I spent a good chunk of yesterday taking down all the Christmas stuff, packing it up and putting it back in the storage closet.

So the holidays are officially complete around here! (And even though those few days between Christmas and New Year’s ended up being really challenging for me emotionally — see the end of yesterday’s post — it still was one of the happiest Christmases I’d had in a long, long time.)

At the end of the day yesterday, I chatted with Sandra for about an hour and we decided that today, after my shift, we BEGIN!!

Meaning — we begin working on all 3 of the huge projects we have on our plates right now. “The Guide to Being Fabulous” going to Off-Broadway; getting the original TV-screenplay version of “Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story” packaged for streamer TV; and then tackling the enormously time-consuming task of packaging the proposal for our new TV project for a producer who is waiting for it in Atlanta.

(The screenplay version of “The Guide to Being Fabulous” that we have already written Act One of and submitted to a producer at HBO (which could be Netflix now?), is on the back burner because we have, you know, way too much fucking stuff to do! Plus, we don’t want to move forward with the movie version until the play actually opens Off-Broadway.)

Anyway.

All 3 projects star Sandra, so the chances that all 3 projects will move forward at the very same time are actually sort of high, gang. So Sandra very compassionately and tactfully told me yesterday that even though I have decided not to cut back any of my caregiving shifts, so that I don’t stress about money, I need to switch my focus from now on and put my writing first and the emotional attachments to my caregiving clients second.

She is correct. So today I begin that, too. Which means I no longer have the luxury of coming home emotionally burnt out after a job because I need to be able to focus on the writing after my shifts.

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I’ve also decided to switch up my Saturday evenings now to include washing and doing my hair! Because I am really hoping that I am going to like this new church that is 3 minutes from my house and that I will be attending it every Sunday morning from now on! (Not that Jesus cares what my hair looks like but I do!!)

Here’s hoping I like it, gang. I will be going there for the first time this coming Sunday morning and I am really looking forward to it.

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And I have not lost sight of the fact that I have a NEW NOVEL coming out this year!! Yay! And I will need to participate in PR stuff for that, which will involve travelling.

Plus, I have that memoir that I really, really, really want to get started on, too. And that 12th Street Project I started on recently.

So I’m doing that thing where I turn over Time Management to the Universe and just let everything flow….

And maybe some coffee.

I’ll keep you posted!

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Okay, here’s this!

WAYNE! Getting the punch ready for the New Year’s Day brunch yesterday at the Union Club in NYC!

If you’re new to the blog — for many, many, MANY years, Wayne was a professional actor in NYC. Mostly live theater. A ton of Shakespeare, downtown. And, yes, I did spend many, many years hearing him say around the apartment: “Sire, hear me butt speak!!” Followed, perhaps, by the passing of the occasional gas…

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All righty!!

Ronnie Wood is offering 20% off all his art, site wide!!

Visit HERE!

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Okay, today I head back to my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s house.

We were planning on going out for sashimi & sake today. It is very cold but very sunny with no wind at all!

However, if his back porch is covered with snow and ice from Wednesday night, I don’t think we will be able to go out today. (He has a wooden leg, a cane, and, well, he’s 95.)

I’m hoping that some sort of miracle took place yesterday and that someone shoveled his back porch, and that we can still go out. We shall soon see. (His neighbors are really nice, so it could have happened.)

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Other than that —

After my shift today, I come straight home to another phone call with Sandra, as we begin the undertaking of the beautiful insanity.

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

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s leave with this today.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Hank Williams’ death. (Someone on Instagram even posted a photo of his open casket back in 1953, which I’d never seen before, but it was creepy so I’m not reposting it.)

“Hank Williams’ official cause of death was a heart attack, but it was heavily influenced by his chronic pain from spina bifida occulta, severe alcoholism, and drug use, including morphine and chloral hydrate, which combined to create a deadly mix, leading to his collapse in a car on New Year’s Day, 1953, at age 29. “

I have always loved Hank Williams’ music. So let’s depart with this. I know I posted it recently, but here it is again!

The original demo from “Long Gone Train,” a song I wrote about Hanks Williams in 1992. Just me and my guitar in my room back then. Enjoy, gang.

LONG GONE TRAIN
(for Hank Williams)

There are men who were doomed to the legend
Of their own despair
Who linger like an echoed moaning
On a cold black air
They were lean high-rollers in the shadow
Of a ball and chain
Who were beckoned to their call to glory
From a long gone train.

Men who had railed at the virtue of their own reward
Who smothered in the lonesome comfort 
Of a long black Ford
And the Sheriff who was called to the scene
In a driving rain
Sent the body home on the rails
Of a long gone train.

