Jenni’s Completely Downloadable JABB 199 Playlist

"Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
but in my mind I know they will still live on and on."
~ from Donald Black and Mark London's "To Sir, With Love"

Hi all,

Welcome to JABB 199!  It's a bit thrown together because I'm all ready preparing for two big upcoming events.  I'd really appreciate any contributions any of you might have for either. 

First, on August 24th I will be sending CABB 3.  Many of us at the JABB YahooGroup
decided that it'd be a good thing to commemorate Charles Rocket annually on his birthdate.  So if you have anything you'd like to say about him please email me no later than August 23rd.  Second, JABB 200 will follow CABB 3.  I'd like to have it be really special cause, good gosh!, we hit 200!  So I'm looking either for a list of things people have learned from JABB or a message you might write to your fellow members to celebrate the occasion.  I would need contributions for JABB 200 no later than August 20th.  Or if you need a little extra time that's fine, I'd just like to know by August 20th how many submissions I can expect. 

Now, I'm also working on a little side project.  I've decided with all that's going on in the world, it'd be nice to get a little positivity and love out there.  And I think we're just the people to do it!  So, I'm creating thread angels much like you see here on our JABB Store.  They will have little tags attached to them that read "God loves YOU!!!" and a link to this site.  I will then send 5 (at no cost to you) to any JABB member who will agree to drop 4 off at locations around them.  (You may keep the other one for yourself.)  All you have to do is let me know when you receive the angels from me and where you dropped them (generally speaking, I don't need exact addresses).  We'll then see if anyone looks us up and shares their story of how they found the angel with us!  Obviously, I will need the snail mail addies of any of you who choose to participate.  If you'd like references from a couple fellow JABBers to assure you I'm not a wacko, I'm sure I could supply those.  I really hope this takes off!

If you have any questions about any of this, please don't hesitate to email me or I also have AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger.  I can supply you with my contact info for those if you email me with your request. 

Finally, I've decided to have a lil extra fun with the newsletter pages.  So whenever I have the time, I'll hide an "easter egg" on a newsletter page (sorta like on DVDs).  In fact, if you're reading this on the web page, there's an easter egg on here!  It's not a prize, just a lil added fun.  Now ya just gotta find it... 

Thanks and have a good week!

God bless,
Jenni
Co-Founder, Head Writer, and Web Mistress of the John/Andrew Bucket Brigade



In my last installment of “Jenni and Jenni Write JABB,” I cut it off on August 10th, 1997.  This installment begins a few days later and covers my reactions to the first half of the fourth season of “Touched by an Angel” as it unfolded.  As with last time I retained all grammatical and punctuation errors just for fun.  All errors in common sense have been retained because removing them would have left me with precious little material.  ;-)  These entries reference several family members so I changed those names.  So they can’t track me down and commit me! 
 
WARNING: The following contains references to tabloid articles.  I stress *tabloid* articles.  Please do not assume any of it is true (as my younger self seems to have!) 
 
Here goes…


 
August 21, 1997
“Grandma showed me an article in one of those tabloids.  Supposedly Roma Downey wants more money.  At first I was mad at her.  Then I actually read the article.  She actually only wants money for syndication & merchandise.  I thought they got money for that any ways.  She threatening to walk mid-season.  They aren’t giving in and say their hiring three new angels.  I’m bothered by that alone.  I realize I didn’t like Andrew at first & now I think he’s great, but 3.  Maybe they’ll just guest star.  Back to Roma… 

Supposedly she showed up to work despite what a lot of people thought.  Then she went to Della Reese in tears saying she didn’t want fans to hate her or feel she was deserting them.  I feel bad automatically blaming her.  I think she’s right.  I also feel bad I assumed Andrew would leave first.  I don’t know why may be because he’s a guy or because the AOD has never stuck around for long.  I hope she wins, I can’t imagine the show w/o her.  On the flip side Andrew could do very well himself, but I’d miss Monica, the Angel of Truth.  The reason I saw this is because Andrew was on Promised Land by himself.  It was so neat, I think.  I’ll have plenty inspiration for his letter and Roma Downey’s.  I’m more nervous about that than school & its not even my life.  I pray & hope she can stay, the show people seem really mean their making her come to work super early.”
 
2006:
::awkward silence::  Wow…  I don’t know what’s more psycho about that: the unquestioning belief in a tabloid or the line “may be because he’s a guy” as explanation for why Andrew would leave the show!  That’s a surprisingly anti-male sentiment popping up there!  The fact that I was agonizing over issues that had approximately zero to do with me is also troubling.  I love some of the crazy punctuation, too!  Or lack thereof. 

