From One Who Has "Been There" - Chonda Pierce

She has to be one of the funniest people I've heard speak.

I bought one of her DVDs a year and a half ago. My mom was terminally ill and it was far more difficult to say the things to Mom that I wanted to say than I thought it would be. I surprised myself by getting some of them out without bawling on the spot. Others just weren't that easy to say because to admit them would be to admit that the diagnosis was correct. (That is a different story completely and one I may eventually address -- but for now, let's just stick with where I am going ...)

After Mom's diagnosis of AML Leukemia, I went from Wisconsin back to NJ to be with Mom for Christmas. The prognosis was considered to be about mid- to the end of January. Or that's what one of my sisters had reckoned it would be. No one, except me, figured Mom would still be with us for her 80th birthday in February. (Mom was with us for her 80th birthday and for Easter and for Mother's Day and for Memorial Day 2006. She "lost" her Tuesday, May 30th ... and the time with her is something I would not trade for anything -- except maybe to have her with us completely healthy still ...)

During the time I was at Mom's, an ad fllier came in the mail from the local Christian bookstore. They had some books and videos that looked interesting; and they had greeting card collections on sale.

I had already, quite surprisingly, found quite a few "perfect" cards in the grocery store of all places. But I figured I should check out the ones from the Christian card manufacturing companies -- or should I say, the card manufacturers that specialize in ones with religious messages in them?

I came back with a dozen or so cards and a DVD and CD combo (it had been one of them in the circular that come in the mail). I had never heard of this person, but ... I needed a good laugh and the copy on the packaging promised me a good laugh.

Most evenings I would choose a card from the collection I had amassed by this point (I tried to give Mom a card each day), and then "listen" to something on TV, or just go sit at the kitchen table and not listen to anything. Then I would decorate the envelope with a big, fancy "MOM" and a homemade postage stamp and hand-drawn "postmark" ... that's why I would "listen" to the TV, my visual attention was somewhere else; that's been my preferred method of "watching TV" for years.

I really didn't get much "decorating" done, though, the night I plopped that DVD into the player.

A Piece of My Mind from Chonda Pierce had to be the funniest thing I had heard in a very long time. Comedy as funny as The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, but clean and lacking in inuendo ... except for that one story about when she was a nursing mom and got up to sing the special music one Sunday in church ... not inuendo really but something not all members of an audience might "get" ... **G** In fact, Chonda claims that she never set out to do comedy for just women. She thought she would do a family show; and the men just stopped coming.

Today, while trying to find that pet food store that I had seen advertised in the local free yellow paper advertiser -- I found, instead, a small Christian bookstore in my own neck of the wilds of "Up North" Wisconsin. I am told that "the north" starts at US 8 -- I live 5 miles south of US 8 and the store is about a mile north of it. Both qualify as Up North, to me -- because I also live about 25-30 miles north of the half-way point between the equator and the north pole!

In the racks of this very small store I found three Chonda Pierce DVDs. I bought two, greedily desiring the third but deciding I really shouldn't spend the money I was going to on two so I had to rule out three. It would be nice if I could act "saintly" and say I had left the third so that someone else could be blessed by it. But, I can't say that thought crossed my mind at the time.

Ever since I heard of The Dweebs (local celebrities of sorts), I have wanted to see one of their performances. Tonight, they were "playing" at a festival of one of the local small towns.

And, when I got home from the bookstore, I plopped in one of the Chonda Pierce DVDs and figured I would leave when it was done and go see The Dweebs. Well ... I guess it'll be a while until I see The Dweebs ... I ended up watching both DVDs and forgetting about The Dweebs completely.

Of the three DVDs I have, I recommend Four-Eyed Blonde as the first one to get a hold of and ENJOY!

Find out more about Chonda at chonda.org

Also, check out "I Am Satisfied" at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=32108137
(When you open this page, two different clips start playing automatically. Stop the one at the top. Listen to/watch the video clip lower on the page, then go back to the top and listen to "I Am Satisfied." And the others -- it's late and hubby already went to bed for the night, so I'll have to listen to the others tomorrow -- try them all! I am sure you won't be disappointed!)