February 18, 2009

Rain. I was always puzzled why the back walk flooded. Today I notice–after living here for 20 years–that the downspout from the cottage empties right upon it. I study the situation, rain pouring around me, and decide that we can endure the occasional lake as we have done in the past. Take the path of least resistence– as the rain does.

First Proof read-through in Waynesville last night. It’s a good cast. I think it will be an easy production. Proof is not a masterpiece, but it does take matters of the intellect seriously, and is to be cherished for that. Robert’s delusional proof on the wintery porch is the best thing in it, and that is very good indeed.

Stephen says that D read beautifully for Hamlet, but that everyone told him he was a loose cannon and would never be solid on his lines. I told D about the auditions, because I knew that to play Hamlet was the defining dream of his life. I think he might have made it this time without the gossip– though the gossip is genuine information so far as anybody can tell from actual experience. The badness of D’s Henry V is legendary at Montford Park. Still. . . he has been Hamlet in his own mind for so long. Maybe that would have made a difference. Some people cannot catch a break.
Adam will be playing Hamlet, and deserves and needs to. He is catching a swarm of breaks, and though every one is righteous, I can’t help comparing him to D, who must have started out with the same gleaming promise.

Replied to the invitation from Exeter that I will be attending Charlie Pratt’s retirement gala.

Sunday was a milestone, health-wise. I was in such intense pain, debilitating and distracting, that I ended the day by swearing that I would never again suffer from reflux. I mean, swearing with clenched fists at the throne of the gods. I bought soy milk. I replaced meals with that. I ate abstemiously, and coated my stomach with soy milk if I thought there was the least fear of reaction. I was careful and determined. I relied on both experience and intuition to tell me what foods to pursue and avoid. I have not put one anti-acid in my mouth since Sunday night, nor needed to, which is a bigger deal if one considers I sometimes needed a handful a day. A handful of barbecue potato chips first thing in the morning was a mistake, but we got through that . . .