Holy shit, gang! I officially got old!!

Well, I mean, aside from the fact that I’m semi-retired and already on Social Security.

And in about 56 days, I start Medicare. And Long-Term Care insurance. And my cremation/burial insurance kicks in…

Aside from those seemingly huge red flags that I choose to ignore —

These last 48 hours have just about killed me.

I know I would have fared better had I simply taken Friday and Saturday off, and just focused on having a great time with Kara at the hotel and seeing Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. And doing all that driving at a more leisurely pace.

But I just didn’t have it in my heart to put my favorite 94-year-old Japanese man through all that. He really suffers noticeably when he has an unfamiliar substitute caregiver even for one day. And so two days would have been really hard on him.

So I just decided to cram everything in to 24 hours. And it wiped me out.

When Kara and I were finally on the freeway yesterday, heading for Columbus, I decided to use the Google GPS, so that I could just chat with Kara and not make her have to pay attention to the Google map I had printed out.

That was my first mistake, of course, because as soon as we got even remotely near downtown Columbus, the traffic kicked in. And the GPS would just suddenly say what I needed to do — 2 or 3 lanes over. Which was close to impossible to maneuver because of the traffic.

Especially since Columbus drivers tend to be really aggressive and rude. So within basically spitting distance from downtown, I was forced to make 3 wrong turns, to try to somehow get back to where I needed to be.

In all that traffic.

And then when we finally got to the hotel, we had trouble seeing the valet parking, so we drove right past it. (There was scaffolding on the front of the hotel and it sort of masked the valet parking area.)

But I do have to say that the staff at that hotel were the friendliest, most helpful staff I have encountered in a really, really long time, gang. And the hotel was really beautiful. And the room was great.

Oh, and in case you’re curious — Kara even looks pretty in the dark!

Around 8am yesterday morning, the room was pitch dark except for a hint of daylight coming in through the bathroom window. I went over to gently wake Kara. She was snuggled way down in the comforter and all those puffy pillows. But when her head popped up, with her long brown hair hanging down over her bare shoulders —

ME (whispering): “Oh my god, Kara, you’re even pretty in the dark!”

ANYWAY!!

When we first got to our room, I was worn out from the crazy driving. And I needed a shower. So, while beautiful, non-exhausted, 7-years-younger Kara was down in the mezzanine, having free champagne and listening to gentle acoustic music, and Nick Cave-spotting (!!), I was up in the room, in the shower– UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT HOW THE FUCKING THING WORKED!

ME: “Jesus Christ! Don’t tell me I’m too old to figure out how to work the shower??”

This trickle of ice cold water was spraying out at me, and I was turning the knob and trying to read (without my glasses, of course) which way was hot, which way was cold, I finally gave up and pressed the button for the handheld thingie and SUDDENLY there was a massive happy spraying of hot water ALL OVER my face and perfectly coiffed HAIR.

At that point, I gave up that idea that I would look good for the remainder of the trip. And I hoped that my (usually) pleasing personality would just, you know, wildly overcompensate for the waterfall damage done to me in the shower.

However…

The food at the brasserie was really good, gang. We had an early dinner there (and also breakfast the next morning — AND the guitar and bass players for the Bad Seeds were having breakfast there, too!)

And, as I had kind of suspected — once Kara found out what I’d paid for the room, she cheerfully picked up the tab for absolutely everything else.

Honestly, we had such a great time.

But then, during the actual concert, I got REALLY old!

But, thankfully, the God of rock-&-roll (no, not Nick Cave, the actual GOD of rock-&-roll), had whispered in my ear just as we were finding our seats and he told me to switch seats with Kara. We were sitting one in front of the other, not side by side. So I said, “Kara, switch seats with me”, and she did.

And it turned out that my God-given seat was back far enough from the stage and set a little higher up than the seating on the main floor, that while Kara had to stand (along with everyone else in my entire vicinity) in order to see anything throughout the entire show, I was able to remain seated for about 2 hours (up until the encore), and not collapse from absolute exhaustion. I had the most perfect view the entire time and I got to remain seated!

And another thing that made me realize I was old — well, 2 things. One was that the young, pretty and really excited woman next to Kara exclaimed that she had been a fan of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds for four years already. And she also made a comment about the current Bad Seeds being the original musicians except for “a piano player who died a few years ago…” (Conway Savage.)

Whereas I remember the real original Bad Seeds from when they actually were the original Bad Seeds, before Conway, 40 years ago…

I didn’t say anything, because I thought her excitement was really sweet.

But the other thing — since they’re promoting the Wild God album, they didn’t play a song that I was emotionally connected to until they played “Tupelo”, and then I was just swept away, emotionally.

But I found myself sitting there, rocking to the music, with my eyes closed. I was completely transported back to my old room on East 12th Street, in NYC’s East Village. I was on my bed in the old room, listening to “Tupelo” for the fist time and being completely blown away by Nick Cave…

And in the here & now, I had to shake myself out of it because, I was sort of worried that I’d fall asleep in that little swoon, but ALSO because I told myself —

ME: “Look at what’s fucking in FRONT of you, Marilyn!! Nick Cave!! Don’t get sucked down into the PAST.”

And yet, the lure of the past is so fucking appealing!! (That equals being old, in case you’re trying to keep track of all this.)

And, I have to say, gang, during the encore, they played “Shivers” and as always, that song still blew me away. (And that song is going on 50 years…) But what a great song.

Anyway, between the exhaustion from all the wrong turns while driving in a town I’ve been to a million times, and from not knowing how a shower works, and needing to sit not stand through an entire concert, and going deaf from how loud it was even though I had ear plugs in… and loving the really old songs — it became clear to me that not only had I gotten old, but also that it would likely be the last rock concert I was going to have the energy to attend.

This morning, as I was still trying to recover from everything since Friday (plus, keep in mind, just doing the caregiving wears me out), I thought back to the first rock concert I attended, in the summer of ’73, when I was still technically 12, and I thought to myself that a 52-year run of concert-going was a pretty good haul. I have seen some amazing bands and had so much fun.

*********

Okay!!

Just so you are forewarned, everything is picking up speed here and I will be really crazy-busy for probably the rest of the year.

SUCH GREAT stuff is happening with the TV pilot proposal. I cannot wait until I can tell you about it, but Peitor & I are already hitting the ground running, getting episode 2 nailed down.

And work on the staged reading for “The Guide to Being Fabulous” officially begins tomorrow on a Zoom call — with our new Musical Director, Jo Lyn Burks (!!). Sandra and I are both so excited!!

But I will have to balance both those projects, along with traveling to & from NYC, and still being a caregiver (until I can afford to stop doing that). And I am determined to do all of it. I don’t want to get old, just for the sake of being old. I want to have a terrific OLD AGE!!

************

Here’s a kitten photo from this morning!!

And here are 3 photos from the show on Friday night (I didn’t take these) (because I’m old and prefer not to watch a concert through my phone)!

And don’t forget, there are still 8 shows left!! You can buy tickets here!!

********

Whew!! And that’s it!

Already the texts from Peitor are pouring in!

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

**********

Wistfully, I listened to these 3 songs early this morning.

This was the line-up from the first rock concert I attended with my older cousin in the Summer of ’73. We shared so many great times over the years — going to more concerts and playing so many records. She went off to college in the Fall of ’73, but we still remained really, really close for many years.

Brewer & Shipley, The Doobie Bothers, and the Beach Boys — and the songs that were big hits for them during that Summer of ’73. Enjoy, gang.