On The Road — Page 40

From My Room

April 8, 2016 at 7:26 am by Claudia

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Life on the road; a shot of my hotel room coffee table this morning.

I’m staying at Homewood Suites, a place very familiar to me as I have spent a lot of time here over the years. My room is very nice. There are a wide variety of them here, some too small, some rather large. This is mid-sized and perfect.

The best thing is that it faces an inner courtyard so I don’t hear the thundering bass coming from the local bars. That’s been a big problem in the past. I’m going to remember this for the future. Must have room facing courtyard. Everyone here is very nice – many staff members seem like old friends.

I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before 10 pm, which was fine, but the consequence of that was waking up very early this morning. Ah, well. Homewood Suites has a free breakfast every morning, so I trotted on down to get some food and coffee. The in-room coffee is not at all good, but the ‘Robust’ version of coffee available downstairs is much better. It’s not Peets, but it will do.

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The beds are wonderful. Firm. Good pillows. I slept like a baby.

Driving to Hartford was rather a mess because of the torrential rain that poured down for most of the two hour journey. I’m always amazed by the amount of drivers who don’t put their lights on during a storm. Really? I can barely see you!

It’s a state law in NY. If you are using your windshield wipers, you have to have your lights on. I don’t know what the law is in Connecticut, but there were a lot of cars without their lights on.

The read-through of Anastasia was wonderful, very moving, beautifully sung – very exciting! The music is beautiful. The cast is very talented. The room was full of the cast, the writers, support staff, producers, and designers. It’s going to be very fun to work on and I’m thrilled to be a small part of it.

Today, we’ll do some table work – talking about the script and the characters and the language. Then I drive home at the end of the day.

See you tomorrow.

Happy Friday.

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And I’m Off

April 7, 2016 at 8:33 am by Claudia

4-7 view into the kitchen

Late afternoon picture-taking in order to have something to post today. Do other bloggers do that? Frantically walk around the house, looking for some photo that will ‘do?’ I left it late, which created a too dark picture, which I then tried to brighten – there’s too much ‘noise’ in this one. But I like the canvas of The Lamb With The Party Hat on the wall. Logically, since this is the symbol of the blog, it should be hanging in my office, but Don likes it here. He thinks it adds a touch of whimsy to the living room.

I got a late afternoon call from the stage manager of Anastasia, asking if I could come in earlier to have lunch with Darko and also if I could stay overnight to be there for tomorrow’s rehearsal as well. Of course. So I’m off to Hartford to work for two days. Then on Monday, I have to go into NYC for the day to work on another project.

That’s why I’m rather hurriedly writing this post. I have to get ready and get on the road. Hopefully, I’ll be able to write a quick post tomorrow, but if I can’t, you’ll know why.

4-7 view stairs

I officially gave up on Beach Music by Pat Conroy last night after yet another stab at reading it in bed. As I was trying to go to sleep, I finally came to the realization that this particular Conroy was just not doing it for me. I feel guilty, somehow, because I am such a big fan of his writing and I love the way he tells a story.

But this one? I didn’t like the characters much, though I tried very hard to feel something for them. The fact is that after 200 pages, I still wasn’t on board. That’s a long time to hang in there, especially when the book is over 700 pages long.

So I put it back on the shelf this morning.

My time to read has been limited lately. And reading is so important to me that when I do get a chance to open a book, I want it to be one that captures my imagination and takes me, happily, to another place. I’ll grab another book, as well as my Kindle, for the trip to Hartford. I have plenty of books in my TBR pile!

Happy Thursday.

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Home Again

March 20, 2016 at 9:37 am by Claudia

Home again.

We arrived home around 8:45 pm last night, after driving for two days and stopping for the night in North Carolina. Yesterday, as I was driving in the mountains of Virginia, what started as rain turned to snow.

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And traffic slowed to a crawl when the fog rolled in. That made for a few hours of dicey driving. But, by the time we reached Pennsylvania, the weather had cleared.

A few highlights from our last couple of days in Florida:

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We spent a few hours in Tarpon Springs, famous for its sponge divers and Greek community. There are several antique shops there and there was quite a bit of Roseville on display.

For at least twice, sometimes three times higher than I could get it on eBay.

Ridiculous! I know that eBay can put shop owners in a tough position because of the great deals that can be found there, but pricing something like Roseville (and also some McCoy I saw on the shelves) at prices that are way over the top doesn’t do them any favors. Why lose potential revenue? Dear readers: remember to do your research. Don’t pay more than you should. I clearly and audibly said – I am an actress after all – that the prices were way out of line. Not in a snotty tone, I promise. Just in a having-a-conversation-with-my-husband kind of way. I think the owners should hear from collectors who know what they’re talking about.

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In a gallery: the most beautiful new pottery made by a company called Florida Faience. As you know, I love vintage pottery, but I have to admit I fell for these beautiful creations. (This picture doesn’t do them justice, I’m sorry to say.) I am totally smitten and the next time I get back there, I will have some money set aside to purchase one of these pieces.

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3-20 orangeshop

On the way up to I-95, we ran across The Orange Shop, a family owned business. The sign itself charmed us! So wonderfully retro. The owners have their own orange groves, where we stopped to breathe in the orange blossoms.

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Absolutely heavenly.

We also bought a bag of oranges.

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Another ukulele session with uncle and nephew. I could eat this kid up.

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Little Z and me. He wears a patch for a couple of hours a day to strengthen his eye. Meredith made the patches. (He likes the zebra best.) Photo courtesy of Meredith.

I have so much more to say about Little Z and my sister and family. That’s for later in the week. We had the most wonderful time. For two people who can’t remember the last time we had a vacation together but know it’s been at least 15-20 years, this was a dream come true. Surrounded by sun, sand, sea, family and love, it couldn’t have been better.

We were very happy to see our little cottage waiting for us last night.

Happy Sunday.

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From My Room

And I’m Off

Home Again

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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