wednesday night!

yaaaaaay!!!!

photo by krystal kozak

penny got a good report from the kindly veterinarian!! her blood count is back to normal!! sometimes, i read two wks ago when they initially diagnosed penny the pup, thrombocytopenia can be cured, if treated early... i cautiously announce that it looks like penny is cured!! she will take her meds & wear the "cone of shame" for one more week, then we should have a healthy pup to play with & run with & love w/o worry we will hurt her or she will bleed... it's a miracle!! or merely univeral randomness...
nice just now to send a message to ALL of our facebook friends who reside on the mountain: i scrolled through ALL of our fb friends & realized 1) many are no longer living, tho their profiles are; 2) judging from avatars, many people's lives/appearances/conditions have changed since i last saw them; 3) we know many, many good people.  i was happy to "remember" so many (it's impossible to keep up reguarly w/all fb friends when we have so many, not bc we're so important, but just bc fb users can amass many "friends"!!). :) so this was cool: i ended up sending the message to locals to 46 people!! we have many local friends, & that feels nice!
here is a pic krystal took from wed at shenanigan's (thank you!), one of the only where i don't have a double chin. i thought i was losing weight!! my chin doesn't seem to know that... need to do more face exercises. been slacking, & it shows!! it was a fun night, tho my new fabulous amp cut out TWO TIMES!!! and my shoes totally broke!! argggghh!!!! i am learning that platform shoes w/petroleum soles have a shelf life much less than one decade!! the shoes actually were disintegrating under my feet as i tried to play... so i ended up barefoot, feeling like a midget. argh!
on another topic, if you have age/liver spots, i successfully have completed a trial on your behalf  (you're welcome) :) & now can announce a cheap remedy: WART CREAM!! that's right, tell your friends. you apply it thickly to ONLY the discolored skin. it will burn some. let it dry (about 1-2 hours). peel off the white film that has formed. then wait a week & be brave. your skin in those patches will turn black; it's a healing burn! then, if you're patient (or scrub your face every day to speed the process, as i did), the scab will fall off & your spot will be gone, or mostly gone... remember to put a dab of lotion or petro jelly on the spots if they start to get too scabby bc you don't want them to scar...
i've developed many age spots due to fatty liver/heredity/sun exposure... the four i tested this method on are now mostly gone! amazing! this after 15 yrs of seeing the spots develop & grow! when i was wealthy living in bakersfield, i would go to a foofoo aesthetician & have my face lasered at great expense. this cheap home remedy actually worked better, tho took longer to see results!
so instead of spending 100s or even 1000s, you can spend $5 on a tube of wart cream or gel & improve your complexion. :D (or you can be like mama, who sees her liver spots as being "like mama" (grandma mary)... and now i feel guilty for being so vain... oh well; what's new.)
ok, that's if for now... if you want to go to our yard sale, please contact me for the address. i hope we sell a lot of stuff!!

blablablablablablablabla

-last night i dreamed i called james, & my former mother-in-law answered. "i've been wondering when you were going to call me," she drawled accusingly. my heart lept into my throat w/panic & i hit the end button.
-i woke up with a start.
-this woman has been gone now several yrs, so i guess that part of my subconscious just purged.
- come see us tomorrow at shenanigans, if you'll be in the long beach, ca, usa, shoreline village area. we'll be on 7-11 pm. admission is free, it's all ages, & parking is only nine thousand dollars. unless you park at the next lot over, & then it's free.
-testing is nearly over. i told mom & dad how well my "low" class has been doing, really buckling down,  & dad sighed, "i'm always moved by how much there is to admire about children." i told them that i'm proud of them for trying so hard, the little dickenses, so i'll add dad's line to the reassuring patter...
-tomorrow before the show, james'll come to school to do marching & boot camp with the kids. being the most loud & verbally gifted person i've ever met, he of course used to lead his company (or whatever it's called) when it was time to call cadence. this was in the army some years back.
-i've been telling the kids about james a lot, like i used to do with mom & dad when they'd come visit school (easier for them when we all lived in the same town). the other day, we watched the blizzcon video he did for starcraft 2 video game. three or four who knew that old game gasped! i've told him he was in the army, a boxer, a freight-hopper... kids see through & know the real heart of a person. to them, james is a super hero, the dark knight, mister awesome.
-"is he gonna CUSS?" the boys asked excitedly...
-"oh, i dunno," i answer skeptically; "he could drop the 'f' bomb..."
-"yeah!" they yell. "mister page is COOL!!"
-"but probably not," i finish. "he's intelligent, so y'know that means he adjusts his behavior & speech around different people. like, you know, how you boys talk different to me than when you're around your buddies."
-"yeah," they chuckle, their smartness reinforced, "when we're around just the guys, we talk different."

