Thursday, May 19, 2016

Where IS That?


I spent the greater part of yesterday looking for things.

I have lived/worked in my office for more than 40 years and though it looked like a hoarder's domain, I knew where everything was.  Even now, with the office completely empty I find myself starting to go in there to get something or to put something things away because I know exactly where it is supposed to go.

But nothing is there.  It is everywhere else. Ned did a great job of making sure that everything I needed was accessible, but I'm old...they are not in the right place.  Envelopes, for example, go in a box on the floor to the left of my desk, where I can reach them easily.  I spent about 15 minutes yesterday looking for the envelopes when, in fact, he had put them on the cabinet right behind my computer monitor, which is in plain sight and easily accessible...only since the monitor was hiding them, it took me that long to see them.  (They are now back on the floor to the left of my desk where I can reach them easily.)

You don't think of which things you're going to need close at hand until you go looking for some oddball thing that you often look for and it's not there.  I spent a long time looking for the binder which holds the pocket letters I've received and the one(s) I'm currently working on.  I searched everywhere.  I even wrote to Ned to see if he remembered where he put it.  About a half an hour, and much frustrated tearing of my hair, I finally found it.  He had put it in the place I was least likely to look for it...right where I'd left it.  It had been on the kitchen table and to make space on the table for Walt and me to eat, he had moved it from one side of the table to the other and it was slightly covered by something else.  I felt pretty stupid.

He is coming by today to start getting the walls ready to be painted, but then he'll be gone for a week, so it will be awhile before it's time to think about moving all of this back.  By that time I will have this temporary office all set up efficiently and it will be "mine" again.  But in the meantime I continue to hunt for stuff.

My desk has now also become a food preparing station.  I found myself shelling peas on the desktop with the keyboard moved out of the way, and when time came for dinner. I ate at the desk because there really is only place for one of us to eat at the table.  It's going to be great when it's all done and it was so long in the coming.


We had a gourmet dinner last night.
May 18 is the day I always cook Kraft dinner, which was one of David's favorite foods.  In fact, at his memorial service, which was a pot luck, we made a huge bowl of Kraft dinner.   think only family ate any of it.
(I chose not to make another of his favorites:  peanut butter and tuna sandwiches!)
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of David's death.  It just doesn't seem possible that he has been gone almost as long as he lived.  It was 20 years ago...and it was only yesterday.


Last night we went to see Motown, the Musical, which is the story of Berry Gordy and the creation and rise of Motown records and a whole genre of music.

When talking to me about the upcoming show, my editor wrote, "I can't wait to read it [my review]. I've been wanting to see this one. I love Motown music -- always have. A lot of it was largely before my time, but for some reason it's always got my toes tapping. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" was the number one song in the nation the day I was born."

I was less enthusiastic.  I checked the show, which contains parts of 68 Motown recordings, to see how many would be familiar to me:  5.  5 out of 68.  I was not a fan of Motown (or most rock genres of the time).

So this was a difficult show for me and it will be a hard review to write because I don't really know what I'm talking about, though I will definitely not paint myself as any sort of an expert in Motown music.

For me, the overwhelming things about the show were that (a) it was extraordinarily long ... two hours and 45 minutes, which is longer than just about every other musical I've seen and (b) it was so loud I actually had to plug my ears with my fingers.  I haven't decided how I want to handle that because this is the era of loud rock concerts and admitting that I longed for ear plugs brands me instantly as an old fuddy duddy...which I am.


But the audience was enthusiastic, the costumes were gorgeous, the dancing energetic and very good so it will be a good review.  As each of the various groups came on stage, the Temptations, the Vandellas, the Commodores, etc, the crowd would break into delighted applause.  In fact, I couldn't identify any group except the Jackson 5, which was easy because Michael was a small child.  I'm going to have to pull out all of my critic tricks to get this review written because I want to give the show the good review it deserves.

No comments: