Thursday was not as profitable as I had hoped at the beginning of the day as I alternated between my desk and my bed. The continued discomfort of gut issues has been exhausting and sleep seems to aid me in dealing with it. However, my laundry was completed, and the kitchen received much much-needed attention.

Tonight is a NUTCRACKER night at Schuster Center. I love Tchaikovsky’s rich, delightful score and I am eager to be mesmerized, and I return again, on Saturday, to cover for another house manager. This shall continue through next weekend.

On this date in history: (2019) American actor and puppeteer Caroll Spinney—who created the characteristics and mannerisms of Big Bird, a larger-than-life puppet he played for nearly 50 years—died at age 85.  (2016) American astronaut and politician John Glenn—who was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, for which he was regarded as a national hero—died at age 95. (1987) U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed a nuclear weapons reduction treaty. (1980) On this day in 1980, British musician John Lennon—who rose to fame with the Beatles and had a successful solo career—was fatally shot by Mark David Chapman in New York City, causing a global outpouring of grief. (1978) The American classic film The Deer Hunter—starring Robert De Niro and Christoper Walken, among others—had its world premiere; an emotionally shattering look at the effects of the Vietnam War on the young American men sent to fight in it, the movie later won an Oscar for best picture.  (1854) ope Pius IX proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, asserting that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was preserved free from the effects of “original sin” from the first instant of her conception. (1542) Mary, Queen of Scots, was born, and six days later she became Queen of Scotland.  

Make it a great day!