Greetings sibs! It’s been a while, thought I’d post an update.

First, the new job is going great. It’s hard for me to imagine a better job for me, at least in the legal profession. The people are great, the work is exactly what I want to be doing, I get to work from home, the pay is FAR more than I’ve ever made before… I keep having to remind myself that I’ve earned this and I don’t have to wait for the other shoe to drop.

Honestly, my only worry is Elon Musk and DOGE. They’ve arbitrarily withheld all federal funding for state health programs, which means TennCare can’t pay our hospital 65 million dollars that we’re owed for services already provided. (This is all confidential, of course.) Both of our senators have assured us that the money will come through in time, once DOGE completes its “review,” but our senators are Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who are about as trustworthy as a couple of rattlesnakes. Sigh.

Anyway, the hospital opened a $20 million line of credit to tide us over, but haven’t had to actually tap into it yet. Hopefully this will end soon, but Elon is clearly on an ego rampage so who knows where it will end? I have this vague worry that this will somehow result in me losing this amazing job, but there’s nothing to do but keep at it.

One more story about the hospital: A few weeks ago some goons from ICE showed up, saying they had word that one of our patients was undocumented and they were there to arrest him. The receptionist called my boss, the head of legal, and he came down and asked to see their warrant. They didn’t have a warrant. “Come back when you have a warrant,” he said. They left, and never came back. Makes you wonder who they were.

On a brighter note, most things in our lives are going really well. Quark is gearing up for our next show in June, and our fall show is going to be a collection of three short plays written by [hyperventilates] ADAM REMSEN. This is both exciting and terrifying, so I’m trying to do a little work on it every day to keep myself from completely freaking out.

We’re also gearing up for our big summer trip. Louisa’s mom and stepdad like going on cruises, and they’ve apparently saved up enough cruise points that they can take us on one. So in June-July we’re going take a cruise from Istanbul up the Adriatic coast to Venice, then Louisa’s mom and stepdad will fly home and the three of us will stay in Venice for 5-6 days. It’s going to be amazing; I’ve never been on a cruise that I can remember (I learned to walk on a cruise when I was a year old), and I’ve always wanted to visit Santorini, Dubrovnik, and a couple other stops we’re going to see. Very cool.

Otherwise we’re trucking along. I had Covid a couple weeks ago, but thank heaven Louisa and Felix didn’t get it. I’m trying to exercise every day, whether that’s walking Lassie or doing calisthenics or whatever–now that I’m working from home it’s way too easy to sit at the computer all day without moving. I wouldn’t mind losing a few pounds around the midsection before our trip, but I’m not going to stress about it. We’re also looking at getting cars, as ours are 11 and 14 years old. They still run OK, mostly, but I want some modern conveniences like a back-up camera and phone connectivity and cruise control. (My current car is totally bare-bones and doesn’t have cruise control.)

That’s the news here. Love you guys and hope you’re doing well! Charlotte, I know you’re busy but I’d love some St. Louis updates when you can!