I’m wearing flip-flops today!

Even though it’ll be raining off & on all day. And it won’t be nearly as warm as yesterday was — it got up into the low 80s Fahrehhiet (when in doubt about how best to spell “Fahrenheit” just add a bunch of H’s). Today, it will only be a high of 62 degrees.

BUT– it is my ONE day off until next Sunday and I am just determined for it to be Spring already!!

So the flip-flops are on!!

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I’m up to my eyeballs in housecleaning chores around here, but only a few of them will get done today.

I have a quick phone meeting with Peitor today about the TV pilot stuff. (I think we have decided to just tighten the logline and the one-page synopsis and just leave the Pilot script as it is, for now. But I’m never 100% certain about what we’ve decided on any given day.)

However, more importantly, I have a meeting with the guy who’s handling my long-term care insurance and my upcoming Medicare stuff. He will be here, in person, in my illustrious 124-year-old no-frills home late Wednesday afternoon, so I’m focusing on at least having the first floor of the house looking like 722 cats don’t, in fact, live here 24/7….

And the following week, I will have more time to finally tackle the upstairs — with the new and entirely beloved Bissell carpet shampooer!!! Yay!

Honestly, gang, I can’t wait. The upstairs has still not fully recovered from when I had that homeless young married couple staying here. So I am eager to finally get it back to normal. And then all of you can come visit!! Finally.

Oui!! Ce’st moi!!

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Other than that — thankfully, my 94-year-old Japanese client did not remember any of the awful stress we went through on Friday, so things were back to normal yesterday and we had a great day together.

But, even when things are good, it still exhausts me, emotionally. So I need today to just sort of recover from the past week, before I get back at it on Monday.

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Well, last night was interesting.

I happened upon reruns of the TV show “The Waltons,
from 50 years ago.

Gang, this was my absolute favorite TV show when I was a young girl.

I loved it because it was all about “family.” And I so MUCH wanted a loving family back then (instead of the abusive, totally messed-up family I was in).

And a HUGE family — I really wanted that. I always believed that I would have a lot of children. It was the one thing I wanted in life — a big family –aside from being a singer and moving to NYC. (Another thing I wanted from the time I was about 9 years old — and that dream won out over the big family thing.)

Anyway.

Each episode had the date it aired listed beside it. And since I have a really remarkable memory, I could remember what was going on in my life on each of those air dates.

It was unnerving, how precise my memories were. For instance, during the earliest episodes, my parents were still married and we lived in a big beautiful house, and I watched each episode, spellbound, on the TV in the family room that had the big brick fireplace. And upstairs in my room, I played records constantly. And I played my guitar and wrote songs. I was already in love with John Lennon, the Rolling Stones. I already had a crush on my best friend’s father (they lived a few streets over), which remained with me for over a decade — I really, really wanted him to be my real father. I had begun obsessing about who my “real” parents were, especially my birth father. My room upstairs in that specific house was the springboard of my entire existence.

And all the feelings were there last night, as if it were just now happening– not something from over 50 years ago.

I tried to watch at least one episode (I finally had to pause it for another night, I felt too emotional), but as the opening credits rolled (with that wonderful theme song that I still know by heart, which literally brought a tear to my eye), I could remember perfectly, being that wreck of a 12-year-old girl, watching the show in our family room. And I said to myself last night:

I didn’t know yet that I would really go to New York. I didn’t know yet that I would sing in those famous folk clubs where Bob Dylan had sung. I didn’t know yet that I would become a successful writer. That I would go to London and Paris —

Places I really, really wanted to go to back then.

It felt so weird. Like I was suddenly observing my whole life. In the past tense.

Me, at 12, before I knew that most of things I dreamed about were going to come true:

Well, anyway. It was intense and now I really gotta get a move on here.

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I’ve posted this theme song here before, but here it is again!! If you remember this show fondly, it will probably break your heart!!! Okay. Enjoy, gang.

And by “we” I, of course, mean “me.”

But by 3:30 this afternoon, I will be off until Monday morning. So that’ll be great. I will finally feel like I can slow down. For a day, at least.

Yesterday was a seriously mixed bag, gang. I can’t discuss specific details of my clients’ health issues, but my 94-year-old Japanese client had an unexpectedly rough afternoon yesterday. Something related to his illness.

The good thing, though, is that because he has short-term memory issues, I’m hoping that by today (or by even last night) he will have forgotten all about it and won’t feel depressed by it.

I do want to say this, though, gang. (This is not connected to my client above, but it is something I notice a lot with my clients). If anyone you love is aging, PLEASE consider keeping them mobile — as much as they can physically handle.

Short- distance walks — even super short distances — help. Even simple chair exercises, or holding on to the kitchen sink and doing simple leg lifts (you can google all this stuff) makes a HUGE difference. Not just in muscle and bone strength, but in mental clarity and overall mood.

Starting as soon as possible helps keep it an easy to follow habit. Or “easier” if the physical situation gets intense.

