1. After having such a full day, starting when I got up at 4:30 a.m. and lasting until I went to bed after 10 p.m., today my pace was much slower. I had some cleaning up left to do after Monday's family dinner. I napped some. In slowing down, I also had some restful and contented time with Copper.
2. I also had some happy memories stirred by learning about two people who died recently.
A local man I never knew named John Thompson died recently. His daughter, Phyllis, has been a wonderful help to us at Kellogg Insurance.
There are also further connections between John Thompson and Debbie and me that I hadn't really put together until today, even though I think Phyllis explained them to me when we first moved to Kellogg.
If you read John Thompson's obituary, you'll learn that starting at 12 years old, John became a part of Warren and Ailie Van's family. Warren and Ailie's son's name was Mike Van.
As an adult, Mike Van lived in Eugene. He taught art classes at South Eugene High School and he showed his own work in Eugene and elsewhere. I never knew Mike, but his wife, Maron, was a deacon at Eugene's Resurrection Episcopal Church. I can't remember if we ever met, but I worshipped once in a while at Resurrection and was aware of her dedication to the Resurrection parish and to the Episcopal Church at large.
Mike and Maron's daughter, Kim Still, managed the Saturday Market main performance stage in Eugene. She and Debbie were closely acquainted. Debbie not only performed at Saturday Market, but Kim also scheduled children Debbie worked with musically to perform on that stage. It was a thrill for the kids and their parents and a delight for the audiences.
And that's not all.
Kim's son, Victor Schramm, was a student of mine at LCC -- I think he was in a World Literature course I taught in winter term of 2005, but I might have that wrong.
And, there's more.
Periodically, I read through the obituaries in Eugene's city paper, the Register-Guard.
The connection between John Thompson, the Vans, Kim Still, and Victor Schramm moved me to look through Eugene obituaries today.
I learned that Denise LaCroix, a theater director who, thanks to AnnMarie Maurer, invited me to replace an actor who left the cast of a 1995 local production she was directing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, died in August.
I loved being in that play.
I deeply appreciated, as a very inexperienced actor, how Denise took several moments to pull me aside and give me encouraging comments about how I was doing as Polonius.
I also got to work with some of Eugene's finest actors who were dedicated to their work in the play and were also a lot of fun, along with being fascinating people to get to know off stage.
Learning of Denise's death saddened me and, at the same time, awakened memories of how much I enjoyed being a part of that cast and performing under Denise's direction.
One more thing: in a rehearsal very close to opening night -- was it the night before? -- a terrible accident occurred as our original Claudius fell while carrying our original Ophelia, played by Denise, off the stage. The accident disabled both actors, confronting Denise and our cast with a mammoth challenge. I was deeply moved and impressed with how our company overcame this terrible event. Our run of plays kept growing and improving. Eventually, Denny and Denise recovered from their serious injuries, but not quickly, certainly not in time to return to the cast. Denise, however, shouldered on as our director -- I thought her efforts were heroic.
3. Debbie and I enjoyed our stir fried dinner on Monday so much that I made another one tonight featuring a combination of chicken, red onion, green onion, cabbage, bok choy, yellow summer squash, cilantro, fresh basil, and peanuts. Instead of noodles, this dinner featured basmati rice and we poured leftover green curry sauce from last night over the top of it.
It worked!
I mean, it REALLY worked!
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