Betsy's Blog

         Who says that anyone can play the piano? I took lessons, practiced some, and can only play one song from memory. Now let’s take a closer look at a 72-year-old who is still playing the piano to stadium-size audiences. Yes, I am talking about the original piano man, Billy Joel. He hails from New Jersey and still sings with all the swag of his past. Not only that, but he is selling out stadium concerts by merely sitting on stage behind a white, grand piano. His recent concert in Las Vegas began and ended with a solo spotlight shining on Billy playing the keys. He mixed it up with rock, jazz, and some blues. Then he gradually added some musicians playing electric guitar, a bass, and a lot of fancy lights. Welcome to this amazing concert that I attended in the new Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium built for football games with the local Raiders team. It is transformed into a concert venue with chairs on the football field and a large stage surrounded by white scre...

Omicron is raging! I am sick and tired of Covid. Fourteen days ago, it arrived in my household and it is not over yet. My son is still sick as a dog. He tried to return to his job, but blacked out and almost fainted. His boss sent him home saying he doesn’t want sick employees showing up. However, it was Human Resources who called him up and told him it was time for him to return to work. New Year was a spreader event around the world. As a result, Covid has also affected my public school teaching job. Due to my exposure to a family member living in my home, I had to quarantine for five days. During this time, I was required to get two negative Covid tests with the results sent to my Principal. Then, my school district decided to take a five-day “pause” for staff and students. The concept was to give time for teachers and students to heal while the school germs disappeared. However, it has been thwarted by the new variant, Omicron. So we will see what happens when school resumes....

       “Would you like a face mask?” I asked this question over a hundred times as a volunteer usher at “The Christmas Carol” performance in Las Vegas. I shivered in my winter coat handing out black face masks to the patrons. Recently, the CDC announced that cloth face masks are useless, so I bought black KN95 masks. Two paid ushers stood with me checking vaccination cards as the patrons of the arts arrived. It was surprising how many forgot their driver's license or vaccination card as proof of ID. Then they had to call home to ask a family member to email them their vaccinations. The ‘Tiny Tim’ actor arrived with his mom at the backstage Smith Center entrance. Newly vaccinated children proudly showed their immunization cards with a smile. They were all dressed up in red and green. In the lobby, there were expensive shirts for sale with holiday cheer, ‘Bah Humbug’ and ‘Scrooge & Marley.’  The theater is a blast to the past with marble floors and private r...

Who believes in Christmas magic? Shania Twain surely does and so do I. Shania has a miracle story to tell. She developed vocal cord problems and lost her voice in 2003. Her life revolves around her voice. It turns out she was bitten by a tick while horseback riding and contracted a bacterial infection. Eventually, her doctor diagnosed her with Lyme’s disease and she was forced to take a break from performing. The doctor told her that she might lose her voice forever. So Shania chose to have risky surgery to repair her voice. Luckily, it was successful and she just signed up to extend her Las Vegas residency concert into 2022.  Shania has released over 85 million albums worldwide since her first album debuted in 1993.  My sister and I were fortunate to hear Shania's voice soar over the sold-out crowd of 7000 fans at the Zappos Theater in Las Vegas. Shania performed for two hours straight as she danced around the stage with a spunky attitude. The audience wore cowboy hats that...

  Who mentioned they can’t get ‘no satisfaction?  My husband and I were very satisfied to get first row tickets at ‘The Rolling Stones Concert’ live in Las Vegas! That’s what I call winning the ‘Golden Tickets’. I was up on my feet dancing the whole concert and got over 11,000 steps on my smartwatch. Mick Jagger has more energy at age 78 than me. He sang and danced non-stop like an energizer bunny for 150 minutes. We met a loyal Mick fan in the audience from our home state of Michigan. He said that a case of pandemic boredom has caused him to follow the Rolling Stones tour around the country. As a loyal fan, he wore the official concert T-shirt and told us the lineup of songs by heart. He also jumped up and down dancing all night blocking our view. I read in the Las Vegas Newspaper that Mick Jagger spent the afternoon before his concert wandering around the old town area of Las Vegas. Apparently, he was not noticed by the general public. I wonder what Mick and his bodyguards...

  Did you know that Gwen Stefani is 52 years old and 5’ 6” tall? It’s hard to believe watching her dance all over the stage during her two-hour concert last night. I was lucky enough to see her perform during her last week of residency at the Zappos Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the same theater that Britney Spears performed in not so long ago. I hope Britney returns at some point. I would love to see her live again. I was lucky enough to see Brtiney in concert twice in The Netherlands long ago.  Anyways, back to Gwen. I was not surprised that it was a full house. The audience was dressed in different costumes from Gwen’s long career. The mosh crowd at the front of the stage had been waiting outside the theater for hours with homemade signs trying to get closer to the icon. It was worth the wait for the lucky few who Gwen chose to climb up on stage. Gwen bantered with them in a playful way as she directed them where to stand socially distant and kept saying, “I don’t wan...

       I hate waking up in the middle of the night worrying about my day ahead. My heart starts racing thinking of work and my list of things to do. I try to meditate to get back to sleep. Sometimes it works. Actually, researchers have discovered that anxiety helps us to respond to threats. Our brains are wired to process threats more efficiently. How can this help us? One study shows that people with anxiety avoid fatal accidents more often. This makes sense because of our innate fear of dangerous situations. If you think about it, most car accidents are caused by reckless speed and driving. If you are a nervous driver like me, I follow the speed limit and stay in the same lane as much as possible. I don’t care if cars honk at me! My anxiety led me to get my booster COVID vaccine. It is a perk of being 65 or older. Today was the first day it was available and I waited in a long line at Walgreens. Now I am triply inoculated against COVID. While I was there, I als...