Tag Archives: husband Steven

Who Got Rubbed Out?

Hello, and welcome to another Throwback Thursday Post.  What will I throw back to this week?  No doubt something I have thrown back to before, but you’ll have that.

Would you trust her?

This is my friend Laura as the vampish Zelda Helsinki in Rubbed Out at Ruby’s,  one of my favorite murder mysteries.  I think I need to do another 1920’s one.  The clothes are so fun!

They all look like murderers to me!

Here is the whole cast, including my late, dearly missed husband Steve (in the back, third from the right) (oh, I guess he’s third from the left, too).  They were all great people to work with.

They might be holding me up, but you can’t prove that at this late date.

I might as well make it a Ruby trifecta.  Here I am, in red, between two Kims.

The chalk outline looks like he’s dancing.

It seems I do not have a whole lot to say, so I put in another cast photo.

Wait a minute! She wasn’t in the cast!

This is the picture I had meant to open with, because I have spent the last few days sweltering, as have many people.  I think my brain got steamed, which could explain my inability to think of much to say.  However, I see I am over 200 words.  Score!  Stay hydrated, everyone!

 

Would Ten-Finger Typing Have Helped?

I meant to go for a walk or run after work today, so I could do a Running Commentary or Pedestrian Post.  I do not know why I thought I would do any such thing.  I am almost always tired after work these days.  I get very little done beyond the bare essentials.  In fact, as I type this (pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus on my Tablet, of course), I am remembering an essential or two I ought to be doing instead.

That was as far as I got earlier.  Full disclosure:  I did not do any of the aforementioned essentials, for which I am feeling suitably guilty.  Now I am back on my couch, on my Tablet, and I really would rather be headed to bed, but would like to make my blog post first.

Preview of Coming Attractions?

I looked in my Media Library at October 2016 for a Throwback Thursday picture.  When I was outside earlier, the air smelled like fall.  Additionally, my fall allergies are starting to kick in.  Therefore this picture from Pumpkin Junction in Sauquoit seemed appropriate.   I have seen posts on Facebook telling fall junkies like me to “back our pumpkin spice asses off, summer isn’t over yet!”  Of course it is still summer.  In fact, tomorrow is supposed to be hot and humid, and won’t that be pleasant for all involved?

There’s a summer view!

I went to June 2020 for this one.  My deck has not been in good shape to hang out on for a while.  My toenails have not been painted, and those sandals are broken.  You can just see one of my late husband Steve’s legs, beyond the glass of wine, just to remind me that toenails and sandals are really not things to be sad about.

Oh dear, I did not mean to make a melancholy blog post.  I expect some sadness will always be with me, but I do not mean to burden others with my emotions.  Let me look for a pleasant memory to close with.

Cheers to you, Steve!

Here is Steve in Ruggerios Trattoria in Little Falls, NY in the summer of 2019.   Good memories!

And I see I am over 350 words.  Perhaps I could come up with an off the wall headline suitable for a Non-Sequitur Thursday Post.

 

 

Missing Steve, Missing Posts

Grief is not linear. You do not go through the steps in an orderly fashion, magically feeling a little bit better each day until one day you realize you have finally found you could live with it.

I just imagine this is not a startlingly original insight. I feel sure every grief stricken person has found it to be true, and a number of people who have yet to be bereaved have suspected such a thing. I suppose I suspected it myself. Now I know it to be true.

All this by way of apologizing for missing both my Saturday and Sunday posts. I was just too sad.

I share one of my favorite pictures of Steve. For anybody just tuning in, Steven is my much loved husband, who passed away Feb. 3 of this year. So I recently passed the six month mark. I am trying to concentrate on remembering the good times, being thankful that I had my husband for as long as I did, and learning how to live alone. Some days it works better than others.

Here is a picture of me and Steve together. I will just interject at this point that my Tablet and/or WordPress is really screwing with me today. It only shows a bunch of letters and symbols for the pictures I share, it won’t let me edit said pictures to add a caption, and my predictive text thingy (sometimes annoying but sometimes helpful) is gone. And the letters on my screen are way smaller than usual. What the hell? (Ooh, at least it is not autocorrecting “hell” into “he’ll”!)

So this my Monday post. An apology for no Saturday or Sunday post, and a grief update. Thank you for tuning in.

Still Making with the Memories

I make this post in haste. Posthaste.  It’s a word, although I daresay you do not hear it very often.  I indulged in Monday Memories,  but perhaps a Throwback Thursday Post would not come amiss.

