LeeFest 2019, part 2: How I Went To New York City And Landed In Heaven
(a continuation of my Long Lost adventures with Lee -- see HERE for Part 1: The Pre-Lee)
LeeFest 2019
Once Lee’s play was over, we all gathered back outside the theater to wait for him. Sue's husband, who had joined her at the theater after our dinner, had decided not stick around for the meeting-Lee portion of the night and said goodbye to everyone. I tried to convince him to stay by telling him, "We're normal people, I swear!" But he just laughed and said, "I know!" and continued to walk away.
I don't think he believed me, LOL.
We then chatted about the play amongst ourselves, but we only had to wait a few minutes before The Man, The Legend himself stepped outside to join us.
Now, I had treated myself to a new outfit to wear for LeeFest, and the top I had bought was a deep royal blue color. And one thing I've noticed about Lee is that he tends to wear a lot of blue, at least when he knows he's going to be photographed: blue t-shirts, dress shirts, suit coats, whatever. And I had thought to myself when I bought my top, "Wouldn't it be funny if Lee also wore blue that night and we matched!"
So, as weird as it is, when he stepped outside, the first thing I couldn't help but notice is that he's wearing a t-shirt that's the EXACT same color as my top. And I smiled and laughed to myself, because it was like our own little special connection.
Yes, I am a dork, I know.
So, Lee saw Anne and started to move toward us, but then some other random people grabbed his attention and started talking to him and complimenting his performance, so we had to stand there and patiently wait for him. (Well, maybe not patiently, as I was thinking to myself "Go away, people! He's OURS. :D)
He finally broke free and came over to hug Anne, who's standing next to me. I did a surprisingly good job of holding it together, and when he turned to me, I remembered to introduce myself and my husband by telling him we'd met him before at the PaleyFest reunion. I couldn’t tell if he remembered us at all, but he gave me a hug (*squish*) and shook my husband's hand.
The others introduced themselves, but Milti had to refuse his hug since she had been sick and didn't want to spread any germs. She mentioned that she'd even had to leave the play at one point because she had started coughing. That's when Lee mentioned that he’d been really sick right before the play's official opening night earlier in the week and could hardly talk then. He said they had sent him someplace to get a shot that did wonders to make him feel better. ("I think it was Methamphetamine or something," he said laughing.)
Lee turned to Anne and asked if we wanted to go somewhere, and Anne was like, "YES." (And I thought, "Is he crazy? He actually needs to ask?" Heh.) Lee looked around and said he wasn’t sure where to go, but definitely not "there," gesturing in the direction of some place across the street. Then he said we'd go somewhere, but that he'd have to go back inside to get his bicycle, as he'd ridden it from home to the theater that evening.
When he said that, Jessica realized that she needed to go ahead and give him the framed drawing that she'd made of him and Lily, as it was too big for him to take home on his bike. She handed him the box, and he opened it up and undid the bubble wrap and... he was stunned. Jessica explained how she had drawn it from an old photo of Tom Fontana's that Tom had posted to Instagram, and Lee nodded and quietly said, "I know the picture, I remember that moment." Then, staring at the drawing, he mumbled, "Oh, those cheeks," (Lily was a toddler in the picture, and she’s six now), and he started to tear up.
About this time, some other people came up to him and tried to grab his attention to compliment his performance, but Lee just sort of gave them a brief nod of acknowledgment, because you could tell all he really wanted to do was look at his gift. Then he turned and gave Jessica a big hug, and we took pictures of the two of them:
(Answer: Tommy Hilfiger, in case you're wondering :D)
Then Lee took his drawing back inside the theater to leave in the dressing room, and he came back out a few minutes later with his bike instead. He said he had taken a picture of the drawing to show Yuko and Lily when he got home.
Looking at his bike, Sue teasingly asked him, "Is that a bell?" And Lee rang the little bell on his bike and said it used to be his wife’s bike, and he rode it because no one had ever tried to steal it.
At this point, Milti said goodbye to the group and left, as she apparently was still feeling under the weather, but the rest of us eagerly began to follow Lee to… well, anywhere.
As Lee pushed his bicycle along the sidewalk, he carried on a conversation with Anne beside him. I walked directly behind them and kept thinking what a cute picture it would make of the two of them together, but I just didn’t have the nerve to try to discreetly get my phone out and take the picture, figuring that would be the exact moment Lee would turn around and think I was taking a picture of his ass or something. (Sorry, Anne!)
