Better Connecticut

This morning Elsa drove over from her house to take Grammy and me to be in the audience of Better Connecticut. This is a show that airs for an hour-long at 3pm on CBS every weekday, and follows similar formats to the Today Show or Good Morning America, except it features all CT owned things. It features two local celebrities as the hosts, and one is Scott Haney. Scott is a flamboyant, middle aged, gay man who is very dramatic and Grammy finds him really funny, (which he is).

We kept reminding Grammy yesterday that we had this on the docket. She doesn't do a very good job of remembering what she is told, and often she will accuse you of not telling her or warning her of anything, but quite often we do. When we told her yesterday that we'd be going to be in the audience for the show, she couldn't quite pin down what the show was (even though we watch it pretty regularly), and she sort of understood that Elsa was coming to take us somewhere, but since I didn't know where it was, she just kept on asking if Elsa was coming and knew where to take us.

Apparently all last night she had nightmares about Sol and I taking her to NYC and putting her in a skyscraper. She had a poor night's sleep and woke up in full anxiety. Sue came over before I got up to make sure Grammy was ready for Elsa and when I got downstairs, she filled me in on Grammy's concerns. Luckily, we gave Grammy one of her old anxiety pills (which was the plan all along) and let her walk around outside before Elsa came. Once Elsa came, Grammy was already visibly more calm, and when she was extra assured that we weren't going to NYC, she started to realize that it was just in her mind.

The three of us left Sue to her work, and Sol still in bed, and drove over to the CBS studios in Rocky Hill. Grammy couldn't believe 'how far away' the studios were from Hartford, or from where she knew the anchors lived. She commented on this the entire day. Elsa managed to park in a handicapped spot (Grammy has a tag) in the wrong parking lot (it was definitely misleading). So we got to walk through the office space for the CBS news to get to the studio. There were only two seats next to each other free in the second row, so I let Elsa and Grammy take those, and I sat in the middle of the front row.

It was a good show to watch. They filmed for about an hour and had stuff about style, cooking, music and news. It was a surprisingly full audience that day, with a variety of sexes and ages. Grammy definitely seemed to enjoy it, and I did too. We even got some maple chocolate chip cookies out of the deal. Later on in the day we all watched it as it aired on tv at 3pm, and Grammy couldn't understand that we had seen it at 10am and it was just being aired on tv later. But it didn't seem to bother her too too much.

She started to have more panic attacks in the afternoon. She took a walk for fresh air, but I also gave her a pill at 4pm. I think it helped, but she never quite got over the stress of it all. Elena called this evening and I could hear Grammy explaining how she is frustrated with how she is feeling (the anxiety, the boredom, the forgetfulness). As I've said before, Grammy often feels like this, but it's not constant. Every once in a while she'll get stuck in a rut about it, like this afternoon and evening. I think the excitement of the morning was enough for a full day for her, so she was worn out this afternoon. She also had the bad sleep last night. She's cleaning the kitchen (even though we have a new dishwasher) in order to keep her up past 7pm. She just wants to go upstairs and lay down with the cat, but we don't want her to be up all night or way early in the morning.

Tomorrow Sol and I leave for New York, and he will leave me there on Saturday and I fly to Israel for three weeks on Sunday. It's quite a trip, and I feel bad for the time that Grammy might have to stay alone while I'm gone. Of course Sue is around and Elsa, Laura and (maybe) Elena will be around, but there will definitely be hours when she's just by herself. I'll also miss Sol a lot on this vacation. Maybe this seems obvious, but the past recent years when I'd leave for extended trips it wasn't so bad. I think it'll be hard because we've been used to spending so much time together.

Grammy quotes:

"...her husband...boyfriend... I don't know what he is. He's very nice... her best friend." Grammy talking to Elena on the phone trying to reference Sol. I think she did a great job. Then she said "I would hope he'd like to do more things than what we do" about him. She's certainly right, but he's been immensely patient and positive in the face of a horrible jobs economy. Luckily, he'll be able to go up to Maine while I'm gone and do some landscaping with one of his friends (and earn some money)!

Photos:

Grammy and Elsa in front of the CBS building in Rocky Hill, entering through the wrong door on our way into the Better Connecticut studio.

Grammy and Elsa on the end of the second row in the audience of Better Connecticut. The woman in the red was on the show making chocolate mousse with avocados.

The set of Better Connecticut from my vantage point in the front row.