New Year’s Eve in Manhattan

In 1998, I went to visit Teri, Mark and Harry in Manhattan. Harry was three years old. We were going to celebrate New Year’s Eve as you can see in the picture of Teri and Mark. I don’t remember just when we got sick, but things got pretty bad. I had a fever and fainted twice getting off the toilet. Fortunately, Mark was nice enough to lift me off the floor! Harry was very sick and I remember a lot of screaming when he had to take medicine. Things were pretty bad, to say the least. The weather was bad and it rained most of the time. I got so sick that Teri decided I needed to go to the hospital which was down the street from them. It was really down the street! I couldn’t walk so they put me in Harry’s stroller and away we went! When we got to the hospital, some women out in front called Teri a bitch – I don’t know what brought that on unless they thought she was abusing me. Teri was busy with me or she probably would have taken them out!

Nothing much happened in the hospital – someone told me to drink Gatorade and that was about it. So then Teri had to push me back up the hill. I don’t know how she did it. She’s one special daughter. I didn’t get better, but my reservation to fly home was very soon, so I managed to shuffle onto the plane when the time came. By then I had completely lost my voice and had quite a fever. I had to go to the bathroom once on the plane, so I staggered in and sat down and put my head down between my knees and just sat. All of a sudden a man pushed open the door, looked at me and apologized all over the place. I told him it was fine – I didn’t care. He probably didn’t hear me as I had no voice. When we finally arrived in Portland, my friend, Jeanie, met me with a wheelchair and took me out. Her husband was waiting in front so I got out in one piece. I think someone took me to the doctor the next day for medication.

My only regret is that we didn’t take a picture of me in the stroller! Wouldn’t that be a great picture? Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve and I’m sick again, but nothing like 1998. I'm certainly not planning on falling off my toilet this year.

Christmas at BROWNIE MORRISON’S!!!

The top picture is of the front of Cindy’s shop and the bottom picture is Cindy, the little shopkeeper, taking a much needed break from her duties.

I traveled to Tacoma to spend Christmas with Cindy and family, and I spent some time in her new store – Brownie Morrison. She has crazy cards, pictures, jewelry and all kinds of funky stuff. She’s put so much work and time into it getting ready, and when she did open it almost two weeks ago, people were there every day paying her money for her stuff! She finds it hard to believe people would pay her money. I’d feel the same way but would probably get used to it if it kept up. What a wonderful feeling that must be! I’m so very proud of her as this is something she has always wanted to do and finally did. Mick, her ex-husband who is a very good friend, is helping her get it going. Both Cindy and Mick got sick the day after I arrived which speaks poorly of my presence. I wonder if I do that with other people or just reserve it for family members.

I stayed in a condo on the floor below Cindy’s as there wasn’t enough room for all of us at her place. I cooked Christmas dinner and got instructions on cooking a rib roast from Teri by cell phone in Brooklyn who looked it up on the internet. The roast was delicious and blood rare, of course. Cindy brought April, her mastiff, down with them as April can’t stand to be away from her. I was in a small place, and with April underfoot all the time it made getting dinner difficult. And while we ate, April drooled all over the pretty coffee table. I’m sure that’s the last time that gal will let anybody use her condo. She was a friend of Cindy’s – was is probably the operative word. It was so good being with family on Christmas. I got to spend time with Pat and Nick, my grandsons, whom I rarely see. I talked to Harry, Mark and Teri in Brooklyn which was great. Teri asked Cindy if I ever came up to her condo, and Cindy said, “No, but we talk on cell phones.” What a modern Christmas!

We didn’t have time for an I ETA PI sorority meeting as Cindy was busy all the time with customers. But she had the Betty Broderick movie on her television all the time, so Betty was very much in the picture. In fact, I think the Betty movie played over and over all the time. Some day Teri, Cindy and I will get together up there and have a real meeting. Maybe we’ll initiate new members if they’re able to pass the test. Cindy has 3 questions all prospective members must be able to answer about the Betty movie before they may be initiated. I wonder what Betty would think if she knew all the fuss made about her. Maybe when she gets out of prison next year, she’ll travel to Tacoma to get rid of Cindy just as she did with her ex-husband and his new wife. We sorority members are going to have to watch out for each other when Betty is out. In the meantime, Brownie Morrison will keep on and the movie will keep playing. Cindy is a good shopkeeper!

