Holy smokes, guys! I am having SO MUCH FUN this weekend!
Yesterday morning, I hopped on a plane in Oakland at 8 a.m. By 5:15 p.m. New York time, I was in a cab on my way to my friend John Towsen's Manhattan apartment for a reunion with clown colleagues from thirty-six years ago. Whoah! Talk about a hop in the wayback machine!
This was a stealth mission, complete with a code name ("Dolores") and lots of behind-the-scenes emailing. The reason for all the sneaking around was to surprise John's former clown partner and my former sweetheart, Fred Yockers, who flew in for the reunion from Washington State.
Well, the surprise worked and we had a very fond reunion. The party lasted eight (!) hours. At its height, there must have been 65 clowns - amazingly cool people - in attendance, many of whom I'd never met. But four of us were from my earliest clown days and, people, it was great to see you!
My brother Timothy, with whom I am staying here, came to pick me up around 11 p.m. but we ended up staying until 2 a.m. because it was such a lively, engaging crowd. First to arrive and last to leave, I talked myself hoarse, and tonight I am SO tired. It was wonderful to connect up with old friends who are, remarkably, just as I remember them. I didn't take any photos (left the camera battery plugged in the charger at home) but, oh boy, do I have some nice new memories.
