If you have ever loved General Hospital "now" is a good time to jump back on and have a little fun - they're revisiting the classic Ice Princess storyline with a mix of characters from the original run, some introduced in the intervening 40 years and two relative newcomers to the show. 

To recap - 40+ years ago the evil Cassadines created a weather machine powered by an equally evil diamond called The Ice Princess and were defeated by super couple Luke and Laura (whose 1981 wedding drew in something crazy like 30 million viewers!). 

Now, another Cassadine, Victor (played by Charles O'Shaughnessy - yes, that one...from The Nanny), has figured that the world is too crowded and is using coordinates embeded in the Ice to find a super secret bunker where a toxin has been stored for 40 years to use on thinning the world's population. Shades of Thanos! But don't try to make too much sense of the plot, it's merely a vehicle to showcase a new super couple - Trina and Spencer, and also, to give Laura (who is now Mayor) and a gallery of fan favorites a great heroic adventure!

Among Victor's many crimes over the past couple years, he supposedly killed the legendary Luke Spencer off camera. Given all the feelings that fans (and Spencer's portrayer, Anthony Geary) have about Laura's rape at the Campus Disco by Luke, it would seem unlikely that there would be a return in this "Me Too" era as such a return would be heralded with perhaps too much controversy. Still, it's a fun fantasy to imagine an alive Luke riding to the rescue at the very last minute giving fans a big anniversary surprise. 

You can catch General Hospital on HULU every night after about 8pmET. The timing is a little inconsistent but I find that I like to watch the shows in bulk rather than one at a time anyway. The new shows stay up for about 2 weeks. 

Below: a screen shot from an episode last summer when Victor found out that his nephew Nicholas had slept with his son's girlfriend, Esme. To be fair, this was exactly the expression that I was making a year ago when the show was showing Nicholas doing the deed. Apparently we are all Victor. :)

This year I have had the opportunity to spend a lot more time enjoying Spring than I did last year - and thank God I'm getting to enjoy the whole springing of Spring! :) 

Below is a shot I took in Riverside Park this morning - I'd been trying to photograph the emerging buds but they were just high enough that the pics were not turning out right....so, today, yes, I schlepped a step stool to Riverside Park and conducted a fairly extensive photo shoot with my iphone setting and re-setting the step stool. The best part about it is that I was on a fairly heavily traveled walkway and no one said anything about it at all. This IS one of the perks of living in a big city. :)

I got several shots that I was pretty happy with but sharing just the one for now. 

It'll be 7 years ago tomorrow (March 22) that my friend Joe left us.

Free from his pain of a half dozen illnesses, I imagine Joe has not just been soaring with the angels, but probably has been using his newfound status as a spirit to roam dressing rooms occupied by the hottest Broadway dancers. :)

7 years later, Joes death still reminds me to:

1. Never pass up the opportunity to face your fears. I was terrified of hospitals and nursing homes prior to my regular visits with Joe. And the final visit sort of gave every fear a voice - that hospitals and nursing homes are places of death. And yet, I went. And yet, I faced that fear. And yet, I more or less overcame it by having to be in it. It didn't make me less sad, but I could do it. And you can too.

2. Never turn down an invitation to 'fall into friendship'. I only knew Joe sort of from a distance as someone who came to my weekly bingo fundraising events on occasion.... but he asked his friends to have me visit and so I went thinking it would be one and done. And yet, I went back over and over again and we always had great, fun, and had endless talks. I don't think that I entirely understood just how close we'd gotten until those final days.

3. Try as best as you can not to complain. In all the years I was visiting him on a regular basis, I never once heard him feel sorry for himself and where he was at: without biological family, without a job, without much of anything except what a few friends could keep for him and what was in his room. Here was a man who spent years in care facilities and yet he only spoke of 'when' he was back in his own place, not 'if'. That is nothing if not inspirational.

And finally -

4. Life is short. Make it count. Joe didn't care that an outing to an Imperial Court event would drain him for days or cause him to be literally sick or quite possibly land him back in the hospital... he did it because he grabbed every opportunity to take a bite of life. This tenacity and optimism is why I miss him so much.

xoxo

Happy Spring 2023!