Janice Williams Loves Austin

April 19, 2011

My Missing Mind

Filed under: Music — Janice @ 10:41 pm

I’m typing this on Mark’s new computer. So far, I’ve used it a lot more than he has. I’m the computer geek in the family so I’ve set it up and put all his bookmarks and mail on it so far. It doesn’t have his photos or music, so that is still to come, but we’ll get that done soon.

Had a weird experience last night. In my typing for the doctors, I am reading every day about people who are having memory problems. It always makes me super conscious of my memory failings. And I had one last night — either that or I’m being gaslighted and someone is trying to make me think I’m crazy.

Last night I went to a comedy club to see a friend perform. I’ll have to write about that another time. It all ended right about 10 p.m. and I thought that since I was out and about, I should drop by and hear Mark and his band playing on the east side. I got over there and was walking through the parking lot and was greeted by the nice parking lot attendant who welcomed me back and gave me a big hug. Yes, I was searching for his name in my head, but that wasn’t the slip. Just then, a car load of young people pulled in and the kid in the passenger seat waved and said hello to me as if we were old friends. I assumed it was someone I have met there at the club in the past that might be more inclined to remember me than I would be him.

I went in and greeted several people I know and, yes, I knew each one of them by name. But then I was standing there at the back of the club by the door when this young man came in and gave me a big hello and a big hug. Okay, you don’t usually hug people you only met in a club once before, to you? He asked me what I’d been up to. Still operating on the assumption that I knew him from the club, I told him that I wasn’t out that late anymore because of daily obligations. Then he says, “Boy, I knew this place was good on Tuesdays, but my friends tell me Monday is the night to be here.” Hmmmm, this was his first Monday. I don’t know him from the club, I guess. He moves on so I don’t have to admit my ignorance, at least. I kept going over it, wondering if he had been an intern at my current job and maybe I just didn’t get to know him. I was pretty sure it wasn’t someone from my radio days because I truly thought I would remember that.

So I leave after a while and am still completely in the dark about who this kid was. I was already thinking about writing it here. Then today I’m walking through my lobby at work and there’s the guy! Hello! He greets me and tells me that he and his friends stayed until the end and had a great time. I tell him that my husband is the drummer and that was new information to him. We talked a bit more and then he got on the elevator to go downstairs. I quickly grabbed the receptionist and said, “Who is that?” She tells me his name and his department. I still have NO EARTHLY IDEA how I know this kid. I have no memory of his name or working with him or having any interaction whatsoever. I don’t think we were ever on the elevator together. I don’t think we were on the stairs together during a fire drill. I don’t think he’s every brought paperwork to my desk.

The (sort of) good news is that the receptionist said he has taken a job outside of the company and this is his last week. If I can just avoid seeing him at the club, I might never have to admit my total mind blank to him.

April 14, 2011

The End of the Soap Opera

Filed under: At home,Family — Janice @ 10:51 pm

The news came out today that ABC is canceling All My Children and One Life To Live. I heard a TV critic say that people are mourning the loss of these shows even if they haven’t watched them in years because they knew that those shows were still there if they needed them or wanted them and this makes them also mourn the time in their lives when they were involved with these shows.

I was never a regular watcher of these two shows, but hate to see the end of soap operas in general because they have been a part of television and radio since the beginnings. As campy and corny and over the top as they were, if I were forced to stay home and watch daytime television, I think I would enjoy a well told story — okay, a story– more than endless parades of judges and bitterness and accusations or diet and exercise or just interviews. Are we losing our ability to tell a story and enjoy hearing a story?

