postscript

Timing is everything. This morning, on the only news program I watch, Tom Jones was featured. They even showed concert clips of him doing all three of the songs mentioned in my last post! He's 71 now, so Mother Pat would have been 70 in March.
His look is different now and seems to have changed shortly after we saw his show. He's allowed himself to show his age, gray hair, gray beard, and it becomes him. I still think HE is a "sex bomb" and I'd still like to see him in concert again. Tom has a new album - oops! I mean, CD - out and the songs are quite different, with several old traditional standards and folk tunes. I had seen him at the MGM Grand, one of the cornerstones in Las Vegas, and apparently he still performs there. Maybe I can plan a trip to coincide with his in the next year or two.
Although the sound of the new songs is more serious, this isn't the first time he's delved into vastly different material. He did the same in 1994 when he released "the lead and how to swing it", one of my favorites. Take a listen. THIS is what being mid-fifties is all about for me. He was 54 in this video, recorded at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in 1994. I'm 53 now, still vital, still dancing, still.
Thanks to the tomjonesintl.com site for the video and the information! I had wondered about the title of the album and I like it even more now, knowing it was a tribute to Sir Tom's dad. Now, if I could only find a video for one of my favorites on the CD, "A Girl Like You". That would be so fine! Meanwhile, the original by Wolfgang Press will do nicely.

it's not unusual

‘Doc, I can’t stop singing ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home.’ ‘That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome.’ ‘Is it common?’ 'Well, ‘It’s Not Unusual.’ =)

The above joke was posted on a friend's facebook page and made me smile. As I replied to her, "OMG, Tom Jones is soooo fabulous!! When I saw him in Las Vegas in 2007, he sang "Sex Bomb" to ME! Yes, he did! (swoon!)"
Seriously, he DID! I had bought the tickets in December of 2006 and snagged front-row tickets for my husband and my mother-in-law for his show. Incredible! Even more so, the concert was on Mother Pat's 66th birthday and I knew she was going to love the show at least as much as I would. THAT was very important to me. You see, the trip to Las Vegas was a last hurrah with her, as she had Stage 4 colon cancer and was doing very poorly. We had no idea just how poor her health was until we saw her. She had become considerably weaker since the Christmas visit and would actually die a month after the trip.
The trip to Las Vegas was one she had been trying to get us to take with her for years. She had retired early and had nothing but time, whereas we both worked and were lucky to get two weeks of paid vacation a year. To go to Las Vegas would take at least most of a week, leaving us little time for anything else. So, going to gamble with Mother Pat kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list. A real shame, in hindsight. She truly enjoyed the place, as do I, and she knew how to get around and where to find the best, and cheapest, entertainment.
I think the next time I go there, I'll have to find a place where her name can become part of the city.

fortune cookie says...

"You're not afraid of storms, for you're learning to sail your ship."
Seriously. That was the message received with lunch today.
I was dining with my middle brother on this beautiful, blue-sky, hot summer day. I had chosen this restaurant because it's one of my favorites and we happened to be right there, as we had first gone to the drivers license office. Asian Buffet always has a wide assortment of sushi rolls and nigiri sushi, as well as some dim sum and other goodies, and more traditional fare, too.
He was enjoying the cheesy mussels - he had seven! - and I was getting my fill of several different types of sushi rolls. I tried twice to let him taste, but he couldn't get past the taste of the algae, so that was that.
We had a good lunch together, getting caught up with happenings in each other's lives, eating good food, taking our time. After all, it was a fine Saturday of a holiday weekend and we had no agenda at hand. Very nice lunch and good conversation. Then my fortune came and it read like it was meant JUST for me.
Mind, when the check came with the two fortune cookies on the tray, I had touched the cookie closest to me to move it so I could read the total on the bill. Having confirmed the total was correct, I had placed the cookie back on the tray. I then waited for him to select which cookie he wanted and, when he had not chosen for several minutes, I went ahead and picked up the cookie I had returned to the tray.
That cookie was clearly meant for me. Am I not learning to sail my own ship? Yes, I may be foundering from time to time, but 'tis my own ship and mine alone. If it runs aground occasionally, so be it. I'll make the most of the delay as I wait for a high tide to lift me up and away again. Then I'll be catching the breeze in my sails and searching for that next bright star to steer her by.
Lovely image, that. How did the fortune cookie know?

