A Married Woman....

My life had certainly changed dramatically. Working on the Tonight Show AND being married. Jake and I knew we had to find another place to live - hotels on the weekends with his kids were cost-prohibitive, and the guest house was barely large enough for two. My landlord wasn't thrilled with the change of events, either. He'd rented the place to a single woman - not a family of six. A family of six? How the heck had that happened, even part time?

Jakes, ex-wife, Laura, tried to get "on board" with this marriage thing, but any fool could see she would have been happy to have remained the current Mrs. Howe rather than the "ex". The house in the Hollywood Hills was beautiful but difficult to maintain on one strained income. Laura was a "stay at home" and wanted to stay that way. I,on the other hand, had no problem working. I loved it. And I loved seeing his kids every other weekend, even if we were a bit crowded.

Looking for a place to rent proved challenging for several reasons.

I haven't spoken much about Jake's work other than to say he was an "agent". Well, there are all sorts of agents, some with high ticket clients, others not so high. There are all sorts of agencies too. Jake was "almost in the middle" on both counts. He represented people you'd maybe recognize but not necessarily know their names, except for the couple on "Days of our Lives"....everyone knew who they were. And that explained why Jake was in the halls on NBC the day we met.

Since the divorce Jake had been in a professional slump. He had an eye for talent but now not so much. His boss wasn't thrilled with the situation and a remedy needed to be found fairly quickly. With his 40th birthday looming in the not so distant future, Jake was not a happy camper.

I, on the other hand, was having a great time at work. Betsy and I had become great friends and I lived vicariously through her social calendar. One night Chevy Chase coming over for dinner - this was before he was "the" Chevy Chase but merely a writer on the Smothers Brothers Show. Another night an unknown comedian, Freddie Prinze, was sleeping on her couch awaiting his first appearance on the Tonight Show.

I enjoyed my job - even putting Alpo in the bowl for the pups before the commercial. There was a professional dog trainer, of course, and the dogs always arrived hungry. Except for the night one didn't and just stared at the dish. Ever the comedian and quick-wit, Johnny ran back stage and pretended to gobble the food. I stood right there watching what became a famous Tonight Show story.

None of this helped us find a place to live, though, and time was running out. Sidney Salkow was less than enthusiastic as every other weekend approached and finally said, "one month more, Janet". We ramped up the search. We had almost decided on a small rental in Burbank with two bedrooms and enough room for bunk beds and a couch for Sylvie, his four year old daughter.

Jake had moved most of his things from the small boat but on his last trip he noticed a "for sale" sign on a significantly larger cabin cruiser on his dock. He returned enthusiastically pitching this as our next home. I'd love life on the water. The freedom, the fun of taking our "house" out for a sunset cruise. And there would be room for the kids. How big was this floating palace? 32 feet. In the spirit of being stupid I went to take a look. It was a nice boat, it wasn't hideously expensive and it might be fun for a little while. But we had to pay cash and that wasn't our largest commodity right now.

How about my taking out a loan at the NBC credit union? It could come right out of my paycheck.

We moved onto the boat about two months before my 25th birthday and our first anniversary.