Before I move on I would like to stress that was a tabloid article I was reading.  I have no idea if there were salary issues going on at the time for real or not.  If there were I’m sure it was very complicated and not as black and white as my 15 year old self would have liked to have believed!
 
September 5, 1997
(What’s happening here is my fanatic religious cousin I only met once [thankfully] was on one of her rants.  Names changed to protect me from another religious lecture.)

“Kayla just sat there and gave me a lecture on how history books should be about the founding father’s religion.  Meanwhile I’m looking at her occasionally nodding & plotting out TBA’s new season (which I believe starts with a 2 hour movie.)  She [“Kayla”] actually had the nerve to tell me I needed a hair-cut.  Now to the important news.  The tabloids, who just a few weeks [ago] I had believed, I now hate & despise.”
 
2006:
I then write about learning of Princess Di’s death.  Hence the hating of the tabloids.  Really it’s a pretty somber entry but I include it here cause it’s the first documented case of my zoning out and pondering TBAA during a lecture.  Something I got very good at in college, believe me!
 


September 8, 1997
More names changed to protect me!

“Now I’ll tell about the article in T.V. Guide.  Apparently Taylor (Corky) and a Hispanic angel with become regulars.  Roma Downey will play characters other than Monica and there’s something about Broadway & beauty pageant fantasy episodes.  I don’t quite get that.  There’ll be shows about cults, runaways, and blacklisting.  Randy Travis will be back for Christmas.  Better yet I saw scenes the first episode is a cross-over with Promised Land.  It looks really good.  There’s an Andrew crying/praying scene.  Speaking of Andrew I remember when Jake and Kira were making fun of Andrew I had said I didn’t care if he went bald and gained two hundred pounds.  Well I saw the scenes and… I knew something was different.  Jake said he’d cut his hair and dyed it but that didn’t seem right.  So Mom watched it and I asked her what was different.  It seems he’s gained about 20 pounds.  I don’t care, in fact, I think its fitting for a guy who eats rich, French food.  I can’t wait to see the show and no matter what Andrew is still the coolest.”
 
2006:
“And I wanna marry him and the wedding colors will be peach and Barbie pink and we’ll have ten kids and they’ll, like, be
totally adorable and I’ll name one Muffy.”  Why did I have to sound so much like a teenybopper?!?  WHY?!  And good gosh what’s with the weight gain talk?!  That may have been the period where I was psycho-paranoid that someone I knew would end up with anorexia (I watched way too many Lifetime movies) and so I was actually excited when people gained weight.  I’ve actually noticed something of a theme in my journals.  Anything worried sounding about John Dye is preceded or followed by a similar worry regarding someone I knew at the time.  Can we say transference?

Is anyone else starting to think, though, that 15 year old Jenni had no concept of John Dye?  He’s always Andrew but yet I reference Roma and Della quite often!  Oh well.  Also fun that this is the first, albeit cryptic, reference to Rafael.  Corky, of course, refers to Chris Burke’s role in “Life Goes On,” a show I
loved.

 
October 1, 1997
“I hate the tabloids!  They’re saying Andrew & Tess are mad at each other b/c he wants more $.  Get over it!  I went to their website & his.  People are writing in furious about the rumors.”
 
2006:
Well, at least I got it through my head that tabloids generally are rumors.  Still mildly creeped out by my failure to properly differentiate actors from characters.  One wonders how Andrew would spend an actor’s salary… 
 
October 12, 1997
“We’ll I’ve seen 3 TBaA episodes.  Each has gotten better & better.  Both Andrew & Monica have their raises.  Della Reese thinks that the co. is discriminating because was only offered 12%.  Andrew got 30% & Monica 100%.  She says she loves the cast, so I’m not worried.  When the show premiered the 3 of them threw a party for the crew.  Tonight’s episode looks really good.  More later.”
 
2006:
Seriously have no idea how accurate any of that was.  I do recall seeing actual bona fide news articles about this but I can’t remember anything specific.  I’m beginning to wonder if I even had John Dye’s name memorized at this point.  Why is he always Andrew?!? 
 
November 1, 1997
In this deranged entry I detail the trauma of losing power for a week after a massive snowstorm in my area.

