All I want to do is pay the %$# bill!

In this day where everything is automated and computerized, trying to deal with a human being is nearly impossible.  Even if you CAN get to a human being, they refer you back to their on-line site because it's so much easier.  For them.

Today I had 3 bills to pay for my mother.  Somehow she managed to "misplace" 2 months of telephone bills, which I just found on her coffee table this week.  Her phone had already been disconnected.  I don't know what happens with her papers.  She gets volumes from Atria in a week and I go through them and toss out the outdated ones and get everything organized and then a week later I will find more notices from 6 months ago.

I called AT&T but before they could help me I had to either give them her 3-digit account number or the last 4 digits of her social security number.  I didn't have the SS number so I put in the account number, which was not recognized.  I'm holding the bloody bill in my hand and reading the numbers, but they don't recognize them.

So I went to Atria and got her SS card and copied down the number.  I went back to AT&T and they don't recognize that number either.  I finally called customer "service" and after a quite lengthy wait on line, while I was told many times how easy their on-line service was, I eventually reached a human being, who didn't want to accept payment from me until they could have my mother verify that it was OK for me to pay her bill for her.  I explained that she was 97 and had dementia and threatened to call back and pretend I was my mother. She finally, reluctantly, agreed to let me pay her bill.

One down, two to go.

The second bill was easier.  It was her portion of the ~$2,500 bill for her 3 block ambulance ride to the Emergency Room the last time she was sent there.  Her portion was $125, which makes you realize why you pay for health insurance.  It's for unexpected times like these!  But I wrote the check and mailed it.  

The third bill was her co-pay for the $7,701 charges for her 2 hours in the emergency room.  Her portion?  $50.  Again, thank God for Kaiser.  I cringe whenever I pay these bills because I know that she does not really need to go to the ER, but the one time I say "don't take her" will be the one time when her unconsciousness turns out to be a stroke.  So we pay.

I called their number and got the recording to use the on-line payment method, but when I went to on line she had to sign in with her account.  Her account number is on her bill, so I put that in and they didn't recognize it.

So I called.  And I waited. And I got a recording saying to say to type in her account number.  It wasn't recognized. I finally got through to a person who could help me and, not surprisingly, she encouraged paying on line.  I explained my difficulty and that I could not log in and could not start an account.

She said I could log in and pay as "guest" and that she could guide me, so I got the web site up on my computer and it was, indeed, quite simple.  She got me through the first couple of screens and all I had to do was put in the credit card number.  I thanked my guide for her help and she hung up.

I put the credit card information in and clicked 'submit" but it would not accept it without the last 4 digits of her Social Security number and it, too, did not recognize the number I entered.  Even though it says that is her number right on the card!

There was a link to send a note to their customer service address, so I wrote one and sent it.  Within a few minutes I had a response saying that though their office hours are  7 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST and though I was calling at 3 p.m. PST on a Wednesday afternoon, they were out of the office.  The e-mail suggested I use the on-line option.

Sigh.

I should have expected this.  Today is "pie day" at Sutter, I thought.  At the lunch yesterday they reminded us we could pick up our pies between 6:30 and 8:30 or later in the afternoon.  I actually set my alarm so I could get to Sutter by 7:30 so we could have pumpkin pie for breakfast. But when I got to the hospital meeting room, nobody was there and there was no sign of pies.  I went to the volunteers' office to see if maybe the pies were there, but the sign on the wall for "pie day" says that it is tomorrow.  

So I got back in the car and started the iPod to continue listening to my book on the ride home, but there was no sound.  Not on the audio book, nor on music, nor on anything.  

Obviously not my day.  I was going to visit my mother, but it's raining and it's cold, so I'm staying home.  But I'm nervous about touching anything mechanical for fear it won't work.

---

I did get the iPod working again, by essentially kicking it.  Electronically, that is.  I hooked it up to iTunes and played something from the iPod thru iTunes and when I disconnected from iTunes, it worked again, but it is clear that this beloved gadget is on its last legs.  I have looked at replacement options on Amazon, but I really need to hold something in my hands and see if it is what I want/need.  I did order something that I thought would work, but it turned out not to be compatible with iTunes or with Audible.com and since all I want the machine for is to play audio books, that won't work, so I am returning my purchase and taking a credit.

