Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart But The Very Next Day You Gave It Away

1984... A Blast From The Past

The pic is from a collage that the Husband did for me as a gift on out 5th anniversary. I still have the piece... I can see it from my work table. 25 years ago today, this was what the Husband & I would have been grooving to:
Drive by The Cars.
I still love The Cars & I really dig Ric Okasec's voice. A fine band, they were & a  really great sound. Don't you think?

25 years ago today... My Best Day Ever (So Far)

It is with some trepidation that I name July 31st, 1984 as the best day of my life... so far. Deep down I feel that I should choose my wedding day, which was amazing & beautiful & very emotional. I also think of the day when the water taxi from Marco Polo International Airport turned into the basin & the Husband & I could see the Custom House, St Marks & the Redemptora through the lifting fog as we arrived in Venice on our 12th anniversary. I would consider the perfect day, our first together in NYC, when I got to watch my Husband’s face as we came up out of the subway station & he saw Time Square at twilight for the first time. We have had so many perfect days in so many great places, but my best day ever was purely selfish & that is why it remains #1 after 25 years.

I awoke that morning in my beautiful, very cool, perfectly decorated apartment at the top of Capitol Hill in Seattle. Every window was wide open in our corner L shaped, top floor home. I could see Mt Baker from the kitchen window & the Seattle Skyline from the living room. I did my stretches, giving my single-digit- body-fat body a little warm up, showered & slipped into my size 30 inch waist pants & my cool rockabilly shirt. My incredibly handsome & sexy partner of 5 years was just getting ready to take his hot, worked out body to the gym. I kissed him good bye & he wished me a special good luck good-bye. I would normally have gone with him, but something extraordinary lay ahead for me on this last day of July 1984.

The producer/writer & the director of a new TV show had contacted me through the theatre where I was appearing in the biggest, hottest show in Seattle. The show that was selling out nightly for six months (& would run another 6 months). They had left a message that they loved my work in the play & thought that I had a real future doing comedy in TV & Film. The were offering me a part. This was unheard of… Hollywood types just plucking me from regional theatre & giving me a job, with no audition, that would get me my SAG card.


The show was called- Murder She Wrote & it was starring Angela Lansbury (who I adored). I was thrilled as I made my way on foot to the location of the shoot, studying my sides one more time as I went. When I arrived at a condo building in the Belltown neighborhood, signs pointed me to a large room filled with about 20 handsome, hot guys all carrying suit bags. I knew a lot of these young men from my gym. They were the sorts who, if they looked at me at all, would give me a snort & a look of distain. You know...professionaly gay. I kept thinking- “Damn! I am so stupid. You are supposed to bring your own wardrobe. How was I supposed to know that?!? Now all the gym hunks are thinking I am real nerd, for sure.” A female PA with a clipboard started calling off names & the muscle boys would each answer with a raised hand. When all the names were called & everyone was accounted for, the PA asked if anyone’s name had been left out. I sheepishly raised my hand & she asked my name. I gave her my name, all the while thinking- “I knew this was too good to be true. I am not gonna get my SAG card & shoot a TV series with Angela Lansbury. It is some cruel joke!” The PA said- “Oh, Stephen… you have your own trailer. It is around the corner & right next door to Peter Grave’s trailer.” Well, the muscle gym boys' heads snapped to turn & gawk at me as a handsome hunksome male PA personally escorted me to my trailer. I walked deliberately & with my head held high as I passed each single gym bunny with their suit bag of their own wardrobe.

I spent my first day on a film set, sitting between takes, under a big umbrella on the roof of a Seattle tower with my new friend- Angela Lansbury. I reminded her that we had met once before in the parking garage at the Schubert Theatre in LA, after a matinee of Gypsy that she was starring in. I was shocked that she was driving her own car & not taking a limo & that she was going home between shows. I stopped & told her how much I had loved the show & that she was the best Mama Rose ever. She asked about me & we had a nice 2 minute conversation. Ms. Lansbury said that she did not recall the incident & I then chided her for not remembering. She loved it & laughed. We talked about gardening & her childhood in England & the theatre scene in Seattle.

