Since You’ve Been Gone

Well hello again! It’s been quite some time since I’ve updated you on the wonders of my heartpounding lifestory, and I apologize for jumping into your lives again unannounced like this. To give everyone a quick update – just to get us all reaquainted – here’s what you’ve missed since we last spoke: I abruptly left another potentially exciting career opportunity (working in country music), and migrated north, this time with my child Lexington in tow, to take up residency in the southernmost floor of a beautiful lakeside hacienda in the “little-known hamlet” of Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

Some of you might recognize Lunenburg as the town in which my parents live, and as soon as I arrived, that thought occurred to me too. Then I figured, “well hey, I could use a couple of roommates.” And so the former trio (now a quartet with the addition of Lexington) began its year-and-a-half-long reunion tour. We revisited some of our greatest hits: “Cathi, Clean Your Room!” “Dad, I Need Money,” and my personal favorite, “Be Home by 11:00… I Mean It”. It was so great to be able pick back up again, right where we’d left off.

After the honeymoon phase of my vacation started to wear off, it began to dawn on me that I had nothing to do…other than to care for Lexington of course. I decided to look to those I admire most and think about their careers for inspiration. When I realized that getting a reality show, starring me, off the ground was a bit of a shot in the dark, I continued down the list to another hero, Valerie Malone. Sure, she’s a fictional character from 90210, but she was pretty damn successful running a nightclub at age 21. I mean yeah, she got the money to buy the club as part of a con-job to recover Dylan’s stolen assets from a couple who had wiped him clean and fled to Mexico, and the chances of finding myself in this exact boat started to move the reality show idea into the “sure thing” column, but nonetheless, I was obviously onto something.

Then I remembered my other rock solid mentor, Lorelai Gilmore, from the show Gilmore Girls, and the puzzle pieces slammed into each other like I was Harry effing Potter, cracking the Rosetta Stone with the swirl of my cape and the wave of my Phoenix feather-core wand. Lorelai lives in a small town in New England; I live in a small town in New England. Lorelai is a single mother to a teenage daughter; I am the single mother to a teenage daughter. Lorelai has no money; I have no money. Lorelai opens the Dragonfly Inn; I open… well, a gymnastics studio. I figured an Inn was way over my head, but upon looking around Lorelai’s town, “Stars Hollow,” and realizing that they have a dance studio and we don’t, I thought, “hell no am I going to let Stars Hollow out dance Lunenburg,” and also, “gee…how hard could that possibly be?”

I’m not going to answer that last question, but I will tell you that my dad had a busy summer filled with plenty of time consuming construction; I got a crash course in “painting a gigantic building by yourself;” and Skills & Thrills (www.SkillsAndThrillsLunenburg.com) opened its doors in September 2012. Of course my mom pounded pavement, spreading the word and assisting with birthday parties and classes, and Lexington has proven invaluable in her general manager role as well as serving as president of the “Flexie Lexie Club”. It continues to be “all hands on deck” around here.

Even more recently, I took the plunge in taking a bunch of money from my parents to buy a house nearby…which of course is the gift that keeps on giving because it means more construction jobs for my father… (you’re so welcome, dad!).

Since we last spoke, I’ve been able to maintain my record of watching every episode of every season of every location of “The Real Housewives,” and I continue to aspire to the life of Betty Draper (seasons 1-3) in Mad Men. I know what you’re wondering… how do I do it all?

Lexie and I have plenty more of where this comes from, so we hope you’ll stay tuned! Please enjoy some photos of “our very Massachusetts lives”: