I'm kind of ready for the holidays to be over, gang, but I did have a really nice, relaxing Sunday. I spent most of it lying on the bed, reading Keith's memoir, Life. Yes, I am almost finished and I really don't want it to end. I have enjoyed every moment of reading this book.

When I was about 22, Barbara Charone's book came out and I thought nothing on Earth could be better than her book about Keith (there were 2 versions -- one in the USA and one from the UK; I had both because the photos were different -- that link will show you both covers.) But, by far, Keith writing about his own life is the best yet. It definitely makes you feel like you know him, like he's personally telling his story directly to you.

I have actually known a number of people who have known either Keith himself, or that "six degrees of separation" thing. Aside from Valerie working for Keith & Patti Hansen many years ago (how I got my coveted strand of Keith's hair that I keep under glass), my ex-husband was friendly with Darryl Jones (the Stones' bass player) b/c he briefly lived in our apartment building in NYC. And Wayne's best friend, a gorgeous & talented Black woman, sang back-up for the Stones for awhile. (Oddly, Wayne is also friendly with Joe Hurley, who is one of the readers of the audio version of Keith's book. Plus I used to be friends with this guy named Tom from Staten Island who was good friend's with Patti's whole family and she was his babysitter when he was growing up.)

That's kind of weird, isn't it -- those "6 degrees"? In the years when I lived in NYC, the person I would run into again & again & again (when she was still alive), was Jackie Kennedy Onassis. I literally cannot tell you how many times I ran into her. The first time was when I was at the Winter Garden, seeing (the never-endingly sexy) Christopher Plummer in MacBeth. During the intermission, as I was waiting in that endless line to use the Ladies' Room, I was finally next in line, standing in front of a stall where the toilet is flushing, so I'm, like, waiting right there at the door and the stall opens and out walks Jackie O. It is totally not something you ever expect. At that point, she was probably the most well-known person in the entire world.

She was very self-possessed; very polite. She smiled and said in a very friendly way, "hello"  -- I think that struck me as the strangest part of it; that she acted as if she knew me. How weird life must seem from her end, I thought; when she knows without doubt that everyone on earth knows who she is & she's been through so much public & private horribleness that in order to just survive a single day, she has to throw out this constant smoke-screen of congeniality & poise. Sort of as if to say, "Are you happy now? See how pleasant I am. Now go the fuck away and don't speak to me." Smile, smile.

Then, as I said, I began to run into her everywhere. Perhaps maybe that's where I came up with the idea in my novel, Freak Parade -- to have my character, Genie, stalked by a famous movie star!

Actually, that movie star -- I named him Sam Matthews in Freak Parade -- but he really exists, only he's no longer all that famous. And he never stalked me, but it seems like -- and this is no exaggeration -- but almost everyone I knew in the East Village had personally & sexually encountered him, and he was always quite intense. With men & women, both. But I think I made Sam Matthews a very empathetic character when it was all said & done.

I have never been one to go out with movie stars; I guess I am probably prejudiced in that way, I don't know. If I am, I apologize. I just saw too many friends in NYC get treated like shit by them in their "dating" life. I think probably my (very popular!) erotic romance novel about Evan Crane summed up my previously uncharitable view of movie stars -- in my novel, the writer & the movie star fall in love, even though the writer kind of thinks the movie star is faithless and stupid. (But, never fear, he proves her wrong and he wins her over in the end, gang!) (And that novel was also based on people I knew -- a writer & a movie star. It didn't end quite so happily-ever-after as my version does, though! Christ, what does?? That's one pretty damned happily-ever-after ending I wrote there, folks!  Hence it's popularity. ha ha.) (However, when it comes to writers and/or songwriters or musicians, they have been my downfall, as they say.)

Okay, well. Yesterday it snowed again, and so I made a foray out into the Winter Wonderland bright & early to buy -- yes!! -- more environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies from Target (Method brand). Yes, I was actually excited to get out and drive around in the snow to go get cleaning products from Target. I am seriously in need of a life-overhaul here, I think! But I have to say, that the Method line of "green" cleaning products really work and they smell so good. I am very sensitive to smells. And I kid you not that I get tons of compliments -- "Gosh! What smells so good in here??" "Oh, I just cleaned the floor." "Really, with what??!!"

Even their toilet bowl cleaner, L'il Bowl Blu, smells fantastic. How fucking bizarre is that?? And it comes in a really cute bottle. (Yes, I am linking you there to a toilet bowl cleaner!) It's made with eucalyptus & mint, but for some reason, the two scents together smell like being outside in some invigorating mountain pine forest or something -- the real deal; and not some fake "Glade" smell. And you can't beat that image when you're cleaning a lousy toilet, can you, gang???

Okay, wow. How the heck did we end up here?? I gotta scoot! I'm still in my PJs!! (Drinking coffee from my pink pirate mug -- see post below!) Have a super Monday wherever you are!! And thanks for visiting, gang!! See ya!