Because inside, we really want to be singers and dancers, here we are transported into a little make-believe!

For the THIRD time this week already, I read about yet another baby dying after a parent left them in a closed car in hot weather.  WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG with these morons?  People like this shouldn't even own a turtle.

I have a suggestion.  How about this?

If any parent has ever left their child in a HOT car, and they think its OK because they'll only be a few minutes, or whatever .... and they are fortunate that their children are still alive, I suggest  this.  Please do this, you pitiful excuse for a parent ..... go put your child safely in the air conditioning first, and then return outside and YOU get yourself into your car for 25 minutes.  Now don't forget to roll up the windows.  Oh, OKAY, we'll give you a little slack, slightly crack the windows a half inch because you think that will ventilate the car.  And oh, remember you cannot TALK, open the window, or call out to anyone for help.  Now buckle yourself in and sit back and enjoy the sauna you are about to experience. 

And while you sweat and you feel lightheaded and dizzy and your mouth is chokingly dry (because you can't have any water with you either because babies cannot help themselves if they have a bottle there) .... while this is all happening, just consider that your child is (I'm guessing)  approximately one tenth of your body weight.  I'll bet you don't last 25 minutes before you fly out of there because you've had quite enough. 

And then think about your CHILD in this situation before you ever contemplate leaving your child in the car in the heat AGAIN, you asshole!

Thats all I wanted to say.  I had to spew, sorry.  I googled "baby left in car dead" and got far too many results to excuse that maybe its just one or two dumbasses, but NO - there are way too many.   MAYbe one or two may have been accidents because the parents zoned out or were overstressed - but even that I don't understand..... because I would have to be braindead to forget my infant no matter what.  Ok, I'm done.  I welcome your comments.

- Anne

Its been crazy busy lately .... but this past Wednesday I performed in yet another Murder Mystery with my acting troupe from New Haven.  How much fun I had ..... because it was for a 60's night celebration at a college .... and we did a story based on the reunion of a 60's group - thats all I'll say so as not to give away someone else's story line .... but the character I had to play was called Mary Jane Jointner  - LOL!   And I just flew in from Amsterdam for the reunion - where I've been living for the past 20 years.  Can you imagine how much fun it was playing that character.  So I tried REAL hard to get into character as a burn out!  haha   I had an opportunity to pull out a bunch of my old jewelry and beads .... plus a big peace sign and a scarf and a nasty long haired wig with a cap - and like, John Lennon little glasses, man!  Super cool!  haha

I was disappointed though, that I had to die, and didn't have the full time to play with the audience, because I was feeling groovy, man!  I love acting and plays and such - what a job getting paid to play dress up!   And by the way, SOME day, I'm going to figure out what I want to BE when I grow up!  In the meantime, I'm going to have fun and live life.  Do it people!  Life is short and goes by faster than you think!  I'm getting to be an old broad now, but I'm doing what I want and I truly don't care what people think.  How freeing that is!

Have a great weekend!  Right now, I have to go finish sewing a memory quilt I'm making for someone (anyone else want to use my services?  Yes, I sew, too!)  See ya.  I'd love to hear back from you all.

- Anne

Well well well - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Before Congress  leaves for the holiday season, they want us to know that they are working REALLY hard to get things done.  So lets see:

- Gas is over 3.00 a gallon almost everywhere

- Home Heating oil is over 3.00 a gallon here in CT

-  People are losing their homes in forclosures in  record numbers because of interest rates and the high cost of living (the number of homeless people is on the rise)

- Our military is overextended ......

but by GOLLY - people, go to sleep tonight and rest comfortably and KNOW that you won't have to sign up every year for the NO CALL list for telemarketers to disturb your evening newscasts, where we can hear more baloney about how great everything is!  They passed a law making the "Do Not Call" list permanent ..... this is our tax dollars hard at work.   Thank you, Congress!  wooHOO!

Now, can you politicians avoid all this bullshit discussion and get SOMETHING SIGNFICANT accomplished for all the big bucks you earn?  We're going broke here trying to pay for health insurance, which you have for the rest of your lives for FREE (off our backs) so how about earning your salaries and benefits and stop screwing around with  BULLSHIT laws?

