Got through the luckiest day in the century, 7/7/7/--at least according to  brides, gamblers, and numerologists--by helping move my daughter out of her shared college house back home. It was about 95 degrees and three days ago I had minor surgery to remove an unfriendly mole.  So I wasn't supposed to exercise, let alone carry boxes and bookcases. But you do what you have to do, right?.

That's my thought for today: You do what you have to do. How you do it is the interesting part.  When you are called upon to do something, do you do it with grace, anger, resentment, laughter, joy, reluctance? I want to respond with a positive can-do attitude when unexpectedly called upon.

I watch my best friend, Kate respond with a can-do attitude. She moves forward. Maybe she is resentful and I can't see it and that would be fine. But mostly I think she is willing to step up and do what needs to be done.

Okay, here is a unusual way of looking at it. I am not particuarly religious in the sense of going to church every Sunday but I am spiritually inclined. I was thinking the other day about when the Angel Gabriel visits Mary with the news that she is going to be the mother of Jesus. Paintings over the centuries reveal her reaction in variety of ways. I saw a painting at the Frick Collection when we were in NY for our college reunion (more on that next time) of The Annuniciation by Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) and I thought there's a role model: Mary, young, uncertain, tentative but ready. Ready to go the distance.

Check her out: www.frick.org

Kate and Buffy flew separately to Orlando.
We met up at the lovely Peabody Hotel, but the world-famous
 ducks had gone to sleep by the time we had checked in.
 (Must have been getting their duck beauty sleep.)

We were okay once we got settled in and got to use
 our two favorite words in the English language: room service
--and Buffy was able to watch a basketball play-off game.
Well, it took us a few minutes to master the remote control.
 Don't we just wish there was such a thing as Standardized Remote?
 Then we could learn it once and our knowledge would travel with us
from state to state and even from room to room in our
 own homes! (End of rant.)

By morning, the wildfires from Georgia has crossed the border into
Florida and, by the time we left for our appearance on iVillage,
 the smoke was thick in the air. It burned our throats and eyes.
 It blocked out the sun. It was downright eerie. Being from
California, this phenomenon is, sadly, all too familiar to Buffy.
 How well she knows the smell that irritates the nostrils and eyes
and breaks the heart. But this was all new to Kate.

We arrived at the NBC Studio where iVillage is filmed live and
Where we were greeted by Brooke, our segment producer who
ushered us into a curtained-off private Green Room of Our Own,
complete with framed pictures, flowers in vases, and all
 the comforts of home.

 We passed the easy pre-show time meeting Molly and Guy,
the hosts of the show, who were so lively and real and relaxed.
 The studio audience was enthusiastic and we zipped through our
 five tips for a more satisfying second half:
 connect, breathe, walk, read, and be open.

 And then--just like that!--it was over and we were on our way
 back to our real lives, that place where there are no cameras
 and no magical make-up artists to make us look better than we do.

Buffy's plane left later than Kate's so she lingered at the Peabody,
tickling the keys of her Berry and indulging in a lunch-time quesadilla
(no, not duck!)  Unfortunately, Kate wound up having a pretty huge
whomping allergy attack on the way to the airport which,
 she learned the next day from an ex-female smoke jumper
(she was a former jumper, not a former female!)
was not unusual: Burning vegetation is one of the most potent
 allergens on the planet. But Kate headed off to her acupuncturist
 and nipped the attack in the bud.

All in all, it was great to be back on the road again.

 

Kate and Buffy on TV in Buffy's hometown- Washington D.C.

Yes, they talked about their book, Coming of Age All Over Again, but the real interest of  the interviewer was about Buffy's brother, Topper- the chief meterologist at the same station.
Both Kate and Buffy remembered Topper's love of the weather began when he was really young. And who knew his childhood fascination with snow and clouds and rain would become his life's work.
Take a look at our interview! 

See it at www.comingofageagain.com

Tune into the radio program, Starstyle: Be the Star You Are! with host Cynthia Brian, on Thursday, March 22 from 3-4pm PST where we will be interviewed live about our book and the topic of Coming of Age... All Over Again!

