BILLY!!!!!

I should never skip a day blogging up here.  There's too much to tell for 2 days.  I guess I'll just do highlights!


Yesterday's lecture was Roger Rosenblatt and Meg Wolitzer.  How have I missed this author?  She was hilarious and real and funny and everything she read from her books was something I'd want to read.  Note to self:  my book club selection the next time I host will be  The Position, by Meg Wolitzer.  Although any of her books sound great.


Reader's Theater class has one more day to go.  I've enjoyed it, although I skipped class today to see Billy Collins.  We were in the middle of a play by Tracy Letts called "Superior Donuts" which I was loving.  Luckily the instructor let me bring the play home so I could read how it ended.


Because TODAY was Billy Collins Day.   And it turned out even better than I thought.  Because I think I related that Tuesday's lecturer had a flight cancellation, so Thursday's lecturers were able to fill in.  Which left an opening for today.  And Billy Collins stepped up to the plate to be interviewed by Roger Rosenblatt in addition to being the weekly featured author at 3:30.   Two doses of Billy.  If you did not Google my "Three Blind Mice" selection which I recommended last time, then by all means do that.  Also Google a poem called,  "Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House."   His poems are just too wonderful for words.  And hearing him read them was heaven today.


I was particularly joyful to wake up this morning having gotten a good night's sleep.  The late-in-the-day-cough, which is the final stages of the cold I have had, has kept me from getting a good night's sleep.   In desperation, I drove last night to the local grocery, intent on getting the ingredients to an all natural, home made cough suppressant recipe.   The recipe promised to taste "horrible" and these were the ingredients:  1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper (need I go on?), 1/4 tsp ground ginger,  1 T honey,  1 T apple cider vinegar, and 1T water.  Hey. . . I was desperate!   So I go up and down the aisles collecting the ingredients and growling about how expensive this little home remedy was going to be and how it better be worth it, when I went by the "Cold Remedies" aisle of the grocery.  From somewhere down that aisle a voice was beckoning me.  "Ruthie. . . . . .come down here!"   And truth be told, at that point, a good bottle of Nyquil was sounding pretty good.   So I went down the aisle, thinking that for sure the Nyquil was calling, and if a bottle of cold remedy could actually manifest itself as a human voice, who was I to resist????  So I get down to where the Nyquil was, and right next to it was a bottle that said:  All Natural Cough Syrup.  I checked the ingredients on the bottle and they were (I am not making this up), cayenne pepper, cinnamon (not ginger), honey (buckwheat as it turns out), apple cider vinegar!!!  And it promised to taste great!  A no-brainer????  I think so!!!  So I bought it and brought it back to the condo and sucked down a couple of teaspoons and it did taste great!  And it helped.  But Ricola drops helped too.  And I got a good night's sleep!  And I woke up almost chipper!!!  Haven't been chipper in over a week!   Boy chipper feels good when you have not felt that way for awhile.   A perfect compliment to Billy Collins Day!


Lots of choir work, but also Jared's noon-time recital on the mighty Massey organ yesterday.  I did NOT need to turn pages which was a huge relief since I wasn't sure at the time if I'd be able to do it without hacking my brains out and spoiling everything!


I have yet to go to the gym.  But now that chipper's back, and my class ends tomorrow, I'm hoping to carve out time for that.


Tonight Nancy and I went to see the movie Hysteria.  My first movie of the season and I nearly wept with joy to be back in the Chautauqua Cinema to see this lovely and funny movie about the invention of vibrators for women in the late 19th century!  You heard me right.  Fabulous movie.  Makes me curious about my grandmothers though. . . . . 


Tomorrow's final lecturer: None other than Dame Julie Andrews and her daughter being interviewed by Roger Rosenblatt.  There will be HUGE crowds for this one.


Week one is cranking down. . . . but I'm cranking up!