All too often, we see it in the state legislatures too.  Oooh, lets see .... lets spend precious time discussing and voting on the State bird, or making fois gras (sp?) illegal, or any OTHER thing they can vote on to avoid important issues.

What a waste of time and money.  If we all did our jobs like Congress does theirs, our asses would have been FIRED a long time ago.

I'm disgusted.  Isn't everyone else?

Ok, so I told several people (via bulletin and email) that on Nov. 9th, our almost 19 yr old cat died.  It was an accidental death - I think she would have lived to 25 because she still acted like a kitten. 

So, I got a ton of emails, comments, and messages with condolences, and I thank you all so much.  Plus I heard some great pet stories and some about loss, so in return, I shared a story with a few people that someone said I should post.  So here it is.

This happened several years ago.

I had heard people talk about how animals could be SEEN as spirits, but I always wondered if that was a little much.  Well, while visiting my Mom one evening, maybe a month or so after her cat had died, I was sitting in my usual place in her kitchen - with my back to the pocket door to the living room.  He would always slowly strut through the door towards me with his tail straight up in the air, and come brush around my ankles and I would pet his head and back. 

Well, I was looking AT my Mom, and we were busy yapping away in what I'm sure was a loud conversation, and out of my peripheral vision, I saw him strut up to my leg, and I was so busy chatting, I didn't think anything of it ... and as I chatted, I put my hand down to do what I always did, scratch his head.  And when I didn't FEEL anything, I looked down and GASPED, because I realized I had SEEN him and he really wasn't there physically ... and when I GASPED, I said OMG ...  and my Mother said, you saw him, TOO?  She THOUGHT she saw him but  ... when she realized that I saw him TOO, well, we freaked out.  My sister was sitting opposite me and had NO clue what we were getting so excited about.    

Needless to say, my Mom was SO happy because she knew he was still somehow around.  I wouldn't have believed it, but - we both SAW him!  

Bottom line is ... its nice to know that their little souls DO go on, and come back to visit us, whether we are aware of it or not!   So, if you've lost a pet, are not thinking of him or her, and suddenly your head is filled with thoughts of your pet, chances are, they are somewhere around you and just popping by to visit.  No one can tell me this is not true .... I KNOW what we both saw!

I'd be very interested to know if anyone else has had any experiences with their pets.  Or anything else for that matter.  I go way beyond just pets, but lets comment on just pets for now!  Please feel free to share your story by way of a comment!  Or just comment on what you think of my TRUE story.

- Anne

Ok, so besides Comedy, Roseanne Barr Impersonation, another 4+ yr acting job that I won't elaborate on right now .... I also have been performing in murder mysteries with a great local troupe for about 4+ years now.  We had a gig the night before Halloween wayyyy upstate NY (especially coming from CT) at a college. 

So we're already about 3+ hours into the trip, haven't had a bathroom stop because we're only about a half hour or so away from our venue .... and we're now on a route that has just one lane in either direction, going through small towns and mountains..... when BOOM - a deer jumps into the lane - well, Paul hit the brakes and veered, but still clipped him hard.  I saw the deer body roll like 4 or 5 times down the embankment and disappear into the woods line.  He stopped to inspect the car ... and said the light was smashed, the right front, some of the grill got smashed, but it looked OK to drive.  So, we continued on..... past firehouse, past some small towns, past a smattering of houses ... and the car started acting funny.  We passed one last house and as we went up a long dark incline into the mountains pass .... the tranmission didn't want to go forward ANYmore.  Nope.  That was it.  Great.

So, we slowly rolled backwards into the dark .... until we came to the one house that was on our left ... he parked the car on the side of the road just out of the other travel lane, and two of the guys went to the door.  Because of course, even with 4 major telephone services, not ONE of them had a tower to connect with out there in Bumf**k NY!  (oh ya, its beautiful, but not when its dark, you're stranded, its cold, and nothing's open).

Two of them disappeared - to see if we could get a garage, or a car rental service, or someone at the venue ... and after a good ten minutes or so, I said to the other two in the car ... if they have a dark cellar in there, you know, we're all never going to be seen again.  Then their little girl came out barefoot (and it was cold) with not much clothing on, and she was kind of talking to us, but not really, and it freaked me out.  Then the Mother came out, and it was obvious she didn't get out much, and she freaked me out too.

