Tag, I'm it!

A few days ago I received an email from my blogger buddy /idol Elliott, telling me that I'd been 'tagged'. Apparently this means that I am supposed to link to her blog, tag eight other bloggers, and then tell eight random facts about me that I haven't revealed in my blog so far.

Elliott told me that there was no rush, as she could tell from my recent posts that I was preoccupied lately. Actually, her email came at the right time, because it's time to move on, and this seems like just the way to do it. I sat down last night and tried to think of eight things about myself that I haven't revealed, that I'd be prepared to reveal, and that would be worth reading about. I hope some of them work:

1. My family comes from Liverpool, England where I was born, and where my paternal grandmother lived until her death in the 1970's. When I was about 13, now a Canadian and, along with every female my age on the planet, a rabid Beatlemaniac, my grandmother wrote me to tell me that for many years she lived on Bishopsgate Street in Liverpool, next door to the Harrison family. Yes, THAT Harrison family. Moreover, she used to 'mind' wee Georgie on occasion when his parents went to the local pub. This fact alone got me through puberty.

2. I married my husband just over four years ago, but we met twenty five years ago when we were both in an amateur theatre production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I played the evil Nurse Ratched, and my sweetie played the much-victimized Billy Bibbitt. In the play I brought him to his knees, where he claims he's been ever since. We were friends through the years, and neither of us married in the time between that play and our own wedding, which occurred on our local community theatre stage.

3. I have been blessed (or cursed) with perfect pitch. I used to do some musical theatre when I first became interested in acting, but it wasn't my major interest, and I eventually became an actor and director of legitimate theatre. I used to have to 'sub' in music classes on occasion when I was a drama teacher, though, and for someone with perfect pitch, this is Dante's most pernicious circle of hell.

5. I once spent a summer in England doing some stage work, which included a lot of touring children's theatre, and doing plays in gymnasia, but I will always remember that our motley crew got to perform in some beautiful spaces, too, the highlight of which for me was singing "Jerusalem" in Winchester Cathedral.

6. I know all of the words to the "Bonanza" theme song. Lorne Greene sang it on Side B of his single, "Ringo" which I only purchased because of the Beatles, then discovered was a bad ballad about a cowboy. In case you ever need them, the lyrics are,

We chased lady luck, till we finally struck
Bonanza!
With a gun and a rope, and a hat full of hope
We planted our family tree.
We got ahold of a pot full of gold,
Bonanza!
If anyone fights any one of us,
He's gotta fight with me!

Hoss and Joe and Adam know every rock and vine,
No one works, fights or eats,
Like those boys of mine!

Here in the west, we're livin' in the best,
Bonanza!
With a houseful of friends where the rainbow ends,
How rich can a fella be?
Bo--nan--zaaaaah!

(go ahead, sing it. You know you want to.)

7. When I retired two years ago, Rob and I went on a celebratory trip to Italy for three weeks. I have many wonderful memories of that trip, but one that is very dear is that Rob and I found, and stayed at The Farm. This is a farm in Tuscany, where we had reserved a cottage online, and to which we drove one afternoon, about ten days into our trip. What we didn't know until we arrived was that it was populated by about fifteen cats and kittens of all stripes, colours, genders and ages, and that every one of them looked like a cat or kitten we had owned, known or lost in our lives. We decided that this indeed was THE farm that our parents told us our pets went to when we came home from school or somewhere to discover they had gone. The farm that parents are vague about when you ask if you can go there to visit the pet that you were told would be 'much happier with other animals and lots of room.'

We saw our cat Spencer there, who had died about a month earlier from FLV. We called him 'Spencerino' since he now lived in Italy, and damned if he didn't answer.

I think about The Farm a lot right now. I'm guessing Katie/Katarina is there with her brother, and our parents were right. They are very happy with other animals and lots of room. I hope your former kitties are there, too.

8. I have been known to lie on occasion. In fact, this occasion. One of these eight facts is not true. You guess which.


p.s. I'm trying to figure out how to link to Elliott's blog. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.

that's life

I haven't blogged for over a month.



A reader of this blog noticed that and emailed me recently, asking discreetly if I was ok. I really appreciated that: I expect my friends and family to notice, as they have, if something is amiss, but to have someone who only knows me from my occasional musings recognize that I'm not following my usual routine, and that there might be something wrong, and even more, to care enough to ask about it, touched me very much.



I responded to her that I was ok, it's just that there's too much life going on at the moment. And that's the answer.



Too much life at the moment. Some of it good, and exciting; some more of it, unfortunately, difficult and painful. Illness, financial stress, work problems...all these are affecting my friends and loved ones, and, because they are my friends and loved ones, they are all affecting me, too. My dear cat Katie is succumbing, as we knew she inevitably would, to her FLV and her time is limited. Rob and I are moving house, and the stress that brings is sometimes palpable for us. My dear friend is terminally ill, and dealing with so many issues I cannot fathom how she copes.



Rob and I go to our casa in Mexico in two weeks. I will be taking all this along with my suitcase when I go, as we do. Life follows us, even if vacation ads talk about 'getting away'. And really, would we want it not to? Because for all of the pains that life may bring on occasion, I am really treasuring being alive and well enough to be able to go to our casa, with my dear husband, and being visited by friends and family while we are there, today. Too much life? The only problem is that there isn't nearly enough.