“Right now I’m preoccupied w/something, or maybe someone else.  Our house has had no electricity since late Sat. night.  I couldn’t watch TBAA so I called grandma & she agreed to tape it.  Then she lost power.  I tried Meghan but she didn’t answer.  Finally I called Aunt Karla and she was more than happy to tape it.  I found out later that it ended up on two tapes but that was all right.  Aunt Karla thought I’d only missed a couple seconds.  That was fine.  Wednesday at school Meghan said I had to watch it & see Andrew.  I figured it was simply because he was in shorts and it was the camp episode I’d been looking forward to.  Last night I went over there [Aunt Karla’s] to
spend the night.  We couldn’t find the tapes so I waited til the morning.  It had ended up on two tapes and they thought they’d found both of them.  So I watched the first tape.  Besides Mitch picking on Andrew (someone) it was a great episode.  The angels ended up running a camp for HIV+ girls.  They all thought Andrew was adorable but don’t we all.  Rafael was playing the guitar, storyline great, and there was going to be a talent show & I hoped Andrew would sing.  He was the swimming instructor and one of the girls, Erin, got this crush on him.  Here he was philosophical, listening to her, acknowledging she could die.  She went to the rock where they wrote the names all the girls that didn’t come back and wrote ‘Erin loves Andrew’ on it.  It was kind of cool but weird to think about.  I guess that’s how Andrew felt when she showed it to him.  He said he was flattered but it couldn’t happen.  She screamed at him to leave and he did with his head hung down.  It was so pathetic.  Then her friends came and they started to erase his name.  Erin & them agreed to suicide pact and the tape started to rewind.  I have to know what happened.  How did Andrew do?  Did they kill themselves?  Did Andrew cry or maybe sing?  I hope, hope, hope Mitch finds the rest the suspense is driving me crazy and I might not know for 7 months if he doesn’t find it.”
 
2006:
My cousin “Mitch” did not find it.  I waited seven months and, believe it or not, I survived.  :-)  But gosh that was horrible not seeing the end!  My favorite part of this entry is “They all thought Andrew was adorable but don’t we all.”  I definitely did!  And do!  For the record, I no longer think Erin’s writing her and Andrew’s name on the Face was remotely cool.  Eek.
 
November 9, 1997
Because we were with out power (and heating) for a week, my family ended up staying with various family members.  I spent one night at my paternal grandparents’ house.  That was a treat because they had the Internet!  Know that I cringed as I transcribed the following from my journal…

“Wednesday we stayed at Grandpa Bob’s and I surfed the net.  Mostly I stayed at John Dye’s home page.  It was so
fun, it was pathetic.  I read an interview with him and some of our similarities are scary like fav restaurant- Taco Bell, Movie as child- Wizard of Oz, very religious, nice, etc.  The only disappointment was that he smokes.  So now Jake keeps joking about him dying.

I missed TBAA but Grandma taped it and that night I did get to see the scenes for the next one… “My Dinner with Andrew.”  It wasn’t until Thurs. during PL that I saw them again & I totally freaked.  Andrew’s going out on a date and I think he’s falling in love with her.  Adam came back.  In less than 2 hours I’ll know what happens.  I’m actually going to get their letters out tomorrow.  I hope I hear back but I know it’s hard for them to write back or even send a picture. 

Well more later.  I hope Andrew stays an angel!!”
 
2006:
Oof…  Where to start?  Obviously it’s insane that I was trying to build a case for John Dye and myself being similar.  But, hey, at least I remembered his name and used it properly!  “Jake,” by the way, is my alias for my brother who received
endless joy in teasing me about John Dye.  Easy target since I’m uber-worried about lung cancer in general.  Brat…  And, as with the weight issues, this entry is followed by me relating a conversation I had with a smoking friend my own age who made me promise to never start because she was all ready feeling the effects but couldn’t stop.  So definitely transference.

 Nice that I nearly had a nervous breakdown over MDWA.  Very interesting that I thought Andrew could potentially fall in love considering I now believe he’s asexual.  Although, in my defense, those promos were totally misleading.  If I remember correctly they actually contained some variation on the words “But will an angel get too close to his assignment and lose his wings?”  EEEEEKKK!!!  I still remember what I was wearing that night when I watched that episode.  In my own home!  We’d gotten power back, finally!
 
December 31, 1997
Tucked into my year in review for 1997 is this:

“Well here we are the last day of 1997.  Only 5 hours left.  I read all my 1997 entries and boy a lot has changed.  I haven’t watched B&B [“Beauty and the Beast”] or Christy in the longest time.  I love TBaA and its the best of the three.”
 
2006:
And so my 1997 ended with thoughts of TBAA and several teenage concerns and dramas I won’t relate here.  In the next installment (whenever that is) I’ll finish out TBAA’s 4th season.  Those entries will also cover my family getting the Internet and… the origins of JABB! 

CABB 3
JABB TOC

(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from "Touched by an Angel" and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions.  They are not being used to seek profit.)