SUPERSTAR

When I was in junior high, I saw Beaches, a film that really thrust Bette Midler into my (and many others) world. To say that I was obsessed was an understatement. I was completely consumed by everything about the heartbreaking lifelong friendship between C.C. Bloom & Hillary Whitney. To date, I don't know how many times I've actually seen the film or read the novel by Iris Rainer Dart. What I loved so much about the film was the story about a lifelong friendship, the music and mostly Bette Midler. She had an amazing voice that I could totally sing-a-long with (and boy, did I ever)! Prior to my introduction to her, I had no idea who she was or what she was known for and when I read about it at that young age, I don't know how much I truly understood (or even cared).

Beaches really opened a whole new world for me in terms of what I thought I wanted to make of my professional life. After handwriting my version of the sequel to the novel (at something like 173 pages...yes, I'm admitting this with an ounce of embarrassment) I wanted to become a novelist or a screenwriter (and I really explored these venues going as far as interviewing actual screenwriters as a junior high student)! Then after singing the entire soundtrack for months on-end, I realized I didn't have an awful singing voice and contemplated my future as a singer. Its funny the endless list of things you truly believe you can accomplish at that age! Yet because of Beaches I had this belief that I could accomplish all of these things.


Suffice it to say, I hold Bette Midler in very high esteem and a special place in my heart. Last week I finally made it to Vegas to see Bette Midler's critically acclaimed Vegas show, The Showgirl Must Go On and it was a-mazing! One of the items on my proverbial "bucket list" has been to see Bette...live. I am so grateful that I was able to do so and with one of my very best friends in the world (who had the same item on his "bucket list"). It was as if the stars aligned because we had the best seats ever (upgraded from mid-mezzanine to 3rd row). Bette and her Harlettes were so entertaining and to hear her sing live was incredible because still she sounds so amazing! My only complaint is that the show was too short, but I couldn't really complain because she barely ever left the stage. It was hit after hit, entertainment to the nth degree. What a night, what a weekend!!!

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A FRIEND

I know I am a big blog neglecter, when I log into blogger and realize that this post (written in March!!!) was in draft mode, when really all I should have done was to proof it before hitting "publish post" and never did! Yikes!!!


"And if your heart is always breaking
Cos the world is just not fair
When you're at your worst
Your friend is the first one there
Giving you something to lean on
And that's it means to be a friend."

I went to see the premiere of JRB's new musical, "13" at the Music Center a few months ago. Other than reminiscing about my own sensitive teenage years, one of the things this show did for me was remind me how important good friends are. As I sat in the darkened theatre with my favorite theatre pal (Tianyi of course), and heard the incredible voice of the young actress sing, "What It Means to Be A Friend," all I could think about was how lucky I was to have such good ones, particularly the one sitting next to me. I also know that it wasn't just "luck" that we were randomly paired up as roommates in college.

Friends are a dime a dozen, but finding a good friend, a real friend, a true friend is much harder to do. I've seen examples of great friends and not so great friends lately. Its the great friends, the people who really care are the ones that give me a little bit of hope in humanity. Quite a statement yes, but really one that gives me hope and encouragement in my own life.

Friends are great to laugh with and scheme...talk about silly things. When it comes to life and things that really matter, a true friend will always be there. A true friend though cares about your well being and says the things nobody else can. A true friend cares about your heart and soul not just about having a good time and superficial nonesense. I love my friends dearly and feel truly blessed to have such great people in my life.

Ok, so that's where the original post ends and my P.S. follows below:

I was actually supposed to review "13" but I just couldn't bear to because it really wasn't so great and bashing my favorite modern composer is something that even I didn't have the heart to do. I was emotion-less pretty much through the entire show until "What It Means To Be A Friend" was performed. I am a pretty emotional person so it doesn't take that much to make me cry. So when I heard this song, I understood that sure, I'm not 13, but really, no matter how old we are, we obviously all need a friend.

Complete lyrics to the song by JRB (click on the link and listen to it too!):

What It Means To Be A Friend (from 13)
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
©2007 Semolina Farfalle Music Co. (ASCAP) All rights reserved.

A FRIEND’S NOT A CHEAP LITTLE PHONY CREEP
OR A JERK TRYING TO MAKE A DEAL.
A FRIEND IS A PERSON WHO, MOST OF ALL,
CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU FEEL;
AND NOTHING IS HARDER
THAN LEARNING A FRIEND ISN’T REAL.