fueling up

on each set break, our knife-lean drummer & friend steve kida snacks. steve, who says "i have my grandfather's build," has a regimen i'd do well to imitate: pasta before every show, & on breaks, a sandwich or apple followed by a bit of chocolate or a muffin. and no drinking, no sodas, just water.  following this nutrition plan, he has the steady energy & strength to sustain high-voltage playing for a four-hour night! steve never bonks, which is important in james's intense band.
i started back up working at the library yesterday, so by nighttime i was pretty tired & bonked at the top of the last set, but weirdly, after fumbling the opening instrumental, i went into a flow state where my brain switched off & i just played, really dug in, went into another dimension mentally... it was quite nice. today, my hands, forearms & biceps are sore due to the way i play. however, i'm inspired to become stronger; i am rising to this challenge!
wonderful to've seen friends old & new last night, too. nice chatting with krystal/karen & seeing the elliots, monique & john, the greek, sean & shannon & several couples i don't know but should because they come out each month to see our combo!
well, here's some news: james has taken me on to be his fourth band member in the blues express. last night when we announced it, the audience cheered. what a nice thing! james says to be ready for the dirtbags & what one of our band members has called "nasty a*s no-talents" who will try to break us down, but james & i've been facing such people since we got together as a couple, so it'll be nothing new. plus,  in this realm, playing music, i can be confident. james says i might even become "cocky," which would be kind of fun, i think... sunday at the OC marketplace (see poster) we will kick major major butt!!!!!!
after last night's show, while cruising up the 5 back to the mountain, we glanced over to admire the nighttime LA skyline & decided to step off the fwy to eat at the original pantry cafe, the place that's been open non-stop since 1947. what a great meal! the meat tasted like real meat, not filler (many cheap eateries have a certain amount of cellulose [basically sawdust] in their "meat"). i had the spaghetti & meatballs, the best i've ever had, really! james enjoyed his burger & we both dug sitting right by the cook's window, watching a hard-working mexican dude rapidly slapping together omelettes, fried potatoes, french toast, & more on the giant sizzling grill.
you can see by our faces what kind of night it was: tho we live with ups & downs, last night was a solid up.
please come out to the show sunday, if you can, & if you can't, visit www.whiteboyjames.com to see where we'll be upcoming.

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.

molto transpirations & mental emissions

1) a great show you shouldn't miss if you're nearby!

1) here's the first, a show just added for thursday with some of our favorite friends in taft, ca. if you're nearby, stop by!
2) next is this terrific photo of mister handsome from line nine blues review, the fellows who host the thursday blues shows at cirivello's in LBC where james played his 50th bd show. tho the pic's on facebook already, i place it here bc it's such a good shot of dashing james, also featuring my friends steve & antknee. :) whether it's blake or lambert or anyone else on bass, i'm happy since all the bassists i've met of james's have been good fellows.
lastly, i went to the video store here (yes! we have one! an advantage of living in a dinky town) & i just commented that i was thirsty & the nice owner tammy gave me a bottle of water! as i left, the heavyset owner of the local yummylicious pizza parlor waved hello. i love this little town! but then as i drove by our 2nd driveway (our property is long and has two), my heart sank.

this small creature was on the far driveway when I got home. it didn't appear to have been hit by car or injured & still had grass blades in its mouth. I moved the beautiful animal to the mound in our yard & decorated the funeral area. this pic is so I can remember how pretty it is right now in deathly repose, before it returns to the earth. jny

2) he's just so dang handsome... wow!

3) requiescat en pace, bellus lupus.