24 December 2018

Another Night Before Xmas

'twas the night before xmas
in the year '68
When a young boy was eager
but forced to wait.

Xmas was around the corner
and presents were near
when suddenly a door bell
the boy did hear.

He raced to the door
"Was it Santa, perhaps?"
No, a chap in brown shirt
and matching brown pants.

"I'm looking for Christopher,
might you be he?"
I didn't at first realize
he was talking to me.

"Um, yes sir," I replied
always taught to be nice
"Sign here," he said,
I think he asked twice.

I signed the receipt,
and returned it to him.
He gave me a box
and a sly little grin.

"What could it be?"
I wondered aloud
and walked to the living room,
my mind in a cloud.

I opened the box,
it didn’t say to delay,
and found twelve sea creatures
and a boat with which to play.














Requested so long ago
I did nearly forget
from Nabisco I had ordered
this neat sea animal set.

I played with it for years,
in the bath and the pool
and on not a few occasions
was actually late to school!

So thanks to Nabisco,
and the UPS guy too,
my xmas was happy
and very special, too.

Here's wishing a wish
to you and you and you
that your special sea creatures
will arrive in time, too.

07 December 2018

Another day of infamy

December seventh, 2015 – a day that will live in infamy (for me at least).

With a great big wink at the irony at play, that was the day I got my cancer diagnosis. I met with my kidney doctor to hear the results of a biopsy I had undergone. I was not surprised: I knew it was going to be cancer.

It’s hard for me to recount all the ways my life has changed in three years: chemo drugs to take, foods to avoid, foods to focus on, weight loss (not a bad thing, in my case), avoiding retaining water, making sure I keep my health insurance active, the care I have to take to not fall and break any bones (my cancer can make them brittle), the importance of excellent dental care (ibid), the need to avoid sick people, the need to schedule work days of no more than four-hours (after which I’m too tired to continue). These things, and others, are now part of my life as if they had always been. I’ve managed to establish a routine with the understanding that my life can no longer be considered “routine.”

On the plus side (every cloud has a silver lining): my cancer is under control and my chemo side effects have been minimal, I stopped craving/eating most sweets, and I found a balance between how much salt I can eat and water I should drink in a day to avoid retaining water (that was a real challenge).

On the minus side (every silver lining has a cloud): my kidneys continue to fail (damage from the cancer before diagnosis), I’ll need to take chemo the remainder of my life, my cancer will never be in remission, and I’ll never be able to wear a T-shirt that proclaims proudly: “I am a cancer survivor.” 

One last “plus”: we just bought a new (used) car. We paid for a special add-on to the loan that will pay off the full amount if either I or my husband dies in the next six years. This is a great deal, considering how the average life expectancy of my type of cancer is five years from date of diagnosis. :-)

11 September 2018

Spend Some Time with “A Cat in Time”

In 10th-century Japan there was a cat named Myobu. She really lived. My new novel tells the story of this special cat – a cat who lived a very special life.

It all starts out on one dark and stormy night – really. A creature struggles against the storm to find some safe haven; for the time is drawing near when she will bring new life into this world. She has eaten nothing in such a long time, and has had little to quench her unending thirst. And then, to her great surprise and immense relief, she sees a light, and a door and maybe, just maybe, the safety she seeks.

Come along with me on a journey I call A Cat in Time. In it, we follow the adventures of Myobu, the very first cat in Japan whose name has come down through the ages to us.

But, be warned: some say the story you are about to read cannot be true, that no such events happened; but I assure you they are true, they are real and that Myobu really lived. After all, her name is still known, to this day, in the land of the setting sun, the great land of Japan, where the name Myobu is spoken with a hushed reverence befitting one of such greatness.

I had so much fun writing this fantasy story, but I can’t tell you why because that would be what is conventionally known as a “spoiler.” But I can say this novel contains action, adventure, drama and comedy – and yes, kittens. Lots of kittens.

Read more about A Cat in Time by clicking on the link to your right under "My Books."

07 August 2018

Like Diamonds, Chemo is Forever

When I tell people I have cancer and am undergoing chemo, they always ask the same follow-up question: “How long do you have to do chemo?”

It’s a natural question, made even more understandable because of the number of cancers that can be cured. You often hear people talk about finishing chemo, celebrating being cancer free, or having survived cancer.

