A Fond Farewell

It was a busy weekend for The Johnsens! Friday morning we were guests on "The People's Morning Show", the morning drive program on Harrisburg rock station 105.7 FM The X. This is the show Mike and I listen to so we were thrilled to be part of the "PMS". We also gained a whole new appreciation for what these folks do and what a team they are, all at 5:00 a.m.! Nipsey, Earl and the fabulous Jen Shade are terrific and good people to boot. Earl had us rolling as usual but was in rare form with an audience in the studio! They've asked me to come back on September 11th to talk about my experience at the WTC that morning. It's still really hard for me to talk about but maybe talking about it will help me deal with it. I'll be in California teching the tour so we will pre-record the spot.

My friends are seriously amazingly awesome! My going away party was Saturday night. We all gathered at Your Place, a bar/restaurant in Harrisburg, for some drinks and dinner and to just catch up. It was so great to have such a mix of friends there around me. And guys seriously, it never occurred to me people would bring cards let alone gifts for heaven's sake! Greatly appreciated and completely unnecessary! I love my little Buddha from Tony and Leah and he will go everywhere with me and sit in my dressing room. Group pic here was taken late after a lot of folks had gone so I apologize you're not all in it but I love this pic. My favorite is that my friend Michael in the back in black looks like Satan came to my party! LMAO I tried to fix him with my editing program and it couldn't even fix him. HI-larious!

On top of all of this Mike worked his weekend job all day Saturday and Sunday while I ran a multitude if errands. Mike had to drive to Baltimore for business Sunday night and took me to dinner at Houlihan's on his way out of town. When Mike is travelling on business he gets a per diem so he likes to take me out on it :)

Now I'm in the final push to get everything done. I have now done my final grocery shopping trip, last fill of the gas tank and tomorrow do my final cleaning and laundry. I booked my train ticket today and made arrangements. So Thursday morning at 10:00 imagine me in my Amtrak train seat on the way to NYC to start the next chapter of my life. I'll have my script out and headphones on trying to get off-book before starting rehearsals on Monday! As exciting as it all is, it is also scary and overwhelming. Leaving my husband, home, furry kids and of course, my friends, is more difficult than I expected it would be and I'm actually having panic attacks so right now Ativan (like mild Valium) is my friend. :) The next time you hear from me I'll be in New York!