And now it’s just rain.

And now it totally doesn’t feel like Christmas. It doesn’t even feel like the New Year is coming up.

Not sure what it feels like, but I’m tired. I know that.

Yesterday, when I arrived at my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s house, a Christmas card addressed to “Marilyn” in care of his address was waiting for me. From his kids in Florida:

“It was such a pleasure meeting you, Marilyn. Thank you so much for taking such good care of our dad. He is so blessed to have you. Have a very Merry Christmas.”

Wow.

It broke my heart in the best way, you know? How beautiful. But then right away I feel guilty because I know that I’m retiring… it is going to completely disrupt his entire world. At least for a while.

So that’s part of why I feel so tired today. I’m emotionally worn out. And I’m heading right back over to his house this morning.

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Okay.

I don’t really have much to post about today.

Well, there is this!

Just one from a bunch of photos I found on Instagram yesterday, of Keith and Patti’s recent wedding anniversary.

I liked this one best because it shows how sophisticated they are, and that means a lot to me!

Oh, and I also thought it was cool that I was number 909 who hit the like button!

I always loved this song when I was a wee bonny girl in Cleveland!! (The Beatles, though, not the Stones.) And it’s still fun:

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At some point after I get home today, I want to finish listening to Lecture One in the new James Tabor course “Christianity Before Paul,” because tomorrow at 12:30PM, right before my shift with the retired Minister and his lovely wife and cat gets underway, the first live zoom meeting for the course will be happening and I don’t want to fall behind.

I’m hoping that this course can keep my mind busy until after the New Year, when I have my first real meeting with my accountant in NYC about how I actually go about retiring and then, you know, retire.

And Sandra is just sort of waiting there in NY, tapping her foot, looking at her watch, waiting for my retirement to begin so that she can send a fucking truckload of NOTES my way!

When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, she already had 60 pages of notes just on the TV project!

I’m excited, you know. I really am. This is the point of retiring, so that I can go back to my writing projects full-time.

But I am so tired, I need a vacation, but Sandra and I also need to get back to work. (And I need to get back to NYC!!! Just because I miss it…)

So that’s sort of why my energy is all screwy right now. I’m happy, I’m excited, I’m eager, but my heart is breaking all at the same time.

Meanwhile… smoking and drinking don’t actually exist for me anymore so that sorta sucks…

I have to rely on the power of my magnificent mind.

OOOPS! I meant:

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Okay.

I guess I’m gonna scoot and get this day happening.

Have a lovely Saturday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!

Without getting too personal about it — I think I’ve mentioned here before that my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man used to know Yoko Ono, back in NYC in the early 1960s. His first wife, who was also Japanese, and Yoko were friends.

He was asking me about Yoko yesterday. He wanted to know if she was still alive. I said yes. And so I googled her and we looked at current photos of Yoko on my phone. (He was delighted to know that she was still alive.)

So let’s leave with this! “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, by The Beatles. 1969.

Enjoy, gang. I love you guys.