Now I just have to find a place to look at replacements.

I DID do something intelligent, though.  While iTunes was reading the iPod I did a copy and paste on the list of all the books I have stored on the iPod so that when/if I get a new one, I will know what to download from Audible again.

Though with my electronic luck these days, it probably won't recognize me either!

Who orders salmon in a steakhouse?

When the invitation to the Sutter Davis Hospital volunteers Christmas luncheon came, I didn't think I was interested.  This is not the "come and let us treat you to lunch as a thank you" lunch (which comes about in the spring), this was the "pay big bucks and we can all eat together" lunch.  The idea of eating at Cattlemen's was pleasant.

It's a great steakhouse that I've been able to visit a couple of times.  They have fabulous beef and we almost never go there.  So that was something in its favor.

But there was that whole social anxiety thing that so often cripples me.  But in the end I decided to go.  I had enjoyed the free lunch last spring, though I was fairly new then and didn't really know anybody by name.  I had felt out of place, but enjoyed myself.

So I sent in my money and today was the day.  Of course, a good ol' steakhouse like this comes with the thing that I hate....dead animals on the wall.  But I decided not to look up.

We all gathered around the front table to sign in and then go find a seat.  People were meeting friends and going off to tables. I decided to sit at an empty table and see if anyone would sit with me.  I watched people I knew give me smiles before going off to a different table.  

I expected that this entry was going to be a "poor me, nobody likes me" entry, but then a woman asked if the seats were taken and she and her friend (someone I actually knew) sat with me, then a woman who talks to me all the time when she passes the information desk arrived and then a woman who used to teach our kids in grammar school joined the group with a woman I didn't know but see all the time, and she always gives a cheery wave. So things were looking up. 

I'm not sure why people order salmon at a beef restaurant, but there were only two of us who ordered the sirloin steak, which was delicious.

Three of the women at the table are gift shop buyers and so there was lots of talk about that, but then I remembered that the ex-teacher had just traveled to Africa.  I had seen some of her Facebook photos, and so I talked with her about that, the place I've always wanted to visit and know now that I never will.  I was feeling more comfortable.

Then one of the gift shop ladies, who talks to me whenever she passes by, asked me what was the last show I saw.  I told her about Cinderella, which we saw last weekend.  The woman next to me asked if I write things about shows. I told her that I was the critic for the Davis Enterprise and that was an a-ha moment for most of them.  It was like the time someone at a new theater asked if I was "The" Bev Sykes. Turns out they all read my stuff, which is quite humbling.

Suddenly we had mutual things to talk about.  They wanted to know how I got to be a critic, and the shows I'd seen lately.  It was about 5 minutes where I was in my element and my social anxiety melted away for the rest of lunch.  (When we were leaving one of the women said "we learned a lot about you today!")  I left feeling 100% better than I had felt standing awkwardly on the porch of the restaurant waiting to be let in.

They gave us each a nice Christmas mug and someone from management gave each of us a teeny box with a piece of Sees candy in it.  Since lunch had not come with dessert, the candy was a nice end to the lunch.

As I got into the car, I was surprised to realize I had enjoyed myself, felt I had a better relationship with the women at my table and was feeling very good about the whole event.

I had to go from the restaurant to the hospital because I was working a half shift.  The lobby was nicely decorated and after talking with the gift shop buyers, I had to check out the things in the gift shop.  I was looking for a pair of Christmas earrings to replace the two pairs of earrings that I lost one earring from.  I got a cute pair of package bows.

I won't be able to sleep in them, as I have the earrings I've been wearing for several years, because they are too lumpy, but they'll get me through the holidays and maybe then I can go looking for another pair of "forever earrings."

All in all a surprisingly pleasant day.

