Tag Archives: #MarilynJayeLewis

Welcome to Sunday!

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Wow, gang, did yesterday turn out different!

I was almost finished with my shift with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man (and we had a great day yesterday — his focus and clarity were great and we had just really enjoyable conversations all day)– anyway, I was almost done there when I got a text from the Agency saying that my evening shift was cancelled!

(See yesterday’s post about how I was sort of dreading that evening shift.)

The client had just been sent to the hospital, which is of course, sort of terrible, but I was unbelievably happy for myself!

I was home yesterday by 3:15PM. Wow. I was even able to focus a little bit and get another chapter of The Curse of Our Profound Disorder proofed and done.

This leaves me with only FOUR more chapters to go! Almost there, gang.

I have some time today before my evening shift to get a little more done, and I have tomorrow off, so I should be absolutely done proofreading by tomorrow!

Yay!!

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Before I forget…

Curious, indeed.

From il donaldo trumpo last night:

“YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH POPCORN FOR THIS WEEK!!!😎🇺🇸🍿”

And Sara Hopps re-posted this Phil delta this morning:

So let’s just see what happens this week. Remember, gang. Popcorn means we’re watching a movie.

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I saw this online yesterday.

Apparently my hellhole apartment on E.12th Street in the East Village of NYC was recently for rent. (It is currently rented.)

I’d known it was “renovated” after I moved out in the fall of 1992, but this was the first time I saw photos of what it currently looks like and I think it’s awful! They’ve chopped it way down in size and it is now a studio apartment (meaning, no bedroom) for $1675 month.

When I lived there, it hadn’t been renovated in about 80 years, literally, but it was a 2-bedroom walk-through with 2 fireplaces — one in the living room and one in the kitchen. And the floor leaned way over to the east side of the building. But it was $475 a month.

Plus there was a glass block divider between the kitchen and bathroom. I had one of those very old, lead, clawfoot bathtubs and 2 big windows in the bathroom. (They’ve somehow managed to put a very small shower in the little closet where the toilet is and they did away with the bathroom completely…Amazing.)

There were also two big windows in the living room, and a closet. And there was a front door and a kitchen door. There is now only one door, entering into the “kitchen.”

You can see the whole apartment here. But here is a sample:

It’s all white, with a nice floor, but other than that, it is so narrow and SMALL!! And no character whatsoever. Unbelievable.

Considering all the songs I wrote while living there, and the short stories I wrote, and the intensely crazy and amazing relationships (and roommates) I had in there, I think it was much, much better as a hellhole apartment in the 1980s than its “renovated” version today.

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And sort of on a similar note–

I’m currently watching this film on Metrograph:

Mixed Blood.

It was made in 1984, in my old East Village neighborhood. So you get an actual feel of what is was like down there back then. (Violence and a lot of drugs. It was nearly impossible to get a cab to take you to the East Village after dark back then.)

The movie was written & directed by Paul Morrissey (who directed all those famous Warhol films).

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Okay!

Here’s this!

Tuning up backstage, during the European tour of 1970– Keith, Mick Taylor, and Bill Wyman:

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This was fun!!

A Tom Petty Rockumentary on MTV, 1991 (23 mins):

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From James Tabor — an interview about his new book, The Lost Mary.

James Tabor on The Lost Mary: Rediscovering the Mother of Jesus | Closer To Truth Chats (28 mins):

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I’m still loving the new glasses, gang. Wow, it is so cool to finally be able to SEE again!!

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Okay.

Oddly enough, I slept for NINE hours last night!! I can’t believe it. (I usually sleep about 6 hours.)

And for most of the night, I was having endless dreams about Nick Cave songs. It was a very complicated dream. A lot from Dig!! Lazarus! Dig!! and a lot of songs from Ghosteen.

But the minute I woke up, at 5:15AM, the fabulous chorus from “Balcony Man” was going full volume in my head!! (“This morning is amazing and so are you“)

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And I think that is it for now, gang.

I’m going to enjoy what’s left of this amazing morning (!!) and get some reading/editing done on the novel and then head out for my shift.