My earliest memories of soap operas were from my Mamma Williams watching them and telling us about them from time to time. I don’t think I ever watched one with her, but she did plan her days around them. She would gather up her crochet or quilting or embroidery and sit down in her easy chair, prop that bad leg up on her ottoman, and watch her “stories.” She was alone for days on end while my grandfather was trucking back and forth to Denver and I’m glad she had the soaps for company. She also had Lawrence Welk on Saturdays and “Johnny” for an hour and a half each night. She had her schedule. One of my favorite authors, Clyde Edgerton, has a book called Walking Across Egypt and the elderly woman in it also had her “stories” and I loved that character. [note: if you go to check on this book, I recommend his book Raney even more -- one of my all-time favorite books]

When I was growing up, we would watch Dark Shadows when we got to stay home from school or during the summer. Not too much, of course, because Mother didn’t approve of that show, but that was the ones kids talked about at school and described the latest from Barnabas Collins when they’d been home for a day. Mackie and I began watching The Young and the Restless through some summers. It began in March of 1973 so that was the summer before Mackie was a senior and I’m sure she was ripe for what they were offering! I don’t remember too much of it.

In college, lots of the girls in the dorm gathered in the dorm TV room to watch The Young and The Restless and General Hospital. I think that was about the time that General Hospital was coming on strong. I had class in the mornings and worked at the newspaper in the afternoons so I didn’t get to participate in that rite of passage. I just had to go read the Wikipedia article about Luke and Laura to make sure what soap they were on and, yes, it was General Hospital and, almost facing cancellation, they brought it from the brink to the forefront in 1978, just as my college days were starting. I said I didn’t watch General Hospital with the girls, but I must have heard enough and passed through the living room enough or it was just so pervasive at the time that I certainly knew all that was going on in the world of Luke and Laura and Luke’s awful sister and Laura’s ex Scotty Baldwin. At some point in later years I did get caught up in that show a lot more, I know, because I think I know the characters well, but maybe not those early story lines.

When I worked in morning radio in Amarillo at the start I got to go home from work about 11 in the morning (those were the days!). There was a soap on at the time that I watched pretty regularly just to have something to do in my boring little world. I don’t remember if it was Search for Tomorrow or the Edge of Night (echo echo echo), but one of those that wasn’t as mainstream as General Hospital and Y&R. I can remember the smarmy guy that was the villain. He reminded me of Dr. Smith on Lost in Space. Just creepy. And there was a tall pretty actress that went on to be in some sitcoms and movies and I’ve searched and I can’t find who she was or what show that was. But that show and I enjoyed a nice long relationship, I remember.

When I lived in Dallas, my roommate Diane was totally hooked on Days of Our Lives. Of course by now we have VCRs! Truly one of the greatest inventions of all time. Diane worked a very hard schedule and long days, but she LIVED to come home and get to watch Days of Our Lives and follow the storyline of Crook or Crash or some one-word name like that. She would often watch the show and then rewind and watch it again. Yes, we both needed to get a life about that time. Poor Diane. I knew she had an addiction that needed to be broken. She had to go out of town for a week  for work, or maybe even two. She asked me to tape her show for her, but I told her I wouldn’t do it. Nothing ever changes on a soap in a week anyway and I didn’t want her coming home and spending five hours watching a soap opera. I trust that somewhere along the way she has gotten help and is over that addiction now. Having a baby might have cured her if nothing else did! I learned a lot about Roman and Marlena while we were watching that show with her. I just Googled “roman soap opera” and the guy that is Roman now is not the real Roman. I wonder if people realize that.

Now I’m remembering that creepy old woman that was on one of those soaps I watched. Wait a minute. Wasn’t there a creepy old woman on every soap we watched?

I hadn’t thought about soap operas at all in a long time and this has sure brought back a flood of memories. I won’t miss soap operas, I hardly realize they even exist anymore, but it certainly was an interesting era of television. When we got more than 3 channels, when we got VCRs, when we got JOBS, and, mostly, when we got the Internet to entertain us through the dullest part of the day, the soap opera didn’t stand a chance.

April 11, 2011

Sickness

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 10:37 pm

Being sick always takes me by surprise. I wish it would get with me and make an appointment so I can clear my schedule for it a little better. It also bugs me that I can’t find a few hours in a week to do something I really want to do, yet, suddenly, I can take four days to sleep?

