This topic, apparently, hits a hot button. But I should be able to express myself here on my blog. The thing is, when you’re from California and you leave, you enter a “no man’s land.” The place you go resents you and, often for a good reason. If you happened to have sold a home in California and take the proceeds to a less expensive market, and this is done often enough, you drive the price of real estate up in the new place. I’ve seen this over and over again in Oregon, Washington State, and Nevada.

But if you move east, just being from “California” signals insecurity to people in the midwest and/or eastern states. I experienced this in Ohio, MA, and Florida. They resent you. And if you dare move back to California and mention anything good about where you’ve been, Californians jump all over you. You don’t even have to move back – just post this on YouTube (I saw this video on FB and it cracked me up because there was some truth to it). And then the “we don’t want you here” and “good riddance’ comments came in.

Things have changed drastically since my mother’s family moved from California to Arkansas for a couple of years. They were big celebrities back then. At least this is the story she told me when we moved from California to Oregon – lol. Trying to convince me it was a good move for me. My neighbor (New York state snowbird) made a comment about me hanging out with the Beach Boys in California when I mentioned where I was from. Interesting “go-to” thing to say… At least, she’s the friendly and welcoming type.

Somehow classic cars started showing up in my feed and I had a midlife crisis traveling down memory lane. If I can still claim to be in my midlife – lol! That’s my story and I’m stickling to it.

So fun to remember the classic cars I either drove or rode in back in the day. And then not long ago, I had a Dodge Challenger (like in the video), a modern version of a classic car but traded it for the 4-door Charger when we moved cross country with 3 cats. How I miss that Challenger – it was sexy!

And then I stumbled across a photo from my younger days and started making some videos with a bit of help from AI and some classic rock music and uploading them as shorts on YouTube.

So, naturally, I had to share them here. At this age, I need to reveal and revisit who I once was.

Midlife Crisis (Never Too Late)

Midlife Crisis AI-Style

Desert Spinout

Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress

I’ve been posting a lot about the supper clubs on Royal Caribbean’s Icon class of ship. Each has a different Jazz theme with food, cocktails, and music. Icon has a New York-themed Supper Club (Empire Supper Club) but we went on Star of the Seas with their Chicago-themed (Lincoln Park) supper club and it was fantastic! (Click here for a peek).

We loved it so much, we booked the brand new (sails July 4) Legend of the Seas for the “Hollywoodland” Supper Club and next year’s Hero of the Seas for the “Orleans Parish” Supper Club.

But with each new ship comes a gigantic new price and we’re thinking it’s just not worth it. We love the nightlife on these huge Royal ships but the pool decks are family-focused (so many water slides eating up the relaxed, lounging space we prefer) and just not our vibe. And did I mention how ridiculously overpriced they are? Especially if you don’t use the water slides, which is the main draw for families.

Instead, we’ve booked Bellagio in Las Vegas with a pool cabana for our next resort stay and the Mayfair Supper Club. Royal Caribbean is so family-focused, I think, growing up near Hollywood and Vegas, I may have different expectations. (Click here for a peek). Or there’s Delilah Supper Club at Wynn (click here for a peek), which may have more of the Royal Caribbean Supper Club vibe. (Actually, this concept is from a Hollywood group with restaurants in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Dallas.)

But I’m sure I will miss the HollywoodLand and the Orleans Parish Supper Clubs on board both ships, so we’ll see where this goes. It’s a tough choice for me who loves cruising and music and Jazz and supper clubs. But now I know I don’t have to book a cruise just for the supper club experience. Unless I want to.

So will HollywoodLand on Legend of the Seas be like the Delilah Supper Club in West Hollywood?

When we stayed in a Deluxe King Room at Encore at Wynn in Las Vegas for a special birthday trip thirteen years ago, we definitely got the Frank Sinatra vibe, or “Frank” as my mother referred to him (as if she knew him personally). But that was my mother – lol! The pool especially felt like we were visiting Sinatra’s Palm Springs mid-Century Modern home. So when I saw this short on YouTube, I realized somebody else had the same idea. We’re thinking of going back later this year. Check it out:

I wasn’t much of a fan of Royal Caribbean cruises until I tried Utopia of the Seas after watching a video of the train dinner show. So we set sail on a short 3-day cruise on Utopia to test it out. It was so much fun, we booked Star of the Seas, the second in the Icon class of ship (Icon of the Seas was the first). The real star of Star of the Seas to me was the Lincoln Park Supper Club, a 1930s Chicago themed dinner show with paired cocktails, music, and food. It was fabulous!

So when we heard that the third ship in the Icon class, Legend of the Seas, would have a Hollywood-themed supper club, we booked it, too. Not sure if we’ve lost our mind or if we’ll follow through with the cruise (these cruises are becoming outrageously expensive), but this year we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary so we thought we’d splurge. Anyway, we’re anxiously waiting to hear what the playlist and cocktail and food menu will be. It sails on July 4, so we have almost 8 weeks until we find out. All we know is that the theme is 1920s-1950s Hollywood and that there will be a sax player added to the jazz ensemble. Oh, and, there’s also another train dinner show like on Utopia but with a Silk Road theme following Marco Polo’s route from China to Italy. Sounds like a blast!

In the meantime, I’ve set the bar high, hoping for a few favorite songs to be included. Here are three:

Moonlight Serenade

Harlem Nocturne

Feeling Good

Had one of those days when something hit me hard. Overwhelmed by the emotion, I struggled to work through it or even think about how to work through it. And then I remembered the secret – music! So I thought about “Under the Gun” I’d recently remixed and realized I hadn’t created a comment video for that song. Nothing like music and the appreciation from your fellow musicians to bring me out of the funk. Hope you enjoy! Happy Friday!