A quiet weekend

We drove back to New York on Friday. The traffic was surprisingly light. Where was everyone? The highways on the Washington to Boston corridor on summer Fridays are usually a force to be reckoned with, but somehow we sailed up the 240 miles from Bethesda back to Riverdale without a single back-up.

We had a quiet Sabbath. Because of our uncertainties about the travel, we had prepared all we could before we left for Bethesda on Wednesday, and we did not invite any company lest we were unable to make it home. We went to synagogue in the morning and relaxed in the afternoon. We have a new tradition of playing the best two out of three games of Rummikub on Sabbath afternoon, and I won the first two we played.

We also read the New York Times review of the new Woody Allen movie, Blue Jasmine. Putting aside his personal life, we are huge fans of his movies. This one received a stellar review. So we decided to go on Sunday morning to the first (11:00 am) showing at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema on the Upper West Side, where it is playing on two screens. It is also playing downtown at the Angelika, on three screens. We arrived at the theater at about 20 minutes before 11 and were shocked to find a long line of people waiting in line (outside, of course, this is Manhattan) to buy tickets. We ended up with tickets for the noon show, and did a little shopping in the half hour that was now unexpectedly open.

The movie did not disappoint. It is a story about money, corruption, love, and deceipt. Cate Blanchett plays a Park Avenue woman, Jasmine, married to a man (Alec Baldwin) who turns out not to be the wealthy businessman and devoted husband she thought he was, but a man who is cheating in both his personal and professional lives. The movie goes back and forth between flashbacks of better times and the present, as Jasmine becomes increasingly unable to accept or deal with her new, more humble, status. The cast includes an impressive group of actors: Sally Hawkins who had been terrific in the 2008 movie, “Happy Go Lucky,” Bobby Canavale, a fine actor who we first remember seeing in the 2003 film, “The Station Agent,” and Peter Sarsgaard, who played the newspaper editor in “Shattered Glass” among many other credits. It is definitely a movie worth seeing, maybe even more than once, when it comes your way.  

Tomorrow is a quiet day, and on Tuesday we head back to Memorial Sloan-Kettering for the first time in almost five months. I will definitely let you know how that goes.

Love,

Rebecca

A heartfelt, but not original, gesture

The news was abuzz yesterday with a story about the elder President George Bush, now 89. He shaved his head in sympathy with the 2-year-old, the son of a Secret Service agent in his security detail, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia. The President and Barbara had lost their second child, four year old Robin, to leukemia nearly sixty years ago.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/elder-bush-shows-support-for-leukemia-patient/?emc=eta1

This heartwarming act is not a new idea. Folksinger David Roth sang about a similar incident in “Manuel Garcia” on his 1993 album, “Rising in Love.” This incredibly moving piece, based on a true story and sung a cappella, tells the tale of a young man diagnosed with stomach cancer whose friends shaved their heads in a show of solidarity and support.

Although I never became completely bald, I had a large bald patch on the top of my head where it was shaved for the biopsy, and a great deal of my hair fell out from the chemotherapy, leaving me with a very sparse mane. It still has not grown back entirely, although it has been many months since I felt the need to wear a hat when I leave the house.

But I would have been absolutely horrified if my friends or, worse, my daughters, had cut their hair or worse, shaved their heads in sympathy! And that got me to thinking: as much as I believe in equality of the sexes, there are just some ways in which we fundamentally differ that can be neither denied nor ignored. Maybe that is why it is called the “Equal Rights Amendment;” it is not that men and women are identical human beings, it is that we deserve to have the same opportunities to achieve our dreams. While biology should not completely dictate destiny, it may be a bit naïve to think that it has no impact whatsoever in the lives we lead. All we – both men and women - seek is the chance to each find our own way on this journey.

I am writing this from a hotel in Bethesda, MD, where Barry is attending a meeting. We will be returning to New York tomorrow for the weekend. And next Tuesday we will be paying a visit to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for follow-up scans. Keep the good thoughts coming.

Love,

Rebecca

A wonderful weekend

The heat wave in the northeast has finally broken! Hooray!

