The two celebration parties were of equal extravagance and included DJs whose ears must be blown-out long ago. The decibel level had our clothing bouncing off our bodies - much like the iconic movie, Children of a Lesser God. Painful! The sound was biting my ears!
At the second one, which was even louder than the first, I was desperate. I have some hearing loss, perhaps hereditary, perhaps related to too much loud music in the nineteen-sixties. It makes some of the finest hairs in the inner ear take on responsibilities for fellow fatter fallen soldiers. These delicate ones don't know how to deal with the force of the sound waves attacking them. They feel pain, akin to having weak muscles do too much heavy lifting.
Remedy: Dinner rolls the consistency of Wonder Bread that are better for making dice and small sculptures than for eating. I followed my husband's suggestion and used small pieces of my roll to make perfect contoured earplugs! Buffered from the onslaught, my ears were happy hearing what conversation I could while the doughy bits held the offending heavy base vibes at bay. Yay! In case you were wondering, NO, I did NOT have them as a midnight snack! Eeeeewww!
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Delights filled the days sandwiched between the two celebrations. New York City is alive! We explored it with our two daughters and our granddaughter. After gorging on Zabar's delicacies, we left the first of the obligatory Sunday Brunches on Central Park West to walk with our grand nephew in the Park. Zach, who is twenty-two and lives in a small apartment near 57th Street and Columbus Circle at the South end of the park, showed us around. There was a Japanese Festival going on with food, face painting, and families dancing to (yes, LOUD) music. Wandering gave us time for quieter conversations. When we got to the lake, we four gals rowed a boat across the very lake on which E.B. White's Stuart Little navigated his human brother's model boat. By the time we got to the very bridge on which Stuart's family stood to cheer him on, the granddaughter was really into the whole adventure, recalling the tension of the story. Her Gran'Pun and her cousin Zach cheered us on from atop the bridge.
Glorious springtime scents wafted to our noses, petals floated on the swells caused by the crowd of boats going in all directions. There was lots of laughter as boats bumped - mostly gently, mostly with cordial apologies. (Who really knows how to steer or slow down these old boats?) Cool breezes and warm sun made it a perfect Sunday outing. As we bid goodbye to Zach and headed toward the subway, a surprise squall drenched us and everyone else on the streets of Manhattan. We laughed and scurried for cover in whatever doorways we could find.
Once on the train back to our hotel, the nearly eight-year-old grandie started up a game of charades. The aliveness of her acting out a book title engaged all surrounding passengers, so much so that a woman seated next to me, when the subject of our plans for the week came up and they included a trip to the Museum of Natural History, turned to me and said, "Here. I'm a volunteer at the museum. I've got five voucher passes for you." Wow! We could hardly contain our delight at the serendipity. We thanked her profusely and intend to send a hand-written Thank You note to her in care of the museum.
The day at the museum was a special one too. Sister-in-law Betsy also got tickets for us to get in. While Mark waited in line to turn the vouchers into actual tickets, my job was to scope out a family of five with which to share the vouchers. Two little ones and three adults from Argentina proved to be the perfect recipients. The funny part was that as the long line snaked forward and doubled back on itself many times, my beloved husband / kid magnet, who didn't know who had received the vouchers, kept encountering this same delightful family and making the kids giggle at his goofy antics, jokes, and rope tricks. We bumped into them again at several of the exhibits... mummies, and dinosaurs, and dioramas, oh, MY!
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Families each have their unique dynamics. Being on vacation couldn't stop my observing mind. My take-aways from the week spent with ours were love and feelings of great compassion for all the nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers-in-love.
Wishing the miles weren't so many between east and west coasts, but grateful for the opportunity to traverse them, I'm resolute to stay in touch with family.
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