"The fullness of life lies in dreaming and manifesting the impossible dream."

- Sri Chinmoy

Even though I lived just a few blocks away from the man that thousands called Guru... I did not know him. Well, that was until I received a very strange phone call from one of his disciples... Ashrita Furman, the guy who holds the Guinness Record for holding the most world records. (I betcha you didn't even know there was such a thing. Don't feel bad... neither did I.)

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They say home is where your heart is. I say, home is where your health is.
As you may know from my previous blogs, my mom was admitted for emergency service into Jamaica Hospital on March 26th with what she thought was food poisoning. Several hours later she was on an operating table diagnosed with an incarcerated hernia, that’s where the intestines bust out and hold prisoner another organ, in this case her bowels… the short of it… if she didn’t have the operation she would die within a few hours.

They said it was a five- hour operation and would require a two-week stay. Seven hours later she was out of surgery, and 6 MONTHS later… she was finally out of the hospital. Yes, you read that right. Six months later… so what went wrong?

Understaffing, lack of communication and the biggest killer of all… infection! The operation didn’t kill her- that went well. She survived like a tough cookie… but she developed an infection in the wound and not one, but two cases of C-Diff which she developed when she was moved to Trump Pavilion. C- Diff (short for Clostridium difficile) is an infection caused by too much antibiotics… in layman’s terms… the good bacteria was killed off, allowing the bad bacteria to run amuck. (Kind of like gang members in a community with no police.) It can easily be spread by hand… another words… if you don’t wash your hands… you can spread it to another patient!

(Which proves that washing your hands everywhere is important not only in classy restaurants.)

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So far this has been a cool year for creative festivals. I have been invited to either participate in, have been a part of, or covered for my TV show, Fran's World; the Long Island International Film Expo (for independent films), The Fringe Festival (for plays) and now the latest was the New Yorker Festival (for writers). Each being huge in their own right.

The latest festival invite came late in the game and out of the blue. I get this email from Henry Alford, a writer for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair Magazines. He writes, "I've been invited to take part in the New Yorker Festival, the super-prestigious, weekend-long event in which writers for the magazine will be joined by Steve Martin and David Byrne and lots of other fabulous folks.
I'm doing an evening of parlor games on Saturday, October 6 at 8:00 pm and for one of the games. I'm looking for a fast talker to do a monologue. The room holds 200 people, and is at the Metropolitan Pavilion, in Chelsea (The festivals headquarters). Is this of any interest? Are you even available? I've watched your reel--you are AMAZING. Many thanks..."

Just hearing the combination of New Yorker Magazine, Vanity Fair Steve Martin and games... made it a no brainer (at least in my brain.) I looked on line at the event and it was huge. Apparently it was a three-day festival from Oct. 5th to Oct 7th. with a line up of people like Edie Falco, Trey Parker and even Wallace and Gromit from the Curse of the Were Rabbit! The tickets ranged in price from $5 to $50 most being in the $15-30 range... and the programs ranged from highbrow subjects (Activism without Action) to the other end of the spectrum with a "Salute to the Three Stooges." (I actually had a crush on Moe when I was a kid... go figure.)

Anyway, I looked at my calendar and luckily I was available. I had made plans prior with my friend, Lisa Wernick from CNBC, but she was always game for things like this. Just to make sure I asked her. To which she replied, "Yes, Frannie, of course I'll go. That's what I love about our get together's, you never know where we'll wind up."

With that I called Henry and we were set. I asked him how I'd recognize him that night... he said, "Well, honey I'll either be wearing a tuxedo or a bathrobe."

That alone told me what kind of night it was going to be.

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Ever get so busy that you forget what day of the week it is? That was the kind of week it was for me.

DRUGS
Started out with getting up at 4:30 AM on Monday morning to catch a plane out to Dallas... land... and then an hour later get dressed for rehearsals for an imposter gig I was doing for a pharmaceutical company called, Meda--the makers of Soma, Astelin and Optivar. I had to memorize words that honestly at points I was having trouble pronouncing.... (I tell ya between this and taking care of my mom... I'm really getting quite a medical education.)

Anyway, I played, a newbie salesperson, Christine Johnson, all day Monday and Tuesday to 600 unsuspecting salespeople at their annual meeting...until it was revealed that my fast talking on stage spiel was not really a nervous quirk of a new saleswoman...but that I was really Fran Capo...fast talker...it went over great... people laughed and by Tuesday afternoon I was back on the plane headed home to New York for a midnight arrival... well at least that was the plan.

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