Happy Thanksgiving 2021

Hello, cyber-friends!  I can’t believe another year has gone by – time seriously has no meaning anymore.  But I offer my wishes to you all for a happy happy Thanksgiving.  This may be my last post for a long while; more on that later…  

I hope everyone is safe and warm and healthy and ready to enjoy a long weekend.  I know I am ready; my weekend is actually going to be extra-long, due to comp days after so much work for work.  Frankly, I’m exhausted.  I'm glad to be celebrating this year by staying with a lovely goddaughter, then sharing a fabulous meal with my dear friends. I hope that your day is filled with as much laughter and love and fun as I know mine will be.

As always, I have plenty of things to be thankful for this year, such as:

• my amazing parents;
• my wonderful sister; 
• my glorious pip of a nephew, I love him so much;
• my sweet Scooter, best doggie nephew ever;
• my beautiful GNO gal pals AND our wonderful guy pals/plus-two;
• my wonderful extended family, with the coolest aunts, uncles, and cousins around (more on them later);
• all of my dear, darling friends who lift me up daily;
• co-workers who make me laugh and lift me up daily;
• my beautiful goddaughters;
• Justin's dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups;
• Caroline, or Change original Broadway cast album;
• Great British Baking Show (hello, Chigs);
• Whole Foods same-day delivery;
• Leah and Talk NYC;
• Young Sheldon;
• my Twitter feed;
• Bob Evans' individual macaroni and cheese;
• the Q101 bus;
• Copper Cow coffee;
• Snoopy holiday pajamas;
• Stet! Dryer's English board game;
• Boqueria’s orchard margarita;
• the NY Times crossword puzzle app;
• In the Heights film;
• the Excelsior Pass Plus;
• Gin Gins;
• Scentbird;
• Off the Hook Raw Bar;
• the Bryant Park holiday market;
• the Milk Street community;
• my wonderful liquor cabinet;
• reveling in my dear Fellows' successes;
• the Seamless app;
• Apple TV (and Ted Lasso);
• Murder, She Wrote re-runs;
• theater companies who are continuing with virtual theater;
• fierce women playwrights;
• theater is BACK!

cousins in the old days

I'm sure there's more, but let's stop there.  I'm feeling much thankfulness today, that's a good thing.  Though I’m also feeling so many other things – depression, sadness, fatigue.  I think I mentioned in a recent blog post that I’ve recently lost someone very dear to me.  Back story:  I grew up in an extremely close family; my mom had four sisters and each sister had two kids.  My cousins and I hung out together all the time when we were growing up.  After I went off to college and they started growing up, getting married, and having families of their own, we got together less often.  Christmas Eve became pretty much the only time we would all see each other.  I’ve missed them.  In September, I got a call from my sister that my aunt, who had struggled with several health issues over the years, had been diagnosed with COPD and probably only had a few days to live.  I got a fight home the next morning and went straight to the hospital.  Thankfully, my aunt was a bit better and recognized me when I got there.  We talked a few times over the next couple of days, and said “I love you” many times, which I’m so grateful for.  At any given time, there were at least dozen people in the waiting room, all wanting to visit my aunt.  I was again spending time with my beloved cousins, sort of catching up on lost time, while we sat in waiting rooms.  It was nice to be all together again, even for such a terrible reason.  After a few days, the doctors told us that keeping my aunt on machines wouldn’t cure her, just prolong the inevitable.  Her sons made the difficult decision to take her off the machines, transfer her to hospice care, and she passed away two days later.  Everyone in the family was devastated.  We still are.

my beautiful aunt

I’ve been unable to sleep since I got back, which has triggered some depression, I think.  Vague dizziness has returned, which doesn't help.  I’m having a hard time concentrating at work and feel…empty.  My mother is having a hard time with the loss of her sister and I’m sad I can’t help her more.  I need to get my pep back.  I need to get my life back.  The reason I’m sharing all this is because even though I’m happy when I’m inside a theater, afterwards I feel anxiety and dread about trying to blog about it.  Which is stupid, but true.  Writing is now a chore and it used to be a pleasure.  So I think I’m going to step back, work on a few things for myself, and see if I can find the excitement in sharing my thoughts about great work with you.  

Though (because I'm me) let me say something about the most recent theater I’ve seen:  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go see Trouble in Mind (by Alice Childress, produced by Roundabout Theatre), Cullud Wattah (by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, produced by the Public Theater), Selling Kabul (by Sylvia Khoury, produced by Playwrights Horizons) and Clyde's (by Lynn Nottage, produced by Second Stage).  These are vital, important works, centering women of color in stories that need to be told right now.  They are beautifully written, acted, and produced shows.  Buy tickets, tell your friends, show the powers-that-be that these are the stories we want.  Uplift these writers.  I tried to write thorough reviews, but just couldn’t get the words on virtual paper; I didn’t want to let this last post go by without offering my strongest recommendation for these plays.

Sorry to bring down a thankful post – I AM enormous grateful for what I have and know that people love me and that peace is within reach again.  Enjoy your holiday, everyone, and thanks to YOU for joining me here!  It’s been a pleasure to report on things to you and to imagine people actually read my scribblings into the ether – may there be a new kind of Tour in the days to come.