Lunch At Wildfire

Grandma organized this week’s lunch, in honor of cousins Jerry and Lois Heisler, who are visiting from Palm Springs, California. We have always loved them, and remember Jerry’s father as a lovely and charming man who was always telling jokes and making everyone laugh. Harry Heisler was one of Grandma’s fifty or so first cousins; he was the son of Toba, one of her father’s older sisters. We spent some time before ordering straightening this all out for Marty, even though it’s written down and Grandma actually has it on a computer program. Grandpa also has a lot of genealogical information on computer about his side of the family.

We met at Wildfire, which has the most delicious chopped salad; there was a lot of back and forth about who was going to share that salad with whom. Anat was there, and immediately launched into advising Hannah Weiss about college, since she leaves for U of Illinois in just a month. And we talked about Anat having Lasik surgery on her eyes the very next day. I asked how the final measuring appointment had gone, and she answered that it had been fine. I reminded her that I fainted and ended up in the hospital because of that pressure they put on the eyeball. Anat said that she is fascinated by that sort of thing, and it doesn’t bother her at all.

At the same time, Marty and Janet started discussing his plans to renovate their upstairs after a pipe burst causing massive amounts of destruction. Janet excels at this sort of thing; she can look at plans (after spending two years building their house) and make brilliant suggestions about how to make everything better. She could have been a designer.

I wanted to hear the news about Eileen and Marcy, Lois and Jerry’s very talented daughters, and we started off by retelling our story of visiting California and stopping by Eileen’s one afternoon. Hannah was very impressed at the dropping of famous names with whom Eileen had worked, and we all felt privy to secret Hollywood gossip when Lois told us the name of who was going to play the lead in Eileen’s new sitcom called “The Middle”. Unfortunately, I’ve already forgotten the famous actress’s name, and only remember that she was in the show Everyone Loves Raymond. Hannah thought she was the anti-Semitic one, although on second thought realized that another similar looking actress was the one. Eileen had explained to us, sitting at her very cool kitchen table back in March, how hard it is to find a middle aged actress who actually looked middle aged and was also funny.

Then they told us about Marcy, who is apparently dating someone, and working on several projects in New York…which led us to talking a bit about our Maya, who feels like she was born to live in The City, and considers Northbrook to be a place she visits when she isn’t in New York. Janet said that she applied to basically every single school in the city, including city schools. Lois told us about all kinds of people coming to them to get Broadway tickets, since her nephew, Kevin, is now producer of FOUR enormously successful shows, one of which was voted the BEST MUSICAL of the year. I already forgot which one it was, but I’d love to see it one day. Lois told the story of seeing Kevin’s x-wife in a show, and how she still called her Aunt Lois. Grandma told us about going to see Jerry’s actual niece, Jimmy’s daughter Laura, in a show with that x-wife. Lois reports that Kevin is happily married with children. And back to Marcy, she is dating someone, but Lois didn’t give any further details, so we got the impression that she wasn’t thrilled about it.

Jerry told us that he is now retired, but he is president of his home owners association out there, and that it is a lot of work being president of 500 presidents. They are enjoying occasional travelling, and are in town this week to celebrate the 70th birthday of one of Lois’s high school friends. She said that she is sort of friends now with someone she didn’t like in high school, whom she first suspected of being drawn to the theater ticket connection. She even whispered the name of such people to my mother, but we all heard. It’s funny how strange it STILL sounds to hear a grown woman use foul language; Anat and Hannah were very amused. But now Lois is friends with that woman because she is funny, and it gets harder with time to find friends who make you laugh. But she dislikes people assuming that she can get tickets and will only do it for people she would invite to her home for dinner. We asked if Pinskys counted as people she would invite…and we laughed and chatted about this and that until it was time to order dessert.

Lois and Jerry wanted to hear about us, so I repeated the story of how I’m now working to coordinate a new law center at DePaul. The whole music thing was discussed, and I explained how becoming asthmatic and then developing the same tremor as my dad made me realize that I was getting signs to stop being a cantor. Janet told them that she is lobbying, and Anat talked about starting medical school. Hannah just seemed happy to be included, and wondered where she had been when all these cousins were coming through all these years. She told us that her mother was planning to give up custody of Max and Jenna, and they would be living with Paul. We talked about her being old enough to just pop in now and then, and I offered her a place to stay whenever she needed it.