Forty Nutcrackers

Once upon a time there was a young man named Bob Bowen. who was then the city's recreation coordinator, who got this crazy idea for something for Davis children to do over the holiday vacation.  He happened to see an issue of “Women’s Day” magazine and an article about how to put on a production of The Nutcracker for pre-school or elementary school children. A lightbulb went off in his head. “It was a pared down version. It didn’t involve copyright so I could rewrite it (which I did a lot). It doesn’t take full orchestra. It’s just a little stage production.” He decided to produce the Davis Children's Nutcracker.  Anybody who auditioned would be in the show and he would find roles for everyone.  70 kids showed up for that first show, and everybody was cast was something.

How do you produce a show with 70 excited, inexperienced children?  They were divided into groups by character.  There was the clown group, the Russian dancer group, the snowflake group, and so on.  Each group had its own directors.  They rehearsed independently and then two days before the big show, they all got together at the 325-seat Veterans Memorial Theater and put it all together.  

Amazingly, it came off beautifully.  Well, if not "beautifully," at least it was impressive, the parents were thrilled and when 70 kids spread across the stage for their bow, it was really something.

That first show took two weeks to rehearse and only one performance was scheduled. Bowen didn’t know if he could sell all 325 seats, but he actually over-sold seats and had to turn the mayor away at the door because she had no ticket and had no child in the production.

Four of our five children were in that first production.  You had to be at least 5 and David was too young (he joined the cast the following year).

It was so successful they immediately started planning for the next year.  Now, 40 years later, they are rehearsing the 40th production of the Nutcracker.  It has been a huge part of our lives.  While they were young, all of the kids acted in it. 

When they were too old to be in the cast (they aged out at 12), some of them went on to become group leaders or to work on the tech crew.  Ned worked on the tech crew it seems like forever with his best friend Greg, whose son Brycen went through the cast, moved on to group leader and now is on the tech crew like his father for so many years.  (Greg is on the right in this photo, with both of his sons...since Greg's mother had worked on the earlier versions, his kids are the third generation of the family to be a part of the Davis Children's Nutcracker.)

Nutcracker was a big part of our lives.  When we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Walt at the theater, we sat him on the big chair Ned and Greg had built for The Nutcracker.

Jeri and Phil put a picture of the two of them sitting inside the sugar plum they had built for The Nutcracker many years before on their wedding invitation.

Our kids and their best friends were on the tech crew and always tried to make the next production better than the last.  "We were insane,” said Jeri. “We had the run of the place and we had Bob Bowen who trusted us and was willing to go along with anything we wanted to try” (like drilling holes in the stage floor and filling tubes with flour that they could blast through the holes when a canon supposedly went off).

In the 10th year, the thing had grown so large they couldn't include all kids who want to perform--it had become a Davis institution and too many kids applied, so now they have to fill out an application and they are chosen by lottery.  They have set a cast limit at 200.

With 200 in the cast, there weren't enough groups to accommodate them. In 1977 there were 8 groups of clowns, mice, soldiers, Russian dancers, etc. In 2006 there were 18 groups, including some that Tchaikovsky never envisioned, like country line dancers, bees, birds and insects, and gnomes.

When I interviewed Bob for an article about The Davis Childreln's Nutcracker in 2009, he said, "This has become a crazy institution that is part of growing up in Davis. It has become a shared experience between parents who once performed in the show and kids who are in it now.  Maybe that's my enduring legacy. That's pretty cool."

Last night, we attended a party celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Davis Children's Nutcracker.  The halls of the theater were decorated with posters from each year.

It was fun to see how many people showed up.

Ned, Marta and another veteran from the first production chatted with Bob Bowen, who long ago resigned as the head of this Davis tradition.

When they began dating in high school, Ned and Marta discovered they had both been members of the clown group in 1978, where they first met.  They have now been married more than 25 years.  Their wedding cake, which I decorated, had a clown theme.

I had a show to review in Sacramento, so we couldn't stay for the slide show, but we left the party thinking how incredibly lucky we--and all our family--were to have been a part of this very special Davis event for so many years.

Sunday Stealing

1. YOU HAVE 10 BUCKS AND NEED TO BUY SNACKS AT A GAS STATION. WHAT DO YOU GET?
Junk food like Cheetos, Pringles, Tortilla Chips (for Walt) and maybe some peanut M&Ms.

