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.