Have a great Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you, guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!!

Me, in that no-longer-existent bathtub/bathroom in the hellhole apartment on E.12th Street, back in 1984!!

Polaroid taken by my best friend, Paul Martin, who was visiting for Thanksgiving! He had bought me the camera as an early Christmas present that year. Okay, see ya!

I’ll be happy when today is over!

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I’m looking forward to being back in bed tonight — but only because it will mean that the last couple days are done.

Tonight, especially, will be challenging. I’ve worked with this client before and I really like him, but he has significant cognitive impairment. Meaning, he’s basically totally not there. But he’s completely mobile, so you have to watch him like a hawk…

But it is beautiful, how his daughter pays for round-the-clock care for him, so that he can remain at home. (His cognitive impairment was early-onset, so he’s actually several years younger than me — and strong.)

I could have turned it down — I’m going to be filling in for someone else tonight — but I didn’t have the heart to, since he’s so nice.

And then last evening’s shift was an eye-opener that I wasn’t expecting.

I was with that new-ish client that I really like, who lives in that huge and beautiful split-level home in the hills behind Bryn Du Mansion , where you need a map to find the bathroom…

I haven’t been with her in just about a month and she has gone WAY downhill. Cognitively, I mean. I was totally unprepared for the change.

But again, she is someone whose daughter and son-in-law take such good care of her that it just melts your heart — the amount of palpable love in that beautiful home. It just blows me away. I am sensitive to energy, and every single room in that enormous home just overwhelms me with love.

However.

She has turned a corner that she’s not coming back from so it is disheartening to see.

I will be glad when I’m back here tonight, in the safety and “cognitively-functioning” haven of my cozy-cat-filled home in the Hinterlands.

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Here’s this!!!

From Keith’s page on Instagram!!

He and Patti went somewhere!! Yay!

Hampton’s Film Festival

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And THIS opened, and I really wanted to see it, but YES!! — it is at the movie theater that is one-hour away from me (each way). Well, that’s the closest theater it’s at, anyway…

Keanu’s new movie, “Good Fortune”:

I would really love to see it in the theater, and I was hoping it would be at the AMC which is only 30 miles from me. But I don’t know if I will have any time this month to make that 2-hr drive just to see a movie. We’ll see.

“Good Fortune” trailer:

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Okay, Phil’s Q&A was great last night! (Well, I listened to it this morning, after breakfast.)

It reminded me of the old Phil, where he wasn’t aiming so much at the newcomers. I really enjoyed it and felt I learned some very, very interesting little things.

I especially liked the tiny little tidbit connected to this:

The Replay (direct link has more control over the ads):

Q&A – October 10th, 2025 (1 hr 41 mins):

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So, I did take my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man on a “very little” road trip (10 miles) to get my new glasses yesterday!!

I love my new glasses, gang. It’s like they’re barely there, and they have a wider lens so I feel like I can see everything. What a great feeling. Especially when I’m driving (which is always).

And the weather was just stunning yesterday. Really feeling and looking like October now, which is my favorite month of the year. So even though it was a really short drive, and no sake or vodka martinis were involved, we had a really great time.

Reverse this — with or without sake or vodka martinis, my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man does NOT drive…

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I think that might be it for now, gang. I need to get ready to get back over to my favorite 95-year-old Japanese’s man’s house! Get his coffee started and his breakfast ready!

I am planning on having lunch HERE, though, between shifts!

The Subway, where I would always have lunch before going to see my adorable client, Molly, who passed away in late January. (Which means, she will be “dining” with me, in spirit.)

Tomorrow, I have my shift with the retired minister and his lovely cat & wife. Which means I will have the whole morning to myself, to get some more reading/editing done on The Curse of Our Profound Disorder — getting ever closer to finishing it!!

Enjoy your Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I’m gonna leave you with this again.

Only because I got out of bed, singing it to all the many cats this morning and they really seemed to enjoy it!

Mostly, I’m dreaming of a day when my Saturdays can be my own again. With or without “the friend”.

“Come Saturday Morning,” by The Sandpipers. 1969. Enjoy, gang.

