July 7, 2009
This week was a little different, because Dani is leaving for Washington D.C. tomorrow. She is starting her job in a few weeks, and needs time to get organized in her new apartment. So, we planned to meet grandma and grandpa for lunch today. Dani chose Di Pescaro, and then Anat and Sevonne joined us too, which made it into a party.
I thought Dani already had her security clearance for the Department of Transportation and Security, which is her first client from Deloitte, but she explained to us that she had finished filling the lengthy forms but won’t hear back from them for a while. The G’s came late, so Sevonne waited until they arrive to tell stories about the Hindi/Philippine wedding she attended in Michigan this past weekend. She had a beautiful sari made, and all the friends wore them, but they needed help in tying them in the special way. Her hand was still painted in swirls from the Henna ceremony, which she absolutely loved. She said the food was amazing, and there were four parties, each with a different theme and for a different purpose. The one thing Sevonne did not enjoy was the two hours of speeches at the actual wedding.
We talked about our custom of doing those long speeches and toasts at the rehearsal dinner. Dani commented that we probably talk about weddings more than most families, even though no one even has a boyfriend. I thought it was good to talk about, so that everyone is clear about expectations and even has an understanding about what is good or bad about the different ways of putting on these events. Becky brought up the idea of a destination wedding in good old Colorado Springs, an idea Grandma did not like.
Gabie was with us for lunch, and hardly spoke, except that when Grandpa told him he should come to the Banner Family Council meeting, he immediately said that he had plans to go to Nickel City. We all laughed a lot throughout the meal, and I started feeling sad that these days of hanging out with all three of my children are no longer going to be easy to arrange now that Dani is moving to D.C.
Today was the family council meeting, at Pete Miller’s in Wheeling. David was in charge of organizing it, and he had already sent out an agenda and a worksheet for the kids to fill out with ideas about their own values and what values we as a family should hold. Just when we were about to leave for the lunch meeting, Gabie asked for a ride to Northbrook Court to meet his friends and go to a movie. Later in the day, the Cohen girls expressed surprise that I allowed it, because their mother never let them hang out at a mall. I said that was funny because I’m pretty sure I remember Janet spending a lot of time with different groups of girls hanging out at Old Orchard.
So, we started with imitations; whoever did the best imitation of a family member got a prize. Anat had a few not friendly-spirited imitations of Janet and me, but Matt won with a brilliant monologue in which he slipped from one person to the next, ending with an impression of Joe, who often puts his head down on the table and goes to sleep at family events. He won the Starbucks gift card that Emily tried to steal as they were leaving.
David had everyone talk about our values as a family, and divided us into groups to remember incidents that displayed values we want to emphasize. First though, he sent Grandma and Grandpa home, because our family business consultant, Joe Atrachan, who has very white teeth in his faculty picture, told us that this is the best way to have a meeting. Grandma was not happy with the arrangement and had to be told several times that it was Joe’s idea, not David’s. In any case, they ended up having to leave because Grandma had an appointment.
In talking about the second generation, and how the younger cousins don’t really feel a part of everything, Cindy suggested that the big cousins call the little ones on occasion. The big cousins have these cousins’ dinners, and Sevonne spoke for the group in saying that it has been a huge bonding experience and that all their friends are jealous about all the fun the cousins have together.
We talked about the idea of the next council meeting, should we have another family vacation, should it be a lunch? David appointed different people to research things like where our charitable donations should go, where we should next meet and other family oriented questions.
Once again, there was a lot of laughter, and a lot of good eating (although they didn’t love the restaurant as much as others).
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
June 3, 2009
It’s the day before Sevonne’s 27th birthday, and she is leaving for a couple weeks of fun in California. Becky and Sevonne talked about the trip, and who she’s going to visit, all in Orange County. Grandma kept asking her questions about things in LA, and Sevonne kept saying that she’s not going to LA, but Grandma couldn’t understand someone going to LA, right next to LA, and not going to LA. Sevonne explained that she was visiting several different friends who were all in Orange County.
Sevonne will be back on June 16, and we talked about doing a Shabbat dinner that Friday. Anyway, Sevonne chose Hole in the Wall, so I got several emails from family members worried about getting a table, worried about waiting etc…but Sevonne offered to go early and arrange the table, which is what happened. You know who you are; now that I’m organizing a law center, I can certainly organize a family lunch!
Matt told us that he is searching for a replacement car, and found a2002 Audi A4 with 35,000 miles; I think that’s one of the cars Dani likes. He asked about selling the Mustang to Emily, but Milton made it clear that she has not gotten the expected grades, and they won’t be helping her buy the car or pay for insurance. At our end of the table we all felt bad for Emily, because she is so smart and could be getting wonderful grades. We joked about finding a good mentor who might be able to motivate her. Meanwhile she finished finals and thought she did okay. Her boyfriend Grant came along to lunch, but as usual we didn’t hear a word from him (not his fault this time since they were at the other end of the table).
Matt told us about taking handicapped people sailing this summer, and how he just bought a new super-sonic life vest (Marty understood the nuances but the rest of us just nodded politely). He also told a funny story about wanting to date Jen Lev, who is about 3 years older than him, and how she did a shoulder move that he demonstrated to all of us. We laughed that she is out of his league.
Ibby told a story about running into the Levs when they were in Italy, and how actually they ran into two Glencoe families, which is pretty funny. Ibby’s stories led to remembrances of other ‘running into people in different locations’ stories.
David came since it was Sevonne’s birthday celebration, and went for a while to the other end of the table to chat with Milton and Emily. Matt assured the table that he was indeed going to take Gabe, Joe, and Sam to a day of paintballing, and this time he is going to give us enough notice. Marty said, “You mean this time you might call us at 11:00?” Last week he called at noon to go right then!
Marty told us that Joe has decided to transfer to Elm Place; he has a couple of friends also transferring from Schechter. Some of us had hoped he would stay through middle school, but as Marty said, it was Joe’s decision.
Somehow we got onto a discussion of stupid criminals; because Matt asked if Gabie still has his bb gun. I told a story I’d read in the paper about a nanny who used a bb gun to stop a robber and make him wait until police came. The best story was about the robber who got locked in the garage and had to eat dog food but couldn’t get out. He was arrested for home invasion, but then he sued the family because there wasn’t a way for him to get out of their garage. And he won!
Sevonne emailed everyone today: Thank you everyone for making lunch so fun! Can't tell you how good it feels to have you celebrating life... I'm sure you know :) Missed those who couldn't be there. Love you!!!
It’s the day before Sevonne’s 27th birthday, and she is leaving for a couple weeks of fun in California. Becky and Sevonne talked about the trip, and who she’s going to visit, all in Orange County. Grandma kept asking her questions about things in LA, and Sevonne kept saying that she’s not going to LA, but Grandma couldn’t understand someone going to LA, right next to LA, and not going to LA. Sevonne explained that she was visiting several different friends who were all in Orange County.
Sevonne will be back on June 16, and we talked about doing a Shabbat dinner that Friday. Anyway, Sevonne chose Hole in the Wall, so I got several emails from family members worried about getting a table, worried about waiting etc…but Sevonne offered to go early and arrange the table, which is what happened. You know who you are; now that I’m organizing a law center, I can certainly organize a family lunch!
Matt told us that he is searching for a replacement car, and found a2002 Audi A4 with 35,000 miles; I think that’s one of the cars Dani likes. He asked about selling the Mustang to Emily, but Milton made it clear that she has not gotten the expected grades, and they won’t be helping her buy the car or pay for insurance. At our end of the table we all felt bad for Emily, because she is so smart and could be getting wonderful grades. We joked about finding a good mentor who might be able to motivate her. Meanwhile she finished finals and thought she did okay. Her boyfriend Grant came along to lunch, but as usual we didn’t hear a word from him (not his fault this time since they were at the other end of the table).
Matt told us about taking handicapped people sailing this summer, and how he just bought a new super-sonic life vest (Marty understood the nuances but the rest of us just nodded politely). He also told a funny story about wanting to date Jen Lev, who is about 3 years older than him, and how she did a shoulder move that he demonstrated to all of us. We laughed that she is out of his league.
Ibby told a story about running into the Levs when they were in Italy, and how actually they ran into two Glencoe families, which is pretty funny. Ibby’s stories led to remembrances of other ‘running into people in different locations’ stories.
David came since it was Sevonne’s birthday celebration, and went for a while to the other end of the table to chat with Milton and Emily. Matt assured the table that he was indeed going to take Gabe, Joe, and Sam to a day of paintballing, and this time he is going to give us enough notice. Marty said, “You mean this time you might call us at 11:00?” Last week he called at noon to go right then!
Marty told us that Joe has decided to transfer to Elm Place; he has a couple of friends also transferring from Schechter. Some of us had hoped he would stay through middle school, but as Marty said, it was Joe’s decision.
Somehow we got onto a discussion of stupid criminals; because Matt asked if Gabie still has his bb gun. I told a story I’d read in the paper about a nanny who used a bb gun to stop a robber and make him wait until police came. The best story was about the robber who got locked in the garage and had to eat dog food but couldn’t get out. He was arrested for home invasion, but then he sued the family because there wasn’t a way for him to get out of their garage. And he won!
Sevonne emailed everyone today: Thank you everyone for making lunch so fun! Can't tell you how good it feels to have you celebrating life... I'm sure you know :) Missed those who couldn't be there. Love you!!!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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
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
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Final Break Up
April 2, 2009
We made a plan to meet at a new Thai place, but then just before lunch Sevonne told me that she would keep us company but wasn’t planning to eat that food. So I contacted everyone and we went, as is becoming usual, to EggShell on Lake-Cook.
Right away, we started discussing Sevonne’s recent and what she calls final breakup with the man Ibby had fixed her up with. We all liked him, and they’d already broken up but got back together. He is now in Connecticut doing a residency, and Sevonne wondered why she didn’t want to spend more time out there, but it became clear that even if she waits for him to come back to Chicago in five years, he might never be the partner she wanted. He didn’t give her the solid support she wants in a partner.
We talked about how hard it is; we all know single people who are struggling to find the right one. Sevonne refuses to try J-date; she wants to meet someone in a more romantic way, not by computer. And all of us sat around the table thinking how beautiful Sevonne is, and how surprising it is that she hasn’t been swept off her feet already. She informed us that she might do her MBA at Tel Aviv University, where she’s been offered a generous scholarship. It’s a pilot program, so there will be some cachet for being in the first group to get the degree. She doesn’t think she’ll make the best connections for business, but she’ll have a wonderful time, and it’s not far from the beach!
Milton told us about the surgery he’s going to have next Friday: it’s towards his neck, and he thinks he caused it by having the computer screen in a position that forced him to keep his head pushed forward for long periods of time. I’m writing this on the couch with my head resting back against the pillows and my computer on my knees. No chance of hurting myself, but I do feel sleepy a lot while writing.
David said that Milton is hoping to fly to a board meeting just 10 days after his surgery. I told him that it was really iffy…that he should give himself more time to recover. Milton said that in any case it depends on Sheldon Cohen, the board member who just found out that he has prostate cancer. They know that with chemo and treatment there is now a 98% recovery rate for that, but he has to figure out the right treatment. So the meeting isn’t definite. David hopes it’s moved because he has his final French exam that night after the meeting, and he’d have to fly back from Atlanta or wherever it’s being held.
We were all happy to have Ibby with us; she tells us that Matt might work at Grossinger’s Auto Dealership this summer. He loves cars; Milt told a story about him recognizing almost an entire parking lot of cars from a window up above. I mentioned that the only thing he doesn’t recognize is the color of the car, and then we discussed color blindness. Mom says she realized that Milton was color blind when he came home in a pink shirt, but when she asked why he bought it, he answered that it was gray. Milton says he realized he was color blind when we argued about the color of the balloons in our kitchen wallpaper.
What balloons? Janet never remembers anything about our childhood, and I definitely know there weren’t balloons in that kitchen on Knox. Mom confirmed, but Milton still remembers the story that way. Ibby said that her grandmother and mother were both confused about color, and told a story in which they all saw the same tile as a different color, but only she was right, according to the back of the tile.
Marty told us that he and Cindy are applying Janet and my advice to Sarah; just like we did with our girls, they are letting her know about the kind of freedom she will have if she gets A’s. They also told her about what kind of surveillance she’ll be under if she does not get the grades. Mom said she thinks they are being wonderful parents, especially because of how they let each kid choose the paint color for their room. Marty told a funny story about Joey choosing black, but then agreeing to a gray. They told him it looks like a prison cell, and now that’s what he calls his bedroom.
