that I were under another deadline here so that I wouldn't spend quite so much time blabbing here on the blog! But, oh well!

This sentimental Sunday morning has been all about this, gang:

Begin the Beguine (this link takes you to Artie Shaw's version on YouTube from 1938.) Honestly, I have been playing this song over & over for the last hour and a half. (Not on YouTube, on my CD player.)

The song is so marvelous -- it sure takes you places. It makes me feel very sentimental for my second marriage. Wayne was a very, very William Powell-y kind of guy. Classy, sophisticated, passionate, witty (other times, though, he was as big of a kid as me & we watched a lot of cartoons.) In the early days of our marriage, we were all about martinis and cigarettes, and listening to Frank Sinatra Live at the Sands on the stereo and laughing a lot and cooking incredible gourmet meals in our beautiful apartment on the Upper West Side.

Probably our high point was our 2nd Anniversary, where we went to Sardi's for dinner and then went to see Christopher Plummer on Broadway in the play Barrymore (which broke my heart). We were in our primes then, for sure. I was still a brunette, for one thing. I weighed maybe 145 pounds. And Wayne always looked good no matter what year it was, but at that point he was just turning 40. He wore this really beautiful royal blue suit that fit him like, I don't know what, like just perfectly. He had very black curly hair and bright blue eyes, and he was 6' 1", so he just looked super.

But that's over, right? I'm not going to marry another William Powell. I had my shot at it but for reasons that don't belong on a blog, it didn't work out. But speaking of Christopher Plummer... For my birthday (which is right around the corner, gang, and you also have to factor in how long it will take for the mail to deliver your gift to me on time...). Anyway, for my birthday, I am buying myself Christopher Plummer's recent memoir, In Spite of Myself.  I have had a note to myself about it on my refrigerator for about 6 or 7 months already but I am finally going to buy it. I can't wait.

I love Christopher Plummer. I find him incredibly erotic. Even when I was a little girl, I found him erotic. In The Sound of Music, he blew me away; he was so formidable as Captain Baron Von Trapp. As a little girl, I was always attracted to formidable men who had fathered a lot of children, so, of course, the Captain Baron Von trapp character left me speechless. I was probably one of the few 5 year-old girls who was erotically captivated by The Sound of Music. However, it goes a long way in explaining the absolute essence of me, doesn't it, gang?


Well, okay. I'm going to get back to Begin the Beguine around here, get a little more sentimental and try to remember to be a little charitable with myself at the same time. I'm sure something really marvelous is waiting just around the corner again, right? Maybe not William Powell, but you never know. It will certainly never be another Freak Parade (and please just be patient gang; that novel will be in stores eventually and then you can read all about it -- my life with Mikey Rivera when life was still a thrill ride at Coney Island.  Before everything went horribly wrong and life became just plain terrifying. Like, suddenly you are trapped in Scorsese's film Raging Bull and you are praying you get out alive before the final reel.) (I did, as you can see.)

Anyway. Have a great Sunday, gang, wherever you are!! And "thanks for the memories"!