“Come Saturday Morning”

Come Saturday mornin’
I’m goin’ away with my friend
We’ll Saturday-spend
‘Til the end of the day

Just I and my friend
We’ll travel for miles
In our Saturday smiles
And then we’ll move on
But we will remember
Long after Saturday’s gone

Come Saturday mornin’
Come Saturday morn

Come Saturday mornin’
I’m goin’ away with my friend
We’ll Saturday-laugh
More than half of the day

Just I and my friend (My friend)
Dressed up in our rings
And our Saturday things (Saturday)
And then we’ll move on
But we will remember
Long after Saturday’s gone

Come Saturday mornin’
Come Saturday mornin’

Come Saturday mornin’ (Saturday)

Just I and my friend (My friend)
We’ll travel for miles
In our Saturday smiles (Saturday)
And then we’ll move on
But we will remember
Long after Saturday’s gone

Come Saturday mornin’
Come Saturday morn
Come Saturday mornin’
Come Saturday morn
Come Saturday mornin’

c- 1969 Fred Karlin, Dory Previn

Yesterday was perfect!

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So, not only did the local handyman come and put the bolts on the 2 storage closet doors (yay!)…

KEEP OUT!

And not only did I get some yoga done, and study another lecture in the Protestant Reformation course — and it was pretty horrific: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 ...

But I also got SO MUCH reading/editing done on The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. Finally. I have only 5 chapters left to read, and that’s only 88 pages, total.

And I’m really liking the book, gang. Although it certainly will NOT be everybody’s cup of tea. I don’t even have a clue what the target audience might be for this book. Perhaps the publisher will have a clue (assuming she likes the rest of the book).

But what matters most to me right now, is that I am liking it — and also consistently feeling surprised by it. Especially since I now know how the novel ends. So, reading it now from the beginning, knowing how it ends — I’m sort of always feeling, like: Whoa…

It is so hard to describe this book, gang. It basically takes place in a total of 4 days, but 1 and a 1/2 days happen in 1984, and then the other 3 and a 1/2 days happen in 1986. But the entire book covers 26 years in stream of consciousness memories (of the protagonist).

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Okay.

Well, the next couple days will be intense. I have to work double shifts back-to-back, and every shift is with a client that has cognitive impairment to one degree or another.

HOWEVER!

I got a text that my new glasses are ready! Yay!

So I’m going to take my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man for a drive to go pick up my new glasses. (He only lives 10 minutes from there, whereas I live 30 miles from there.)

Anyway, I’m very excited. I will be able to see again. Especially while driving at night, and both tonight and tomorrow night, I will be driving after dark. Such a relief that the glasses are ready. (5 days early.)

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All right, here’s this!

While driving the other day near the train tracks, I was humming the old folk song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and I suddenly remembered that in my early days on the folk club circuit in NYC, I used to sing a song I wrote to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” But it was about making my trip out to California when I was 18. It was always a big hit and everyone would laugh.

This was in the early days, when it was just me and my guitar.

I couldn’t recall the lyrics anymore, so I went and dug it out of my files and it’s funny how much of that trip I had totally forgotten about. Well, it all came back to me. The song is funny, but what a dreadful trip that was. It took about 4 or 5 days.

Here you go:

I Went Off to California (I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad)

I went off to California 
Left my world at home
I put nothing in my suitcase 
But some vintage Rolling Stones 
I decided to go Greyhound
Due to quite restricted funds
I was doomed to tear my hair out
Before my trip was done.

I was feelin’ low, sittin’ all alone
In the Greyhound Bus depot-oh-oh
I learned quite a lot ‘tween the hookers and the cops
In an hour in Chi-ca-go.
Dinah don’t ya know, Dinah don’t ya know
It was dawn in Chic-ca-go-oh-oh
And the things that are alive at a quarter after five
Dinah, you don’t wanna know

Next, we pulled into Nebraska
Downtown Omaha
A man who swore that he was Jesus 
Was among the things I saw
I was feelin’ pretty hungry
But runnin’ outta dough
I made it all the way to Cheyenne
On seven Or-e-os.

