Metaphorically, a “blue moon” is a rare event, as in the expression “once in a blue moon”. But there we were living a once in a blue moon day. Naturally, what would turn out to be a whirlwind, keep your eyes wide open, or it will all be a blur weekend, started the day before with a trek out of Buffalo by detour of the huge snow storm that dropped 6 feet, yes feet, of snow in the south towns. They would drive most of the day and part of the night to arrive on my doorstep around ten pm.  You would think that retiring would be in order after such a long day but once the first words came out the rest simply had to follow.  I had the good fortune to see my Summer Sister, Kyle, just the week before but Kate, my dear Kate, and I hadn’t had a face to face good chat in dare I say…a couple of years.  Oh we mustn’t go that long again.  And so it began, with wine, and soup and stories and laughter and tears and sharing and Averna…to be elaborated on at a later date.

My girls, Toto and Lina, and I retired to my newly rearrange, updated, fabulous office for the night while the other girls took the master.  It was a bit of a struggle trying to figure out the sleeping arrangements with two dogs that didn’t understand why there was a gate involved and the pillow-top mattress wasn’t under their butts.  We made it work.

The reason we were all together was to go into the city to see Cabaret. Kyle would be doing a production early next year and there was “research” to be done.  My good fortune was two-fold, I got to see Cabaret but I got to see Cabaret with the two people who had taught me the most about theater.  There’s a part of me that used to think that one shouldn’t have to be taught about theater but oh the glory of knowing the intricacy and the rationale and the history and the roles and the ability to discuss the performance intelligently with such studied lovers of the venue is priceless.  There is an assurance that what you’re feeling, and oh the feeling evoked in this performance, was carefully and lovingly thought out entirely for your benefit.  In a good performance you are transported through the acting-the set-the music-the lighting as if it were only one entity.  The lighting was amazing.  The end of a performance is surely its greatest measure of success, have you been entertained, have you been moved, have you been fulfilled. Yes, yes and yes.  Frankly I was a mess, moved to breathless.  We all needed to process and share and rejoice in the magnificence that was Cabaret led masterfully by Alan Cumming.

Luckily we had a lovely walk back to our car which had been strategically parked just far enough away from the theater to allow for this process and provide a wonderfully easy escape route back to Jersey where we would have dinner together with my dear friend Sandra. Dinner was at a favorite restaurant, Andiamo, where they know my name and care deeply about what they do also.  We three hadn’t been back to Andiamo since Kate graduated from grad school and it was about time to put this restaurant into a more deserved memory status.  Suffice to say we accomplished that this time around with good food, good wine and very good very supportive conversation.  I adore these women and don’t think I can ever do enough for them, that Kyle felt this was exactly what she needed after the week of one thing after another stresses was a little victory we all shared.  I’m pretty sure one of us said amen.

Back to Stowe Lane and we find ourselves all seated comfortably in my fabulous office just barely holding on as exhaustion and the wine begin to set in.  The girls and I figure out a better way to make sleeping in the office work and my little Lina begins to relax a bit.  She isn’t the change warrior her sister, Toto, is so after all the disruption she wasn’t really herself evidenced in the note left by Uncle Pete about her having a bit of the “slows” when he came to walk and feed them.  She’s much better today.

Next morning over coffee we still couldn’t keep the conversation down; we just so enjoy each other and have so much to say. Kate summed it up perfectly; we had a once in a blue moon day.  But with a long ride ahead two of my favorite people would be on their way.  I am in awe of them, I am rejuvenated by them and I am so grateful to have spent this time with them. I have been humming Willkommen all day and strangely it sounds much like a gramophone in my mind.

Leave your troubles outside.

So life is disappointing, forget it!

In here life is beautiful.