After a couple of blocks, Lee stopped outside the Sheraton Times Square Hotel. He locked up his bike and unscrewed the seat and lead us inside to the restaurant/bar in the hotel’s lobby, carrying his bicycle seat with him. (I guess he wasn’t taking any chances, low theft potential or not.)
We sat down in an indoor courtyard area just outside the restaurant, which was perfect as it quiet and there was lots of space. Lee sat down in a a curved booth with Anne and Jessica while Sue sat in a chair beside him and my husband and I pulled up chairs to sit across from him.
(photos from the hotel’s website)
As we were getting situated, Lee was carrying on a conversation with Anne, telling her about the time he filmed an emotional scene with an actress who did not want to meet him ahead of time, thinking a true first encounter between them would create a more natural reaction from her. Unfortunately, when they tried to film it, she burst into tears, and they couldn’t use the footage anyway. Also unfortunately, I had completely missed the first part of this conversation, and I had no idea what show/scene he was referring to, so I sat there wondering, "WHAT is he talking about?" Eventually, he said the name "Leven" and I was like, "Okay, I KNOW that name," but the conversation was basically over by the time I realized he was talking about a scene with Leven Rambin from the recent series "Gone," a show where he played a child abductor.
(NOTE: At this point, the timing of everything gets blurry. All of the following happened, but the sequence of events is an approximation.)
A waiter came up to take our orders, and Lee asked for a nonalcoholic beer and some calamari. But the waiter told him they didn’t have calamari, so Lee changed his order to the popcorn shrimp and some hummus instead. After the rest of us had ordered our drinks, the waiter said that he’d have the drinks right out and that he’d put in the order for the calamari. And Lee goes, "…. but you said you didn’t have calamari?" and the waiter got slightly flustered and corrected himself. Lee laughed and said, "That’s okay, it’s my fault, I got you messed you up." I thought it was sweet that Lee took the blame for the waiter’s confusion.
There was some discussion about the play, and we all complimented Lee on his performance. (We really hadn’t had the opportunity to properly do so when he first came out to greet us.) Anne told him he had great chemistry with Kelly AuCoin, the actor who played his brother, and Lee said they got along really well and he enjoyed working with him. I said I really liked Alex Wolff (who played his teenage nephew) and that I thought he was funny, and Lee said working with Alex was… "different." Then he laughed and kind of shrugged and said "He’s a kid, you know?"
Then there was discussion about Lee’s character and all of his manipulations and lies. Lee brought up the other characters’ reactions to the things his character had said and done, and my husband (who was fairly quiet for most of the night) piped up and said, "Well, you were an asshole." And Lee cracked up, and replied, "I know! Right?" (I think my husband was quite proud of himself for making Lee laugh like that.)
Then I think someone asked him a generic "What else have you been up to?" question, and he pulled out his phone and said something like, "well, it might be a surprise to you, I have another kid," and for a very brief moment I thought maybe he had had a THIRD child, but no, he was referring to his son Kai, who’s two now. And then Lee went into total DAD mode, where he starts showing all these pictures and videos of his children on his phone. Unfortunately, since I was sitting across from him, I couldn’t see them like everyone else, so I just watched Lee as he showed them off, and it was just such a treat to watch how thoroughly excited he was to talk about his kids.
There were a few times when he thought to turn his phone around to show something to me and my husband, though. One picture I saw was of Kai with his face painted, and I asked if he (Lee) had done that, and he replied, no, it had been his teacher. There was also a video of Lily deliberately walking in "slow motion" that was ruined when Kai ran up behind her and pushed her. Lee seemed half-exasperated, half-delighted by whole thing.
He mentioned that he and Yuko were thinking of moving to Irvington (a suburb of NYC) because of its schools. He and Jessica then had quite a discussion about different suburbs of NYC (Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Scarsdale) and the pros and cons of living in each one.
I asked him if he would ever consider moving back to California. He sort of made a face and said, no, he likes the changing seasons for one thing, although his brother lives out there. Then he gave me a kind of a strange look and asked "Why did you ask me that?" in this really defensive tone. And I freaked out a bit, because I was just making conversation, you know? So I sort of stuttered back, "I just know that you used to live out there… ?" Then he asked me if I’d ever been there, and I told him we had been to Santa Monica last summer on vacation. And he said "Oh, well, that’s a nice area, not like LA." And he made a face again.
