Amy & Joe’s Belated 2022 Year-End Wrap-Up and Holiday Greeting

Hello beautiful family and friends!

Amy & Joe here with our very-belated year-end wrap-up and holiday/New Year wishes. We hope you and yours are all off to a healthy and joyous 2023. We’re going to do this he said/she said style. so here goes Joe :

JOE

Hi all! 2022 had 2 themes for us;

Theme #1 - “New Start” : A theme by choice; we moved from LA to Palm Springs, and began to strategize new pursuits, new projects, new ways we wanted to be. Desert life is easier, quieter, and a refreshing change of scenery. We kinda like it here, including this view of snow-capped mountains from our backyard (next to the shed cousin Shani helped build);

We even welcomed a new creature to the family - a DOG of all things (in this traditionally cat-centered household). Her name is Wanda, inspired by Amy’s newly enhanced passion for comic books and all things Marvel (mine too), and one of our fave characters Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch)

Wanda adds to our existing menagerie of wonderful feline fuzziness (Barbra, Ruben, & Todo);

and…

Theme #2 - “Never a Straight Line” (not a theme we chose, but one we certainly ended up with). Every project seemed to take longer than planned, every fix to a problem created a new problem, everything was more involved and complicated than it seemed it should be. The effort-to-result ratio grew, but we are moving forward.

We got to spend time with the various branches of my wonderful CA fam (for whom I am supremely grateful), and I got to go back to MA for the first time since Covid (!) to visit my Mom as well as other fam and friends. We haven’t gotten to see many of our LA friends, but hope to change that this year.

I turned 50 and was thrown an amazing (small, Covid-cautious) surprise birthday party by Amy. Though work has been slow-ish, I did have some fun projects this last year; I taught an online commercial acting class (and am teaching another, with more on the horizon), I created and co-hosted a live corporate event for the tech company Oracle, I did some voice-over “looping” work for a new Boston Strangler movie coming out later this year (got to use my Boston accent), and shot a fun Xfinity commercial (see pic)

Amy does her usual amazing job at keeping me grounded, keeping me moving, and creating the much-needed fun. She is my eternally mischievous (and easy-to-look-at) Fun Devil 😈

Thank YOU for being in our lives this last year, and I am sorry for those with whom I’ve been out of touch. I would like to change that in 2023.

May our country and world become kinder, more open-minded, more grounded in actual reality, and with (I can’t believe I still have to actually say this) fewer goddamn Nazis. I am eternally grateful for those doing the work to make that happen.

I love you and wish you and yours health and joy in 2023,

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🏳️‍⚧️✊🏾☮️✡️🔬🧩🌎 Joe

AMY

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft…Hello again!

As I look at 2022 in the rearviewmirror, it is with bittersweet tinted glasses. Still on the mend from this planet being stripped of my personal musical icons; Fletch, Taylor and Olivia… I pray you find peace in Xanadu.

It’s hard to fathom that it has been a year since we had to make that move from our beloved Narnia Farms (I love L.A.) to our funky desert digs in Palm Springs. But it’s alllllll California love, always and forever! This town is full of shiny happy people, a Trader Joe’s with a ginormous parking lot, great art, no traffic, and a magnificent view from just about anywhere in the Coachella Valley. Our “Cat House” is walking distance to…everything, which is the thing we missed the most living in Sun Valley, and is awesome for walking the dog, our newest family member, Wanda (Boxer + Boston Terrier = Mini Boxer).

I am still a rough rider with my cyclic vomiting syndrome, (whom I’ve named Connie, as it stemmed from a concussion) and she is a nasty girl. I have got to keep myself in coolsville, as a myriad of circumstances can trigger an episode, and I’m officially a Dracula who keeps Vampire hours, as CVS hits hardest in the wee small hours of the morning. But I do not carry this beast of burden alone. Joe is by my side as Mr. Fix It and dives into the trenches with me, both of us continuously striving for better health, wealth, and to better thy selves. Even if EVERY SINGLE THING is taking twice as long as before. Thanks, old.

2022 was filled mostly with settling, organizing and getting the lay of the land. I have gotten back into comic books again, so hard. I am “drawn” in by some of the particular artists and am ingesting as much content as I can. Same goes with Doctor Who. I have become a gluttonous nerd siphon, eagerly craving my next feeding. (I have crazy eyes right now thinking about it).

We are still being precautious in the midst of a pandemic in a new town. So our social calendar is still very light. But we have some great neighbors, had a few fun slumber parties, and some pop-ins (not Mary). But, I miss you much. I don’t talk good anymore, need human touch, my childhood speech impediments are returning, and I sound like Frankenstein. Please come over. Thank you.

Now, we all know that 3 is the magic number, but have you heard of the 23 enigma? Google it. I learned about this before the interweb was invented, and the number 23 has been following me around ever since. I met Joe on June 23rd, we married on the same day 12 years later. My favorite thing to drink is Dr. Pepper, look at the can. I’ll wait… There is so much more. Once you know about this phenomenon, you become a part of the collective conscience. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not leading you down a dark road, just a fascination street. And being we are now in 2023…maybe, I don’t know, could this year possibly be just a kind of magic? God only knows we could all use a little of that.

Come See About Me,

Amy

PS. There are over 23 song titles “hidden” in my letter. Go get ‘em tiger.