tiny tear

So I’m reprising my role as a wedding singer, this time at the wedding of a dear friend and fellow redhead, Gina Ottoboni Stahl. I’ll just be singing at the ceremony so no Celebration, thank god. Gina and I were driving back from a girl’s getaway in Calistoga and softly weeping as we listened to the tiny tear song that she and her sweet guy Don have chosen. I’m grateful that my heart has had a chance to split wide open so I CAN cry at tiny tear song – that was never my m.o. It’s a blessing to feel things as acutely as I have been of late, even if some of those feelings are pretty rough.

stuffed up

Procrastinating again….or am I? If you are home sick on your day off, what in fact is your obligation vis-à-vis productivity? Perhaps writing a blog is TOO productive! Ahhhh. I feel better. Thanks for listening.

I’ve been sitting around trying to write some sketches for my comedy duo with Gina Ottoboni-Stahl. She’s about to get married and I’m wondering if she’ll re-hyphenate to Gina Ottoboni-Stahl-Ricco. I think she needs to lose at least one name. I like Ottoboni-Ricco, Ottoboni-Stahl ( not taking on her beloved’s name and Gina Ricco-Stahl in that order. You may blog comment your thoughts and I’ll pass them on to her. She’s very thorough though, so the decision has probably already been made and the business cards ordered.

Several of my dearest friends are in the first blushes of true love right now. It’s kind of amazing since there was a time when I was the old married lady listening to the woes of my single friends and now the tables appear to have turned. My friend Ali wrote this poem about her new relationship and it occurred to me that once you’ve been single a long time, getting into a relationship has it’s own set of perils and pitfalls. When you’re young, you dive into a person without thought about how much cold or depth you’ll be confronting and sometimes you belly flop. When you’re older you KNOW FOR A FACT that you aren’t going to live happily ever after so you go in gently, tenderly – dipping your toe in the water then pulling it back out quickly. There’s a lot to recommend being alone so there’s a loss as well as a tremendous gain when you find that person.

I think if I keep typing then something good will start to spill out that I can use for a scene in a play, a sketch, a screenplay. You can stop reading if you want since this is apparently just a writing exercise I’m doing. I have all of these half written projects that I WILL complete by the end of the year, by god but it doesn’t seem like right now is when that is going to happen. I think if I keep writing eventually something will be good.

I’m working on this sketch in which Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and perhaps Richard Pryor are being held prisoner in the body of a middle-aged white woman but no one believes them. They can ask for help, do bits of their routine, but when people listen to them, all they see is red hair, freckles and no pigment.

I miss my friend Kim. She is a great person to bounce writing ideas off of, but she moved to Arizona, the beast. How could she do that to me? Thankfully my writing group will be reassembling in June and I’ll be reunited with some other truly great women who write.

I also want Gina and I to interview men in the audience to be prospective boyfriends but make it a really tough interview ( “What makes you feel you’re qualified to be my boyfriend?”)

If I can beat my cold, Gina and I will be heading off to Calistoga to write without distractions. I love what a bad influence she is on me. I’d go to a spartan cabin somewhere with no wireless connection and no TV and cook my can of beans over the hotplate. Gina made us mud bath and massage reservations. Mmmmmm mud bath.

Is this the most boring blog I’ve ever written?

Yes.