A different viewpoint – cords and all. We don’t stress a whole lot about cords here. I mean, I try to tuck them behind objects if I can, but let’s face it, they’re an everyday reality in our lives, so why worry about them?

A magazine doesn’t live here, we do.

I’ve been thinking about bankruptcy and Sears this week. It makes me sad. Sears was such a part of my childhood years in Dearborn, Michigan. There was a Sears in Lincoln Park, which is very close to Dearborn, and we spent a lot of time there. My parents didn’t have much money and Sears could always be counted on for affordable merchandise. We went there at least once a week. When I was a little girl, I would ask my mom to take me to the doll displays and I would stand there for quite a long time, gazing up at the dolls, telling my mom and dad what dolls I wanted. When I got a bit older, I would walk to the handbag section – or purses, as we called them then. Heck, I still call them purses. I loved purses! I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to carry one.

Dad got his lawnmower and tools and ladders there. When Mom learned to sew, we would spend hours looking through patterns and fabric.

You could get anything and everything there.

And, oh, the Christmas catalog! I spent hours pouring over all the photos of toys, turning page corners, marking what I wanted (which was always a lot!) The day that catalog arrived in the mail was magical.

Mom and Dad would order things through the catalog. When they came in, we would drive to the store to visit the catalog pick-up counter.

Sears was the be-all and end-all of shopping experiences when I was a kid. There were no local branches yet of J. L. Hudson, which was the flagship department store in Detroit – that didn’t happen until the mall craze took over. (J. L. Hudson is gone now and has become another friggin’ Macy’s. Don’t get me going on that.) Anyway, J. L. Hudson was downtown and a Christmas visit to the store was a dream come true. Magical, wondrous. The downtown branch eventually suffered due to more and more people moving to the suburbs and the ups and downs of the auto industry. It closed in the 80s. In true Detroit-at-that-time fashion, years later that glorious building with wooden escalators was demolished. No more. All trace of it gone. It broke my heart.

I moved to other cities where I saw the same thing happen eventually; Wanamaker’s became Macy’s. Jordan Marsh became Macy’s. And of course, Marshall Field’s became Macy’s as well. When everything is the same wherever you go, you’ve lost a great deal.

But back to Sears. As an adult, I rarely went there. My tastes changed. But that doesn’t diminish my sadness at what has happened to that once great store, which carried everything you might need. There are Sears catalogue homes all over our country, built from designs and kits that were sold by mail order. You could order your home! Forbes called them “the American Dream that came in a box.”

The thing about the American Dream is that it sometimes fails and fades away. And we’re just left with memories.

My thoughts today.

Did you have a Sears in your life?

Happy Sunday.

Well, here we are. The last day of the year. I’m not one to do a lot of “It’s the end of the year!” celebrating. I’ve never been into the whole New Year’s Eve thing – most likely because there was always a party or two where the celebrating seemed forced and, really, just an excuse to drink. I’m all for quiet and reflective. In the end, time is a mortal constraint.

That being said, we will be celebrating quietly here at the cottage. No doubt we’ll be tucked in bed long before midnight. Some sparkling cider, some sweets, a good movie and a kiss or two. That will be perfect.

As with everyone on earth, we’ve had good years and not-at-all-good years. This year had incredible highs and a devastating low. The thing is, throughout it all, Don and I grew closer than ever. And that, for me, is priceless.

Don got to spend time in an apartment in NYC, he opened on Broadway, he had the wonderful experience of being in a show that audiences adored. He got to meet fans and, most importantly, send a little joy their way. I’m so, so proud of him.

I kept working on Broadway with Anastasia  and off-Broadway, as well.

We weathered the heartbreak of Escape to Margaritaville  closing too soon. Obviously, this was especially tough on Don. But we made it through that because we knew how blessed we were to have that opportunity to begin with; to run the show in La Jolla, New Orleans, Houston, Chicago and New York. To get to know Jimmy Buffett and the incredible cast and crew. It was all good. And it was all a blessing.

And we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in Paris. We got to visit London and Edinburgh. It was our dream trip and it was perfect in every way. We are blessed.

And that’s as reflective as I want to be. I don’t make resolutions. My goal is ongoing: Be the best person I can be, be kind, think less about myself and more about others, do all I can to make this world a better place for humans and animals.

It’s been a major challenge during this godawful administration. But the resistance will win.

And we have vowed to dance in the streets when that happens. Literally.

I wish for you a beautiful New Year’s Eve, whether you’re at a party, at home, or quietly celebrating with loved ones. Much love.

Happy New Year.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

The vase and the match striker needed to be placed elsewhere while the Christmas tree is up. They don’t look half bad on this little desk.

The pansies needed to be brought inside because I missed the fact that we’d had a very cold night and they were almost gone. To be honest, even though they’re better now, they’re still wobbly. I can’t ignore a plant in need. It must be in my DNA. Never say die until it’s truly gone. And they’ve been so valiant that I want to keep them going as long as I can.

We ended up going to another restaurant yesterday – one that’s known for serving breakfast. It’s my favorite local breakfast place but I hadn’t been there in a long time. On any given day, especially when the university is in session, there are long lines of people waiting to get a table. We went a bit later in the day yesterday and there was still a line, but we got a table pretty quickly. Oh my heavens, was breakfast tasty! We were running out of time, so we just made a flying visit to the bookstore and then headed back to the little theater. It’s a really nice black box space that’s made to be flexible according to the needs of the production. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in my teaching and coaching life in black box theaters. I know them well.

The production was interesting – a new play by a young playwright. A young director. A young, relatively new-to-the profession cast. Don tells me that the first play in the season had a couple of older, more experienced actors. But this script was about young millennials, so the actors had to be young as well.

It was okay – but just okay. Halfway through, I realized that it was like hundreds of acting projects I’d seen when I was teaching on an undergraduate level in Boston. I felt like I was back in Boston at a time when I was seeing countless projects on a weekly basis. The students at BU were very talented (many of them work professionally today and are names you would know) and they were always interesting to watch, but they were still students and it showed. That’s what this cast was like, even though they aren’t students any longer.

Since the theater is new and can’t afford to pay much to the actors, that level of actor is what they’re going to get until they can pay more and, hopefully, that will come with time. The play needs work, but it is imaginative and has promise. We’ll keep supporting what they’re doing but, having taught for so many years, I felt like I was back in the SFA building on Commonwealth Avenue watching an interesting student project, so I was a bit disappointed.

Then we came home, had dinner and finished watching Season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Heavens, I love that show. The first few episodes left us worried that they were going in a strange direction, but after hanging in there, we saw what the overall arc was and it all came together. Brilliant writing, acting, direction, art direction, and costume design. The best thing since sliced bread.

Now we’re going to watch it all over again, cause that’s how we roll.

Very cold out there but sunny. Something tells me this is going to be a very cold winter and it isn’t even winter yet!

Happy Monday.