CHORUS:
Cold as the steal rail line that delivered him to fame
Beaten by the hustler’s dream that had robbed his name
Driven by the fury in a heart that was real as rain
It all disappears in the slow procession
Of a long gone train.

They were men who concealed their condition
From the broad daylight
Who would rage it wild and reckless
At the cruel limelight
And while the sane bystanders at the apron of the stage complained
How they wept at the mournful passing
Of a long gone train.

REPEAT CHORUS

There are men who will rail at the virtue of their own reward
Who will smother in the lonesome comfort of a long black Ford
And the Sheriff who is called to the scene in a driving rain
Will send the body home on the rails
Of a long gone train.

REPEAT CHORUS

© 1992 Marilyn Jaye Lewis
FIRST OF MAY SONGS, BMI

The end of a rather intense year!

And I am very eager to see what unfolds in 2026 and, while I don’t want Time to gallop away from me any faster than it already does, I don’t mind saying farewell to 2025!

ME (waving): “Bye, see ya!”

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Here’s this!

The other day was the anniversary of Rowland S. Howard’s death. He passed in 2009:

And here’s this, because I’m in that kind of mood today. “Autoluminescent,” Rowland S. Howard, from his album Teenage Snuff Film, 1999:

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And Phyllis Stein does it again!

She posted yet another great photo of Willy (Mink) DeVille!

And here’s this! “Cadillac Walk” from the album Cabretta, 1977:

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And I loved this photo–

Marc Bolan, in 1971:

And why not this?? From the above-mentioned album, the legendary “Bang A Gong (Get It On)”:

(And knowing me, gang, can you imagine me in my bedroom at age 11, hearing this amazing song for the first time??? Yes, I was only 11 when songs like “Brown Sugar,” “Maggie May,” “Walk On the Wild Side”, and “Bang A Gong,” among hundreds of other amazing songs, were on the fucking radio in my room!)

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Okay!! Anyway.

You are lucky ducks today!

James Tabor posted an edited version of the lecture from Sunday on Theophilus of Antioch to his YouTube channel.

Why You Probably Have Never Heard of Bishop Theophilus of Antioch! (47 mins):

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And another interesting read from Dr. Eli’s blog if you’re into it. This one is a 7-minute read:

Galatians within First-Century Judaism: Rethink Apostle Paul’s argument for Gentile Inclusion without Proselyte Conversion.

“In this article, we reread Paul’s letter to the Galatians—one of the earliest New Testament writings—from within the diverse landscape of first-century Judaism, avoiding later Christian supersessionist (replacement theology) assumptions. The letter addresses a crisis in the Galatian communities, where certain Jewish Christ-accepting evangelists were persuading Gentile believers that full membership in the people of God required adopting Torah observance in the manner of proselytes, including markers such as circumcision and kashrut. Paul vigorously opposes this view, arguing that Gentiles are incorporated into the Abrahamic promise through faith in the Jewish Messiah alone, without needing to become proselytes….”

[full article here]

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All right.

And it is with a heavy heart that I have come to the following decision!

I had a long conversation with Sandra on Monday about the best way to approach everything we need to focus on in 2026 and while it is going to take a TON of concentration and time to move forward with all 3 projects at the same time…

I also had a talk with my accountant on Monday and, even though, technically, I could retire if I really, really want to, I really will have to live frugally. More frugally than I had anticipated.

And while it’s doable, I’m worried that that’s going to cause me more stress than simply trying to juggle everything the way I always do. And it could put a serious damper on trips to NYC whenever I feel so inclined to go.

So, for now, I’m going to keep on working part-time, and just try to focus on everything at the same time — until I’m actually getting a significant paycheck again from something besides being a caregiver.

However!

Although I make no money from it at all, I still want to say thank you AGAIN, for all the downloads of my FREE erotic eBooks in the Smashwords Christmas Sale!

Today is the final day of the sale, and you guys have been just amazing. I think there have been more downloads during this sale than there have been in a couple years. So thank you, again, for all of the interest in all these really, really old books and stories!

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In other good news…

Loyal readers of this lofty blog no doubt recall that I have had trouble finding a church out here in the Hinterlands that I actually want to attend.

Some of you know that there is a (200-year-old!!) Methodist Church literally 3 minutes from my house. You can see it from my window. And the woman who works at the local Dollar Store has invited me a few times over the years to stop in at the Wednesday night suppers.