2. IF YOU WERE REINCARNATED AS SOME SORT OF SEA DWELLING CREATURE, WHAT WOULD YOU BE?
Oh a whale.  I love whales.  I'd like to be reincarnated as a whale so I could understand the whale language and society...kind of like I'd like to be reincarnated as an elephant for the same reason.

3. WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE REDHEAD?
A rising young director named Rachel Blackburn, who is the great niece of my late friend Gilbert.

4. WHAT DO YOU ORDER WHEN YOU'RE AT A DINER?
I have more difficulty with diners these days.  I used to always order some kind of burger, but these days I'm usually off burgers...they are too big for me, for one thing.  Lately I've been ordering fish & chips (god help me if I should order something green and healthy!)

5. LAST BOOK YOU READ?
"Return to Freedom" by my friend Alec Clayton.  It's the 2nd in his "Freedom" trilogy.  I did not read the first book, but now am looking forward to reading the third one.  I feel somewhat guilty because it was a couple of years ago that Alec asked me to review a couple of his books, but until I read this one, I had not been able to get into one of his books.  He's an excellent writer!

6. DESCRIBE YOUR FAVORITE PAIR OF UNDERWEAR?
I'm a granny panty kind of girl.  Plain white cotton.  Very boring.

7. DESCRIBE THE LAST TIME YOU WERE INJURED.
I am fortunate that I have had few injuries in my life.  The last was in 2000 when I flew over the handlebars of my bike on a charity ride and dislocated my shoulder.  The shoulder healed fine, but my knee, which I also hurt, has never been the same since.

8. ROCK CONCERT OR SYMPHONY? LAST SEEN?
I can't remember.  Walt subscribes to the San Francisco Symphony.  I stopped going with him because I thought tickets were too expensive for me to sleep through most of the evening and at the time I was working for Dr. G and often had to work late, but I did go to a concert last year some time, but can't remember what it was.

9. IF SOMEONE WERE TO BUY YOU A GIFT, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO BE?
3 weeks before Christmas, I'd rather not say.

10. WHAT TYPE OF SHIRT DO YOU BEST IN?
Mostly I wear t-shirts.  Once I learned there was such a size as XXXL, I started buying t-shirts, which I had not worn for years.  I have several elephant t-shirts (some as "small" as XXL).

11. IF YOU COULD USE ONLY ONE FORM OF TRANSPORTATION FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Car.  That seems to be what I travel in most of the time anyway.  I have come to hate the hassle of air travel, I'd love to travel by train again, but that pretty much limits where you can go once you get to your destination.  I don't mind long car rides.  Except at night with lots of traffic.

12. WHAT IS YOUR DEADLY SIN?
Eating

13. MOST RECENT MOVIE YOU'VE WATCHED IN A THEATER? RATE IT.
Sully.  I thought it was excellent.  Tom Hanks as Sully Sullenberger was wonderful and I found that I was moved to tears from the first time they showed the plane landing on the Hudson pretty much to the end of the movie.  I'm not sure why it affected me so strongly.

14. IF YOU COULD INVENT ONE THING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
That damn transporter Roddenberry promised us, so I could get to Santa Barbara to visit the grandkids faster than the 8 hour drive it takes us now.

15. NAME AN ACTOR/ACTRESS YOU'VE HAD THE HOTS FOR?
When I was a kid I had the hots for weird actors.  I mostly fell for father figures like Claude Rains and the stern uncle James Mason played in The Seventh Veil.  And then, of course, there was Judy Garland, who was not a father figure.

16. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE CITY? LAST TIME THERE?
I am so lucky that my favorite is the one I was born and raised in -- San Francisco.  I was there last month, giving a tour to fellow blogger Kimberly and her husband.  There is nothing more beautiful than San Francisco on a crystal clear day.

17. WHAT'S THE FIRST WORD THAT COMES TO MIND RIGHT NOW?
Serendipity.  Don't ask me why!

18. WHAT TYPE OF PET DO YOU HAVE?
Two dogs, Lizzie, a large shaggy terrier and Polly, a Chihuahua mix.  They are my "pet" peeves, I recently decided.