I’ve been sick since Thursday night and no one has given me a definitive answer on what it is, only what it is not. I assume it was some sort of stomach flu since all the symptoms do seem to match. I can’t remember when I last had a fever at all and this one was a doozy. I came home from work Thursday night after already having some symptoms, but not recognizing them as such, and I thought “GOOD GOD how cold has Mark set that thermostat this time?” and I headed to raise the temperature. When I saw it was reasonably set at 75, I realized there was a reason I was freezing and took my temperature and it was over 100. So I took myself to one of these late night clinics and that was probably a good thing to do as I got sicker by the minute.

She gave me antibiotics, which I rarely take because it never EVER seems to be something that antibiotics can treat. And, sure enough, when I got the results of the tests, it still didn’t appear to be a bacterial infection, but they told me to finish them, so I will.

There were a lot of things I liked about this clinic being available to me at the late hour and lots of things I did not like about this clinic (losing my urine sample and making me come back for another being at the top of the list), but all in all it was a good thing they were there because I know if they hadn’t, I would have been too sick to call the doctor on Friday morning or I reluctantly would have and they would have hemmed and hawed and finally said his first available was in 3 weeks. Yes, that’s what happened when I called the morning after fainting in the kitchen.

So after 3 days of sleeping I hoped I had turned a corner, but I got up in time for work this morning and sat upright for a full hour and couldn’t get the energy to take a shower or even put on clothes on a dirty body, so I decided another sick day was in order. I slept away another day and now I’m more certain I can make it tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I am on the lookout for an old-fashioned doctor that actually has time to see patients that have emergencies and then follow-up to see if the patient lived through it.

April 5, 2011

Sadness

Filed under: Family — Janice @ 10:46 pm

All of my family is very sad today. We’ve lost a very special little guy that I’ve probably never even written about. Jules is my sister’s dog and has been her faithful companion for 15 years. He was a birthday gift to her when he was the tiniest little puppy. He is a West Highland Terrier and is just the cutest little dog. Even at 15, he just seemed to be all puppy. Still exuberant and happy to greet us and happy to bring every toy he owned over to show us.

At 15, Jules had become deaf and was having more difficulties with daily life, but he wasn’t really sick. But Mackie wrote me at 2 a.m. last night that he seemed to be having trouble breathing and was very weak. She took him to the vet this morning and there was nothing that could be done. He certainly could have had emergency treatments or suffered for a few more days, but the kind and compassionate thing was to let him go and let him be out of his pain. I know it is the hardest thing Mackie has ever had to do.

Jules is the only dog the boys have ever had. They were  6 and 8 when he came along to teach them about taking care of a pet and having a friend always close at hand. I know they will be sad over this loss, but they are both growing up, moving on, and their lives are changing already. I feel sorry for poor Mackie who has become very accustomed to that click-click-click of his little nails on their hardwood floors and the way he would ring a string of bells on the back door when he was ready to go outside and his soft little woof when he wanted back in (sometimes over and over and over!).

Jules stayed at our house when we lived in Carrollton once or maybe twice, but he was a visitor often. When we moved to Austin he visited a time or two and then we got Nathan Jr. I expected the visits would continue and that Nathan might take one swipe at Jules and then they would be friends. But Nathan took one look at Jules and ran SIDEWAYS around the walls of our living room, breaking every thing in his path, in an effort to escape Jules. That was Jules last visit to our house here and I hated that. I liked having him greet me when I got up. There were times I stayed at Mother’s and Daddy’s and he would be staying there with them while Mackie’s family was out of town. He was happy to sleep right by the bed and if you stirred, he would sit up, sometimes putting his paws up on the bed to make sure all was well.

He loved to chase the squirrels in the backyard, take a sip from the swimming pool, and then trot back around to the back door. He liked to be all clean and groomed and didn’t even mind the sissy bejeweled collar that Mackie put on him that we all teased her about. And he would growl the most ferocious, deep-in-his-chest growl if you held him a certain way, but it was all show. He just tried to be a tough guy, but he was the sweetest of little puppy dogs.

