Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Last Day of the Year.




Amazing stuff from my friend, Jay, who passed away less than 2 weeks later from a massive heart attack.

This has been an interesting year. A littler quieter than some and full of surprises....some bad and some not so bad.

Per usual, we are out at the lake and looking out over snow and ice. The outside thermometer reads 6 degrees. This Christmas Day I did a roast beast and Yorkshire pudding and the group of 10 loved it. We had a lovely time of it. I am always happiest when the house is full of family and friends.

Michele and I were able to see DHOOM 3 at the Star Southfield and loved it!!! What fun memories and yes, I did see both Mal and I several times!!!!!

Tonight will be cold out on Front Street watching that huge Cherry drop down and into a new year.

Friends and family will be swirling around me... Mum and Dad, Kimber and Jay among them.

The best we can wish for in 2014 is to do one better than 2013. Be a bit more kind, a bit more smart, a bit more aware and be a bit more open.

God bless us, everyone, and Happy New Year to you and yours.

Monday, December 16, 2013

If I won the lottery

Okay, so all of us have seen the news and know that the Mega Millions Jackpot is something like $550 million dollars, right? Today is Monday and I really need to finish packing up my family's gifts. I need to make the pilgrimage to the post office to mail off all the goodies and I know the line will be long.. So I am blogging.

What to do first? Call my tax man and put him on retainer. Call my lawyer and set up a trust for my daughter. Practical, right?

Offer my house to my next door neighbors. I have thought of this a lot. Really nice family that moved here from Sri Lanka and, several years ago, adopted a lovely little girl from within their large family. I would want to move to a larger home that would accommodate friends and family and work.

Work? Well, I would want to build a patronage and that would take some space. Ideally, I would like to  have a concert/recording space to use and offer to others. There would also be a small staff I would like to gather to work on researching the various charities and needs in our state and our world. Never having had a lot of money in my life I would like some of this lottery money working to change, not only my family's life, but the lives of people who need that leg up.

It goes, without saying, that I would fund some medical trials to find a viable end to breast cancer.
Maybe fund projects such as this..?!

I would, most certainly, want to buy property on Lake Michigan - Good Harbor Bay if at all possible.
(This place I would buy, outright. I know this place well.)

Then there are my family and their financial pressures.  What a joy to be able to sit down with people you love and say..."What are your needs but, more importantly, what are your dreams?"

I would love to have a house and land to be able to buy art and help sustain artists that need to be seen.

I would have an extremely cool weekend planned and invite those people in my life that I want to say thank you to.  Rent a castle or something amazing like that...... Hmm... an island instead.....I am looking at the weather here right now!

And then there is travel. Sigh. Having those experiences I have dreamed of all my life and sharing them with  my daughter and husband. Kathmandu, Hong Kong, Machu Picchu, Bali, the Loire Valley, Lhasa, Budapest, Istanbul, Petra, Cairo, San Jose (Costa Rica), The Seychelles Islands, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Nimbin (AU), Sapporo, Quebec City, Lima...  A full passport, for sure.

Okay....enough. It's time to get back to more mundane things. I hope whomever wins tomorrow night will have just a bit of a global mindset. After all, how many things can you buy before you "buy" dissatisfaction?

Personally, I will keep my fingers crossed.

Bliss

As the title suggests, "bliss" is the emotion of the moment. The emotion is defined as "complete happiness or spiritual joy." Some sources explain it as "extreme ecstasy or extreme happiness". For me, bliss is a more gentle, softer emotion. The word comes to mind as I sit here, on a couch, drinking pumpkin spice coffee and looking out over a winter wonderland of snow, sunshine and the blue of the lake beyond. It is the day before Thanksgiving and, as usual, our family is gathered, up north, to celebrate the holiday and unplug. (Funny, as I am currently plugged in via my cell Wi-Fi hotspot!)

"Bliss" was how my friend, Jay, usually signed his letters and cards. He passed away on Saturday, 11/23 at the age of 50. He was out in the woods on the first day of Deer Hunting Season. He was found next to his ATV, a deer lashed to the top or side or something. It would appear that he died from a massive heart attack but I don't know for certain. The irony here, of course, is the fact that Jay had directed and produced a documentary about hunting.

I was talking to my husband, this morning, telling him "Jay" stories... Not my personal memories but memories of his stories. The meeting of the Dalai Lama in London wearing Packer sweats....the party at the Playboy Mansion.....the crazy feeling of being a celebrity at Sundance when his film, "Employee of the Month" premiered. Then there are my recollections of our time together doing summer stock all those years ago in little Clinton, Iowa. Jay had been cast as Marcellus in "Music Man" and, every night, him and Tom stopped the show with "Sadder but Wiser Girl". Many nights spent laughing, talking and laughing some more. He was such an intense young man and felt things so deeply. Although we were only to meet up a handful of times over the next few decades, we kept in touch via his wonderful letters, phone calls, etc. I treasure a VHS tape sent the Christmas he was first on "In Living Color". He literally took a video camera along with him and showed off his new L.A. apartment as well as filming a day on the FOX lot, even including backstage during a show taping.  Today the word "bliss" rings in my ears and I know it's him saying.."it's okay." It's gonna take awhile for me. I can only imagine that he entered the gates of Valhalla and was greeted by many that were waiting for him to join the party.

Much more on Jay here......  And here is a reel, shown at his memorial in L.A., of some of Jay's work.

A favorite Jay Leggett story of mine...was one he told to me and alluded to in the last paragraph. He was in London directing "Tony and Tina's Wedding" and being put up in a hotel in the posh Mayfair district. Upon hearing a commotion in the streets, he looked out and saw a procession of Buddhist monks and people filling up the street in front of the hotel. He wandered down, in Packers sweats of course, and stepped out the front door and right up to the Dalai Lama who was entering. Of course he was tempted to introduce himself using a Bill Murray bit but, his Midwestern roots kicked in and he was respectful. He laughed, as he told the story, that a friend had travelled to Nepal to meet the DL only to miss him or be turned away or something.. Jay met him in Packers sweats.. Only darling Jay.

My mother passed away on 11/22/09 and we had to plan her funeral just before Thanksgiving that year. Jay will be buried on 11/27. I will always be able to remember the date now of when he left us.