Friday Five

If you could, would you be a movie star or a rock star?

Good lord, no.  I can't even imagine living in a bubble like these guys do.  I look at how they lose their privacy and have seen how it destroys the lives of too many, especially younger people.  (Besides that, I have no talent!)

Have you ever been in the media (TV, Radio, Papers)?

Well, I've been a theater critic for the newspaper for 17 years, and have written various columns for the paper over the years.  I have been interviewed on the radio (and will be again later this month) about local theater, and was on TV during my La Leche League years--my chance to nurse a baby (David) on TV.

Do you know anyone who's been on a reality TV show?

No.  I think everyone in my life has better sense.  Though Ned loves Survivor so much, if he weren't an old man (about to turn 50), he might enjoy being on that.  But I doubt it.

Have you ever met anyone famous?

I met Judy Garland when she was touring her Carnegie Hall show in San Francisco. I sat with Carol Channing at a cocktail party before an awards ceremony.  I was tongue tied and very glad that so many people were paying court to her that I didn't have to fill the awkward silence.  I got a kiss from my favorite D'Oyly Carte patterman, John Reed, when we went with the Lamplighters to a Gilbert and Sullivan festival in England.  I once shook hands with Tipper Gore.  I met Piper Laurie when she directed my friend Jim's show Zero Hour (but we couldn't have a conversation because of her deafness and the noise in the lobby) And exactly how famous are my friends Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu anyway?  or for that matter, my friend David Gerrold (author of "The Trouble with Tribbles," who introduced me to his colleagues, D.C. Fontana and Harlan Ellison, much more famous Star Trek writers.

Who would play you in a movie?

Melissa McCarthy.

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I confused my mother yesterday.  She had been looking at the pictures of her family on the wall and not so much reminiscing (since she doesn't have firm memories any more), but saying how lucky she had been to have such a good family, how much fun they had together, etc.

She looked at me and said, "didn't we?"  I said "Well, I wasn't there, so  don't know."

"You weren't there?  Why weren't you there?"

"I wasn't born yet!"

She was confused and she asked me how I got there.  I tried to talk around the subject but finally said "you had sex with my father."

She looked shocked.  "I had sex with your father???  How could I ever have sex with your father???"  

I finally realized she didn't know who I was.  I asked if she knew who I was and she said.  "Of course.  You're my sister."  

I told her that no, I was her daughter.  She thought about that for awhile and finally said "I'm going to have to think about that.  I don't understand a word of what you're saying."

Sigh.

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Not sure which is more depressing, visiting my mother or not visiting my mother.  I stayed home today to watch the Comey hearings and this whole thing just makes me depressed over and over again.

The worst part of all of this is that there is a questionnaire circulating now about whether or not people would like to see Trump impeached.  But is it better that he stay in office, or that he be removed and leave Pence in place.  Or Ryan?  Or Orrin Hatch? Or Rex Tillerson? or Steve Mnuchin? Or James Mattis?  Or Jeff Sessions?  That's the line-up.  Which of them would be better for our country than Trump?

The one consolation is that if you read postings on Facebook, I was not the only one confused by John McCain's questions.  In fact, I didn't read a single post by anyone who didn't wonder if he'd had a stroke or just lost it mentally.  

I finally OD's on coverage of the hearings and turned off the TV to do my reading time (about an hour and a half today).  I'm enjoying Sally Henderson's "Silent Footsteps," about her years observing elephants in Tanzania.  The one thing this book is doing for me which other such books have not done is to make me change my mind about going on photo safari in Africa.  The attitude toward tourists is one thing, the other is the danger so many of them faced in this particular account.  Finally makes me comfortable that I never did fulfill that life-long bucket list item.

Grandma

It's days like this when I love being a grandma, and love this correspondence I have started with my granddaughters.

 

This is my first letter from Lacie and Tom said she insisted on addressing it herself, without help.  He wasn't sure it would arrive or not.  It did and I loved that it was sent without a regulation postage stamp, though I loved that she chose Dorothy to put on as a stamp.

Inside she drew a computer keyboard for me.  Lacie and I are starting a correspondence.  I've been writing to both girls for a couple of years now. Brianna and I now have a "normal" correspondence, since she can read and write well.  It will take a couple of years for Lacie to get there, but I love that, living such a long way away, I have found a way to keep close to the girls.  Both girls are very verbal and love books, so Bri's writing is really very good and I have every expectation that Lacie, who is even more of a bookworm, if possible, will get there too.

* * *

Today Ned came over and helped Walt prune a pomegranate tree. Then they went back to the apartment and removed all the stuff to be taken to the thrift store.  The apartment is now empty.  And I thought we had discovered everywhere she thought of to hide soiled undergarments (desk drawer, kitchen drawers, bedside table, linen closet, etc.) but Ned found a pair of underpants in the oven.  I'm surprised we didn't find any in the refrigerator.

I let Atria know that we're out and they have to do a walk--through with us, but then we're all good.

And then I can confront the bookkeeper for the outrageous $18.000 bill she just sent me!!!!!  Very, very wrong.

When they got back from Atria, Walt and Ned moved the treadmill out of the family room and my mother's couch in...there is now a place for guests to actually SIT in that room!  Don't know what will happen to the treadmill.  The kids and Walt bought it for me to help prepare for the France/Italy tour and it got a lot of use, but not lately.  I am glad to finally have it out of the family room and have that space back again.

* * *

In Sunday Stealing this week, the last question asked what other memes people liked and I found a couple to check out, so today I thought I would do Friday 5.  I skipped Thursday 13, which I might try again (though I did it for about 2 years before), and moved ahead to Friday 5, which I had never seen before:

1. How did you name your pets?

Lizzie arrived as a foster named Happy, which certainly fit her personality, but she has this compulsion to jump and I decided to rename her Leaping Lizzie.  She's getting to be an old lady now and doesn't jump as much as she used to, but she still leaps more than most dogs.

Polly also arrived as a foster and as I was contemplating what to call her, I was watching NCIS and decided to name her Pauley, after Pauley Perette, who plays Abby on the show.  Only everyone thought it was Polly as in Underdog, so I caved and called her Polly.

2. Poirot or Miss Marpel?

I haven't read a lot of Agatha Christie and enjoyed both detectives in the books I did read, but being an old lady myself I tend to lean toward Miss Marpel...England's inspiration, I suspect, for Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher.

3. Do you have a FB account too?

Is the Pope Catholic?  I have been on FB for so long that in the early days I found a group called "Am I the oldest person on Facebook" and joined it...and I was by far the oldest person in THAT group.  Of course now people of all ages belong, but in the beginning, I was a trailblazer for the grey-haired set!

4. Books - hardcover or paperback

Hardcover, because the print is larger, but really my preference is Kindle, because if the print is too small, I can always make it larger.

5. Mobile (cell phone): Windows/Android or Apple?

I have an Apple iPhone 7.  The only reason I have the 7 is that Verizon gave it to me for free when I tried to upgrade to the iPhone 6.  Basically I love it.  It has features I definitely do not like, but it works better than my old iPhone 4 and I love that.  I have also learned how to use Twitter, which may or may not be a good thing!