Dinah don’t ya cry, Dinah don’t ya cry
‘though you feel you want to die-i-i
When the man who’s next to you bathed in 1942
And puts his hand between your thighs –
And sings out: “Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh
If you hold me way down low-oh-oh-oh
Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh!
You’ll fceel my love begin to grow!”

By the time we got to Reno – 3 o’clock A.M.
I was pretty near a coma
From fighting off the men
All the way to Salt Lake City
A stranger, good and bombed
Cursed me without reservation
For the years he’d served in ‘Nam.

Dinah don’t ya know, it’s a lonely way to go
And the Greyhound makes me blue-ooh-ooh
But I think of brighter days, when I’ll find a better way
And a house in Malibu.

Though I went to California,
Many years ago
I can still recall the nausea
And the memories of the road
Now I live in New York City
I left the Coast behind
‘though New York is dark and dirty
I’m glad I changed my mind.

Dinah don’t ya know, Dinah don’t ya know
It’s a rough and tumble tow-ow-ow-n
But a man can hold you low and a love can start to grow
And he’ll turn your luck around.

Oh, someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone’s in the kitchen it’s true-ooh and they’re
Savin’ up their pennies in a cookie jar
For a house in Malibu
And singing, “Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh
You can feel my lovin’ grow-oh-oh-oh
Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh!
When you’re strummin’ on my old banjo!”


“I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad” music – © Public Domain
“I Went Off to California” lyrics – © 1981 - Marilyn Jaye Lewis

If you aren’t from the States and don’t know this old folk song, here it is:

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Okay.

If you live in Tokyo, here’s this! (I highly recommend it. It was very engrossing.)

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And while I was reading/editing at my desk yesterday, at one point, I got up from my chair and discovered this cutie on the bed behind me!

Calico!

And a couple of hours later, I discovered this!! Too cute. I had absolutely no idea they were all there, right behind me.

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And here’s this!

From Instagram.

Just because it’s a truly classic Nick Cave photo that I have always loved!

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And I’m thinking that’s actually it for today.

Enjoy your Friday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Okay!

I leave you with this. Play it LOUD.

From every single one of my playlists over the last several years, as it turns out! It keeps popping up! (I love this song.)

Rod Stewart’s 1991 classic “Rhythm of My Heart” from the album Vagabond Heart. Enjoy, gang.

“Rhythm Of My Heart”

Across the street, the river runs
Down in the gutter, life is slipping away
Let me still exist, in another place
Running under cover of a helicopter blade
Flames are getting higher in effigy
Burning down the bridges of my memory
Love may still be alive somewhere, someway
Where they’re downing only deer, a hundred steel towns away

Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing

Photographs and kerosene
Light up my darkness
Light it up! Light it up!
I can still feel the touch
Of your thin blue jeans
Running down the alley, I’ve got my eyes all over you, baby
Oh, baby

Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
I’ll be sailing
I’ll be sailing
I will

Oh, I’ve got lightning in my veins
Shifting like the handle of a slot machine
Love may still exist in another place
I’m just yanking back the handle
No expression on my face

Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
The rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you”
Rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
Ooh, hoo-hoo, ooh

c – 1991 John Joseph Capek, Marc Wallace Jordan

You Betcha! It’s Fall!!

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Wow, it is like a true fall morning around here, gang.

The heat was actually blowing the lace curtains around when I went downstairs this morning.

It was 41 degrees Fahrenheit (and still dark out) when I went outside to feed KonTiki of the Great Outdoors this morning — and she still hasn’t gotten into her cathouse yet. She still prefers to be on top of it. But anyway, it was so beautiful out there — the moon was still sort of full and shining down from a perfectly clear black sky full of stars.

And, YES! I awoke at 3:45AM to a text from the Agency, alerting me that they had added yet another shift to my schedule at the end of the month(!!!). This time, I emailed my supervisor and asked them to give that shift to someone else, please. Etc., etc. (I am now up to approximately 29-32 hours a week again, with only one day off each week again. And that is just too much.)

Woe is me…

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Okay!!