You can listen from your computer by going to http://www.worldtalkradio.com/show.asp?sid=118. We would love for you to call in and talk to us, toll-free at STUDIO A: 1-866-613-1612 in the US/Canada and 001-858-268-3068 around the world.

If you miss the live show, you can find it archived at that site or listen live from another of the syndicated radio shows listed at http://www.star-style.com/radio/index.htm

Thanks for supporting the efforts to spread the word!

Bowing to pressure from Buffy "Al Gore's Angel" Shutt, Kate recently replaced the car she gave to her number three son with a hybrid SUV, which features, in addition to its many planet-friendly features, her very first GPS. The day before she drove down to Washington DC, her son and husband programmed the GPS to go to the White House, just to show her what a marvel of human invention it was. When Kate got her friend Topper's address, she programmed it in as she had been instructed by the one-inch thick manufacturer's manual. But guess what? She failed to over-ride the previous programmed destination. It wasn't until she had practically pulled up on the White House lawn (hey Dubya, hey Laura, company's coming!) that she realized exactly where she had gone wrong. But, hey, how else was she to have treated herself to a GPS-guided night-time tour of our glamorous capital.

Who is the mindless robot here?

...for a Marathon Tea Party Filibuster! We visited Buffy's home turf this weekend, where two of the guests she named in her tea party exercise, hosted real live events for us on two successive days.

Molly's tea party took place in her beautiful home, full of flower prints and chintz and English Country lady antiques. It was picture perfect! It was just the right atmosphere in which to share ideas about coming of age all over again with these smart, beautiful, successful women who make their living in our nation's capital. Frank, her husband, was a lovely host as well giving us space while encouraging us in our conversations.

Alison's tea party took place on a snowy day in the beautiful, spacious, comfortable home she shares with her husband, Topper, Buffy's brother, and their three lovely daughters. Lucky for us, most of Alison's guests were nearby neighbors who soldiered through the drifts to share tea and coffee, lemon bars and "Topper bars" (aren't we full yet?)

On the third day, did we rest? Not on your life! Topper (who just happens to be the wildly popular weather man for the local CBS station), escorted us to his own studio where we had a fabulous on-air chat with Andrea Roane on WUSA9.

The high-point of the weekend was a visit with two of the super seniors to whom we dedicated our book, Buffy's parents, Chuck and Middie Shutt. Kate hadn't seen them in over twenty years and, for her, it was a very special reunion. Chuck is as dapper and handsome as he ever was. And Middie, heading up several committees, has made herself noting less than the unofficial mayor of the lovely assisted living apartment they moved into the year before last.

Many of our friends, when they heard we were doing a Tea Party Tour of the New England states in February, begged to know WHY? Why go to New England in the dead of winter, they wailed. Can't you wait until spring? Well, the simple answer is we can't and we didn't and we're glad that we did go because we had a swell time, with the warmth of our hosts and hostesses along the way more than making up for frigid little details like ice rink roads and wind chill factors and jack-knifing semi trucks on winding country roads. After driving 19 hours in four days, with Kate at the wheel of her Soccer Mom Van and Buffy riding stalwart shotgun with Mapquest directions clutched in hand, we are happy to report that our Tea Parties Tour was a rousing success!

Manchester, Vermont
The ski slopes were bare so the turn-out might have been better -- especially since, Linda, our hostess at Northshire Bookstore, went out of her way to bake us a beautiful layer cake that looked like the cover of our book come alive. We were happy to meet Cynthia, brimming with the details of her own coming of age, as well as the Ray Milland look alike who runs the music department. Thanks to Laurie for being our chaperone and thanks to Frank and Julie at the Manchester Inn. Also, the chicken pot pie at the Equinox's Marsh Tavern was the perfect comfort food.