A FRIEND SENDS NOTES BACK AND FORTH ALL DAY
AND DOESN’T CARE THAT YOU CAN’T SPELL.
A FRIEND KNOWS YOU’VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOUR TEACHER,
BUT A FRIEND WOULD NEVER TELL.
A FRIEND’S OUTSIDE WAITING
THE MINUTE YOU BOTH HEAR THE BELL…

AND IF YOUR HEART IS ALWAYS BREAKING
‘CAUSE THE WORLD IS JUST NOT FAIR,
WHEN YOU’RE AT YOUR WORST,
YOUR FRIEND’S THE FIRST ONE THERE,
GIVING YOU SOMETHING TO LEAN ON –
AND THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A FRIEND.

A FRIEND WON’T SMOKE WHEN SHE’S IN YOUR ROOM
OR LAUGH AT THE POEMS YOU WRITE.
A FRIEND WON’T GO AND START KISSING YOUR BROTHER
THE MINUTE THAT YOU’RE OUT OF SIGHT.
A FRIEND IS THE PERSON
YOU CALL SIXTEEN TIMES EV’RY NIGHT…

AND IF YOUR HEART IS ALWAYS BREAKING,
AND YOU WANT TO RUN AND HIDE,
WHEN YOUR HOPE IS GONE,
YOUR FRIEND IS ON YOUR SIDE.
IF SOMEONE MOVES IN ‘ROUND THE CORNER
AND YOU WANT TO SHOW HIM YOU CARE,
SO YOU GIVE HIM ALL YOUR LAST MONTH OF VACATION
AND ALL OF THE TIME YOU CAN SPARE,
AND THEN, ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES,
HE ACTS LIKE YOU’RE NOT EVEN THERE,
THEN HE DOESN’T KNOW…
HE DOESN’T KNOW!
HE’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE
A FRIEND.

BOOKS

It figures that a freakin' survey (thanks, Maureen) would get me a bloggin' (sorta) again. If you want me to blog...send me a survery...I'm bound to do it 9.5 out of 10 times! :) By the way, "Books" isn't a song title from a musical, but I'm too lazy to think of one that fits.

One book that changed your life: Its not just ONE, but The Little House on the Prairie series were the first set of books that got me excited to read and learn and imagie. I believe I was 7 (maybe 8) when I first begged my parents to buy them for me while we were on vacation.

One book that you've read more than once: Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone...it is the story of a young girl's experience during the Japanese internment camps during World War II. All of these books about the Japanese internment gives me a better idea of what it was like for my relatives.

One book that you'd want on a desert island: Good grief, I don't know! If I were on a deserted island, I don't think I'd want to read...just find a way off!

One book that made you laugh: How boring am I...I don't think I've read a funny book in so long that I can't even remember! What I read is far too tragic and serious!

One book that made you cry: Angel Pawprints. This collection of stories and poetry was given to me by my vet the day we put Miss Cookie Miyuki down. Everytime I read it, I just sob.

One book that you wish had been written: Someday, I will finish the story of my grandparents' lives together...its the story I've always known I was meant to write.

One book you wish had never been written: Its a vanity series written by someone I wish I never knew.

One book you are currently reading: "The Year Of Magical Thinking" by Joan Diddion. One moment, Diddion and her husband come home from visiting their young daughter in the hospital (who was lying in a coma) and then next thing she knew, her husband has a massive heart attack and dies. How she makes sense of the year after...well, I haven't gotten that far yet, but it chronicles her thought process. So far, very interesting...very sad.

One book you've been meaning to read: Like Maureen, I've been meaning to read Les Miz for a long time. Acutally, I've been on page 22 for the last fourteen years, so maybe I'm not trying that hard!

SOMETHING GOOD

Wow, so I've had this blog for what, 4 years in which time my friends have read but really never commented on this thing. Within days, I'm noticing my friends are not only reading, but commenting on this blog...by choice! Hmmm, either I'm getting more interesting or the subliminal messages here are working!

