Oh Dear New Orleans!

Ever fall in love? You know that feeling...suddenly it hits you - blam! This is it! I love New Orleans that way.  Chicago will always be my true love, the one that I had 18 good years with and then for one reason or another, it was time to leave.  New Orleans is like that new romance lurking in the corners of your life that you haven't acted upon yet.  It's exciting, scary, dangerous, a little voodoo-y, delicious, weird, wonderful.  All the things I like.  Here's a pic of our first meal in town.  Mudbugs and Beer is how someone described it, but truly, you can't know how delicious that crawfish (and the shrimp) was until you go there and eat some for yourself.  I was lucky I had a few natives around to show me the best way to eat this stuff.  Did I mention the fresh and broiled oysters? O.M.G.  More to come on Crescent City for sure!

Back in Los Angeles

I'm back for New Year's - it's going to be small this year. No party, just a nice dinner with friends and Dean. Now, one of the friends just called to say his pop's in the hospital, so it might just be Jan, Dean and me. We'll see. I've done a lot this year, I want to keep the end kind of on the small side. Christmas was fine, and so was Mom's birthday. My two favorite pictures are attached. The lighthouse one was taken on Christmas Day on the shores of Lake Michigan in Kenosha. The balloon one was taken at Mom's party as the festivities were winding down. Happy New Year everyone!

Good Lord, this is going to be quicker than I thought!

Gahhhhhh! Messed up on my ticket - we come back a day earlier than I thought. This is a bummer on so many levels. Nothing can be done, though. We'll have to make the best of things. It'll be a blur of a trip (see pic - get it?). But at least we'll be there for Xmas and Mom's birthday. We can sleep, I suppose, later.

Striving for Serenity

Hey, my blogiversary is almost here! Remember last year around this time (it was actually November) I posted about traveling to NorCal to do a show? I'm going back to the same place this year. Rain is in the forecast. I get nervous driving in the rain. Must strive for serenity - it's a long journey. Look at these lovely serene pictures from a benefit Dean and I went to recently. Talk about peaceful. More to come! Oh and I have a killer Walnut Cookie recipe to share with you too - no butter! But that's for next time.

Chillax!

Oh, it's been so long since I've posted and there's no time to catch you up properly, but I will I promise. New York was fantastic. The shows after New York here in SoCal were also wonderful. Just a quick post to say, yes, it's hectic, but it WILL all get done. Take some time to chillax. Look, even Mary and Joseph and few sheep are taking a break by some sound equipment at my last gig. If they can take a breather, so can you. Keep me afloat for my flight to Chicago on Xmas Eve. They're expecting bad weather. Well, at least Dean will be with me. If they allowed folding chairs on the wings, he would sit in one. That guy loves to fly. More to come, I promise!

Life is Bumpy. Get over it.

This is what Dean just texted me, when I reported to him that Mom landed safely in Newark but said the flight was bumpy. This is why I love him so much. He will do anything to reduce my fear of flying, and this is the exact right approach: don't indulge the crazy! I hate flying. I hate when my loved ones fly. Tomorrow I'm taking a redeye, which is a bummer, cause number one, it's supposed to be windy as hell the whole time, and number two, even under the best conditions, I can't sleep. Gotta be on my game, in case the pilot needs me. Airport '75 anyone?

But people, I'm off to NYC tomorrow night to do two shows of the Christmas show I'm in. My first NYC credits! So I gotta fly. There'll be a good tail wind, but good God, that's gonna be bumpy as we get closer to landing.

That said, I downloaded Virgin Atlantic's Flying Without Fear app on my iPhone. Hopefully, I can stay online the whole time on my iPhone. WiFi on airplanes - who knew? The lovely thing about iPhones is, you can turn it to Flight Mode, but you can keep your WiFi on, so no one can call you or text you but you can surf the 'net to your heart's content. Love that little machine.

Anyway, Dad always said, if you make it to NYC, we'll hire a bus and come see you. But Mom coming on her flight is the next best thing. Dad would have gone too, if he were still with us.

So, THANK you, Kenosha bus driver and 294 tollway and O'Hare and American Airlines and Newark airport for cooperating and getting Mom there. My aunt, Mom's sister, has tied her do-rag on for the duration of this visit - she will be responsible for All Things Mom for the duration of her trip. They come to the city to see me on Saturday night. I'll be nominating her for Stage 1 of Canonization directly afterwards.

You'll see plennya NYC pix, believe me.

But first I gotta make it there.....

On the road again.

I went to Northern California over the weekend to do a show. I occasionally travel for this, my show, my lifeline for nearly 8 (!) years. I am one of the nuns in "Late Nite Catechism." You've probably seen it, even if you've not seen me. What is it about travel that's so great? It's my Dad: he loved nothing more than being behind the wheel of a car. Mom, eh, not so much.

Everyone complains about the San Joaquin valley, about how boring it is, but honestly, I love it. It reminds me of home. I think those are almond trees in the first picture. Who knew?? Not me. I don't think I ever thought about how almonds grow. We made it up there in record time and the same held true the next day too. There seemed to be no traffic at all.

The theatre was right on the water. Lovely! Is there anything more fantastic than a stage floor? I was proud of that last picture. I'm happiest when I'm standing right there.