Nice to have a mostly-open Sunday after a very-overscheduled past week.

The Friday before last weekend, my dad was due to arrive mid-afternoon from Durham. But the weather was all thunderstormy and everything got postponed or cancelled. They actually boarded his flight and got out to the runway, then had to turn back. Then, every hour, it was ‘maybe in another hour, or maybe cancelled’. Upshot – they postposed the flight to 6:30 am Saturday morning. Poor Dad. My brother went and got him from the airport and he scheduled a 4:00 am taxi pickup for the next morning. Here in NYC, I went out to pick up the rental car to be ready. (we’d planned to go pick it up together, so he could be put on as second driver, but that never happened)

Luckily, Saturday went as planned. I picked him up at the airport, 8:00ish, and we headed straight away to Morrisville, PA, right across the river from Trenton, for my friend Marie’s celebration of life. This was a boring, but easy, two-hour drive. The celebration was held in a small theater, appropriately enough, since Marie was an actress through and through. I greeted the people I knew – had seen Mark (and Marie) last year when they came in for C’s funeral, and had seen younger daughter Dana, friend April and her family occasionally in NYC. Hadn’t seen older daughter Kyra in years, or some of the others – pianist John, who I’d worked with in Philly, and good friend McK – someone I’d dated back in the day and had not seen since I moved. I was singing a number, so John and I ran through that, and then it was just chatting and making sure Dad wasn’t just stuck sitting around bored.

The celebration was appropriate, fun and lovely. McK did Shakespeare readings, I sang Sondheim and Shakespeare’s Fear No More, Dana sang “No One is Alone” and April sang “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”. There were group sings of “Consider Yourself” and “Happy Trails”, eulogies and a tribute video. Food afterward, but we didn’t stay around long. (If Dad hadn’t been with me, I might have made a weekend of it and stayed overnight in New Hope or such, but I’ll do that some other time.) Drive back less easy than the drive there, the BQE was as snarled up as it always is. Dad and I had dinner at the Queensboro – outside, while the full restaurant watched the US Open inside, screaming and hollering.

Sunday, we didn’t do much until time to head into the city. Again, the weather was not good – intermittently very rainy, and humid as fuck – I turned on the big air conditioner that cools the main part of the apartment for the first time this year. We took a car service in to Times Square in excellent timing to see the Some Like It Hot matinee. J. Harrison Ghee was out, but everyone else was the cast you expected and the show was a lot of fun. (I’d heard great things, and had been saving it for a Dad visit, figuring he’d like it.) I found the music repetitive, but enjoyable, and the show itself was, if not groundbreaking other than maybe the new gendery stuff, definitely a well-constructed and entertaining time. Best thing in the show was Kevin Del Aguila as Osgood, who lit up the stage every time he appeared.

Afterward, we met my friend Tessa at dinner at Don Giovanni’s, which was mixed. The Prosecco was dreadful, the meal was fine without being spectacular, but the dessert was amazing.

Monday wasn’t much of anything – I had to work, which I did from home. We met my friend Susan for dinner at our local French bistro, which is excellent. (I definitely find that it’s helpful to both me and my Dad if we bring other people into the mix to talk to.)

Tuesday, we did pretty much what we did last year – and this is why Dad was in town other than to just visit – we drove up to Providence for gathering of his high school class. Last year had been the 70th anniversary, this was just another chance to see people. Drive up was uneventful, we stayed at a better airport hotel this time, the gathering was at the same restaurant, and a lot of the same people were there. I wasn’t nervous this time and hadn’t particularly dressed up. There was only about 16 of us. I ended up sitting between the wife of a classmate (I’d talked to her a lot last year) and the daughter of another one, and we got along famously. I ended up being kind of life of the party (told everyone about the England show, for instance) and actually had a better time that Dad did, heh.

We also did some driving around – went by the house he grew up in (again), looked at the Providence river walk, Prospect Terrace and so on – and went to dinner at the same place we’d been to last year, which was just fine.

Drive home on Wednesday was also uneventful, although it was far more rainy. Breakfast from McDonalds off the interstate. Back to Queens, tanked up the car and dropped it off at Avis, and had surprisingly a half day of free time we hadn’t planned on. We chose not to go out and do something touristy, but we did some proto-planning of a trip to Montana we may take next spring, so that was fun. I offered to cook, but Dad said, “I’m on vacation, let’s go out” so we went to Uncle Peter’s and had a really nice meal.

Thursday and Friday I’d weirdly overbooked myself, with two doctor’s appointments and a gym training. (I took a half day off of sick leave, but explained to the team that I’d be spreading those 4 hours over 2 days somewhat randomly). Had to fast in the morning for the Thursday appointment, annoying, and I usually try to schedule that appointment as early as possible, but this one was at 10:45. Worked until 9:30 from home, then saw Dad off to the airport and I headed in to the doctor’s. Doctor visit was mostly uneventful, except for one (good) change that I’ll talk about if it plays out as I hoped. Then off to the office just in time for a 11:30 teleconference, on which I was grumpy as fuck because I still hadn’t had any coffee or food. Wrapped that up, went out and bought a big ol’ Italian sub and shoved it in my face. Rest of Thursday uneventful, although work has a lot going on, and I had a simple dinner while watching TV.

Friday I had that gym training (I’m trying to burn off the sessions I purchased, and learn how to do strength training on my own). They’re going well, although he had me do all these squats and yesterday and today the front of my thighs have been in pain, but that shows it’s working, right? Then more work (from home), then a dentist’s appointment, then another hour or so of work and other tasks (from the office). Then met up with Ruddigore friends for a mini-reunion, drinks and dinner, great fun. First time I’d seen any of them since England. Two of them have been cast in great shows since (one, another production of Ruddigore, in a different role) so will plan to go see them.

Yesterday spent a great deal of time getting laundry together – not only did I needed to wash the guest room sheets and my own sheets from the last two weeks, I’d decided to wash the other bedstuff that normally doesn’t get washed – blankets, bedspreads. Most of that went to the local laundromat for them to do for me, and I did the clothes at home myself. I also washed the pillows from both beds.

Then back into Manhattan for another social gathering, a brunch with one of the same friends I’d just had dinner with, and his ex-boyfriend and a bunch of other bears, plus one lady. (A lady who hangs out with gay bears is not (just) a fag-hag, but, apparently, a “Goldilocks”.) That was a ton of fun, but I begged off the afterparty and went home and just puttered around. Another simple dinner and I looked at my list of movies I keep and decided to watch The Ritz, which I’d never seen. (We’d seen the Broadway revival a few years ago.) It was fun! Great seeing Rita Moreno in anything, and young Jerry Stiller, F. Murray Abraham and Treat Williams. Not a classic, but worth the watch, particularly if you’re interested in gay media history.

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Today, housework (so nice to have time to do it!), then off to Susan’s house with Renee to do a Ruddigore watch (they haven’t seen it yet) and dinner. I will say that even though the show was over a month ago now, we’re all still buzzing about how great it was and how much fun we had.

And a normal week ahead – how often does that happen?