LIKE IT WAS

I will admit that change is good (most of the time). Today though was just too much for me at once. My friend and I decided to go to our favorite local (non-Starbucks) coffee house to unwind after work. Said coffee house used to be a regular hang out of mine when it was literally my neighborhood coffee spot (now, it's a few miles away). It has been a few months since I've been there because things have been so insanely crazy as of late. Last time I was there, they had remodeled part of the counter/kitchen-employee area and moved the cream and sugar area outside. So, coming in tonite, seeing this change wasn't a big deal. But behind the counter, were COMPLETE strangers! In my heyday, I had befriended the folks behind the counter -- we hung out before, chatted, joked around -- all good times. For obvious reasons, I looked forward to going to said coffee shop because in addition to just being a cool, fun place to go, I had friends who worked there. Right, so back to my discovery...

I walk in, and instead of being the two cool guys I used to look forward to giving a hard time and chatting with, there were three new people (did I come on their off day? Still, I knew everyone who worked there, and I didn't know these people). In addition to new people, I look in the dessert case and there are also new cakes going on! What!? The one cake my friend had been talking about for months (Pistachio cake -- really good) that this place only had once as a "trial cake" is now in the case as a "regular" (or so I think). While this is great news for my friend, it just adds to this whole change in the evening. New cake, new people...see what I mean?! :)

Ok, so we're sitting, talking...feeling so weird that our pals aren't around and wondering what was going on, when we hear that they're no longer working at the coffee house! This is even more disturbing! Have I been gone that long? Apparently so. One has found a new job and the other is just bumming around doing something or another. So in addition to being wired (because we think we were given fully caffeinated coffee instead of decaf) we are sitting there tonite...surprised and slightly baffled that so much time has gone by and we missed our friends' departure. Going to the coffee house won't be the same now.

This gets even better. My friend's friend lives down the street from the coffee house, so we decide to walk over and say hi. We ring the doorbell and over the intercom, we hear an unfamiliar voice. Looking at each other, we wonder if we got the wrong door. At the point where my friend is about to ring the next door neighbor's doorbell, the first door opens and some guy who isn't my friend's friend comes out. We both look confused. I wonder who this dude is. Half drunk, this guy asks if his party was too loud (what party? All I see is darkness and hear women's voices in the background. Yeah, no thanks, not my kind of party) and then asks who we are and tells us he just moved in a few weeks ago. We explain and then he gives us both hugs (I told you he was drunk) and mumbles his name. Nice. He asks us to come in for drinks. We both politely decline...several times. The guy looks insulted and asks again if we're sure as he walks back into his place shocked that we turned him down. My friend and I walk away doubled over in laughter at what happened and confused as to this new dude.

Riiiiight, so in conclusion...change is fine, when it doesn't completely screw with your head. The change at the coffee house was one thing -- manageable and really not a big deal at all, just unexpected. If you top that though, with the weird guy living in my friend's friend's place (with said friend's friend nowhere to be found), well that's just baffling. Mind you, said friend's friend has two places in LA and lives more consistently at the other place, but still...it is a bit weird nobody knew about said friend's friend moving until we knocked on the door. Said friend's friend also speaks often with my friend, so it's not as if they never talk or see each other. Weird says I. Or weirder still is that I used the phrase "said friend's friend" as often as possible because it amused me. See, I said I was wired from the coffee!!!!

Tuesday was an awful day. Well, it started off horribly and ended on an up note.

When I woke up, everything was normal...except I had to spend the next 30 minutes on the phone (which is too much phone time for me 1st thing in the morning). People called, I called people, things were said, things weren't said (don't you love how I'm being so vague?) etc., etc. By 10:30 AM (an hour after I got up) I was already exhausted and I hadn't even been out of bed yet. Since I hadn't been able to work out the previous week, I forced myself to get on the treadmill and jog...but I couldn't, I was only able to do half my normal workout routine.

I was meeting Jody & Jamie for lunch that afternoon and on my way there, I got cut off by 3 idiot drivers who decided to make abrupt illegal u-turns in the middle of the street. Lovely, no? No. Luckily, the restaurant we went to had my kind of iced tea (HUGE glasses, like 32 oz) which of course made me feel much better.

After lunch, I had errands to run, but decided to go home first since the one and a half glasses of iced tea I had were finally catching up with me. I wasn't able to run my errands cos of a string of frustrating phone calls...which gave me just enough time to drive back to Jody's (we were going to see In the Bedroom). Please keep in mind that it normally takes me 10-15 minutes (at most) to drive from my place to his...but this time, it took me 25 minutes because some idiot decided to make an illegal left turn at the corner of Laurel Cyn and Moorpark and crashed into on-coming traffic. So with lookiloos and all, it took forever to cross the intersection.