Finally one of the guys came out and told us we're waiting for the college people to call us back.  I told him I had to P - and he said, oh honey, not in THERE you don't have to!  That was enough for me.  So he disappeared again.  And so we sat.  Until the first 18 wheeler came barreling down that one dark lane towards us ... I almost crapped myself .... I said, OK, "let me OUT of this car - NOW".  NO one else was worried, but I wasn't going to sit there and watch things come down the incline towards me sitting on the wrong side of the road.  Ok, so I'm paranoid, but I wanted to be a living paranoid person!

The only GOOD thing about this was ... when I stepped out of their front porch light and looked up, the Milky Way and in fact the entire sky, was unbelievable clear - I hadn't seen that many stars in ages and ages.

Finally, the college people phoned us back, and arranged to send two cars to pick us and our equipment up.  So, 40 minutes later, we're once again heading to the venue.  When we got there, we were now late already ... but as you know, THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!!   No time for more phone calls, no time to eat what they had out for us (and it was being picked up already by the kitchen help anyway).  I had exactly 5 minutes to P, change into costume, fix makeup and start the show.  At least the students were a lot of fun!  And oh, on the way, when we picked up a phone signal, inquiries were made, and the ONLY place that was open that had cars to rent that time of night was Albany Airport, quite a distance away.  Ok, so we perform - and the college offered to put us up for the night, but we all had places to be and things to do, and the next day was Halloween!

So we do the show, and after the show, with calls made, we finally, FINALLY found some  cab service willing to drive us to Albany Airport.  Well THAT ended up costing like one hundred dollars ... and you would think that the story ends here, right?  What fun would THAT be?

Well.  It just so happened that THAT was the night that security was breached by some guy from JFK - who just waltzed right past security without anyone ever checking him ... no one took his boarding pass .... its like he was a traveling ghost, but they found him somehow sitting on the plane.  So now, the plane of COURSE, was flying into Albany Airport.  Homeland Security, the State Police, TV news stations .... everyone was alerted to this ...and the plane had to be emptied, and EVERYONE had to go through security again .... and this man was taken into custody .... and the airport was ridiculous.  Our airport.  The only place with rental cars.  HA.   And were expecting to just walk in and get a rental car?  Not going to happen.  So when we were finally able to get into the rental car area ... of course, there was no one at the desk.  I walked past the tv cameras to hit the ladies room, and got interviewed by the local TV station about the situation.  That was when we first found out just what the heck was going on.  I told them I can't understand how grandmothers get frisked and this guy (who had a boxcutter or something on him TOO) ... how he just walked on the plane without getting checked.  Something is VERY wrong - but lets not go there right now.

So we FINALLY get a rental car ... drag the equipment we had with us, costumes and go back to where the car should be, but of course its not in its assigned space .... and they guys just kept hitting the door lock thing until they found the car.  When we finally got in it, it was already the wee hours of the morning.  We were already going on like 12 hours of being together already.  Good thing we are a tight group otherwise, we may have had our OWN murder mystery.  So we drove along and decided, we were going to hit the FIRST place that was open that had food because we were all starving by now.  Well, it turned out to be some shitbox place I won't name - ON the highway, with ridiculously overpriced burger and chicken sandwiches and more ... but after so many hours, even THAT crap tasted great.  Then we finally drove home back to New Haven - our meeting point,and when I finally got home, the sun was coming up.  Oh yay.  What a fun gig!

Poor Paul had to take the rental car home, put it on a flatbed hauler, drive the rental car back up to airport to return it, then go pick up his deer-smashed car, then drive home again.  I don't know how he did it.  I was SO done on Halloween day, yet he was driving all day again after just a short nap.  BUT the show had still taken place, and before you know it, we'll be doing another one.  Doesn't it sound glamorous?  Anyone else want to be in entertainment?  Ah, yes ... the stories we can all tell! 

I know its a couple weeks past Halloween, but I wanted to share that its my favorite holiday!  Seriously!  There's no pressure to cook or bake for tons of people or to bring crap to someone else's house .... just go buy some candy, decorate if you choose (of course) and then dress up and get ready to play:  "Scare the kiddies!"  I love it.

