We had a little more snow this morning, but not too much. And now rain for most of the day. BUT!! Supposedly, it will be sunny by the time I’m meeting my girlfriend for lunch at the Peony Bistro this afternoon!!

I need this little outing desperately, gang. The stress here just doesn’t quit.

The new patient I was assigned this week by the agency has already cancelled two shifts. Yesterday was one of them.

While this is a loss of money for me, it was kind of a relief to suddenly have the whole day off, because Peitor and I are now in the same time zone (he’s in Montreal) and we have so much to do to get the package together for our TV series proposal. And we get a lot more done when we’re in the same time zone.

For instance, we spent 6 hours yesterday, working on ONE sentence (the logline), and the opening paragraph of the synopsis.

However…

In those intensely focused 6 hours, the agency contacted me FOUR times with shifts they wanted me to take. (I said yes to only one of them, for Sunday evening.) But I hate turning down work so that made me stressed out , too.

And my work with Peitor was running much longer than I’d anticipated, so I missed the funeral home visitation hours of my client who died on Monday.

And now the Dramatists Guild is up in arms about Trump and the Kennedy Center stuff. They sent out a letter to members yesterday, detailing their extremely politicized stand on it — not once mentioning in the letter that the primary show that lost it’s funding was a drag musical aimed at children. Also not mentioning that Trump’s Administration has a problem with using federal funding (i.e. taxpayer money) for drag shows aimed at children — even if the shows might be fun.

Also, they didn’t mention that Trump put Rick Grenell in charge of the Kennedy Center for now, and that Grenell is openly and completely gay.

That might temper everyone’s outrage if they included details like those. So they can’t do that.

Obviously, all this stuff is only fueling the never ending political fire that will now be surrounding “The Guide to Being Fabulous” Off-Broadway, and I have about zero energy for dealing with that.

But the only other option is to bow out and after 12 years of working on this show with Sandra — bowing out is not something I’m interested in doing.

So yesterday was just — oh my god.

But one good thing yesterday — Wayne got back to us with his opinion of the Pilot script. A lot of it he found confusing, because he isn’t into any social media or things like that (he’s 70, now, just fyi). He did say that he found it interesting, and if it came on the TV, he wouldn’t have turned it off or changed the channel. He wanted to know what was going to happen.

So that was good!

This morning, gang, as I was laying in bed after my prayer work and meditation, I was trying to understand how I really felt about all this “drag shows aimed at children” stuff.

If it’s not overtly sexual or eroticized, and if it’s fun and engaging — what is the real harm?

I thought back to my own childhood, and we had things like “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” on TV, and the cast recording of the Broadway musical “Hair” when I was 8 years old. My parents, our neighborhood, our elementary school was okay with us listening to or watching all this stuff. We had two gay men living together in the house across the street from us, and no one wanted to run them out of town.

(from “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”)

And while I did not know the label for it yet, I was bisexual from the time I was 6 years old — and then forever onward. I won’t detail all of it here, you can read my previously published memoirs and essays if you feel like it.

But it was never supported by anybody when I was a girl. People thought I was a freak, so I learned to not tell too many people about that part of me that was inordinately fond of girls.

And then, this morning, I remembered an amazing night, back in 1973, when I was 13 years old. It was incredible, gang. I was over at my cousin’s house because our parents were playing bridge. It was already late and she and I were watching “The Midnight Special” on TV …

And what to my wondering eyes should appear — but Marianne Faithfull dressed as a nun, and David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust get-up, singing “I Got You, Babe.”

Granted, I was no longer in elementary school, but I was still young, and that moment blew my mind in the most amazing way. I was thrilled by it. I was glued to the TV.

And then my uncle happened to come into the room and he was instantly furious. Just completely outraged by it but he didn’t make us turn it off.

Still, I had to ask myself this morning, how different was all of that from drag musicals aimed at children nowadays? I don’t know. But isn’t theater supposed to break boundaries and make statements?

What I do know is that not Bowie, nor any of the glitter or glam rock singers, nor Lou Reed & Rachel, ever expected the Federal Government to fund their endeavors with taxpayer money.

That part was really different, wasn’t it?

Anyway. There is a lot to think about it, regarding all of that. The only thing that really saved me back in the 1970s was the music. The entirely un-government-funded music. And I am not overstating that.

Okay. I gotta scoot!!!! I’m off to spend a few wonderful hours with my 94-year-old Japanese client!!

Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world, gang.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

**********

Why wouldn’t I leave you with this today???? It took place late at night, on Friday, November 16, 1973.

Enjoy, gang.