Sorority News – I ETA PI

This is a picture of Cindy in her presidential sorority t-shirt. I used the picture once before, but who’s keeping track? I’m going up to see her and her new shop - Brownie Morrison - that I just wrote about. I’ll be going to her shop where she plans to have me sit on a throne-like chair, wearing my t-shirt that says “House Mother.” Teri is the Godfather but she won’t be attending due to all sorts of things such as distance, work, weather, she doesn’t like us anymore – just kidding about that last one. So I don’t know if we’ll have a real meeting or not. Cindy is trying to get new members to join, but they have to pass a test which she administers right there. They have to answer 3 questions from the Betty Broderick television movie – you know the one about Betty who killed her husband and his new wife and was a real bitch. If it’s not familiar to you, you probably don’t want to join the sorority, and that’s ok. So I’m all ready to go and my t-shirt is already packed. Cindy is having new t-shirts made up and I’ll be eager to see them. I ETA PI will be around for years, and we will be proud to wear the shirts. We won’t have any skanky cheerleaders and no wild parties. Women will look up to us.

I must add something here. I recently wrote about a bad experience with Bank of America where I couldn’t get a live person to talk to me. They were all robots or automated voices telling me what number to press and why was I really calling. I did everything like they said, but after going through it many, many times I was so pissed that I wrote Bank of America and told them what I thought. I asked if they actually had any real people working or were they all let go when BofA hit hard times. Hard times with big bonuses! So yesterday I got a letter about my mortgage and I decided to try again. The same thing happened, but after a while I got a real live man! I was so excited and asked him if he was actually alive, and he said he was a robot! So we talked and he helped me with what I wanted to know. So I just want to say BofA actually has one nice man working there that I know of . . . hopefully there are more.

It seems like we just had Christmas!!

Time goes so fast that it’s hard to keep up. This picture is of an old Christmas time with Teri, Cindy and Brownie. Brownie was a wonderful dog and loved by all of us. I eventually ran over him so that was the end of Brownie. That was a horrible day for everyone, especially Brownie. But Cindy honors him with her porn name – Brownie Morrison. Brownie was her first dog and Cindy lived on Morrison Street. Cindy now has a shop in Tacoma where she has goofy cards, jewelry, t-shirts and much crazy stuff. The name of her shop is Brownie Morrison. I’ll be spending Christmas with her and hope to get some good pictures of her shop . . . and possibly some of Cindy and her family.

Teri and family are staying in New York where there is a big storm expected. Last year they came here where we had a big storm. I wish we could all be together, but it doesn’t work that way when no one lives in the same place. I miss my girls a lot, but it’s not like in the old days when people married and lived right next to family like my parents did. Teri could open a shop in Brooklyn where she is now living and call it Brownie Morrison as she lived on the same street as Cindy obviously. I don’t suppose she could handle that along with her other career. I even thought of doing something like that, but my porn name would be Puggy Route3 Box 525. I don’t think that’s a very sexy name for a shop . . . or anything, for that matter.

I had Doyle and Diane for lunch yesterday. I made macaroni and cheese as Diane really likes it, and Doyle had a turkey sandwich as Diane didn’t think he really liked macaroni and cheese. I took the recipe off the internet, and I think it said it was simple which suited me just fine as I’m very simple. Well, it took longer than I thought and didn’t seem at all simple to me. Maybe I’m beyond simple . . . could that be stupid? As I was cooking, my handy man came to fix a leaky window, and I couldn’t remember how much milk I had put in. So I put more in. Then I turned up the burner and turned my back on it, and when I turned around it looked like a big mushroom cloud coming out of the pot! I caught it before it went all over the stove. So I had a few minor happenings like that, but it turned out really well and tasted wonderful. Doyle even liked it. I don’t plan on making it again very soon.

So Merry Christmas to everyone who happens to read this and even to people who don’t. Might as well include everyone!

GLEE and NIP/TUCK

I watched the season finale of GLEE last week and was blown away by the singing. Rachel(Lea Michele) sang “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from “Funny Girl,” and the staging for her performance was perfect! Her voice is fantastic and her rendition of the song sent chills up and down my body. However, it has been awfully cold here lately so that might have had something to do with it. But I don’t think so. She was terrific. Mercedes(Amber Riley) also sang - she’s a real diva with an absolutely gorgeous voice. Another cast member Kurt(Chris Colfer) has a beautiful soprano voice and a definite taste for off-beat fashion. He’s very good. The entire cast is great – Jane Lynch plays the bitch so well, and she’s fun to watch as the leader of the Cheerios, a rally squad. She makes all kinds of trouble for the glee club, but never actually comes out on top. The glee club is made up of jocks, nerds, a gay kid and minorities. They’re not the kind of student you would expect in a school choir, but that’s what makes this show so special. Many of the situations that come up are implausible, but they’re not dwelt upon and everything moves along quickly. I think this is a blockbuster show and I can hardly wait for it to come back.

