Wish granted

At one of Seattle’s beautiful assisted living facilities today, it was a lady named Ina’s 100th birthday. Ina said that to celebrate, she’d like 100 children to sing happy birthday to her. Amazingly, on this very day, Aaron and the rest of the Northwest Boychoir Apprentices performed at her residence! They sang in her honor, and then presented her with 100 red and purple balloons! 

There can’t have been a dry eye in the house. She thanked them profusely and said she had “never heard anything better.” 

But wait - the punch line! Ina is the grandmother of Mike McCready, the lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. And of course he was there to celebrate her birthday with her. His blond rock star ‘do is visible from behind in this photo. Ah, Seattle. 

True things

After school yesterday, in the heat.

Jordan: [A certain friend] was driving me crazy today. He kept saying, “It’s not hot.” I had to explain to him, what if you were friends with a guy who was used to 300 degree weather. You go over to his house, and it’s 200 degrees. He says “It’s not hot,” but it’s still hot to you.

Rachel: I totally get you on this. People should just say what their own experience is. They can say, “I’m not hot,” or “It’s not hot to me.” No argument there.

Jordan: Yeah, exactly.

Rachel: This is a super common thing, where people tell you what you feel, but you don't feel that. I have some friends who are having a big argument because one of them did something that hurt the other one’s feelings, and the one of them says the other one’s feelings shouldn’t be hurt, and the other one says the first one shouldn’t be so mean. It’s terrible for both of them.

Jordan: I notice you emphasizing the “shouldn’ts.”

Rachel: Yes. Even in that suicide prevention training I did last weekend, they told us that it is very common to tell someone who is suicidal that they shouldn’t feel so bad. But they DO feel that bad, so it’s completely unhelpful. It just denies what they are feeling.

Aaron: There is something similar that drives me crazy which is when you’re running in the hall, and a teacher says, “We’re not running in the hall.” But clearly we are! At least I am.

Rachel: Totally. I think people should try to only say things that are true. What they said isn’t true. They could say, “Please don’t run in the hall,” or “The rule is no running in the hall” – those would be true.

Aaron: Right or like the mom who says, “You’ll like this, it’s delicious.” It’s not for her to say whether the kid is going to like it or find it delicious.

Rachel: I love that one. Parents can be terrible at this. I try to always say, “I think you would like this. To me it is delicious.” Those can be all true things, but you are still free to say, “Actually, I don't really like this.”

After thinking about it, I realized I had not modeled what I think my arguing friends might say instead of their "shouldn'ts." I think "ouch" and "oops" would be pretty good.

Galas

In the spring we attend up to four gala/fundraiser/auction/celebration things. There is one for each of the nonprofit organizations that are important in our lives: SJCS, Billings, the Boychoir, and Temple Beth Am. They’re all fun, though we do have to budget ourselves, and we can’t go to all of them every year. This year we opted out of the Boychoir event (even though it is also a Vocalpoint performance and therefore a total party), and we missed the Temple one because of my surprise eye surgery. But we had a great time at the SJCS party – don’t we look festive? 

The Billings celebration was last weekend during Michael’s surprise visit, and he asked to attend, because there’s nothing he loves more than meeting all our people. Here we are with the cake I contributed to the Dessert Dash: cherry chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and cherry hearts.

Michael visit

A couple weeks ago, my brother contacted me with the surprise that he would be coming to the Pacific Northwest for the last weekend of April, and could he please visit? Wonderful news! We wish we could have had Linda too, but she stayed down in Portland to visit an elderly uncle. We’ll see her when we go to her coast in August. Jes and Deena happened to be visiting the same weekend so it was a real family affair. Here we are at the Ballard Locks (Dale is behind the camera). 

On Saturday, we had to go get Jordan from Spring Reign (the regional ultimate tournament), so we schlepped up to the Skagit Valley and watched them play for a while. The team members all wore silly accessories (Jordan had a blue and white polka dot tie, other kids had cat ears or silly hats or whatever). Michael tried on someone’s hilarious hat-with-hair: instant 80s rock star!

The next day we spent sampling Seattle delights including the Ballard farmer’s market, Theo chocolate, multiple coffee places, and sushi for dinner. What a day! Michael loved everything. The Ballard farmer’s market blew his mind; he’s been to the markets in Montreal, and says this is better. Fun to see things through his eyes.

