Slept like a baby last night, and overslept this morning, but still got to work on time. The trick to sleeping well and straight through, I think, was drinking a cup of hot chocolate before retiring. Haven’t slept that well in weeks. Needed it. My brain feels a lot more functional today, as a result. A few more nights like this one, and I should be ready to take on the world again!

My poor cats. I had barely enough time to put food in their dishes this morning in the mad scramble to get out the door on time. They probably thought I had gone mad overnight. The strange thing is that they didn’t dig under my door to wake me at the usual hour – or, if they did, I was dead to the world and didn’t hear them (a distinct possibility). I will have to spend some extra-special time with them this evening to make up for being a frantic Mom-Cat this morning…

My mood and attitude is back to par… the sadness and regret that things didn’t go as planned for Aunt Tod (getting her into assisted living, etc.) is passing as I realize that it was time for God to take her home and that she was enormously happy at Maple Creek and nearby the past five months and happy with what everyone was doing for her, even during the last few weeks as she began to be shuttled between hospitals, rehab centers, dialysis centers and finally to Hospice. If she were still here in the condition she was in, it would do her absolutely no good and we’d all be worn to an even-larger frazzle than we are now. God really does take care of His children… I’m glad we’re not where we were last week at this time anymore. And so is Aunt Tod!
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A Blast from the Recent Past

Was it just six weeks ago that I was having the time of my life at the Las Vegas STAR TREK convention? So much has happened since then that the memories had to be put aside while I dealt with other things – some great fun, some not fun at all. But since I haven’t given a convention report yet in depth, is it too late to start now and see how much of it I can remember?

Friday afternoon, August 10th, Betty Mosher picked me up at McCarran Airport and whisked me over to the Hilton to drop me off. The moment I walked in through the revolving door into the Hilton, I spotted a very attractive, very anticipatory young lady fairly bouncing on her heels with her gaze locked on me. I quickly discerned, "Alison?" and we embraced.

Alison Winter is much better-looking in person than she is in photos. In photos she’s great-looking, but most people look better in person than they do in photos because seeing someone in 3D is better by far than seeing them lying flat on a piece of paper – DUH!

Anyway, I felt almost as though I was being greeted by an eager puppy and wondered how long I’d be able to live up to THAT degree of anticipation! For a moment there, I knew what it felt like to be a "celebrity." Eegads!

Don’t get me wrong. Alison was lady-like and professional from the get-go – I could just see that she had been looking forward to this particular moment for days already (since she had flown into Vegas on Wednesday, two days before) and this was the official "kickoff" to the three-day STAR TREK weekend we looked forward to sharing. She told me later that she was shell-shocked the first evening we were together and didn’t really "settle" until sometime the next morning – the morning when I spoke to the Vegas audience about De.

Later Friday evening, we connected with Billie Rae Walker, the interviewer responsible for the two great interviews at STARTREK.COM (Sept-October Special, still available at the website under STAR TREK/SPECIALS) and STAR TREK MAGAZINE (July-August 2007 issue). It was another moment of great anticipation for all concerned. Suddenly, I had two FRIENDS IN FACT AND IN THE FLESH who had been, up to this moment, virtual friends (via email and a few phone calls) for several months.

It wasn’t long after this that Angela Solomon from Texas spotted us and we all went to dinner. We were going to eat in Quark’s Bar but it was roped off for a special event, so we went to a Mexican restaurant inside the Hilton. Surprising the starch out of us, Angie insisted on picking up the tab for the dinner! Thanks again, Angie! I won’t forget that and will do the honors next time!

Billie Rae, Alison and I talked late into the evening – much about De, much about each other as we got to know each other better.

Alison was given some (wise?) counsel from the two of us that probably went about as far as it would have gone with us at age 27: Try not to be in such a rush to get to the next life event/adventure -- enjoy what you have right now because this day is one that will never be repeated, just as are the many you’re always anticipating.

