On the train from Boston to New York with a busted computer, but being a multi-device person, i shan't let that slow me down.  Had a lovely weekend with my Mother including a quick dinner with my nephew Zev.  I thought it might be fun to write an ode to Mothers.  Mine is singular.  It is rare for her to do a  typical mother thing, though she did make me lunch for my trip.  this is so unusual we both commented on it.  while she doesn't do mother things, she brings her own unique joy to my world.  she is beautiful at 78 and maintains pretty near her figure.  if you've never met her, you might be interested to know that my mother's beauty is sort of the leading - though hardly the most interesting - thing about her. but when she was younger, she was astoundingly beautiful.  we were all just used to it. you walked down the street with my mother and heads turned.  that was normal.  she was tall - now less tall which i'm not used to - curvy, and always walked fast and gracefully.  she had a beauty routine that fascinated me as a child, though oddly none of us ever emulated. it was her realm. she has gotten quicker, but when i was a girl, she would sit on the bed with a hand mirror and apply mascara for hours.  seriously.  her whole make up application had to be two hours every day. and this was long after being a celebraty - wife of a major league baseball player - had ended.  she just loved being beautiful.  watching her was like watching a foreign creature.  i think i always felt like other, amused, bemused, entertained, for sure, but distant.  I wasn't and would never  be her.  maybe that was good that I felt it so young and didn't try to be.  once when I was in my early 20s i  took a series of pictures to mimic her. i had a photo of her, wide lense, taken by a photographer at fenway park of her and other wives.  she was 24 in the picture but compared to how I looked and dressed at 24, she looked 40 at least. so grown up and glamorous.  so i got make up and made myself up though i barely knew how and got a hat with a veil like hers and had these photos taken. for no reason, just to test.  i went through a heterozexual experimental phase in this period too.  neither the make up nor the heterosex lasted.  territory i needed to explore.  but i was trying to write an ode to mothers.  she is funny.  always made me laugh.  has funny expressions for going to sleep,, for expressing her love which she does readily and easily. she always made me feel loved.   i didn't always have her attention, but i always knew i had her love and settled for that.  she made me to be hers and i always will be.  there sort of is nothing to be done about that.  she is a world class reader.  she reads piles of books at a time.  everything from literary novels to biographies to histories to mysteries.  she likes junky books - unlike me who's motto is  "bad sentence, put book down."  She can read and enjoy anything.  when we were young, she'd come home from the library with five books and my step-dad would say to her, "another month you won't talk to me." Which was never true, but he feared losing her behind those books and she loved to be lost.  she told me only recently that when she was in her 20s she committed to herself that she would read every night before she went to bed.  i love this and wish i had made a similar commitment to myself or that she had shared that with me earlier.  though i inherited her propensity to read.  what else in my ode to my mother.  she was a homemaker until my stepfather's untimely death in her 40s.  she then started a career in the beauty business - naturally.  she first was like one of those people who spritze you at bloomies, but she rose up pretty quickly to become a make up artist and eventually opened her own beauty store in Swampscott, MA  which was hugely successful and much joy and fun for her for years.  My mother has an uncanny abiltity to sell. she can sell anyone anything.  she knows how to talk to people, manipulate, play to them, read them, comfort and surprise them. it is astounding to watch. which reminds me of another one of her skills in my ode. she can match any color without having it with her. say you have a  top and want to match a pant or skirt. she can see the top and go to a store and pick out the color.  any color. i've never seen her fail.  she is also a world class shopper. when i had a job where i needed to dress 5 days a week, i'd go to Boston and into a dressing room at a store - usually one of those discount places - and she would bring stuff in for me to try.  at any marshalls or tjmax, she can reach her hand into a rack that appears to be filled with ugly clothes and pull out something fabulous.   mmmmm.  what are some of my mother's odd gifts?  she is a great friend.  she has friends she has known from high school on through to new friends. friends of every age.  she is great at making a life and has remade hers no less than six times.  she lives right near where she always wanted to live - Beacon Hill - and is active taking classes, going to symphony, theater, opera and other events. she works out regularly. takes impeccable care of her health which i try to follow.  she knows when she wants to do something and when she'd rather be alone to read or watch a movie. she  is an avid movie goer too and has always told me what  I must see from today's movies to  ones from the past.  what else can I say about this exttraordinary woman.  she is good at being content.  She doesn't hang on to regret, apologizes readily and is honest about her feelings.  i always love introducing  her to friends and it is fun to do so here.  hope you  enjoyed meeting her by blog. 

My new website is finally live!  Thanks to the herculean effort of my darling Lynn Seippel.  What a mystery to me - and thankfully not at all to her - the world of domain pointing and site publishing. We had to jump through a few hoops, but now we're live!!!!!

What's up this week - and figure I'll write something about once a week with more frequent updates via Twitter and Facebook - so this week.  Busy! Holiday parties, sometimes multiple per night, wonderful to see everyone and to celebrate the plays we are making and the lives we are living.  And still the making of theater work goes on.  Work session this week with Ariel Aparicio on Lf&Tms. We're gearing up for a reading in March. Digging into the script and music now. The theme of the week is underscoring. The show takes place in real time between rehearsals and performances. So we're figuring out what instrumentation is going since when folks are sitting around with their instruments, they are noodling and working through riffs.  Fun to think through and imagine on our way to our first ever presentation.  We are psyched!  Did I just date myself with that emotion?  Must get moving today....more soon. Love my new website.  oxoo, Andrea