They’re still not sure about Schechter for next year, but Janet and I didn’t have time to do the high pressure spiel about how valuable it will be, about how our girls all got into honors classes in high school etc. Marty did share that one of their friends’ daughters, graduating from Schechter, got into the Academy at Glenbrook North, which is very prestigious and accepts only students with great language skills and at least one extra language.
We all confirmed the time (6:00PM) for both seders next week; Mom’s on Wednesday and our house on Thursday. We won’t be able to meet for lunch until the third week, because it will still be Pesach. Then if we meet at Eggshell, pancakes and omelettes will taste wonderful.
We made a plan to meet at a new Thai place, but then just before lunch Sevonne told me that she would keep us company but wasn’t planning to eat that food. So I contacted everyone and we went, as is becoming usual, to EggShell on Lake-Cook.
Right away, we started discussing Sevonne’s recent and what she calls final breakup with the man Ibby had fixed her up with. We all liked him, and they’d already broken up but got back together. He is now in Connecticut doing a residency, and Sevonne wondered why she didn’t want to spend more time out there, but it became clear that even if she waits for him to come back to Chicago in five years, he might never be the partner she wanted. He didn’t give her the solid support she wants in a partner.
We talked about how hard it is; we all know single people who are struggling to find the right one. Sevonne refuses to try J-date; she wants to meet someone in a more romantic way, not by computer. And all of us sat around the table thinking how beautiful Sevonne is, and how surprising it is that she hasn’t been swept off her feet already. She informed us that she might do her MBA at Tel Aviv University, where she’s been offered a generous scholarship. It’s a pilot program, so there will be some cachet for being in the first group to get the degree. She doesn’t think she’ll make the best connections for business, but she’ll have a wonderful time, and it’s not far from the beach!
Milton told us about the surgery he’s going to have next Friday: it’s towards his neck, and he thinks he caused it by having the computer screen in a position that forced him to keep his head pushed forward for long periods of time. I’m writing this on the couch with my head resting back against the pillows and my computer on my knees. No chance of hurting myself, but I do feel sleepy a lot while writing.
David said that Milton is hoping to fly to a board meeting just 10 days after his surgery. I told him that it was really iffy…that he should give himself more time to recover. Milton said that in any case it depends on Sheldon Cohen, the board member who just found out that he has prostate cancer. They know that with chemo and treatment there is now a 98% recovery rate for that, but he has to figure out the right treatment. So the meeting isn’t definite. David hopes it’s moved because he has his final French exam that night after the meeting, and he’d have to fly back from Atlanta or wherever it’s being held.
We were all happy to have Ibby with us; she tells us that Matt might work at Grossinger’s Auto Dealership this summer. He loves cars; Milt told a story about him recognizing almost an entire parking lot of cars from a window up above. I mentioned that the only thing he doesn’t recognize is the color of the car, and then we discussed color blindness. Mom says she realized that Milton was color blind when he came home in a pink shirt, but when she asked why he bought it, he answered that it was gray. Milton says he realized he was color blind when we argued about the color of the balloons in our kitchen wallpaper.
What balloons? Janet never remembers anything about our childhood, and I definitely know there weren’t balloons in that kitchen on Knox. Mom confirmed, but Milton still remembers the story that way. Ibby said that her grandmother and mother were both confused about color, and told a story in which they all saw the same tile as a different color, but only she was right, according to the back of the tile.
Marty told us that he and Cindy are applying Janet and my advice to Sarah; just like we did with our girls, they are letting her know about the kind of freedom she will have if she gets A’s. They also told her about what kind of surveillance she’ll be under if she does not get the grades. Mom said she thinks they are being wonderful parents, especially because of how they let each kid choose the paint color for their room. Marty told a funny story about Joey choosing black, but then agreeing to a gray. They told him it looks like a prison cell, and now that’s what he calls his bedroom.
They’re still not sure about Schechter for next year, but Janet and I didn’t have time to do the high pressure spiel about how valuable it will be, about how our girls all got into honors classes in high school etc. Marty did share that one of their friends’ daughters, graduating from Schechter, got into the Academy at Glenbrook North, which is very prestigious and accepts only students with great language skills and at least one extra language.
We all confirmed the time (6:00PM) for both seders next week; Mom’s on Wednesday and our house on Thursday. We won’t be able to meet for lunch until the third week, because it will still be Pesach. Then if we meet at Eggshell, pancakes and omelettes will taste wonderful.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Anat donates ponytail, 3/25/09
This is Gabie and his good friends Ari and Jonathan on their tour of Bulls Stadium in March. I don't know why he's pretending to lick the picture!
March 18, 2009
We had this wonderful lunch last week, with Matt and Sevonne both there, but I didn’t go right home so I didn’t remember much about what was said. Grandpa was disappointed that I didn’t write about it, and Grandma said today that it was my fault I created a monster (the expectation of having every lunch described). All I remember from last week is the lively discussion about cars, with Matt promising to look for a good used car for Becky, to replace the aging Avalon that doesn’t always start. And I also remember that we laughed a lot; we were at Bravo in the Glen. After Grandma left, the kids talked about buying a place somewhere warm, and tried to get Grandpa to commit to buying something for all the grandkids to go visit, somewhere in Florida. We all voted for the west coast…and I told the story of David’s manager Deb, who just spent 87,000 on a house that was worth 400,000. We gave Sevonne instructions to look for that kind of bargain.
Today’s lunch was at Eggshell….Janet and Sevonne came, also Marty, and both Grandma and Grandpa. Marty asked Janet about Northbrook elections; they’re voting for Frum, who used to be a neighbor. The current guy Marks, is nebach, and the previous guy Damosch is running again, but he’s the one that refused Costco a space and tried hard to maintain Northbrook’s pristine character at the expense of building, convenience, increased tax base, and interesting character. Janet said they think Frum won’t allow more organized crime nonsense. All good, and I don’t like the other two men.
Janet told us that Gadi is speaking at Friday night services at Solel, from the perspective of the Israeli right….there will be a leftist speaker as well. Sounds interesting, but as I told Sevonne, I’m not sure I want to go to a reform service since I find them so irritating with all that English and choreography. It’s sort of Jewish light. Janet also told us about hosting a bunch of Anat’s med school friends last Friday night, and one brought a girlfriend who turned out to be a Schechter girl from Sevonne’s grade. Sevonne ran up to her room, said Janet, and immediately located the middle school t-shirt that had pictures of everyone in the grade!
We talked about Natasha Richardson falling on the bunny slope while learning to ski, and now being (if what’s reported is true) brain-dead. What an awful thing…but totally a crazy situation, and not having anything to do with the sport of skiing. Mom was worried since Milt and family are going skiing next week. Janet reminded us that the actress’s mother, Vanessa Redgrave, was pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, back before it became so fashionable.
Marty shared a couple of stories; one about a skunk whose scent burdened them in the middle of the night. Cindy sent Marty out of the house in his pajamas, on that freezing night, to check if there was a skunk in the garage or anywhere around the house. Of course, had either of them been thinking clearly, they would have realized that it wasn’t really necessary to go searching for the skunk.
Marty also shared his thoughts about raising a teenage daughter, and told us that it was nothing specific, but Sarah is being all the things we would expect, including disrespectful and obnoxious. We discussed who would win the worse teenager award, between Sevonne and Dani….tough call. We’re all grateful that they are now lovely and thoughtful young ladies.
We had this wonderful lunch last week, with Matt and Sevonne both there, but I didn’t go right home so I didn’t remember much about what was said. Grandpa was disappointed that I didn’t write about it, and Grandma said today that it was my fault I created a monster (the expectation of having every lunch described). All I remember from last week is the lively discussion about cars, with Matt promising to look for a good used car for Becky, to replace the aging Avalon that doesn’t always start. And I also remember that we laughed a lot; we were at Bravo in the Glen. After Grandma left, the kids talked about buying a place somewhere warm, and tried to get Grandpa to commit to buying something for all the grandkids to go visit, somewhere in Florida. We all voted for the west coast…and I told the story of David’s manager Deb, who just spent 87,000 on a house that was worth 400,000. We gave Sevonne instructions to look for that kind of bargain.
Today’s lunch was at Eggshell….Janet and Sevonne came, also Marty, and both Grandma and Grandpa. Marty asked Janet about Northbrook elections; they’re voting for Frum, who used to be a neighbor. The current guy Marks, is nebach, and the previous guy Damosch is running again, but he’s the one that refused Costco a space and tried hard to maintain Northbrook’s pristine character at the expense of building, convenience, increased tax base, and interesting character. Janet said they think Frum won’t allow more organized crime nonsense. All good, and I don’t like the other two men.
Janet told us that Gadi is speaking at Friday night services at Solel, from the perspective of the Israeli right….there will be a leftist speaker as well. Sounds interesting, but as I told Sevonne, I’m not sure I want to go to a reform service since I find them so irritating with all that English and choreography. It’s sort of Jewish light. Janet also told us about hosting a bunch of Anat’s med school friends last Friday night, and one brought a girlfriend who turned out to be a Schechter girl from Sevonne’s grade. Sevonne ran up to her room, said Janet, and immediately located the middle school t-shirt that had pictures of everyone in the grade!
We talked about Natasha Richardson falling on the bunny slope while learning to ski, and now being (if what’s reported is true) brain-dead. What an awful thing…but totally a crazy situation, and not having anything to do with the sport of skiing. Mom was worried since Milt and family are going skiing next week. Janet reminded us that the actress’s mother, Vanessa Redgrave, was pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, back before it became so fashionable.
Marty shared a couple of stories; one about a skunk whose scent burdened them in the middle of the night. Cindy sent Marty out of the house in his pajamas, on that freezing night, to check if there was a skunk in the garage or anywhere around the house. Of course, had either of them been thinking clearly, they would have realized that it wasn’t really necessary to go searching for the skunk.
Marty also shared his thoughts about raising a teenage daughter, and told us that it was nothing specific, but Sarah is being all the things we would expect, including disrespectful and obnoxious. We discussed who would win the worse teenager award, between Sevonne and Dani….tough call. We’re all grateful that they are now lovely and thoughtful young ladies.
March 25, 2009
What a lovely afternoon! Anat invited us to witness her getting 10 inches of her long hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love. I picked up Grandma, Grandpa, and Sevonne, and we drove up to Chicago Medical College where Anat was waiting her turn, surrounded by some of her good med school friends. It was nice meeting them, all these fresh-faced young women. Grandpa immediately asked Anna something about all the young girls wanting to be doctors instead of rushing to bag husbands.
We had to wait for about half an hour because Janet came late, with her childhood friend Edie. They’d both just gotten their hair done and looked as glamorous as middle aged ladies can look wearing jeans and sweaters. There was one little Asian friend of Anat’s, named Teresa, who looked like she was still in high school, and we speculated on the tough time she’s going to have proving her competence. Anat later told us that she has seen guys actually pick up Teresa in a bar, and the poor girl can hardly do anything because she’s so tiny. Marty, who met us for lunch after the haircut, suggested that she hand out a business card that shows a $20 charge for being picked up.
Finally it was Anat’s turn to get her hair trimmed, and her girlfriends reminded her not to let anyone push her into more than 10 inches, and NO BANGS. Anat joked the entire time her hair was getting cut off, and then we took pictures of the momentous occasion. Her friends were a little surprised I think, to see that 7 extra people came up to North Chicago to witness this momentous occasion. I told one of them that I expected we would all return for future major events in Anat’s life.
Anat had made a reservation at Francesca’s in Lake Forest, about 10 minutes south of the school, but it was almost empty and we didn’t really need a reservation. Sevonne and Marty ordered Chianti, but it turned out to be vinegary, so Marty had the enjoyment of returning it. They got a bottle of Pinot instead, and several others enjoyed a glass. We joked about it, Marty said it makes him a better person. Grandpa talked about how gin helps calm his tremor Anat remembered the line from Golden Girls, “You know what goes well with champagne?” and the answer it “me.”
