I will become a myth, a legend, if only to myself.

Today I start anew with this blog.  My life after the age of 61. 

The challenges.  The things I've learned.  The things I need to learn. 

Right now, my sister Leslie is alone in the hospital with some unknown infection in her body.  There a week  now and they have ruled out many things, but not one positive answer on how to make her better.  She's only 58, 3 years younger than me.  They are thinking septic, which is a bacterial infection, but they don't want to commit to that yet.

 

Not to sound selfish, but is this what I have to look forward to soon?  I have so many things to do, so many countries left to see. 

 

Still thinking about my comedy as the Aging Comedienne.  I am pushing myself to get back on the stage;  they say practice, practice, practice!  I think about it every day, practicing routines, maybe next week.

I was inspired today

I was so inspired today.  I received an email from Google Ad Sense about a fellow blogger who put in the time and has made it big. In 1999, Richard Niles, began his blog about theme parks all over the world.  In 2003, he joined ad sense by Google, which allows you to earn money from advertisers for your blog.  Now 2013, this is his only job and he has a staff of 12 that travel all over the world to visit theme parks.  His passion from being raised in Southern California was theme parks and he wrote about his passion.  Please visit his website now for more information.  www.themeparkinsider.com .

 

This is what writing these blogs is all about.  An opportunity to inspire myself and others. I am not any great prolific writer, but I am trying.

 

New and different in Las Vegas.  With only 3 days off, I have had to pack a lot of things in.  This is not usually my way, I usually only schedule 1 activity a day, plus errands, house-cleaning, etc.  Saturday, my friend Ginny and I eat at PF Changs in Summerlin.  The place is as dark as a cave. Maybe that is to enhance the beauty of the customers.  I had the best Mongolian Beef that I have had in a long time.  I had them make it a little spicy, which is the way I prefer it.  Ginny had a huge plate of Spicy Mandarin Chicken.  They also gave us three sauces to flavor the rice with-I don't eat a lot of Asian food, so we really weren't sure what to expect.  They made me a soy sauce with horseradish and something sweet (I am not sure where the sweet came from), but what a difference on the rice, added to the Mongolian Beef.

 

On Sunday, I joined my sister, Leslie for Bingo at the Poker Palace in North Las Vegas.  I won $150 and Leslie won $250.  A good day for winning.  I have spoken of the Poker Palace before and next months' food special for  $9.99, is a 10 oz. Ribeye Steak dinner or $7.99 for Smothered Pork Chops.  The Ribeye is sometimes a little thin, but fills an entire dinner plate and that will be my choice. Both dinners come with choice of soup or salad.  I may have to have that Ribeye dinner a few times next month at that price.

 

After bingo,  I had to rush home, get changed and go to my friend's home for their "Back to the Farm Dinner, French Themed".  Dining under an open sky, they served free range French chicken "Coq au Vin", Nicoise Salad, Oven Roasted Cauliflower, Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes, Assorted Fall Organic Grilled Vegetables (from local organic farmers).  I don't know a lot about the entertainment, but "Don", provided us with keyboard artistry and my friend Roe was there with her ukulele and sang songs.  This was prepared and served for 60 people by my good friends, Vernalisa and Pepe Castillo.

They have a Yahoo meet-up group "The Chef's Table" with almost 400 members.  Please take the time to check out their meet-up and come join us for one of Vernalisa's fabulous dinners.

 

Tonight I have plans for Happy Hour with the Girls.  The location is a secret, either you know where we go or you don't, but we do it every Monday night.  Great food, great friendship.  Every week the "girl" count varies, sometimes 12, sometimes 8-whenever you have free time. 

 

Knee news-turns out it was related to my lower back. Visits with the chiropractor have been successful, but I still need a little fine tuning.

 

Have a great day!

