So much love

One of our Chanukah presents for Julia was a set of tickets to see “Disney on Ice: Worlds of Enchantment” at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. It was longer than we expected – two hours with only a 15-minute break, but she was completely engrossed in every minute of it.

To prepare for the day, we had also bought her a complete Elsa costume which she wore to the show, along with hundreds of other little girls who were there. Eliana came along with us to help out and enjoyed the show as well.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Rebecca

Sad day

I first wrote about our friend Mark Weiner on July 31^st of 2012. Shortly after my diagnosis with primary CNS lymphoma, Mark, a neurologist, had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a rare and difficult to treat tumor in his brain. He had over six years of ups and downs, supported by a loving family and community of devoted friends through countless treatments, but in the end, it was just not meant to be, and we received the sad news on Sunday morning that Mark had died.

We have known Mark and his wife Hedy Wald Weiner since living in Sharon from 1986-1991. Their children were somewhat younger than ours and we never became close friends back then, but over these past few years we have obviously been drawn together by our common experiences with health issues. Hedy is now a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University who has published a number of insightful pieces about dealing with Mark’s illness over these past few years.

The funeral was held in Sharon this morning. We could not be there because I have a treatment on Wednesday. I did use the link to the live broadcast, but due to technical problems those of us trying to watch from afar missed the first half.

I am proud to count Hedy as one of my most avid blog readers who has, despite all the personal challenges, frequently sent me encouraging notes to keep up my writing. I have to be honest, I am really having a hard time with this one. I only wish I could do or could have done even a small fraction for her of all she has done for me.

Love,

Rebecca

Four days/four games/four wins

What a wild past few days this has been!!! We headed up to Sharon on Thursday for the first game of the four-day Maimonides School Invitational Basketball Tournament in Memory of Leland Gelman, a Maimonides School alum (Class of 1982), to whom sports meant a great deal. You can read more about him here:

http://www.maimohoops.org/tribute-to-leland-gelman/

This year’s line-up featured four boys’ teams:

Maimonides School (Brookline, MA)

Farber Hebrew Day School (Southfield, MI)

Hillel Yeshiva High School (Ocean, NJ)

North Shore Hebrew Academy (Great Neck, NY)

There were also four girls’ teams competing: Maimonides School, Farber Hebrew Day School, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls (Teaneck, NJ), and North Shore Hebrew Academy, but the gymnasium is not sufficiently large to accommodate all the guests for all the games, so we only watched “our” team.

Here are the outcomes of the four games the M-Cats played:

Game	Maimonides M-Cats vs.	Score
1	North Shore	60 to 37
2	Farber	83 to 40
3	Hillel	52 to 40
Championship	North Shore	59 to 48

As I had mentioned earlier, Joshua is the sole freshman on the M-Cats, and was also the sole freshman on any of the four teams in the tournament! Hence Joshua does not spend a lot of time actually playing, but he has clearly become a part of the team, and the coach works hard to put the new kids in play whenever he can. So, we did get to see him play a bit, scoring one basket and a bunch of rebounds. A number of people told us they see a very bright future for this talented young man, and we certainly could not disagree!

 (final game)

(Joshua is third from the left in this picture) 

Joshua and Ella were away over Sabbath, so we had lunch with the rest of the family at Dina’s house. On Sunday, Barry and I picked up dinner at Rami’s in Brookline and we all gathered at Simmie and Ronen’s house for a quick bite. Everyone was exhausted from the very busy weekend!

The one regret we have is that Maya played in a small recital on Sunday afternoon that we were not able to attend. It is a wonderful blessing to have so many things going on that we just cannot be present at all of them! Ella has also started piano lessons so there will undoubtedly be more happy scheduling conflicts to resolve!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Rebecca

Addendum to last post

Addendum

Barry and I were already a “couple” by the summer of 1971, travelling as frequently as we could between our parents’ homes in New York and West Hartford. So I wondered why we had not gone to Carnegie Hall to see Carole King. Barry just reminded me: that same evening (coincidentally, the night after his birthday), he had bought tickets for us to see B.B. King at The Filmore East, one of the last shows performed there before its June 27^th closing. So we were so close and yet so far….

How did they miss this one?

In the Double Jeopardy round yesterday, there was a category called “A Pop-Up Category,” and the $2000 answer was:

“And if this old world starts getting you down, there’s room enough for two” here.

None of the three contestants got it – maybe they were just too young. But for us boomers, this is a very familiar line from the song “Up on the Roof” written by  Gerry Goffin (lyrics) and Carole King (tune) and originally recorded in 1962 by The Drifters. Ms. King would later record the song on her 1970 Writer album. James Taylor played guitar and sang it with Ms. King at her Carnegie Hall concert on June 18, 1971, and later recorded his own version of “Up on the Roof” on his 1979 album, Flag.