We drove up to Sharon on Friday. On Saturday morning we went and picked up Eliana, and the three of us went to synagogue. As we had planned, Eliana came back to our apartment for lunch. By herself, she is a real chatterbox! She waited patiently while we finished the lunch preparations, reading some Dr. Seuss out loud. She entertained us during the meal with stories about the summer camp she is attending. When we finished lunch we took out the new Lego set we had bought her. I previously wrote about these new sets for girls, which the company seems to be churning out at an amazing rate, taking advantage of all those grandparents who cannot say “no.” We worked on building the set until almost 4 pm, when Simmie came to pick her up to go with her family to visit a friend of Simmie’s who was in Sharon for the weekend.

On Sunday, we went with Simmie, Ronen, Eliana, and Maya to Davis Farmland. It is located about an hour away from Sharon, in the middle of nowhere. There are many animals for feeding and petting, a great water play area, and fun go-carts for the children. Maya, who loves giraffes, wore the giraffe-inspired shorts and tank top I had seen on-line and could not resist, and brought along the matching giraffe swimsuit. The girls really enjoyed feeding the animals. We took some cute pictures of Maya at the water play area but Eliana was too busy running through the sprinklers to stop and pose for her grandparents! Eliana was quite the speedster on the go-carts, and she just kept whizzing by us even when we said it was time to go home.

Back in Sharon, Ronen barbequed dinner for the six of us: meat for the boys and the children, veggie burgers for Simmie and me. It was a wonderful day!

We drove back to New York first thing Monday morning. We are hoping to squeeze in a visit to the Botanical Gardens this week, but the weather report does not look promising. I do have an indoor project in mind: I have offered to help Simmie and Ronen make a photo album with the pictures from their recent trip to Israel. I have made a number of these on Shutterfly and each one I do, I learn some new features. Simmie and Ronen selected the pictures, loaded them to Shutterfly, and gave me a list of who and what are in the pictures. This week I get to have fun and try to be a little creative!

Be well, all.

Love,

Rebecca

Buster Poindexter - Hot Hot Hot (follow-up to yesterday's posting)

Thanks to a very dear friend for reminding me of this!

Hot hot hot!

All of you in the northeastern portion of the United States know that we are having a ferocious heat wave. We are up in Sharon now, and the weather forecasters are saying that the pattern will finally break after some rain moves in tomorrow. It is amazing how hearing that there is to be a high of 80^o on Sunday sounds like fabulous news. I have mentioned before that my internal thermostat has changed so that I am cold most of the time. Well, this weather has even gotten the better of me, and I can absolutely agree that it is very hot out there!

We had a wonderful day with Dina on Wednesday. Their children have spent this week in Baltimore with their other grandparents, and Aaron was in New York on business, so Dina decided to come up with him and we spent the day together. Because it was so hot outside we needed to select an indoor activity, so we decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We headed first for the Impressionist paintings, and walked around that area for quite a while. Then we decided to go to lunch, and we headed back to the restaurant Dina and the children had enjoyed a few weeks earlier. Barry met us there, and we had a wonderful lunch. Dina and I went back to the museum while Barry headed back to work, and stayed until they closed. Then we headed home while Dina went to meet Aaron for dinner in the City.

This was an especially nice opportunity because that day, July 17^th, happens to be Dina’s birthday! We had already given her a birthday gift when a couple of months ago she expressed a keen interest in owning an iPad, which many of the teachers are using. I know she is our daughter and I don’t want to embarrass her but she is one very impressive young woman! People often note that she looks like me and has many aspects of my personality. This is undoubtedly true, but what I see in Dina is a far better version of me, and it is quite a joy. I am touched and honored that she chose to spend her day in New York pushing her mother around the museum in a wheelchair (it is simply far too much walking for me to do).

We are back in Sharon now, although Dina and family are down in Maryland for the weekend. Tomorrow Eliana will join us for Sabbath lunch. We try to grab opportunities to be with the grandchildren one at a time when we can. It means a lot for them not to have to always compete for attention, and we can focus on each of their charming and distinct personalities. Then, if the weather cooperates on Sunday, we hope to go on an outing with the Simmie and family.

Have a wonderful weekend! It seems like just yesterday I was ending with words like “stay warm and dry.” Now I guess I have to say “stay cool and wet!”

Love,

Rebecca

Summer fun

I apologize for having been absent the past few days. They flew by very quickly with quite a bit going on.