Right after GLEE I watched NIP/TUCK which is on FX – a Fox network. Both these shows are created by Ryan Murphy who is quite talented and inventive! NIP/TUCK is about two plastic surgeons who have a practice together. The show has graphic depictions of sex, violence and surgery. That just about says it all. The first time I saw it I had never seen anything like that on cable television – I had on HBO but you can see anything on HBO. I couldn’t decide if I would keep watching, but, of course, I did and I see it every week. I find it so funny that Ryan Murphy created GLEE – those two shows couldn’t be more different. I can see some of Murphy’s touch in GLEE which makes it understandable when things get a little edgy or quirky. NIP/TUCK is going off the air sometime in 2011 and Murphy will devote his time to GLEE and whatever else he comes up with. Maybe he’ll carry NIP/TUCK over to GLEE and we’ll see glee club members having sex while they sing! I hope he restrains himself and keeps GLEE as it should be. I will miss NIP/TUCK when it leaves.

What a difference a few years make!

The picture on top is the Christmas card sent to me by Steve, Rita, Reggie and Hayden. Rita is a friend of my daughter, Teri, and has been since high school. She is also my friend. They live here in town so I see them occasionally. The bottom picture was taken in August of 2002 when Teri’s son, Harry, was visiting and Reggie and Hayden were over making cookies. We had a fun time, and it looks like I’m hanging onto the bowl so they wouldn’t grab it away from me. I think Harry might have done that as he was already licking the spoon I used to sir them. But that really didn’t matter as we all ate right out of the bowl – there’s nothing like homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. There was enough dough left to make a couple of cookies, so that was ok. Reggie was clutching her doll and Hayden was waiting for his turn with the spoon in that picture.

Looking at the pictures, it’s startling to see the difference in the kids. The top picture is recent and Reggie is gorgeous! She’ll be 15 in just a couple of days, and then she’ll be able to start driving with a permit. Happy days for the family! Hayden is handsome, 18 and can already drive. When did all this happen? Where did the time go? I’ve had pictures of Harry on the blog before, and in some recent ones he looks about 20 years old but is actually 14. It was so much fun when they were little and did little things like making cookies. Or maybe it’s that I’m the kind of person with a little mind who likes little things and doesn’t want to think about really growing up. Whatever it is, I love looking back at the old times. The old times were fleeting, and I wonder if we actually appreciated them as much at the time as we do looking back.

I still make chocolate chip cookies and still fill up on the dough as I make them. The only difference between then and now is there is no one here to do it with me.

I’ll put their Christmas picture up on my fridge where all important things go like family pictures, doctor appointments, hair appointments, dirty jokes, etc. My fridge door is full. But isn’t that the way it should be?

Exasperating days!

Yesterday afternoon I was on the phone with Bank of America for about 2 hours, trying to find a live person who would talk to me. I had to listen to many automated voices telling me to punch this and that, which I did over and over again, but I never got anyplace at all. Finally, one of the voices said there seemed to be a glitch in the system and they couldn’t help me. Maybe I could call back tomorrow? I was so pissed off by that time, I just gave it up. So this morning, bright and early, I started in again. You see, BofA has my mortgage. I used to be with Country Wide until they went down the toilet and BofA bought them out. But I want to talk to them about my payments and taxes and all those fun things that homeowners do. So this morning I started in again and got many automated voices, punched many numbers in until finally one of them said, “I don’t think we’ll be able to help you right now. Maybe you could call back later?” Those were all automated voices – no live person. By then I was so mad that I started calling their local banks here in town and got the same runaround from them. This all makes me wonder if possibly Bank of America has no employees at all – I know they had hard times, but do you suppose no one is actually there? I’ve had hard times, but I always answer my phone unless I’m not here and then the machine does. Does that tell you something? I always call back too. I finally gave up on BofA and went across the street to Wells Fargo where I do all my banking. I told her my dilemma and she laughed as she knew what I was talking about. I asked her to take over my mortgage, but that’s no simple process so we both agreed it was not the answer.

So then I headed out to Safeway for some shopping. When I parked, I must have hit some button or something because the alarm went off and the lights started flashing! I pushed the alarm button, but nothing happened. This went on and on so I dragged out my trusty owner’s manual and tried to find a solution. I had no luck, so I called Tom Dwyer, my mechanic’s company who takes care of me. I said it was Patsy with the Volvo, and I’ll bet he looked at the other guys there and rolled his eyes! He gave me a lot of suggestions that didn’t work, but finally came up with one that did. I got out of the car and shut the door – that was it. They have come to my aid so many times. They have real, live people there – not at all like Bank of America. I wonder how many businesses actually have no employees anymore. That could account for all the unemployment.

I don’t have a picture of me and my Volvo, so I used a picture of my dad and his . . . I don’t know what it was. But it was a car.