So, I kind of got the impression that he really, really doesn't care much for LA.
Lee asked Jessica how she drew her picture, and she explained the process and how drawing was something she did to de-stress, as her job as a social worker can be pretty intense. She apologized for doing his drawing with a mechanical pencil, and we non-artists had no idea why that was something to apologize for. (I remember my husband joking about not using a Yellow No. 2 instead.)
Jessica told Lee that she’d also done several drawings various characters from Chris Meloni’s recent show "Happy!" She pulled out her phone and showed pictures of those drawings to Lee, as well as pictures of his own drawing that she’d taken at different stages of completion. He seemed really interested in her art and talent and the actual process that went into creating her artwork.
Not to be outdone, Sue showed him her sidewalk chalk drawing of the Happy! character that she had posted to Twitter, indicating that was the extent of her artistic talent:
(photo credit to Sue)
(which I actually think is very good!)
Sue then told Lee that he followed her on Twitter, but she wasn’t sure why. Then she referenced how she’d once tweeted about a strange dream she’d had of her and Meloni drugging their way through India, and he grinned and said, "You KNOW that’s the reason why (I followed you)."
Since we were on the subject of Twitter, I mentioned that I had recently taken over the Twitter account associated with his website. I told him that if he’s ever working on something and wants to get the word out, to just let me know, and I’d do my best to pimp it. He said, "Well, I’m working on this play… " and a couple of people said, "Yeah, we know, she’s been tweeting about it every day!" LOL (Which actually made me feel really good, to know that there are people who are aware of and appreciate my efforts.)
Now, backing up a bit… when I was planning our trip, I had wondered if the theater would have any souvenirs of the play available for sale, since it was a smaller, off-Broadway production (and it turned out that they didn’t). So, to make sure there was some kind of memento of the occasion, I designed and ordered souvenir cards to hand out to everyone, using the play’s promotional still on one side and pictures of Lee in various roles on the other:
I had actually created about 10 different versions of the card, and I ended up choosing this particular layout since I thought it had the perfect spot for Lee to autograph them, which I was really hoping to ask him to do. When the cards arrived in the mail, I showed them to my husband and told him that it was his job to make sure I didn’t chicken out of asking Lee to sign them, assuming there was an opportunity. I even pointed out the spot at the top of the card. Then the following exchange happened:
Husband: "You know he’s not going to sign them there."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Husband: "He’s going to sign them down there, on the bottom."
Me: "Why would he do that?"
Husband: "He just will."
Me: "But there’s a perfect spot at the top! Isn’t it obvious where he should sign?"
Now, he was just pulling my chain, like he always does, because he knows how anal-retentive I am, but then I worried that Lee would mess up the cards by signing them in the wrong spot.
So, back to LeeFest, I brought out my cards and explained how I’d made them up so everyone would have a souvenir, and I bravely turned to Lee and asked if he wouldn’t mind signing them. I then pulled out my pen and said, "I even have a special gold Sharpie you can use that will show up on that dark area right up there at the top."
Ah, yes, the time I gave Lee Tergesen directions on how to sign his name.
And I sensed my husband next to me, just dying of laughter, because he knows what’s going on in my head, because he’s the one who put it there.
Bu thankfully, it didn’t seem to phase Lee. He took note of the shiny gold foil text on the card, and examined the pictures on back. I mentioned that I had been lazy and had mostly just used the same pictures I’d used in his calendar. There was one picture, my favorite picture of him, that he tapped on and said, "This was taken on Fire Island." (Which is funny, because when I gave him the calendar, he saw that photo and said he’d never seen it before. But now he remembers it?) I told him that there were other photos of that moment where he’s with a drag queen, and that they were taken during a parade or festival of some kind, but I couldn’t remember the name of it, and he was like, "Yep, it was on Fire Island." (As it turns out, it was actually from the 2005 "Wigstock" festival in NYC, not Fire Island, but close enough.)
I then very briefly thought about asking him to confirm if this was also him on Fire Island, but luckily I successfully restrained myself:
As Lee very politely signed the cards, I told him he could keep one if he wanted, as there were extra. I jokingly told him I’d be selling the rest online. (My husband stopped laughing long enough to say, "She’ll be all worried about getting busted for using copyrighted images.") Then Lee asked all of us to sign his copy of the card to keep. Awww.
******************
This write-up is taking me forever, as I can't tell a succinct story to save my life, so I thought I'd post what I've managed to get through so far. More to come.
