Suzie's Schtuff

Today my sister and I went to our City's annual book festival to see "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia"   
Maureen McCormick.  Maureen talked about her book and her Brady years.  I thought she would be amused if I wore my Davy Jones t-shirt.  Sadly, that was not her favorite episode, but she definitely noticed the shirt, lol.  Then some other lady piped in about Davy playing somewhere and I told Maureen about going on tour with Davy, but that's another story, lol!  Suffice to say we had a fun conversation and she is a nice lady with an interesting story to tell. 

So far, I've met half the Bradys and they are all very nice.  Susan Olsen
graciously offered her talent and book proceeds to raise money for a cat rescue run by my friend, Georgyne.  And then there's Barry, a real sweetheart who I met for the first time in 1976 at an Actors and Others for Animal Fair (see pic in pic)Got my first kiss from him there too!-actually, I kissed him!!    We got a chance to hang out at my sister's theatre when he starred in "The Sound of Music" (above).  We got another chance to hug
and smooch when Barry toured in TV Hit Parade.  We had a chance to chat, too! 

We had fun backstage at Barry's Growing Up Brady show in Hershey, PA
where I was inducted into the Brady family.  So, you  understand the desire I have to meet the rest of my siblings! 

So naturally I would like to meet the rest of the Brady Bunch, but you know what?? 

Half the bunch is great! 

 

 

 

Miss USA party update The artist I spoke about in my last post, Enda, finished the oil of a picture I took at that party. The piece is Oil on Canvas and 140 x 100 cm and it is called “Gathering." Take a look at the oil and then go look at the original picture.

If I'm lucky, I may get to see it next year at an art exhibit in New York.  That would be exciting!

Betty, a friend of my sister's,
  
has been President of the Connie Stevens Fan Club as long as I can remember, which was the early 70's, if not sooner.  My sister became Vice President somewhere along the line.  I remember as a young married adult driving with Betty and my sister to Cape Cod to see Connie do her show.  The Mills Brothers were warm-up, and were just superb.  Between shows, we took little Jolie and Tricia to dinner while Mom got ready for Show #2.  Tricia was about 8 or 10, and took a shine to my husband.  It was cute. 

Fast forward 30 years!  Poor Betty fractured her knee in several places and is still recovering via wheelchair and walker.  All of her Connie Stevens memorabilia is upstairs in her bedroom, and Betty can't climb stairs yet.  Jolie Fisher calls Betty to see how she is, and during the conversation Betty finds out that Jolie is throwing her Mom a 70th birthday party.  Jolie is making a slide show and wants pics from the past and some old movie posters to hang around.         

But they are all upstairs!  What to do!  Call two sisters who can climb stairs, that's what!  So, we drove to Betty's house, about an hour and a half from home, and were greeted with lunch and homemade salsa from Betty's sister's home-grown tomatoes.  Amazingly, both sisters are named Nancy!  But I digress, lol!  As luck would have it, my sister's gonna be in LA and can take all this amazing memorabilia Betty collected over the years to be at Connie's 70th!  I wish her a great big Happy Birthday which is coincidentally right after my birthday, lol.  It was a great occasion to see old friends! 

Meet Rumple!  My husband and I got her when we were first married and she was our baby for ten years!  She was a great pet, albeit a little messy, lol!  In the evenings Rumple would get let out of her cage to fly around our small apartment and get some exercise.  She liked to land on the chain to the lamp over the dining room table and on the curtains.See that paper clip hanging on her door?  She figured out how to get out of her cage when we weren't home, lol!  We loved her dearly and still think of her.  First children are always special, aren't they? 

My niece had a baby the end of May.  She came a month early and weighed 5 lbs. 
She is doing well and will be spoiled rotten, I am sure, lol!  This is what she looks like.

That's my sister holding her.  What's so great about this baby, you say?

There are now four generations of women in the family--baby, grandmom, great grandmom and Mom! 

"No photography of any Kind" signs were plastered around Peter Max's new artwork for sale.  There were little hearts (5x7 in size) for $2,000.  That was the least expensive piece of art for sale, and the average price was about $20,000. 

