Happy Valentine's Day...NOT!!

OK, here it is in a nutshell.
1. I broke up with the new guy I was dating as he cancelled our Valentine Dinner because
the about to be ex wife...well..never mind.
2. I booked a reservation to go see my Precious boys and little girl, grandkids of
my cousin to make up for the disappointment.
3. I got up at 5:30 a.m to go the airport and found that my a.m. flight was a p.m. flight and there were no
other openings.
4. I went back home got into bed and plan on staying there for the foreseeable future.
The end... and this gives meaning to the phrase " it wasn't meant to be."

Octo nut job.

I just watched the Dateline about the 8 babies and this insane woman who brought
them into the world.
This is a clearly sick woman with body dysmorphia...her plastic surgery alone is
as frightening as could be. Funnily she looks exactly like a woman I know in NY
who has had the same bad fillers and nose job.
Anyway, the State must go in and see if there is any cause to remove these
children. There is absolutely no way she can care for them. And her mother
clearly realizes the problem.
They took Brittany Spears kids away for a hell of a lot less.
Ann Curry did a great job of calling it like it was and the sheer denial of this
sicko proves she is incompetent.

It's been awhile...

I know it's been weeks...and i was so happy about the new Administration. Now I'm
sort of paralyzed by the scope of the financial meltdown and kind of wish Geithner
and Bernancke would stop testifying. Every time they do, I lose a bundle!

I'm in withdrawal...

What a high yesterday was! I watched the Inaug all day long and couldn't get enough.
The girls, so adorable, Michelle's smile, Barack's speech and everyone's enthusiasm and
happiness. We have to keep it going! He's a cute dancer too.
I'm signing up for getting involved with veteran's families. Please find something you
can and want to do. We owe it to ourselves to capture the moment and give back to
the country and those who need us. It'll make you feel good.

TURN ON HBO NOW!!

Everybody...turn on HBO now to see the glorious celebration in Washington!
It is on this aft. and will be repeated tonight. You will feel so proud! And the music
is amazing too! This a great day in America!

WOW!!!

As an early Obama person I am over the moon this weekend! I hope all American's
feel the hope and promise and by the polls, we do. Let's just sit back and enjoy this
amazing moment!!

Motivation!!

So, at the Renaissance weekend there were about 1000 of the smartest, most accomplished
people all hanging out. It is so nice to be inspired and challenged!
And I was lucky to meet some very impressive Motivational Speaker types. You can
always learn from them...and I sure did.
I learned about focusing on your goals and visualizing...which I'm sure we all know we
should do but don't often enough. And too, writing things down being as specific as
possible! Start with parking places...hey it works!
You know I'm into this kind of stuff and of course I still read my horoscope! This
month's reading was all about achieving my goals so it all works together and though I
didn't make specific New Year's Resoltions, I have been really good about following
through since I came home.
I'm kind of on hyper drive and sending out vibrations to get my goals accomplished.
And...making the calls every day to do so.
Plus riding the exercycle! Whew! Let's hope it all continues.
There were a lot of Wall Street types there as well and I went to the Money panels to
find out what to do in this scary time. There were a lot of opinions...all over the map
but the concensus seems to be NOT to sell everything and panic...so even though I
wanted to, I didn't. Now let's pray!
As to the dating thing...I did something really out there! I was asked to be in the
entertainment portion..supposedly a comedy person in my other life, and at first I
said no....I don't perform in stand up.
Then I thought...wait a minute! I can ask 1000 people to fix me up! So I delivered a
poem about the various activities and people there and at the end,
asked "them and their mate to find me a date"...see it rhymes...and believe it or not a
few people came up to me with possibilities.
Let's pray again!!

Happy New Year

Dear Readers, I had the best New Year's weekend!I went to the Renaissance Weekend
in S. Carolina. It is a gathering of the best and the brightest which I usually attend
once a year on other Holidays at other venues.
This year I decided to be more pro active about my social life or lack of same and
booked it so I'd have something to do on New Year's Eve...with or without a date.
It was the best move I could have made.
I'll report with more, although we are asked as writers NOT to reveal a lot of
details as it is all off the record for a lot of the public personas who attend.
Suffice to say I am filled with good cheer, lots of ideas and many motivational
tips for the next year.
Hope yours is great!!

