Ola: Family Road Trip

We're back! We took a road trip, flying 3,000 miles to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for a family celebration of life. It is my new opinion that none of us celebrate enough, hence this trip. Apparently this is the safe part of Mexico without the drug trafickers and terrorists because we are all safe and sound with only some itchy sunburns to show for it. Actually I have the itchy sunburn and Kate has an amazing tan. It's as if someone just poured chocolate over her entire body. Gorgeous.

But while I do so love to travel, getting there ain't such fun these days. I remember the old, oh so old slogan that Dinah Shore used to sing, See the USA in Chevrolet.....well there are times when I would really like to hope in the car and drive rather than getting up at 4:30 am to get dressed, walk the dog, in order to be able to get a taxi to the airport so that we arrive by 6 am to check in for an 8:30 am flight. However our direct flight on Mexicana Air was much nicer than our return flight on American Airlines which occasioned a serious letter of complaint to them.

But lets move along with the good stuff. After a 3 1/2 hour flight we arrived at the Cancun airport at about 1 pm -- hot and humid with swirling cab drivers, touts and generally clueless tourists including us -- and at the end of what seemed like an endless bus trip we arrived at our hotel just in time to hit the pool and explore the hotel which was one of 4 on an enormous piece of property. Devine. I say. The hotels are all owned by a Spanish hotel chain which meant that most of the guests were also spanish and gave it a wonderfully foreign feel. No families from Brooklyn for the most part and incredibly nice and polite staff who spoke Spanish and then english which gave us all a chance to try out my non existent spanish. In fact this was something I do recommend because Mexico has a sense of place and culture. Far different than the hotel we went to in the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago which seemed more like an airport to me. I could have been anywhere in the world with palm trees.

We quickly discovered Loas Roccas, a salt water swimming pool which seemed more like an infinity pool with a wonderful view of the ocean. That was it for me. Apparently it is the trend in hotels for adults, not just at Disney, to have the pools no deeper than 4 to 5 feet. Which makes for a warm puddle in the afternoon but wonderfully cool swimming in the morning. I would often forget to read and just stare into space. That's my idea of a vacation activity.

We got Kate squared away with the Teen Club and there really were Teens there so that was a win win. But I was certainly aware that Kate was talking to me in that way that teenagers perfect: Oh My god, No way....She expressed disbeleif that I could actually find my way around the property and get from lobby to restaurant back to our room and swimming pools. So who am I to disagree with superior knowledge? It's easier to let her sound authoritative.

We swam, and Kate and Arnie were in 7th heaven when they discovered a black jack set up in the hotel during the evening. So fun to watch both of them concentrate so hard on winning a bottle of TEquilla. It's also good for Kate's math to become a junior card counter ad one night they let her play. No money changes hands in these inclusive resorts so the play is just with chips. Not like braving the tables in Las Vegas where they would have thrown her out.

My takeway from more than 5 days of indolence was the wonderful sun, gracious hotel staff, amazing Mexican mangoes which taste like they have been creamed and yet again the importance of vacation. We also saw a crocodile which lived at the hotel, too.

My first day back at work I ran into a Mexican trio panhandling on the subway which was was an omen, I'm sure.

Changes

Hmm, boring household problems seem to be very ala mode for us. The toilet overlfowed over the weekend and Miss Murray continued to chew the carpet as her clear expression of boredom.

But Arnie and I are resourceful types and so we are plunging the toilet and ordering a new carpet for Miss Murray to eat. Wrong. We are replacing the carpet and about to embark on some behavior modification. Amelia the hamster nibbled away on one of Kate's favorite dresses so it is possible that the four legged animals in our menagerie have aural fixations.

Facebook

You've read about it, heard about their security problems and general policy of outing people's personal data and most probably, even signed up so that you have a Facebook page.

I guess Kate is in good company with the more than untold millions of strangers who also have facebook pages.

Steak Frites

I took Friday off to attend Kate's graduation from 7th grade to 8th Grade. Although ext year will be the big transistion from Middle School to High School, all of these ceremonies with their comforting rituals are important to attend. After 8 years at Friends, I am now comfortable with the austerity of the Meeting House which is very Quaker in its simplicity. Some songs, silence when people spontaneously spoke about their appreciation of the community in which they study and a few songs. The most important words are "With the authority vested in me by the State of New York, I now promote you to: whatever the next grade is." Most of the kids were in jeans with their shirts out, the headmaster who isn't even given such an exalted title wore a white suit with a bowtie and top siders without socks.

Quick, easy and simple. We then took off by taxi for a luncheon destination that I had been mulling over in my mind for several days and weighing the pros and cons: Pork buns or french food and Rose. That was the choice. And then I decided as the Matriarch of this family I could, with the authority vested in me, decide to go for french food and Rose at Lucien, a french restaurant that Grandma Dot recommended.

"Where are we?" asked the graduate. why are we here. I don't want to be here. I want to go to Bar Pitti and I can't read this menu. No, I know they've translated it but I can't read the script."

Menu goes down on the table. "No, I'm not hungry."

Our lunch was an early one and the restaurant was virtually empty except for the Ukrainian waitress still in training and Lucien, the owner, sporting a pork pie hat, shorts and a T shirt so that he looked more like the owner of a Bodega than a French restaurant. He and I began talking in French and soon Kate was offered several special lunch choices and when she continued to refuse everything, he shrugged his shoulders and went off, only to return soon after our lunches arrived with French fries to die for. The conversation touched on a variety of subjects including life in New York, food, his son and schools, and soon Kate began to eat my French fries. She graduated to another order of fries and chocolate cake so by the time we left she was feeling very special and thoroughly enjoying the experience of meeting Lucien and seeing first hand how another language could enhance an experience.

