Ready to Take a Chance Again

OMG, what the hell happened to you????

Well...  life happened.

At the beginning of August, we come home from a visit with relatives and the first thing my husband does is rip the living shit out of his Achilles tendon.  To this day, we still don't know how.  Officially he was wrestling an alligator but all I saw him do was take suitcases out of the car.  At least it didn't happen while he was on the beach.  Pete was hobbling around for months in a walking cast, bitching every limp of the way through PT.  At least we didn't need a surgeon to go in with knitting needles to repair it.

August is also the start of school in our neck of the woods.  TOLF started Kindergarten!  She's in a private school so my minivan had to get used to a new routine.  Carpool/dropoff starts at 7 AM.  Too bad I don't wake up until 7:30, earliest.  ;-)  Lots of work helping with homework and room volunteering and other activities.

Right after Kindergarten starts, is preschool for TNLF.  Mom's taxi has overlapping routes now.  She loves it, has a wonderful time, is learning her colors and numbers, and by the time she comes home she's too tired to pee.  (To review, this was the child who was conceived right before my Vegas trip back in 2008.)

The baby is bound and determined to get by on his looks so he refuses to walk - just gives you a big smile and bats the big blue eyes and expects you to pick him up and carry him.

Just when we thought everything was under control, everyone started getting sick.  Right around Halloween through the end of the year, a week didn't go by where someone wasn't in the ER or urgent care with something.  The baby's turn was on Thanksgiving day.  I got the meal ready, turned the gravy-making over to my mom and ran the little guy down to the chidrens' ER.  Poor little guy had green stuff dripping everywhere.  Thankfully it was only a cold but easily the worst I've ever seen.

Long story short, in December an ENT decides that Pete needs his tonsils out.  Looks like he was Typhoid Mary for the family - his infection was the reason we were all sick.  First order of business after New Years' was surgery.  First time in general anesthesia.  Woke up looking like he got hit with a hammer.  Two weeks of a tough recovery but he's glad he did it.  Ever since, colds have been few, minor and last only a couple of days - for all 5 of us.

Last but certainly not least, my mom is at an age where hip breaking happens.  She fell - in a doctor's office of all places - and you could hear the crack 10 feet away.  Their rural home is closest to Bumblefuck General Hospital so IMHO, she didn't get the best care in the world.  Being made to wait a day and a half to get the bones pinned together was bad enough.  But then she woke up during the procedure.  Claims she didn't feel any pain but could describe in detail how the surgeon was installing the pin in her femur and how the retractors holding the wound open felt like a web.  She had nightmares for a couple of days.  So did I!

Mom has been having some good rehab (not at Bumblefuck but at a real PT center) and was sprung the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Yes she spent Christmas in a rehab center but she's just glad to feel better and stronger now that some hardware is holding her bones together.

This week is literally the first time in MONTHS that I've had a chance to breathe and even think for a time about anything not directly related to my job or caring for my family.

So combine that with work picking up (yea!  paychecks!) there's not much time to blog on all things Manilow.  I kept on top of things by reading on my iPhone when I could.  When I'm camped out at my desk working Radio Manilow is on.  BTW, Barry, thank you for getting rid of the abbadaba monkey song.  I was going to walk to PS and delete it from your system myself if I heard that One. More. Time!

I also listened to all the stories about the close of Barry's show at the Paris.  I understood the sense that an "era" was ending.  But since I had only made one Vegas trip, it was hard to be that nostalgic myself.  That trip was what I needed, when I needed it, but wasn't a regular part of my life.

When I first started this blog, I talked about how Barry's music was put away for a while as other priorities came up, but it was something that was always there, that you could always turn back to when you need it.  It's even more true now.  Random vignettes on Radio Manilow are always a welcome relief and 15 Minutes is permanently installed in my car CD player for those rare times when the kids aren't with me.

Barry - for the love of God, take care of yourself and give your body time to heal after surgery.  Believe me I understand how much work it is (read above).  No one is going to be impressed if you kill yourself trying to recover faster.  There's no shame in taking the time it takes.  Hold off on the scheduling until you're back to 100%, OK?  Stressing yourself out only makes it worse.

But once you are recovered, make sure you keep that Atlanta date.  I'll find a way to get down front to see the show again.  Thanks for trying to get back here.  I can't believe it's been four years already!

Oops - someone needs her homework checked and I have to finish a contract for a new job.  Maybe I'll find time to catch up with ManilowTV this weekend.

Barry partners with Sanofi Aventis on Atrial Fibrillation Awareness

A few months ago I was asked by Sanofi US to help them make the public more aware of the dangers of a serious heart disease called atrial fibrillation, or AFib. AFib is a type of irregular heartbeat that causes your heart to race and beat out of rhythm. I was happy to do this since I’ve had this disease for the past 15 years.