I warn you all, if you want to keep your sanity while watching a movie, do not go to Burbank to see a movie during the matinee times...it's SO awful. I have nothing against the elderly, I love the elderly, I think they are wonderful people...I have a special place in my heart for them...just not the ones in Burbank. You know, if you're going to see a movie (in a public place) generally, you just don't talk (unless of course, you are the only one in the theater). I'd say a good 85% of the In the Bedroom going crowd that afternoon in theater #4, wanted nothing more than to TALK throughout the entire movie. Actually, these people were polite and didn't say a word during the previews, but as soon as the movie started, all one could hear were people whispering...in front of us, to the left of us, behind us. Then, the sound of candy being unwrapped...people blowing their noses...LOUDLY, FREQUENTLY...then more talking (as it got louder, and louder). Other people shushed the annoying whisperers, but apparently they didn't hear the shushing because they were so loud. Both Jody and I were about to loose our minds, it was awful. He shushed, I shushed, others shushed, other people left...but nothing. I finally got so frustrated, I left the theater and asked for a manager (waiting for her took a good 10 minutes). When she finally arrived, she apologized and said an usher would be sent in to monitor the situation. What a joke.

I got back in the theater to more talking, then it stopped as soon as the usher walked through the theater doors. It's not like these people could see the usher, but for some strange reason, the noise stopped when the usher appeared. Then, the usher began jingling his keys/coins (we were sitting in the back, so we could see and hear this going on) and left after "monitoring" for no more than 3 minutes. As soon as he left, the chit-chatting began again. By this time, the movie was more than half over and I was annoyed and couldn't even enjoy or get into the story. The usher checked back a few more times, and each time, the chatter stopped just before he came in and started up as soon as he left. Both Jody and I were ready to hurl mini Mrs. Fields cookies at these people who were not only talking but making vile noises with their noses and throats. At a pivotal point in the movie (when there should have been total silence, I hear more whispering and more talking), I was serioiusly ready to just leave and demand my money back. But instead, we stayed. When the movie finally ended, one of the annoying women said, "oh, the movie's over." NO DUH SHERLOCK! Ugh. Ok, it was beyond awful.

On the way home, every slow, bad driver was on either Hollywood Way or Magnolia in Burbank...and I thought I was going to have a breakdown, I was still reeling from the idiots in the theater.

Luckily, I was meeting another friend for dinner and drinks at my favorite place, Lola's. I was too wound up I think in the beginning to have an intelligent conversation or think for that matter, but as the evening progressed, all was good again. I tried a new martini, the pear, but it wasn't so good (even though I really wanted my favorite, the Key Lime martini). It didn't taste like pear, it didn't taste like much of anything, but for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel good after drinking the martini. I felt like my breathing was slightly labored...but after a few hours, it went away.

When I got home, I began to think about life...and I wonder what I'm doing. I think I'm too happy not working, feeling like I finally have a life again. Of course it can't stay that way forever, and I know at some point I'll want to get up and do something productive...but right now, I'm happy just being. Actually, I don't know what I want to do, and I'm not really in any rush to figure it out (although I figure I should be). Ugh...I don't know. "Get a job," says one friend, and I know I should (if I could) but I don't want to. When I quit my last job, I WANTED a new job, I wanted to do something productive almost immediately...I felt it & I needed it. But now, I just don't...I know there's something out there for me, once I finally get it together and figure out exactly what I want to do. **sigh** Here's my current fantasy:

I just want a house. Anyone donating?

I am officially exhausted! It's late Saturday night (or Sunday morning depending on how you look at it) and you'd think I'd be going to sleep being as exhausted as I am. I spent the the day with Carol and her bridal party and we shopped for shoes and jewelry for her upcoming July 2002 nuptuals. We had great fun, ate lots of food and spent LOTS of money. After a day full of shopping (which began at 11 AM), we went out to dinner and came back to my place played games, drank some plum wine took silly pictures and watched movies while folding origami cranes - in Japanese tradition, 1,000 cranes signifies good luck, thus Carol's including it in her wedding **interesting side note: my middle name, also has some kind of 1,000 crane meaning**.