A Fine Birthday

 So the Uber fetched me -- low cost one since I'm cheap that way -- and no trafficked me to Gables. We all agree Miami is a GREAT place to drive when the traffic is light, which is VERY rarely. But I got to Jonathan's office, and was blown away -- probably the coolest, most modern one ever. While I waited, there was an art piece with moving images -- I could have sat and watched for hours -- with some ETOH, maybe all evening. But Jonathan came and got me, and showed me his world of high private equity finance, and introduced me to a few of his colleagues.

I was warmed. I would NOT have liked to do that with my late suegros -- Lord knows what they may have said. But Jonathan knows I CAN behave, be nice and charming, even in my dotage...

He drove us to Machiliana, which was totally renovated. We had a great table in that buzzing place -- even on a Tuesday night. We greeted D2, the birthday girl, D1, and Ashley and Kyle. The martinis flowed, The pasta and fish and other delicacies were brought. It was a feast - - great server, no less, who made sure I knew a 20% tip was included -- I was free to remove or reduce. Ha. As If! I popped on an extra $20 to thank her. Truth is, by Miami standards, the place is reasonable. By my Levittown, LI Blue Collar standards -- several months of mortgage payments for my parents...

Wifey was home nursing her pains, and so missed out. We felt badly, but as Tony S says, what are ya gonna do? She stands ready to cancel her cruise, but the smart money in Vegas says that won't happen. She'll rally rather than have her BFF have to cancel, too, and THAT cancelation won't be covered by travel insurance. We'll see.

Today the fun continued. Wifey was told her breath shortness was of no concern, so she didn't believe our Family doc, and got an appointment with an affable Venezuelan Jewish fellow. I drove her while she laid down in the back. Sure enough -- lungs just fine -- maybe pain was causing shortness -- but released her from any further care.

Tonight I see my crew -- it has been decided our pre Bible Study class meal will be sushi. Unfortunately, the place we chose is next to a gym with great sized windows and one that attracts younger Moms of Pinecrest. We are FORCED to look upon them on our way to dinner. We can then ask the Rabbi for forgiveness...for both the shellfish and coveting.  Pretty impressive that a single strip center in Pinecrest provides for two mortal sins...

D2 grabbed my phone to summon my Uber home, and I knew she was going to get a more upscale one -- it was a Mazda SUV, but a big one, and one where the driver caters to the passenger. Sure enough, I was profiled -- he played 80s music the whole way back to Pinecrest. Toto. Yuck -- I long ago stopped blessing the rains down in Africa. Wham? Really? Don't I dress schlubby enough to have NEVER been into Wham?

I had fun with it, though, giving a running text description of how I felt unseen as a late Boomer.

Finally, as he pulled into Pinecrest, he played Guns N Roses. Acceptable. And the last song was Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." I gave him a 20% tip.

So it was a delightful celebration for our delightful D2. May there be many more.

For now, analysis related to The Big Man, after some prohibited food...

34 And So Much More

 So 34 years ago today, on a Monday, I took Wifey to South Miami Hospital for a planned C Section -- D2 was joining the band. D1 was a C Section, and Dr. Debbie spoke about a VBAC, which to me sounded like outer space stuff but was an acronym for Vaginal Birth After Caeserean, but it was not to be. So they epiduraled Wifey, while D1 was home with my suegros, and soon after we had a bouncing (biggest baby in her First Grade Class, it turned out) baby girl.

My suegros brought D1 and she kissed her on the head and said in her Minnie Mouse voice "My sister!" And so it was. Truth be told, D2 was NOT a pretty baby -- huge head, and bad skin. Wifey knew it, too, friends would visit and Wifey would say "I love her but I KNOW she's not a pretty newborn." Hmmm....and now years later, all the needed therapy...Ha. Just kidding.

By the time she was several months, she had indeed become beautiful, and as a toddler could have been a model, with a very shayna punim as my suegra often remarked. We think she's still kind of beautiful, as in VERY, and more importantly, kind and smart. In my email I reminded her she was the only Phi Beta Kappa in the family -- admitted as a junior, which was a big deal. I think, no, I know, I am more proud of this than she is -- she just somehow kept getting As in everything. 