When I get an episode of atrial fibrillation, it feels like my heart is skipping a beat and if I don’t treat it, it gets nuts! My heart starts to beat real fast. Man, I feel like I’ve got a flounder in my chest! Crazy!

Very scary. And very dangerous if you don’t work with your doctor to manage it.

Many people ignore the symptoms, but being out of rhythm with AFib can cause really serious problems like permanent heart damage.

I’m really honored to have been asked to make the more public aware of this serious heart disease.

You’ll be hearing about my involvement in this real soon, but I wanted you all to know that I am in great shape and for all of you not to worry about me. I work with my doctor to take care of my AFib and I lead an active life.

I want to make others more aware of AFib and the importance of getting back in rhythm.

Check out www.GetBackInRhythm.com to learn more about the campaign!

Love from my heart,

Barry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm giving this one an online Standing-O.

Sanofi - Aventis is a phramaceutical firm that I had the priviledge of working with "back in the day" when I was drawing a regular salary.  They have invented a number of drugs, both OTC and prescription including anti-allergy, treatment of auto-immune disorders, long-acting insulins for both types of diabetes, chemotherapy, and, as Barry's note indicates, heart conditions including atrial fibrillation. 

I see a lot of people in entertainment try to get involved in advocacy for a health cause because they experienced it themselves.  One of the earliest posts on this blog 3 (!!!) years ago was about my first "Hollywood Party" held in Beverly Hills - a fundraiser for an advocacy group.  There are two kinds of these groups:  the completely grass-roots type by well-meaning individuals who have had their lives changed but don't have a whole lot of knowledge on their subject and tend to go off the rails once in a while; and the individuals who want to organize, but at the same time know what they don't know and surround themselves with advisors who are true experts.  Barry seems to be leaning toward the latter:  Sanofi is a legitimate expert on the subject of AF and the information they produce is going to be solid enough to stake your life on.

Way to go, Barry!  Good choices and commitments all around on this one!

We Live On Borrowed Time

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, folks.  I haven't gone anywhere.  School starts in early August here and work picked up.  (Which means I can pay bills and tuition.)

Barry, I just heard.
I am so sorry.
You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

YBA

Barry Song Journal on YouTube #2

Great to see another episode, gang!
So how about bringing back Episode 1?  There was nothing wrong with that, 'K?

(And no, it is NOT "almost rap".  Hush.  Now.  Really.)

Winner Go Down - Amy Winehouse Dead at 27

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/stopthepresses/392228/police-singer-amy-winehouse-dies-at-age-27/

This is going to strike a chord with anyone even remotely familiar with Barry's record.  Winehouse was mentioned briefly in "Winner Go Down".  Although I don't think anyone "loved" to see this news.  On the contrary, I think everyone familiar with her was rooting for her to have a positive, happy ending, just like "Everything's Gonna Be Alright".  It would have been a welcome change from watching one tragedy after another in the entertainment news.

From the article above:

Winehouse shot to fame in 2006 with the album "Back to Black," whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse - with her black beehive hairdoand old-fashioned sailor tattoos - one of music's most recognizable stars. But her personal life, with its drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders and destructive relationships, soon took over her career..

I've heard the story a million times but I'm always still amazed when the "fame" story always follows the same plot, block by block, just like a macabre comic book graphic novel.  Doesn't matter who the star is.

Last month, Winehouse canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Booed and jeered off stage, she flew home and her management said she would take time off to recover.

Even Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew would have been a better outcome.  At least those souls have a chance.

"I didn't go out looking to be famous," Winehouse told the Associated Press when "Back to Black" was released. "I'm just a musician.".

Now this is a departure.  But it still sounds familiar.  Right, Barry?

But in the end, the music was overshadowed by fame, and by Winehouse's demons. Tabloids lapped up the erratic stage appearances, drunken fights, stints in hospital and rehab clinics. Performances became shambling, stumbling train wrecks, watched around the world on the Internet.

The "Trainwreck" mention is too obvious.

She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication.

That explains almost everything.  From what I understand from people in the field, the sense of "ten feet tall an bulletproof" - the feeling that you dont' need your medication anymore when you reach a high point, is actually a symptom of the disease.  Ironic - and deadly - as hell.

I think Barry and Enoch are wrong in "Winner Go Down".  "They" (however you define it) don't "love to see" this.  It's horrible to watch.  Even for the seeming vultures in the media reporting the info because deep down they know, if not for the Grace of God (or whatever deity you acknowledge) it can happen to anyone.

Rest in peace, Amy.