I can’t stress enough that it makes a HUGE difference. (Below is just a random example.)

Also — consider avoiding the use of OTC drugs like Tylenol and Advil if pain management is constant. They can contribute to joint deterioration. Choose products with Curcumin and Turmeric for pain control. They are more beneficial for healthy joints. (Sometimes they can be expensive but, long-term, they’re a lot better for you overall.)

For instance, this company’s products are really good, but they can be very expensive:

One thing that frustrates me with my caregiving jobs, is that I’m not allowed to make any sort of “medical” suggestions. Or any kind of dietary changes, etc.

If a client comes right out and asks me my opinion on something, I can give it — but I have to make sure it’s presented as “my opinion only.”

And the amount of processed foods and refined SUGAR that some of my clients consume just boggles my mind. And I have to just keep my mouth shut.

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Anyway, I gotta scoot.

Not only am I pressed for time but it is also RAINING. Not my favorite kind of Saturday morning. But hopefully, it will clear up later.

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

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Great new (posthumous) video released from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers!! (Song recorded in 1982 — their cover of “Wild Thing”.) Enjoy!!! I sure did!!!

More like the mantra of every single cat in the house. ( “I do what I want”.)

But let me tell you, gang, that carpet shampooer is GREAT! This is the one I got (luckily, it does not come with a dog):

But it is specifically for cleaning carpets that are exposed to pets. This thing is incredible. So lightweight, so easy to use, and the carpet dries quickly — it doesn’t saturate the carpet. And it gets up so much dirt.

It really made me so happy. So far, I’ve only had enough time to do one room in the house — 4 more to go. But wow. (Here’s a link on Amazon if you are interested.) My home is finally going to be clean again!!

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Other than that, yesterday was not fun. Losing that hour each March always makes me crazy. But today I’m already feeling adjusted to it, so here’s hoping the day will be more productive. (The weather is splendid, so that also helps!)

The situation with Peitor’s family ended up working out great. I can’t post the details, but it was a really good thing he went to Iowa when he did. But he had his hands full for 2 weeks.

Now he is in Los Angeles, which I’m sure will not be fun — mainly because of everything that everyone in LA has been through. And then he’s back to France in time for Series Mania in Lille. So we shall see!

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Phil is supposed to be live tonight at 8PM Eastern time. Check here later to confirm.

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Meanwhile, life goes on.

I’m celebrating a very beautiful anniversary — 43 years ago, I had my first professional solo gig as a singer/songwriter in NYC. It was at Speakeasy, on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. And it was spectacular. My songs were so well received, it was crazy. And I was so nervous. (The club was way far down at the right.)

When I first got to NYC, I thought I would just audition for bands or producers that needed a singer. But that didn’t go well because I didn’t have a very powerful voice.

Finally, one producer I auditioned for was kind enough to have a conversation with me after my audition, which led to me playing him a couple of my own songs on his guitar. And he said, “This is what you need to do! Forget about singing other people’s songs. Your voice isn’t suited to that, and your songs are really good.”

Well, that terrified me — the thought of just standing on a stage with my guitar and singing, all alone. It took me a while to get up my nerve to finally do it, but in late February of 1982, I went to an open mic night at the extremely famous folk club in Greenwich Village — Folk City. And I was so fucking nervous.

And I’m not making this up — I was allowed to sing 2 of my own songs and when I started singing “When Wyoming Calls Me Baby”, everyone in the room was chatting to each other, drinking, oblivious to me. The place was packed. But then suddenly, after singing about one verse, everyone stopped talking. The entire club was completely silent and everyone’s eyes were on me.

I was just terrified. But I kept going. And the same thing happened when I sang my next song, “Breaking Glass.” Everyone was silent until the end of my song. And then the applause was deafening. It was beyond anything I had ever dreamed would happen to me.

And the guy who booked the shows at Speakeasy, which was another folk club down the street, came right up to me the minute I got off the stage and he shouted, “You’re really good!” and on the spot, he booked me for my first solo gig ever, and from then on, I had gigs in Greenwich Village (and elsewhere) every week, for several years after that.

After the open mic night, I remember coming up from the subway near the Camelot building (that I posted about the other day — where I lived with my first husband, off Times Square), stopping at a payphone on the corner, holding my guitar case, and making a collect call to my best friend back home in Ohio.

Since it was February, it was a cold night but really clear, and since it was NYC, there were of course bright lights lighting the night and cars and taxis were zipping by. People everywhere. And I was on cloud 9. I remember my voice was shaking when I told her “I got a gig!!”

And about 10 days later was that gig and my world changed forever.

Even though I absolutely hated the music business, today I am content to just remember how happy those early days made me feel.

Below are the 2 songs I sang. “When Wyoming Calls Me Baby” is a demo with a full band. And “Breaking Glass” is from a vinyl record that Speakeasy produced in the summer of 1982. The recording is now in the Smithsonian.

It was so great to be part of something beautiful for a while.

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Okay. Enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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