We told some children stories; Marty shared an evening of Sarah and Cindy sparring, and Cindy bearing down on Sarah because her schoolwork was faltering. Sevonne told me that Gabie sent her a picture of himself in an empty stadium, and I told about Gabie’s Monday evening of going with his friend Ari for a tour that his father had bought. Gabie’s favorite part was stopping afterwards at Marc’s office and getting little pieces of scrap metal which are now sitting on the kitchen table. When he got home at about 9, he remembered the big project that was due the next day. By about 11 I told him that he just had to go to bed whether or not the project was finished. He said he was almost done, and just needed one thing. Do we have posterboard?
We laughed about all those projects the kids have to do; Sevonne remembered something with popsicle sticks, and Anat remembered the 4th grade Chicago building. They both recalled that Gadi basically made Maya’s. Marty said they didn’t make the buildings; instead they created a board game each time. I admitted that Gabie destroyed his version of the Merchandise Mart by shooting at it with his bb gun.
I told Janet that someone had asked me the other day if she was anorexic! What? I suggested setting a chocolate cake, or that cake from Leonard’s we fondly refer to as JEW cake, in front of my sister, and watch what happens. The girls laughed about it too; Sevonne told about a cheesecake and 4 forks…and about 20 minutes with the four Cohen girls. She doesn’t look skinny, just healthy and trim, especially for her age when all the other women seem to be spreading out. I even feel pudgy next to Janet!
Sevonne and Anat told us about a speaker they want to see, who is performing at DePaul (they’ve asked me to procure tickets which are only available to people connected with DePaul). I think the guy’s name is Frank Warren, and he’s published several books of secrets. It’s a cool idea; apparently he gave out a hundred postcards at some dead end point in his life asking people to share a secret, and it has spread like a fire. He now has several books of these anonymous secrets, which according to the girls are fascinating glimpses into other people’s lives. Anat said that at the lectures, a guy will come on stage and share secrets like that he loves so and so and is asking right then for her hand in marriage.
I finally had to run. Long lunch, fun day.
What a lovely afternoon! Anat invited us to witness her getting 10 inches of her long hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love. I picked up Grandma, Grandpa, and Sevonne, and we drove up to Chicago Medical College where Anat was waiting her turn, surrounded by some of her good med school friends. It was nice meeting them, all these fresh-faced young women. Grandpa immediately asked Anna something about all the young girls wanting to be doctors instead of rushing to bag husbands.
We had to wait for about half an hour because Janet came late, with her childhood friend Edie. They’d both just gotten their hair done and looked as glamorous as middle aged ladies can look wearing jeans and sweaters. There was one little Asian friend of Anat’s, named Teresa, who looked like she was still in high school, and we speculated on the tough time she’s going to have proving her competence. Anat later told us that she has seen guys actually pick up Teresa in a bar, and the poor girl can hardly do anything because she’s so tiny. Marty, who met us for lunch after the haircut, suggested that she hand out a business card that shows a $20 charge for being picked up.
Finally it was Anat’s turn to get her hair trimmed, and her girlfriends reminded her not to let anyone push her into more than 10 inches, and NO BANGS. Anat joked the entire time her hair was getting cut off, and then we took pictures of the momentous occasion. Her friends were a little surprised I think, to see that 7 extra people came up to North Chicago to witness this momentous occasion. I told one of them that I expected we would all return for future major events in Anat’s life.
Anat had made a reservation at Francesca’s in Lake Forest, about 10 minutes south of the school, but it was almost empty and we didn’t really need a reservation. Sevonne and Marty ordered Chianti, but it turned out to be vinegary, so Marty had the enjoyment of returning it. They got a bottle of Pinot instead, and several others enjoyed a glass. We joked about it, Marty said it makes him a better person. Grandpa talked about how gin helps calm his tremor Anat remembered the line from Golden Girls, “You know what goes well with champagne?” and the answer it “me.”
We told some children stories; Marty shared an evening of Sarah and Cindy sparring, and Cindy bearing down on Sarah because her schoolwork was faltering. Sevonne told me that Gabie sent her a picture of himself in an empty stadium, and I told about Gabie’s Monday evening of going with his friend Ari for a tour that his father had bought. Gabie’s favorite part was stopping afterwards at Marc’s office and getting little pieces of scrap metal which are now sitting on the kitchen table. When he got home at about 9, he remembered the big project that was due the next day. By about 11 I told him that he just had to go to bed whether or not the project was finished. He said he was almost done, and just needed one thing. Do we have posterboard?
We laughed about all those projects the kids have to do; Sevonne remembered something with popsicle sticks, and Anat remembered the 4th grade Chicago building. They both recalled that Gadi basically made Maya’s. Marty said they didn’t make the buildings; instead they created a board game each time. I admitted that Gabie destroyed his version of the Merchandise Mart by shooting at it with his bb gun.
I told Janet that someone had asked me the other day if she was anorexic! What? I suggested setting a chocolate cake, or that cake from Leonard’s we fondly refer to as JEW cake, in front of my sister, and watch what happens. The girls laughed about it too; Sevonne told about a cheesecake and 4 forks…and about 20 minutes with the four Cohen girls. She doesn’t look skinny, just healthy and trim, especially for her age when all the other women seem to be spreading out. I even feel pudgy next to Janet!
Sevonne and Anat told us about a speaker they want to see, who is performing at DePaul (they’ve asked me to procure tickets which are only available to people connected with DePaul). I think the guy’s name is Frank Warren, and he’s published several books of secrets. It’s a cool idea; apparently he gave out a hundred postcards at some dead end point in his life asking people to share a secret, and it has spread like a fire. He now has several books of these anonymous secrets, which according to the girls are fascinating glimpses into other people’s lives. Anat said that at the lectures, a guy will come on stage and share secrets like that he loves so and so and is asking right then for her hand in marriage.
I finally had to run. Long lunch, fun day.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Vacation Song
Since I forgot to blog about last week's Janet birthday lunch at Di Pescaro (joined by Maya and her friend Jessie, Janet, Milton, Marty, Sevonne, Grandma and Grandpa), I thought I'd print out this song I wrote a while ago about our family. (Just want to mention that the apple crostada and the chocolate cake were much better than the previous week). Some of you might remember hearing this song at my 50th birthday party (although most of you were busy eating pie and not paying attention). If I can find that other song about how everything Janet, Milton, and Marty know is because of listening to me practice piano, I'll post it. Unless hearing it that one time was enough....
Once for spring vacation, when I was just a girl,
My parents thought to take us all to Paris for a whirl.
We traveled there by private jet and saw the famous sights,
The Champs Elysees, Louvre, the boulevard of lights.
Not really, what we really did was hang out on the block,
I’d read novels day and night, and wait for friends to knock.
My sister had friends over and my brothers watched T.V.
We just stayed together, my family and me.
Once in early August we went sailing on a yacht,
We saw the coast of Africa, what a gorgeous spot.
We all pitched in and worked the sails,
We huddled under storms and gales,
We came back with a hundred tales, or, actually, maybe not.
Really what we did that month involved the water, true,
In Somme Woods, way far up north, far from the ocean blue.
We hiked through swamps and murky bogs to capture little things,
Like frogs and salamanders, like insects without stings.
When winter came, that awful year, we tried to beat the snow,
By heading south to Florida where all the snowbirds go.
We drove our station wagon to a place of sun and sand,
The drinks came with umbrellas, it really was quite grand.
Not really, cause we stayed at home, and played outside all day,
With cousins, friends, and neighbors, all sharing the same sleigh,
We went inside when we got cold for cocoa and to pee,
We spent the time together, my family and me.
Once for spring vacation, when I was just a girl,
My parents thought to take us all to Paris for a whirl.
We traveled there by private jet and saw the famous sights,
The Champs Elysees, Louvre, the boulevard of lights.
Not really, what we really did was hang out on the block,
I’d read novels day and night, and wait for friends to knock.
My sister had friends over and my brothers watched T.V.
We just stayed together, my family and me.
Once in early August we went sailing on a yacht,
We saw the coast of Africa, what a gorgeous spot.
We all pitched in and worked the sails,
We huddled under storms and gales,
We came back with a hundred tales, or, actually, maybe not.
Really what we did that month involved the water, true,
In Somme Woods, way far up north, far from the ocean blue.
We hiked through swamps and murky bogs to capture little things,
Like frogs and salamanders, like insects without stings.
When winter came, that awful year, we tried to beat the snow,
By heading south to Florida where all the snowbirds go.
We drove our station wagon to a place of sun and sand,
The drinks came with umbrellas, it really was quite grand.
Not really, cause we stayed at home, and played outside all day,
With cousins, friends, and neighbors, all sharing the same sleigh,
We went inside when we got cold for cocoa and to pee,
We spent the time together, my family and me.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Two Posts: 2nd one is Grandpa's 81st Birthday Lunch!
December 17, 2008
Dani is home; she chose Di Pescaro, and the happy surprise was that Anat also showed up. She finished one exam yesterday, and only has one left on Friday.
Marty brought us up to date on the house, but it’s nothing new since last week when he announced that they can park in both sides of the garage. What is new is that Cindy was rear-ended, about 1500 worth of damage, but the car is too old to put that kind of money into it. They’re figuring out what to do about a car.
Marty is always a wealth of information; he seeks out interesting news articles from around the world to share with his children. He told us a story about the overflow of pigs in Germany, and how a guy who often fed wild pigs was shocked when a huge one climbed into his car, thinking he was going to be gored. Instead, the pig rested its head on the guy’s lap!
I asked Grandpa how all his projects are going, and Marty told us that he and Milton visited a mentoring session in one of the inner city schools.
January 8, 2009
Today, in honor of Grandpa’s 81st birthday, almost everyone came to lunch; we met at Maggiano’s in Old Orchard. It was Maya’s idea. Her entire semester in Israel was suddenly cancelled because of the situation (Israel finally had enough of Hamas launching rockets from Gaza, day after day, during cease-fires, without ceasing, and has been fighting back on the ground). Now, Maya has to make a decision about what to do, since her apartment and most classes are filled. NYU has been very supportive about it, offering to refund her non-refundable ticket and finding her alternative programs. It looks like she’ll be going to Buenos Aires for the semester, instead.
It was nice that Ibby came to celebrate; and Matt came about 45 minutes late with Josh Weiss. They sat on either side of Grandpa, insuring a good time and lively conversation for him. There were too many people and it was too loud to have one conversation, but I did pick up nuggets from different ends of the table.
Some of us discussed the current situation in Israel, and how the media is portraying it as if there is moral equivalence to terrorists attempting to kill anyone their rockets land on, and the Israeli army sending flyers and calling cell phones to warn civilians of approaching tanks. Because the Hamas rockets have been mostly benign, in spite of scaring and paralyzing all of southern Israel, the world seems to see the Israeli incursion as showing too much force and being non-balanced. We talked about different news sources and about the emails being sent around making these points.
We talked a little about Mexico, fondly remembering the sun and sand, and lots of funny things that Sam said during the course of the week. Marty enjoys hearing those stories. Milton talked about feeling better after his asthma attack…he said he was whacked out on the beach. Dani had a little talk with him because she was worried that he had upset Grandma with his talk of potential money problems. All the kids are aware that she did not always have an easy relationship with money, and they were all concerned that Grandma, who even in good times has worried about spending too much when they’re out to dinner, will now insist that the cousins meet at McDonald’s for their club dinner, or even worse, she’ll insist on cooking a turkey at home!
We talked about death row and legalizing marijuana. Dani, of course, gave a strong argument for selling ALL drugs in a legal setting, over the counter, adding taxes and incentives for companies to manufacture clean product. EVEN crystal meth Milton asked? Yes, replied Dani, all illicit drugs should be made legal. Our court system is bogged down and our prison population overflowing with drug arrests. Let those people go into a pharmacy and buy drugs using their ID and credit card, just like when they buy Sudafed or any prescription drug. In fact, let them get prescriptions, and let the doctors get a cut. Dani is pretty persuasive and it started to sound about right to me, especially when she started talking about the expense of keeping all those druggies in prison.
During lunch, Josh taught Grandma how to text using her phone and she sent a bunch of practice texts. Grandpa and Matt kept making prank calls to Becky, who kept answering, hoping for someone interesting and not-related.
Ibby ordered four slices of chocolate cake, which were humongous, and nowhere as yummy as they looked. Luckily, I insisted on also ordering the Apple Crostada, which even Maya remembers as being delicious. It was nice to sing to Grandpa in honor of his 81st, and we chatted about how the actual celebration was that whole wonderful vacation together in Mexico, where we ate, sat in the sun, lounged around, played games, and generally had a fabulous time. It was really a great idea, and the kids were talking about how they hope we can do it again. Even better, a couple of them agreed that they would like to be able to take all of their children on a vacation like that one day!
