June 01, 2017

Put a Fork in Me! I'm Done!!

The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shaw

Happy June 1st!
June is Bustin' Out All Over and I'm ready to embrace the possibilities of what lies ahead. June 1 is the 152nd day of the year. There are 213 days remaining until the end of the year. As I sat down to begin my blog today, I was listening to

Barbra Streisand singing Just Leave Everything to Me from the film version of Hello, Dolly!
That is apros pros if you know me...on so many levels.

Yesterday, I had an epiphany. How appropriate that this was happening on the eve of Pride. Pride month for me is EVERYONE finding Pride in who they are and what we are all about.
When we embrace and learn from our mistakes, we become our best selves. THAT is my epiphany.
Two days ago, Kathy Griffin made a 'mistake". Or was it? Perhaps it reveals more about her than we even knew existed. It also sparked many debates. I stupidly engaged in some of those

debates.
My next thought? WHY AM I ENGAGING IN THIS!?!?! I found that even after I stated my thoughts on this that I was wasting time trying to defend my position. It weighed me down yesterday. In addition to that, every other post in my newsfeeds on social media was about a made up word from our POTUS in a late night tweet.
"Covfefe" may have amusing for the first hundred and eighty thousand posts and memes. Can we please move on now? Talk about getting tiresome!

Then there are the ones who try to justify Griffin's actions. My thoughts are that she feels that this country is so polarized that she could be as outrageous as she possibly could and people would stand solidly behind her. After all, even HE said that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth

Avenue and not lose many in his base.
She was/is in for a rude awakening. There have been countless other celebrities who have found themselves in PR nightmares. It is going to be interesting to see how this unfolds. CNN has already fired her from co-hosting their New Year's Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.
There are some comedians who feel

How did we go so low? I have several theories that I am going to try and attempt to explain in today's blog and then I am going to tell you what I am doing about it. My big reveal today.

I am 56 years old. I'm not exactly sure what that is supposed to look like or feel like. I am reminded daily on what the rest of the world THINKS that should be. I was watching Middle of The Night on TCM last night in which the leading actor (Frederic March) was supposed to be 56. He looked and acted years beyond where I am at this point.
I mention my age because I am proud of where I came from. Sometimes, it takes distance and time to appreciate what you had. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I grew up in a small town in South Carolina.
At the risk of being repetitious, my father was one of 10 children, my mother the oldest of 16, and I the oldest of 4. I came from a large family. As with most families, there was dysfunction. However, there WAS a strong sense of family. I've also mentioned in previous blogs that I left home at the age of 18, right after graduating from high school. Not only was I running towards something, I was also running away.
Once again, however, I grew up in a household in which my parents never went to bed not knowing where we were. We, of course, were home. We sat down as a family unit every night and ate together as a family. I know I can say the same of all of my aunts and

Lucille Ball: A comedienne who was FUNNY without offending!

uncles and their own offspring. We all sat down to watch television together as a family. My parents were not overly concerned that some image, comment, or situation would pop up in which they would have to get up and change the channel. (We did not have a remote control). We also only had three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. We got our news from CBS and Walter Cronkite. We didn't question the news when we got it. I was eleven years old when Watergate happened.
I remember hearing it on the news and from time to time I would hear my parents and older relatives discussing it, but it did not monopolize television beyond the 6PM news and Johnny Carson's monologue.
When it was discussed, it did not erupt into arguments or 'if you don't think like me, I'm going to unfriend you.'

Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore, Vanessa Williams, Carol Channing: All classy

I want to go back to a simpler time. Think back to a time in which television was on from 5 or 6AM and then signed off with the National Anthem at 1AM or there abouts. We had ONE phone in our home. It was a wall unit in our kitchen. If one of us was on the phone and someone needed to get in touch with us, they would get a busy signal and would have to try back. Call waiting came about in the early 70s but that

LIly Tomlin as Ernestine on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In

was an additional cost that my parents did not feel was necessary. We also did not have Caller ID or ways of trying to block unsolicited calls and yet it never was a major intrusion in our lives. We also would NEVER think of calling anyone after 9PM unless it was an emergency.
When I first moved to New York, one of my earliest jobs was working for the Green Room Answering Service and Annex Registry on 44th Street. It was a theatrical answering service.
For an additional fee, our clients could also purchase a pager in which they could be paged when their agents and/or managers and, once in a blue moon, a casting director would call them.
When they were paged, they would run to the nearest pay phone (during the day) and call to find out if they got a job or an audition or a call back.