I have this horrible CD with sounds of screams, growls, chains dragging, cats yowling, things hissing ..... and I have it playing on a boom box hidden by the front door.  Of course, I'm dressed up always - this year I dressed like a gypsy psychic, which is not an elaborate costume, but I already had it together because I had been playing one in murder mysteries the week before Halloween. (I'm posting another story about one of those trips in the next blog entry).

Anyway, I have a dummy that I've named Ray because he wears my husbands old Letters jacket from High School (good use of crappy old clothes, ladies).  I made him 2 years ago, so this is the 3rd Halloween he has graced our walkway on Halloween.  I plop him on a garden bench at the end of our long walkway towards the front door.  It was a riot to see kids approach the house .... they are listening to the screaming and growls and chains, and then they look up and see this "man" sitting on a bench, with a beer can, candles lit around him, and he's holding a rusty axe in his gloved hands.  They don't know if he's alive or not .... and I could hear kids saying "I don't WANT to go up there Daddy, YOU go first" ... or they'd start crying ... or some would run up and ring the bell and never take their eyes off him - ready to run away.  It was a riot!

I'll post pictures below within the blog if it works - so check down below.  If not, I'll put them in myspace pics after this is finished.

Anyway, as soon as Halloween is over, I put "Ray" the dummy in the back seat of my car, and he accompanies me everywhere.  The cool thing is, not only do I have a passenger if someone's looking, but I also have someone sitting IN my car if its left in a parking space or somewhere - and no one ever touches my car because it looks like there's a crazy man - barely visible through the tinted glass - a crazy man sitting in my back seat!

So, its fun to take him out of the car and scare the kiddies on Halloween!  Lets see if you see the pics - of what approaching kiddies see on Halloween.  Hope you had fun!

- Anne

ps:  so I found out you can't put pics in here, so copy/paste the links below and you'll see "Ray" the dummy.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd244/AnneInCt/General%20Album/DummyRay1.jpg (copy and paste this)

and a closeup:

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd244/AnneInCt/General%20Album/DummyRay3.jpg (not clickable, copy and paste)

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd244/AnneInCt/General%20Album/DummyRay2.jpg copy/paste

Happy Columbus Day - one day late!  Well, thats the  official "holiday", even though the real date isn't for a few days.  And tell me, why doesn't EVERYONE have the day off?  Especially since Columbus is credited with "discovering" this country?  Well, discovering a landmass that was already well-inhabited, I should say.  

The Italian Society in Bridgeport has a fun parade with a very busy lady, Rose, at the helm.  They asked me to be in it again this year, and I was honored!  You can see pics in a new "album" in my PICS.  I got to ride in a beauty of a 1960 Cadillac .... only THIS year, I brought aI huge floor cushion to sit on so my toushie wouldn't hurt like last year!  Yes, I know I have plenty of my own cushioning, but there IS a bone in there!  LOL  It helped when sitting on the hard Cadillac frame!  I had two cuties that were my Becky and Darlene for the day (I named them that because of their hair color).  Its cool to be in a parade with people lining the streets yelling at you - and I was surprised to discover how many people yelled at me that I should have won on the TV show.  Wow.  Hey, why weren't THESE people judges?  Well, chalk it up to home-town loyalty!

So I'm guessing to have some contrast with my "Roseanne" character, they had a couple of Brazilian women dressed (and I use that term loosely) in traditional "Carnivale" costume:  A little piece of buttfloss with beads hanging on it, and bras with beads and sequins .... and oh yes, so as not to appear nude, they had to wrap themselves in a sheer veil that was blowing away from them with the breeze.  OOOOH ya, NOW people can't see their naked asses.  Wow!  Who's solution was that?  That's OK .... its always fun to watch the men in the crowd stare at them with their drooling open mouths and their eyes bulging out of their empty heads!  Even the old crochety men in the crowd stared - and you could almost hear them thinking .... "oh ya..... I remember what that was like!"  HA

There were uniformed men (always nice for the ladies), firemen, marching bands, girl scouts, boy scouts, circus girls and clowns, all the usual parade fun.  But the BEST part was the second part of the day - when the parade ended and Madison Avenue was closed up for a mini-Italian Festival.  Sausage and peppers, cannoli's, pizza fritte, beer ... all the good/bad stuff.  The nice part about festivals is .... all kinds of people blend and are nice to one another instead of being the usual assholes they sometimes are to strangers.