midnight in Paris

Tonight, I drove out to a new cinema to see a movie. I didn't know much about the film, and this is the only cinema showing it. Mostly, though, I was escaping my hot house, in hopes that night air would cool it enough that I could sleep. The air conditioner was on the fritz and help would be coming the next day, but not tonight. So, partly to cool off, partly to see the movie before it left town, I left town to catch it.
"Midnight in Paris" is a movie about appreciating the time in which you live. In other words, ejoying the present, not mourning the past or yearning for the future. Time only moves forward, one fraction of a second at a time, and no amount of human pining will alter that pace or direction. To have regrets of time lost in the distant or near past simply robs an appreciation of the time at hand. To wish for a time not yet come to pass in the near or distant future is to miss the richness of the time all around.
What a fine message for this last day of the first half of 2011! This was a fine message for me, indeed, given the many changes brought about in this short thirty-day span of time.
For now, it's a hot house, with anticipation of a cooler night to come.

what a long strange trip it's been

Yesterday was a merging of friends past and friends present. Who can say who will be friends future?
I went to the wedding of my ex's best friend yesterday evening. My ex had come to town and was there as his best man. The mutual friend who had introduced me to my ex so many years ago was also there.
Playing music at the reception site was a new friend from one of the social groups I have been part of since the divorce. There was also another new friend from another social group I have been part of since the divorce. Both of these folks know the groom and one of them also knows my ex. Small world.
As you know, I've had to start over with my social life, AD. The friends I had before the marriage, who never left my side, are still with me, though they are scattered geographically around this continent. Almost all of the friends I thought I had during the marriage have scattered away, though they still live in this very town. You would have thought divorce was contagious. And perhaps, in a way, it is. People in marriages, relationships, couplehood, find themselves shining a harsh spotlight on their spouses, partners, significant others, searching for any hint of a fatal flaw that might unravel the threads binding them together.
A bit of questioning is a good thing. Any truth, belief, credo, which cannot withstand close scrutiny is not worthy of being a truth or belief or credo. So much of what we hold to be true is based on partial knowledge and subjective perception and not on verifiable and objective facts. My favorite definition of truth is "conformity with fact or reality". It's close to being a scientific law, which is hailed as being a rule held to be true in every instance... but is it? Those laws are based on the outcomes of repeated experiments, but usually have some caveat added in. For instance, all the laws concerning the behavior of properties of gases include the phrase "for an ideal gas" - of which there is nonesuch. Still, the gas laws do give scientists a starting point for understanding and predicting how a real gas will respond to various stimuli.
Perhaps that is how personal truths are of best use. If those beliefs are held to be guidelines, not nonmalleable facts, then those beliefs help make some sense of this world and the people we meet. Guidelines. "Indications of a future course of action", by others known and unknown and by oneself. THAT is helpful.

hasta la vista!

Until my next trip out to the other coast, my love and a piece of my heart stays with my li'l' sister and her family.
My elder niece wondered one evening why they had not flown over to my beach. I explained that the trip was rather expensive and that it would cost them five times as much since there were five of them.
That would mean they would spend $2800 JUST on the flight. That would not include food on the plane (no more free meals) or in the airport between flights, checked baggage fees, or parking fees. This time, for me alone, the trip was $560, round trip. (Of course, the websites make it sound like less, but those posted prices don't include the various fees and taxes.) I also spent about $35 on meals in the Dallas terminal (Pappasito's Cantina, Gate A28, highly recommended!) and $40 to retrieve my car at the Savannah airport (parked in the Economy lot for $8 per day). Two years ago, the same flight was $549 total. Different airlines, but quite similar in price and in baggage allowances. Hopefully, that price will be about the same when next I travel in that direction... or some few years later when she is old enough to fly out to see me.

Glitter Bomb!

Glitter Bomb, aka my elder niece in San Diego, is phenomenal on roller skates! As a trainee of the Starlettes, she shows great promise, fearless and fast. I sm so blessed to have been able to see her in action!