And we’re back around to birthday week. Today would have been Tommy Thompson‘s 59th birthday and Saturday would have been, god forbid, Steve Spivey’s 76th birthday. The fact that they were three days apart on the zodiac has always left me a little bemused. I’m a Taurus as bull headed as they come and they were both Aires. No wonder there was always much butting of heads in the household over this or that. It kept me on my toes and life interesting. Now there’s no one to butt heads with except the cats and while they can get argumentative, especially if kitty treats are not forthcoming when they expect them, they don’t really rev my emotional self up in quite the same way.
I suppose its fitting that I’m going to spend dead husband birthday weekend in New York sitting in Broadway theaters. Those early 20th century temples to Thespis are among my happiest places. And I spent many happy evenings and matinees with both Tommy and Steve attending shows over the years. Steve loved going to the theater. He would completely lose himself in the show. As he had no background in theatrical production, he never critiqued, he just let the material take him for the ride wherever he was going. He was equally fascinated by Shakespeare, Noel Coward,, Les Miz or something that was just not very good, like Steel Pier. (We went to the very first preview of that one and both turned to each other in the middle of the first act going ‘who the hell is that’ after the unknown Kristen Chenoweth walked off with the show opposite Jim Newman). He found every joke funny and laughed heartily. He was mesmerized by various coups de theatre. He usually came out of the theater and walked with me down 7th avenue stating it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.
Tommy, on the other hand, had been around theater and music since childhood and knew entirely too much. He only felt something succeeded if it completely transported him away from his reality and very few shows managed that for him. The two I recall off hand being the original productions of Rent and Light in the Piazza. He fell in love with both of them, the former as he felt that it captured his life from his formative twenties and the latter because it appealed to his sophisticated musical tastes. I’m a sucker for big old fashioned musical comedy. He was not but would indulge me. If there wasn’t a death or two and at least a bittersweet ending, he just wasn’t all that interested. When it came to local theater, he had a maxim. He wanted to see everyone he knew on stage and yet see no one he knew on stage. There were performers here in town who could do that for him but not many and I wasn’t among them. He would usually tell me, after seeing me in something that he wasn’t involved with, that I was ‘adequate’ and that I would ‘keep getting better with more experience’. Some of the best performances I’ve given have been after his death so I hope he’s peered down and at least paid attention.
I’m vaguely caught up in the work department. At least I don’t feel like I’m snowed under and have a plan in place to balance everything from now through the summer. I met with my accountant this afternoon and submitted the taxes and got good news regarding refunds so I can now start thinking about what I am going to do for my big 2024 trip this fall. I’ll call up my travel agent, give him a budget and we’ll start shaking the trees to see what falls out. The next few years are going to be limited to one big trip a year due to work constraints but I’m starting to think that I’m going to take a little money from my retirement accounts and plan some sort of big blow out trip for the year I hang up my shingle. And then two to three trips a year after. I’m still taking applications for travel companion.
The one thing I’m very behind on is the new book. I’ve got lots of ideas buzzing around in my head but haven’t been able to capture much yet on paper (or in electrons as I tend to write on my trusty laptop – an item that I think I should replace as it’s now six years old). I figure when it’s ready, I’ll start to vomit it forth and it will come relatively quickly. That seems to be the way I work. Nothing,…nothing…nothing… then thousands of words pouring out in a matter of days. But I shall not be writing such things on my long NYC weekend. I shall be enjoying good theater, good food, and most of all good company. Expect travel updates to begin shortly.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 