Dani is home; she chose Di Pescaro, and the happy surprise was that Anat also showed up. She finished one exam yesterday, and only has one left on Friday.
Marty brought us up to date on the house, but it’s nothing new since last week when he announced that they can park in both sides of the garage. What is new is that Cindy was rear-ended, about 1500 worth of damage, but the car is too old to put that kind of money into it. They’re figuring out what to do about a car.
Marty is always a wealth of information; he seeks out interesting news articles from around the world to share with his children. He told us a story about the overflow of pigs in Germany, and how a guy who often fed wild pigs was shocked when a huge one climbed into his car, thinking he was going to be gored. Instead, the pig rested its head on the guy’s lap!
I asked Grandpa how all his projects are going, and Marty told us that he and Milton visited a mentoring session in one of the inner city schools.
January 8, 2009
Today, in honor of Grandpa’s 81st birthday, almost everyone came to lunch; we met at Maggiano’s in Old Orchard. It was Maya’s idea. Her entire semester in Israel was suddenly cancelled because of the situation (Israel finally had enough of Hamas launching rockets from Gaza, day after day, during cease-fires, without ceasing, and has been fighting back on the ground). Now, Maya has to make a decision about what to do, since her apartment and most classes are filled. NYU has been very supportive about it, offering to refund her non-refundable ticket and finding her alternative programs. It looks like she’ll be going to Buenos Aires for the semester, instead.
It was nice that Ibby came to celebrate; and Matt came about 45 minutes late with Josh Weiss. They sat on either side of Grandpa, insuring a good time and lively conversation for him. There were too many people and it was too loud to have one conversation, but I did pick up nuggets from different ends of the table.
Some of us discussed the current situation in Israel, and how the media is portraying it as if there is moral equivalence to terrorists attempting to kill anyone their rockets land on, and the Israeli army sending flyers and calling cell phones to warn civilians of approaching tanks. Because the Hamas rockets have been mostly benign, in spite of scaring and paralyzing all of southern Israel, the world seems to see the Israeli incursion as showing too much force and being non-balanced. We talked about different news sources and about the emails being sent around making these points.
We talked a little about Mexico, fondly remembering the sun and sand, and lots of funny things that Sam said during the course of the week. Marty enjoys hearing those stories. Milton talked about feeling better after his asthma attack…he said he was whacked out on the beach. Dani had a little talk with him because she was worried that he had upset Grandma with his talk of potential money problems. All the kids are aware that she did not always have an easy relationship with money, and they were all concerned that Grandma, who even in good times has worried about spending too much when they’re out to dinner, will now insist that the cousins meet at McDonald’s for their club dinner, or even worse, she’ll insist on cooking a turkey at home!
We talked about death row and legalizing marijuana. Dani, of course, gave a strong argument for selling ALL drugs in a legal setting, over the counter, adding taxes and incentives for companies to manufacture clean product. EVEN crystal meth Milton asked? Yes, replied Dani, all illicit drugs should be made legal. Our court system is bogged down and our prison population overflowing with drug arrests. Let those people go into a pharmacy and buy drugs using their ID and credit card, just like when they buy Sudafed or any prescription drug. In fact, let them get prescriptions, and let the doctors get a cut. Dani is pretty persuasive and it started to sound about right to me, especially when she started talking about the expense of keeping all those druggies in prison.
During lunch, Josh taught Grandma how to text using her phone and she sent a bunch of practice texts. Grandpa and Matt kept making prank calls to Becky, who kept answering, hoping for someone interesting and not-related.
Ibby ordered four slices of chocolate cake, which were humongous, and nowhere as yummy as they looked. Luckily, I insisted on also ordering the Apple Crostada, which even Maya remembers as being delicious. It was nice to sing to Grandpa in honor of his 81st, and we chatted about how the actual celebration was that whole wonderful vacation together in Mexico, where we ate, sat in the sun, lounged around, played games, and generally had a fabulous time. It was really a great idea, and the kids were talking about how they hope we can do it again. Even better, a couple of them agreed that they would like to be able to take all of their children on a vacation like that one day!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Day after our Governor Fell from Grace
December 10, 2008
Uncle Marty chose Georgie V’s, not close to anything, so Janet was iffy about coming until the last minute. Milton said he would show but ended up not coming at all. Marty started off bringing us up to date about his house; they can now park both cars in their garage. He said he assumes that someone, not naming names, will bash into the side and they will soon need to replace something about the doors.
Marty also told us about playing chess with the boys at the chess club at Highland Park Library. Sometimes there are an uneven number of children, and an adult is conscripted to play, which is how he ended up playing against a 6 year old who is known as a killer chess player. Marty was sweating, concentrating hard, when the little guy made a mistake. Did Uncle Marty ask him if he wanted to redo the move? Did he offer guidance of some kind? Nope. He swooped in and won the game. And did he feel great about it? Well, it’s Uncle Marty, so you guess!
Grandma wanted to talk about the details of the upcoming trip, like who is bringing what medicines (and should she bring her Cipro even though it expired in 2006…Dr. Janet assured her that it was okay), how are people getting to the airport (we should try to use Grandpa’s driver if possible), she is going to start packing now since it takes her a long time to get organized for both Grandpa and Grandma, etc.
Grandma also wanted to talk about the birthday gift Sevonne and I picked out for her from Neiman’s that she just returned this week, and how will that work because she didn’t want a store credit so they put it back on my card. They were beautiful earrings, she admitted, but too heavy for her ears so they hurt. I refused to talk about the returning of birthday gifts at lunch; why does it need to be discussed in front of everyone else? Grandma says ‘because I never talk to you’. Yeah, except for every morning when I call to check in.
Uncle Marty brought up all the excitement of our governor Rod Blagojevitch being taken to jail yesterday; about that great Patrick Fitzgerald who is so much better than his predecessor and who inspires hope in integrity. We all liked how the FBI swooped in on Blagojevitch…maybe now we’ll all learn how to spell his name...and we wondered if his wife, who Janet reminded us is Jewish, will also go down. She is heard on at least one of the hidden tapes using profanity and suggesting that she knew something about what Rod was doing. She is the daughter of Dick Mell, who never really liked her husband the governor and who was basically shafted early on by his son in law, Rod.
Janet thinks the wife is crooked; and Marty told a story about our friend and colleague Doug Imber doing a real estate deal into which she, Patti Blagojevitch, tried to insert herself. Why? Because she wants more money. How was it even possible, I wondered? Doug is such a good guy; he fended her off, but it must have rattled him. We all know she did a lot of business with the shyster Antoine Rezko, same guy who arranged for Obama to buy his lovely Hyde Park home, and whose name was bandied about as one of the unsavory characters with whom Obama has a relationship.
Certain amount of speculation proceeded about Obama’s connections and knowledge of events….this is his vacant seat that is the source the governor’s attempts at extortion/bribery. And how will that be figured out now? Grandma expressed disdain for Jesse Jackson Jr, who is on the list, and brought up the possibility of Mark Kirk. But he is a republican so that is doubtful, even if an election were called. Grandma suggested that all politicians are crooked, but I defended Mark Kirk, and Janet said that he doesn’t go to sports events, takes no money from anyone, refuses any gifts, and anything that could possibly be taken as gift. She did however see Joe Biden sitting near where she and Gadi sit at this weekend’s Bulls game.
Janet says there is no longer any edible food at Bulls games; nothing vegetarian, and they don’t let you bring in food. I’m going to check with Gabie’s friend’s mom, because they always cater fabulous kosher feasts in their box at Bulls games, and sometimes invite friends along. Gabie is invited for this Saturday night….I told Janet if she is going she should go look for their box and invite herself in to eat something! The friend’s mom was an old friend of our departed cousin Jackie, so it wouldn’t be so terrible or strange for Janet to stop in and say hello even if she doesn’t know them.
Back to talking about Mexico, Marty wonders about the workout facilities, and although it’s just a room, Janet thinks they have all the right equipment. I think the beach if very small in this place, and you have to go back and forth a number of times to reach even a mile, but Janet says it’s better to walk back and forth on a quiet beach than to brave hordes of people on some of the nicer beaches. I waxed prolific about the yummy food at Dreams; the guacamole and eggs every morning, the fruit smoothies, delicious salads and good ice cream. Janet gushed about the coffee. The food at this place is excellent.
Grandma reminded us all about how dangerous it’s all going to be, how the kids should never be alone in town. Janet remembered that Milt and Ibby went into town almost every day when we were in Cabo a few years ago, so there will usually be adults nearby if kids want to go browsing in the shops. I plan to sit myself on the beach and only get up to eat or go back to the room. I feel no need to shop in the town or eat in the town. Janet said that all her best serving plates were from Puerto Vallarta….they have special things there and no where else. Still, there is nothing I need but sun and sand and a cool drink (plus a bowl of chips with guacamole). We are all looking forward to this vacation!
Uncle Marty chose Georgie V’s, not close to anything, so Janet was iffy about coming until the last minute. Milton said he would show but ended up not coming at all. Marty started off bringing us up to date about his house; they can now park both cars in their garage. He said he assumes that someone, not naming names, will bash into the side and they will soon need to replace something about the doors.
Marty also told us about playing chess with the boys at the chess club at Highland Park Library. Sometimes there are an uneven number of children, and an adult is conscripted to play, which is how he ended up playing against a 6 year old who is known as a killer chess player. Marty was sweating, concentrating hard, when the little guy made a mistake. Did Uncle Marty ask him if he wanted to redo the move? Did he offer guidance of some kind? Nope. He swooped in and won the game. And did he feel great about it? Well, it’s Uncle Marty, so you guess!
Grandma wanted to talk about the details of the upcoming trip, like who is bringing what medicines (and should she bring her Cipro even though it expired in 2006…Dr. Janet assured her that it was okay), how are people getting to the airport (we should try to use Grandpa’s driver if possible), she is going to start packing now since it takes her a long time to get organized for both Grandpa and Grandma, etc.
Grandma also wanted to talk about the birthday gift Sevonne and I picked out for her from Neiman’s that she just returned this week, and how will that work because she didn’t want a store credit so they put it back on my card. They were beautiful earrings, she admitted, but too heavy for her ears so they hurt. I refused to talk about the returning of birthday gifts at lunch; why does it need to be discussed in front of everyone else? Grandma says ‘because I never talk to you’. Yeah, except for every morning when I call to check in.
Uncle Marty brought up all the excitement of our governor Rod Blagojevitch being taken to jail yesterday; about that great Patrick Fitzgerald who is so much better than his predecessor and who inspires hope in integrity. We all liked how the FBI swooped in on Blagojevitch…maybe now we’ll all learn how to spell his name...and we wondered if his wife, who Janet reminded us is Jewish, will also go down. She is heard on at least one of the hidden tapes using profanity and suggesting that she knew something about what Rod was doing. She is the daughter of Dick Mell, who never really liked her husband the governor and who was basically shafted early on by his son in law, Rod.
Janet thinks the wife is crooked; and Marty told a story about our friend and colleague Doug Imber doing a real estate deal into which she, Patti Blagojevitch, tried to insert herself. Why? Because she wants more money. How was it even possible, I wondered? Doug is such a good guy; he fended her off, but it must have rattled him. We all know she did a lot of business with the shyster Antoine Rezko, same guy who arranged for Obama to buy his lovely Hyde Park home, and whose name was bandied about as one of the unsavory characters with whom Obama has a relationship.
Certain amount of speculation proceeded about Obama’s connections and knowledge of events….this is his vacant seat that is the source the governor’s attempts at extortion/bribery. And how will that be figured out now? Grandma expressed disdain for Jesse Jackson Jr, who is on the list, and brought up the possibility of Mark Kirk. But he is a republican so that is doubtful, even if an election were called. Grandma suggested that all politicians are crooked, but I defended Mark Kirk, and Janet said that he doesn’t go to sports events, takes no money from anyone, refuses any gifts, and anything that could possibly be taken as gift. She did however see Joe Biden sitting near where she and Gadi sit at this weekend’s Bulls game.