ETA: LeeFest 2019, part 3: The Final Chapter can be read HERE.
LeeFest 2019
Once Lee’s play was over, we all gathered back outside the theater to wait for him. Sue's husband, who had joined her at the theater after our dinner, had decided not stick around for the meeting-Lee portion of the night and said goodbye to everyone. I tried to convince him to stay by telling him, "We're normal people, I swear!" But he just laughed and said, "I know!" and continued to walk away.
I don't think he believed me, LOL.
We then chatted about the play amongst ourselves, but we only had to wait a few minutes before The Man, The Legend himself stepped outside to join us.
Now, I had treated myself to a new outfit to wear for LeeFest, and the top I had bought was a deep royal blue color. And one thing I've noticed about Lee is that he tends to wear a lot of blue, at least when he knows he's going to be photographed: blue t-shirts, dress shirts, suit coats, whatever. And I had thought to myself when I bought my top, "Wouldn't it be funny if Lee also wore blue that night and we matched!"
So, as weird as it is, when he stepped outside, the first thing I couldn't help but notice is that he's wearing a t-shirt that's the EXACT same color as my top. And I smiled and laughed to myself, because it was like our own little special connection.
Yes, I am a dork, I know.
So, Lee saw Anne and started to move toward us, but then some other random people grabbed his attention and started talking to him and complimenting his performance, so we had to stand there and patiently wait for him. (Well, maybe not patiently, as I was thinking to myself "Go away, people! He's OURS. :D)
He finally broke free and came over to hug Anne, who's standing next to me. I did a surprisingly good job of holding it together, and when he turned to me, I remembered to introduce myself and my husband by telling him we'd met him before at the PaleyFest reunion. I couldn’t tell if he remembered us at all, but he gave me a hug (*squish*) and shook my husband's hand.
The others introduced themselves, but Milti had to refuse his hug since she had been sick and didn't want to spread any germs. She mentioned that she'd even had to leave the play at one point because she had started coughing. That's when Lee mentioned that he’d been really sick right before the play's official opening night earlier in the week and could hardly talk then. He said they had sent him someplace to get a shot that did wonders to make him feel better. ("I think it was Methamphetamine or something," he said laughing.)
Lee turned to Anne and asked if we wanted to go somewhere, and Anne was like, "YES." (And I thought, "Is he crazy? He actually needs to ask?" Heh.) Lee looked around and said he wasn’t sure where to go, but definitely not "there," gesturing in the direction of some place across the street. Then he said we'd go somewhere, but that he'd have to go back inside to get his bicycle, as he'd ridden it from home to the theater that evening.
When he said that, Jessica realized that she needed to go ahead and give him the framed drawing that she'd made of him and Lily, as it was too big for him to take home on his bike. She handed him the box, and he opened it up and undid the bubble wrap and... he was stunned. Jessica explained how she had drawn it from an old photo of Tom Fontana's that Tom had posted to Instagram, and Lee nodded and quietly said, "I know the picture, I remember that moment." Then, staring at the drawing, he mumbled, "Oh, those cheeks," (Lily was a toddler in the picture, and she’s six now), and he started to tear up.
About this time, some other people came up to him and tried to grab his attention to compliment his performance, but Lee just sort of gave them a brief nod of acknowledgment, because you could tell all he really wanted to do was look at his gift. Then he turned and gave Jessica a big hug, and we took pictures of the two of them:
(Answer: Tommy Hilfiger, in case you're wondering :D)
Then Lee took his drawing back inside the theater to leave in the dressing room, and he came back out a few minutes later with his bike instead. He said he had taken a picture of the drawing to show Yuko and Lily when he got home.
Looking at his bike, Sue teasingly asked him, "Is that a bell?" And Lee rang the little bell on his bike and said it used to be his wife’s bike, and he rode it because no one had ever tried to steal it.
At this point, Milti said goodbye to the group and left, as she apparently was still feeling under the weather, but the rest of us eagerly began to follow Lee to… well, anywhere.
As Lee pushed his bicycle along the sidewalk, he carried on a conversation with Anne beside him. I walked directly behind them and kept thinking what a cute picture it would make of the two of them together, but I just didn’t have the nerve to try to discreetly get my phone out and take the picture, figuring that would be the exact moment Lee would turn around and think I was taking a picture of his ass or something. (Sorry, Anne!)