Babies & Booties

 

Last night, I went to my friends, Vernalisa & Pepe's home for a fundraiser.  Verna served a wonderful Italian pasta dinner with a tirasmu desert, that I hope to get the recipe for.   She had about 40 people attend to help raise funds for the Boots and Booties Military Baby Shower that will be held on October 19th, 2013 at the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino at 3pm.  Co-Hostess and friend,  Marcine, has worked all year to help get this function ready.

 

The VFW Post 10047 National Military Service, Nellis Red Cross and Adopt-a-Serviceman are hosting Boots and Booties as a military baby shower for expecting moms.  The shower will be for approximately 200 new and expecting mothers who have deployed partners or are active-duty servicewomen.  All military branches of services are invited to participate.  The event will include gifts from the local community and flowers from expectant fathers. 

 

This is a wonderful opportunity to give back to our men and women in the military.  Please sign up as a volunteer if you have a time before, during or after the baby shower (somebody has to put those cribs together).  Please contact Jody Shervanick at 702-862-6064 or via email at jodyshervanick@hotmail.com .

 

 

The aging process-or once you have passed middle age.  I am very healthy and plan on keeping it that way.  But the other day, I was on a trip and my knee gave out many times.  Here I am on the other side of the U.S., hobbling around a plane trying to keep standing and serving my passengers as well.  I have never had any kind of leg or knee problems before and considered getting off my trip, but my crewmembers convinced me otherwise.  They convinced me to stay on, that they were already used to me and helped me when needed throughout the flight.  I really did appreciate that.  Tomorrow, I am going to my chiropractor and hopefully, it is a lower back problem (he always tells me I have lower back problems).  If not, I will see a regular doctor, but many of you who know me, know that my motto has always been-"don't know, don't care".  Heck, they're going to find something wrong with me, if they take enough tests.  It's all part of the aging process.

 

 

Tonight I had a free excellent T-Bone steak dinner at the Poker Palace, complete with my soda, salad & baked potato.  All part of the perks of being a local.

 

 



What Dreams haven't you achieved?

As I look back over my life, I realized I have achieved most of my dreams.  I have seen the world.  When I travel now, it is not with the same rush & intensity that there used to be.  Now, I live for seeing new sights and relaxation is more the focus.  I have raised my son to be a man.  A happy man with a beautiful family of his own.  And my son has achieved the dream that I never have had-a happy successful loving relationship.  A companion, partner, lover to be with for the rest of my life-it makes me so sad.  I wish I knew how to achieve this dream.

 

Dim Sum Dumb, that's me.  I just can't get into Dim Sum.  Dim Sum is very big in Las Vegas and my friends took me yesterday to Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino.  It is reputed to have the best Dim Sum in Las Vegas.  I found the place over crowed and incredibly noisy.  And the foods are so squishy inside-I don't like squishy foods.  Dim Sum for those of you who don't it, are very expensive appetizer dishes, very big in the Asian community.  So now I have ruled out Seafood Buffets in Las Vegas, due to increasing allergies to seafood and Dim Sum.  I have tried Dim Sum twice and it doesn't do it for me.

 

I did though meet with girlfriends at Rhythm Kitchen the other day, on Decatur at 215 and I am pleased to say it was a wonderful experience.  Their Happy Hour on Mondays, goes on all night (starting at 4pm) and the Happy Hour food prices and drinks are very inexpensive.  Since we hadn't been there in awhile, everyone ordered the Shrimp Brochette, probably the most expensive priced appetizer on their Happy Hour menu-$8, but all of our personal favorite.  Next time, we meet we'll branch out for some of their Cajun appetizers.

www.brazilianbeautyusa.com

Eliania Santos is the owner of the Brazilian Beauty Salon in the former Beauty Center in Summerlin, Las Vegas.  A beautiful young woman, she has taken years off my face with her facials.  I feel younger and look younger, every time I see her and my sun spots are also fading, (hallelujah).  If you want to look great and feel great too, look her up on her website and tell her Val Brown sent you.

