Mockingbird Hill Cottage
We’re open. Hamlet is one of the best productions I’ve ever worked on. Simply stunning. The audience cheered and whooped at intermission. They went wild at the end of the play. It’s that good.
The cast is enormously talented. They are also very, very nice. It’s been a joy. As always, I’m ready to go home, but sad to leave. Ah, well. Such is the push-pull of the theater life.
So this is a short one. Have to pack. Have to load the car. Have to get Scout ready for the journey home.
Happy Saturday.
My last day here and the cranes are back. Lots of noise outside.
There’s certainly a list of things I won’t miss when I return home: the endless roadwork and construction that has been going on around the hotel and the apartment building, the crane work that has gone on the whole time I’ve been in the apartment – today the cranes are hoisting giant letters to put on the side of the building next door. As a slow-waker-upper, I won’t miss having to go outside first thing every morning to walk Scout.
But I will miss this apartment. I wrote about this last year, I believe, and I’m going to try to put it in words again this year. There’s something about being away from home in a cozy apartment that I find enormously appealing. While I miss my house, of course, I really like these periods away from home. I’m in Hartford to do my work and only to do my work. So all other distractions (save Scout this time) are out of the picture. I’m several floors up in an old apartment building with high ceilings and airy white walls. I can do whatever I want to.
Don calls it my “Mary Tyler Moore Life” and he’s sort of right. And, let me be clear, he totally gets it and understands the attraction. He’s not threatened by it at all. I was single for a long time. I didn’t meet Don until I was 41. I lived by myself in a series of apartments, from very small studios to one bedrooms. I liked being able to shut the door on the world and nest in my small space. (I am a veteran of very small spaces, believe me.) I am also someone who tends to be solitary. I like my own company. I’ve always been that way.
Living away from home in a little apartment, unable to do any of the many chores that need to be done back at the cottage, unable to be with Don, gives me permission to experience a taste of that life I used to lead. It was a life I liked very much. I get all the social interaction I need at the theater. I come home to a quiet (well, fairly quiet) apartment where all I have to worry about is what to fix for dinner, what book to read, what television show to watch, what blogs to visit.
Would I, at this stage in my life, want this all the time? A resounding NO. I love my husband, I love our life together, I miss him every day. I cannot wait until the three of us are reunited at the cottage, where we belong. Meeting Don and building a life with him has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I have a partner in life who is the loveliest, finest man I know, who makes every day an adventure, who loves me completely.
Would I trade that for anything else? Of course not.
But every once in a while, I get to go off by myself and live my Mary Tyler Moore Life for several weeks. I get to indulge that part of me that loved being on my own. How lucky is that?
Like clockwork, right about now I find I’ve had enough of it and I’m ready to go back home to my cottage and my husband and my dog. I reached that point yesterday, a day where it was damp and windy and rainy, where I watched part of the show but didn’t take any notes because the actors need to make it their own now, where I found myself thinking about packing and getting out of here, where I started thinking about home.
Having a little pied-à-terre in the city is quite lovely. And it’s been even lovelier with Scout along for the ride. She has been great company and her adventuresome spirit has been a true delight. She’ll miss this little apartment, too – the rides in the elevator, the dogs she’s made friends with, the people on the street who stop and talk to her, the park, the park, the park, the scents, the sidewalks. Her other life in the country might be a little boring.
We’ll find some adventures there, my girl. We will.
Opening Night tonight and home tomorrow.
Book Review of Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon on Just Let Me Finish This Page.
Happy Friday.
This is my new favorite way to brew coffee. Funnily enough, we’ve had this filter holder (maybe made by Melitta?) for a long time. It usually sits in a cupboard at home. I brought it with me, along with some individual filters. When I was in Chautauqua earlier this summer, Andrea, one of my roommates, showed me a collapsible filter holder (I’m including the link because it’s such a neat idea) that she took with her on the road. She is a costume designer and she travels a lot. She also likes strong coffee and this way of making coffee results in a good, strong cup. (I still want to get that collapsible holder!) She made me a cup and I was sold.
I suppose it’s the same idea as a Keurig, but much less expensive. Just the holder, a filter and however much coffee you want to use. I am a Peets French Roast fan, so that’s what I spoon into the filter. I’ve been using the teakettle here to boil water, add it slowly to the filter in a swirling motion and voilà! Great, great coffee. It takes more time, but I’ve been thinking about that. Just as making tea can be a sort of ritual, I think making a cup of coffee should be as well. It’s one of my favorite things about the morning, so why not honor that ritual?
When Don was here, I made his coffee this way and he really loved it. I think we’re sold. I don’t know when I bought this filter holder, but it was years ago and it probably cost $5.00 or less. Can’t beat the price.
I finished this book yesterday.
I miss my friends in Mitford. Jan Karon has such a gift for creating a small town and all its inhabitants. It was over 500 pages long and I couldn’t put it down. Now I’m sad. Where are all my friends in Mitford, North Carolina? It’s a great gift when you can read a book and feel surrounded by friends. A great gift.
My mother loved these books and I would always let her know when a new one was coming out. I miss talking to her about them. Love you, Mom.
I’ll review it either tomorrow or Monday, depending on my schedule. But I’ll give you a heads up: it’s wonderful.
The show is going very well. Scout is doing well. She greeted me last night full of hyper energy. She ran a bit in the park (just a bit) and she ran down the street back to the apartment. I had to rein her in! She was hungry – so far, so good with the food staying down – and she doesn’t like me being away at night, so she was glad I was home. In fact, she had that slightly crazed look in her eyes that only Scout can get. I shake my head in amazement. Now, she’ll sleep through most of the day.
So I’m staying for at least one more night, and will most likely stay through Opening Night tomorrow, although I have nothing to wear. Then we’ll pack up early in the morning and head home.
More on all of that tomorrow: living in an apartment away from home and why I will miss it.
Happy Thursday.