I can't help myself

As some Southerner's say..."I'm goin' to brag on myself"...
I told you guys before any reviews that the movie Seven Pounds was the worst movie
ever...right? (scroll down a few columns) and some "anonymous" person answered
me with hostility about how wrong I was.
Well, today's reviews in the New York Post and Ny Times make me look generous!
I knew I was right!!!!!

me and unique birthday "item"

LA report

Well, Dear Readers i told you I'd let u know about my trip and it was fabulous! Instead
of moping around in NY vis a vis Thanksgiving and my birthday I called upon my really
old...and I mean old...(in years of duration that is) friends.
Six of my dearest and best friends live there and were forced to throw me a party...my
subtle suggestion.
First of all, I stayed at three different gal's places...i have generous friends...and that alone
was worth the trip. It's fun to have a roommate..it's been a while...divorced forever.
I had thanksgiving dinner at one ...whom i hired to work on Laugh In many
moons ago...and it was her family and great food as she is gourmet cook as well as
Number One organized human being on the planet. She has given up show biz and
is volunteering around the world in three month increments. Very noble...
We went to movies and ate. That's what you do in LA. It is screening time and there
are three a day at least. (you can read about one of them in prior blog)
Then I moved to another friend,Deb, who I've written about alot in my column as
she is the World's Friendliest Human which sometimes makes me laugh...as we know
I am not!
Finally i wound up at the fab beach house of another friend and had a glorious
weekend in the sun. Walks on the beach are among my favorite things and the house
is situated right on the sand and all I had to do was pull the sunlounge from the terrace
into the bedroom so i didn't even have to move.
I stayed in her grandkids room which had a bunk bed and against her advice I chose
the top of the bunk bed which seemed like fun until those late in the night bathroom
visits. You get the picture. The ladder should be tipped at an angle...note to manufacturers
of bunkbeds.
I went to more movies and more lunches and did some walking around Bev Hills..which
wasn't too busy. Well, the stores weren't...except for foreigners.
I did however see a scary thing...the paparazzi phenomenon in full bloom. You can't
really appreciate how awful it is on TV. I had come down from a parking lot that
opened into an alley and saw a horde of over 20 men and two women with cameras
rushing like a pack of locusts towards the back of a store. I asked who it was and they
said Lyndsey Lohan. They waited for her and I walked around to the front of the
store to warn her but had been locked for her to shop I guess.
Then I returned to the back as she came out and they surrounded her. It was truely
frightening as she got into a car, they piled into theirs and chased her down the alley.
I felt really sorry for her but one of my journalist friends said she and others tip off
the locusts to tell them where they'll be. Stupid thing to do honey. Shades of Princess
Di come to mind.
I saw a few stars...Deborah Messing, smaller than I thought she was...John Lovitz,
Will Smith at the screening and another star who shall be nameless cause I'll tell you
a little story about him.
When I was in college I worked as an extra in the movies in the summer so I could
stay in LA. One day at MGM a little green sports car stopped and a really cute
young TV star was in it and flirted with me. I was too scared to flirt back.
Then, as we say in the movies...dissolve....to 1996 when my friend with the beach
house and I were having dinner at a trendy place, said star who was now a big movie
star asked me out to dinner and I said I was leaving the next day back to NY.
My girlfriend was kicking me under the table and trying to change my mind, but
he was not anyone I'd had a crush on and just couldn't see the point.
Years go by and I see that he is not only adorable, but smart, talented and at the time
he was SINGLE... though not now and have regretted my decision ever since.
Well, I ran into him and told him...actually what I said was "years ago you asked me out
and I said no and boy am I FUCKIN SORRY!"
He laughed and was very cute about it. So closure if nothing else.
My ex-husband, whom I called to say hi as I do when I'm there, told me I swear
too much. And I say "so fuckin what?" No I really should stop.
So at the great birthday lunch at the Polo Lounge in the Bev Hills Hotel, many memories.
many laughs and many secrets. Probably the best birthday I've had as an adult.
Friends are important and I have really good ones.
It is good to get away every once and a while and good to come home. I just wish I could
import the friends to NY...though some of them do come fairly often.
LA remains LA for better or worse....sun, driving, more driving, food, movies, and movie
stars. Hooray for Hollywood!