Well, the local handyman is coming today at 6PM, instead of coming yesterday, since he couldn’t get here yesterday until 7:30PM — apparently he was unaware of the fact that I am usually already upstairs in bed by 7:30PM… (studying French and stuff, but still. I’m up there in bed and I don’t want to change that just yet. I’ve gotten super SUPER selfish about my “me” time, even though he’s going to be doing a job that I really want done!) (See yesterday’s post about keeping any and all CATS out of the storage closets!!)

Average number of cats that always want to get into the storage closets and tear the FUCK out of everything…

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Speaking of yesterday…

I had a truly beautiful day with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man. We did go get our sushi, sashimi, and sake (he drinks the sake, not me). And here were our fortunes from the fortune cookies. Both of them could sort of apply to each of us, but the top one was his, and mine was the bottom one!! Yay!!

Oh, and oddly enough — yesterday was the first time he noticed me slipping the fortunes into my purse.

HE: “Are you taking those home?”

ME (startled by just how many of them I’ve already taken home and posted to the blog that he doesn’t know about): “Oh, well, yeah.”

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Today is the heavenly birthday of my very first girlhood hero. He was my world when I was 11. And he opened the door to everything, music-wise, for me. Including, but not limited to: (a different take on) Elvis, Delta Blues, Bob Dylan, and Brian Jones, Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones!! Yay!

Happy Heavenly Birthday, John Lennon. (He would have been 85 today — had the CIA not murdered him, that is.)

[And just FYI — always use Yandex when you want to actually search for something that doesn’t leap to “Conspiracy Theory!!”]

[And check out the Fundamentals of Trauma Based Mind Control, if you haven’t already… just a primer.] [I only bring this up, because, at age 20, I had only lived in NYC for 3 weeks when they murdered my girlhood hero. Talk about effective trauma…]

Anyway.

And here’s this! (Remember how, just after 9-11, DJs weren’t allowed to play this song on the radio???!!!) (Hmmmm….)

“Imagine”

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today… Aha-ah…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace… You…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world… You…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

c- 1971 John Lennon

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Well, on a happier note… as of right now, silver is at $50.09 per ounce! And gold is at $4,037. And the best is STILL yet to come!!

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Okay, well, I guess that is gonna be it for now, gang.

I really want to get back to reading over The Curse of Our Profound Disorder, so that I can get it off to the publisher already!!

Enjoy your Thursday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!!

(Why wouldn’t I, on this beautiful fall morning in the Hinterlands??)

From my wee bonny girlhood in Cleveland, in the “Make America Beautiful” USA!! Buffalo Springfield, 1966, “For What It’s Worth.”

Enjoy, gang.

“For What It’s Worth”

There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking’ their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, “hooray for our side”

It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

We better stop
Now, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

We better stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

c – 1966 Stephen Stills

Okay, I’m Back!

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Yesterday was long but not so terrible!

And it was made even longer by the fact that I had to get my groceries, etc., after my really long shift, because it was the only time I would be able to get to that part of town until next week.

But, anyway. It’s over and it wasn’t so terrible. Yay.

Today, I not only head back to see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man and most likely, take him to lunch here:

But also, as soon as I get back home, a local handyman is coming over to install bolts to both of my storage closet doors, because the cats are able to let themselves into both of these closets and they destroy everything.

I’ve been having to keep them closed with duct tape, which is really ugly. Plus, whenever I actually need to get into one of these closets (which is often), I have to deal with ripping off the duct tape, tearing paint off the door, and then reapplying more duct tape. So today will be really exciting for me! Not so much for the cats…

Cat proof. Finally.

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Here’s this!

Keith! Twice!!

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Here are a couple of interesting videos. One short, one long:

From Ross K. Nichols:

“Could the same logic Singer applies to Huff’s Christian apologetic views be applied to Tovia Singer’s Jewish views? Are the views of these two men really so different after all? Dive in to discover how Huff and Singer stumble into a shared pitfall.”