For me, though, it’s a reminder that not all cancers are curable, that some chemo is forever, that not all patients can look forward to celebrating a life free of cancer. My cancer (myeloma), while manageable, is not curable. At all. I will take drugs the rest of my life to keep it in check with my fingers crossed that they will never stop working, or that the cancer will not somehow mutate into something resistant to them (or that I will not lose my health insurance). My cancer will always get worse, never better. The rate of progress might be slowed by drugs, but the movement will always be forward. Inexorably, inevitably, irreversibly forward.

I don’t think of this as a problem – well, not a huge problem. A lot of cancers are much more virulent than mine, many people are diagnosed too late to even take advantage of chemo and, for some, their cancers require multiple, painful, often-unsuccessful surgeries. I am lucky to be able to avoid that – for now, at least.

What does my cancer future hold for me? Well, lots of chemo for one thing, a possible bone-marrow transplant down the line, and maybe even a kidney transplant at some point. But, right now, I’m managing my cancer, like (as one doctor put it) a chronic disease, akin to diabetes. Not fabulous, but not horrible. At least I don’t have to inject myself with insulin all the time.

31 July 2018

That Time I had a Drug Problem

This is a painful memory.

I had a friend who was a little younger than me. We met because of a mutual physical attraction. That part did not last long, but we did manage to forge a friendship that lasted several years.

Along the way, he got into body building, the kind where you build your body to (what I consider obscene) levels of muscle that would be virtually impossible to achieve naturally. He had protein drinks for breakfast and lunch, each including a dozen raw eggs. He ate actual food for dinner, but mostly steaks and other proteins. He ate an insane amount of calories each day. (I don’t remember the actual amount he told me, but I do remember being shocked at how high the number was.)

I found out he was using steroids to bulk up. This is not good. I’ve always been against taking any drugs I don’t need (recreational or otherwise) and it really bothered me that he was injecting himself with (get ready) HORSE steroids, the kind you give to a horse. He would go down to Mexico and get them.

I pondered how to react to this revelation. He was a very close friend and I loved him and wanted him to be happy BUT drugs? Horse steroids? No.

We had a long, intense, very personal conversation about how much this bothered me. It scared me. I feared for his life and safety. We both cried. I don’t think he really understood the ramifications of his choices. He promised me he would stop.

Several months later, I went to his house. We spent time together. I left. I realized I had forgotten something so I went back to his house. I went in and there, on the coffee table, laid out neatly, was a huge syringe and vials of (what I assumed were) horse steroids. He realized he’d been caught in a lie. I turned to leave. He tried to stop me. I kept going, shattered by the betrayal. I wrote him a letter telling him that either the drugs stopped or our friendship stopped. It was too painful for me to see him treat his body so poorly with such potentially devastating consequences. (Not to mention the fact he lied to me.) It was time for him to make his choice.

He picked steroids over me.

05 July 2018

A Boy and his Books

As far back as I can remember, I've been a voracious reader. I was very sick as a child, with asthma, allergies and various other ailments that often kept me alone in my room. I would get nature books at the grocers, like Seashells of the World, a Golden Guide, for about a dollar. I would read Highlights at the doctor's office, and the backs of cereal boxes at home.

Some time in the late 1960s or early 1970s, I began to purchase books through my elementary school that were made available from Scholastic Book Services and their Scholastic Book Clubs. We would get a newspaper-like catalog that listed books we could buy, and a form with check boxes to order what we wanted. Always excited to get the new form, I raced home, made my selections and then begged my mother for enough money to get them (they were really inexpensive). I think my book budget was about a dollar -- which would net me four or five paperback books. Then, of course, the wait for a couple weeks until the box arrived in our classroom and the books were handed out. It was a happy time. I wish I could remember the names of all the books I got through school. There were dozens, perhaps even hundreds.

I have a vague recollection of only one specific book from that period: Life Under the Sea. I think the reason I remember that one is the dramatic cover illustration of a giant squid in a fight to the death with a sperm whale.

06 June 2018

How Much is that Doggie in the Catalog?

When I was a kid, growing up in the 1960s, my parents would regularly take me to three major department stores: Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penny. We shopped in the stores, but my parents would also order items from the catalogues that we would go pick up in the stores. Department store shopping and catalogue shopping were both part of my normal life.

There were also Hanny’s and Korricks in downtown Phoenix (back when the downtown was still a shopping destination), as well as Diamond’s, Goldwater’s, and Switzer’s (at Park Central, then later Chris-Town).