Janet says there is no longer any edible food at Bulls games; nothing vegetarian, and they don’t let you bring in food. I’m going to check with Gabie’s friend’s mom, because they always cater fabulous kosher feasts in their box at Bulls games, and sometimes invite friends along. Gabie is invited for this Saturday night….I told Janet if she is going she should go look for their box and invite herself in to eat something! The friend’s mom was an old friend of our departed cousin Jackie, so it wouldn’t be so terrible or strange for Janet to stop in and say hello even if she doesn’t know them.
Back to talking about Mexico, Marty wonders about the workout facilities, and although it’s just a room, Janet thinks they have all the right equipment. I think the beach if very small in this place, and you have to go back and forth a number of times to reach even a mile, but Janet says it’s better to walk back and forth on a quiet beach than to brave hordes of people on some of the nicer beaches. I waxed prolific about the yummy food at Dreams; the guacamole and eggs every morning, the fruit smoothies, delicious salads and good ice cream. Janet gushed about the coffee. The food at this place is excellent.
Grandma reminded us all about how dangerous it’s all going to be, how the kids should never be alone in town. Janet remembered that Milt and Ibby went into town almost every day when we were in Cabo a few years ago, so there will usually be adults nearby if kids want to go browsing in the shops. I plan to sit myself on the beach and only get up to eat or go back to the room. I feel no need to shop in the town or eat in the town. Janet said that all her best serving plates were from Puerto Vallarta….they have special things there and no where else. Still, there is nothing I need but sun and sand and a cool drink (plus a bowl of chips with guacamole). We are all looking forward to this vacation!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
All Four of Us with Grandpa
November 18, 2008
Last week Anat was with us for lunch at PF Chang’s, because she had just finished finals and there was a short break. Her goal was to stop thinking during that break, which was hard for her after all that constant study. I think Anat told stories about medical school, but Grandma was sitting across from me and she kept chatting so that I couldn’t hear what Anat was saying at the other end of the table. I brought extra Advair disks for Marty because two of the kids use it. Our friend Henry Danko, who used to be Grandma Weiss’s doctor, gave me a box of samples, and I shared them with Janet, Milton, and now Marty. Thee food was good, and the dessert was a giant piece of chocolate cake big enough to share between the six of us.
Today, Janet, Milton, Marty, and I had lunch with Grandpa at Stir Crazy. Marty started complaining immediately, because he much prefers an eggy kind of place, but Janet had complained earlier about how awful Eggshell Café is….something is wrong, she thinks, about the way they prepare the food. I think she suspects the cleanliness of the kitchen. So we had some discussion about where to meet next week, when some of the college kids will be around.
Grandpa has a big bandage smack across his forehead, which invites conversation. Turns out he got it on the edge of his car door when he turned around without noticing the door was still there and open. Marty, luckily, bandaged him up. We spoke a bit about how glad we all were that he now has a driver, and no car of his own. Grandma seems to think that he will lease a new car when the winter is over, but all four of us sat there and echoed each other’s relief that Grandpa is not driving.
I said I’d actually used Mark, the driver, to help me on Monday when both Becky’s and David’s cars were dead; one had to be towed, the other jump-started. I needed a ride to pick up Becky’s car from the mechanic (Kenny), and it was great to have someone like that to call. Even though Grandpa shares the driver with Julie Dann’s father, Charlie, the Danns are leaving for Florida next week, and the driver will be totally available to Grandpa. It’s not that much money either.
Marty updated us on the state of his house renovations….heated bathroom floors, steam shower etc. I made a snarky remark about how I look forward to when they are finished and he’ll have to regale us with interesting stories for a change (as fascinating as it is to hear about kinds of wood flooring). He also wanted to tell us about Sammy and his chess club….another gripping tale.
Milton told us that Matt is coming home on Friday night; it’s great that he has the entire week off. It’s really smart, because first of all the tickets are probably less, and secondly, everyone gets to enjoy the full week. Dani comes on Tuesday so she’ll be there, but both Maya and Becky get home too late on Wednesday.
Janet told us that she has a precancerous growth on her face that she is treating with a special cream. It led, as usual, to a discussion of who is fighting cancer, who had a double mastectomy, and who died (the second husband of our old neighbor Bobbi Zerlin, whose first husband Sam was one of Grandpa’s favorite people in the world).
At some point during the lunch, cousin Joanne Kirshenbaum came by with her mom Suri, and aunt Pearl. After kisses all around, Janet said mazal tov to Joanne, because her son Eric (Dani’s grade) just got accepted to U of I medical school. Janet is friends with Joanne, but no one in that entire family has been overly friendly to us since we moved back to Chicago.
Milton and Marty told us of their plans to meet at the bike trail off of Lake Cook to go for a ride this afternoon, so they had to leave early. We talked about working out; how Janet and I meet with a personal trainer every Friday morning, and Janet also works out with him on Tuesdays. I told Milton that we sometimes see Ibby’s friend working out with Donovan, who has a gorgeous body. Milton said he would never let Ibby work out with a cute guy, but I said that Donavan and Michael (David’s trainer) call women over 30 ‘cougars’, and that he shouldn’t worry about it at all. He announced that he’d then have to work out with a beautiful woman who was also a dancer.
Marty wanted to know about our work outs, and I told him that we like Aaron because he is a kinesiologist (or something) and can help us every time one of us hurts something. Also, we have that stenosis in our family. We spent a moment remembering Grandma, who was bent over the last few years from stenosis of the spine. Uncle Leon also had it, and Grandma is starting to feel it, but she and Grandpa are working out with a physical therapist.
Marty and Milton left, and Janet and I chatted with Grandpa for a bit. We tried to find a good chocolatey dessert, but they really didn’t have anything. Looks like we won’t be returning to Stir Crazy. Janet then drove Grandpa back to the office, but she promised to stop and get him something chocolate at Starbucks on the way. I had to run home and get back to the computer, I explained, because I have a hard time working in short installments, and need a chunk of time to get things done.
Last week Anat was with us for lunch at PF Chang’s, because she had just finished finals and there was a short break. Her goal was to stop thinking during that break, which was hard for her after all that constant study. I think Anat told stories about medical school, but Grandma was sitting across from me and she kept chatting so that I couldn’t hear what Anat was saying at the other end of the table. I brought extra Advair disks for Marty because two of the kids use it. Our friend Henry Danko, who used to be Grandma Weiss’s doctor, gave me a box of samples, and I shared them with Janet, Milton, and now Marty. Thee food was good, and the dessert was a giant piece of chocolate cake big enough to share between the six of us.
Today, Janet, Milton, Marty, and I had lunch with Grandpa at Stir Crazy. Marty started complaining immediately, because he much prefers an eggy kind of place, but Janet had complained earlier about how awful Eggshell Café is….something is wrong, she thinks, about the way they prepare the food. I think she suspects the cleanliness of the kitchen. So we had some discussion about where to meet next week, when some of the college kids will be around.
Grandpa has a big bandage smack across his forehead, which invites conversation. Turns out he got it on the edge of his car door when he turned around without noticing the door was still there and open. Marty, luckily, bandaged him up. We spoke a bit about how glad we all were that he now has a driver, and no car of his own. Grandma seems to think that he will lease a new car when the winter is over, but all four of us sat there and echoed each other’s relief that Grandpa is not driving.
I said I’d actually used Mark, the driver, to help me on Monday when both Becky’s and David’s cars were dead; one had to be towed, the other jump-started. I needed a ride to pick up Becky’s car from the mechanic (Kenny), and it was great to have someone like that to call. Even though Grandpa shares the driver with Julie Dann’s father, Charlie, the Danns are leaving for Florida next week, and the driver will be totally available to Grandpa. It’s not that much money either.
Marty updated us on the state of his house renovations….heated bathroom floors, steam shower etc. I made a snarky remark about how I look forward to when they are finished and he’ll have to regale us with interesting stories for a change (as fascinating as it is to hear about kinds of wood flooring). He also wanted to tell us about Sammy and his chess club….another gripping tale.
Milton told us that Matt is coming home on Friday night; it’s great that he has the entire week off. It’s really smart, because first of all the tickets are probably less, and secondly, everyone gets to enjoy the full week. Dani comes on Tuesday so she’ll be there, but both Maya and Becky get home too late on Wednesday.
Janet told us that she has a precancerous growth on her face that she is treating with a special cream. It led, as usual, to a discussion of who is fighting cancer, who had a double mastectomy, and who died (the second husband of our old neighbor Bobbi Zerlin, whose first husband Sam was one of Grandpa’s favorite people in the world).
At some point during the lunch, cousin Joanne Kirshenbaum came by with her mom Suri, and aunt Pearl. After kisses all around, Janet said mazal tov to Joanne, because her son Eric (Dani’s grade) just got accepted to U of I medical school. Janet is friends with Joanne, but no one in that entire family has been overly friendly to us since we moved back to Chicago.
Milton and Marty told us of their plans to meet at the bike trail off of Lake Cook to go for a ride this afternoon, so they had to leave early. We talked about working out; how Janet and I meet with a personal trainer every Friday morning, and Janet also works out with him on Tuesdays. I told Milton that we sometimes see Ibby’s friend working out with Donovan, who has a gorgeous body. Milton said he would never let Ibby work out with a cute guy, but I said that Donavan and Michael (David’s trainer) call women over 30 ‘cougars’, and that he shouldn’t worry about it at all. He announced that he’d then have to work out with a beautiful woman who was also a dancer.
Marty wanted to know about our work outs, and I told him that we like Aaron because he is a kinesiologist (or something) and can help us every time one of us hurts something. Also, we have that stenosis in our family. We spent a moment remembering Grandma, who was bent over the last few years from stenosis of the spine. Uncle Leon also had it, and Grandma is starting to feel it, but she and Grandpa are working out with a physical therapist.
Marty and Milton left, and Janet and I chatted with Grandpa for a bit. We tried to find a good chocolatey dessert, but they really didn’t have anything. Looks like we won’t be returning to Stir Crazy. Janet then drove Grandpa back to the office, but she promised to stop and get him something chocolate at Starbucks on the way. I had to run home and get back to the computer, I explained, because I have a hard time working in short installments, and need a chunk of time to get things done.
Robin Pfeifer visits from Corfu
November 5, 2008
Robin Pfeifer came in from Corfu, and met us, with her sister Susie, at Eggshell Café. For those grandchildren who remember Robin’s mother (Grandma’s best friend for years, and one of the most fun people in the world), Robin is sort of a wilder version of Anita Pfeifer. Anita died about four years ago, and since Grandma and Grandpa held the shiva at their house, the kids all probably remember being there.
Anita smoked for years, even after her first heart attack, and ultimately died of complications caused by all that smoking. It’s shocking that Robin still smokes, but she was always a rebellious and free-spirited person who did what she wanted. She dropped out of Niles East after one semester (she reminded me at lunch) and went to a city high school for a short time before calling it quits. She tried several different jobs; and even created a knitting business, making one sweater a day and selling it for lots of money. Then, she started travelling the world, earning money here and there doing this and that.
She told me that early on, she knew that she wanted to live on an island, and when, after years of travelling, she landed on Corfu, she knew that was her island. So, she found a cute guy on the beach, and within months, notified him that she was ready to be married and have a lot of children. When they finally had the wedding (before a justice of the peace in the town with just his family), she was already pregnant with her eldest son.
She is now divorced, with four kids ages 14-20, and still on the island. She told me that she knew at the wedding that she was making a mistake, because she wanted a horse drawn carriage ride that day, but her groom Costas wouldn’t treat her to it because it was too expensive. On her wedding day! Finally after four kids, she couldn’t live with someone who was so controlling, almost abusive, who wouldn’t let her have friends, or even leave the house much.
I can’t imagine anyone having much control over Robin. She built a restaurant from scratch, and left it to Costas and the kids when she left the marriage. She bought a small bar in the town, with a room to live in behind it, and enough room in summer for about 60 people. Grandma asked if she served food with the drinks and was shocked when Robin said no pretzels, or nuts or anything. But late at night, when it is just locals, she throws together pizzas (Grandma wanted more details so we know that she uses prepared crust). It is called Robin’s Nest, and when any of the kids go to Greece, I hope they look her up.
The youngest of the Pfeifer kids was at lunch also, and Grandpa spent time chatting with her. She is evangelical, and raised five children in that world. I’m not all that interested in talking to her; she was never as much fun as Howard or Robin. But I did like hearing about her children, especially that she has one who is musical like Howard. Both girls filled us in on Howard’s life; his reworking of a Broadway musical he hopes to launch, his beautiful older girls, and the 8 year old son he had with his second wife. Grandma’s cousin Frances and I fixed Howard up with this first wife, who turned out to be a spoiled, bratty girl, but who gave him three lovely daughters. I felt bad about that shiduch for a long time, but after all he got the daughters.