movie review

Seven Pounds. That is the name of the new Will Smith movie that I saw at a screening
in LA last week, with Will attending.
Let me start by saying I love Will Smith. I think he is engaging, smart, adorable and a
really good actor. What the heck happened then?
You are now seeing trailers of this movie in which they indicate that he as the main
character has a "terrible" secret which is motivating him now to save seven total strangers.
So..that kind of tells you the whole movie. Then why oh why did the actual movie have
to be so ridiculous in "keeping the secret" which sets the character in motion all the
while revealing it in on the nose, flashback snippets to where you feel you are getting
whiplash time-wise and neck-wise.
The first 30 minutes are confusing and you do not know whether he is
a bad guy or good guy and though this is meant to be intriguing it is merely annoying
and takes you out of the movie while you are kvetching that this is confusing.
Then the movie takes another turn and it becomes a love story.
Finally, the last third it becomes a saw-it- coming tragedy.
And just incase you dont get it..the music manipulates and repeats, I swear to god,
some of the things you are seeing just to pound the theme into your poor little brain.
At the discussion afterward, Will seemed to me to acknowledge right out of the box
that the Director, who was there and is Italian was determined not to make a
"Hollywood movie"...read predictable, so he made it incomprehensible and on the nose
at the same time. Quite a feat.
Plus also he said he told him not to do his "will smith"
stuff...which up to now has only made him the number one box office champ and a critical
darling.
So what happens is the actor puts his life in the hands of a director he trusts (who made
a good prior movie, "Pursuit of Happyness"...which was based on a book so, well structured)
as opposed to this mishmash and now Will is lousy in a lousy awful movie!)
AS to the reference of Seven Pounds...there were guesses but the answer is...ready...
for pretension..."the quote from Shakespeare about a pound of flesh."
My explanation...seven pounds of ham! No thanks.

7 pounds

Dear Readers...I am in LA and will write about the great birthday i had but first i had to warn u against wasting your precious dollars!

The new Will Smith movie titled Seven Pounds is right up there with the worst movies i've ever seen!

I will give u details later   but trust me on this one!

Happy Turkey

Hey, am off to LA for Thanksgiving and then 6 of my old and I mean old...(30 years of
friendship wise each!!) girlfriends are taking me to lunch for my Birthday. have a great holiday...
back in 10 days.

60 Minutes

I am not going to make this Obama-all-the- time, I promise, but I just saw the
60 Minutes Interview with Barack and Michelle. And I just adore this guy!
He is so thoughtful, so low key, so smart and I find great comfort every time
he speaks. I think he has the potential to be a GREAT president and I
look forward to a new feeling in the country, hope and can do spirit and
I think we are very lucky to have him arrive at this time. And do love his
smile!

YAY!!!!!!!

I AM OVER THE MOON!!I haven't written a lot about politics here but I am
a political junkie. I've been involved in Dem politics since 1976 and I can't
remember a moment like I felt yesterday when I voted.
I actually cried.
I was a very early Obama person, having met him when he just became
a Senator at an AIPAC meeting.
His wife is a friend of a good friend of mine and I had asked my friend
what they were like, after his first historic speech at the convention.
She told me they were the real deal and I felt they were too.
I have had some fights with my Republican friends this election.
Some can discuss the issues, and others get more personal and
upset and make it hard to do that.
But I really hope and pray that everyone listens to what happened
yesterday. Americans said...we do not want to fight anymore between
ourselves. We want to accomplish things together.
I think Barack is "The One"...as some jokingly said. I believe he has
the perfect combination of temperment and brains and good
judgement and he makes me feel so calm! When the shit hits the fan,
and it will...he presents the qualities that will weather any storm.
To use the buzzwords of punditry...I think he is "post racial"
and by virtue of his unique combination of black and white,
foreign and American, he was the perfect person for the time.
It was audacious that he didn't
"wait his turn" but he knew the timing was right.
Everyone who has ever known him says he brings people together
as I believe he had to do to "work out" his own issues and find his
place in the world.
I am absolutely over the moon with hope and joy!
I beg all those who didn't vote for him to get behind him, as McCain
graciously said...the country needs it. The world needs it. Let us
indeed put country first!
YAY!!!!!!!!

HISTORY!!!

Tonight, no matter which party you voted, some history will be made!
As cynical and disappointed as I've been with politics, on both sides
sometimes, I was never as excited as I was today when I voted.
And people are telling me they felt like crying it was so moving.
Isn't it great that we had this chance. Let's not blow it! VOTE!!!

my nerves!!!!!

