Catching Up on the News

Autumn is the best time of year to visit New York. I returned recently from a 10 day trip and had a wonderful time. My purpose for this travel was two family B'nai Mitzvah. The first, on the Shabbat following Yom Kippur, was Jacob Lurie, son of my first cousin Michael. This simha was in Bellmore, Long Island and I had a nice time. The second simha was of my niece, Eliana Dresher, my sister's daughter, in White Plains. This was also a splendid event.

Visiting NY for me is a time to reconnect with family. I stayed with both my Mother and my Brother. With my mother and uncle I visited the family cemetery to check on all the relatives there. While it wasn't easy to find everyone, we managed after a long hunt. Interestingly, my Mother's maternal grandparents are buried in a section of the cemetery where men and women are buried in date of death order but separated by gender. I guess that is the ultimate mechitza.

At the first Bar Mitzvah, and the day following, I spent time with my cousins Donna and Michael and their families. Donna and Michael are in the enviable position of having settled only a few blocks from each other in Bellmore and essentially raised their children more or less together. Zachary has spent his entier life (and Monica and I have spent most of our adult lives) living far away from extended family. While living in Kansas City, Dallas, and San Diego have been interesting, I am internalizing the angst of living apart from relatives. It definately has its drawbacks.

I spent some quality time with another niece, Fanya Hoffman, my brother's 7 year-old daughter. We spent two wonderful days together in New Jersey and she was just a charmer. Fanya tends to be clingy and shy when her parents are around to cling to, but with just me she was wonderfully outgoing, cooperative, and cute. On our first expedition Fanya took me to her riding stable and we met the dozens of horses she befriends. We went through a few pounds of carrots and she was scrupulously fair about their distribution. Unfortunately it wasn't a riding-lesson day for Fanya but it was a nice visit anyway. Once done with the horses, we took a meandering drive on local streets south to Metuchen so Fanya and I could see the house where Zachary first lived. It was a lovely day with spectacular weather and New Jersey looked about as beautiful as it could. Trees, lakes, changing leaves, etc. The only problem we had was finding a place for lunch as Fanya decided she wanted "only salad." By the time we got around to it, it was quicker to get home than to stop for salad late in the afternoon, so we finished the carrots the horses didn't get.

The next day Fanya took me to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. We walked up all the stairs, visited every single exhibit and even had time for Mad Scientist Fanya to do a lab experiment including lab coat, test tubes, goggles, etc. Perhaps we have a future Dr. Hoffman in the family. We lunched at the Science Center and Fanya finally got her salad. Mustard is her favorite condiment so we experimented with what is edible after you dip it in mustard. The list inlcuded cucumber, asparagus, lettuce, and couscous. The important part was the "soda mix" from the dispenser.

Monica flew in to NY a few days after me so we had one day in Manhattan to play tourist. We took the subway and visited the South Street Seaport to pick up Broadway Show tickets from TKTS, dim sum lunch in Chinatown with her old KU chum Judy, shopping at Macy's and cocktail hour at the Marriot Marquis lounge overlooking Times Square. We saw Avenue Q on Broadway and took the subway back to Coney Island. It was an exhausting but fun day.

Overall, my trip included three synagogues (two Shabbatot for the B'nai Mitzvah and Sukkot with my Brother), a visit to the venerable Fountain Pen Hospital, 2 meals at Diners, one meal in Chinatown, about 22 cousins, 2 pizzas, 3 bagels, 2 sukkot, 1 cholent, 1 beer and several mini banannas.

Our air travel was uneventful except for the ususal hassles. Flights were crowded, we had a long layover in Dallas, and we got home late. As much fun as it was to visit NY, it was good to get home.