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.

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.

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.