Sweet Hubby and I don't travel together very often. He's quite happy staying home with the kitties while I go off and have my adventures, so I was especially thrilled when he decided to come with me on a trip to a city two hours north for a reading of a full length play of mine.
Everything about this trip was just about perfect. I'd made reservations at a hotel which came highly recommended. It was an odd place, quite old in some parts, and new and modern in others. The almost labyrinthian downstairs level had two gyms (one for cardio, one for strength training) and a feature I'd never seen before in a hotel: a movie room, equipped with comfy chairs and a library of DVDs. (We watched "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", which was just too silly and also showed women in a degrading light). On the main floor was a large lobby, a nice bar, a big sitting/social room, and an event room about the perfect size for a modest wedding. There was a tucked-away vendor who sold some of the more unusual snacks I've encountered, such as black milk tea popcorn and ube popcorn. I don't know what ube is, but it was quite tasty. We also got some slightly less exotic treats, such as freeze dried pineapple and raw whole cashews.
One of the highlights of the weekend was reconnecting with a friend I hadn't seen in quite a while, and for a time thought I might not ever see again. A few years ago, just around the time the COVID vaccines were being introduced, the fact of her being a stalwart anti-vaxxer began to matter a whole lot more than it had previously. I mean, who even talked about vaccines before 2020? It was an era of a lot of stress and anxiety and death, when differences of opinions in some areas became deeper divides. I found that I simply couldn't respect her ideas, which have been thoroughly debunked. (I wonder if she is aware that, thanks to her and her fellow non-believers, cases of measles are on the rise again.) It had been a sad loss for me, because she was the first friend I had made when I moved to Seattle, and although I'd always found some of her ideas sort of airy-fairy, I had liked her and her husband a lot.
They had moved to the city where my play reading was taking place, so I'd contacted her to ask if she was familiar with the company producing the reading and to let her know we were coming up. No mention was made of old contentions and we agreed that the four of us would get together for dinner at a pizza place close to our hotel. The pizza was excellent, and conversation flowed freely and easily and unselfconsciously. We will probably never be as close as we had been in the past, but it felt delicious to jump over the gap from the past and enjoy each other in the present.
The highest highlight of our time was the play reading. About 12 people attended, including those friends. I have only seen one full production of this play, which is gritty, earthy, full of both love and violence. In that production, the actors had been miscast, and I felt as though I hadn't really been able to see my play, certainly not as I envisioned and heard it in my imagination. So it was a relief and a treat to hear good actors who were must better suited to these difficult roles. Such a relief, in fact, that I was in tears at the end. The entire audience stayed for a talk back session after, the which did provide a couple of insights and ideas I'm going to take with me when I read the play again. It doesn't need much: a little tightening here and there, a moment when I have to give a character more to do or more reason to do nothing, and a place name change. Other than that, I am affirmed in my mind that this is a very good play, one I believe in and will continue to send to theaters in hopes of more productions.
So, all in all, a most marvelous, satisfying, moving couple of days, and all the better because I got to share them with my SH.