I remember many of those times we went to the reform congregation to which their family belonged. It was all very sing-songy and formal but with camp music. I never liked it, but now that I know all three kids grew up to marry non-Jews, I like it less. Even though I was a reform cantor for many years, my apathy towards that movement has grown, and I’m not at all sure it is worthwhile to keep people tethered to a Judaism that is so watered down and easy to depart from. I’ve told Grandpa that I wouldn’t want it to be so easy for my children to jump into another world; how can anyone miss Shabbat if they never experience it?
Grandma asked Robin if she felt safe living alone serving alcohol to tourists late at night. Robin says there is little crime on Corfu. Where would they escape to? Grandma remembered travelling to the Cayman Islands years ago, and learning about the one criminal in the jail, a guy who had murdered his wife, who was let out on holidays to be with his family since there was no place for him to run to. Grandma thought I remembered all those visits to Grand Cayman, but I replied dryly that I’d never been.
Robin told us that she is always thinking of new ideas, new projects to do. She is inspired now to do some jewelry making, like necklaces with stones inscribed with Greek sayings that she can sell in her bar. She has met men from all over the world, but she would love to have a single good relationship as soon as her youngest is out of the house (even though the kids are living with the father in the family house). She works hard from May to October during the tourist season, take a vacation in the winter, and plans to go back and open the bar to locals on the weekends. She is happy.
I think it was fun for both Grandma and Grandpa to remember Anita; so many happy times together! So much laughter and fun, cultural events and dinners; she was someone special for all of us.
Robin Pfeifer came in from Corfu, and met us, with her sister Susie, at Eggshell Café. For those grandchildren who remember Robin’s mother (Grandma’s best friend for years, and one of the most fun people in the world), Robin is sort of a wilder version of Anita Pfeifer. Anita died about four years ago, and since Grandma and Grandpa held the shiva at their house, the kids all probably remember being there.
Anita smoked for years, even after her first heart attack, and ultimately died of complications caused by all that smoking. It’s shocking that Robin still smokes, but she was always a rebellious and free-spirited person who did what she wanted. She dropped out of Niles East after one semester (she reminded me at lunch) and went to a city high school for a short time before calling it quits. She tried several different jobs; and even created a knitting business, making one sweater a day and selling it for lots of money. Then, she started travelling the world, earning money here and there doing this and that.
She told me that early on, she knew that she wanted to live on an island, and when, after years of travelling, she landed on Corfu, she knew that was her island. So, she found a cute guy on the beach, and within months, notified him that she was ready to be married and have a lot of children. When they finally had the wedding (before a justice of the peace in the town with just his family), she was already pregnant with her eldest son.
She is now divorced, with four kids ages 14-20, and still on the island. She told me that she knew at the wedding that she was making a mistake, because she wanted a horse drawn carriage ride that day, but her groom Costas wouldn’t treat her to it because it was too expensive. On her wedding day! Finally after four kids, she couldn’t live with someone who was so controlling, almost abusive, who wouldn’t let her have friends, or even leave the house much.
I can’t imagine anyone having much control over Robin. She built a restaurant from scratch, and left it to Costas and the kids when she left the marriage. She bought a small bar in the town, with a room to live in behind it, and enough room in summer for about 60 people. Grandma asked if she served food with the drinks and was shocked when Robin said no pretzels, or nuts or anything. But late at night, when it is just locals, she throws together pizzas (Grandma wanted more details so we know that she uses prepared crust). It is called Robin’s Nest, and when any of the kids go to Greece, I hope they look her up.
The youngest of the Pfeifer kids was at lunch also, and Grandpa spent time chatting with her. She is evangelical, and raised five children in that world. I’m not all that interested in talking to her; she was never as much fun as Howard or Robin. But I did like hearing about her children, especially that she has one who is musical like Howard. Both girls filled us in on Howard’s life; his reworking of a Broadway musical he hopes to launch, his beautiful older girls, and the 8 year old son he had with his second wife. Grandma’s cousin Frances and I fixed Howard up with this first wife, who turned out to be a spoiled, bratty girl, but who gave him three lovely daughters. I felt bad about that shiduch for a long time, but after all he got the daughters.
I remember many of those times we went to the reform congregation to which their family belonged. It was all very sing-songy and formal but with camp music. I never liked it, but now that I know all three kids grew up to marry non-Jews, I like it less. Even though I was a reform cantor for many years, my apathy towards that movement has grown, and I’m not at all sure it is worthwhile to keep people tethered to a Judaism that is so watered down and easy to depart from. I’ve told Grandpa that I wouldn’t want it to be so easy for my children to jump into another world; how can anyone miss Shabbat if they never experience it?
Grandma asked Robin if she felt safe living alone serving alcohol to tourists late at night. Robin says there is little crime on Corfu. Where would they escape to? Grandma remembered travelling to the Cayman Islands years ago, and learning about the one criminal in the jail, a guy who had murdered his wife, who was let out on holidays to be with his family since there was no place for him to run to. Grandma thought I remembered all those visits to Grand Cayman, but I replied dryly that I’d never been.
Robin told us that she is always thinking of new ideas, new projects to do. She is inspired now to do some jewelry making, like necklaces with stones inscribed with Greek sayings that she can sell in her bar. She has met men from all over the world, but she would love to have a single good relationship as soon as her youngest is out of the house (even though the kids are living with the father in the family house). She works hard from May to October during the tourist season, take a vacation in the winter, and plans to go back and open the bar to locals on the weekends. She is happy.
I think it was fun for both Grandma and Grandpa to remember Anita; so many happy times together! So much laughter and fun, cultural events and dinners; she was someone special for all of us.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Will Grandpa Stop Driving?
October 29, 2008
In case we weren’t sure if I have attention deficit disorder (for those of you in the next generation reading this): after texting everyone and calling Grandma and Grandpa to make sure they were all okay with Stir Crazy at 12:15, I went directly to Di Pescaro, and even sat down at a table to wait for them all. Oy. Jumped up and ran, still made it there before Janet.
Grandpa had asked me to write up last week, but we were in shul, and there was too much noise to hear any one conversation. It was nice that Ray Weiss and Frieda Litke were there, and Bob Weiss came to be with them for Yizkor. Bob thought it was really wonderful how we all sat around afterwards for lunch, because they are in a very reform congregation that doesn’t do this sort of thing. I reminded him that if you give them food, the Jews will come.
First order of business; both Grandpa and Grandma have to approve distributions from the trust. I’d asked Grandpa about going to the Cohn’s Bat Mitzvah in California, and he gave me the go-ahead. Sheldon Cohn is on the Banner board, and he and Kim flew out for Sarah and Gabie’s B’nai Mitzvah. I thought it was the right thing to do but the trip was not in David’s and my budget. Grandpa agreed that the trust would pay for the ticket (of course there will be all the other expenses of getting around), but apparently Grandma doesn’t agree.
Okay, I said, I get it. No more asking Grandpa for anything (note to grandchildren). Furthermore, Milton continued, the economy sucks, everyone is suffering, and even he is looking for ways to cut costs, both at home and at Banner. They might give up one of their cars, might not continue having full time help in the house, and might do any number of other things. And of course Banner needs to tighten belts as well. They have lost 25% of the value of something or other, in keeping with the rest of the country, and they are losing deals left and right. Nobody wants to lend money, or the terms are too onerous.
Janet came just before the food was served, but we both love the Chilean Sea Bass so I’d ordered for her already. She wondered why Milt and Marty were sharing one meal. Well, Milton explained, he likes to eat a big breakfast to get through the morning, and Ibby cooks a four course dinner every night, so lunch is the only time he can lighten it up. He had gained some weight, and finally lost it, but as someone nearing fifty, realizes that his metabolism has slowed down. Now, if only I can get that in my head, maybe I’d lose that extra five. Meanwhile, Grandma asked which salad was least fattening…I swear I’m not going to think about it once I hit seventy five, maybe before that.
Grandma wanted to remind us that Robin Pfeifer (daughter of her old friend Anita, who died of lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking), is coming in from Greece for her 5oth birthday. Robin is a smoker also. There will be a gathering this Saturday night at someone’s house, and we are all invited. We didn’t talk about it this time, but we all know that Robin is stuck on Corfu because her children are there. Doesn’t sound like a bad place to be stuck, but it sounds like she has to struggle. We spoke for a bit about the possibility of cancelling our winter vacation to Mexico, and Grandma said that we would have to let Elaine know by tomorrow. It is awfully expensive, but we don’t know how much we would get back, and it took so much work to set it up, we are all loathe to start redoing the trip. If they’re tightening belts though, that seems like an easy place to start.
Milton had said that he might get rid of the extra car (not the Jag), and Grandma said they’d decided to wait the winter out before replacing Grandpa’s car. They’re going to have Becky’s Avalon (SassCo) in their garage which is great for us but also good for them in case they need an extra car. I said something about how much better it would be if Grandpa just used the driver, Mark, and Iranian immigrant who is struggling without a green card, too old to get any real work. We all talked about how much better it would be if Grandpa stopped driving, and then Milton told the story of what he’d witnessed when Grandpa left the BannerDay festivities at Pinstripes the previous week.
Milt just started to drive out of his spot in the parking lot, and realized he was driving behind Grandpa, who performed two dangerous moves in quick succession. First, he pulled too far into the street and the driver passing had to veer away from him. Second, as he pulled out, he went over the curb. Milton said to Grandma that he understood she had a hard time with the idea of Grandpa losing his license, but that she seemed to be waiting for him to kill either himself or someone else before he stopped driving. We all looked at Grandpa…we want him to make a decision about this, but he just shrugged.
Naturally the subject of the election popped up; Janet is working hard on Kirk’s campaign, and asked if any of us want to volunteer at the train stations where they are passing out Kirk fliers, reminding people to vote etc. She already told the Kirk people that I don’t want to do anything outside (unless by some miracle the temperature is above 65), but I’ll do phoning or something like that, especially on Election day. I think all of us are voting for Kirk, so there was no disagreement, but the next step was discussing the busted economy.
Once again Grandpa started talking about the democrats being responsible for everything bad that happened, while Milton shot out names of years when this or that happened, and Marty just sighed, because we’ve already discussed this ad nauseum. Milton is supporting Obama, which is shocking to Grandpa (and Janet as well). Janet was probably itching to talk about the terror threat, Islam extremism, Israel security, but basically said she’s exhausted from talking about it all. Grandma just requested that they argue in the office where she doesn’t have to sit between them listening to them shout at and interrupt each other. They are both passionate about their decisions.
In case we weren’t sure if I have attention deficit disorder (for those of you in the next generation reading this): after texting everyone and calling Grandma and Grandpa to make sure they were all okay with Stir Crazy at 12:15, I went directly to Di Pescaro, and even sat down at a table to wait for them all. Oy. Jumped up and ran, still made it there before Janet.
Grandpa had asked me to write up last week, but we were in shul, and there was too much noise to hear any one conversation. It was nice that Ray Weiss and Frieda Litke were there, and Bob Weiss came to be with them for Yizkor. Bob thought it was really wonderful how we all sat around afterwards for lunch, because they are in a very reform congregation that doesn’t do this sort of thing. I reminded him that if you give them food, the Jews will come.
First order of business; both Grandpa and Grandma have to approve distributions from the trust. I’d asked Grandpa about going to the Cohn’s Bat Mitzvah in California, and he gave me the go-ahead. Sheldon Cohn is on the Banner board, and he and Kim flew out for Sarah and Gabie’s B’nai Mitzvah. I thought it was the right thing to do but the trip was not in David’s and my budget. Grandpa agreed that the trust would pay for the ticket (of course there will be all the other expenses of getting around), but apparently Grandma doesn’t agree.
Okay, I said, I get it. No more asking Grandpa for anything (note to grandchildren). Furthermore, Milton continued, the economy sucks, everyone is suffering, and even he is looking for ways to cut costs, both at home and at Banner. They might give up one of their cars, might not continue having full time help in the house, and might do any number of other things. And of course Banner needs to tighten belts as well. They have lost 25% of the value of something or other, in keeping with the rest of the country, and they are losing deals left and right. Nobody wants to lend money, or the terms are too onerous.