What Do Wes Huff and Tovia Singer BOTH Get Wrong? (5 mins):

And one re-posted by James Tabor (from the BBC, 1962):

T.E. Lawrence 1888 – 1935 (1 hr):

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This was really great. Prime “young Tom Petty” attitude!! I loved this.

Originally on MTV, 1985.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Southern Accents documentary (30 mins):

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Here’s this–

Finally!! It will be opening in movie theaters in the US! (I’m guessing this will involve another 1-hour trip to the movie theater & back with my dear friend Kara!! We shall see!)

[To refresh your memory — Kara, in our hotel room, when we went to see Nick Cave & the Bad Sees, back in May.]

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And here’s this!

Remember when Nick Cave recently donated 2,000 books to charity? (I think, but I am not certain, that these books were merely the ones on his night table and he no longer had room for his coffee cup…) Anyway–

And while we’re at it–

Here’s just one of the MANY great songs on the Let Love In album from 1994, “Do You Love Me?” (I could probably listen to this song over and over and over and — oh, wait! I already have!!):

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And speaking of Nick Cave–

He sent out a very interesting Red Hand File yesterday, that mostly discussed his day. And cereal. He says, in part:

“…the first letter I see is yours, Sammie. “Check your privilege,” you say. I close my eyes, lean back, and do precisely that. I reflect on how music, which started as a hobby, became my calling- my avocation turned vocation- as love and need became intertwined, and how profound a privilege it was to be in this position. I think about all of it, my job, my friends, my family, and how it all could have been so different had fortune not been on my side – extraordinary luck, cosmic happenstance perhaps, the kindness and generosity of the world. I take none of this for granted, Sammie, and in the back of the cab my heart flows with gratitude….”

You can read it in full HERE.

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Okay, so on Monday — as far as “reading the novel over from page one to the end”– actually, Sandra called me, in need of an emergency “bio” update, for her upcoming theater performance in NYC at the end of October.

It took a couple of hours, and by the time I was done with it, I didn’t get to make much headway in proofing The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. I’m only 28 (!!) pages into it, but I have tomorrow off, so we shall see!

Meanwhile… if you are interested in Sandra’s amazing career!

Sandra Caldwell
Bio

“A true entertainer in every sense of the word…”  - NY Times
“A black trans woman of immense poise, beauty, and – pardon me, I can’t help it – charm…” – Variety
“A provocative entertainer combined with powerful vocal skills, Sandra Caldwell has it all…”   –Toronto Star

Sandra Caldwell is a celebrated African American actress, singer, and writer whose 45+ year career extends throughout the worlds of film, television, and theater.
 
Starting out as a jazz singer – her first love – she performed with top orchestras in some of the world’s finest venues, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, and the White House Jazz on the Lawn series. In her early days, she was a fixture in the café society set in numerous nightspots across the country, also hosting the radio show, Sunday Afternoons with Sandra Caldwell on Jazz FM91 in Toronto.

On television, Sandra has been seen in recurring roles in The Gilded Age (HBO, seasons 1/3; Dir. Deborah Kampeire), Fantasma (HBO; Dir. Julio Torres), as well as in High Maintenance, The Book of Negroes, 19-2, Soul Food, and, as a series regular, in Little Men. She had guest-starring roles in such hit shows as Law & Order: SVU and Rookie Blue. Sandra was a featured performer in many TV movies, including Good Fences with Whoopie Goldberg, and Disney’s The Cheetah Girls. 

Sandra’s film work includes The Jackie Shane Story (Dir. Michael Engle), Any Other Way (Bangor Films; Dir. Michael Mabbott), along with memorable work in past films, such as Milo & Millie, Murder at 1600, Shall We Dance, and Maya Angelou’s directorial debut, Down in the Delta.
 
In theater, Sandra appeared in the musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Shubert Theater); the Original Workshop for Ragtime (Live Ent. Productions); the drama Coming Through Slaughter (Necessary Angel Theater, Toronto); and was nominated for a Dora Award, Canada’s highest theater award, for her work in Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies (Sterling Productions, Toronto).

Notably, in 2017 in the NY Times, Sandra came out publicly as transgender while in rehearsals for her transgender leading role in the critically acclaimed "Charm" (MCC Theater).

