Monday Night, June 9, 2008

I tell you this: you are your own rule-maker. You set the guidelines. And you decide how well you have done; how well you are doing. Meditations from Conversations with God, Book 1., Page 41

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Hi y'all, how the hell are ya. Well, I think I'm back to just being me. Had a decent weekend. Did dinner with Daave and Rick and then the Lambda speaker meeting on Saturday night. Yesterday I went to the Angelika Theatre in downtown Houston to see Flawless with Michael Caine and Demi Moore. Quite a fun movie. Yesterday was also the first Sunday since last March that I did not spend the day with my friend Joe. He was invited over to dinner with some other friends and he accepted. I am so glad he did this, we have all been concerned that he just might start isolating. This coming Sunday, Joe and I have planned to go to an Antique Show in Navasota I think or at least out that direction.

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Week before last I mentioned that I wanted to do a post on the Wit and Wisdom of Mae West. I can't find the frigging book. I know I still have it. I have everything hers that I can get my hands on. My dining room is decorated with Mae West Posters, personally autographed glossies. I think she was a woman way ahead of her time. She was a good friend of one of my Mother's friends. And when Mae came to Houston with her act to the Shamrock Hotel in the 50's, Aunt Julie and she would get in a good visit. They both had suites at the Shamrock. Of course I was just a little boy and all I knew about Mae West was that the life vest used by boaters in the 40's and 50's were called Mae Wests. I had no idea it was because of her ample bosoms. Oh, to have that innocence again. I think. Aunt Julie died in September of 1957 when she was fell under her Lincoln Premiere and was pinned under it. She was dead when they found her the next morning. Now she was not really my aunt, but it was not uncommon back then for parents best friends to be called aunt or uncle.

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Aunt Julie had money. Lots of it. One time she took a cruise on the Queen Mary around the world in about 1950. She was having a house built on her property on Old River in Channelview. She told the builder to build the house within the boundaries of a group of trees, the square footage of the house with the dimensions of the master bedroom. She was gone for months. When she came home, the house was finished. It was a diamond shape, but the builder adhered to her wishes. It was a very strange house, and I loved to go over there. I was really intrigued with the odd shape of the house. After her death, the house just sat there, uninhabited and was heavily damaged by Hurricane Carla in 1961 and there is no trace of it now. Most of Channelview is now just chemical companies or petroleum based businesses.

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Today I am Grateful for:

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God, My Higher Power.

My Sobriety.

Mamie, my schnauzer.

My sponsor.

Receiving gratitude lists from two fellow trudgers via email.

Finding gas for $3.85 at Costco.

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Y'all be pretty now, ya heah.