We had a great time back together as a whole family over the weekend. We had dinner Friday evening at Dina’s house: Dina made a corned beef for the carnivores, and Simmie made a delicious stew with tofu, chickpeas, and red peppers. I have always wanted to learn more about cooking with tofu and I am happy to have such a terrific teacher! All of this was surrounded by countless side dishes. We spent Sabbath afternoon with Simmie and crew, giving us more time to hear details and look at pictures from their recent trip to Israel.

Sunday was a nice day, although the weather forecasters accurately predicted that it would be quite hot by mid-afternoon. To allow Simmie and Ronen to take care of some things, Barry and I took the girls to the Capron Park zoo about 20 minutes from Sharon. It is a small zoo but there are other attractions in the park, including a recently opened water play area. It was already warm enough in the morning for them to play in the sprinklers before the afternoon crowds. We brought along a picnic lunch and then got the girls some ice cream. Here are some pictures from our fun day.

Barry and I have wanted to get to know more about the beaches in Rhode Island and Connecticut, places we could go with the whole family on the way back to New York. On the ride up on Friday, we stopped at Hammonasset Beach in Madison, CT. This would have been a lovely place, with reasonably easy access to the beach, albeit with somewhat rocky sand, were it not for the ferocious black flies. They were biting like crazy, especially attacking Barry. We had not brought along insect repellent, and after a short while at each of three beach areas, we had to call it a day. This probably explains why the beach was practically empty! The weather was not perfect but still nice enough that you might have expected, at the very least, a lot of young children.

Undaunted, on the way home on Monday, we stopped at Roger Wheeler State Park in Narragansett, RI. This was truly a find! There was great parking very close to the beach, which was soft white sand. The waves were modest but definitely appropriate for young children, who were there in droves by the time we left at 11 am. Because it is a small cove, the water is shallow fairly far out and somewhat warmer than typical at New England beaches. It was a little over an hour away from Sharon, so a perfect place to go with our children and grandchildren before heading back to New York. Now we just need to find a Sunday, or perhaps a Monday, which may exclude our sons-in-law but would be quite a bit less crowded, to go with the grandchildren before school begins again in late August.

Late August is just around the corner! What happened to summer? School is starting early this year, the week before Labor Day, because the fall Jewish holidays are very early, beginning with Jewish New Year on September 5. As teachers, Simmie and Dina have to start back at school one or two weeks before that. Oh, well, if we don’t make it there this summer, it will definitely be high on our list for next year.

I feel a bit imprisoned, albeit in my beautiful air conditioned home. I look forward to this heat wave breaking so I can get outside a bit.

Stay cool and well.

Love,

Rebecca

Seeing red (in a good way)

My mother has always been an expert at the television game show, Jeopardy. Three contestants compete to provide the questions that go along with answers given in a variety of categories. Many, many years ago (circa 1976) my mother was a contestant on the show. Despite her broad knowledge of many areas, and her amazing skill on the couch in our den, I think she froze a bit in front of the cameras and she didn’t do very well. But our whole family still recalls the final Jeopardy, for which none of the contestants had the correct response. The category was Presidents, and the answer was “He was President of the United States when California was admitted to the union.” I will provide the question at the end of this posting for those of you who want to mull it over for a bit.

I am reminded of Jeopardy because over the past year, Barry and I have become fairly avid watchers. I was never all that good at it before my illness, but in the early months, every time I was able to correctly state a question felt like nothing less than a miracle. Before you knew it, we were hooked, and now we TiVo it every night in both Sharon and New York so we never miss an episode.

Last night, during the second half, one of the Daily Doubles was in the category of Anniversary Gifts, on the $2000 slot. The answer was

40^th: A Pigeon’s Blood is one of these

And, having just celebrated two 40^th anniversaries in our family, my brother Joe and his wife Judy, and Barry and me, we knew the question immediately:

What is a ruby?

In an effort to pull far out ahead, the contestant wagered $10,000 and she got it! I think she was as surprised as her opponents and the host, Alex Trebek. Unfortunately, she went on to lose the game at Final Jeopardy.

We are up in Sharon now for the weekend, looking forward to being together with the whole family. Dinner tonight is at Dina and Aaron’s and lunch tomorrow is at Simmie and Ronen’s house. It just doesn’t get better than that.

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Rebecca

And the final Jeopardy question was: Who was Millard Fillmore?

(president from July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853)