I heard back from the Agency yesterday and they officially removed 8 hrs of shifts from my weekly schedule in October and gave me an additional day off each week!!

Yay. Back to normal.

Now I can breathe again. (Plus, this also gives me room in my schedule to pick up random shifts with those new patients that I really like if it comes up.)

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Okay!

This was posted to Instagram this morning. I’m guessing it is accurate!

From Nick’s speech, when he got his new Honorary Doctorate yesterday:

And since he has legitimately come up here on the blog today!!

Here’s this–

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And here’s this!!

Back from when Lou was in love with and married to Sylvia. (I have nothing against Laurie Anderson (or Rachel) AT ALL, but, wow, did Lou write some great albums when he was with Sylvia.)

And here’s this — coincidently, Wayne also loved Lou Reed’s music and Wayne and I were falling in love, contemplating moving in together, we were lying together on my bed in my hellhole apartment on E.12th Street, when this song came on the stereo… “Think It Over”, by Lou Reed, Growing Up in Public, 1980.

“Think It Over”

Waking, he stared raptly at her face
on his lips, her smell, her taste
Black hair framing her perfect face
with her wonderful mind and her incredible grace

And so, he woke, he woke her with a start
to offer her his heart
for once and for all, forever to keep
And the words, that she first heard him speak
were really very sweet
he was asking her to marry him, and to

Think it over
baby, think it over
Think it over
baby, why don’t you think it over

She said, somewhere, there’s a faraway place
where all is ordered and all is grace
No one there is ever disgraced
and everyBODY there is wise and everyone has taste

And then she sighed, well la-dee-dah-dee-dah
you and I have come quite far
and we really must watch what we say
Because when you ask for someone’s heart
you must know that you’re smart
smart enough to care for it, so I’m gonna

Think it over
baby, think it over
Think it over
Baby, I’m gonna think it over

c -1980 Lou Reed

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And in case you’re interested, Wayne and I got engaged at Tiffany’s on 5th Ave in NYC, in October 1992. He wanted me to meet him on W.57th Street one day, so I did, and then he said, “I have a surprise for you.” Then he took me to Tiffany’s and we got engaged.

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All righty.

I did get some good editing work done yesterday on The Curse of Our Profound Disorder (on pages I recently wrote). So I feel good about that.

I am almost at the end of the novel and I still am not certain how it ends, but it is getting clearer, gang.

And this morning, I did something I have been putting off FOREVER!!

Yes! While not quite as exciting as Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue, I made an appointment at this very store (!!) to finally get new glasses next week.

I am currently wearing a pair of glasses that are nearly 40 years old because I have 3 other pairs of glasses in the house that all have a reasonably recent prescription, but all of those glasses are broken!!

Anyway. Now that I have Medicare I get a free pair of glasses, so off I will finally go!

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If you’re keeping track–

Somehow I have managed this:

• Made an appointment to get new glasses
• Got on Medicare
• Got great Medicare Advantage insurance
• The insurance’s nurse is coming tomorrow for my first annual in-home check up
• Got a new doctor and saw him last week (I am seriously healthy)
• Got Long Term Care insurance
• Got my burial/cremation insurance
• Got a Home Warranty
• Got a Home Improvement grant to get new basement stairs, new upstairs pipes and bathroom fixtures and Central AC
• Got an additional low interest Home Improvement loan to fix my front porch stairs and get a water softener installed
• Had that old fallen-down tree and all the overgrown weeds by my barn cleared out (after they had been there for about 8 years)
• Took care of a huge amount of foster cats and gave shelter to 4 newborn kittens, one without its 2 back feet (and dug graves and buried 2 additional cats out back that had passed away)
• Kept up the really expensive lease payments on the brand new Honda Civic (because I had such lousy credit after my COVID-bankruptcy) (My credit is no longer lousy!!)
• Went to NYC to get the rehearsals and rewrites underway for our play to go Off- Broadway
• Wrote a couple of episodes and developed a TV pilot
• Found a potential publisher for a novel-in-progress that has sat on my computer for 26 years…
• Just generally maintained a 124-year-old house in a small village in the middle of nowhere

All of that I’ve done, alone, in the past 9 months. And plus I take care of really old people who are teaching me so much about LIFE and how to live it…as well as how to face dying.

I think this is why I am always really, really tired.

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And on that note!!!!

I’m off to town, to see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man. I am really hoping he is in much better spirits this week, now that his family has gone back home and he’s had a few days to get over that.

We shall soon see.

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Have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!!

I used to walk around the NYC streets in the evening, listening to this cassette on my Sony Walkman!! I loved this album so much, gang.

Lou Reed, “New Sensations,” 1984, from his album of the same name. Enjoy, gang!!

“New Sensations”

[Verse 1]
I don’t like guilt, be it stoned or stupid
Drunk and disorderly, I ain’t no cupid
Two years ago today I was arrested on Christmas Eve
I don’t want pain, I want to walk, not be carried
I don’t want to give it up, I want to stay married
I ain’t no dog tied to a parked car

[Chorus]
Ooh, new sensations
Ooh, new sensations
Talkin’ ’bout some new sensations
Talkin’ ’bout some new sensations

[Verse 2]
I want the principles of a timeless muse
I want to eradicate my negative views
And get rid of those people who are always on a down
It’s easy enough to tell what is wrong
But that’s not what I want to hear all night long
Some people are like human tuinals

[Chorus]
Ooh, new sensations
Ooh ooh, new sensations
Talkin’ ’bout some new sensations
Talkin’ ’bout new sensations

[Verse 3]
I took my GPZ out for a ride
The engine felt good between my thighs
The air felt cool, it’s was forty degrees outside
I rode to Pennsylvania near the Delaware Gap
Sometimes I got lost and had to check the map
I stopped at a roadside diner for a burger and a Coke
There were some country folk and some hunters inside
Somebody got themselves married and somebody died
I went to the juke box and played a hillbilly song
They was arguing about football as I waved and went outside
And I headed for the mountains feeling warm inside
I love that GPZ so much, you know that I could kiss her

[Chorus]
Ooh, new sensations
Ooh ooh, new sensations
Talkin’ ’bout your new sensations
Talkin’ new sensations

[Outro]
Ooh new sensations, ooh new sensations
Ooh new sensations, ooh new sensations
Ooh new sensations

c- 1984 Lou Reed