i had a jowl

removed it using www/pixlr.com/editor, which is a free photoshop kind of site. sue me! this is my blog! why should i be bejowled on my own blog??
this is the last night of 2017. this year hasn't been  bad at all. i have a great family & a great job. i am sober & have a challenging but rewarding marriage w/the most talented & unusual human i've ever met. he is my best friend! i get to sponsor people & have many kindly acquaintances, even friendships. this year i got back into running. yay! we got our dog girl, penny. we love her! i started seeing a patient, compassionate counselor, & now we both see him, with already much positive outcome!
our lives are really, really good, all things considered.
the other day i went & played w/james's band in north long beach. the gig went really well! we were powerful, powerful, & i was  really satisfied & grateful to be a part, using my "new" keyboard, which i haven't in over a yr on assumption it wouldn't power up. it powered up! w/that & my new amp, which i've not really used cause i haven't been playing many shows, my gear worked w/o failure for four sets. i could hear! and i got to be a part of & contribute to the blues express. the crowd was big throughout the afternoon, & really into it! james ruled, as usual. little anthony, blake, & steve were great fun to play with (preposition dangling there; oh well).
angie & doug showed up. wonderful, wonderful!! afterward, we all drove to grand central market in downtown LA & ate & visited & laughed a whole lot. james & doug had mexican food & orange bang; angie & i had delicious, delicious thai chicken, sticky rice, & papaya salad. after, we waited for OVER 20 MINUTES in the mcconnell's ice cream line, but it was worth it: cardamom & ginger snap ice cream w/sweet cream & cookie ice cream: WOW!
feeling tremendous love for my talented, industrious, smart, hard-working, kind, funny, brave little sister, i took this pic, feeling like mama as i held her little arm. i love my sister so so much!! james & doug were both on sleep deprivation status & yelled & bellowed & carried on through the bustling food place, two mugs out of a '40s noir crime comedy. we parted & i so wished we all could continue to hang out. we're so lucky to have such entertaining, delightful, hilarious, loving kin.
we drove home & i passed out on a bed of blankets we'd made on the floor while james watched boxing videos & played w/his new drone, one of my christmas gifts to him..
feliz anyo nuevo!!

my pie and i

here is a pic of me and the lucky penny on christmas day. she is a funny-looking, cute little girl, not the darling heart-breaking loving beauty that gusgus was. i say "was" because i believe my dear gusgus may have passed away. that is what family suggested when i asked if they'd seen pix of him lately from my ex-husband, brian. :( i cried & cried, but there's nothing i can do. going to change topic now because just thinking of it makes me so very sad. :( we still have our funny little penny petunia page as well as peewee the beautiful malcontent feline.

i was surfing facebook & was shocked to discover the handsome co-creator of big book awakening passed away last year from cancer. he was a sturdy-looking man who resembled a stocky clark gable; he saved many, many lives with his approach. christmas has made me think a lot of manuel, dear big manny, who also passed on last year, his joyous rockin music, his boyish smile, his sweet, light, kissed-by-god spirit... this life & all of us are so very fragile. must remember this when next i have a resentment...

christmas nice except that i decided to go running on a stomach filled w/coffee & ended up not just barfing, but snapping back into action my old stomach hernia. it didn't hit til i'd hobbled back to mom & dad's; i laid on the floor in agony & mama rushed in w/big alarmed eyes. "i'm ok, i'm ok!" i moaned, trying to make it so... did i tell you two weeks ago i found out i have hypertension, too? my dear friend donna & i caught up on the phone today & laughed about my continuing bad health. if i hadn't gotten sober & didn't live in rather healthy fashion these past two-plus decades, i'm CERTAIN i would have perished long ago. many people have complimented me heartily on my rather ferocious performing style... but at heart, i'm a delicate flower!!

well, mister james & i are gonna watch roku for a bit. then i hope to return to a book sister angie recommended. i thought the writing kinda pedestrian at first, but it's just what i've needed: an engaging, entertaining, spooky romp w/plot twists -- a real break from the non-fic i'm always reading. the book is much like reading a movie! (ok, now... it's called... night film... and it's for sale at the dollar tree right now!!)

thursday james & i play shenanigans & mike malone's gonna lend me his keyboard because mine STILL ISN'T FIXED and my small one i lent to young cousin josh (the songbird! on christmas he sang "white christmas" in two octaves, scatting at the end, and i just whooped with joy! it truly was the best, coolest singing performance i've heard in a long while!!! from sadsack young josh, a young man changing in a positive way due to our loving family. now i know why mama's so taken with him: what talent!)... so thank you, malone, for lending me your keys!

saturday james plays in north long beach; you can find it on www.whiteboyjames.com .. and then we get to go on a little vacation... and in spring, a BIG vacation!!

i'd better get to the tv w/my honey... happy new year!!

my new shirt!!!!!

(the saturday night ensemble pictured here matched til i removed my fluffy brown coat...) ordered this fabulous t-shirt online based on image james's acolyte & friend tommy eliff (big son of mighty mojo prophets) sent me. it was supposed to be sherbet-colored, but arrived more orangey. i haven't worn an orange shirt to a gig since lux interior died & i made a memorial t-shirt & wore it to rock & roll pizza for a dusk devils gig. at that time i still was child-sized; no longer be i that, but certainly am thankful for the pic. (thanks, anthony!) at the time tommy made me the image, i had been bummed out & had posted on social media, "everything would be ok if i just had a piano red shirt." many searches at that time had revealed no existing shirts.
now i have one!! thank you, big son!!
i really looked fwd to playing last night w/james! it was a good night. he was beyond-exhausted, as happens to him, but put on a gangbuster dirty-blues show. the audience was happy!! all my running's paying off  bc i got through the eve like it was nothing, w/little fatigue. bonus!!
woke up that a.m. & started playing piano here at home. we went "to town," always a treat on a saturday morn: the post office, our two wonderful thrift stores, dollar general. so much fun. made enchiladas, rice & beans. took penny for a nice hilly run. checked my gear; everything seemed to work. got cleaned up, put on my new t-shirt. james said i looked like a superhero, some of his highest praise. :) got to redwood room & my low C 5th song started blatting out at 10x the volume of the other keys. drummer ron felton (who took the band photo), there for the show, gave me an empty gum packet & i duck-taped the key so it wouldn't play. but when i started into prof longhair's "gone so long," i was shocked to realize another problem:  suddenly, not three, but at least 6 keys were dead! as i played, more & more keys seemed to fail. the length of the keyboard was serially dying off: oh no!!
fortunately scott lambert was there on bass that night & he is giving me the number for a music repair shop in long beach. over break i FINALLY will get my keyboards fixed!!! so grateful!!!!!
time for more coffee, then to work on school. in a few hrs, teacher comrade christy & i will adventure jog up the steep, beautiful fire road by the elementary school. yaaaaay!!
life is sure good right now. :)
happy birthday, niece madeline!!!!!!!!!!!