love, new directions, and general updates

Wow, I haven't posted here since September. Quite a bit has happened since then.

First off, I feel madly in love with Juliet Heller. I don't often talk about my personal relationships in this space ( a lesson forcibly learned a long time ago), but this is something of such momentous importance that it really needs to be noted.

We met doing The Heidi Chronicles with Custom Made Theatre company. One of the actors in the company, Fred Pitts, had contacted me to ask for suggestions for actors to play "Scoop Rosenbaum" for the company's remount. After I gave a short list of potential actors, he asked if "I" would be interested. My calendar was free, and I thought it'd be fun to work with Fred again, and I'd never worked with Custom Made, despite working *alongside* them for years. So I made my availability known, did a quickie audition and joined the cast.

Juliet wasn't at the first reading due to other commitments, and my scenes were almost exclusively with "Heidi" and "Peter", so I didn't meet her until we had a rehearsal at my home with the whole cast. Our normal rehearsal space was booked for the night, so I offered my living room as a suitable space to do line and character work (although not really enough for full blocking). Juliet showed up, and I learned that she was the one playing my wife in the show (although we only have about 1 minute of stage time together). She definitely caught my eye, but as I had just begun seeing someone, didn't have a history of "showmances" and wasn't looking to complicate life, I didn't do anything about it. Rehearsals moved on, and I saw little of most of the cast, including Juliet.

It wasn't until tech week that I began to get the slightest glimmer of an idea that I had caught her eye as well. It wasn't until our only night off between a solid week of runthroughs and tech-preview-opening that I accepted that there was something there. She was in Oakland for the day and asked if we might hang out that night. Seeing as how it would be our only night apart from each other over two weeks, I was intrigued, but still wary. I most emphatically wasn't looking to, here's that word again, "complicate" things.

We hung out for a few hours, talking, watching videos, just exploring who the other person was outside of the context of doing a play together. After three hours, I kept hearing my friend Chris' voice in my head, telling me that the first time he met his wife Ann that he knew if he dated her, that was going to be it. I knew that if Juliet and I got involved, it was going to be major.

That was two months ago. She officially moved in about a month ago, although we've actually only spent two or three nights apart since that Sunday. I'm happier and more emotionally secure than I've ever felt I had the right to be, and daily amazed at the joy I receive from having her in my life.

She's off at rehearsal for her new show, Jubilee, now. We're both looking forward to having some time off, with no show requirements for a while. Time to simply "be", which is not something I'm known for.

This is largely why I've been so silent on this blog. Lack of time. We still had a show to do, one that ran for five weeks. I've still been doing Radiostar, and we've both been working on the house and savoring our downtime. Life has been full, and very good.

This week, we'll be hosting her father, her brother and his girlfriend, and my mother for Thanksgiving.

I have a lot to be thankful for.