Is work supposed to be THIS much fun?

Just spent a fantastic evening at work. On a Sunday night. We were putting to air a pilot program called This is Your Life (sort of) based on the live show.

Live improvised theatre on radio. Yes!

Scary unknown, seat of your pants, fly or die trying radio. Yes!

This is what I signed up for. And parts of it were even funny. :)

Michael Tolliver Lives

By Armistead Maupin.

Of course I’ve just been to his lecture so I’m in the mood to read his words with rose coloured glasses on… if you like his Tales series - you’ll love this too.

We pick up the story - now in first person - with Michael Tolliver now aged 55. You might remember when we last left him he was dying of AIDS. He survived and is now married to Ben. I’m never quite sure how autobiographical these novels are - many of the anecdotes certainly are as I found out at the lecture. Suffice to say he’s now married too but not at City Hall… he went to Vancouver for his wedding.

It’s a story about fatherhood, about forgiveness v acceptance, about secrets and how they shape our behaviour, about loyalty.

It is an easy read - unless you’re completely homophobic and can’t handle gay sex scenes - then it might be a little confronting. And charming.

Armistead said his next book will feature Mary Ann’s tale - I can’t wait.

A sneaky way to find out who you are

Meg from Blogpond’s post Bloggers Beware! Your Privacy Might be at Risk is a must read. And if it turns out your privacy is not exposed for the entire cyberworld - then you can feel the relief I felt.

:)

A plague of blow flies

Where did they come from? Why are they here? On my TV, on my computer screen, everywhere. It’s cold for crying out loud! Too early for flies! And they are only inside. I blame the lillies.

Groover reckons we’ve got a dead rat.

Even Idol fans will love this…

And if you don’t love Idol… heaven!

(it’s not very kind to Idol but…)

The virtue of Kindness

I don’t think I’ve been very kind lately.  Not to myself, not to my colleagues, not to my husband and not to my kids.

I don’t think I’ve been that horrible… I don’t think I’ve been an ogre… but I don’t feel as if I’ve been kind.  And we need to be kind don’t we?  Kindness is important.

So what does Kindness mean?

Does it mean not pushing your kids when you know they are feeling a bit vulnerable?  Does it mean letting your husband relax rather than nag him to clean up when it’s his turn?  Does it mean not working back so you don’t resent working?  To get enough sleep so that your decisions at work are governed by fairness not tiredness?  Does it mean getting home on time to cook pancakes with your daughter?  Does it mean spending money on getting help so your kids have more support and you don’t stress about what to do for dinner?  Does it mean working less?  Doing (any) exercise?  Not drinking?

Does it mean just taking a deep breath and thinking “kindness first” before you say a word?

I don’t know, but for the next week, that is what I’m going to try.  Decisions based on kindness first.

One degree of separation from Armistead Maupin

I’m a Maupin groupie. I went to his talk, bought the book, and got him to sign it tonight. And, it turns out he had a fling with a fellow I used to work with. Small world huh?

The talk was at the Octogon Theatre - part of University Extension - and I found out about it from the fabulous Carol who emailed me off-blog to urge me to go. She had seen him in Sydney and knew me as a fan.

It was rather formal - as Uni Ext things can be - he read an excerpt from his latest book “Michael Tolliver Lives” - pages 33-39 at a lecturn and then sat down opposite someone called Lenore. I didn’t really get “who” she was but I guess she might have been an academic sort from Sydney - very possibly gay - not that I have a reliable gay-dar - in fact most unreliable going on past form…Anyway she then sat down and “kind of” interviewed Armistead. A conversation she called it.

I’m not sure whether I would have just preferred to hear Armistead speak… but she did make some great points and observations too. Armistead is quite the performer and used her pauses to jump in with some hilarious anecdotes… like the one about the Cinna Buns - it’s in the book and a true story apparently - you must read it.

I was sitting next to three ladies from a book club - the one right next to me had never read his books so I lent her my new copy of his latest to read a couple of pages. She might have been 60 and I was interested to see her reaction to the allusion to gay sex on page 2. She coped well. :) I figured she would probably enjoy the talk.

It was great to see the author of “Mona’s Law” (you can have a great apartment, a great lover and a great job but not all three at the same time), engaging with his audience. He even introduced his husband - watching from the front row. And he spoke very tenderly of Laura Linney who played Mary-Ann Singleton in the TV series…I’m going to buy the DVDs on the strength of his talk tonight.

Perhaps what sticks with me most now - and that which (apparently - I haven’t read it yet) shines through the book - is his attitude to monogamy. Armistead said he could never understand couples who split over one partner having a roll in the hay. For him that indicates that Love doesn’t come first in the relationship. And when you put sex over love - what kind of relationship is that?

He also said that having a relationship where you can have sex outside of the relationship means you must have love and trust first. Many straight women have said that they could never tolerate that in a marriage… and he quite understands. Their married to men after all and he knows what men are like! I guess it’s somehow more “equal” in a gay relationship… I think that was his point. :)

Afterwards I queued up to have my new book signed along with a hundred other excited fans… and I met a friend of mine who says she must have bought the Tales series about 3 times and given them to friends who are in the process of coming out. She said that she never expects them back…

Extending Family

I went out to dinner last night with my parents for Dad’s birthday.  (Galliano’s in Shenton Park - very nice by the way) 

Groover and I, Mum and Dad and three couples - all old family friends. One from Dad’s uni days, another from Mum’s, and another couple who have shared Christmas with us for the past 30 years or so.

The food was good, the company great - comfortable, funny, full of in-jokes and shared experiences.  And I sat there and thought how lucky they all were to have each other (still together as couples and as friends) and this great friendship that has lasted in some cases nearly half a century. And how lucky I was to have this fantastic extended family.

So I’m warning you my friends that I am carefully cultivating you so that when I’m 69 I can have a dinner party with my extended family! Put the year 2035 in your diaries now.

Of course I say this with a heavy heart as HP won’t be there.  We played Mah Jong with the kids the other night and I found the scoresheets from the last couple of times we played with H&J.  We always left the scoring to H because he was so good at maths and it was pretty complicated. Do you ever stop grieving?

Singing in their sleep

I was walking back to my car after a late bridge session the other night and heard a bird singing and it reminded me of a story I’d read about seven years ago about birds practicing their singing in their sleep.

I’ve always loved that thought.

I wondered if it was just one of those made up urban myths so I did a little research tonight and discovered that indeed, it’s true! The BBC said so, so it must be!

The world can’t be too bad if birds are singing in their sleep.

Loving the blogging carnival

Who knew that hosting a blogging carnival could be such fun?! I’ve loved exploring all the posts and reading all your comments. I want to do it again! And will definitely submit an article to the next one…

Submit your blog article to the next edition of All Women blogging carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

And maybe even join in the Carnival of Australia.

You know me… nothing exceeds like excess!

And besides it will help take my mind off the Lana decision. Sure she wasn’t the best Idol in the competition but she was better than Marty. Yes she sure was!

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