It was a great day for a parade.  And then on to Foxwoods last night to see a great comedy show - "Night of 1000 Guido's" - if this comes to your city, make sure you go to see it!  FUNNY FUNNY stuff!  I'll be posting a few of those pics soon, too.

So what did you do this weekend?

- Anne

Yesterday I danced at my daughter's Wedding!  What a wonderful statement to make!  She was such a beautiful bride smiling with happiness, as was her handsome groom!  Joanna and Danny - beginning their lives as husband and wife on a sunny warm New England day!  

Thursday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner - and when I first saw my husband walk her down the aisle for practice, I lost it.... glad I got all my blubbering done the night before instead of yesterday.  Ray and I have known Danny's parents for years, and we loved their family from way back - who would have thought one day we'd be in-laws?    

And what a dancing crowd!  We had Greeks, Italians, Polish, and more, and we all had one huge party together.  The two Mom's were the first one on the dance floor (of course, after Joanna and Danny's first dance and all the bridal party) and everyone celebrated to the max!   I'll post pictures soon and let everyone know when they can be viewed.  Ray is snoring in our bedroom, my son is snoring in my living room, and the telephone is finally quiet as everyone else is home nursing their sore feet and in some cases, hangovers!   We're all dead tired, but its the best kind of tired! 

Congratulations Joanna and Danny!  May you have long happy lives together!  My heart and soul is filled with joy,  because that's all a parent wants for their children - to see them happy!

Last night I went to Caroline's to see Jeffrey Ross and he was hilarious! (see pic of us in "comments" section that Steven just posted there)  My friend and photographer/assistant Steven, came along with me  - and Miss Anne here did a little too much celebrating!  LOL  It was fun!

 Anyway - lets get on with the story ... I got on one of the late trains back to Conn. and sat in the back end of one of the cars.  I met a FANTASTIC pianist Joe Utterback (I know because he gave me one of his fabulous CDs), a woman from Jamaica, a preacher's wife, and a guy from Little Falls, NY.  Well, Joe asked me what I did, and when I said comic and Roseanne impersonator, one of the guys on the train remembered me from The Next Best Thing, and being in the state I was, I just started started belting out what I thought would be ONLY the first line of the National Anthem.  Well, drunken Mr. Little Falls joined in, then Ms. Jamaica, then the preacher's wife and Dr. Joe the pianist, so we all continued on.  At least another half dozen people all joined us, and here we were on the Metro North to New Haven, almost everyone in the rear of the car, singing at the top of our lungs .... I turned and we could see all the people in the main part of the train car looking forward at us trying to figure out just what the HELL was going ON up there!  HAHAHA  .... it was just GREAT .... and when we finished the entire anthem, we all started clapping and cheering because we all just shared a crazy special two minutes together!  The rest of the train ride to Stamford (where most people got off) was like some kind of private party for all of us!  This craziness couldn't have happened better if it was planned and rehearsed.  What a ride!

And just a little something extra .... last night I said a quick hello to Chris Rock !!  who popped into Carolines to say hello to the comics.  I love popping into NYC - AND the train rides home - you never know whats going to happen.  And oh, while walking along the sidewalks cafes with Steven, I interrupted a private party and started singing to a bunch of foreigners who then offered me their bottle of wine ... and one just CANNOT be RUDE, right?  It sounded like they were speaking French, but they said they were from Tonga I think ... where the hell is Tonga?

And then today my daughter and future son in law, (DAN, what ELSE?) .... took us fishing, and I caught TWO bluefish each about two feet long - WOW - what a fight bringing them in, but it was a perfect day on Long Island Sound.  I haven't fished in years ... I loved it, but I felt terrible for the fish.  Mixed emotions while I ate it.  (don't hate me Kimberly!). 

What a great weekend so far.  Hey everyone, enjoy the holiday weekend!

- Anne