As I got older, I made a point of shopping in (well, at least walking around) some of the great department stores along the west coast. There was I. Magnin, Macy’s and Neiman Marcus (San Francisco), Bullocks Wilshire and May Company (Los Angeles) and I. Magnin (Santa Barbara). Little did I know that, by the time I am writing this, nearly all of those great stores would be history. So many of the major department stores have closed or are closing owing to stiff online competition. I can’t remember the last time I was actually inside a major department store. Like so many others, I do a lot of my shopping electronically; even though I miss the big department stores and their catalogues. (I had a job at the Broadway Department Store in Chris-Town Mall in 1977-1978.)

Recently, becoming nostalgic for that department store shopping experience, I bought a vintage Montgomery Ward catalogue from 1965. This was not the year I was born; rather, the year I probably would have started to become cognizant of the purchase of consumer goods like food, clothing and entertainment items.

I hate to use a tired cliche, but it really was like a trip down memory lane. The dresses! The shoes! The televisions! So many things similar to (if not exactly) things in my house growing up.

Sure, online shopping can really be convenient and sometimes less expensive; but I miss the experience of going to nice department stores just to walk around.

17 May 2018

It’s Da Bomb

When I met Matt in 1994, I was in the process of buying a condominium. I lived there about five years before moving into the house Matt bought for us. I liked condo living. It was a small complex (about 24 units) and everyone knew everyone. Quite of a few of the units were used as rentals, so my neighbors kept changing.

The neighborhood was generally quiet. One night, I was sitting on my balcony and I heard a domestic quarrel of some kind in the distance (several houses away). A woman was shouting “I hate you, I hate you.” Fair enough. People fight. Then, I heard this scream of terror, like the woman had been stabbed or something. Of course, I called the police. They arrived shortly and I gave them a statement.

My condo unit shared a landing with the unit next door. While the policeman was standing there talking to me, my neighbor’s baby began to cry. The officer gestured to the sound, as if to say, “Is this what you heard?” (Because I am clearly that stupid.) I politely told him, “no.” But, he turned and knocked on the door, I guess to see if my neighbor had heard anything.

The door opened to a cloud of smoke – if you know what I mean. The officer asked to come in and speak to the neighbor, who replied, “Now’s not a good time.” (Duh!) The officer insisted and then things got real really fast.

The next thing I knew, our complex was surrounded by police cars, a fire engine, an ambulance or two and sundry other vehicles. The police went door-to-door telling us we all had to evacuate the premises. I spent the night at Matt’s.

Turns out, my neighbor was busted for smoking weed – and lots of it. On searching the unit, police found several pipe bombs loaded and ready to go. That’s why we were evacuated. They arrested the husband.

I was allowed to go back to my unit the next morning. A couple days later, the next-door wife came to my unit. She was crying, almost hysterically, apologizing for what her husband had done, etc. They moved out shortly and I never saw them again.

I imagine the police never did find out the cause of the screaming woman I called about; but I wonder what would have happened if chance had not intervened on my neighbor’s activities.

06 April 2018

The Great Hollywood Studios

There was a time when film studios were a dime a dozen. They’re still about a dime a dozen (even adjusting for inflation), but only a handful of the classic studios are still in operation. My husband, Matt, and I made it one of our goals to visit each of these classic studios at least once. We just got back from our tour of the last studio on our list.

Separately, and before we met, we had both visited Universal (1976 for me; circa 1979 for Matt). It has long been mostly an amusement park, but a tram did take my family and me around some of the behind-the-scenes elements. I understand it remains mostly an amusement park, although still a functioning studio.

We hit the jackpot with Warner Bros. and our visits in 1996, 2009 (twice) and 2012. We did the short two-hour tour first ($45/each) and spotted the three women stars from the series “Friends”; then the longer five-ish hour tour ($200/each) that included visits to the prop house, the costume house, travels along the famed back lot streets and lunch in the studio commissary (on the first day of shooting for Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”) and a brief spotting of Johnny Galecki (smoking!), star of the series “The Big Bang Theory.” It was an expensive, but totally-worth-it all-day tour. We returned to Warner’s later that year to attend a taping of “The Big Bang Theory” and then again in 2012 for a taping of “Two Broke Girls.”

Later in the day of our 2009 trip to Warner’s for the long tour, we zoomed over to the once-glittering MGM Studio (now Sony) for a taping of “Rules of Engagement” -- the first time we attended the taping of a television show. Even though neither of us had ever seen this particular show, we did want to experience a taping and this was the only show where we could get tickets. Little of their famed back lot still remains, but we did get to see fragments of some of it.

