1. The people at Eugene Seen posted, on Facebook, over one hundred photographs of the festivities at Tuesday night's party celebrating Fools Haven Shakespeare becoming the Wildish Theater's resident Shakespeare company. The costumes, the food, the joy, the scenes, the familiar faces all helped me get as close to attending the party as I could, living so far away as I do. Sparky asked me to contribute to the party by writing a bit about the twenty-five years she and I have been working together as collaborators and friends and I was happy to learn that Mary Spilde read my remarks and that they were well received.
2. After getting our several tax documents scanned and emailed to our tax preparer, I went to Panera for a scone and coffee and spent some time reading The Talented Mr. Ripley. It's creepy. I picked some things at Costco and then went over to the Old Line bottle shop and bought a sixer of Atlas Brewing's Rowdy Rye Ale and a bomber of an Oregon beer, Caldera's Mogli, an oak-aged imperial chocolate bourbon porter. The Deke and I split the bomber and it was, I'm sure, the sweetest, most chocolate-y beer I've ever tasted. I thought I was at Dairy Queen, eating a chocolate sundae! We both enjoyed the Mogli and I'm sure if I ever drink it again, it'll be as an after dinner beer.
3. After too many days away, I was back in the pool today with my new pool shoes. I bought them so that when I run in the pool the bottoms of my feet don't get all scraped up. While working out, I thought a lot today about how different my life in Greenbelt and my life as a retiree is in contrast to the life I lived in Eugene. I enjoy living in Greenbelt, but I can't imagine I'll ever again have a time in my life similar to what I knew in Eugene with so many friends, friends I made at the U of Oregon and Lane Community College, friends at church, friends at the tap house, friends in the theater. I'm happy I can stay in touch with friends through social media and email -- and an occasional visit to Eugene, but it's sobering to realize that the days of having regular get togethers taking pictures, drinking beer, sipping coffee, planning theater and church projects, and eating meals are probably over. This wasn't a depressing or melancholy reflection. I was simply reflecting upon all the change in my life -- and, maybe such reflection will move me to get involved, say at church or elsewhere. I have to overcome being so shy -- a quality I rarely had to deal with in Eugene with so much of my social life related to work and church and theater where people already either knew me or knew a bit about me. Here, I'm a total stranger.
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