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dumped all last yr's pix online finally & found these from last
springwhen we had a really nice time in baton rouge & new orleans

this is a good-nite post. i've tried all day to work on school planning, but it ain't happened. therefore i will just do a little yoga after this, then hit the sack early to get up in the a.m. & work. the weather's been cooperating lately so it shouldn't be too arduous, getting up & getting to work. in fact, it's been dang beautiful here, like a song, a gentle song, a dream, like this morning i get up with my coffee & look out the screen at the shadowed snow-dappled mountain across the way & all these fat little quail chirping & digging & squawking & jigging on the driveway & i think, i don't remember EVER looking outside & feeling such peace, not ONCE, when i lived in bakersfield... dad does it all the time, but i was not awake back then, not really alive in many ways...
life changes if we live! if we live!
i've not participated for yars, but it's still weird there's no longer an art fein presents elvis's birthday bash. those things dwindled to smallish, & last yr i actually did get to perform, tho i guess art thought i'd cancelled & gaped when i showed up. one song went well, one tanked (i assumed the house band'd play it just like elvis did, so that's the way i larned it, but that wudden how it came out). sigh; que lastima. i guess since ronnie mack moved to bakersfield, art's got no partner to put together the show. and so it goes. all things come to an end. the earth, the continents, the oceans, the elvis show, you, me. requiescat en pace.
i was thinkin bout this because the other day i got a facebook msg sent to me from JAMES, my husband, & that is something that's never, ever happened in the 7 yrs we've had a facebook page. and it said, "jenny! i met you 10 years ago tonight! I love you! james." this certainly is proof Things Has Changed Round Here. i was over the moon -- just that little note! he thought of me; he's considerate; he's just as kooky, creative, tough, foul-mouthed, big-hearted, & sweet as ever, but now... responsible & thoughtful, too? my short life is amazing.
we did meet at the elvis show, jan 8 2010, so i always gotta thank art fein for having it, tho james says we woulda met anyways. i've detailed The Story of How We Met on here many times, so i won't go into it again... we were watching rick steves the other night, shows about normandy & scotland & the ireland one was too depressing, with all the warring murals & extremist people shown, & i thought, am i really sitting here with whiteboy james watching RICK STEVES?!?! we were enjoying it, too, tho i realized rick steves might be such a smilingly engaging nebbishy dude cause he's half in the bag mosta the time: all episodes featured a lot of drankin. then i've been reading a book mama lent me, a funny funny thing by peter mayle about eating in france, which after skipping the chapters about wine, eating pigs (nono for me) & frogs (nono for james), was a quick enjoyment, & i brings this up bc drinking to many folks enhances life, but for me, it's death. and my life with james has gotten good, better, best since he put the plug in the jug close to 6 months ago... and  he said not to make a big deal about it
but i will say this: i'm just so very grateful & proud of him. in near-25 years, i've seen so, so many people who stop, then start drinking again, or disappear, up & die, or don't drink & are such  know-it-alls or jerks you just wish they would drink so maybe they would chill out a little, & james, at least for today, is a humble positive example of the sober life. who woulda thought.
who woulda thought.
i mean... who woulda thought.
and watching rick steves, an episode on northern italy, i thought about "the haircut," the one i got in pisa decades ago bc bettie page was on the cover of rolling stone & i didn't know it but it had started a hairdo rage, & the stories that go with that, & the compliments i still get for "the haircut," even tho it's now gray, especially from black women, maybe cause my damn hair's so straight, & i hope i get to go to pisa with james, & normandy, & brittany, & scotland, & paris, & all the places we want to go because now we can, at least today. yes, right now i am so darn grateful tho who knows what tomorrow will bring... i hope good, but i'm not god, so quien sabe.
well, goodnight. but first, oh, how's this for a fine one? “Nearly every night before I go to bed I ask myself, "Have I vibrated in tune with the Infinite today, or have I failed?” (don marquis)