Lucien bought us dessert, offered us Cognac and told Kate to come back in a year when he might have a job for her.

The School Search

I cried when Kate was accepted at Friends and swore that I would never change her school until it was time to apply for College. So 'never' isn't always a good word to use since here we are looking casually, not frantically, but consistently at a range of high schools that Kate might go to instead of Friends. Right now we are looking at the top ranked public high schools and last night we went to an open house at Bronx High School of Science where one of the Museum's top scientists went. Of course I have to say that everybody said that you didn't have to be obsessed with science or math to have a happy time there. What to beleive and who to beleive. I grew up believing my government until they lied to me one too many times and so I think it was around the rheteric Viet Nam that I became concerned with lying. But certainly Weapons of Mass Destruction was a rallying call to people who beleive that their government has fudged the facts one too many times. And after so many events kept piling up, one after another, I became a big skeptic about institutional lying. You may think I've gone far afield of my topic but what I am saying is that it's hard to know who is lying and why. Because I now think that people/institutions/especially government lie all the time.

But the folks at Bronx Science seem to present the facts in a charming way and maybe they don't know that they are lying. We sat in on several clesses including a debate class, an after school legal class conducting an interview with Goldilocks and an English class where I saw a young woman who looked so familiar to me. I asked Kate who didn't recognize her until she identified herself as a graduate of the Salk Middle School in Gramercy Park and then I knew. Last year Kate and I took the bus with her and her twin sister down third Avenue. i think she recognized us too. and the winner was a robotics class -- also extra curricular too -- but they had won first prize for their found up creation of a robot that kicked soccer balls.

The only drawback with Bronx Science is not academic of course but is location, location, location. It is way the hell and gone in the Bronx. Not a bad subway trip but I am hoping we can find a school, suitable to all, in our own neighborhood. I realize that I am a Manhattan provincial but so be it. that's the truth

I'm not lying.

Fitting the Profile

So, a page from our New York Social Diary would include an appointment for a manicure/pedicure, attendance at the Coop Board meeting, outing for Kate with our friend Michelle to the annual openhouse for all the 5th avenue Museums, and a twitter class for Arnie. All on one day.

Now we will fall back to normal\. except that we are off tonight to the Bronx for an open house at Bronx HS for Science. Just checking out our options...

Vacation

We are planning a vacation and I'm thrilled to be saying it. We are going away for a real vacation. No staycation business but a real one with suitcases, airport agida and the possibility of true adventures. Of course there is plenty of time before we go away but I'm already stock piling books, thinking about my clothes and considering the very real pleasure of not having to think about anything in an organized or responsible way. This is a time where my most significant decision of the day will be what to have for breakfast that I don't have to cook, where to sit on or near the beach and what time to leisurely stroll over to a table cooled by tropical breezes and let someone serve me lunch. Oh, yum. This is all wonderful which is why I mention it way ahead of time because I wanna enjoy the pre vacation glow as much as the I'm away from home immediacy and the oh my god, did I really have to come home so soon thoughts. .

Of course I am wishing away my life. Kate has exams to finish even before the end of this week which will signals the end of the school year. Exams and summer reading lists and new shorts. Just about in that order.

Life Lessons

It's long been one of my favorite phrases along with the rolodex of Life. Life Lessons are wonderful and one of my consistent life lessons is that you charge your phone the night before and never go out without money. My mother used to call it mad money and it was a dime to make a phone call. 50 years of inflation later, it should be $20. So yesterday not only did Kate get herself To school but she got herself home from school and was knocking around an empty house. She was a latchkey kid for the afternoon and I had originally suggested that she come up to the Museum by herself. Later in the afternoon after alot of doing nothing I think, she called to say that she changed her mind and she would come up to the Museum solo. It's a long trip with a couple of changes but nothing daunted Kate thought she would take the subway. Shiver my timbers...ugh. But ok. She had a metro card she said. Telephone call from the subway station with a really disappointed daughter, "There is no money on the Metro Card but I really want to come!Oh, no I didn't bring any money so I can't buy a new Metro Card.

The Life Lesson? never go out of the house without money.

Now it's summer

Now it's summer and only now can I liberate my white shoes and my patent leather pumps from various boxes and bags because when I was growing up it was only dummies from California who didn't know those essential dress rules and flouted the conventions. White only after memorial day just in case any of us are also from California and don't know the rules. So I finally dug out my summer clothes which is just another variant of shopping in my closet and this time I found my favorite Hawaiian shirt which I thought had been whipped by the robber who likes Hawaiian shirts. Every Hawaiian shirt I've ever had has gone missing. But this one I bought when Arnie and I went out to Hawaii to watch his daughter run in the Iron Man Marathon. Buried treasure.

Today was kind of a watershed day for the household. Arnie and I both had to be out of the house early and so Kate went to school by herself. It's me, it's all me and my reluctance to have her swan around New York totally unsupervised. She is quite competent and needs to learn how to navigate her home town but I'm just having some trouble letting go. Besides I like taking kate to school. Arnie is in Philadelphia on a series of interviews and I was managing a science breakfast for journalists at the Museum interested in knowing how evolutionary biology affects human health. One of the direct applications of this bench science is software that will help track the path of contageous diseases, such as malaria or avian flu. My most favorite factoid was that stomach cancer was the biggest killer at the turn of the century and now it isn't such a big problem. My other observtion was that two of the journalists were wearing stockings with seams. Ok sounds shallow but really how
1930's.