Don — Page 117

Celebrating Eighteen

October 12, 2016 at 8:53 am by Claudia

weddingday

We’re celebrating 18 years of marriage today.

I was blessed the day I met Don. Blessed and transformed. Transformed from a woman who was afraid of commitment, hesitant to give up her independence because surely that must be the toll taken when one marries, to a woman who realized, thankfully, that a healthy relationship only makes things better. Independence isn’t lost, it’s enhanced. When someone loves you unselfishly, you’re encouraged to fly.

And that’s the heart of our marriage. We encourage each other to fly, to be the best we can be, all the while knowing that we will be there for each other no matter what. A healthy and whole love doesn’t come with chains. It sets us free.

To Don:

Thank you, dear love, for the years of love and cuddles and wisdom and silliness. Thank you for your constant support, your listening ear. Thank you for music and food and long talks and laughter. Oh, thank you so much for the laughter! Thank you for being a wonderful dad to our beloved dogs, for being a wonderful son-in-law to my parents and brother to my sister. We lost our brother many years ago and Meredith needs a brother. You are that to her.

Thank you for being the finest man I have ever known, always working to be a better person, always kind, always compassionate, always quick to say I’m sorry, always a beautiful human being.

Thank you for putting up with me on those days I’m worried or scared or insecure or harried or short-tempered. Thank you for never judging, always accepting. Thank you for helping me to be a better person.

We’ve gone through a lot together, you and I. We’ve lost your father, our beloved dogs, my father and mother, and we’ve mourned the loss of friends and mentors. We’ve moved across the country, with very little in our bank account, just the hope and dream of a new life.

Life is an adventure. You’ve said that many times. Here’s to more adventures, dearest one.

Happy Wednesday,

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I Found It

September 18, 2016 at 9:39 am by Claudia

Yesterday found me searching for a copy of an old contract, which I ended up not finding. That search took me to my file cabinet in the office, long ignored, and I tossed tons of paper, documents, and old files that are no longer needed – that kind of thing.

But I did find something I’ve been searching for. I probably should wait to post this until our official anniversary, which is October 12th, but what the heck!

A photo of Don and me on the day we met, during our very first conversation:

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There is Don, with an impressive tan (he’d just finished working on a play in Arizona). There’s the shirt he has worn on each consecutive July 4th, and only on July 4th.

We’d spent the day at our friend Kathy’s house at the beach. At this point in the day, it had become much cooler outside, so I threw on my BU sweatshirt. I’m not sure what’s on my jeans – looks like paint. That’s my dear friend Rick next to me. We worked together at BU, were hired at the same time to work in San Diego, and he still heads up the MFA program there. (We both found the loves of our lives right around the same time. Isn’t that lovely?)

There’s the photo date stamp in the lower right hand corner.

I didn’t know this photo existed until about 5 years later, when Jonathan McMurtry, a wonderful actor that we’ve known for years, put it in an envelope and left it in my mailbox at the Globe. Needless to say, we were thrilled that we had some documentation of the day that quite literally changed our lives.

Gosh, I was skinny in those days!

We’d been having a conversation about the fact that we were now in our forties and we couldn’t believe we were that old.

Oh, Don and Claudia! Now you look at this photo and think how young you were!

I’ll share it again on our anniversary. Promise.

Nancy asked for a photo of the zinnias. Here’s one. I’ll take more.

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Today I counted 13 morning glory blooms. It’s a rainy Sunday, so I didn’t take a picture of them, but I do have more to share with you over the coming days.

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Like this one.

We took a trail walk yesterday, where we saw our old friends munching on their dinner.

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They’re shy. When they saw me, they turned their heads away from me. One of them is the mother, the other is the son. Aren’t they beautiful?

Rest in Peace to the great Edward Albee, a playwright who had an enormous influence on a young actress finding her way in the world of theater. I acted in his plays, I loved his words. I heard him speak during my time in Philadelphia and I’ll never forget that day. Bravo.

Happy Sunday.

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Surprises

September 9, 2016 at 10:07 am by Claudia

Erratic sleep night. This happened because I was rather wired after staying up later than usual tending to some potential blog problems which turned out to be non-problems. But all of that kept me in front of the computer screen right before I went to bed, which was and is a no-no. I did finally sleep, so I’m hanging in there.

So, imagine my surprised delight when I stumbled down the stairs on my way to make coffee and glanced out the window of the kitchen door and saw this:

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Whoo hoo! I finished filling the kettle, set it on the stove, grabbed my camera and was out the door in a flash. Or what stands in for a flash when you’re barely awake.

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Oh, lordy, I love morning glories! Isn’t she a beauty?

And, not to be outdone, other plants in the Memorial Garden were calling for my attention:

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The roses are blooming again.

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Starting the day with a smile on my face is the perfect prescription for a restless night.

Goodness it’s hot here! Yesterday it ‘felt like’ 100 degrees. Today, more of the same. I was out running errands. Don, poor guy, was in Manhattan for several hours. When he got home, he headed straight for the shower. And yes! I cooked dinner for him! (You can pat me on the back now.)

Actually, I had a surprise up my sleeve yesterday. Don, being the most generous guy I have ever known, has always sacrificed for me; he always thinks of me first. When I needed my first laptop in 2008, he said I should use some money he had just earned to get it. When I needed another one in 2012, you guessed it, he insisted I use our money to get one, saying things like “You absolutely need it for your blog.” “This is your work, of course you must get one.”

And he took my old laptop, a white Macbook circa 2008, which in the land of tech, is positively ancient. It still has all my crap on it, plus some of his and it doesn’t work well. But he insists he can get by. He also drives our old 2001 Honda; insists on it, actually. (We just had some work done on it and it passed the annual inspection! Huzzah!)

He takes the used, giving me the new.

Recently, I’ve been having a few problems with my laptop (Do you see a pattern here? Every four years.) and I had discussed getting a new MacBook Pro with a 15 inch screen instead of the 13 inch screen I have now, which would make blogging much easier. Don’s response: “You should do it. I’ll take your old one – see if you can get it fixed and I’ll use it.”

But, why should my dear one use something that is fast getting past its prime? That I have used every day for years? Why should he always get ‘used’ – and in this case, really used? So, after much thought, I used the opportunity presented when he was away for the day and went to the Apple Store in Connecticut. With some of my inheritance, I bought him a new Macbook Pro. I came home and was riding high, so excited to surprise him with it! I wrapped it in the only paper we had, Paw Patrol wrapping paper, and wrote a message on a card and plopped it on the coffee table in front of his chair.

He deserves better, you see, and we rarely have the money to do that, but this time I did have some money and I wanted to do something for my sweetheart. After “What’s this? It’s not my birthday…why do you have a present for me?” he opened the card, got pretty emotional, then opened the box.

And he was stunned. He couldn’t believe it! He is so excited, which tells me that all his “I’m fine with a used laptop, I don’t really need it, I can get by” comments were just Don being Don, sacrificing his needs for the ones he deemed more urgent at the time – mine. I love that about him, of course, and I’ve done my share of it, too – that’s what happens in a partnership.

But, oh, what a joy to do this for him!. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

Now you see why I was wired, and why all the blog stuff, coupled with the surprise, kept me up late. It was hard to calm down!

One more picture:

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A glorious morning, morning glory!

Happy Friday.

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Celebrating Eighteen

I Found It

Surprises

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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