Additionally, in 2020, she spoke candidly about transgender representation in the media, in the “enlightening and heartfelt” (- LA Times) Netflix documentary “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen” (Dir. Sam Feder).

A bona fide heroine of today’s LGBTQ+ generation, Sandra’s long awaited self-penned, one-woman show, “The Guide to Being Fabulous”, a jazz musical that tells the real story of Sandra Caldwell’s unparalleled life, was presented, in 2023, by Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto.

From a young runaway, panhandling on the streets of DC, to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, to her role as Mama Morton in “Chicago” at the Stratford Festival (“4-Stars!” – Toronto Star), she has done it all and endured it all, without losing sight of her comedic timing, her turn of phrase, or her compassion.
 
Yes, an entertainer in every sense of the word; ladies and gentlemen, we give you…  Miss Sandra Caldwell

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And now, I guess I’ll scoot!

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!

Late-night listening music!

Yes, after my long day of caregiving, I practically went straight to bed and just hung out there, watching the rain outside the windows as the sun went down. I did a little French. But mostly I just laid there.

And then I listened to this, in the dark, over and over and over…

From Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Sins of My Youth”, from the album Hypnotic Eye, 2014.

So beautiful. Enjoy, gang.

“Sins Of My Youth”

You will find no wicked way in me
Look me over, you will see
You will find no weary change
I’m worn and wounded,
but still the same

Whoa……
Let me tell you the truth
I love you more
Than the sins of my youth

When the past gets up in your face
Memories slide out of place
All those things that were hidden away
Ain’t so bad in the light of day

Whoa……
Let me tell you the truth
I love you more
Than the sins of my youth

You say you love me
wish you liked me more
I’m no angel that’s for sure
Said you forgave me,
each time I was caught
But you still paint me as somethin’ I’m not

Whoa……
Let me tell you the truth
I love you more
Than the sins of my youth

I love you more
Than the sins of my youth

c – 2014 Tom Petty

Just a quick one today!

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Well, cold weather is finally going to be coming this week, so I’m going to be bringing all the houseplants back inside this morning. Then getting the porch furniture stored back in the barn.❄️

I also have to put clean straw in the cat houses and get those set up on the porch for winter. 🐈

And I also want to get all the summer bed linens washed and put away for winter. And get the fall linens out in both bedrooms.🍁🍂

THEN … I will start reading the novel, starting at page one!!! Yay!😃

Tomorrow, I have to be out early and work a 10-hr shift , so I won’t be posting here again until Wednesday.

Enjoy the next few days, gang, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!💕

Here’s hoping for a beautiful day

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Yesterday was — I don’t know — intense?

I didn’t really move from my desk yesterday, except to do yoga at the end of the day. I forced myself to even do that because I knew my body needed it. I was not 100%. (I am fine today, so I think the yoga helped.)

Luckily, my brain was fine yesterday so I was able to do some tweaking to the final chapter of the novel (like, about 6 hours’ worth of tweaking on 5 pages). I will take one more look at the ending this morning, before beginning the process of reading the manuscript from start to finish.

This is it, btw! 253 pages, just under 75K words.

As I was editing yesterday, I kept looking at the clock because I was worrying about my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man. I had called in sick yesterday, and I kept wondering how his day was going with a different caregiver (he doesn’t usually do too well with strangers). But I was convincing myself that everything was going okay with him.

And then, after what would have been about 2 hours into my shift with him, the Agency called me. Apologizing for calling me when I’m home sick. But the new caregiver couldn’t get my client to answer the front door. She couldn’t get in. For over 2 hours. He won’t answer the phone. They are ready to call Welfare Services to go in and make sure he is all right…

For fuck’s sake. The caregiver hadn’t even read the client’s case notes. He never, ever, EVER answers the front door. You have to let yourself in the backway. He was probably still sound asleep in bed, and without his hearing aids in, he can’t hear anything — not the doorbell, not the phone ringing.

Instead of standing there and panicking for 2 hours, read the fucking notes! Jeez.