Maybe I was a little over the top.

I just can’t help sharing another picture from The Tempest performed by LiFT,  Little Falls Theatre Company in August 2017.  Look how silly I am, in my yellow tights and purple cape, gesturing dramatically.  I had a lot of fun with that role.

My favorite co-star.

Here are my late, beloved husband, Steve, and I in the final vignette of Splitting Issues presented by Ilion Little Theatreplay (ILT) in 2016.  Those same chairs will be part of the set for The Man in the Bowler Hat,  the play I am rehearsing now at ILT.

Another favorite scene.

I am also pleased to share this shot of Steve and I in Harvey in 2012.  It was our big scene.

So three pictures of me, two with Steve.  I treasure the memories.

As a side note, the reason I am posting in haste is that I inadvisedly agreed to go into work at five tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed soon.  I need my beauty rest!

 

 

Starting Over on Tired Tuesday?

Have I enough oomph to make at least  Tired Tuesday Post before I retire for the evening?  I hope the answer is yes, but we shall see.  I had a certain amount of oomph earlier, which I used to get a few things done before rehearsal for The Man in the Bowler Hat,  the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre  (preview of coming attractions).  As I drove home, of course I remembered several things I did not get done, but I can’t do everything, after all.

 

I went for a walk before work this morning.  It was not a very long walk, but I assured myself that was not important.  The important thing was that I walked.  Likewise, my run this afternoon was short.  It seems odd that I can only manage such short bouts of exercise after training for and running the Utica Boilermaker 15K in July, but so it is.  I feel that once again I am starting over.

I ran by this sign on today’s run.

I throw in a picture to pep things up.  Regular readers know how I love to enter where it says not to.  Don’t worry; I never do it when I am driving.

Earlier today I thought of posting as my Facebook status,  “How many times is one allowed to start over? Asking for a friend.”  I just imagined people would respond with encouraging words, but of course you never know.  In the end, I did not take the chance.

I see I have attained 250 words without mentioning that the reason I am so down is that I spent part of rehearsal thinking, “Oh, wait till I tell Steve about that!”  I know this is something I will have to deal with for the rest of my life.  I will, I am sure, learn how to deal with it eventually.  In the meantime, I may just continue to mention it occassionally in a blog post.

 

Merely Monday Memories

Feeling in a sentimental, not to say maudlin mood, I thought to make a Monday Memories Post.  For one reason, a fun picture showed up on my Facebook On This Day.

I am the one in green.

This was Much Ado About Nothing,  presented by LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company at the Utica Zoo in 2016.  The picture was shared by my late, dearly missed friend Phyllis.  I think I have a really good picture of her somewhere.

Cheers to friendship!

Here we are the following summer at Gerber’s 1933 Tavern in Utica, NY.  I must make my way back there again.

Three fine gentlemen.

Here are my late, beloved husband Steven, Phyllis’ husband Jim, and our bartender Larry.  Fun times!

I was just wearing those pants yesterday.

Here is one more shot of Much Ado at the Zoo, as we called it in the publicity.  I also played Friar Francis but, alas, have no pictures. Or do I?

 

There I am, not front but center!

This one is also courtesy of Phyllis via Facebook.

Just a note regarding my opening paragraph:  regular readers will understand my quandary.  With my great love for alliteration, it was a little difficult for me to say I was not maudlin.  But maudlin is really not a great way to be.  So we’ll just say Monday Memories and leave it at that.

 

Pre-Rehearsal? Post-Rehearsal? It’s a Post!

I just remembered that I was going to do a Pre-Rehearsal Post today.  However, I do not think I can manage to make a blog post and get ready for rehearsal.  How ready do I have to be, you may ask.  Well, I think I should at least wear something other than the old lady cotton shift I put on after my shower.  I don’t know if “shift” is the right word.  It is not quite a dress nor a nightie nor even a robe.  I shall not enlighten you with a selfie.

That paragraph certainly told you a lot about the play I’m in.

Different play, same hammy me.

This picture showed up in my Facebook Memories, and I said, “Hey, why was that never in my blog?”  My late husband, Steven, had shared it, tagging me.  I do not know where he got it.  Anybody who read yesterday’s post may recall that the play shown was The Tempest,  presented by LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company in the summer of 2017.

That was as far as I got pre-rehearsal.  Before rehearsal actually started, I got a migraine.  My director told me to go home, a direction I gratefully followed.