 

Are pennies becoming obsolete?  I went into a store and was trying to get ride of loose change with my purchase and the store refused to take my pennies.  They said that the only way the bank will take them from their business is in penny rolls and it takes too much time   Has the penny been deleted from American currency?  I didn't think so, but maybe this is in the works too.

 

I am off to the Gold Coast Casino in a few minutes to pick up my free gift.  This weeks gift is a beautiful  Soap & Lotion Set in a nice metal frame.  Christmas gift or hostess gift-one more off my list.  The casinos want you to come visit and spend money obviously on their gaming.  So you sign up for a casino player card.  I am not much of a gambler, but I will take their free gifts if they're offering.

 

A new sign of aging.  The glasses.  I had to get glasses for driving at night, because honestly I have been using the same route for the places I drive to, but it has all been with foggy, blurry vision lately.  That part wasn't bad.  To be corrected was nothing.  The real surprise was the reading glasses, which I ended up purchasing separately-I am blind as a bat-425.  Oh well, my vision is  corrected, but now I have to deal with those thick magnifier glasses.

The Beach Boys-Live!

Life in Las Vegas is good and last night, I got to see The Beach Boys at the Southpoint Casino for Freee!  Well, not completely free, in order to get a couple of tickets, you had to bring canned goods for their non-profit group.  I know I always have cans of soups hanging around.  And received ground floor tickets for them.  About 3000 people attended and only 2 of the original Beach Boys remain, but their other singers and musicians are the grandsons of the Beach Boys.  What a legacy to keep in the family.  People stood in line for over 3 hours to get good seats (not me, I have a friend).

 

It was interesting to watch the crowd.  Most of them were in their 60's, 70's & 80's.  Wheelchairs everywhere.  But there were also plenty of families with strollers.  I had two friends last night who came that were not familiar with the Beach Boys.  Yvonne from England and Patti from Thailand.  Both lived in Los Angeles during the 70's, but that musical time period was not part of their lives.  They certainly enjoyed the music, but didn't know any of the words, not like the rest of us.

 

Today, I met my friend Tracie Garcia for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Green Valley.  Their menu is about 20 pages long, with extra special menus for lunch items.  I had the Louisiana Chicken Pasta Lunch and Tracie was a little better with a chicken salad sandwich & salad.  Great food, great atmosphere.  The place for "ladies who lunch".

 

Another chain to look out for in Las Vegas is "Mimi's Café".  They look like a French Bistro, but actually is just American food on a little higher scale than IHOP and Denny's.  I had lunch at the Fort Apache & Charleston location last week with my friend, Marsha.  We both had the soup & salad, which was tremendous and very fairly priced.

Big Brother is Watching

I am very aware of my surroundings-in my home, on my property, at my workplace.

Here is the scenario:  I have a 2005 Chrysler Sebring Convertible, that has not been to a dealership for 5 years.  All of the original stickers from Chrysler-Daimian are still there, but very faded.

I was on my way out to do some errands and low and behold what do I find: A "new" promotional sticker from the UAW-Chrysler-Daimain has been placed on the inside, passenger window on the driver's side.  Note I said "inside".  So someone from the Chrysler company in Las Vegas, GPS my car, opened it and placed a new sticker in my car.  Then locked my car back up and away they went.  Do we call that "invasion of privacy".   I don't mind the sticker, but I would have appreciated someone asking me first.

What next?

A new interesting Big Brother story.  This one involves my son Nick, who has been in the military for the last 10 years and has a military driver's license and military passport.  He is thinking of going to work for the Sheriff's department in Statesboro, GA, but is required to have a GA driver's license to do this.

Okay, no problem, this is where the story gets interesting. Homeland Security has taken an active interest in those requiring a GA driver's license.  My son is now required to have a U.S. Passport in order  to get a GA driver's license.  They said this was going to happen soon and it has.  I am assuming GA is a test state for this program.  I really don't know how many states are affected by this.  Interesting?