So What's New?

A LOT!

So much has been happening lately, I barely know where to start!

August was relatively uneventful so lets just leave it at that.

On September 2nd, TeeJ and 7 other people were let go from the company where he worked. That was a huge blow to us financially since we bought the house based on his salary. We'll be ok for a couple months, but we need him to be employed again very soon!

Less than 40 hours later, on September 4th, TeeJ's Dad passed away. He'd been sick for about a year so this didn't come as a surprise, but it hurt just the same. Ed was the first person in TeeJ's family to accept me, to welcome me to the family. He was one of 3 guests at our wedding in 2001 and I thought he was adorable. Ed left behind his wife Valerie, 5 children (Lucille and her partner Diana, Michael and his wife Kathy, Barbara, TeeJ & I, and the baby of the family, Rose and her partner Sabine), 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. He was a veteran of WWII and a retired NY City police officer. We miss him so much!!

A few days after Ed passed away, we came home and had Valerie with us. We didn't want to leave her by herself down in Riverside. Valerie stayed a few weeks with us, it was a nice distraction for TeeJ. She's back home now with the goal of getting on with life.

In the midst of all this chaos, my friend Niamh came to spend the week end with us!!! I met Niamh when I went to Ireland on a business trip a few years ago, she was one of the people I was training to do a part of my job. We hit it off and she showed me some pretty cool places in Ireland. She's been to California on a few business trips since then (she gets to travel more often than I do :) ) and we've gotten to spend some time together. It was so great to have her here!!!

I'm back in physical therapy for my feet again. I've been going for about 10 weeks now and I do see/feel a bit of an improvement! WOOHOO!!! Maybe I won't have to have a second surgery on my feet after all! (keeping my fingers crossed at this point!). I go back to see my podiatrist in December when she returns from her honeymoon, so we'll see what she has to say then!

I'm still singing in Broadway Chorus, I have fun with that! Our first concert of the season is this week end. Its going to be a crazy week, that's for sure!!! Rehearsal tonight, dress rehearsal tomorrow night, concerts on Friday and Saturday nights and the final performance on Sunday afternoon. For more info on our concerts, go to http://broadwaychorus.org/ and check us out!!!

What's really cool is that I stumbled upon a YouTube video of my solo from our last concert!!! I sang "Sunrise Sunset" from "Fiddler on the Roof". Here's the link to that (I'm so proud!! The song turned out pretty awesome!!! The guy I'm singing with, Fred Geiger, has a voice that could melt butter!!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsLMXQsYuI The opening narration is performed by an amazing soprano, Joyce Dolan. The director is Jenny Matteucci and on piano is her amazing husband Daniel Lockert.

OK, my lunch break is pretty much over now, so I'd better get my butt back to work!!! I uploaded quite a few pictures of TeeJ's Dad in the blog right before this one, if you'd like to "meet" him.

Marleau's website should be updated soon, I just need to get the pictures of the cutie-patootie off my camera!

Talk soon,
Joanne