Portland, Maine
Stuart and Christopher, the guys who run Longfellow Books, really know how to put on an event. The next door neighbors, Soak, provided an urn of excellent tea, and Phyllis baked delicious "grown-up" cookies (bitter chocolate to die for). And most special of all were the tea party guests who came with open hearts and open minds. The big surprise of the evening was that Buffy's friend, Judy Shapiro Kirklin, who she hasn't seen since high school and her beautiful daughter showed up. Since getting together with old friends is what Tea Parties are all about, how great was that? Also at the Tea Party, was Keith (our agent's husband), who thought up the title for our book.

New Bedford, Massachusetts
We toured around with our hostess, Erin McHugh, who took us on a tour of New Bedford. We saw the Whaling Museum and the church where Orson Welles preached his sermon to the whalers in the movie, Moby Dick and, where every year, there is a group public reading of the Herman Melville's great white novel. (Buffy promised Erin she would give it another try, Buffy being no stranger to BIG books.) Our event, put on by Erin's sister-cousin Mimi, the manager of Baker Books and Debbie Baker, its owner, was given in the Rotch-Jones-Duff House, a "cottage" built by a whaling captain and, we like to think, presided over by the spirit of his daughter Amelia, who lived in it her whole life, and advanced the cause of women's rights and welfare. There was another beautiful layer cake, scones, more of those tea sandwiches Buffy loves so much, and adorable cupcakes with purple icing. (Do you think we're fixated on food a little?) We were lucky to be guests in Erin's beautiful home in the nearby enchanted village of Padanaram (pronounced Paid-ner-um), also the home of Mimi and Erin's other sister cousin, Suzy.

As Buffy takes off into the wild Jet Blue yonder back to LA and Kate toddles back to Upstate New York in her soccer mom van, we just want to thank everyone who helped make our Tea Party launch week such a blast. Thanks go to:

All our wonderful radio interviewers: Richard and Lori from the Richard and Lori Show, Bulldog (from WOCN-FM Ocean City), Reid Howell (from KYMO St. Louis), Peter Solomon (from WIP-AM, Philadelphia), Tron Simpson (from WCMN, Colorado Springs), and Joshua Schaffer (from WCTR, Baltimore).

All the friendly, helpful people at the Surrey Hotel, especially the kind woman who "practiced patience" with us and unscrewed the cap on the coffee thermos so easily. The taxi driver who acted fine with Buffy crawling around on the floor looking for black gloves that were securely in her pocket.

ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY AT THE TODAY SHOW!!!!!

The security guard at Ernst & Young who offered Buffy a re-take on her photo ID because in the first one she looked like a dwarf with a five o'clock shadow.

Our new friends at Ernst & Young, where we gave a writers workshop.

And, last but certainly by no means least, our Tea Party hostesses, who opened their hearts and their homes (or offices) to us:
Wendy at the 92nd Street Y
Vicki at Random House
Jim at Ernst & Young
Jane in Connecticut
Erin in New York
Debbie in Brooklyn Heights

We are so excited that several guests have suggested our book to their book clubs. How great is that?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, all!!!!

Thanks to a rousing launch on Wednesday morning by the amazing folks at The Today Show, our Travelling Tea Party Tour is off to an exciting start. The producer of our segment was BRILLIANT. Ann Curry was a warm, generous, and enthusiastic hostess. The people at NBC couldn't have been nicer or more kind -- from the guy who greeted us in the lobby like we were stars, to the make-up and hair women who treated us like old friends, to the camera crew who did such an awesome job... we gave them our cake!

And later that afternoon, the most wonderful thing happened to our book: On Amazon.com, its sales leapt from 27,000 to 7 in a single bound. On BarnesAndNoble.com, we went from something like 50 gazillion to 12. Thank you, thank you, cyber-friends!!! Come visit us at tea time or any old time at www.ComingOfAgeAgain.com. And check out the scheduled Tea Party events on our calendar. In the next few months, we just might be visiting a bookstore in your neighborhood. The tea is steeping in the pot and the crumpets are warm from the oven. It's time for tea! Cheers!