Janet came just before the food was served, but we both love the Chilean Sea Bass so I’d ordered for her already. She wondered why Milt and Marty were sharing one meal. Well, Milton explained, he likes to eat a big breakfast to get through the morning, and Ibby cooks a four course dinner every night, so lunch is the only time he can lighten it up. He had gained some weight, and finally lost it, but as someone nearing fifty, realizes that his metabolism has slowed down. Now, if only I can get that in my head, maybe I’d lose that extra five. Meanwhile, Grandma asked which salad was least fattening…I swear I’m not going to think about it once I hit seventy five, maybe before that.
Grandma wanted to remind us that Robin Pfeifer (daughter of her old friend Anita, who died of lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking), is coming in from Greece for her 5oth birthday. Robin is a smoker also. There will be a gathering this Saturday night at someone’s house, and we are all invited. We didn’t talk about it this time, but we all know that Robin is stuck on Corfu because her children are there. Doesn’t sound like a bad place to be stuck, but it sounds like she has to struggle. We spoke for a bit about the possibility of cancelling our winter vacation to Mexico, and Grandma said that we would have to let Elaine know by tomorrow. It is awfully expensive, but we don’t know how much we would get back, and it took so much work to set it up, we are all loathe to start redoing the trip. If they’re tightening belts though, that seems like an easy place to start.
Milton had said that he might get rid of the extra car (not the Jag), and Grandma said they’d decided to wait the winter out before replacing Grandpa’s car. They’re going to have Becky’s Avalon (SassCo) in their garage which is great for us but also good for them in case they need an extra car. I said something about how much better it would be if Grandpa just used the driver, Mark, and Iranian immigrant who is struggling without a green card, too old to get any real work. We all talked about how much better it would be if Grandpa stopped driving, and then Milton told the story of what he’d witnessed when Grandpa left the BannerDay festivities at Pinstripes the previous week.
Milt just started to drive out of his spot in the parking lot, and realized he was driving behind Grandpa, who performed two dangerous moves in quick succession. First, he pulled too far into the street and the driver passing had to veer away from him. Second, as he pulled out, he went over the curb. Milton said to Grandma that he understood she had a hard time with the idea of Grandpa losing his license, but that she seemed to be waiting for him to kill either himself or someone else before he stopped driving. We all looked at Grandpa…we want him to make a decision about this, but he just shrugged.
Naturally the subject of the election popped up; Janet is working hard on Kirk’s campaign, and asked if any of us want to volunteer at the train stations where they are passing out Kirk fliers, reminding people to vote etc. She already told the Kirk people that I don’t want to do anything outside (unless by some miracle the temperature is above 65), but I’ll do phoning or something like that, especially on Election day. I think all of us are voting for Kirk, so there was no disagreement, but the next step was discussing the busted economy.
Once again Grandpa started talking about the democrats being responsible for everything bad that happened, while Milton shot out names of years when this or that happened, and Marty just sighed, because we’ve already discussed this ad nauseum. Milton is supporting Obama, which is shocking to Grandpa (and Janet as well). Janet was probably itching to talk about the terror threat, Islam extremism, Israel security, but basically said she’s exhausted from talking about it all. Grandma just requested that they argue in the office where she doesn’t have to sit between them listening to them shout at and interrupt each other. They are both passionate about their decisions.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Grandpa's Geothermal Friends, 9/10/08
September 10, 2008
We had lunch last week, for the first time since the kids all went back to college (and Anat to medical school). Janet and Marty both showed up, and Dad invited a guy he met through mentoring, who is a retired education professor at Loyola. Barney was an interesting guy, very amused about Grandpa lunch, but he is overweight and dropped crumbs all over his lap as he ate, which was distracting. I have so much going on right now, with the law center opening tomorrow, and the Bar Mitzvah a week from Saturday, so I wasn’t able to write anything.
Today, we met at Prairie Grass, which is once again acceptable now that they fired the guy who was rude to Grandpa last year when he asked for a decaffeinated soda. Janet, Milton, and Marty all came, but Mom was busy at the Holocaust Museum. Dad walked in with two new people, who he has been talking about excitedly, because they dug a 300 foot hole in their yard and now heat/cool their home with geothermal energy.
Dad has been trying unsuccessfully to explain it, but it didn’t sound that believable, especially in this area. Amazingly, it turned out that Bill and Rona live over on Dauphine, just blocks from here, and they really did what Grandpa said! Rona is clearly the force behind it; she described herself as someone who researches decisions carefully and does nothing half-assed.
She nearly gasped when I told her I just bought a dress for the Bar Mitzvah, which is in less than two weeks. Bill seemed a lot more laid back, calm, and was as riveted talking about his healing practice as Rona was about geothermal energy.
He actually owns a title company; and is a grad of DePaul College of Law, another name for my alumni list, and he met Grandpa in the locker room at Bally’s, overheard him telling a joke and couldn’t help but join in. He was interested in Grandpa’s mentoring, and thought his joke was funny; and of course Grandpa loves getting to know strangers. But on the side, and perhaps one day as his full time job, he has the gift of being able to diagnose certain medical problems, and to sometimes cure them with touch. A rare and amazing gift; hard to believe, and I wonder if he even mentioned it to Grandpa.
They are both the kind of people we see all the time; nicely dressed, attractive, polite and educated. She is small and dark, filled with energy, while he speaks at a slower pace, and seems to listen more to what we were all saying. At some point, because I learn a lot from the question, I asked what shul they attended, and the answer is that they are not very connected to the Jewish community.
We were all interested in hearing about the process they went through to discover geothermal energy, and we all focused in on the cost/benefit analysis Rona gave us. She is absolutely enamored of the process, but it isn’t something I would ever do in our house, because the outlay was about $22,000, and that’s after she changed all the windows to 3 panes. Yes they save money, but you have to stay in a house much longer than we plan to in order to make it cost effective.
So at that point I wanted to hear more about them as people, and less about how they made their house better. Marty also likes to talk about improvements to his house, and ultimately, the discussion is about nesting. Even though Rona hopes to convince numbers of people to use this system, it is very expensive and only available to a certain segment of society. Milton said that it was an interesting concept because of all the buildings…but questioned if the technology was available. Apparently there is a hospital somewhere in the west suburbs that is converting to geothermal….of course to the tune of over 4 million.
I piped up that my very first editorial, regarding the environment, is being published in the Northbrook News, (I’m SOOO proud!) and explained that it gives kudos to Congressman Mark Kirk for his push to clean up Lake Michigan. I wanted to bring Janet more into the conversation, and that would be something she would enjoy discussing, but they didn’t seem all that interested. Nor were they interested in asking anything when I told them that Janet’s passion was in lobbying. Bill asked “for what?” she replied, “Israel”, and the conversation frittered away with Marty checking into her status as professional or non-professional lobbyist.
So, I asked Rona if there was anything else about which she was so passionate, or anything that she had been passionate about before this came along. She told us about raising their autistic son, now almost thirty, and how it had left her little time for outside interests. She had dabbled in Mahjong, but truly geothermal energy was the thing that motivated her. Neither Bill nor Rona asked questions about us, but Milton left just as dessert came, and then Janet and I pursued a conversation with Bill, and there was more give and take.
I saw Bill looking closely at Janet, and was worried that he was seeing something wrong….I had to interrupt, as if blocking him from saying anything would stop whatever he saw. He told a story about noticing something wrong with someone’s foot, and pointing to it and immediately the pain subsided. Then he asked if Janet had nightmares as a child. He apparently didn’t hear me when I explained that Janet doesn’t remember ANYTHING from her childhood. But she surprised my by saying she remembered being upset at the Speck slayings, and I remembered too, that we had strategized about what we would do if a crazy homicidal person came into our house. We were definitely going to be the ones that hide under the bed and are spared.
Bill kept looking at Janet, and I wondered what having nightmares as a child was showing up as in her now. Grandpa and Marty were still chatting about geothermal energy with Rona. But it got so late, we finally all left. Nice people.
We had lunch last week, for the first time since the kids all went back to college (and Anat to medical school). Janet and Marty both showed up, and Dad invited a guy he met through mentoring, who is a retired education professor at Loyola. Barney was an interesting guy, very amused about Grandpa lunch, but he is overweight and dropped crumbs all over his lap as he ate, which was distracting. I have so much going on right now, with the law center opening tomorrow, and the Bar Mitzvah a week from Saturday, so I wasn’t able to write anything.
Today, we met at Prairie Grass, which is once again acceptable now that they fired the guy who was rude to Grandpa last year when he asked for a decaffeinated soda. Janet, Milton, and Marty all came, but Mom was busy at the Holocaust Museum. Dad walked in with two new people, who he has been talking about excitedly, because they dug a 300 foot hole in their yard and now heat/cool their home with geothermal energy.
Dad has been trying unsuccessfully to explain it, but it didn’t sound that believable, especially in this area. Amazingly, it turned out that Bill and Rona live over on Dauphine, just blocks from here, and they really did what Grandpa said! Rona is clearly the force behind it; she described herself as someone who researches decisions carefully and does nothing half-assed.
She nearly gasped when I told her I just bought a dress for the Bar Mitzvah, which is in less than two weeks. Bill seemed a lot more laid back, calm, and was as riveted talking about his healing practice as Rona was about geothermal energy.
He actually owns a title company; and is a grad of DePaul College of Law, another name for my alumni list, and he met Grandpa in the locker room at Bally’s, overheard him telling a joke and couldn’t help but join in. He was interested in Grandpa’s mentoring, and thought his joke was funny; and of course Grandpa loves getting to know strangers. But on the side, and perhaps one day as his full time job, he has the gift of being able to diagnose certain medical problems, and to sometimes cure them with touch. A rare and amazing gift; hard to believe, and I wonder if he even mentioned it to Grandpa.
They are both the kind of people we see all the time; nicely dressed, attractive, polite and educated. She is small and dark, filled with energy, while he speaks at a slower pace, and seems to listen more to what we were all saying. At some point, because I learn a lot from the question, I asked what shul they attended, and the answer is that they are not very connected to the Jewish community.
We were all interested in hearing about the process they went through to discover geothermal energy, and we all focused in on the cost/benefit analysis Rona gave us. She is absolutely enamored of the process, but it isn’t something I would ever do in our house, because the outlay was about $22,000, and that’s after she changed all the windows to 3 panes. Yes they save money, but you have to stay in a house much longer than we plan to in order to make it cost effective.
So at that point I wanted to hear more about them as people, and less about how they made their house better. Marty also likes to talk about improvements to his house, and ultimately, the discussion is about nesting. Even though Rona hopes to convince numbers of people to use this system, it is very expensive and only available to a certain segment of society. Milton said that it was an interesting concept because of all the buildings…but questioned if the technology was available. Apparently there is a hospital somewhere in the west suburbs that is converting to geothermal….of course to the tune of over 4 million.
I piped up that my very first editorial, regarding the environment, is being published in the Northbrook News, (I’m SOOO proud!) and explained that it gives kudos to Congressman Mark Kirk for his push to clean up Lake Michigan. I wanted to bring Janet more into the conversation, and that would be something she would enjoy discussing, but they didn’t seem all that interested. Nor were they interested in asking anything when I told them that Janet’s passion was in lobbying. Bill asked “for what?” she replied, “Israel”, and the conversation frittered away with Marty checking into her status as professional or non-professional lobbyist.
So, I asked Rona if there was anything else about which she was so passionate, or anything that she had been passionate about before this came along. She told us about raising their autistic son, now almost thirty, and how it had left her little time for outside interests. She had dabbled in Mahjong, but truly geothermal energy was the thing that motivated her. Neither Bill nor Rona asked questions about us, but Milton left just as dessert came, and then Janet and I pursued a conversation with Bill, and there was more give and take.
I saw Bill looking closely at Janet, and was worried that he was seeing something wrong….I had to interrupt, as if blocking him from saying anything would stop whatever he saw. He told a story about noticing something wrong with someone’s foot, and pointing to it and immediately the pain subsided. Then he asked if Janet had nightmares as a child. He apparently didn’t hear me when I explained that Janet doesn’t remember ANYTHING from her childhood. But she surprised my by saying she remembered being upset at the Speck slayings, and I remembered too, that we had strategized about what we would do if a crazy homicidal person came into our house. We were definitely going to be the ones that hide under the bed and are spared.
Bill kept looking at Janet, and I wondered what having nightmares as a child was showing up as in her now. Grandpa and Marty were still chatting about geothermal energy with Rona. But it got so late, we finally all left. Nice people.