After a couple of blocks, Lee stopped outside the Sheraton Times Square Hotel. He locked up his bike and unscrewed the seat and lead us inside to the restaurant/bar in the hotel’s lobby, carrying his bicycle seat with him. (I guess he wasn’t taking any chances, low theft potential or not.)
We sat down in an indoor courtyard area just outside the restaurant, which was perfect as it quiet and there was lots of space. Lee sat down in a a curved booth with Anne and Jessica while Sue sat in a chair beside him and my husband and I pulled up chairs to sit across from him.
(photos from the hotel’s website)
As we were getting situated, Lee was carrying on a conversation with Anne, telling her about the time he filmed an emotional scene with an actress who did not want to meet him ahead of time, thinking a true first encounter between them would create a more natural reaction from her. Unfortunately, when they tried to film it, she burst into tears, and they couldn’t use the footage anyway. Also unfortunately, I had completely missed the first part of this conversation, and I had no idea what show/scene he was referring to, so I sat there wondering, "WHAT is he talking about?" Eventually, he said the name "Leven" and I was like, "Okay, I KNOW that name," but the conversation was basically over by the time I realized he was talking about a scene with Leven Rambin from the recent series "Gone," a show where he played a child abductor.
(NOTE: At this point, the timing of everything gets blurry. All of the following happened, but the sequence of events is an approximation.)
A waiter came up to take our orders, and Lee asked for a nonalcoholic beer and some calamari. But the waiter told him they didn’t have calamari, so Lee changed his order to the popcorn shrimp and some hummus instead. After the rest of us had ordered our drinks, the waiter said that he’d have the drinks right out and that he’d put in the order for the calamari. And Lee goes, "…. but you said you didn’t have calamari?" and the waiter got slightly flustered and corrected himself. Lee laughed and said, "That’s okay, it’s my fault, I got you messed you up." I thought it was sweet that Lee took the blame for the waiter’s confusion.
There was some discussion about the play, and we all complimented Lee on his performance. (We really hadn’t had the opportunity to properly do so when he first came out to greet us.) Anne told him he had great chemistry with Kelly AuCoin, the actor who played his brother, and Lee said they got along really well and he enjoyed working with him. I said I really liked Alex Wolff (who played his teenage nephew) and that I thought he was funny, and Lee said working with Alex was… "different." Then he laughed and kind of shrugged and said "He’s a kid, you know?"
Then there was discussion about Lee’s character and all of his manipulations and lies. Lee brought up the other characters’ reactions to the things his character had said and done, and my husband (who was fairly quiet for most of the night) piped up and said, "Well, you were an asshole." And Lee cracked up, and replied, "I know! Right?" (I think my husband was quite proud of himself for making Lee laugh like that.)
Then I think someone asked him a generic "What else have you been up to?" question, and he pulled out his phone and said something like, "well, it might be a surprise to you, I have another kid," and for a very brief moment I thought maybe he had had a THIRD child, but no, he was referring to his son Kai, who’s two now. And then Lee went into total DAD mode, where he starts showing all these pictures and videos of his children on his phone. Unfortunately, since I was sitting across from him, I couldn’t see them like everyone else, so I just watched Lee as he showed them off, and it was just such a treat to watch how thoroughly excited he was to talk about his kids.
There were a few times when he thought to turn his phone around to show something to me and my husband, though. One picture I saw was of Kai with his face painted, and I asked if he (Lee) had done that, and he replied, no, it had been his teacher. There was also a video of Lily deliberately walking in "slow motion" that was ruined when Kai ran up behind her and pushed her. Lee seemed half-exasperated, half-delighted by whole thing.
He mentioned that he and Yuko were thinking of moving to Irvington (a suburb of NYC) because of its schools. He and Jessica then had quite a discussion about different suburbs of NYC (Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Scarsdale) and the pros and cons of living in each one.
I asked him if he would ever consider moving back to California. He sort of made a face and said, no, he likes the changing seasons for one thing, although his brother lives out there. Then he gave me a kind of a strange look and asked "Why did you ask me that?" in this really defensive tone. And I freaked out a bit, because I was just making conversation, you know? So I sort of stuttered back, "I just know that you used to live out there… ?" Then he asked me if I’d ever been there, and I told him we had been to Santa Monica last summer on vacation. And he said "Oh, well, that’s a nice area, not like LA." And he made a face again.
So, I kind of got the impression that he really, really doesn't care much for LA.