Grandpa made sure to get the most chocolatey dessert, a 3 layer cake with ganoche, Janet ordered the banana cream pie, Marty took the berries with streusel, and Anat got the peach/blueberry pie but ate most of it before I could try it! Then I had to run to catch the 1:30 train to go into the city, first to DePaul, then shopping for a suit with David, and then to dinner with my in-laws. I didn’t get to hear the end of lunch, but maybe Anat will fill this in when she recovers from the Lasik.

Pictures From Lunch... And Some Follow-Up

After lunch.

Buying the materials for the potato launcher.

Men at work.

Georgie V

Anat chose Georgie V’s; I thought it would be just five of us, so I made Gabie come. Then Matt showed up with Emily, who started working at Banner today, alongside Hannah W. She worked a full hour and a half before coming out to lunch. Grandpa assured her that this doesn’t happen every day.
Gabie had a chocolate milkshake and chocolate chip pancakes, which is enough to turn most of our stomachs, but it made up for having to be out for lunch instead of in front of the television. He feels like he needs a lot of TV time before heading into the wilderness of Wisconsin for camp on Sunday. Matt sat next to him and pummeled him; too bad he didn’t have a little brother.
Anat told us more about training for the 3 Day Breast Cancer Awareness Walk. At her recent check up, the doctor was appalled at the number of calluses on her feet, but Anat thinks of them as a badge of honor. She worked hard to get those calluses, walking for miles each day. Maya, too. Anat says that her entire perspective about distances has changed, and now she has no problem walking a mile or so to someone’s house (unlike all the other kids who jump in the car before even thinking about walking).
Grandma asked about trainers and we talked about different kinds of exercise classes. Janet says that it’s a shame Grandma can’t work out with the physical therapist at Just Be Fit, because he’s so knowledgeable and it would be great to have someone like that to deal with all the aches and pains. Grandma is looking around for someone who can meet her at a better time though, and not on her days when she is taking classes, volunteering at the Holocaust Museum, or playing bridge.
I was starving today. I’d done something weird working out this morning that caused sudden dizziness, and I couldn’t eat anything. After sleeping another two hours, I woke up feeling better, but still didn’t eat until we all met at Georgie V’s. Too bad Maya couldn’t come; she and Becky used to go there so often in high school that they knew all the busboys.
Grandma talked about books she’s reading, and Anat pulled out a thick, juicy looking book that I’d given her. While we discussed books, Matt started chatting with Gabie about buying him a snake, and maybe a paint ball gun. I sort of ended that discussion, but I could see Gabie smiling secretly as if it really might happen. Matt told me that Gabie was surrounded by too many girls; not just in our family, because he also had the Cohen girls mothering him all these years.
He brought up our coming winter vacation in Puerta Vallarta, and Grandma reminded us all that in addition to our girls, the Weiss girls are coming. That reminded us of Danny and Sharon, and Grandma asked if anyone had heard from them about the possibility of joining us all in Mexico. It would be great for Brian and Aaron to have a vacation with all of us; they grew up so far away.
The kids talked about what they want to do in Mexico, like driving an ATV, zip lining, and wave riding. Gabie watched the big guys with sparkling eyes. Emily told a story about Claire, from when they were there as a family. They were on a wave rider when Claire hit her head after a bumpy wave. She asked Milton not to tell Ibby, but later that day she said, “Dad, my tooth is loose.”
Matt leaned over and asked Grandpa if he would buy tickets for this year’s Lollapalooza, and Grandma said absolutely not. Although Grandpa funded all the grandchildren with tickets for the past two years, his response was, “What is Lollapalooza?” The girls had asked him last year, and he agreed before he knew that it was an extremely expensive 3 day bash with concerts going on constantly. Grandma chimed in that everyone had been invited last year (in spite of Matt’s protestations that they’d been out of town), and that they could all pay for themselves. I said, ‘why don’t you ask your dad to pay?’ to which Emily replied, “Have you met Miltie?”
Anat announced that she is going to several eye doctors to determine if she is a candidate for the Lasik surgery. In all the talk about doctors Gabe asked Anat if she would soon be working with a black doctor and a sassy Latina nurse, plus a domineering boss (the cast of the TV show Scrubs?). Everyone had a good laugh, and Grandpa asked who watches Scrubs. He thinks it’s a good show. It’s one of Gabie and Anat’s favorite shows. That led to a conversation between Emily and Anat about another show they love: House.
Matt was actually drawing a full description of how to make a potato gun, and later in the day, Maya, Anat, and Matt took Gabie to Home Depot to get supplies, and now they are outside on our patio shooting all of my potatoes over the fence.