After my day in front of the cameras, I went to the theatre to get ready for my showy, funny role in Seattle’s biggest hit play- E/R Emergency Room at Pioneer Square Theatre, glad that I was working out so much because I was nearly naked in this show. In the greenroom, I was able to tell about my day to all my wonderful friends in the show. After the standing ovation at curtain call, I showered & went out for drinks with the cast. it was close to midnight as I walked back home to my beautiful apartment & my sexy partner. As I reached the top of Capitol Hill, on a lovely warm summer night, I looked up at the summer sky. In the middle of a major metropolitan area, brighter & clearer than I had ever seen it, was a huge showy Aurora Borealis… Northern Lights in greens & pinks & whites, moving across the July 31st sky. Finishing the best day of my life with some magic, like special icing on the best cake ever.

On July 31st, 1984 every aspect in my life came together: living in the coolest city on the planet, hot apartment, hot & loving partner, great sex, good body, good health, a celebrated & showy part in a popular play, cool & talented friends, totally out of closet,
somewhat of a celebrity, a day of filming with one of my favorite actors, getting my SAG card & passing the drop-jawed hot muscle boys on my way to my own trailer on a film set. The best thing about it was…I was fully aware & cognizant of how special it all was & I savored every moment & I was truly thankful.

Men I Was Zany For... 25 Years Ago Today

I have mentioned in other posts that the summer of 1984 was one of the very best times in my life so far. During that memorable summer, besides being all moony for my future husband (at that point, my partner of 5 years) my mind would wonder to these men. So today I offer 3 men I was zany for in 1984: Jan Michael Vincent, John Eric Hexum (who would die tragically late that year), & Aidan Quinn.

25 Years Ago Today

The summer of 1984 was the best period in my life so far... I have a future post with some real specific recollections, but here are 10 reasons why:
1. I lived in Seattle, a spectacular & vibrant city that was just coming into it's own as a world player
2. I shared my very cool top floor, prewar apartment on Capitol Hill with my hot/sexy/talented boyfriend of 5 years (5 years?!? Who did we know that had been together that long?!?)
3. I had single digit body fat & worked out like a fiend 6 days a week
4. I had a very funny & very showy part in the biggest hit show in town (it ran for 18 months) in which I appeared almost naked (hence the gym regiment)
5. I had just signed with the best agency in town- The Carol James Agency & got my SAG card for an episode of a brand new show to debut in the fall-Murder She Wrote
6. I loved being in my 30s
7. I ran with an interesting & talented crowd
8. I was a minor celebrity
9. I had hair on my head, but not in my ears
10. I was joyously & madly in love with a man, with my life, & I was 100% totally out of the closet for the 1st time



The #1 song in the country 25 tears ago today was Prince’s When Doves Cry. Oh, how we played the soundtrack (on LP!) for Purple Rain in the summer of 1984! Always the jokester with my rewriting of song lyrics, I was singing along with my Walkman – “That is what it smells like…when doves fry”. Memories.

25 years ago today

1984 was my favorite year. I have a future post with the specifics, but in a nutshell:
1. I lived in Seattle, a spectacular & vibrant city that was just coming into it's own as a world player
2. I shared my very cool top floor, prewar apartment on Capitol Hill with my hot/sexy/talented boyfriend of 5 years ( 5 years?!? Who did we know that had been together that long?!?)
3. I had single digit body fat & worked out like a fiend 6 days a week
4. I had a very funny & very showy part in the biggest hit show in town (it ran for 18 months) in which I appeared almost naked (hence the gym regiment)
5. I had just signed with the best agency in town- The Carol James Agency
6. I loved being in my 30s
7. I ran with an interesting & talented crowd
8. I was a minor celebrity
9. I had hair on my head, but not in my ears
10. I was joyously & madly in love with a man, with my life, & I was 100% out of the closet

I loved the music of the 80s & I had this new invention- a WALKMAN, so I could enjoy music wherever I went. The number 1 song twenty-five years ago today was Lionel Richie's HELLO. I did NOT dig this song at the time, but it was ubiquitous that spring. I have now come to really like & admire HELLO in two cover versions in my collection. One is by Shirley Bassey & I give you the other, by last year's winner of American Idol-David Cook :