In future posts I hope to tell more about rehearsals, taking a few pictures with my Tablet (although I fear I will never be in such a dramatic costume as pictured above).  For now, at least I have made a post, and (knock wood) my migraine seems to be in abeyance.

 

Early Tired Tuesday or Late Monstrous Monday?

Is this going to be an entire week of late blog posts?  It is too early to tell, but I do not like the way it is trending.  Of course it is within my power to change the trend, but last night it did not feel that way.  So I started my Tired Tuesday early.  Sue me.

Isn’t he nice?

I put in a monster to cheer things up.  This pleasant fellow is from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, one of my favorite cheesy horror movies.

Getting back to me (it is all about me, isn’t it?), I have been wanting to tell somebody a kind of a weird thing I have noticed about myself lately.  Everything I do, I keep saying out loud I have done it, so I don’t forget.

It started out innocently enough: when I would cook myself breakfast in the morning, I would say, “Turning off the stove on Monday” (it was especially helpful to say the day, as I have breakfast every morning) (it is the most important meal of the day, so I have heard).  This saved me calling my husband Steve from work and asking if I did, which was good when I went in at five and he went back to bed.

The habit is also helpful with things like car keys or my purse, which I tend to set down in handy places while getting ready to go out the door.  Yes, yes, I know: leave them in the same place all the time.  I’m talking about when you pick up your keys and say, “Oh yeah, I need a blahblah” and have to set your keys down to fetch it.

“I don’t know why she wanted me in this blog post.”

Another monster to interrupt what I fear are too many words.  I’m sure regular readers recognize Nosferatu.

Anyways, I find myself narrating a lot of my actions these days, “Putting on deodorant on Tuesday” (which I am sure my co-workers appreciate), “Putting my socks on the coffee table,” “My keys are on the floor next to my water bottle,” and of course, the very important, “Turning the coffee maker off, the stove was never on, the toaster oven has cooled off.”  Because I can no longer call Steven to make sure I do not burn down the house.

And I guess that last sentence says it all.  Widow brain.  It’s a thing.

 

 

I Rattle, uh I Mean Carry On

Late blog posts continue with my Wuss-out Wednesday Post being pecked in early Thursday morning.   I offer no defense or explanation, and the only thought in my head right now is thank God for coffee!  If it gets rid of my headache, my life will be perfect.

I do like flowers.

I threw in a picture to pep things up.  This is from July 2022.  My yard was no great shakes then, but I had a few blooms.  This year the back yard is rather a disaster and the front yard is only marginally better.  I had such high hopes, but alas did not match actions to dreams.

I haven’t worn that outfit in a while.

Since it is clear that this is going to be one of those posts where I share pictures from my Media Library and rattle on about them, here is one of me at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort,  NY in July 2021.

I wore that shirt just the other day.

To inject a little silliness, here is my skeleton Bonita with her friend Bonaparte.  My husband, Steve, dressed her in the summer outfit.  He had a flair for such things.

I confess that these days I am coping with a great deal of sadness, with varying degrees of success.  However, I did manage a blog post of over 200 words.  Perhaps I can make Thursday’s blog post on time (although my predictive text thingy does not seem to think it is likely).

 

These Are Not Monstrous Memories

I thought I would feel bad about making a Monstrous Monday Post after talking about monster movies yesterday,  and I do.  How about a Monday Memories Post, and then I’ll feel bad about making a Throwback Thursday Post in a few days.

Great people to hang out with!

This is my late husband, Steve, and our friend Tracy at the Waterfront Grille in Herkimer,NY in July 2017.   Tracy was visiting.  As always, we had a great time.

Hey, that’s my shirt he’s wearing!

And here is Steve in July 2019, toasting me at the Copper Moose Alehouse in Little Falls, which sadly is no longer open.

OK, Steve toasted me a lot.

Here is Steve at Ruggerios in Little Falls, just to include a place that is still open.  Speaking of places that are open in Little Falls, I must make my way to The Renaissance Pub (preview of coming attractions).  They reopened recently and are doing some great things.

I was wearing those shorts just the other day.

Oh dear, this shot is a little blurry.  Since it is Monday Memories (or should that be Memories Monday?), I close with a  picture of the Copper Moose.  I do have good memories of going out with Steve.  It was also fun staying at home with him.

Tune in tomorrow when I hope to share information about an upcoming theatrical endeavor in which I am about to take part.