Tuesday And Good Times

Early on: More phone calls and frustration, but at long last, it looks as if the Little Egg Harbor MUA and the Verizon problems are cleared up--finally! After those on-going pains went away, I tidied up in preparation for niece Carolyn's arrival. Glanced out the window and was horrified to see this: 

The little rascal was eating the bird food!  I knocked on the window and he ran off, I hope for good, but I fear not.

Carolyn got here, as planned, at 11:30, and we sat and we spent an enjoyable hour talking and laughing over family matters. I showed her the mechanical cat, which she loved, but reluctantly said she doubted if Betty would have an interest in it. We talked about it and decided I'd take it to Villa Amamar when Lora and I go there on Tuesday and see if they might want to buy it. Some of the residents might still be capable of amusement, even if Betty may not be. 

We drove to the Regency to pick up my hat, then to Hill Street Cafe for hamburgers and, in my case,  beer, and in Carolyn's, hot tea. This was accompanied, of course, with much more talk and laughter. Got home and said goodbye to Carolyn at 3:00 (she had a 4:15 doctor's appointment in Santa Barbara). I'm always stunned and horrified when I see pictures of myself (who IS that raddled old hag?) and this was no exception, but oh, well:

(I spot-fixed it--very subtly, I hope!)

I had gotten a text yesterday from Amy that our cast of The Golden Age was invited to the Rincon Brewery at 6:30 for an impromptu gathering. Would I go? Well, shore, and I called good ol' Ken, who picked me up. We had an absolute blast and here's some of Rincon:

There were nine of us and we had a ball talking, laughing, drinking our craftsman beer and playing shuffleboard. This is an inside version of the outdoor kind that uses sticks to push the pocks (or whatever they're called). It substitutes round metal disks that you slide down a long, narrow, wooden base, the object being to get them to the end without having them slide over. I played first Lindsay (I won), then Matt (I won), then Spencer (honestly don't remember who won). Considering I had never seen the game before, let alone played it, it's amazing I did so well (dumb luck, that's a cinch). What fun it was to be with the gang and to be accepted, not as some kind of wise, but uninteresting matriarch, but just as a friend and fellow actor. 

For somebody who rails against ageism (the sneaky kind, in the guise of admiring comments), maybe I spend too much time looking for it.  Last night, I didn't, and relaxed entirely in the company of (aside from Ken, who's in his late seventies and left early, as usual), Matt and Amy (early fifties), Spencer, Caitlyn, and Anthony (forties), and in their thirties, Lindsay and Alphonse. All are younger than my children, but that doesn't matter with this group. My tribe.