We had a wonderful backstage tour of the Disney Studio in 2015 ($65/each). It doesn’t really have a back lot any more (what it did have is now a parking garage), but many films are still shot on the grounds, especially “Saving Mr. Banks.” It was really amazing to see the work areas where animated films were made, Mr. Disney’s office, and other sights rarely available to the public -- including the superb archives. (You have to be a member of Disney’s “D23” to even buy tickets for the tours which are only done a few times each year.)

Finally, there was our recent tour of Paramount this year ($178/each). This tour was totally worth the money. It included many departments where we were actually able to speak to employees, watch special effects being made, see historic costumes and props -- and lunch in one of the rehearsal stages. We walked historic New York streets, saw behind the facades of the “buildings,” and learned a lot about the studio. (As an added bonus, I got to meet Matt Lanter of TV’s “Timeless.”)


Top row: 2009 Warner Bros. VIP tour (our second tour). Here is part of the back lot dressed for the short-lived TV series “Eastwick”; a WB VIP Studio Tour ticket; our return to WB to attend a taping of the once-funny TV series “Two Broke Girls.”

Bottom row: Matt and I (fresh from my heart surgery) at our 2015 tour of the Disney Studio; the keepsake badge given to all tour attendees; our recent tour of famed Paramount Studio (including what was once known as the RKO Studio).

06 February 2018

The Best Super Bowl Adverts for 2018

As we sat watching the Super Bowl commercials, I was a little disappointed that so few of them seemed to have been created with any great humor in mind (Bridgestone Tires’ 2008 entry of a squirrel vs car in “Scream” for example). Then, I started to realize the humor had mostly given way this year to companies showing examples of how they are giving back to the communities they serve. Yeh, I know how you might think this is self serving; but I like the idea of a company touting not its product (directly), rather, how they help others.

Here are my picks for the very best Super Bowl commercials of 2018.

Verizon “Answering the Call” A brilliant match up of a telephone-service company connecting people who were rescued from some disaster with the people who did the rescuing.
 

NFL “Dirty Dancing” I love watching straight guys try to dance. They are so uncoordinated. But this parody was perfect. I really don’t even know what it was a commercial for -- football? Who cares.  

Budweiser “Stand By You” My husband thought this was smug, but again I like a company showing how it gives back to the community. I had heard about Budweiser doing this after one of the hurricanes. I think they should show how they helped out. Fresh water is of major importance after a disaster. I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it’s clean.

Weather Tech “American Factory” A company touting that it built its new company building right here in America. My husband said they should have bought and repurposed an existing building. Perhaps, but if a company makes the decision to stay in America to give Americans jobs, then they deserve praise.

Tourism Australia “Dundee” Thought this was an advert for a real movie. Started to get the inkling it was a parody, then sat back and loved it. Lots of work and forethought went into making this a special call to visit the land down under.

Hyundai “Hope Detector” Have to admit to something in my eye during this one: the car company gives a portion of each sale to fund childhood cancer research. They brought unsuspecting Hyundai purchasers together with the people whose lives were saved by this research. Nice.

Kraft Foods “Family Greatly” Kraft put out a call for people to share what “family” meant to them. Then, Kraft put these photographs and videos together into a commercial. I like how they illustrated the various meanings of “family.”

13 January 2018

Convergence

I’ve long been a fan of genetics. I studied it in my high-school’s gifted program for four years and then in college. For obvious reasons, evolution (the poor cousin of genetics) also holds a fascination for me.

One element of evolution I find most fascinating is a thing called convergence. This is where two very different life forms come to the same solution for the same problem without there being any direct link between them. For example, flight: pterodactyls flew and archeopteryx flew. Same solution, but these species are not related. They came to the solution from different paths.

Convergence was an important element to me and my journalism career. It’s essentially the “two sides to every story” thing. For example: you find a body on the ground at the base of a tall building. How did it get there? Did the person fall from a window? Was he shot and fell? Did he just finish lunch down the street and have a heart attack at this spot?

I was surprised to realize that convergence remains important to me now that I write novels. As the author, I can create any solution to a mystery that I want. The fun part for me is sending clues to the reader to make him think the solution is coming along one path even though those same clues can be read to come to the solution through a different path. A surprise plot twist, as it were. I never started out any of my novels with this in mind, yet they nearly all have this element. It’s not a twist for the sake of a twist; rather, a twist that has been slowly crafted from the first page for the reader’s ultimate enjoyment .