19. WHERE HAVE YOU LIVED THE LONGEST?
We have been in this house for 43 years.  Before that the longest I'd lived in one spot was 18 years in San Francisco.

20. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON THAT SPENT $100 ON YOU?
I'm sure it was Walt.  I can't think of anybody else in a very long time who has spent that much money on me.

21. WHAT'S THE LAST PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU BOUGHT?
I bought a new elephant Christmas sweatshirt (Santa and his ele-deer)

22. WHAT WAS/IS YOUR FAVORITE JOB?
My first big job was as a secretary in the Physics Department at UC Berkeley.  I worked for three different physics professors for 4 years and by the end of that time, I was private secretary to one of the professors, with whom I am still friends.  I loved that job.  I only left it because I was about to have a baby.

23. WHO MAKES YOU LAUGH THE MOST??
The cast of The Big Bang Theory

24. WHAT ARE YOU CRAVING?
Holidays that we used to have when we blended both families, Paul and David were still alive, and my mother knew what day of the year it was.

25. WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?
Trying to decide how to handle Christmas.  It's going to be awkward because of who is going to be where when, but I'm thinking that if I end up cooking dinner, I might get a prime rib and cook that instead of turkey.  I've never NOT had turkey at Christmas, but the prime rib I saw on the Food Network this morning looked pretty darn good!

God Bless Us Every One

When you’re a theater critic, this is a very busy time of the year. This weekend, we are seeing the next two Christmas shows. We have already seen two different versions of A Christmas Carol and a weird show called Prime Time for the Holidays. Friday night we see The Christmas Story (with the kid who gets his tongue stuck to a metal post) and on Saturday a British panto version of Cinderella, a traditional holiday treat for one of the Sacramento theater companies.  Next week we see David Sedaris’ very funny Santaland Diaries about his experiences working as an elf one Christmas in Macy*s Santaland.. Then I think I can hang up my jingle bells until next year.

I’ve always enjoyed Christmas stories, but until I became a critic and started reviewing stageshows, they were all movies. I don't remember the first Christmas movie that I ever saw, but it was probably Miracle on 34th Street, which remains to this day my favorite Christmas movie. It had everything, especially magic that may or may not have been real. I still get chills at the end when they find the cane by the fireplace. The newer made for TV version just can’t hold a candle.  (For one thing, it doesn't have Natalie Wood!)

I love the old movies. Loretta Young looking luminous in The Bishop's Wife while Cary Grant plays an angel sent to earth to help her minister husband remember the real meaning of Christmas. Loretta also returns as Sister Margaret, with Celeste Holm as Sister Scholastica sent off, with nothing, by their Motherhouse to find land and build a hospital in Bethlehem, PA in Come to the Stable. Sappy tearjerker with both surprising and predictable twists.

I remember when there was a station that ran It's a Wonderful Life 24/7 from Thanksgiving Eve through Christmas day. It's a good movie, but I have pretty much had it with that movie. I avoid it like the plague.

However, I can see White Christmas over and over again. I don't even mind seeing the stage production of it (which I just reviewed recently–the stage show isn't nearly as good as the movie).

I love the original Christmas Carol story versions (I specify "original" because at their root, pretty much most Christmas movies contain all the same elements--a grinch, a good guy, a little kid, an element of magic, and a happy ending). From the Reginald Owen 1938 movie version down through the Muppet Christmas Carol they have all been good. It has been performed by humans, puppets, cartoon characters, dogs and muppets. Ebenezer Scrooge has been played by Lionel Barrymore, Stan Freberg, Vanessa Williams, Captain Picard, Frasier, Mr. Magoo and Scrooge McDuck among a host of others.

I even love the silly tear jerkers like Elf...though many wouldn't think of Elf as a tear jerker, but it has a tenderness to it that makes me tear up every time.

Nowadays we are flooded with Christmas movies. The Hallmark Channel becomes the Christmas Channel from Thanksgiving to Christmas, showing Christmas movies nonstop, the schlockier the better. I haven’t watched any of them in two years, protesting loss of Frasier and Golden Girls reruns.

