood and ending with Patty Hewes receiving the bloody dog collar of Saffron, Katie’s dead dog, from Tom, whom she recently fired but keeps secretly on retainer to do dirty work for her, I was prepared for anything this week. Katie is the sister of Tom who is Ellen’s boyfriend. Katie catered a lunch for Arthur Frobisher in Palm Beach a while back on the day he did the dirty deed and may know something about the case Patty has against him right now.

So this week it’s back to the present for a while, but then back to six months earlier when most of the action takes place. Patty manipulates everyone, but it’s fun watching her do it. She can be so sweet and disarming with her beautiful smile shining brightly, while at the same time she may be planning your dog’s death or possibly something worse . . . as if there were anything worse. Patty needs Katie to give her information about Frobisher which she may have, but Katie lies and Patty knows it – Patty knows everything! Katie doesn’t want to be a witness in the case against Frobisher, but Patty tells her, “I want the straight story, and until you tell me, I don’t give a shit about you.” Frobisher backed Katie in her restaurant business, and now he wants her to sign another confidentiality agreement to keep her from testifying against him which she won’t do. But after the dog incident, Katie signs the agreement because she thinks it was Frobisher who had her dog killed, when actually it was Patty. Patty’s not only beautiful, she’s also very devious and ruthless. Before Frobisher realizes Katie has signed the agreement, he talks to a man about taking Katie out of the picture. Frobisher isn’t ready for anything so drastic yet, but that evening there is a scene with him and a hooker having sex in the back seat of a car. When they’re done, he roughly shoves her off and they both snort something. He has such a horrible, evil look on his face that it made me cringe. He grabs his cell and calls the guy saying, “Do it!” I have never seen Ted Danson like that. He was very scary and ugly! Excellent acting.

So back to the present . . . Ellen won’t say anything at the police station, but they find a card on her from Hollis Nye (Philip Bosco) who was her mentor at his firm before she hired on with Patty. He identifies her picture and that’s what leads the police to her apartment where they find her dead boyfriend who was apparently killed with a Statue of Liberty bookend – you know the kind with all the spiky things sticking out of the head - given to David and Ellen as an engagement present from Katie. Katie knew they liked “kitschy” things. I think Hollis will be showing up periodically, but you never know if he’s going to be good or bad. You don’t know if anyone in this is going to be good or bad!

Back to six months earlier . . . many things occur as Patty is busy manipulating everyone and seeking information to help her case against Frobisher. Katie seems to be the main witness even though she may not know anything. The hit man makes one attempt on her life, but fails. Frobisher tries frantically to stop him but never makes the right connection with him. So will Katie eventually be killed off? Will others by killed off? It’s really hard to keep up with everything as there’s so much going on. I wish Ellen would add a little more expression and life to her character as she comes across somewhat bland. Maybe she’s in a state of shock!

I can hardly wait to see what’s in store for next week. I hope they finally get Ellen some other clothes to wear in the interrogation room that aren’t bloody, and maybe a little makeup wouldn’t hurt. And do something with her hair!