A fun walk down memory lane thanks to Jeopardy!

Love,

Rebecca

A busy week

It has been over a week since my last post, and I barely know where to begin, so I will just try to go in chronological order.

We had a wonderful Shabbat up in Sharon last weekend. Rabba Sara Hurwitz, a member of the rabbinic team at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR), was in Sharon as a scholar in residence at Kol Shira (translates as the voice of song), a traditional Jewish “partnership minyan” which provides opportunities for women to lead parts of the service and take other roles not usually done in the more traditional, orthodox Jewish setting. Rabba Sara has been at HIR for many years but this was a unique opportunity to spend time with and learn with her in a smaller setting, and was thoroughly enjoyable and uplifting.

Chanukah began on Sunday evening, and we were fortunate to be able to stay for the first two nights. We celebrated with Dina and family on the first night. Dina made delicious latkes (potato pancakes, the Eastern European tradition) and sufganiot (jelly doughnuts, the Israeli tradition), along with, of course, some healthier selections to round out the meal. 

Aaron figured out how to inject some jelly into the doughnuts!

A month or so ago I had seen the perfect gift for Noah in a catalogue from the Metropolitan Museum gift shop, and could not resist. Hopefully he will not lose too many of the 62 pieces!

On the second night we joined Simmie and family for dinner and candle lighting.

Both nights included gifts for the children. Eliana is always the easiest because she provides us a long list of things she would like to have, and we bought her a number of items on that list. For the other children, we tried to emphasize “experiences,” so there were a lot of tickets to upcoming shows and sporting events.

We drove back to New York on Tuesday, leaving early so Barry could attend meetings all afternoon. I spent Wednesday at MSKCC, having a CT scan and then my regular treatment, so it was a long and exhausting day.

Thursday evening, we went to Carnegie Hall to see a taping of the NPR radio show, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” We had done this at Tanglewood a couple of times, and the host Peter Sagal mentioned that the show had not been done at Carnegie Hall in 10 years. Candace Bergen was the guest. It was, as always, a terrifically fun evening, but we’re both a little tired today! We have a quiet Shabbat planned.

Stay warm, and for those who are observing this week, Happy Chanukah!

Love,

Rebecca

Who would have thought?

One adjective that has undoubtedly never applied to Barry and me is “athletic.” We may have done well in school, but only above the neck. Thinking about it now, I realize that both of our fathers had some athletic ability. Barry’s dad (whose name was Joshua, may he rest in peace), played basketball back in his high school days, and my father (may he rest in peace) used to join his children for Sunday morning swimming in the summers and ice skating in the winters. As far as I know, our son-in-law Aaron’s family is similarly unathletic.

But somewhere in that strange mix of genes we have Joshua, over 6 feet tall, who both loves sports and is talented. And now, Joshua has been selected as the only freshman player on the Maimonides High School (Brookline, MA) varsity basketball team, the M-Cats.

(picture from Camp Rama, Summer 2018)

Here is the schedule so far. We will try to catch as many games as we can. At the risk of embarrassing our sincerely modest grandson, I have to say that we are just so proud.
 

Go Joshua!

Date	Opponent
12/11 6:30p	@ Excel Academy Charter (East Boston, MA) Location: Excel Academy Charter
1/3 4:00p	@ South Shore Christian Academy (Weymouth, MA) Game Details: University Sports Complex - Court #1, University S
1/6 1:30p	@ Mount Alvernia (Newton, MA) Game Details: Mount Alvernia High School, Gym
1/6 7:00p	Winthrop (Winthrop, MA) Game Details: Maimonides School
1/8 7:00p	Pope John XXIII (Everett, MA) Game Details: 34 Philbrick Rd, Brookline
1/15 7:00p	@ Winthrop (Winthrop, MA) Game Details: Winthrop High School
1/21 1:00p	Excel Academy Charter (East Boston, MA) Location: Maimonides High School
1/23 5:30p	@ Snowden International (Boston, MA) Location: Snowden International High School
2/5 6:30p	@ Ursuline Academy (Dedham, MA) Game Details: Ursuline Academy, Gym
2/7 6:30p	@ Pope John XXIII (Everett, MA) Game Details: POPE JOHN GYM
2/10 TBA	Snowden International (Boston, MA) Location: Maimonides High School

Love,

Rebecca (aka Nana)

Arlo

After a quiet Shabbat, we headed down to Carnegie Hall to see Arlo. We had last seen him for his annual Thanksgiving weekend show there back in 2012 after an eight-year period during which we spent every Thanksgiving with our children and grandchildren, seeing him just once in Tarrytown a few weeks before Thanksgiving in 2015.

Arlo has definitely gotten older and continues to expand the list of performers with whom he shares the stage beyond his growing family. Last night’s show included an opening act, The Weight Band. To be honest, I had never heard of them, although many of the band’s members have played with other well-known groups, including The Band and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band.