The Country's Financial Crisis vs. Dolly's Calcium Crisis
September 24, 2008
To celebrate Dolly’s birthday, Dad and Marty invited her to our lunch. Dolly DeCamp is the tiny, chiseled receptionist who loves our family and is intensely loyal to Banner. She chose Prairie Grass, right across the street from the office, because she hadn’t ever tried it, and Marty always praises the salmon burger.
Marty started in immediately on the current financial crisis, talking about Fanny Mae being caught with their pants down in 2003 and allowing congress to push them into offering all those high risk mortgages to people who had no hope of repaying. Of course, there were all the lying/cheating/creepy CEO’s who parlayed losses into phantom wins which allowed them to peal off millions of dollars in golden parachutes, bonuses, and other ill-gotten gains.
Dad wanted to say, as usual, that it’s all the fault of the Clinton administration, and that all the deregulation is not just Clinton but two top dems fault; this entire crisis all came about apparently because, and solely because of those 3. Never mind anything that occurred in the past 7.5 years of the Bush administration, never mind any of the deregulation pushed through by republicans….and he repeated this several times until Marty told him to stop talking and I had to remind him that the situation, as are many, is far more complex than he is making it out to be.
I wish I’d thought to mention that McCain is a lifelong believer in deregulation and allowing bankers/brokers to do as they please. Free market above all. I wish I’d thought to mention McCain’s intervention on behalf of that Keating S and L guy who later went to prison, or the whole Silverado fiasco that nearly destroyed Colorado. It’s just not worth saying anything negative about McCain, who now decries Wall Street’s (shock) greed, because all Dad does is bring up some negative point about Democrats, true or untrue.
This discussion went on and on, yawn, with Dolly sitting silently, clearly not having a good time until I stopped listening to Marty’s prognosis of doom and started asking Dolly about her birthday plans. After mentioning a dinner in Evanston, Dolly told us that she was having a terrible birthday.
Why? We were all so sad to hear it. She started telling us that she’d been diagnosed with a severe lack of bone mass, that her bones were described to her as being like swiss cheese. She was warned to be careful of not breaking anything, and forced to completely change her diet. And the worse part, this is two weeks now, is that she has to give herself a daily shot of some medicine that will hopefully, after 2 years, heal them bones.
Dolly was raised in an orphanage; she told us that they never got actual milk, only the powdered kind that was gross and disgusting. She probably started harming her bones way back then…and she is such a little bird of a person, so tiny and fragile without a speck of body fat to be seen. We were probably all thinking that she should just eat that whole piece of pie by herself, and maybe not take off the top of the bun.
The worse part for her is that she has an intense fear of needles, and has cried and cried because it is so challenging and difficult to stick a needle into herself every morning. It makes her tired, but she doesn’t want to suffer all through the day being anxious about doing it in the evening, so she gets it over before going to work.
Marty, in his usual positive way, spoke about how lucky she is that doctors have figured out how to help her, even if it’s unpleasant, and that she will get stronger because of it. And Dad really could have brought up that he had to go through a lot of unpleasantness with his heart, and his shaking etc…but Dolly was so anguished by her own misery that it didn’t seem like remembering any body else’s problems would have made her feel better.
Marty did take a few minutes to talk about his bathroom renovations, which is almost as interesting as discussing the financial crisis, but I do feel for him. He likes to be careful and parsimonious in his dealings with money, but has to cope with Cindy just going ahead and spending whatever she wants. It is a little startling that bathroom tile is costing them so much, but certainly not as shocking as how much the Bar Mitzvah cost.
To celebrate Dolly’s birthday, Dad and Marty invited her to our lunch. Dolly DeCamp is the tiny, chiseled receptionist who loves our family and is intensely loyal to Banner. She chose Prairie Grass, right across the street from the office, because she hadn’t ever tried it, and Marty always praises the salmon burger.
Marty started in immediately on the current financial crisis, talking about Fanny Mae being caught with their pants down in 2003 and allowing congress to push them into offering all those high risk mortgages to people who had no hope of repaying. Of course, there were all the lying/cheating/creepy CEO’s who parlayed losses into phantom wins which allowed them to peal off millions of dollars in golden parachutes, bonuses, and other ill-gotten gains.
Dad wanted to say, as usual, that it’s all the fault of the Clinton administration, and that all the deregulation is not just Clinton but two top dems fault; this entire crisis all came about apparently because, and solely because of those 3. Never mind anything that occurred in the past 7.5 years of the Bush administration, never mind any of the deregulation pushed through by republicans….and he repeated this several times until Marty told him to stop talking and I had to remind him that the situation, as are many, is far more complex than he is making it out to be.
I wish I’d thought to mention that McCain is a lifelong believer in deregulation and allowing bankers/brokers to do as they please. Free market above all. I wish I’d thought to mention McCain’s intervention on behalf of that Keating S and L guy who later went to prison, or the whole Silverado fiasco that nearly destroyed Colorado. It’s just not worth saying anything negative about McCain, who now decries Wall Street’s (shock) greed, because all Dad does is bring up some negative point about Democrats, true or untrue.
This discussion went on and on, yawn, with Dolly sitting silently, clearly not having a good time until I stopped listening to Marty’s prognosis of doom and started asking Dolly about her birthday plans. After mentioning a dinner in Evanston, Dolly told us that she was having a terrible birthday.
Why? We were all so sad to hear it. She started telling us that she’d been diagnosed with a severe lack of bone mass, that her bones were described to her as being like swiss cheese. She was warned to be careful of not breaking anything, and forced to completely change her diet. And the worse part, this is two weeks now, is that she has to give herself a daily shot of some medicine that will hopefully, after 2 years, heal them bones.
Dolly was raised in an orphanage; she told us that they never got actual milk, only the powdered kind that was gross and disgusting. She probably started harming her bones way back then…and she is such a little bird of a person, so tiny and fragile without a speck of body fat to be seen. We were probably all thinking that she should just eat that whole piece of pie by herself, and maybe not take off the top of the bun.
The worse part for her is that she has an intense fear of needles, and has cried and cried because it is so challenging and difficult to stick a needle into herself every morning. It makes her tired, but she doesn’t want to suffer all through the day being anxious about doing it in the evening, so she gets it over before going to work.
Marty, in his usual positive way, spoke about how lucky she is that doctors have figured out how to help her, even if it’s unpleasant, and that she will get stronger because of it. And Dad really could have brought up that he had to go through a lot of unpleasantness with his heart, and his shaking etc…but Dolly was so anguished by her own misery that it didn’t seem like remembering any body else’s problems would have made her feel better.
Marty did take a few minutes to talk about his bathroom renovations, which is almost as interesting as discussing the financial crisis, but I do feel for him. He likes to be careful and parsimonious in his dealings with money, but has to cope with Cindy just going ahead and spending whatever she wants. It is a little startling that bathroom tile is costing them so much, but certainly not as shocking as how much the Bar Mitzvah cost.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Cousins Dinner
Let's see, what happened at CPK? Maya and I showed up and waited in the front, only to have Grandma tell us when she walked in that Josh and Grandpa were in the back, with drinks. Josh did not care for his pina colada. Matt and Emily walked in as we were getting our table. We sat and welcomed Hanna, who took the middle of the bench seat (a.k.a. the hardest to get out but comes with the most action. Dani, Becky and Oliver came after, but separated to each side of the table, where there were empty seats. Sevonne arrived last, after we already reheated her pizza and Emily was chomping at the bit to order dessert. We chatted a lot about our summers, Becky was particularly interested in how life at the office was without her. I shared two pizzas with Maya and Emily, keeping the leftovers because I'm the only one in school in Chiago! Sevonne prepped Hannah for college. Everyone questioned Ollie, Matt made fun of his accent. And a few lame jokes. Grandpa told Ollie that his accent was cute. Josh joked that grandpa should ask Ollie his opinion on Tony Blair. Emily saw my new medical school white coat and wants one that "isn't for a halloween costume" because she has a stethoscope that was a costume. I'll see what I can do. We talked about the funny faces that Claire makes at Matt while he's sitting around the house. Dani and I made plans for that night to hang out, but I turned out to be too tired. We confirmed that Becky is both excited and nervous about starting school. Maya, Matt Emily and Becky made plans to attend a movie later that night. We told a lot of funny Sam stories that we knew, including the one where Sam avowed that he wanted to be a banker so that he could poo on every single dollar. It was a really interesting meal, one where everyone laughed and hugged, took pictures and reveled (revelled? dictionary.com says both) in each others' company. Friday, August 8, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Driving the Georgie V Staff To Insanity: Wednesday Lunch
As has become the custom, nobody responds to my emails or text messages, so I think just Grandma and Grandpa, Janet, Maya, and I are going to meet at Georgie V. Mom mentioned how crazy it was that last week while I was in Colorado, they went to Next Door, and it was ridiculously expensive for a lunch, so she preferred to meet somewhere more reasonable. Good thing, because we ended up being ten.
Matt had gotten his wisdom teeth removed, and wasn’t sure if he was up to lunch (then he ordered six things because he wasn’t sure what he could eat). Milton showed up, which was nice, because the rest of us don’t really know what’s going on with them, and Anat came even though she is extremely hectic with the 3 Day Breast Awareness Walk starting tomorrow and medical school starting next week. The other surprise attendee was Hannah Weiss, who announced that this was her last day working at Banner, and who was just delighted to be with us all. She asked me to switch seats so she could be closer to the other kids.
That meant that I couldn’t hear any of the other conversations happening at the table, because it is a noisy restaurant to begin with, and I was sitting at the very end of the table. Milton told me about his bulging disc, and how he is doing better, and I told him about our Colorado experience. We always trade asthma stories: I told him how I was so in shape for a big hike from Aspen to Crested Butte, but then had to head down the mountain on an shorter, earlier hike, because I was struggling to breathe. Milton told me that when they were in the mountains earlier in the month, even Ibby got a headache that wouldn’t go away.
For the next family council meeting, Milton suggested that we should try Palm Springs, since it is beautiful and dry, convenient for the other board members, and maybe even the place that they would want to retire in later years. I thought it was a good idea, and mentioned that I look forward to seeing, especially, the Cohens, because I have been having an email correspondence with Sheldon’s wife, Kim.
Milton told me about having this idea that he talked about with Sheldon, and also with a guy David introduced him to, about starting a bank. All three of these guys are business savvy and well-connected; Schectman is David’s co-president on the Ark board this year. Milton is very excited about his bank idea, but assured me that he didn’t want it to only lend to Banner. I kept to myself the thought that there are way too many banks taking up good locations where there should be stores or restaurants already.
Matt was very quiet, because he is still sore in his mouth, so he was doing a lot more listening than usual. Hannah and I talked a little about her starting college in the fall; she is very excited about it. Milton also surprised me by asking that I include Ibby on the invitation list for these weekly lunches, and I made sure that I have her cell number. Milt said that she is much better at replying now that he got her a MAC. I didn’t mention how bad he is about replying.
Anat is hopefully going to write something about what happened at the other end of the table…..
Anat: Not that I remember too much. Marty and I split an amazing omelette and french toast, after much debate over getting stuffed french toast or regular. We got stuffed. Blueberry. Very sweet, but Georgie V's doesn't serve dessert, so we were thinking ahead. Grandpa asked why we can't make ourselves live until 120, which is how long DNA lasts. This is literally something he asks me every time I see him. And remember that we spent two weeks together in Italy. Every meal, we talked about DNA. He is upset that he can't play racketball as well as he used to. I told him, as usual, that I'm only starting medical school in a week, and I'm not sure they cover breakthrough medicine on the first day. But I'll keep him (and you all) updated, I'm sure. Marty told me he's interested in cool medical things and asked me to forward him along anything that may intrigue him. Marty and I also discussed a bit about ravinia, a review of this year and some expectations for next. Marty gave great advice on some sensible shoes for medical school. He sees fashion as a sort of two dimensional graph, one axis is what is the most extremely practical, and the other axis is balanced off by what Cindy will let him wear out of the house (what is fashionable). We talked a little about Lollapalooza (grandpa still can't remember what that is) and everyone's start of school. Matt and Maya plan to visit each other often, as Matt will have a car. But where will he park it in New York? Maya suggests the China Town bus instead, but Matt is a little less enthused at spending hours with crazy 'bus people'. To each his own, I guess.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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.
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