friends — Page 4

Day Thirty-Eight

April 20, 2020 at 9:35 am by Claudia

We’re getting close to 40 days in self-isolation. The mind boggles.

We had a great FaceTime call with Rick and Doug yesterday. It was so good to talk to them. Rick has been baking a lot; it’s one of his favorite things to do. Don wondered, kiddingly, why Rick wasn’t delivering sweets to us while we are in quarantine. About 30 minutes after the call, Don’s phone rang and Rick said he was going to drop off a piece of cake. They left it on the funky patio in a piece of Tupperware. Don stood in the doorway and he and Rick actually got to see each other in person. About ten minutes later, the phone rang again. They were going to drop off two masks (they had several) for us. This time, I stood in the doorway and thanked him. I can’t tell you, first of all, how sweet it was of them, but secondly and most importantly, how lovely it was to see them in the flesh – if only briefly. Looking forward to the time when we can actually hug each other.

I worked rather obsessively on the puzzle, of course – at the end of the day my back hurt from bending over the table so much. This is a puzzle that doesn’t have large blocks of one color; since it consists of book covers – and a lot of them – the colors change all of the time. So I started with the top edge of the puzzle and also the bottom edge. I have all of the corners in place. The design has a few larger versions of the book jackets/covers and I’m trying to piece them together to help anchor the whole thing. I also sorted through all the pieces and put all the pieces with text in one bowl, and all the pieces with faces in another.

The top edge.

The bottom edge – not quite together yet.

By the way, Rick has been to our local nursery and says it’s not at all crowded. So I’m going to go mid-week, I think.

I stopped reading Modern Nature mostly because it’s too hard to deal with. While he writes about his garden, he also writes about growing up as a young gay boy in the boarding school era in England, when boys were punished for exhibiting any homosexual behavior, and, of course, it’s depressing. He’s also dealing in the present with his diagnosis of HIV, watching his friends die from AIDS, and becoming more ill over time. It’s a curious combination of beauty and pain and loss, and I think I just can’t go there right now. I lost so many friends to AIDS, good friends, people who were here one day and gone the next. It’s just too hard to read during this pandemic. I’ll keep it on hand, and read a passage every once in a while, but it can’t be my only read. What am I going to read next? I’m going to reread A Gentleman in Moscow, my favorite book of the last several years. It’s beautiful, life-affirming, and in fact, timely, as it deals with a Count who is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to house arrest within the walls of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. For the rest of his life. I’ve written about this book many times on this blog. I think it’s the perfect read for this moment in time.

We fell asleep again while watching Cheers last night. How exciting we are!

Stay safe. Stay Home. If you go out, wear a mask.

Happy Monday.

Back Home

February 7, 2020 at 10:52 am by Claudia

Late start this morning. I slept in until 8 am – a true rarity. After the past two days of very little sleep and the intensity of the trip to Hartford and back yesterday, I was well and truly wiped out.

The weather was a huge factor in my drive yesterday. On the way to Hartford, it was foggy and hard to see. On the way home, at night, it was raining heavily and I could barely see the white lane markers on the highway. I was so tired and tense from the journey that my muscles ached when I got home. But I did get home and boy, was I happy to see my husband open the door when he heard my car in the driveway. It really feels as if I ran a race yesterday. The actual work, watching the run-through, taking notes, and talking to the actors, was relatively easy. The show is in good shape and the cast is doing terrific work. It was just the other stuff that was hard; trying to find a moment to eat something, the terrible weather, the long drive.

It’s done and I did it all on my own, despite an offer from Don to come with me. So I’m giving myself a little pat on the back. But just a little one.

I arrived home and Don shared the news that a friend of ours, Mike Kruglinski, had died. Mike lived in our town, was very active in politics (which is how we met him) and was one of the kindest men I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. His spirit was so joyful and positive. He had been fighting cancer. Mike’s wife, Diane, sometimes reads this blog. My heart goes out to his family. He will be sorely missed. Last year, we lost another member of our Democrat Committee, Barbara Sides. Too much loss.

Another of Don’s friends here in town is battling cancer. Another, back in California, has serious heart problems.

It’s all too much sometimes. Our prayers and thoughts are with all who suffer loss and who are faced with illness.

Don is reading Walden and he really loves it. I should read it again because I read it in high school, when it was an assignment, and I know I would get much more out of it at this point in my life. We spent this morning talking about books and the power of reading, the intimacy that comes with reading the words on a page – just you and the book and your reaction to those words. It’s such a blessing, reading. Especially in these times.

I’m almost done with Transcription and then I’ll move on to The Snowman by Jo Nesbø. Come to think of it, except for some small chores that need to be done, that’s how I’m going to spend my day.

Happy Friday.

Wednesday Thoughts

December 4, 2019 at 9:12 am by Claudia

After two days of hard work outside, averaging 3 – 4 hours of shoveling and chopping ice, we are sore! Truly exhausting. But it had to be done. And we have to re-salt every morning as the slush and snow freeze again overnight. Next week it’s supposed to rain, so this snow might be short-lived.

Tomorrow, I go into the city to do one more day of work on the show on which I’ve been consulting. Today, I have to sit down and figure out how to hook up our new printer. Our old one stopped scanning clearly and was a pain in the tush. (I’m the tech person in this household.)

Our good friend, Richard Easton, died on Monday. He was born in Canada and trained in England. He worked with everyone over the years, including John Gielgud. He was in Kenneth Branagh’s movie version of Henry V. I met him when I moved to San Diego. He and Jack O’Brien, who was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe at the time, had known each other for years. Richard moved to San Diego to be a part of the Globe as an Associate Artist, actor, and teacher. He was an extraordinary actor. As well as coaching him in countless productions during my 8 years there, he also served as an actor/mentor to our students, so he was my colleague. The remembrances that are springing up on Facebook from our former students are heartwarming and filled with love. He was rigorous in his approach to a role and in his approach to acting. And every one of our students benefitted from that rigor. What a role model he was!

As a coach, I’ve never seen someone so willing to take my notes, indeed, he asked for them after every run-through. He wanted correction, guidance, whatever I could offer. Truth be told, he was so good – especially with Shakespeare – that I hardly ever needed to note him. Dialects? Yes. Shakespeare? No.

I loved working with him, knowing him, socializing with him. What an honor it was. And a joy.

Eventually, he moved back to NYC, where he promptly won a Tony Award for his performance as A.E. Housman in The Invention of Love, directed by Jack O’Brien. When Don and I moved East, he called me and asked me to coach him on a period sound for his portrayal of Benjamin Franklin on PBS. I was just starting to freelance and was feeling adrift after working full-time as a professor. But he, bless him, was a generous and loyal friend and reached out to me for help. I treasure that last experience of working one-on-one with him.

His health declined in recent years. I hadn’t seen him in quite a long time. But he was cared for and watched over by two actor friends who were committed to his well-being.

He will be sorely missed. In the past few years, we have lost our friends, Kathy McGrath, Jonathan McMurtry, and now Richard. All brilliant actors. All Associate Artists at the Old Globe who lived in San Diego for several years in order to work with Jack. It’s the end of an era.

Rest in Peace, my friend.

Happy Wednesday.

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