Hello, friends.

I’m back from the city. It was an intense weekend; wonderful, heartbreaking, and everything in between. Having my sister with us for three days was a blessing. It would have been a blessing no matter what, but it kept us from getting too morose. We talked a lot, the three of us, and we are so comfortable with each other that we can say pretty much anything. We also laughed a lot. I needed that.

Don took this photo of us. I really love it. I really love her.

Don and Mere in Bryant Park. Don really adores my sister. He has good taste.

The carousel in Bryant Park, which is utterly charming. I had to show you the bunny.

Mere and me in the Community Garden.

Saturday was like a day in August. It was close to 90 degrees and unbelievably humid. Even my Florida-dwelling sister was over it. We had breakfast together that morning at the diner, Don went off to his matinee, and Mere and I took the subway down to Soho. Purl Soho is there, a very well-known yarn and fabric shop.

She? She’s very happy to finally visit Purl Soho.

Mere has been on a yarn diet for a while now, but she treated herself to some yarn that she couldn’t find anywhere else, for a pattern, I believe, that she got from their website. It’s a gorgeous shop with impossibly high ceilings and a very creative staff. I’d been there before, but it had been several years.

These hoops are just inside the door.

They’re filled with Liberty of London lawn fabric – the same fabric that is used for the dress on the Maggie Rabbit I made for myself and for Mere. I have plans to make a couple more, plus another stuffed kitty in Alicia Paulson’s line, so, even though we were about to leave, I turned around and went to the back of the store and purchased some.

That fabric is so smooth and silky. Simply gorgeous. I’ll show you the fabric patterns another day.

We tried walking around Soho, but it’s so ridiculously trendy and expensive these days that there really wasn’t any other shop we wanted to visit and we were so uncomfortable in the humidity that we headed back to the apartment, where we cooled off and talked about anything and everything.

Then we headed to the theater. The show was fantastic, as always. This time, though, it was both glorious to watch and heartbreaking as well. As I said on IG, I’ve been working in the theater for over 40 years and my resume is as long as your arm. I’ve never, never seen any show inspire such joy as this one does. I’ve never seen an audience respond in this way. It makes a difference in people’s lives. They come back again and again.

It should not be closing. That it is  closing is a travesty.

Don kept this a secret from us. Jimmy was there for the curtain call.

He played Margaritaville (and we all sang along) and also did a wonderful duet with Alison Huff of Come Monday. Meredith was thrilled. She loved the show, she loved the cast – especially Don, of course – and she had a great time. I watched her reactions throughout the show and it was clear that she was delighted with the entire experience.

We went backstage to wait for Don and Don told us to follow him and, suddenly, there was Jimmy.

Yes, I finally got to meet him! So did Mere. He’s a great guy.

We went out for a bite to eat with Don and went back to the apartment and then it was Sunday and Mere had to leave. So did I. I dropped her off in the taxi line outside of the Port Authority Bus Terminal so she could cab it out to LaGuardia. I went inside and got in the bus line and headed home, where I found myself crying for the entire bus ride. It was the first time I’d had to myself where I didn’t have to pull it together for everyone, and it hit me. I couldn’t stop crying.

I cried again this morning. And I’ll keep crying.

Happy Monday.