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.