Dear Friends,

The South has always been so warm and good to us on tour - our heartfelt sympathy goes out to all affected by the terrible tragedy wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Please join us in doing what you can to help today!


Affectionately,
Anne




Already May? 5/1/2008
Thought Archive
Dear Friends,

Do you find, like me, that months that cut off before the 31 mark seem to fly by (even) faster than the others? April has been one of those, with less activity on the concert scene, but still an eventful and fulfilling four weeks.

After getting over the initial shock of my baby’s nose break (cf April Thoughts), we celebrated Ed’s birthday a few days early at Café Brio over a yummy dinner. On his “real” day, he was gifted with a kidney stone that sent him to ER. I won’t go into detail, it was no fun. However all seems back on course as I write.

The Captains’ opener was fun and we had perfect baseball weather after all that snow and ice in March. And I’m beginning to feel like the team mascot: "we" won!

I was so glad we were able to follow through on our family trip to NYC in the middle of the month. While Ed worked on the phone, I drove the entire 8-hour stretch, clearly floating on the prospect of reuniting my little family for a few days!

We checked out “the nose” upon arrival and all was healing nicely, with only a bruise under the eye remaining as an already fading souvenir. We went to dinner in the Bronx at a great Italian spot with Sean’s young lady in tow and got to hear all about their Easter cruise. We hit the Howling Moon after dinner to meet up with the kids’ pals. That was a fountain of youth for the parents, who stuck out just a tiny bit from the crowd! Then it took us much too long to get to our hotel in New Rochelle, but hey, it had been a very long day!

Next morning we visited two nice schools for Zach, but lacking a football or basketball team, they don’t stand much of a chance in his eyes. Especially since the visit was followed by a rugby match at Sean’s college (with our recently injured player in the field…need I say what that felt like?). The weather was amazing with 75° temps and a very laid-back afternoon followed with a barbecue at the team’s favorite hang-out. Zach was in his glory and the girls were definitely paying attention. From there, we (just family) caught an excellent dramatic play in SoHo called “Betrayed” and called it a night.

Sunday was relaxing and Zach caught up on homework before we met up with Sean and our nephew for a game at the Nassau Coliseum. After the game we were given a guided tour of the house Sean will be sharing with three other guys after graduation, not far from the Bronx. We said our good-byes (until graduation May 17) and returned to our hotel for our last New York night.

Monday morning was spent at a Federal Courthouse where Ed was pleading in a class action hearing. Very exciting for Zach who dreams of becoming a lawyer, and for me (we met in court when I was on jury duty and his dad was the dashing young lawyer)! Our hero was very convincing!

From there we made just one stop and were back home Monday evening, all charged up by our week-end. Having a happy-to-come-along Zach along made all the difference: he’s definitely growing up and loved previewing college life with his older bro and friends as guides. This was the most fun I think we have ever had on a family trip!

I came back down to earth just in time to prepare for a just-the–two-of-us concert with Jim in Crystal Lake, IL on the 18th. The audience was electrifying and shot to its feet at the end of the show. We loved you too, Crystal Lake!

And now I’m really looking forward to performing at the CAMIE Awards. The sharp observers among you may have noticed that we plugged the wrong event (CAMI vs CAMIE) for a couple of days on the website, but all is correct now. I’m delighted to learn that among the films to receive an award is a TV movie called “Crosssroads”: co-written by a very dear friend, Oliver Goldstick, also screenwriter on “Lipstick Jungle”! It's such a small world. And here I was thinking I wouldn’t have time to see him and his family while in LA!! It should be a very exciting evening among–and beneath–the stars…

Sooo I fly west tomorrow and also plan to fold in a recording session while in town – at last! I’ve got two songs ready to “burn”, one of them being “Wishing Well”, the one I brought and progressed during the cruise workshop. Jim will be playing for me and I’m excited! The other is another pet project by writer/producer Steve Sundholm who produced me on “I Heard the Bells”. Otherwise I’ve been trying to squeeze in writing time daily and am gradually getting closer to my CD in the sky…

This month brings a show in Worcester, MA, on May 10th and our Mother’s Day special in New Haven, CT, on the 11 th. Hope to see some of you there! After that, we’ve got a graduation on our agenda!

A lovely month of May to all!

Affectionately,
Anne