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These are the thoughts and observations of me — a woman of a certain age. (Oh, my, God, I'm 65!) I'm single. I'm successful enough (independent, self supporting). I live just outside Chicago, the best city in the world. I'm an aunt and a friend. I feel that voices like mine are rather underrepresented online or in print. So here I am. If my musings resonate with you, please visit my blog again sometime.
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1. Can't Help Falling in Love (1961)
2. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
3. Hound Dog (1956)
4. Don't Be Cruel (1956)
5. Heartbreak Hotel (1956)
6. Love Me Tender (1956)
7. Are You Lonesome Tonight? (1960)
8. Return to Sender (1962)
9. Suspicious Minds (1969)
10. In the Ghetto (1969)
11. Burning Love (1972)
12. How Great Thou Art (1967)
13. You're the Devil in Disguise (1963)
*As compiled by Forbes. My favorite, "Kentucky Rain," isn't here. I love his voice and the way he interprets the lyrics, which could be maudlin, but aren't in his hands.
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
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That's what my shrink tells me. She went to doctor school and has never lied to me before, so I trust her.
But it really doesn't help me all that much in the moment.
Here's the thing: Everyone who doesn't have fur annoys me. Elaine is humorless. Betty is vain. Nancy is whiny. Joanna is pretentious. Considering that these are my friends, I know the problem is me and not them. I'm afraid that I'm morphing into my father, a joyless man who was angry all the time.
No, she said. I haven't permanently soured on life. I'm just grieving. I miss John and Henry.But it's been a year! I got through birthdays and Christmas and New Year's without them. I don't cry in the shower anymore. I am able to remember the good times with them before the bad. Doesn't that mean I've healed?
No, she said. It means I'm healing.
When I'm alone with my cats, I'm fine. It's when I'm around people – usually women I actually like very much – that things go south. I get grumpy and annoyed. I know my reaction is disproportionate, so I have to rein myself in. (I mean, last Monday I nearly stuck my tongue out at Betty!) Masking my feelings leaves me exhausted on top of being irritated. Makes me want to just stay home and commune with the critters.
"These women remind you that you're lonely," she said. At first I didn't get it. After all, I'm not lonely when I'm alone.
But it makes sense. I want these (comparatively) new relationships to replace the decades-long friendships I lost last year. They don't. They can't. And so I ache.
I have to maintain my commitment to socialize. Tempting as it is to stay home and cuddle the cats, it's not good for me to be alone that much. I can get too deep inside my own head and that's just not healthy.
I didn't expect the grief to be so tenacious. I lost my mom more than a decade ago and that was shocking and painful, but the grief didn't cling to me like losing Henry and John has.
Shouldn't I be fucking over it by now?
There's no timeline to this, so I'm told. I have to take good care of myself, make sure I don't isolate too much. Drink water. Do my stretches. Keep my doctor's appointments. Find the joy that awaits me every day.
And trust that I won't always feel this way.
WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.
PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.
1. What are you currently reading? Contents Under Pressure by Edna Buchanan. Our narrator is Britt Montero, a reporter on the crime beat of a major Miami newspaper. In the course of doing her job, she finds herself at the center of a big story with major ramifications – a retired football player dies after a run-in with the police. The athlete was black, the cops were white and Cuban. No matter where the story takes her, someone will be pissed. But Britt is a pro and doesn't let the danger deter her.
This book was published in 1992 and it shows. No one has a cell and Britt relies on the phone book. She also believes that being a reporter for an established daily gives her power – after all, she reasons, that paper will land on everyone's porch tomorrow and everybody will read it, no matter what. On the other hand, the big city racial tensions are, unfortunately, timeless.
2. What did you recently finish reading? Dark City Dames: The Women Who Defined Film Noir by Eddie Muller. Profiles of six influential femme fatales. Note I said "influential," which is not the same as famous or successful. None of these six ever became a household name. That's what I appreciated most about this book.
These women worked regularly in Hollywood through the 1940s and 1950s. They supported themselves appearing in the best films they could find. It was not always artistically satisfying – they were never offered the parts that went to Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth or Ava Gardner. But they paid for the rent and groceries, went to awesome parties, played small parts in movies with A-list stars (Tyrone Power, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas), big parts in cheap "B" movies, and, for the most part, enjoyed themselves. Then they aged out and parts quit coming. They each found something else to do with their lives (Eddie found one clerking at an LA law firm, where most people had no idea she'd lured men to crime and bloody death onscreen).
Last year I read Streisand's memoir. These six women represent the flip side of the coin. Not wealthy, revered superstars. But they created movie magic all the same and, like Babs, they're survivors.