There is one called The Christmas Gift, though, which stars John Denver, the only reason I watch this movie. I do like John Denver, even though his acting talents were somewhat iffy. In this movie, he played a widowed New York City architect who takes his young daughter on a Christmas vacation and ends up in a small mystical town in Colorado where everyone belives in Santa Claus. That's the IMDb definition. Actually, this is just another version of The Christmas Story, where Denver's boss (the Scrooge figure) sends him to buy up property in the little town, which will change it into some big metropolis which will make big bucks for the boss. There is a guy whose house is going to be foreclosed (the Bob Cratchit character). With the help of Jane Kaczmarek, who is certainly the ghost of Christmas present, Denver magically gains a spine, stands up to his boss, falls in love with Jane, and decides to settle down in the little town. And, like Scrooge's transformation, the whole thing takes place in 2 days. Magic.

There are all those other classic Christmas animated things that I watched because our kids watched them and didn't admit to watching them because I liked them too!

The grandaddy of them all, of course, is A Charlie Brown Christmas, which has to be on everybody's favorite. (Ironically, this is the only movie which touches on anything Biblical.)  I believe this was the first of the Peanuts movies and I wasn't sure how I felt about having actual voices put to the characters I knew so well from the comics, but fell in love with it. And who can pass by a scraggly Christmas tree, left on an old tree lot without thinking that if you wrapped a blanket around it and gave it a lot of love, it would magically become a beautiful tree? God bless us every one.

Along came How the Grinch Stole Christmas and sweet little Cindy Lou Who gathered with the other Whos happily singing even though there are no Christmas presents.

And there is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, which was a real favorite around here. How can you not like a story about an elf who wants to be a dentist?

I can really get them all in one night, if a theater company is producing the right show. Every Christmas Story Ever Told is. I’ve reviewed it 4 times now and always look forward to seeing Gustav the Green-Nosed Rein-goat (to avoid copyright infringement) again.

But (shhh...don't tell anyone)... I will be glad when December 26 comes and it’s safe to go to a play or watch TV without some sappy Christmas plot again!

Marvel the Mustang

Marvel the Mustang burst on the toy scene during the Christmas season of1969.  It was the "must-have" toy that year.  Jeri was 3 years old and fell in love with Marvel and got excited whenever she saw a commercial.  I grew to hate that damn song.

     Marvel the Mustang
     He's almost for real
     Just saddle him up
     With spurs on your heels
     No winding, no batteries
     "What horse DO?"
     Marvel the Mustang
     Do we love you!

No, that is not Jeri in the photo, but Marvel the Mustang became my guilt each year because every year they trotted out the old commercial and Jeri got all excited about it again for about three years.  She was sure that Santa would bring her Marvel the Mustang. But Santa looked at the price and realized that his elves could not make it cheaply and that her interest in it would not justify such a big expense, so he never did bring her a Marvel the Mustang.

Imagine my surprise when I watched The Today Show recently and saw some of this year's "must have toys" and discovered this zebra.  It's Marvel the Mustang with stripes!

I have to admit that it assuaged my guilt just a bit when I discovered that Marvel the Zebra (not his real name) costs $250.  That explains why there never was a Marvel the Mustang for Jeri.

I wonder if everyone has a Marvel the Mustang in their past.  Mine was a fancy doll.  I've been searching Google Images for the kind of doll I wanted and have not been able to find the exact doll.  This was the closest I could come:

 

These have baby faces.  I wanted the doll with an adult looking face, big hats and dresses like you would see swirling around on the dance floor in a period drama.

I'm sure my parents never bought me such a doll because they cost so much and they figured I would either mess it up or grow tired of it and not make the cost worth it.  But my mother must have been thrilled when she found a Mary Hartline doll.

Mary Hartline was the co-host on a show called Super Circus that we watched every week.  I suppose my mother figured that here was a doll that was not a baby doll, and was dressed like an adult, had long hair and I would love it.

But I hated it.  I thought she was ugly. When I saw Mary Hartline under the tree, I knew that I would never get the beautiful doll I wanted. I pretended to love it, but I never did.