But for some reason, I have always felt hesitant about going there. I didn’t really know why. My Ministry Degree is in an evangelical denomination, so Methodist is a cake walk compared to that. Still, for some reason, I had an aversion to going in. Although the little church is quite lovely:

Well, also on Monday, I was in the Dollar Store, as usual, and for some reason, I asked the woman about the Methodist church and she was very excited and said it’s no longer Methodist. It’s just a Christian Church. They have a brand new minister, and she was just very enthusiastic about all of it.

So I decided to finally check it out! After living 3 minutes away from it for almost 8 years…

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Okay, I think that’s it for now. It’s snowing out there and I have to head to town to see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man!

Have a happy and healthy New Year’s Eve, wherever you are in the world, gang!

Thanks for visiting! (And, yes, for some reason I have gotten more visitors to the blog in 2025 than I’ve had in about 10 years… not joking about that!)

Anyway. Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s leave 2025 with this!!

I know I’ve posted it here just recently, but here it is again, gang.

From my wee bonny girlhood, and the sort of “theme song” from my upcoming memoir, Joy; The Shortest Season.

“Joy” by Apollo 100. Enjoy, gang.

Jesus, it’s ridiculous out there.

The winds are so strong that I can barely push the kitchen screen door open to get out to the porch.

So far, though, my PTSD is totally in check.

AND–

It’s looking like the snow they predicted has disappeared, so we’ll see how that goes.

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MEANWHILE!

So the escalation of silver seems to have finally toppled one of those “big banks” we’d been warned about (BOA? I don’t know!).

Check out Phil’s post from yesterday (plus he seems really happy in his car video…)

Also, as you might have already seen, a lot of stuff going on with Shanghai silver the last several days…

All of this together, well —

Don’t quote me on it, but it seems like everything they’ve been predicting is finally happening.

It looks like 2026 will indeed be the start of some really great stuff — in the US, for sure, but likely world-wide. I’m hearing NESARA by Jan.1st, gang. We shall see!!!

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Okay!

In other good news.

Regarding Brigitte Bardot (see post from yesterday)–

Warren Ellis also posted some nice photos of Brigitte with her beloved pets! Here’s one of them:

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And here’s a few of Keith– mostly stuff people posted around his recent birthday:

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I’m posting this late because I was notified that the post office had a package for me — my dad’s stuff!

So I went over there to take care of collecting that.

It turns out it is not really anything that my dad was saving for sentimental reasons. It’s documents — passport, birth certificate (!!), etc. But the birth certificate stuff is fascinating. It has my grandfather’s signature on it, for one thing, and I never got to meet him. He died in Cleveland, a month before I was born/adopted. But I have always felt oddly close to him anyway.

(And I was named after him — in Hebrew. Meaning my Hebrew name, Moshe (מֹשֶׁה – Moses), is in honor of my grandfather. My English name, as we all know so well by now, was in honor of Marilyn Monroe.) (Yes, I’m oddly named after both Moses and Marilyn Monroe.) (And since my grandfather ran the local movie house in Cleveland, and also built/owned a drive-in movie theater, he would probably be oddly satisfied that I was named after a leader of Judaism and a movie star.)

Anyway.

My grandma always kept a beautiful framed black & white photo of my grandfather on an end table next to “his” easy chair. The chair is long gone but the photo is in my room…

In the box, there are also some very old home movies that were transferred to a VHS cassette! It will be cool to watch it but I don’t think I am on it. I think the home movies pre-date me. I want to watch it and see what’s actually on there. It will be cool to see all the old relatives that have been gone such a long time now. All of them were Jewish refugees from Poland. They came over to America in the early 1900s and settled in Cleveland, Detroit, and NYC.

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I want to quickly mention that the Zoom class with James Tabor yesterday, for his new course, “Christianity before Paul”, was amazing. Wow. I am just loving this course.

The class was a little over 2 hours. It was mostly about Theophilus of Antioch, a Bishop from around 180 AD, and it was really just kind of staggering. Along the lines of the Didache, which pre-dated him by about 120 years (?).

I was sort of shaking when the class was over. Only because when we see all this stuff from before the Council of Nicaea, we get closer and closer to what Jesus was actually teaching before they put the New Testament together and made Christianity “official”.

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Anyway. Sorry this is so disjointed but as of right now, that’s it!

Keep your eye on the banks.

And enjoy your Monday wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this.

In honor of the James Tabor course, I think.

It oddly (!!) came up on my playlist last night, on my way home from being with the retired Minister and his lovely wife and cat.

I’ve posted it here before, but here it is again!!

From my wee bonny girlhood in Cleveland, my absolute favorite song from Hebrew School. “Hinei Ma Tov (Behold How Good)”, this version by Paul Wilbur. Enjoy, gang.

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.