3. What will you read next? I don't know.
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
Let's Do Our ABCs
A. Auto No car
B. Bed size Full
C. Cats Two
E. Essential start to your day Stretching
F. Favorite color Pantone 294 (aka Cubbie blue)
H. Hand you favor (righty or lefty) Righty
I. Instruments you play None
J. Job title Part-time sales associate
K. Kids None
L. Live (rural, suburb, city) Suburb
M. Meal plans None yet
N. Nicknames I only have one. I bestow them liberally, though.
O. Overnight hospital stays Two. Overnight in 2004, three nights in 2011.
P. Pet peeves Right now I'm most annoyed with myself. I go over texts from my oldest friend – she has health/emotional problems – as though they were frames of the Zapruder film and maybe I'll find the solution to her problems. Of course I won't. She lives far away on the West Coast and never listens to me, anyway. I need to do what I can and then let it go.
Q. Quote from a movie "Signor Ravelli's first song will be 'Somewhere My Love Lies Sleeping' with an all male chorus." Animal Crackers
R. Regrets I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
S. Siblings Two sisters
U. Underwear Right now I'm wearing a bra and undies
V. Vegetable you love Peas
W. What makes you run late Bone-deep laziness
X. X-rays you’ve had Teeth, back, abdomen (lots of my abdomen)
Y. Yummy food Carbs. Breads and potatoes, especially
Z. Zoo animal Okapi
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
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Saturday 9: Shout (1985)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
This month we're going to recall Summer Songs. These will all be records that topped the charts during August.
1) Number 1 on the charts in August 40 years ago, the lyrics to "Shout" encourage us to "let it all out." When is the last time you raised your voice? I raise my voice all the time while watching baseball. Like the old song says, I cheer and boo and raise a hullabaloo.
2) This week's featured artists, Tears for Fears, were a duo -- Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith -- who met as teenagers in Bath, the largest city in Somerset, England. Bath has been named one of The Great Spa Towns of Europe. Popular spa treatments include massages, facials, body scrubs and wraps, mineral baths, manicures and pedicures. If you could treat yourself to a spa treatment today, which would you choose? My pedicure is looking a little rough. But oh, a massage would feel good, too!
3) When they first met, one of the things Roland and Curt bonded over was that they were both raised by single mothers. Who was your best friend during your teen years? What did you two bond over? That was Judy. We were moody, sensitive, artistic nerds. I wanted to be a writer and she wanted to paint. I'm proud to say we both did pretty well in our respective fields.
4) Curt's wife, Frances Pennington, has had a long career in marketing, beginning in the record business and transitioning to fashion. Which industry do you think you'd enjoy more -- music or fashion? Fashion, I think. Imagine the beautiful freebies and samples!
5) Roland married his childhood sweetheart, Caroline Johnston. They were together for 35 years, until her death. Do you know whatever became of your childhood sweetheart? When I was in Kindergarten, I wanted to marry our next door neighbor's son, Billy, who had shiny black hair and always wore black t-shirts. He came over on weekends to visit his parents and would often wash his car in their driveway. He let me sponge the hubcaps and told me I did such a good job he wished he could marry me. LIAR! He married a hair-sprayed bitch named Sandy and my mean parents actually dragged me along to the wedding! To her dying day, my mom loved telling the story of how I pouted all day and complained about losing the man I referred to as, "my husband."
Let's look at the summer of 1985.
6) That summer, Chicago teenager Balu Natarajan won the National Spelling Bee. Are you a good speller? Most of the time. Spell check has to rescue me on the word "occasion." I stubbornly add a second "s."
7) Tinker Bell took her first nightly flight at Walt Disney World in Florida. Do you recall which Disney movie introduced us to Tinker Bell? Peter Pan.
8) Derek Hough was a baby in the summer of 1985. In 2007 he became a regular on Dancing with the Stars, acclaimed for his ballroom dancing. Are you good on the dance floor? Not in the least.
9) In 1985, Michael J. Fox became the first actor to have the #1 movie at the box office and the #1 TV show in the ratings. The movie was Back to the Future and the TV show was Family Ties. Have you seen the movie? Were you a fan of the show? I know people loved the Back to the Future franchise, but I only saw the first one. I did enjoy spending time with the Keaton family.
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
The "add to cart" edition. According to ecommerceceo.com, these were 13 of the most popular online retailers in 2024.
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
![]() |
My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash
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My 2025 Happiness Icon |
Photo by Ayşegül Baykal on Unsplash