Julesy will be missed by the family, me and Mark and my mother included, and missed by the boys’ friends and Mackie’s friends. Going through the death of a pet is a very hard thing to go through, but it is a small price to pay for the love and companionship over the years.

April 3, 2011

Sarah Bird’s Stalker

Filed under: Austin,Reading,Writing — Janice @ 9:57 pm

I have often referred to myself as Sarah Bird’s stalker. But I thought about not going to her public reading of her new book yesterday and decided, no, I’m a good fan. An author should like someone like me being at their public readings.

And, if I were a stalker, I would have some idea of what part of Austin she lives in and I don’t have a clue. I would expect it is one of the cooler older neighborhoods that has big trees and lots of ferns and ivy growing under those trees. The neighborhoods where people take walks and often drop by their neighbors for a glass of wine after work.

I don’t know if I’ve written about my Sarah Bird love before or not. If you don’t know who she is, she is my favorite author. Period. No question about it, no others come close. She’s the only author I can say I’ve read everything they’ve written (though I’m really lying when I say it about her because I haven’t read the romances she wrote under another name). My friend Beth told me about Sarah Bird in about 1988. I can pinpoint it to that era because I was traveling for a living. I think Beth had recommended The Boyfriend School and said I should read it. This, of course, was before the age of Amazon and easy access to any book in the world. I was traveling with my job then and I went into a fabulous bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and found Alamo House by Sarah Bird. It was her first novel so it was a good place to start.

Alamo House was fabulous and is still a favorite because of the Austin setting. I got The Boyfriend School at the library and loved it even more. Again, Austin setting (though this was long before I lived here and really knew how true to the city it was). Next up, The Mommy Club came out and that was the first I bought brand new. And that was when, I guess, the stalking began. I drove to Arlington, I think, for a book signing and bought it and my own copy of The Boyfriend School.

Then I met Mark and soon he knew how much I loved Sarah Bird. On HIS birthday he went to a book signing and got me a personalized copy of Virgin of the Rodeo when I couldn’t be there because I had to be at work.

I hope you appreciate how much I’m condensing this story.

We moved to Austin and I had the THRILL of my life when Sarah Bird emailed me at the radio station one day. I have my friend Ann to thank for that because Ann had somehow been in touch with Sarah about a book and Sarah had lost her email, but Ann had mentioned how I had started her reading Sarah Bird books…. so she emailed me. What a high!

So then I bought her book The Flamenco Academy at a book signing and got to introduce myself in person to her… for the first time with her sort of knowing who I was now.

Somehow the Yokota Officer’s Club came out and I didn’t get an autographed copy of it (I don’t think — I’ll have to check!). It is an amazing book and different, really, from all the others. Funny, but much more serious at the same time. j

If I already didn’t have a huge girl crush on Sarah, she really won me over when I ran into her at the Austin Chronicle Music Awards a few months after I was laid off. I went over and reintroduced myself and told her I had been laid off. Her response? “The bastards!” I loved that.

Next was How Perfect Is That that came out 2 years ago. Again, I don’t think I got an autographed copy because that seems silly now that we are friends.

And now I am eagerly awaiting The Gap Year that comes out July 5.

I went to a writer’s festival yesterday sponsored by the Texas Observer and heard Sarah read from it. I almost didn’t go to the festival because I was busy and had so many things that I needed to do. But my wise mother said, “How many people get to go hear their favorite author read? You should go.” She was right and I did.

I didn’t stay to say hi to Sarah this time. I let others who might just be beginning their life of reading her books have a shot at her. I did buy a hardback copy of The Boyfriend School to add to my shelf of Sarah books. It won’t replace the paperback I’ve had for 20 years, but just add a copy that I might be willing to loan. I don’t have a hardback of Alamo House since those are few and far between, but my dog-eared, much read and loved copy of Alamo House is still treasured.

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