And, as Dr. Barry, who adores her, used to point out, she was the worst kind of straight A student: complaining after each exam that she failed, she was dropping out, etc...only to go silent later, and have us find out MUCH later that she got an A on the test.

This past year, I have given her a new nickname: "D2 the Wise," on account of she is. She understands the "yooman nature," as Wifey pronounces it, of our wacky family better than any of us, and though I am the patriarch, we typically treat D2 as the Rabbi -- her advice is the most sound, almost always. Her beloved Jonathan knows this, adores her, admires her, and fears her just the right amount -- she kept some of the temper from her toddler years that led to epic tantrums -- some so bad, I'm convinced it prevented couples friends who witnessed it to refrain from having kids...

To tonight, I had planned to visit the grandsons for a few hours, and then from there to Miami Beach for Italian, but instead spent yesterday, with D2, fetching D1's boys whilst she returned from SF. It was a "golden day" -- with the boys, D2, me, and enormous puppy Betsy.

Wifey is on the IR (injured reserve) list for now with her back and hip issues, and hopefully will return to games this season. But for now, she's sticking close to home. Adios to my designated driver.

So instead, I think I'll Uber to the Gables, and Jonathan will drive me to The Beach, have dinner, and then Uber home. I figure it's a luxury I deserve -- especially since I pay the bills. D2's dear friend Ashley is in town with her wonderful husband Kyle -- staying at an old Beach Hotel while their toddler is home in Atlanta. Kyle's Dad is a MAJOR Gator, and minister, and I love giving Kyle the business about Cane superiority the past years, and getting to sing to the Jewish Ashley the Bobbie Gentry song. Yeah, annoying. After several drinks tonight the chances I DON'T sing "Son of a Preacher Man" are pretty slim.

Meanwhile, we still have Lemon, D1's sprite Spaniel, who went nuts before when we heard scratching at the back door -- it was an iguana seeking entrance and warmth. I went out with a shovel to pick it up and toss it over our stone wall, and Sarah, the tough little foreperson on our roofing job, saw me and said "Ay, no -- in Nicaragua we eat them." She then picked the creature up by its neck and tossed it -- spotting an even bigger dead one which she tossed as well. Brave woman -- which is required being the only female roofer I've ever met.

But D2 and I were reminiscing about past birthdays. When she was 25, and in NYC, D1 and I flew up -- Wifey was having another bad spell, I think. We had brunch at Sadelle's, home of the wildly expensive smoked fish tower -- now they have a spot in the Grove. Then we went to Sammy's Romanian, where there was MUCH drinking of vodka, eating of high cholesterol food (the dark joke is that heart disease from Sammy's food killed more Jews than the Nazis), and then MORE vodka. The Ds cut me off, but then Grant, D2's friend and Paul's nephew, tapped me under the table -- he had MORE vodka for me in a glass. The night ended with D1 herding me back into the Ritz on Central Park South, and being amazed I woke hangover free, though I had consumed as much as any frat boy she saw at UF. The key is ONLY vodka -- one whiskey or tequilla mixed in, or worse, wine -- I'd have needed an IV.

But D2 is the reason for this season, and we all celebrate the blessing she is to all of our lives. My goal, more than which college she picked, or how she did, or her career, was she choose the right life partner -- and she sure did -- a true gem of similar Ashkenazi stock, the grandson of Survivors, like D2, but here via Venezuela instead of South Miami Hospital.

I will toast him tonight, along with my precious Ds, and dear friends Ashley and Kyle -- with Wifey in absentia. I'm sure she'll want a full recap when the Uber driver drops me off later this evening.

And D2 begins her 35th year. Wow. As D1 likes to quote, now that she's a mother, the days are long but the years are short. May our beloved D2 have scores more of them, in good health, as her Grandma Sunny always added.