Mom and I arrive right at noon, at Francesca North in downtown Northbrook. Dad has gone east on Willow, in spite of Mom’s directions, so he comes about fifteen minutes later, and Janet shows up another fifteen minutes after that. Anat finally walks in even later, and we get down to the business of ordering. Anat is not thrilled about the restaurant, because she’s feeling more like breakfast, and, she just had Italian last night, so she’s a little grumpy.
But, Anat rarely stays crabby, and soon she’s bubbling with stories about our cousin Hedy’s son Michael Weiss getting engaged to his longtime girlfriend Dana. They were all friends together at Michigan, and Anat wonders when she’ll be asked to stand up in this wedding. Anat tells us that Hedy and Michael went to Costco and bought lots of roses, and he went over to Dana’s apartment and blanketed it with petals (while she was at work). They were all in town last weekend, staying at the Cohen’s house; which has the handicapped accessibility they need for Uri, who has been a quadriplegic for over a decade.
Grandma was a little confused about the engagement, because she’d just spoken to Hedy last night, and Hedy never mentioned anything. Janet and I don't say anything because we know how important it is for her to know what's going on. Anat is happy to report that she already has a dress suitable for black tie, and fabulous shoes. I bemoaned the lack of a good summer fancy dress, and Janet offered me one of Anat’s, which Anat tells me is not floor length, but cute. Pinky-purple.
Janet by then had asked for about 3 small plates of Parmigian-Reggiano cheese shavings to go with the bread and olive oil. Anat said that they never once had that when she was with Grandma and Grandpa in Italy last year, in fact, no one had ever heard of it. They all served bread with butter, so the olive oil thing must have been invented here.
Grandpa told us about taking the son of their cleaning lady to the office yesterday, and doing a little mentoring along the way. The kid is apparently very smart, a straight A student, but both his parents work with their hands, as a cleaning lady and a floor finisher, so he has no experience in offices. He told Grandpa that kids sometimes make fun of him for being so smart, which Grandpa totally understood. The advice Grandpa gave him was to respond to taunts by agreeing that he’d made a mistake, or that he’d screwed up. “Always put yourself in position of strength,” Grandpa told him.
Anat told us that she is going to a concert tonight given by the fiancé of her high school friend Lauren. I like hearing about that sort of thing, and asked her questions about the kind of music he plays and how she likes it. The only problem, she said, is that every time she wants to spend time with her friend, she’s sort of forced to go listen to the fiancé play music. We talked a little about her upcoming 25th birthday, and how she might just have family dinner, instead of doing a Habitat for Humanity party, and then go into the city to go out with friends. She just doesn’t really want to organize a party, or make her friends come up north. And the timing is bad because of med school starting, with all the ceremonies.
Grandpa asked Anat if she would treat him one day when she is a doctor, to which she responded, “of course, Grandpa, anything you want.” Of course, she is planning to study radiation/oncology. She told us a little about the upcoming schedule for beginning med school; she is moving up to North Chicago at the beginning of August, and classes begin on the 18th.
Grandpa asked if they should come to the white coat ceremony which happens when you start medical school. Grandma said they would come to the ceremony when Anat puts on the long white coat indicating that she is a real doctor. Anat just smiled and continued eating, and said that anyone who wants to can come to any of the events.
It’s a really busy time for Anat, because in addition to starting medical school, the 8-10th of August is the three day walk to eradicate breast cancer; she and Maya have so far raised about 2700 out of the 4400 needed to participate in the walk. I asked about their preparation, and Anat invited me to join them for one of their three hour walks. I explained that I need to be in shape for the hike David and I are doing from Aspen to Crested Butte in a few weeks. Even though I exercise almost every day and do a lot of walking, that doesn’t prepare a person for mountain walking with all that thin air.
I reminded everyone that David and I are going to Colorado on July 25th for the Wexner conference. We’ll start our hike after the conference ends. I mentioned again that I was sorry to have to miss the unveiling of Uncle Leon’s stone, since no one asked us our schedule, and we’ll be flying back from Colorado that evening after the unveiling.
Anat asked if she could come over later to work, because she wasn’t getting enough done at home. That’s where I’m reviewing our lunch, sitting across from Anat, who is plugging in data from the fertility study she is working on with Ilan Tur-Kaspa. Gabie is reading and making notes on the book he has to read in preparation for seventh grade, and we have just cleaned up a massive flood pouring through the laundry room window, caused by overfilled gutters.