(this is the first writing project of a mid-January 3-day weekend where I’m carving out serious writing time)
Let’s just take it as given that 2025 in general was not good for our country. We voted in (again!) possibly the worst person in the world as our new president, and he and his gang of white-supremacist numbnuts have been trashing our government and our reputation ever since. Let’s take it as given that all makes me furious and upset.
Let’s also take it as given that I’m still widowed and still sad about that, and trying to reconcile my own loneliness with my complete uninterest in putting myself out there to date. And that I’m aging and have a constant level of at least mild concern about my heart problem and other health issues.
That being said, I’m doing what I can about being a good citizen, and my health is mostly just fine and I lost about 30 pounds this year (thank you, modern medicine) and therapy continues to be extremely beneficial. And I do have friends, lots of them.
Other than the given problems, this was mostly a really lovely year for me.
Performing
I started the year knowing that in August, I’d be heading back to the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, this time to conduct HMS Pinafore. I was very excited, had never done this iconic show before, go figure. We were also, for the first time, doing a second show as a side-project, Sullivan’s teeny little one-act The Zoo. The two shows would be done in succession, rehearsal- and performance-wise, so there was nothing stopping me from being involved in The Zoo before Pinafore got going. I was planning to be in the chorus. But as we were casting both shows, an opportunity to audition for a lead in The Zoo presented itself, I grabbed it and got the role! So the festival was going to be really intense, and fun.
Meanwhile, I knew that my local orchestra was going to be doing Mahler’s First Symphony, one of my favorite pieces and one that uses a lot of extra horn players, so I made sure they know I’d like to do that with them and they said ‘yes’. And then it turned out that my buddy Will’s opera company was doing Jesus Christ Superstar and using one of the massive orchestrations, and I put my hand up for that as well.
So I’m back practicing horn again and loving it, and winter and spring were pretty much filled with orchestra rehearsals, festival prep (including doing two dry run concerts at the local Society) and also continuing my slow slog through learning all 15 two-part inventions on the piano.
The festival was amazing (you can read all about it on this blog, just look at August) and both shows went very well. The Zoo received a lot of critical praise, not the least because we gave it about five times the production value as the audience was expecting, and it was a delightful show. Pinafore was also well-received (we came in second in the festival adjudication). But most importantly, the rehearsal and production process for both shows was off-the-charts fun this year. The esprit de corps was out of this world, and we ended our festival experience with so much buzz and positive energy towards the future.
Fall was two more orchestra concerts (including The Planets) and another G&S, orchestra for The Mikado. And auditioning for (and joining) a theater group that I’ve long admired, with an eye towards doing more acting, with them and other groups. So yeah, just the quantity and quality of the performances I did this year helped make it something special.
Travel
I did some interesting trips this year. Of course, I’d finished of 2024 with a 2-week driving tour of the west coast with my father, so didn’t need another big trip immediately. But as my winter/spring commitments got scheduled, I realized I had this window between JC Superstar and Mahler rehearsals that I could use to get away. I looked at my bucket list and decided I wanted to drive the Florida Keys. And I did! I flew into Miami, got a rental car, spent two nights in Key Largo, one in Marathon and two in Key West. I did a lot of fun touristy things and had a lot of great food. I don’t know if I need to go back to any of those places (well, Key West is fun) but I’m glad I did them.
In the spring, my buddy Susan took a couple of us out to midstate PA to visit her family’s graves and counter that with a trip to Knoebel’s Grove, which we’d done the previous fall as well. I love a good amusement park.
In June, I returned to Toronto to attend the same conference I did the previous year. I managed to get together with various friends for meals and did quite a bit of walking and sightseeing, including a dinner cruise. The conference was really great, although I probably won’t go again.
In July, my father (who is hale and hearty, but in his nineties) was interested in going to an event in Chattanooga, a celebration of the centenary of the Scopes monkey trial. So I came down to Durham (where he lives), worked from there until the weekend of the event, and we drove over there. Two nights in Chattanooga and it was an interesting event. Dad does those sorts of things, associated with humanist or freedom-from-religion organizations, and is perfectly capable of going on his own (he went to one in October, without me), but I was happy to go along with and make sure he was OK. We didn’t really see any of Chattanooga, but we had a nice time and the drive to and from wasn’t onerous (or interesting, unfortunately). Once we got back to his place, I worked another week remotely and went home.
While I was down there, I got to participate in a reading of the play my brother is developing from his book, “Trunky”. That was really interesting, and with luck, the play (with music) will get a live mounting in the next year or so.
The following month, I went to England for two weeks for the festival. Unlike the last two years, I didn’t do any side trips, but I did enjoy for the first time staying in an airBnB (‘self-catering’) rather than a B-and-B or hotel. I had to supply my own breakfast and wash my own dishes, but it was nice to have an entire (little) house to myself and to have a washer/dryer. Definitely will do that again.
The only travel in the fall was driving up to Rochester to spend Thanksgiving with my dear friends up there, like I have been doing every year since Charles passed. On the way back down, I stopped in Roscoe in the Catskills to see my brother-in-law’s family, including both nieces and the great-niece and -nephew (and their dogs). That was a really nice visit.
Dad came up for Christmas week and we had a great time. I took him to a couple of shows and a museum, and we hosted both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners, although I was only responsible for food for Christmas Eve.
Movies, Books, TV
I didn’t see a lot of movies this year, in the theater anyway. Sinners was amazing. Wicked: For Good was as good a movie as you could make out of what is a very messy Wicked second act. At home, when I’m in the mood for a movie, I often enjoy taking one of the ‘library of classics’ Blu-Rays off the shelf, or watching something I should have seen forever ago, and missed (which is how I found myself watching The Way We Were a couple of weeks ago).
TV: I guess the standouts of the shows I watched this year that were new to me were The Pitt (which is awesome. I love a good medical show) and particularly The Diplomat, which I tried on a whim one night in early December and plowed my way through the (short) three seasons in about two weeks. It’s spectaculary. I’m also, finally, getting around to This is Us, which is really fascinating in the story it’s telling and how it chooses to deliver it. (and it’s a big weepie, too, which sometimes you need) And some good detective shows, either continuing or picking them up – oh yes, Department Q was really gripping and I’m looking forward to more of that.
Books: I read constantly, but it’s mostly romance novels. I have also been working my way through all the Reacher books (I’d read about half before), the Discworld books, which often surprise me with how deep they are, and the Murderbot books.
Miscellaneous
My job is fine. It really is the nicest place to work. They have a bunch of social groups which you can join, and although I’m in the knitting club and movie club, the most fun/useful has been the Creative Writing club. There’s only a few of us in it, but we all want to write more and thought that participating would give us that shot in the arm. It does, it’s really great.
I continue to get more used to being a homeowner. This year, I replaced some kitchen appliances, all the toilet seats (which was more drama than it should have been), a toilet tank (it cracked), and am currently having a piano tech work on my now 25-year-old piano. It’s always had a heavy touch, so he’s regulating it, and he just installed a humidifier this week, very good for a wooden instrument trapped in a New York apartment with blasting radiators.
So, anyway, personally 2025 was pretty good, notwithstanding al the other crap, and 2026 looks to be pretty darn interesting as well – more on that later.
The Toast Point Page 