Lunch will have more sizzle when Anat finishes her semester.

May 6, 2009
Malka Weiss (Uri and Nate’s mom, from Cleveland) joined us today; this was her first visit to Chicago since Asher died. She is such a lovely person, and I hope she enjoyed chatting with all of us at Max and Benny’s. She told us a bit about what’s happening with the Weiss girls; they all came home during her visit, and the twins are going traveling through Europe. Jessie is going back to NYC to get back to auditioning.
Sevonne jumped into telling about Jamie and Andrew; they bought a magnificent condo in Bucktown about which she waxed rhapsodic for awhile. High ceilings, three bedrooms, giant porch, gorgeous, etc…Andrew is back working for his father, Jamie still doesn’t have a job. Jonathan has been working in real estate with his dad’s firm, and we didn’t talk about Michael except to acknowledge that he’s getting married.
Milt asked Sevonne about Zach; he told Ibby that they’re going through a rough patch, but Sevonne says she told him it was over. She repeated my vision of her slumping at a desk when she’s at Tel Aviv U next year, and suddenly seeing a cute guy, so she sits up straight. Then she gets into a relationship with him, but there are hurdles to overcome.
Malka and Grandma were talking about the old county, and it turns out that Malka can’t remember the name of the concentration camp her father was in. Grandma said that some of the other cousins have also forgotten such things. Grandma and Grandpa saw an old guy from the next table whom they knew, but they couldn’t remember his name, until Grandma got it. He had been friends with Bob Pohn, Grandpa’s childhood friend. They’re probably around the same age, but that table of old guys looked like they were in their 90’s, and made Grandpa and Grandma look much younger.
Milton informed us that Ibby’s grandmother, GGMa, who was 104, died in her sleep on Thursday. He said, “She had 102 good years.” We all expressed surprise, and Malka asked, why are you surprised? We replied that we thought she’d live forever.
Milton also told us about their college visit to Indiana for Emily. She loved it, and they agreed that it is beautiful down there. Emily wants someplace warmer than Chicago (it’s about 10 degrees warmer; when David and I were there we were absolutely delighted to wear light sweaters even though it was still freezing in Chicago). Indiana is her first choice, and then he told us some of her safety schools, plus she talks about Miami of Ohio, but Milton thinks that’s just to please Ibby. Mom asked about Illinois, and Milt said she can’t get in; when she hasn’t liked a teacher, she has stopped working in that class, and so she doesn’t have a stellar grade point average.
Sevonne told us that she has a lot of work with her computer today, and tomorrow morning she is going to a JNF breakfast. Marty’s friend is chair of the event, and Sevonne tried to convince Marty to join her at the breakfast; Mark Spitz is speaking. We tried to remember if he was or wasn’t the first Jewish swimmer to win the gold medal. Someone remarked that he set records only now broken by Olympic medalist Michael Phelps.
I explained that I can’t go to the breakfast because tomorrow I’m taking the 4:30pm train downtown. We have a lecture by one of David’s brilliant professors downtown, which we’re leaving early to take a cab down to the Ritz Carlton where we are joining our friends James and Aviva at a dinner honoring the outgoing president of Hebrew University.
It’s a tough night for us to go out since we’re leaving early Friday morning to go to Dani’s graduation in Washington D.C. I told everyone that we plan to go to one of the museums on Friday, and then we all go out to dinner(Raphi will be there, along with his nephew, and the nephew’s wife and baby). The ceremony takes place Saturday morning (Marty asked me if we planned to go to shul afterwards), followed by a reception. That afternoon we’ll all congregate at Dani’s house; she and her roomies have organized a catered dinner for all the families. Becky flies in at about 5:30 and will take a cab to the house, so we’ll all be together (including their father). Sunday morning Dani has arranged a brunch, after which we’ll have almost all day until our flight…maybe we’ll try to come home earlier if it’s raining as forecast.
Janet reminded the boys what they’re all giving Dani for her graduation. Sevonne remembered a pile of cash that she used for months and months afterwards, always feeling like it was free money. We are helping Dani buy a new car, and we’re giving her the beginnings of a graduate school fund that we saved over the years. From now on, we’re saving for her wedding.
Marty ordered three desserts, and they were all way better than expected, because I really dislike this restaurant and hope we don’t return (except for the desserts). I had the veggie burger, and it was just nothing; last time I couldn’t eat the omelet it was so awful. Marty had ordered a key lime pie, but a guy from the kitchen came out with instructions written on a dollar bill, and told us they were out of it. Marty ordered cherry pie instead, but Grandpa had to confirm his chocolate cake was still coming. The guy was clearly challenged, and of course an extra piece of cake was delivered.
May 13, 2009
Gabie was home because he missed the seventh grade Washington trip. We were actually already in Washington for Dani’s graduation this past weekend, so it didn’t make sense for him to go. We are having a lovely week of hanging out and doing nothing much. Gabie wanted to meet at Kamahachi, but because it’s Milton’s 50th birthday, he got to choose.
So, we met again at Bravo in the Glen, and Matt had just come home from college, Sevonne was there, and everyone else. Matt spent a lot of time kind of wrestling with Gabie, but he also took a few minutes now and again to massage my neck with his iron hands. There was a lot of talk about cars, and he isn’t sure about his summer plans, so I told him he can spend some time with Becky.
Grandpa was sitting across from both boys, and Marty was there also, but he left early with plans to pick up lots of Homer ice cream to celebrate at the office. Grandpa told the boys about a Nature channel show he’d seen that he very much liked, about renewable forms of energy. Gabie likes that sort of thing so he was actually engaged in the discussion.
Milt and Ibby told us a little about their weekend away, and all the plans for celebrating, that do not include a party. They’re having these gatherings, and we’re all getting together for a barbeque on Sunday night, and then they’re going with another couple to Oregon in a few weeks. They told a story about being on vacation somewhere west and it was warm and nice when suddenly the temperature fell 40 degrees and a storm was in full swing. They went back to the hotel and cuddled, but when they called home, Mom and Dad were at the beach with the kids. I was very sad that the restaurant didn’t do anything except put out a card; I’d asked for something with a candle, and they just forgot. I told the manager that we weren’t coming back to celebrate anything. But we unusually did not order any desserts since Marty was getting all that Homer’s ice cream for the office