I did have the fancy dolls I wanted.  They were from a line called "Storybook Dolls" and were dressed beautifully, but they were small and my father built little show cases for them, little wooden boxes with glass fronts, and they lined the walls of our bedroom and we were never permitted to touch the dolls.

 

What i was hoping for was a play size Storybook Doll.

We learn early in life to deal with disappointments and we learn that people get things for you, or do things for you because they love you and have no idea that they have disappointed you. You learn early in life how to be gracious and thankful for the gesture, and swallow your disappointment.  But I still think about those dolls I wanted if I see pictures or a display.  

 

I went to a grief counselor after Gilbert died in 1986.  She suggested that I be good to myself and buy something I'd always wanted.  I knew instantly that I would buy myself the doll I'd always wanted and actually went shopping for one.  That's when I realized that I was 43 years old and had no idea of what I would do with such a doll and, if I was honest with myself, did not really want one any more.  I had put away the things of a child and was now an adult.

It's That Time Again

It's time for Holidailies again, when a group of bloggers try to write an entry a day through the month of December.  This is the 17th year that this project has been running and I have participated in most of them.  Since I update daily any day, it's no stretch to try to update daily throughout December.

Holidailies draws participants from all over the world, from a variety of ages and walks of life, covering a wide range of interests. Some participants share stories about their daily life, others write in themed blogs about everything from hiking to homeschooling, from knitting to alternative lifestyles. Some write about Christmas, some about Hanukkah, and some about ways to avoid the holidays as much as possible.

I sometimes write on a Holidailies theme, but mostly I just write the kind of entry I would write anyway, discussing the highs and lows, the good and bad, the frustrations and satisfactions of our everyday life.

What I love about Holidailies is that universality and checking other bloggers each day to read their thoughts, often finding good writers I had not encountered before and I often add that blog to those that I regularly check.  I learn things from other bloggers, sometimes information I never knew, sometimes a new way at looking at things, sometimes I am inspired by the writing of a particularly talented blogger.

I am always inspired by good writing.  John Steinbeck always affected my writing when I was reading him.  Pat Conroy held my interest in a way that few other authors can do.  Erma Bombeck was my heroine and I still aspire to be a latter day Erma, but have discovered over 6,093 entries in the past 16 years that it's more difficult to be Erma than it would seem.  There are bloggers out there who inspire me the way these authors do and I look forward to finding them on the Holidailies links throughout the month.

It's traditional to post an introduction in your first Holidailies post, which is totally unnecessary for my loyal readers who are here every day, but for those who are new to Funny the World, here is a little bit about me...

I'm 73 years old, retired medical office manager working part time as theater critic for two local newspapers.  I was born and raised in San Francisco but now live in Davis, California, a university town 80 miles east of San Francisco.

Walt and I have been married 51 years.  We raised five children.  We have two lovely granddaughters and two obnoxious dogs whom I have started referring to as my "pet" peeves.  Lizzie in particular is our dishwasher's "pre-wash cycle."

My 97 year old mother has dementia and takes a lot of my time.  She lives in her own apartment in a senior facility, but I visit her almost every day and she has lots of doctors' appointments lately, though she is healthy as a horse (just this little fainting problem they are trying to identify).

I am an avid reader, though lately have not had time to read anything and I miss it very much.  I am also a TV addict and watch a lot of crime dramas (like NCIS and Criminal Minds) and dramas like Designated Survivor, Scandal, and pretty much any medical drama.  I also watch a lot of the Food Network, which has helped my cooking techniques immensely.

Walt and I have been fortunate to do quite a bit of international travel in the past several years, but I'm reluctant to leave my mother alone for too long now.  Also, the world is too unsettled right now and I'm content to stay at home for now.

I started this journal in March of 2000 and have written 6093 entries as of today.  It is very rare that I do not post an entry a day.

I write an annual Christmas letter, which I have been working on now for two days.  You'd think it would be easy, but the computer has been giving me fits.  I finally got it finished and am starting to send the link out to friends and am also posting the link here, for anyone who likes Christmas letters (I do), or who just wants more information about the family and our past year.

Looking forward to reading more good bloggers this December!