Don and I just got finished having one of those conversations that remind us of the joys and heartbreaks in life and the paths we choose to take. Tonight we are watching the last episode of Cheers. The finale was originally ninety minutes long, but it has since been broken up into three half-hour long episodes. We’re on the last of the three. Don did some research and found out it had aired on May 20, 1993. He doesn’t remember watching it and now we know why – he was in Morning’s at Seven  at the Old Globe. It had just opened because the reviews came out that day.

That means that within a week or so of May 20th, I was about to fly out to San Diego to be interviewed for the job I would eventually get, which would take me to the opposite side of the country for the next eight years. I know this because during the weekend of my interview, I attended the matinee of Morning’s at Seven. My friend Kathy was in it, as well as my future friend Lynne Griffin (who I had seen at the Stratford Festival years earlier,) Sada Thompson (who I would later work with and who was a great friend of ours,) and a guy named Don Sparks. Don and Lynnie sort of stole the show and I remember loving his performance, reading his bio in the program, looking at his headshot and thinking…hmmm, he’s intriguing.

I wouldn’t meet him until a year later when he came back to the Globe to play Malvolio in Twelfth Night. I recognized him at the Company Call for the summer productions – an event where everyone was introduced – which took place the last week of June. How do I know? Because Don was made an Associate Artist at that Company Call and he talked about having just turned 43 a few days before. (He will be 69 tomorrow.) This was an emotional time for all of us at the Globe and in the MFA program. On May 1st of that year, one of our students had been murdered while leaving the park late at night with his girlfriend, who was also one of our students. He had been just about to graduate with his MFA. I can honestly say that the loss of John at the age of 24 is hardest thing I’ve ever been through. (Later that summer, I would attend the trial of his murderers.)

In one of life’s unexpected twists and turns, when profound grief overwhelms you and you think you will never find joy again, I met Don on July 4th – just two months later.

This is a time of year that is always full of memories for us and we always take the time to remember all that went on in 1993 and 1994. What if I hadn’t applied for that job? What if Don hadn’t called the Globe to see if anything was available for him and then found out they wanted him for Malvolio? What if I had never had the honor and joy of knowing John? Of meeting Don? Of working at the Old Globe?

All of this triggered by finding out when that final episode of Cheers aired.

Don also lost a dear friend to murder in the same place, Balboa Park. David Huffman, a wonderful actor, was knifed to death when he ran to try and stop a thief who had just broken into someone’s motor home. That happened in 1983. This beautiful place, which Balboa Park indeed is, was also the scene of the deaths of two people we loved.

We are awash in memories, both heartbreaking and joyful.

That’s what this time of year brings to us in various degrees every year. We honor those we’ve lost, we express gratitude for our blessings and the seeming serendipity of meetings, connections, and what turn out to be momentous moments, of paths chosen, phone calls made, timing, and loss.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Puzzle progress (taken on a cloudy day, soon to be rainy.)

We spent the evening watching the news once again. We’ll take a break from that tonight because neither of us sleep well afterwards. But we wanted to know just what was happening. And now we do.

Not that I have to explain myself, but I will. At this point in time, after 5 years of daily lies, misdeeds, making money off the presidency, grifting, cheating, applauding the actions of dictators and fascists, defending white nationalists, locking up children in cages at the border, separating families, most of whom will never find their children again, calling Mexicans names,  taking money and benefits away from the poor and middle class and giving them to the wealthy, eliminating anyone from his cabinet and staff with the integrity to challenge him, eliminating agencies – among them the one that was sorely needed during this virus, lying about everything including his failure to do anything about the coronavirus until it was too late, denigrating women, giving cabinet posts to those who are unqualified, the Central Park Five, accusing President Obama of being born in Kenya, calling people names, inciting violence repeatedly, taking our country to the lowest point possible with his actions, discriminating against blacks when he and his father owned apartments in NYC, defending his buddy Jeffrey Epstein, spewing bile each and every day on Twitter….I could go on and on, this is just off the top of my head…

At this point, after all we know, after all we knew in the beginning of this endless assault on everything we hold dear, including the Constitution, after the complicity of the GOP: if someone is defending this administration and the actions of this vile and despicable racist, abuser of women who has been accused of rape at least three times, malignant narcissist, serial liar and carnival barker who has failed at everything in his life – my response is ‘Goodbye.’ If someone is repeating blurbs and phrases from Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or information from questionable web sites without doing a modicum of research, goodbye. I have no patience or tolerance for any of it anymore.

Yes, we should love our fellow man. But that doesn’t mean I have to hang out with everyone, especially those who espouse beliefs that I find abhorrent.

I say all of this because I had to ask someone to leave the blog yesterday because of a comment that was made. I had to deal with a lot of that in 2016 and I tried to be tolerant until I could no longer do so. The things some people were posting made my skin crawl. They were eventually blocked. I thought that was over, but it seems it is not.

This blog is my home. I’ve worked over 12 years to create it, to nurture it – every day. I would not invite someone into my cottage who had those views. This cottage is a place of peace. And my ‘home’ here on the Internet is, too.

I am not perfect, but I do know what is right and wrong. I was raised by parents who taught me well.

If it’s morally wrong, I don’t want it here. And yes, that decision is made by me, based on my deeply rooted beliefs. It’s my blog.

I apologize that I’m posting a bit late today. Don had to make a run to the store so I had to disinfect everything.

If only I could disinfect the White House as easily.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

The clematis is blooming like crazy! Such a gorgeous flower and a nice splash of color at the front of the house. I think they’re equally pretty when just about to open:

There’s your dose of pretty for the day.

We spent the evening with the news and with Rachel Maddow. We have a desperate fool in the Oval Office who is inciting violence, who is determined to start a civil war, and who now wants to bring in the military to harm American citizens. That is what a fascist dictator does. It’s certainly what his buddy Putin does. Putin, who Trump spoke to right before his phone call to the Governors.

Tear gas for a photo op. Tear gas trained on peaceful protestors. His phone call to the Governors was, to put it mildly, insane and rambling.

I don’t know what else to say except that we have sunk about as low as we can as a nation.

My heart is heavy, dear friends. I know you feel the same.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.