Things Happen ...

1. I'm working on editing a book, and it's going very well. I'm enjoying the work and the reading.

2. Eric and I got tickets to see Ian Hunter again. This time it's at Joe's Pub in NYC on March 1. It's a tiny place (150 people max.), so it should be a lot of fun.

3. Eric and I are going to a T. Harv Eker three-day seminar next week. We shall return transformed. Or something like that.

4. I've been in touch with one of my friends from high school. After writing about looking for some people, I decided to try to find them -- and I found one! It's very cool to be in touch with an old friend.

5. It's just about the end of January and I've already started to accomplish some of the things I want to this year. I'm writing a little; I'm editing stuff; I'm exercising and eating better; I'm feeling hopeful.

All in all, these things are not so bad.

Miracle? Hmmmm...

I've heard that when you are doing what you are designed to do in this life the universe conspires to support you. When you are going against your own grain or fighting what your soul is all about, your life can become a shambles. So I've been focusing on the positive. Trying to bring myself back into alignment with what I was born to do. What do you know? Just when we needed a little $ to cover some expenses, it more or less fell out of the sky. Miracle? Karma? Who knows? But I'm darn grateful for the timing.

That's about all for now. I have to keep working!

--Mary

Blizzard Warning

We're coming under a blizzard warning here on Long Island at noon today. The snow hasn't started yet, but the sky has gotten grayer in the past hour and a half. The cupboards are fairly stocked, we have our snow shovel handy, and we have plenty of rock salt.

I love fresh snow. There's something joyful about it. Something angelic and pure. Of course, I know it's just a bunch of wet stuff masquerading as clean stuff. I don't care for it once people have dirtied it with cars and footprints. But for the next day or two I will have a lovely view of "white and drifting" snow. I'm pleased.

Poems & Other Work

An old friend contacted me last month with a sort-of multimedia-type of idea. So I'm trying to hammer out some poems I originally wrote over the past couple of years. It's neat to discover things you've written that you have no memory of writing. It's like finding money in last year's winter coat pocket.

I'm also editing a fitness book. Some may think editing someone else's writing is boring or tedious, but it isn't that way for me. I enjoy "perfecting" other people's writing. I get some bizarre, neurotic satisfaction from fixing comma splices, typos, and awkward phrases. What's that Buddhist thing? Choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

--Mary

OK, I Give Up...

I have no idea why I keep seeing women walking around in flip-flop sandals. It's January. Are there that many women getting pedicures at this time of year? Why? It's January. It's not exactly open-toed shoe season. I just want to smack each one of them for being vain beyond the call of duty. It's like some female machismo: My toes can tolerate the bitter cold for vanity. Stupidity is stunning.

--Mary

It's Got a Good Beat. You Can Dance To It.

...or not. When I was in junior high and high school, Disco was very popular. I hated it. I was one of those kids who took refuge in 8-minute rock songs. Then I discovered this guy called Elvis Costello. Then another guy, Graham Parker. (EC & GP are still favorites.) Then ... Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Rockpile (my brother Mark actually got to see the very short-lived Rockpile; he also got to see The Who when Keith Moon was still alive), Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes (unrelated: who remembers when John Mellencamp was Johnny Cougar?). Of course I liked all the older guys, too: The Stones, The Who, The Band & Bob Dylan, The Beatles (and various solo endeavors), Steely Dan (I had Aja on 8-track!), Janis Joplin (I did a mean impression of her that got me nicknamed "Little Janis" by one of my HS friends), Meatloaf (okay, he's not older).

It's been a long time since I thought about my young music interests (with the exception of Elvis Costello, I've done little to no music purchasing in the last 10 years -- though I did pick up a cd of the Jim Carroll Band's Catholic Boy at some point). I listened to a couple of Clash albums (cds) recently; I'd forgotten what a good record London Calling is.

What's the point of this post? Reminiscing, really. The longer you think about something like the music you used to listen to, the more you remember. More important, music used to be vitally important to me. I kept up with a lot of stuff. It was a point of pride to be able to recognize many songs from their first few notes. I could recognize a lot of artists by listening to the guitars or keyboards or lead singers. Now, I can't tell one from the other. And I don't care much for the stuff on radio. They shut down and sold WNEW (NY), they finally killed WLIR (the only station I listened to for years).

Anyway ... since I got my Uncle Sonny's (feels good to say that; Aunt Helen & Uncle Sonny got married on January 1!) Lincoln Town Car, with cd player, I've been having Eric make copies of many of our gazillion cds (about nine-tenths of which are Eric's purchases) so I can listen to them in the car. If only gas were cheaper.

Now I must go. It's 2 am and I do want to get up sometime in the morning.

Until I go on about something totally unrelated to ferrets again ...

--Mary

Happy New Year!

One New Year's resolution: Write more.

But now I have to sleep. My Aunt Helen is getting married tomorrow so I have to be up and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed or some such stuff.

--Mary