Well, anyway. That kind of upset me…

And I had to keep reminding myself that I have my own life, too, and to re-focus on the manuscript.

When an hour went by and they hadn’t called me back, I knew everything was fine and I could just move forward. But it is hard for me — especially with that specific client — to create a line where my private life starts.

But I am at least that much closer to sending the manuscript off to the publisher. I am really, really curious to see how the book reads now, from start to finish.

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Okay.

Here’s this!

Keith, backstage in Kansas City, 1981!

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And here’s this!!

In case you forgot!!

Yes. The coolest fucker.

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And here’s this.

This is actually part of what James Tabor talked about in his lecture during the New Testament Conference on the Historical Jesus last weekend.

Did Jesus Predict His Suffering and Death Or Was that Added After the Fact? (44 mins):

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And honestly, I think that’s it for now.

I want to get back to the ending of the book before I have to leave for my shift with the retired Minister and his lovely cat & wife! (But I have tomorrow off again (!!), and then after that, I begin a really insane month of caregiving.)

Oh! But I texted my Q-following friend and told her: help! I need something fun to look forward to! So on Saturday, Oct. 18th, after my shift, she and I are meeting for lunch HERE!! Yay!

Okay! Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this, for a beautiful slow moving Sunday.

From the album, Hypnotic Eye, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, 2014.

“Full Grown Boy”. Enjoy, gang.

“Full Grown Boy”

I like to move on sure and easy
Like a cat creeps through the grass
And the full moon seems to know me
‘Cause I’ve found myself at last
And I’m a full-grown boy

And there’s laughter on the hillside
From voices far away
How am I gonna tell her that I love her?
When this might not be the day
And I’m a full-grown boy

Yeah
My mind floats away
Yeah
And I’m changing every day

Can you see her in the firelight
Hear how soft and low she sings
How am I gonna tell her that I love her?
When words don’t mean a thing
And I’m a full-grown boy

c- 2014 Tom Petty

An Unexpected Saturday

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Yesterday was strange as heck, gang.

If you saw my post from yesterday morning, I mentioned being really tired.

Well, it spiraled down from there. And even though my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man had an INCREDIBLE time at our lunch at the clubhouse, the shift absolutely wore me out. Plus, driving to his house, then the drive to the clubhouse, then back to his house, then back to my own house — 100 miles of driving for me. (On top of being responsible for the wellbeing of a 95-year-old man for 4 hours…)

By the time I got home yesterday, I could barely move and I could barely think straight. (Oh, and LUCKILY (!) my lawncare guy was here when I got home, trimming my hedges for the end of the season. And I was then forced to try to converse with him coherently for a few minutes. Yay!)

Anyway. Luckily, he’s spoken to me before, so he knows I’m not usually out of my fucking mind.

Well, as the evening went on, and after I had dinner, etc., I still wasn’t any better so I decided last night that I’d better call off for today and give the Agency time to find a replacement for me for this morning.

So I have today off.

I feel a lot better today, but I’m moving really slowly. Trying to regain my focus. My life beyond being a caregiver. And I think the “feeling better” part comes from knowing I can just sit at my desk today and do some tweaking on the novel.

Now I don’t have to be anywhere until late tomorrow afternoon, when I go to my shift with the retired Minister and his wife (and cat).

Oh, and remember how, yesterday, I had made up my mind to tell the Agency next week that I need to drop that one account that I just don’t have the stamina for?

Guess who contacted the Agency, saying what a wonderful caregiver I was? That I was so gentle and patient? Yes. The very same client.

Ack!!

So, obviously, that’s beautiful. But now I can’t really tell the Agency to remove them from my schedule…

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So on we go.

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Okay, well at least there is THIS!!

From Instagram this morning!! Wow.

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And now I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get another cup o’Joe —

–and take a look at this novel that’s on my laptop!! (and btw — I got an email from the publisher yesterday, saying that she was “very excited to review this manuscript”, so I really wanna get at it. And get it off to her!)

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

Thanks for visting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this. Just’ cause it still keeps me hanging in there. Okay. See ya.