We have a joke with some of our very closest friends from New York to Austin to right here in Fayetteville.  We say that something is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” when we know that most likely it will happen again or has happened before. But what we mean is that it feels like a once in a lifetime kind of thing, and we try to cherish it as such.  We got to have one of those once in a lifetimes last weekend when we drove all the way to Colorado Springs to see our Texas friends Shannon and Greg acting their hearts out in the wonderful play DETROIT directed by our Brooklyn friend Shana. All together there were eight of us for the special occasion, with a bonus of seeing our dear NYC friend Abbie (and Huck’s first love) and meeting her son!  On the way to Colorado we made a pit stop at my childhood home in Kansas and left Huck with his grandma and grandpa for nearly 72 hours of the kind of fun we all remember as kids. Sunny stayed home and had back yard play dates with our friend Stephanie and her dogs. Knowing those two were so well taken care of, Troy and I were able to enjoy Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs and dinners out and beautiful mountains and coffee conversations and fireside chats with some of our very favorite people without interruption.  I was filled with childhood memories of Colorado Springs vacations, almost feeling funny to be there without my parents and sisters. We told stories of past gatherings such as this one, whether in the Poconos Mountains, our Fayetteville home, a Texas lake house or a New York apartment.  Shannon, Troy and I reminisced about a road trip the two of them and young Max took back in 1996 from Austin to Wyoming to see me in a play, also stopping halfway at my parents’ house.  You see how these once in a lifetime opportunities keep repeating themselves?

When at last we arrived back in the middle of Kansas to retrieve Huck, he and my parents were filled with stories of their time together which included a visit to Huck’s college fund broker, an art piece made of plaster and found objects, and a cut-throat Canasta game.  It also included a dirty old Band-Aid on one of Huck’s fingers from a little cut back at home. Instead of replacing the Band-Aid he just put tape and rubber bands around it, much to Grandpa’s dismay.  ”I wanted something to remember you by,” Huck whispered to me.  Grandpa’s eyes softened and he said, “Oh, that’s what that was about.  Okay.”

Once in a lifetime!

Goodbye, you three!

And hello, Faves!

Abbie and Spencer!

The Amazing Playwright, Director and Cast of “Detroit”

Here we all are!  This picture was taken moments before the world’s longest and saddest goodbye.

So fitting to have Huck and my parents as book ends to all these pictures!