Initially, my plan was this.

I would drive to Boston, get Ani at Emerson for the holidays, and drive home.

Lauren hated that plan.

Lauren hated the idea of my driving to Boston and back in one day.

I didn’t have two days because of my rehearsal schedule.

And then Lauren found a day when Lauren could do it.

Then I had a rehearsal canceled.

So that meant I could indeed drive to Boston, spend the night at Dan Morin and his wife Kat’s house, along with her son, and then pick up Ani early the next morning and drive home.

And that is precisely what I did.

I don’t mind a long solo drive.

I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but I listened to so many podcasts, especially Judge John Hodgman, which I had been listening to all the back catalog of, and then I stopped for months.

And now I’m back in the back catalog again.

And so I listened to a lot of those.

I listened to my lines from the show.

I listened to a few other podcasts, and it was great.

I don’t think I listened to music at all because I was listening to so many podcasts and my lines, whatever.

I got to Boston much earlier than I feared I would because the last several times we’ve done that drive to and from Boston, we have gone, it’s taken forever.

We’ve gotten stuck in Connecticut.

Whichever path we take, you’re on a two-lane highway, and when it’s traffic-y and slow, there’s nothing you can do.

But this time it wasn’t traffic-y and slow, which was lovely.

The drive took five and a half hours with 35, 40 minutes for charging instead of seven plus hours, seven and a half plus hours.

So I got to Dan’s in the early afternoon or mid-afternoon.

We hung out for a while, then had dinner with Dan and his family, celebrated Hanukkah with Dan and his family, which was a blast.

I had a really good Caesar salad with salmon.

Excellent.

Top-notch.

And spent the night there at Dan’s, and then in the morning went to Ani.

The day before I had picked up Ani, I was saying, hey, do you need help getting your stuff down or can you get your stuff down?

Ani’s like, I’m going to need help.

It’s too big.

My duffel bag is too big for me to do on my own.

And I was like, that means I’m going to have to park.

Scary.

So I head out from Dan’s home to Boston Common, where Emerson is.

And there’s, of course, no parking.

And then I see a spot right across the street.

And I’m at a red light, but I’m right in front of that red light, so I’m ready to go hit that spot.

And then an Amazon truck pulls in and takes that spot.

There’s still room behind the Amazon truck, but you’re not allowed to park there.

So what I did was I parked there and left my blinkers on, and I told Ani, we’ve got to hurry.

And so we raced up to Ani’s room, got the duffel bag, raced back down.

Boom.

Got no ticket, did not get towed.

Was I scared the whole time?

A little bit, but it takes a little while to tow a car, and I thought maybe I could sweet-talk my way out of it.

I don’t know.

Now here’s the other fun part.

Ani is sick.

When I first heard Ani was sick earlier this week, I, you know, I’m a dad.

You do what you can.

So I used DoorDash to send Ani a COVID-slash-flu test, Dayquil and NyQuil, and then also chocolate-covered, or no, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Oreos.

And the tests were negative, which is great.

The DoorDashing remotely was very difficult.

And DoorDash was even like, hey, do you want to add anything to this because you can’t know what to charge?

I mean, other than the stuff you’re buying.

So I had sent Ani a milkshake, and then the milkshake came separately, and that person didn’t get the CVS stuff at all.

It was a whole cluster.

One person delivered things to the wrong place, but we got it all sorted.

And Ani got the medication.

The medication helped.

Wonderful.

And the tests were negative.

Good.

But Ani was still like, I’m really sick.

So we were like, okay, let’s both wear masks on the drive home.

And that’s a long time to wear masks.

But we did.

Mostly because I don’t want to get sick.

I just was sick a week and a half ago.

I don’t want to do it again.

But Ani was very cool about it.

We wore masks.

And then after getting home, Ani got to see Liam and Lauren and me.

And the four of us had dinner, and the four of us did Hanukkah.

But Sierra was stuck at school at rehearsals.

So I saw Sierra for like five minutes yesterday because by the time Sierra came home, I was at my rehearsal.

And so I saw Sierra right before she went to bed, which was okay.

It’s fine.

Tonight, Liam and Sierra have a show.

Liam band or orchestra or something.

I don’t know.

Some band.

And concert band.

That’s what it’s called.

And Sierra has some singing stuff all in the same show.

Ani’s like, I’m not going to that.

I’m sick.

I don’t want to get everybody else sick.

And it’s not my people.

I thought Ani would want to go, not even just to support the siblings, but to see other graduated seniors who would be back there visiting.

But I was like, nope, do not care at all.

So, okay.

So anyway, that’s our day.

I don’t have any more rehearsals until Monday, which means I’m off today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

And then Monday is our only rehearsal next week because of Christmas stuff.

And then, you know, come the very end of December, that’s when the rehearsal schedule dials up.

I was saying to Lauren, boy, I’m not rehearsing enough.

And Lauren’s like, no, you want to keep it fresh.

And I’m like, meaning like you don’t want to over-rehearse so then it’s too trite by the time you’re doing the show.

I don’t know.

People on Broadway would do these shows over and over again.

I want to do it a million times so I’m like incredibly good at it.

I did have a really nice rehearsal yesterday because I felt like my character was too big of a jerk in Act 2, Scene 1.

And I told the director, I think I’m being too big of a jerk.

He wanted me to be jerky, but I think it’s too big of a jerk.

I don’t think it’s good.

And he’s like, I was thinking about it too.

And you’re right.

Let’s soften it up.

And it’s so much better now.

So, I like that.

I like when you can have rehearsal and things go well, which is what happened.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

I hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday.

If you’re celebrating Hanukkah, I hope it’s going great.

If you’re not celebrating Hanukkah, my friend, you’re missing out.

Goodbye.

Lex.