Well, I figured I couldn't afford his art, lol, but I had a poster my mother had given me when I was a kid because I loved Peter Max's artwork.  My mother, being a painter herself, encouraged this, lol!  So, she gave me a poster which I saved through the years.  My husband, in fact, remembered where we had it stashed.  I had to be careful with it because it was folded up in a box and was so creased it could easily rip.  I put it in a portfolio for the trip downtown to see him.

 Today's artwork viewing was by reservation only, and Peter Max was there to dedicate pieces of his new work to people who bought them.  The buyers were also eligible to get a picture taken with him. 

The other line was for people like me who had memorabilia we wanted Peter to sign.  I was told there was no guarantee he would get to any of us in the hour and a half timeframe.

When Peter he came in, he was directed to begin signing purchased pieces.  There was a lull while his minions scurried about grabbing artwork and paper, as Peter was signing the backs of each piece. 

He walked over to the front of my line (I was behind one other guy) and Peter Max engaged this guy in conversation about his piece of artwork from the 1960's/70's.  So, I whipped out my poster as quickly as I could and showed him.  He looked at it and asked if it came out of a magazine and I said I wasn't sure. 

All of a sudden his assistant, Jeff, said that Peter wanted to know if I would trade my poster for an original piece of art, that he would create before me.  After a quick discussion with my sister, we decided original art was more valuable than a poster we couldn't trace back to anything.  Meanwhile, all of this action was happening to the exclusion of the other art purchasers, and I was getting up in line ahead of them! 

So, here is my one-of-a-kind Peter Max original that he drew before my very eyes! 
I, too, got my picture taken with Peter Max, and hopefully Jeff will come through on his promise to send me both a pic of my old poster and the pic of Peter and me.  Right after I got my pic with Peter, he walked outside to take a phone call and I snapped a quick one!  If you look closely to his right, you can see through the glass to a couple of his paintings on the wall.

Nobody wants one.  Everyone 50 and over is supposed to get it up the rear eventually, lol!  I didn't want to either but doctors begin nagging you the second you approach the "decade of maintenance" as my doctor puts it.  Do you look at that as falling apart or time to take care of yourself?  Or a little of both? 

Anyway, I resolved to do it this year and wanted it out of the way so I could enjoy my summer..  Good thing, too, cuz they found something.



My doctor said it was a big one!  So, when I googled  "distal sigmoid colon" the hits I got were about lesions and cancer.
Did finding that now just prolong my life for the sake of an uncomfortable, pukey day (magnesium citrate upset my tummy--nobody else I know had that happen) and a procedure that had me in at 11:00 a.m. and home by 2:00? 

I am glad I did it and hope you will too when the time comes.  And to my sister, who "stubbornly" refuses to get one, I'll take you.  It's important.

Once upon a time I was getting married and watched friends have babies one by one and drop off the face of the earth, lol!
Turn around, and they are grown with kids of their own!  And so, my niece, Christine, is about to have her first baby.

On the left is the great grandmother-to-be, in black is the mother-to-be and beside her is her mother.  That's pretty cool.

So, congrats on your new life!

My sister made the crotcheted Mickey and Minnie Mouse--she is very talented!

I loved my nephew's shirt--he will soon be an uncle.

Daddy's Little Girl is Coming! Glad Steve is out of the army and back in his old job!

Precious Paws needs your help!

Take up the Adrienne Curry challenge.  Stick a dollar in an envelope and mail it to

Precious Paws

18034 Ventura Blvd. #430

Encino, CA 91316

I was the envy of every man I knew in 2006.  My sister invited me to attend a private party when the Miss USA contest was in my hometown a couple years ago.  So I went and took lots of pics  (big surprise, lol!) and posted them to an ill fated moblog named Textamerica.  Two years later, Enda contacts me with a note here at good 'ol Buzznet asking to use an old pic from Textamerica.



Enda is an Irish artist, currently living in Berlin , Germany . Enda's work involves the use of found images to create paintings from various places on the Internet.  I am flattered to have been tracked down for a pic I took and was reminded of how many wonderful events my sister has invited me to over the years.

When I was a kid, my mother would catch me reading after bedtime!  I devoured every MAD Magazine I could get my hands on, lol!  I especially loved the song parodies and Spy vs Spy.  So, when I found out from The Screensavers on TechTV that Dick DeBartolo bestowed autographed copies of MAD to people who signed his guest book,  I was there!