We both said that whatever "control" she has of her life is tentative at best – but that with God, all things are possible, and that He knows her heart and her desires in all areas, and that He will get her where she’s going as long as she trusts Him explicitly (and no one else to the same degree, including herself).

In a nutshell: "Hand Him your life and then pray for discernment – he’ll direct your path and will take you places you cannot even imagine, just to delight you and to show you it has always been His will to bless His kids with the best life has to offer."

We affirmed to her that she’s a blessing (when you meet her, you will know this, too!), all praise to God, and that her career will bless others as long as she doesn’t relinquish her dreams and goals to modify the nay-sayers’ apprehension about the path God gave her to walk. God doesn’t give us a safe journey – He just promises to be there the whole way with us! If she’ll risk for what she wants, she will be leaps and bounds ahead of those who just wish, and stop short of taking leap of faith to the next level.

I wish someone had told me this early on. I was so convinced by the fearful around me that I wouldn’t make it, I let the words fulfill their prophecy! Not any more I don’t, but I did for complete DECADES!!! What a waste of a unique, individual life!

Or was it a waste? It gave me ammunition to help Alison and others, to encourage them, to tell them that there’s always room for the blessed, for the determined, for the folks who know to the marrow of their bones, "I cannot live any other way but this way. I must be who I am in order to be have the outcome God wants me to achieve."

Convention Appearance

This is a miracle –- thank You, God! -- but because I was well-occupied visiting with Alison and Billie Rae Saturday morning, or talking to De’s fans who recognized me prior to my appearance that morning, I wasn’t even remotely nervous when it came time to step onto the stage and "do my thing." The appearance went well, based on the response as I finished: loud and boisterous. Billie Rae and Alison assured me I’d done very well…

I’m sorry to say I was given only 25 minutes instead of the 35 I had expected to speak, so had to amputate the last half of the presentation and was unable to tie it up with a nice bow or to mention that the new deadline for my new De (THE ENDURING LEGACY OF DeFOREST KELLEY: ACTOR, HEALER, FRIEND) book is March 5, 2008.

The rest of the weekend was non-stop chatting and visiting. For several hours Billie Rae, Alison and I sat at the book-signing booth in the dealer’s room so I could meet De’s fans who came by and sign their books if they had them or wanted to buy them from me. That was a lot of fun for me, but Billie was sitting on boxes and I think doing that for so long put her into some serious back pain that night… poor gal!

Saturday night I took six or seven people to Quark’s Bar and picked up the tab for dinner and a drink two gals bought that looked to be the size of a volleyball! It was a Quark’s Special of some stripe. I don’t even want to know what it was. All I know is one of the gals who drank it got sick afterward and we didn’t see her again, except briefly, for the rest of the night.

Quark’s Bar was a hoot. Servers and others were dressed as aliens and the costumes and banter were outstanding.

The next morning we went to have our photos taken on the bridge of the Enterprise, and there was quite a wait to do that – but that was okay, because it forced us all to sit in one place and actually connect for the first time with Margot Worthington and her friend from Colorado! I had seen Margot perhaps five minutes all weekend up until this enforced waiting period, so it was a good thing that we had to wait a while.

When the photo op was over, Alison hugged us all and rushed to be in line for a photo op with Shatner and Nimoy, so that was the last we saw of her that weekend. Billie Rae and I parted company with Margot and … ?? … did we go eat after that? No, we called Betty and had her come get us, THEN we ate at a Cheesecake Factory with Betty not far from the airport…
An update on Betty – she didn’t have cancer near her bile duct and the other cancer was removed. Last I heard, she was recovering well – but slowly – ay her brother’s place in California. She should be home by now. I will call her this weekend for a further update unless I get an email from her before then.

It occurs to me that I may have written a convention report after it happened, but it seems a lifetime ago so I have just done it again!

Two days after the convention, Bobbie Bobstein came out and spent two weeks with me – and a few hours with Aunt Tod, as well. That adventure was pretty-well covered in blogs, I remember…

I basically just did a recap to get myself back on track and to try to re-capture the WONDERFUL aspects of the past month. And I have done that and am smiling as a result!