I cant take it...cant wait for tomorrow to be over!!!

Final words on China

I've been avoiding writing these final words because I think I didn't want to end
thinking about the trip!
I've been recouping from some sort of stomach thing which seems to have
come from China and all I'm doing is sleeping and losing weight...to put it
euphemistically.
But the final leg of the trip was the best...Shanghai! Spectacular! Very
much like NY or Chicago with skylines that are magnificient. Very
sopisticated.
I took off a day from the group as they were going to a silk factory and
I didnt want to buy silk.
I did however go to the street of lots of shopping boutiques and I was
pickpocketed!
We had been warned to be careful carrying money or passports and
I didn't have too much...just a credit card and some small Chinese bills.
I heard a yell..and looked around to see what had happened...when a
police van pulled up and surrounded me.
I turned to see a little girl or short woman running away. I didn't realize
anything had happened to me so was going on my way when a woman
on a bike came up. She had seen the pickpocket hit me and screamed and
frightened her into running away...and dropping my wallet!
I saw it lying about ten feet away and hadn't even felt it leaving my purse.
The cops wanted to make sure I was ok, but didn't chase the perp.
I was really shaken...not enough to stop shopping but since all's well
that ended well..it was a good story to tell the group.
We went to see the Chinese Acrobats in the most astounding show.
One of my friends here told me it was corny but I am so glad I went.
It was thrilling! These performers did things that seemed impossible
with their flexible bodies and the whole time the audience was screaming
in delight.
Another great hotel...a Hilton, great massages...I got the hot rock which
I love and we drove around seeing the city which I adored.
The Bund is the walkway along the water and filled with tourists.
The resteraunts were great and the two couples I bonded with and I
went out for a last night dinner. There was a very hip club on another
floor and I just peeked in.
Shanghai is a place I could have stayed a week. But alas..the trip
was over and as I usually do, I wrote a poem about everyone on the
tour and read it on our last bus ride.
And they all gave me the most adorable little figure of a child bending
over and revealing his tush. (The habit of the kids there is not to have
diapers but little pants with slits from front to back and I and a few
others on the trip were determined to catch a tushie shot...which we
did on the last day. The mothers all kept turning the kids towards the camera,
not realizing we wanted the rear view! So glad I wasn't arrested.)
All in all it was a fabulous trip. They are an incredibly smart and
hard working people who have accomplished miracles in a few short
decades.
Everyone who has ever gone there raves about it and I recommend
it to everyone reading this. If you have the chance...go!

continuing china...

Today one of my friends actually looked at the photos I'd taken of China still in my
camera! Now that's a friend! Actually she found it interesting and as I went over the
trip again, I realized how great it really was.
so...on to Xi'an. That is where the Terra Cotta soldiers are. A huge find of
soldiers made up to guard the tomb of the Emperor. With lifesize horses
and intended to scare away any enemies in death.
They were discovered by a farmer years ago...and they pull out some old
guy who they SAY is the farmer and he signs books at the museum. I want
to believe it was the real guy!
The terra cotta fades within hours of being exposed to light and air, so vast
fields of them are still uncovered until they can figure a way to stop the
process of fading.
Very interesting...in size, scope and piece of history.
Then we went to the Jade factory and saw beautiful pieces. Of course
anything I liked was over $10,000 and so needless to say, I didn't buy
anything. If it can't be something fab...I don't want it!
Hmm...maybe that's why I'm still looking for Mr. Adequate..or,more than.
We then went on a three day cruise down the Yangtze.
Really nice. The boat was comfortable if not opulent. The food, as usual
amazing in size and scope of the buffets.
The crew put on little shows at night and they were really sweet people.
My cabin porter was Andy and the maid, Susan. They all take American names.
The group I was with did little excursions but I didn't go...afraid of small boats
as I don't swim and unable to climb stairs without railings or go in lifts high up
the mountains, I stayed and got sun, which I always crave and a manicure...
flowers with little "jewels"..which I'd never wear in NY but qualifies me to work
in any post office!
We went through five incredible Gorges with great scenery and finally
through the locks...similar to the Panama Canal...next largest I think.
Fascinating.
We went to see Pandas and to a spot high above the locks which gave
an incredible panoramic view.
The millions of people who are being moved as the water will rise and
flood them all, is an amazing project.
Next Shanghai...