Do you remember this pair of earrings?

You might remember, then, when I lost one of them last December while doing something in the kitchen and Don and I tore the house apart trying to find it and this went on and on as I completely moved everything in the kitchen the next day, cleaning as I went, until a reader said I should check the silverware drawer (which I was sure wouldn’t work) and then I opened the drawer the next day and there was the earring nestled under the forks? You can read about it here.

I’ve had these earrings for a long time.  It must be twenty years now – I suspect even longer than that. They’re my favorites as they are long and dangly but simple in design.

At the end of Saturday’s rehearsal, I walked back to the apartment and spent the evening answering comments, reading, watching tv, talking to Don on the phone – the usual. Then I prepared to take a bath, which is sort of a nightly thing for me when I’m in Hartford. After I pulled my t-shirt over my head, I reached for my earrings.

There was only one. I immediately did what you would do. I pulled up the cushions on the sofa, I looked under the sofa, the coffee table. I looked in the kitchen. I looked at the t-shirt, shaking it in case the earring was caught on it. I looked in the laundry basket. I looked in the bathroom. Nowhere to be found. Just to be sure, I did the whole thing all over again before I got in bed.

Calm down, I told myself. Maybe the Universe is telling you it’s time to let them go.

But I love  them, I stubbornly said.

But, perhaps due to a lavender scented bubble bath, I remained calm. The next morning, I checked the elevator and the lobby, where there are tables that sometimes hold items that have been found in the building. Nothing.

I decided I would retrace my exact route home Saturday night when I walked to the theater on Sunday morning. Which I did. Imagine me walking slowly, staring at the cement, all the way to the theater. Of course, I found nothing, and I was thinking that even if it had been there, somebody would have picked it up.

I walked into the lobby of the building where the rehearsal rooms are. Nothing. The elevator? Nothing. The long walk down the hallway to the rehearsal space? Nothing. Thinking I’d check the green room and the bathroom after I set my bag down in the rehearsal room, I turned to walk through the doorway.

In the corner between the wall and the doorway, just inside the room – there it was.

Perfectly protected from someone stepping on it, it was tucked into that corner and the silver flashed in the light and I shouted out, “There’s my earring!” thereby shocking the stage management team and Darko, who were already in the room. I guess it decided to spend the night in the rehearsal space.

Amazing. That’s twice now. Since then, I’ve been using those plastic things that slide up the shepherd’s hook on the earring but I need smaller, snugger backs (is that the word?) The ones I’m using work perfectly with another pair I brought along, but not so well on this one.

The Universe is clearly telling me to get some backs and use them.

In the meantime, I check my ears about a thousand times a day.

My nephew went home from the hospital yesterday evening. We are very happy to know that the healing process can continue at home.

Happy Tuesday.

Let me say a couple of things about the horrific situation in Charlottesville.

No more using the benign term ‘alt-right’ for those who are white supremacists/nationalists, racists and Nazis. Call it for what it truly is. Yesterday’s incident was an act of domestic terrorism. And that disgusting excuse for a human being has done everything he can to whip up that base, to incite violence, to pander to them. No surprise that the man who pushed ‘birtherism’ has no morality. Or that Bannon, Miller and Gorka – all on the White House staff – are known White Nationalists.

We have someone occupying the Oval Office who will denounce anyone and freely does just that via his speeches and his tweets, but will not, WILL NOT, denounce Putin or White Nationalists or American Nazis. There are not ‘many sides’ to the violence in Charlottesville. There is only one, that of denouncing and repudiating the evil actions by those who marched yesterday.

He is a traitor to every ideal this country holds dear.

I am so heartsick over what happened yesterday, in America, in 2017. I don’t recognize my country. But clearly this was here, under the surface, all along.

There is either love or fear. Hate is fueled by fear.

We are better than this. And make no mistake, though I choose love, I will not tolerate hate. Tolerance implies a tacit approval or a willingness to accept diverse opinions. All well and good and laudable when it comes to things like religious tolerance, political differences, sexual orientation. I cannot and will not tolerate hate. And hate was on full display yesterday.

My father fought in WWII to defeat Hitler and the Nazis. He would be horrified by what happened yesterday.

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My nephew, Meredith’s son, Mr. 20, is in the hospital. He is in great pain as he fights a virus that has inflamed his intestines and lymph nodes. He is on morphine for the pain. We are very worried about him. They’ve called in a Gastroenterologist and we hope to know more soon.

Say a prayer for him, please.

Say a prayer for our country.