anniversary — Page 2

Thirty

July 3, 2024 at 9:07 am by Claudia

I won’t address the elephant in the room except to say I’m enraged.

That anger has to be channeled into “All Hands on Deck” by everyone. So I’ve signed up to help the Biden campaign, as I did in 2020.

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But today is my baby sister’s 60th birthday! I’m 11½ years older than her, so it’s hard to grasp that she’s 60. She’s a beautiful 60, both inside and out. Happy Birthday, dearest Meredith! I love you to the moon and back!

And tomorrow? The anniversary of this day:

But it’s not just another anniversary of the day we met, it’s the 30th anniversary of the day we met. We’ve been together for 30 years! Since we met when we were in our early 40s, it’s a big deal!

You know the story, so I’ll be brief. My friend, the late Kathy McGrath (an actress at the Old Globe Theater) lived in Ocean Beach and threw a Fourth of July party every year. Actors, actresses, staff, designers…everyone came. It was my first full summer in San Diego, and my first ‘Kathy’ party. I had a great time and later in the day, as I went outside (to the barbecues) and came back inside a few times, I noticed this guy (sitting right where you see him in this photo) leaning forward and smiling at me every time I came inside. I knew who he was as I had seen him in a production of Morning’s at Seven when I flew into town the previous summer for my job interview. Kathy was in that production, as well. I remember looking at his photo in the program during intermission because I was so impressed with his performance and I thought “He’s very interesting looking!” Fast forward to about a week before Kathy’s party. The Globe held it’s summer season Company Call where everyone involved in the three shows going on in three theaters was introduced. At the beginning of the Call, Jack O’Brien announced the names of the new Associate Artists, an honor only awarded to those who had done inspiring and excellent work at the Globe for a number of years. Don, who I had noticed already because he was sitting across the aisle and two rows back from me, was one of the honorees. He had no idea it was going to happen and he walked onstage and spoke off the cuff and he was very sweet and funny.

ANYWAY, back to the party: I am a shy person and normally I would have smiled back but only that. This time, after the 4th or 5th smile, I decided to walk across the room and introduce myself. He, of course, didn’t know who I was because I was not coaching the production of Twelfth Night that he was in. I sat down and we started talking about the fact that we couldn’t believe we were in our early forties! How could that be? (Older Claudia and Don now roll their eyes at this.)

By the end of the conversation, I was in ‘crush’ mode, seriously intrigued by and attracted to this man. We all walked down to the beach for the fireworks and Don was sitting several feet away. At one point, he looked back at me, caught my eye, and gave me a big smile.

Little did I know, I was a goner,

It took a while to have a first date as our schedules were different and jam-packed. I also had to engineer several ‘accidental’ meetings in the hallways of the theater in order to flirt with him. (Sounds like high school!) I ran into him at an opening night party where we flirted some more and where my wallet was stolen. He offered to drive me home and comforted me and, as we stood outside on my front stoop, suddenly leaned forward and kissed me. Eventually, we went to the beach on a date that ended with another incredible kiss as he left for the theater, and that was it.

Though I certainly fought it as I liked my single life and was deathly afraid of commitment.

But it was inevitable.

I am profoundly grateful for that party, that particular Fourth of July, where we did indeed see fireworks!

The photo was taken by our dear friend Jonathan McMurtry, who passed away a few years ago and who is greatly missed.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Sixteen

February 17, 2024 at 9:18 am by Claudia

On this date in 2008, I signed into Blogger, wrote a very brief introductory post, and hit publish. I didn’t even know how to post a photo. But I figured it out shortly after that. And so, this little corner of the online-virtual-social media world began. I was tentative at first, wondering if anyone would find me out there in the early days of blogging. Blogging was quite new and there weren’t many of us yet. But if you followed another blog, that blogger would most likely return the favor, and slowly I built up an readership. The list of what I didn’t know was very long, but you know I like a challenge, so I researched and observed and added a header and tried my best to style my blog. It really reminded me of the Wild West. So many of us were trekking into this new world, trying to build our homesteads on the web.

In those days, enhancing the look of the blog was an ongoing challenge. I was always trying something new. We were pretty much stuck with Blogger’s basic layout. It wasn’t until I moved to WordPress (which was a big deal) that I was able to experiment with new layouts, new designs. I learned a bit of coding. I really loved it. I did the entire changeover, moving all my posts from Blogger to WordPress all by myself and believe me, I had no idea if it would work! But it did.

The blog has had many different looks in these 16 years, but this current look has been around the longest. At some point, I was happy with it and the need to change it melted away. WordPress has changed a lot, too, with a new block editor function. I happily said NO to that and I stuck with the ‘classic editor.’

