I met my dear friend Dan in 1998. He has been with me through some of my most difficult moments in my life (mine and Ken's split for sure). Always a voice of honesty and sound perspective. You need someone like that when you're feeling like you can't figure out where or how you went wrong, or that everything is your fault, or that nothing is your fault. Dan is the kind of friend who never hides a truth or even tells a white lie. I've met precious few people in this world who are like this and I count them as either a dear friend or a sister. Honesty this true is rare, and if you have the luck to know someone like this... hang on to that friendship for life if you can handle it.
Dan and I have shared some of the best times in my adult life. From Dan/Jenn Nights to legendary cast parties to a quiet night in his gazebo with our dear friend Justin, to a weekend in NYC knee-deep in snow. I have done things and gone places and met people that would have never been a part of my life if it weren't for Dan.
I dragged him to Rhode Island one weekend several years ago. It was shortly before my marriage ended and things at home were completely unbearable. We packed my two daughters, my basset hound and the two of us into a 1987 Chevy Berreta and drove and got lost several times to visit my folks at the beach. We took a rotary at 60 mph and saw that bassett hound literally float from the corner we took trying to stay on the road, brakes screeching, kids screaming and Lila's ears standing out straight. It was the scariest 12 seconds of my life!
He got me back a couple years later by having me run the light board for his production of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was his stage manager and this task of running a light board is more scary to me that holding a tarantula while looking over the edge of the Grand Canyon. We fought like brother and sister every night over the headsets, I can still hear him yelling, "GO TO BLACK! ITS GREEN! WHY IS GREEN? GO TO BLACK! BLACK!" Oy. Nightmare of an experience. By the end of the last show, I was convinced I would never speak to him again. By the end of the cast party, I was convinced that I couldn't imagine life without him.
Dan moved this past Sunday. You see, Dan met the love of his life this past year. Pierre. One of the sweetest, kindest and most adorable guys you could meet. Pierre lives in Montreal, so Danand Pierre will live there for a bit and then move to California where Pierre can further his career and Dan can become the writer/actor that the world will fall in love with. It takes more than talent to be a successful writer, it takes tenacity and discipline. Dan has all three of these qualities.
On Friday, I threw a little farewell party for Dan. I think there were about 75 people there. It was a Roast and Toast and we had five guests who had agreed to speak. Dan's friend and collaborator Michael, his friend Lea who has worked with Dan on several shows (she is amazingly talented), John who has been a friend of Dan's forever and former boyfriend (also extraordinarily talented), me and our professor and Dan's mentor, Jack Shea. We had it at On The Border in their private patio room and the night was just so fun. Everyone had a great time, the food was delicious and it was so great to send Dan and Pierre off in such a festive way. Good times!
To say I'll miss Dan is like saying you'd miss oxygen. I am exceedingly happy for him and I can't wait to go and visit them. I can't wait to see his name roll with the credits. But you know, for totally selfish reasons, I'm kinda bummed out today. I miss the tudball already.
Dan and I have shared some of the best times in my adult life. From Dan/Jenn Nights to legendary cast parties to a quiet night in his gazebo with our dear friend Justin, to a weekend in NYC knee-deep in snow. I have done things and gone places and met people that would have never been a part of my life if it weren't for Dan.
I dragged him to Rhode Island one weekend several years ago. It was shortly before my marriage ended and things at home were completely unbearable. We packed my two daughters, my basset hound and the two of us into a 1987 Chevy Berreta and drove and got lost several times to visit my folks at the beach. We took a rotary at 60 mph and saw that bassett hound literally float from the corner we took trying to stay on the road, brakes screeching, kids screaming and Lila's ears standing out straight. It was the scariest 12 seconds of my life!
He got me back a couple years later by having me run the light board for his production of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was his stage manager and this task of running a light board is more scary to me that holding a tarantula while looking over the edge of the Grand Canyon. We fought like brother and sister every night over the headsets, I can still hear him yelling, "GO TO BLACK! ITS GREEN! WHY IS GREEN? GO TO BLACK! BLACK!" Oy. Nightmare of an experience. By the end of the last show, I was convinced I would never speak to him again. By the end of the cast party, I was convinced that I couldn't imagine life without him.
Dan moved this past Sunday. You see, Dan met the love of his life this past year. Pierre. One of the sweetest, kindest and most adorable guys you could meet. Pierre lives in Montreal, so Danand Pierre will live there for a bit and then move to California where Pierre can further his career and Dan can become the writer/actor that the world will fall in love with. It takes more than talent to be a successful writer, it takes tenacity and discipline. Dan has all three of these qualities.
On Friday, I threw a little farewell party for Dan. I think there were about 75 people there. It was a Roast and Toast and we had five guests who had agreed to speak. Dan's friend and collaborator Michael, his friend Lea who has worked with Dan on several shows (she is amazingly talented), John who has been a friend of Dan's forever and former boyfriend (also extraordinarily talented), me and our professor and Dan's mentor, Jack Shea. We had it at On The Border in their private patio room and the night was just so fun. Everyone had a great time, the food was delicious and it was so great to send Dan and Pierre off in such a festive way. Good times!
To say I'll miss Dan is like saying you'd miss oxygen. I am exceedingly happy for him and I can't wait to go and visit them. I can't wait to see his name roll with the credits. But you know, for totally selfish reasons, I'm kinda bummed out today. I miss the tudball already.
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