It was very Sue's Answer Phone from Bells Are Ringing. As a matter of fact, I felt like Ella Peterson! I almost got fired for taking a coffee and danish to a client in lieu of a standard wake-up call. They WERE expecting me!
Believe it or not, I used to do singing telegrams for Eastern Onion. I also had a pager and I knew the importance of returning those calls asap. However, you just lost out if someone got in touch with the agency quicker than you.
My first eleven years in New York, I did not have a cell phone nor did I need it!

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. ~Jane Austen

Oh what Do I Do Now? I'm opening new Windows!

I don't even remember when I got my first cell phone. I do know that Danny and I had been together several years. It was a flip phone and I used it mainly just to let him know if I was running late or if something came up when I was out. I even forgot to take it with me most of the time.
It only has been in recent years that I got an iPhone at Danny's urging. He felt I should have

Seeking LOVE in this social media age

it because of my business and especially when I was doing PR for my clients.
I did not desire to be one of those people who walk around like the living dead constantly looking down at their devices instead of the world around them. (Luckily, I still have not gone that far).
I was trying to figure out today when I joined Facebook. I'm not exactly sure but it has been a major part of my life since joining, actually too major!

I know there are some who feel that I post too much on Facebook. They are probably right. I know that some people have unfriended me and/or unfollowed because of that. If any of you see this blog, I apologize. As I often say, I am a work in progress.
But I am vowing today that from this day forward, I will control Social Media instead of it controlling me. I choose to no longer debate with those that I have no vested interest in.
When our current POTUS was voted in, something, by the way, that I thought would happen, I had an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Sad that HE is not the CEO he would like us to believe he is

No, it was not because he is Republican, as so many of my Republican friends believe. It is because he is a bully. I have dealt with my fair share of bullies and I know one when I see one.
He also is not a leader. He instills fear instead of hope. I pray for our country.
I don't think that the bigotry and racism and hatred is coming to the forefront because of him. I believe he is a reflection of what this country has become.
Over the past few years and with the rise of 'reality TV', we have turned into a bullied and bullying society.
Every reality TV show is about someone being kicked off or made to feel less than.
At what time, did the behavior we see exhibited on these shows by adults become acceptable?

I want to remain a Southern Gentleman

At what point did it become acceptable to call each other bitch or worse and feel that it is acceptable? Every other post on Facebook and Twitter seem to drop the F-bomb as if it is perfectly acceptable. And, perhaps for some, it is. Not for me.
Is it wrong of me to aspire to a higher standard? I know that there will be some who may even be offended by this blog, and for that, I sincerely apologize.

The bottom line is that I am vowing to no longer wallow in the negativity. I know there is a lot of bad out there right now. In the past five weeks alone an 18 year old girl on vacation in New York was mowed down by a crazy person in Times Square, 22 young girls were killed attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, and a bombing in Baghdad at an Ice Cream parlor where families were enjoying a day out. When does this madness stop?
I am paying attention but my days cannot any longer be mired down in this. It is destroying my core.
I have no idea! I'm not turning a blind eye or a deaf ear as to what's going on. I will work as hard as I can to deal with the injustices of the world. I, however, refuse to get involved with the negativity! ENOUGH! Put a Fork in me! I'm DONE!

I am starting my own #Resistance. I am resisting tuning in constantly to the negative news coverage, the negative programming on TV, the negative posts on social media, the negativity that has taken over our lives. My social media platform will be used for the common GOOD of celebrating others...which was my original intent!
I am very much rejoining the human race...devices left behind.

Did you know it was #SaySomethingNiceDay?

Life is so much better when you stop caring about what everyone thinks, and start to actually live for yourself!!

Come celebrate June 18th at 1PM (Brunch show). Reservations a MUST 1PM at The Laurie Beechman Theater (Doors open at 12:15PM) with Sarah Rice, David Sabella, Warren Schein, Mark Watson, AND a WELL KNOWN Mystery Guest! . ..AND a Mystery Guest! Go to RichardSkipper.com and click on the yellow star to order your tickets.

Sit Back! A New News Cycle Is About to Begin!