Well, sorry to all who still check this site from time to time for info and updates, but we got a little carried away with the move back up here and getting re-settled and teaching again. Not to mention the fact that I hadn't posted since, well, February of last term. So, here's a bit of what's been going on since then........
After the loss of Mac last February, I'm glad to say the rest of the semester led to happier days.....I had the chance to do Hector in a quite wonderful production of The History Boys here on campus, and Sonja had the luxury of a performance slot off, with the extra free time that that suggests. At the end of term, the Music and Theatre Dept.s mounted a fully staged production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass....it was pretty amazing, and I ended up singing in the Street Chorus, two solo lines and all. I can't remember the last time I've been that frightened on stage (singing professionally is one of those things that still terrifies me, no matter how often I do it), but it all worked out, huge undertaking that it was, and worked out better than anyone expected, I think. To quote Tony Shaloub's character in Galaxy Quest, "That was a hell of a thing....."
The summer for both of us was spent back in Philly, and was, in truth, pretty awful. As we were coming back here for our third and last year this fall, we couldn't collect unemployment, and in this economy, there just weren't any jobs out there; Sony ended up doing some dog walking for our friend Ellen again, and I worked for the Walnut St. Theatre doing telephone sales in their subscription office. And so we scraped by as best we could, and couldn't wait to get back to Ithaca.
The one good thing to come out of the summer months, is that we discovered that probably for a decade or more, Sonja has suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea. So for all that time, she hasn't been getting s good, restful night's sleep, and it's hard to underestimate the long term effects that's had on her over all physicality (though what role the condition played in her crisis of two years ago is impossible to say) . Happily, it's a condition easily addressed with a simple breathing apparatus worn while sleeping and she's responded beautifully to it! She felt better the very next day. Up to the point of finding all this out, her A. Fib. had been getting worse (in terms of controlling it on a daily basis), and we were faced with having a pacemaker put in to help her heart cope with the stress. That has now all been put on hold while she improves from addressing the sleep apnea, and we're hopeful that this year we'll be able to make some real progress toward better overall health. Great, great news!!!
And now we've been back here since middle of August, in the same apt. we had last year on Slaterville Rd. All's gone well so far; finished a strong production of The Servant Of Two Masters a couple of weeks ago, and are already back in rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet (that's right, she's doing the Nurse again and I'm reprising Friar Laurence). Great to get back to the classroom, too.....we both have good classes this fall, sharp kids, bright and curious. And perhaps most importantly everyone's healthy so far....Sonja, me, Spenser and Bea Lillie!!! Hope you and yours are having a wonderful fall season, and that nothing but good things comes your way!! Will try to update this more frequently in the future, and in the meantime, love to you all from all of us!!!
-- Paul