I experimented more than once with trying to make this blog a big money maker. Wouldn’t that have been nice? But I finally realized that I would have had to fashion this blog into something it wasn’t. I would have had to stick to one thing – for example, decorating – and promote it constantly, trying to get sponsorships, thinking about keywords, and stats, and all the things I didn’t want to think about. Mockingbird Hill Cottage is about me and my life here in the Hudson Valley. I write from the heart. All that would have been lost if I’d gone the way of the ‘big’ bloggers. In the end, it just wasn’t me.

My dashboard tells me I have written 5,047 posts. It’s actually a bit more than that – I lost a few in the change to WordPress. Most likely around 5,055 or so. I’ve had 182,408 comments, but 50,572 of those are my responses to comments, something I couldn’t do with Blogger in those days, but could when I changed over to WP.

For the vast majority of these blogging years, I have blogged every day. I decided to cut back a bit last year – from 7 days a week to 4 days a week.

Of course, the best part of all of this has been you. Believe it or not, there are some readers from the very first days of this blog that are still with me. But mostly, there are some that have moved on, for whatever reason, some who have passed away, some that are newer readers. Just like in real life. I used to read a lot more blogs than I do now. And many of the blogs I read daily have disappeared, or haven’t been updated in years. Many now use Instagram as another form of blogging. (Though it isn’t a blog in any way, shape, or form.)

ANYWAY. I’m grateful you’re here. I’m grateful for the friends I have made here. Thank you.

But, honestly, I’m feeling that it’s more of a chore these days. I’ve said so much over these past 16 years. Whatever I wanted you to know about our life here, you know. (Believe me, I don’t share everything). I’m not coaching as much anymore – I have a strong feeling that my days of coaching are coming to an end, given my age and the changes in theater and budgets. I hope that is not the case. Just writing those few words brought tears to my eyes. As you know, both Don and I need to and want to work and there’s not much, if any, of that happening now. We can’t afford to travel these days. Our lives are more contained and more routine. In some ways, we really like that. But it doesn’t make for scintillating blog content. How many times can I say: Don went grocery shopping. Made a pie. I cleaned the bathroom, watered the plants, etc.?

Nothing is for sure, but I think this might be my last year of blogging. It costs me money to maintain this blog and my ads help with that. Nevertheless, there are a lot of moving parts, not the least of which is security for the blog, that take a chunk of money yearly. And more than that, I’m losing my appetite for it. I often feel that I’ve said all I can say.

I go back and forth on this issue. I would deeply miss all of you. I might feel rudderless without this blog. So: I don’t know yet, but I’m giving you a heads up. I’ve never worked at any job in my life for 16 years – just this blog. It might be time to start winding down. But I will stay with it through this year. Who knows? I may stay with it even longer than that. I’ll know more as the year progresses.

Thank you, my friends. Thanks for being here. It means more than you can ever know.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Flowers and an Anniversary Tomorrow

October 11, 2023 at 9:28 am by Claudia

Our limelights are spectacular this year! They’re a very deep pink now.

Still sickened and horrified at the news from Israel and Gaza. Still completely disgusted with the shenanigans in Washington DC. I am escaping into a mystery that I’m reading and that helps. I’m also starting to do a little priming on the Beacon Hill because I’ve had it at least three years and haven’t done much of anything. I need to force myself to work on it even though I’m not particularly motivated. I did find an amazing piece of furniture that will serve as my inspiration piece. It should arrive here tomorrow. That’s what helped me with the Dove Cottage renovation – one piece that I had already purchased (the sofa) with a new project in mind.

But there is a lot to do before I start any kind of decorating. I’ve noticed lots of things that need to be repaired or replaced. I briefly thought of selling it but I’ve since scotched that idea. I figure: I have it, I really wanted it, and once I get a rhythm going, I’ll enjoy working on it.

In other news:

Don and I then: the morning after our wedding in Nevada City, CA.

Don and I now (or nowish):

A little calmer, not quite so ecstatic, quite a bit older and wiser, more in love than ever.

Tomorrow, October 12th, is our 25th wedding anniversary.

It’s a big deal to us, especially since we didn’t meet and eventually marry until we were in our forties. 25 years! Next year, we’ll have been together for 30 years. I’ve written about our story on this blog many times. You know how we feel about each other.

A good marriage takes work. We work very hard at our marriage. I’m proud of us; two people who were a bit damaged when we met each other, but miracle of miracles, were ready to take a leap into the unknown. We were honest with each other from the very beginning and were willing to reveal our fears and frailties. I honestly think that’s what made the difference.

That, and being soul mates.

I am so, so grateful for this man. There’s never a moment when I don’t feel loved and adored and I know that Don feels the same way. He helps me be a better person. He is the best man I know.

So, Happy 25th Anniversary to us! We did it!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Thirty

Sixteen

Flowers and an Anniversary Tomorrow

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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