yaaaaaayyy!!!

the other day i started cleaning up a local school's library. it's gonna take maybe two weeks, but after that, i'll volunteer to have the library open for students. this library's been closed officially so long, i found schoolbook covers where the most recent u.s. president pictured is dubya (or as the late, great molly ivins called him, shrub)! digging thru the dust-laden teacher materials, i shivered w/deja vu, uncovering stuff i used when a new teacher (over 20 years ago!)... then, forging deeper into the ancient caves that are this library bookroom's cupboards, i dug out books from when i was a child... 40 YEARS AGO!!
"they were supposed to discard that stuff!" angie teacher-sister said, mildly horrified. yes, i know: decades ago! the artifacts got even older: sentence & grammar microfilm rolls we used when i was a kid, & they were old THEN. i remember feeding the same little plastic strips into a small, heavy, avocado-green-&-gray metal projector. another two kids & i each year were the ones who helped the teacher, so we did stuff like that -- otherwise, we were done w/our work w/nothing to do but get in his or her hair... next, a set of texts, workbooks & teachers' editions... from 1970. and finally, the piece de resistance: a state-issued textbook -- again, never discarded, -- from 1963. title: great negroes in history.
as you might cotton, it's huge baffling, exhausting fun excavating & organizing this library, & i relish going back! the funny part is, i've been so, so ill, but after six hours squatting, lifting, climbing, & carrying, i felt better! this heavy task prompted a return to improving health. after all, move it or lose it, right? it applies, apparently, even when you don't believe you CAN move. my lesson: when struck down by sickness, i must get up & go anyway, w/moderation in the beginning, but then full steam ahead as soon as possible! if you're sick right now, as yourself: what moves/exercise/activities am i capable of trying? don't just sit there: move, even if it's just your little toe! next time it can be your whole foot. then your leg. you get the picktcha!

oh mama mia, papa pia, james is SO HANDSOME!!!!

we played thursday at shenanigans in long beach & it was a pretty great time tho i was wiped-out afterward from the mantle of having to do so much musical work. i've realized set list be damned: just follow james. that's a good credo for me musicially, anyways: i gotta be ready to play different styles in different keys. then we did some songs on which we harmonize: we'd never agreed they were ready, so i was shocked he called them out. they sounded cool!! -- and my husband smiled as we sang, & wow: what could be better.
i talked a lot w/steve kida drummerman on breaks, & whatta guy! he's got some interesting ideas about all of our mutual musical futures; we'll see what happens! then beautiful carla, friend & fan, took this cool picture... we do make a visually-interesting lineup, in my mind, &  that always helps, since it IS called a SHOW!
en route home we hit the highest winds i've ever experienced, up to 65 mph gusts! spooky to be dragged into a different lane by mother nature's current, even w/hands wrenching the wheel against it to try to stop it. stop! stop! coming up the hill into our little mountain town, we were hit by a howling, seething blast that sprayed dirt & rock into the windshield for 10 seconds like something from a disaster movie! once we were home, the banshee winds blasted the house, screaming & sighing, the house shaking in protest. wow! it's easily & immediately sobering to remember one's own smallness & lack of ultimate control in these situations...
yesterday i got picked up at the 5 to go to the getty in malibu w/mom, dad, angie. we met niece madeline, who at 22 already is gonna be entering a master program at calarts or riverside. the family scholar! go, maddy, go! the neatest things i saw were the herb garden as well as ancient glass, but most was wasted on me bc i was so, so, so, so tired!! last night i stayed back, ostensibly to rest, while james went south for another gig, but instead i got a 2nd wind & recorded five songs i want him to hear... yes! so thrilled to record music after many months!
just reread this & realize how mundane it is. blablablablablablabla. oh well; life's short, so have your fun! for me, fun often entails blablablablaing, so there you go. i guess you wouldn't've read this far if you didn't want to!
go forth & find your fun.
ciao for now.