One of my favorite TV shows ever was "Rhoda". My whole family used to sit together to watch it. I'm not sure why we all loved it so much - maybe part of it was that here we were in North-East England watching this earthy, klutzy woman half a world away and being reminded of my Mam - similar sense of humor, similar kind nature, similar working-class upbringing.

My Mam was, unfortunately for her, something of a figure of fun. I mean, we loved her, but we would poke fun at her ... nicely ... but without mercy. My Dad would imitate her ... innovative singing, whereas us kids would make comments about the size of her nose. Poor woman! But she always laughed along with us, with her slightly crooked smile.

My Dad cracking my Mam up

Anyway, I was talking about Rhoda, wasn't I? On Tuesday afternoon, I came down with a migraine at work, so left for home early. I don't get migraines very often, maybe once a year, but it doesn't leave me feeling too good, so I spent the evening catching up with some stuff I'd recorded on TV, includeing "Mary & Rhoda", the new TV movie, which had been broadcast on Monday night. It had gotten fairly bad reviews, but I have to say that the reviewers missed the point. It was still fun and nostalgic to run into the pair of them again. Rhoda had barely changed - older, but still the same funny, bawdy New Yorker. She reminds me strongly of my friend John Paul, now I realize. Poor Mary was still very skinny, but I can't help feeling she seemed sad and old, with a false cheerfulnes which reminded me exactly of the character Mrs Jarret in "Ordinary People".

I used to watch "Ordinary People" over and over again when I was in my early twenties, mainly because I had a crush on the young, suffering Conrad Jarret, played by Timothy Hutton. Believe it or not, it was watching that movie that pushed me into taking acting classes. At that time in my life, I'd never cried once in years and years. Watching the movie, I felt that I should be able to cry, and get in touch with my emotions, like Conrad Jarret - to be frank, I envied him his emotions, because deep in the closet like I was then, I had no connection with my own. So I decided to take acting classes, to see if I could at least express emotions in front of others, even if I couldn't feel them myself.

It didn't help - I was almost as wooden in acting classes as in the real life back then! There was one moment when we each took turns doing an elaborate recalled memory monologue, that I actually uttered a single sob, but that was about it. It wasn't until several years later, when I was traveling in Europe with my boyfriend Shawn, that I discovered that I still knew how to cry, and boy did it take me by surprise! But that's another story, as we're already getting too long here!

The week I spent working at home has really screwed up my work habits temporarily. The project I've been on for months is winding up, so I don't have much to do unless I motivate myself to do some self-learning, of which there's plenty I could be doing. But I can't get going. Not that anybody notices, mind you. Take yesterday, for example, I didn't even show up at work until eleven! I rolled in so late that the only place I could park was on the top floor (the twelfth) of the Sutter/Stockton parking garage.

Parking on top of the garage with a view

However, this lofty perch offered two advantages. One, obviously, the nice view.

Second advantage, I can keep an eye on my car from my office. That's my car you can just maybe see if you follow my nose, which is pointing directly at my car all alone on top of the garage.