It was also completely entertaining to see him work the market. My brother is incredibly warm and charming and loves nothing more than participating in a community, especially if there’s good food involved. Every vendor that he was interested in, he introduced himself (“Hi, I’m here from the east coast, my name is Mike!”), shook hands, and found some way to connect to that person. With the mushroom guy he said, “These are just gorgeous! I used to pick these kinds of mushrooms in the woods behind my house,” and the guy would explain that these are all farmed mushrooms and why he is so strongly against foraging. Fascinating! With the tuna lady, he said, “I’m a diver,” and they were off and running talking about what he collects where he lives and how that compares to the Pacific offerings. The tea guy, Ivan, was equally happy to talk about coffee, and told us all about his favorite “deconstructed latte” at a place up the street. The potter asked what Michael did for a living, and when he explained that he is a retired police officer, thanked him for his service and gave him a sweet little mug as a gift (which Michael promptly gave to me). It was a really good time, just watching him in action.

Later, we all enjoyed a ridiculously bountiful sushi dinner.

It was delightful that Michael got to spend more time with Jes and Deena, who have only met him once before (at the bar mitzvah).



Jordan was away at Spring Reign most of the weekend, so he’ll have to wait until August to get to know Michael better, but Aaron is already all in. What’s not to love?? Michael is super affectionate, tells funny stories, gives fun spontaneous gifts like a giant tubular bag of fresh kettle corn, and is just an all around good time. After he left, Jordan spotted a deck of cards that he thought Michael had left behind; it wasn’t Michael’s, but Aaron said, “I wish it was his so that maybe he would come back and get it.” Awwww!

Performer

Jordan has had a hopping performance year with the Boychoir. Every year seems to be more hopping than the last, as they take on greater challenges and their reputation improves. This year (meaning only the first four months of 2018!) they have performed three separate pieces with the Seattle Symphony: Vivaldi’s Gloria in February, Carmina Burana in March, and Stravinsky’s beautiful melodrama Persephone in April. He loves performing and feels great pride in being one of the Boychoir veterans.

Here they are waiting backstage at Benaroya Hall on a rehearsal night. Who else at their age (or frankly any age) has even seen the backstage of their city’s symphony hall, much less hung out there so often it’s become almost casual?



The maestro of the Seattle Symphony loves the boychoir, which is part of why their schedule is so packed.



This is Jordan’s last year in this role. And Aaron is up next – he was promoted to Performing Choir last week! Three cheers for these amazing opportunities.

Wedding

Aaron participated in a mock wedding a few weeks ago in religious school, just as his brother did before him. It’s awesome. Here are all the couples lined up for the ceremony, waiting patiently before sucking their ring pops. Aaron married a girl he doesn’t really know who’s a foot taller than him. She seemed nice enough.



After the ceremony there was chair dancing, wedding cake, and admiration of the ketubot the kids had made. I totally love these. Here’s Aaron’s.



I asked him about “I promise never to lie unless for the greater good,” and he explained that if he was in the FBI or something, he might need to lie for national security. Well, it’s good to plan for that! Here is another good one, from someone who promises to “look interested”:



And here is someone who promises to “remain calm when your parents annoy me.” An excellent commitment, don’t you agree?



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Coast, outdoors

Like I said, we spent most of our coast trip indoors, but on the last day the sun emerged and wind died down and we were able to enjoy the beach. Here’s a view of the cabin from down near the water – beautiful spot, no? 

The beach was just a great big flat expanse of sand.



Aaron and Jordan were thrilled to finally get to throw a disc, which they would have done all weekend if it had been possible.

I tried throwing too. This is something I’d like to learn, and Jordan is a patient instructor.

Coast, indoors

Jes and Deena like to come visit us in the spring, and this year we decided to have a weekend getaway. On the recommendation of a friend we went to the Iron Springs Resort, on the Washington coast. Unfortunately, the weather was awful. I mean, I don’t mind rain, but this was a pelting, driving rain, propelled by a truly howling wind, so that you could hardly stand to go out to the car for your suitcase. It was really very limiting. Here’s Jordan drinking cocoa on the porch at one of the less windy moments… maybe you get the idea. 

Fortunately, our cabins could not have been more delightfully cozy. We had two of them, one for the four of us and one for Jes, Deena, Deena’s cousin Ellen, and Ellen’s five-year-old son Samson. Ours was the gathering place.



Beautiful views, a fireplace, a well-appointed kitchen, fluffy comforters – really you couldn’t ask for more in a cabin. The grownups did crossword puzzles. The boys played a thousand rounds of Connect Four.



I cooked several great meals, including these wonderful wheat scones with bellies of jam.

Jordan and Aaron sometimes had trouble finding things in common with Samson, since he is so much younger, but they managed to have a good time.

Samson drew this amazing picture of our family. That’s me on the far left, wearing the gray shirt with black spots that I was wearing in real life on that day; the in the cap is Aaron, then Jordan with the medium-length hair, and finally Dale. I like how Jordan is taller than me, just like in real life.