My earliest memory is meeting my great grandmother Bekins. It was at some point before we went to Spain, so before I was 2 years old. She was blind, and it was a dark, dank room – I just remember flashes of being there, but the fact that she was blind left an impression on my toddler mind. My continuous memories really begin in Singapore, where I can piece together a continuity. I have a few memories from Spain, but the earliest really is meeting Great Grandma.
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Memory is an interesting, and tricky thing – I could pontificate for awhile on the unreliability of memory, or of writing memories down, and then the memory becomes the written memory, but it may not be exact memory. And I am prone to embellishing things to make them more interesting, and/or omitting things that are not that exciting, or that dilute or distract from the essence of the event….and then my mind continues to embellish and omit until the memory becomes something different in my mind, and then when I read the original account, maybe talk to someone who was there, read my journal from that time, etc – I realize that the “story” of the memory has become pretty far flung from what the original event was. Memory is a strange, strange thing.

I got to play Death (And the Maid) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In a bilingual production of Blood Wedding, my first role with substantial Spanish, and my parents came to town to see it in August. Getting to do Lorca in Spanish...wow. Lorca in Spanish is like experiencing Shakespeare in English, and makes me wonder how much more awesome Ibsen, Chekhov, Euripides, etc must be in their own native languages. 

Even the auditions/callbacks were fun, plus getting offered the role(s) during the callback was a special kind of awesome!

Thanks to Ana Maria Campoy for telling me about the audition, Tina Polzin for casting/directing me & the rest of the ensemble for restoring my faith that things I don’t have a hand in producing can still be fun and transformative.

 
Three of my plays got produced:

Fate Demands It in Orlando for Playwright’s RoundTable Launch 2016! In January

How To Build A Ritual (co-written by Jen Smith Anderson, text arrangement by Richard Buckley, with contributions from the cast)  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Smashing Reality as part of The Pocket Theatre’s FringeMonth in Oct, with plays by Rebecca Goldberg & Beth Peterson for Splintered, Fractured, BROKE

I also posted 30 new short plays (one per day!) in November for Red Theatre Chicago’s November Writing Challenge, and attended the Write-O-Rama at Hugo House in early Dec where I wrote even MORE and got some inspiration. Thanks to Mandy for joining me as a fellow writer for BOTH...it was comforting to have someone to commiserate/share the experiences with.

I finally made my pilgrimage to Greece. It was amazing and transformative. Highlights:

• Hanging out with Glyka in Athens.
• The entire Delphi experience – deserted Temple of Athena, temple kittens, dining with a view of the entire valley before us, the Kastalian Spring, the slurpee at the museum, driving through Thebes on the way… etc.
• Tomato balls in Santorini.
• Sunset in Santorini.
• Making friends with two Argentines while waiting for sunset, and being able to carry on a conversation mostly in Spanish for 2 hours.
• The free breakfast at the Amalia Hotel in Athens.
• Chicken gyros with French fries and mustard sauce inside.
• Riding the Argo in Thessaloniki.
• Acropolis kitties. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
• Being able to read Greek by the time I left.

​Trip to Vegas and Long Beach in Oct – sad circumstances for the latter (RIP Josh Fischel), but it was extremely wonderful to see so many of my fabulous SPVA tribe again…more intense and heartfelt, due to the occasion, than the reunion in San Diego circa 2010.

And then went back to Vegas to hang out with my nieces (and eat Roberto’s!).

​(photos below)

​Memorable Meals:

• Pizza Rock in Vegas, across the street from our hotel.
• Ian’s birthday brunch buffet at Ivar’s Salmon House on Lake Union.
• My birthday dinner at Tango.
• My birthday dinner #2 at Andina in Portland.
• Also, last time eating at Veritable Quandary before it closed in Portland.
• Post sailing Cuban sammitch at Un Bien.
• Roberto’s in Vegas.
• Did I mention the free breakfast at the Amalia hotel in Athens? Well, it deserves to be mentioned twice.
• Tomato balls in Santorini.
• Discovery of sweet olive jam in Crete.
• And also the Thessaloniki gyros dinner that Saturday night, picked up from the corner gyros eatery a block from our AirBnB.
• Dinner with parents last night in Greece near Syntygma Square.
• Xmas Eve Indian Buffet lunch at Mayuri post Rogue One.
• Xmas/Hannukah Dinner of ham & gyros by our own hands.
• New Year’s Eve dinner at Poppy.

(photos below)

...and then the last two months of the year happened, the world got dragged into the Upside Down, and we have a demigorgon president-elect.

Choppy waters ahead, but I'll get through the with all my people near and far, and my two loves, Ian & Vixen.

Happy New Year to everyone - I know we'll get through this together and hopefully in one piece! Interesting times we have the priviledge of living in...