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Goodbye, Victor.

We are back home after Victor’s memorial service and burial in Las Vegas.  The service was held in the Greek Orthodox church with their ancient traditions including song, prayer, candles, and incense.  The incense is carried by the priest in a beautiful metal censer, which also contains charcoal, and is suspended by chains and twelve bells symbolizing the twelve apostles. The censer is swung by the priest during prayer.  

There will now be 40 days of mourning during which time his widow will wear black and then at 40 days, there is another memorial, and again in 6 months and one year. Victor had a lot of old friends who came and I heard many of them say, “I’ve know Victor for 48 years…. 29 years….,” etc. And Victor’s entire family was there, flying in from all over.  His sister from Pennsylvania, a daughter and granddaughter from Ohio, a daughter, her husband, and three grandchildren from Switzerland, and my stepmom, Roula’s family came too: her two brothers and sister-in-law came from Canada.  It was a beautiful sendoff for a man who was loved by many. Later, we all had dinner together at the home of a family friend. 

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Week in Review

1. On Tuesday, Californians are voting on whether or not to legalize marijuana.  I’m not optimistic.  Oh, I think users will vote for it, but they’ll get to the polls sometime Wednesday.

2. Charlie Sheen!  What’s wrong with you, boy? You don’t wear a $150,000 Patek Phillippe watch to go out drinking. Whenever I go out drinking, I don’t even wear clothes!  That way, when I get drunk, the only thing I lose is my dignity.

3. Guilty! Anna Nicole’s lawyer/not-the-father/boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, is found guilty of conspiracy to provide drugs to a known addict. Sounds fair.  But shouldn’t they charge the person who provided Elvis Presley with all those Eskimo Pies?  Seriously.

4. What a shock to hear Mariah Carey is pregnant with her second child.  I hope Nick isn’t too jealous when his baby brother comes along….. excuse me?……..he’s what?……… her husband?…….. Shut Up!  My bad.

5. Maura Kelly doesn’t like Mike & Molly, saying fat people gross her out and she can’t watch them.  Maura, you clearly interact with more cats than people. Too bad fat people gross you out.  I guess you’ll never see the end of an opera.

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My ruby-red gems

Look at my pomegranate tree!  It looks like the fruit is almost ready! And here’s the best part: they’re all still there!

No squirrels, skunks, deer, coyotes, rabbits, bobcats, snakes, lizards, or pomegranate-eating bugs got them! They’re still hard as a rock but it won’t be long. I have a special pomegranate eating throw that I use to cover myself and the surrounding furniture when I eat them because the seeds stain so badly.  You could probably use the juice for ink.

I know pomegranates go way back so I decided to look up their history online and look what I found:

 “The latest research shows that the pomegranate has been cultivated by mankind for more than 5,000 years. In former times the skin and juice were often used as ink as well as dye for oriental carpets.” Or to make scary blood stains for Halloween!!!

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Hotel hell

While in Vegas, Denis and I stayed at one of the nice hotels there and everything seemed normal. Normal usually means I can’t wait to leave. I want my own bed, my own sheets, my kitchen, my good bathroom lights, a better TV, and air that doesn’t smell like a hotel room. Sometimes, it’s the smallest thing that can ruin a hotel stay. Like a hair. One teensy-weensy hair (that’s not mine) in the bathtub and I want to call the health department. I think we know the smaller the hair, the more likely it came from somewhere you’d rather not think about, on someone you’d rather not know. So I showered instead and got a full body exfoliation afterwards… oh wait… that was the bath towel. It turns out that the people who make industrial grade sandpaper also make hotel sheets and towels!

Oh, I almost forgot: Damon posted a good video of American Idol’s David Archuleta performing on the JJ show when he was just eleven years old and I interviewed him briefly afterwards. We also just added a video from my show that featured some of the biggest hits of the 80s including… “That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh….” Remember?

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Hospice

We came back from Las Vegas last night after my stepmom’s husband was taken to a hospice. It’s a comfort to us all to have him there. My thanks to everyone for their kind words and prayers.

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Headed to Las Vegas

My stepmom’s husband has taken a turn for the worse so I am headed to Las Vegas where they live to help get things in order. I was going to go by myself but Denis insisted on driving me. He’s doesn’t want me driving alone on a desert highway with trucks the size of buildings passing me doing 90. Plus he wants to be there for us. He’s my hero.

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Boom-laka-laka

Last night I went to the mall to get my mind off things. I just meandered around and wound up at Macy’s looking for Christmas gift ideas (yes, I said Christmas – it’s 9 weeks away!!) I was looking at women’s clothes and noticed that the music changes with every department. In the grown-up women’s department, the music is adult, just like the clothes. In the junior department, it’s pop music and it’s louder. But then so are the clothes. The best music was in the trendy designer department and I loved it. I even felt like dancing. If this was a night club, I might have busted a move or two. Then I saw it: the table, the equipment, the headphones… when did they start having DJs at Macy’s? I should have worn nicer clothes. Suddenly, I felt out of place so I went down to Bloomingdale’s and guess what? “Boom-laka-laka…” there too! This is not a nightclub. What’s next? Mojitos in men’s underwear?

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I hope he can recover

My stepmom’s husband is not doing well. He had stomach cancer surgery last June and since then the cancer has spread to his bones. He is back in the hospital after suffering a small stroke. It’s been a tough time for them both and I hope he can recover. It’s hard to think about anything else.

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