Lee asked Jessica how she drew her picture, and she explained the process and how drawing was something she did to de-stress, as her job as a social worker can be pretty intense. She apologized for doing his drawing with a mechanical pencil, and we non-artists had no idea why that was something to apologize for. (I remember my husband joking about not using a Yellow No. 2 instead.)
Jessica told Lee that she’d also done several drawings various characters from Chris Meloni’s recent show "Happy!" She pulled out her phone and showed pictures of those drawings to Lee, as well as pictures of his own drawing that she’d taken at different stages of completion. He seemed really interested in her art and talent and the actual process that went into creating her artwork.
Not to be outdone, Sue showed him her sidewalk chalk drawing of the Happy! character that she had posted to Twitter, indicating that was the extent of her artistic talent:
(photo credit to Sue)
(which I actually think is very good!)
Sue then told Lee that he followed her on Twitter, but she wasn’t sure why. Then she referenced how she’d once tweeted about a strange dream she’d had of her and Meloni drugging their way through India, and he grinned and said, "You KNOW that’s the reason why (I followed you)."
Since we were on the subject of Twitter, I mentioned that I had recently taken over the Twitter account associated with his website. I told him that if he’s ever working on something and wants to get the word out, to just let me know, and I’d do my best to pimp it. He said, "Well, I’m working on this play… " and a couple of people said, "Yeah, we know, she’s been tweeting about it every day!" LOL (Which actually made me feel really good, to know that there are people who are aware of and appreciate my efforts.)
Now, backing up a bit… when I was planning our trip, I had wondered if the theater would have any souvenirs of the play available for sale, since it was a smaller, off-Broadway production (and it turned out that they didn’t). So, to make sure there was some kind of memento of the occasion, I designed and ordered souvenir cards to hand out to everyone, using the play’s promotional still on one side and pictures of Lee in various roles on the other:
I had actually created about 10 different versions of the card, and I ended up choosing this particular layout since I thought it had the perfect spot for Lee to autograph them, which I was really hoping to ask him to do. When the cards arrived in the mail, I showed them to my husband and told him that it was his job to make sure I didn’t chicken out of asking Lee to sign them, assuming there was an opportunity. I even pointed out the spot at the top of the card. Then the following exchange happened:
Husband: "You know he’s not going to sign them there."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Husband: "He’s going to sign them down there, on the bottom."
Me: "Why would he do that?"
Husband: "He just will."
Me: "But there’s a perfect spot at the top! Isn’t it obvious where he should sign?"
Now, he was just pulling my chain, like he always does, because he knows how anal-retentive I am, but then I worried that Lee would mess up the cards by signing them in the wrong spot.
So, back to LeeFest, I brought out my cards and explained how I’d made them up so everyone would have a souvenir, and I bravely turned to Lee and asked if he wouldn’t mind signing them. I then pulled out my pen and said, "I even have a special gold Sharpie you can use that will show up on that dark area right up there at the top."
Ah, yes, the time I gave Lee Tergesen directions on how to sign his name.
And I sensed my husband next to me, just dying of laughter, because he knows what’s going on in my head, because he’s the one who put it there.
Bu thankfully, it didn’t seem to phase Lee. He took note of the shiny gold foil text on the card, and examined the pictures on back. I mentioned that I had been lazy and had mostly just used the same pictures I’d used in his calendar. There was one picture, my favorite picture of him, that he tapped on and said, "This was taken on Fire Island." (Which is funny, because when I gave him the calendar, he saw that photo and said he’d never seen it before. But now he remembers it?) I told him that there were other photos of that moment where he’s with a drag queen, and that they were taken during a parade or festival of some kind, but I couldn’t remember the name of it, and he was like, "Yep, it was on Fire Island." (As it turns out, it was actually from the 2005 "Wigstock" festival in NYC, not Fire Island, but close enough.)
I then very briefly thought about asking him to confirm if this was also him on Fire Island, but luckily I successfully restrained myself:
As Lee very politely signed the cards, I told him he could keep one if he wanted, as there were extra. I jokingly told him I’d be selling the rest online. (My husband stopped laughing long enough to say, "She’ll be all worried about getting busted for using copyrighted images.") Then Lee asked all of us to sign his copy of the card to keep. Awww.
******************
This write-up is taking me forever, as I can't tell a succinct story to save my life, so I thought I'd post what I've managed to get through so far. More to come.
ETA: LeeFest 2019, part 3: The Final Chapter can be read HERE.