... a bad case of the 'whatever happened to"s ...

after a ridiculously long, somewhat frustrating day at work, i arrived at home and promptly threw myself into a comfy chair to unwind and relax. looking around for my copy of "hitchiker's guide," i came across a couple of framed items i'd brought back from d.c. with me - my autographed averi glossy (which still makes me smile when i think of how excited all the guys were to be signing autographs at the sad cafe) and my actf/o'neill photos and nametags i'd made into a mini-collage.

staring at the photos of smiling faces from around the country, i instantly went back to the last night of actf - hearing daniel's name announced as the winner of the critics' competition and realizing he was nowhere to be found - finding him out on the terrace after the awards ceremony and giving him a huge hug of congratulations. following the pied piper of alcohol (xoxoxo for mark) to the brasserie at the watergate for the post-festival celebration, where we drank our libations and prided ourselves on being young, creative and inebriated. the photo i have framed was taken there - the group of us posing playfully, holding drinks and cigarettes aloft. daniel's drink caught the flash of the camera and glows in the frozen moment, held in his hand as he looks coquettishy at the camera, one leg up and in front of me. i'm holding it with a grin of my face, a long island iced tea in my hand (back in those days i drank like a champ), mark's arm around my shoulders, giving the camera the finger.

it was such a fun night - the end to an incredible week. looking back on it, realizing it was over a year and a half ago now, i am all too aware of how carefree and fun the experience was and miss it. the way all of us (well, ok, almost all of us) came together so quickly, forming a unit of critics, theater lovers and young lovers of life. meeting at the first get-together and heading to marshall's for snacks and drinks before the first performance. gathering in spencer's room after each show to drink, write, compare our turns of phrase (i still remember the laughter i earned as i sat cross-legged on spencer's bed in front of my laptop, holding a tall screwdriver in my hand, asking the room how one properly spelled dirge - "as in, like, a funeral dirge????"). leaving my room one morning to find a small cluster of tall flowers on the stoop - a gift from my drunk friends ("admirers" as they referred to themselves) the night before. sitting on the white marble surrounding one of the fountains, talking animatedly about plays, experiences, music and loves with daniel, sitting on the cold pavement outside the state plaza at 2:30 a.m. with rhiannon, lamenting writers block and eating delivery chinese while people passed by and laughed. running through the rain to pile far too many people into a cab to get from the kennedy center to our hotel (i actually made the trip sitting on laps and bumping my head against the car roof), where, upon arriving, daniel started playing gene kelley in "singin' in the rain." laughing with clint outside the shakespeare theater while my friends asked him all about aspects of the "romeo & juliet" production we'd seen. walking down to the gas station for supplies while discussing faulkner, whisky and our desires to get to the o'neill. sitting in an oversized purple leather chair, waiting for the person across the table to finish talking so i could offer my opinion, knowing he would counter my points and i'd futher debate ...

i want to know how everyone's doing. particularly my three favorite people - spencer, rhiannon and daniel. spence and i have kept in touch very periodically over the months - emails sent to each other every few months, shocking and surprising us. i'd hoped to catch rhiannon at the o'neill last summer, but she had already left when i arrived. i was able to spend about a half hour with daniel before he left to catch his train, which was grand - once he'd left, i found that he and mark had left me notes, as they hadn't expected to run into me. daniel's read: "vickie - do you like me? check one: yes. no. maybe. go vickie, u r awsum! you rawk. <3 daniel"

so incredibly appropriate.

so here i am, thinking back, wanting to connect again. i think i'll have to send out a few emails to addresses i hope are still periodically checked - see what i can come up with. i know it's somewhat random, but really taking a look at the photo made me realize it was worth the potential surprise on the other ends of the emails - these are not people i want to know strictly as faces in a photograph.