The Weight Band

One of Arlo’s daughters sang a solo, as did a son-in-law (husband of Sarah Lee Guthrie) Johnny Irion. The entire Guthrie clan, including a bunch of grandchildren, joined together for Woody’s “This Land is Your Land,” with the famous refrain done in sign language by three granddaughters. Overall, it was an entire feel-good evening.

Hopefully he will continue to be able to do these shows, but it is not clear that he plans to do so. I just came across this article that suggests he is going to put an end to it after the 2020 show.

Arlo Guthrie Eyes End of Annual Thanksgiving Carnegie Hall Concerts

Meanwhile, have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca

Thanksgiving potpourri

We are having a quiet Thanksgiving by ourselves in New York as our daughters and their families are hosting their husbands’ families in Sharon for the holiday weekend. Aaron posted a link to his outdoor turkey cooker, 

TurkeyCam 2018

and I have the full 18-minute original 1967 recording of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice Restaurant” playing as I write this. 

Later we will eat some of our favorites including bread “stuffing” with onions, celery, water chestnuts, and almonds, and whipped sweet potatoes made with maple syrup and sour cream.

One news item that definitely caught my attention in the past few days was news of food poisoning linked to consumption of romaine lettuce. While food poisoning is always distressing, particularly for such a wonderful food as romaine lettuce, it is helpful to see a bit of humor in it, and the following post showed up on numerous friends’ Facebook postings.

But here is a bit more sobering view of that romaine lettuce story.

Meanwhile, we have for many years used romaine lettuce as the “bitter herb” at our Passover Seder. I am hoping they will resolve this problem before then because I cannot see myself eating the alternative, horseradish root.

We went yesterday to see “Boy Erased,” a movie based on the true story of Jared Eamons (played by Lucas Hedges), a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality in an unaccepting environment. His parents, Nancy and Marshall (played by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) are religious Christians not willing to accept this aspect of their son. Marshall, a Baptist minister, is particularly troubled by his son’s declaration and goes to great lengths to enroll him and keep him in conversion therapy. I am not sure how often this approach is still attempted, but from what I have read it was seldom if ever successful. The good news in this particular case is that Jared’s father eventually did come to some level of acceptance, so that the family has been able to maintain some sort of relationship, as we see in real life pictures that are shown during the credits.

Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Rebecca

Time with all six

We had a wonderful weekend in Sharon, spending time with each of our six grandchildren.

Hearing the weather forecasts for Friday, we were able to rearrange our schedules a bit and headed up from New York on Thursday afternoon. That gave us plenty of time to put the finishing touches on the meals we were planning to serve. Dina and Aaron and the two little ones came over on Friday night; Joshua was with a friend and Ella was away at the Bat Mitzvah celebration of a fellow Maimonides student. Simmie and Ronen and the girls joined us for lunch on Saturday, along with Maya’s friend Becca.

Maya came back to our apartment on Saturday evening where we watched the movie “Benji” (Maya loves movies about dogs) and then watched a Netflix show called “Nailed It,” where amateur bakers who aren't exactly great at baking try to recreate ridiculous cakes in a timed competition. Apparently, Ella and Maya had discovered this show when they were with us together last summer. One of the competitions was to bake a cake of the bust of our current president.

Maya’s delightful giggle was a wonderful response to this silliness, and she made her parents watch it a couple of times when they came to pick her up.

On Sunday we had a chance to spend some time with the two older children. Ella came over and we watched “Home Alone,” which she had never seen, and then played some games. Joshua then joined us and we had some lunch and the boys settled in to watch football.

All in all, it was a terrific weekend, marred only by some difficulties I am having that are almost certainly late side effects of the radiation to my bladder. Let’s just say that the drive both ways took quite a bit longer than usual, and we are becoming experts on the rest stops along the route from New York to Boston. Perhaps some day we will learn why there are three highway rest stops in Connecticut relatively close to each other along I-95, at exits 41, 52, and 66. There is also an area very close to exit 93 that is a good place to stop. Beyond those, travelling northbound through Rhode Island there are rather long gaps and you are pretty much forced to exit the highway and drive some distance to find a fast food restaurant or gasoline station, not all of which have bathrooms available. Going through southwestern Connecticut, we usually take the Merritt Parkway which comes into I-95 at exit 37 and has reasonably frequent rest areas.

You now know more than you ever wanted to know about bathrooms on the New York to Boston corridor!

Meanwhile, when we returned to New York I managed to get in to see my urologist, just to make sure that there is not anything going on that needs to be or can be addressed, and everything looks pretty much the same. We are a bit puzzled about the recent flare-up of symptoms but I am also trying to make some dietary changes based on things we have read that may help.

Have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca