(no subject)
Wow, they're loud!
Take a big suburban house for retired military folk. Add pouring rain,and throw in about 50-odd people from three generations, ranging in age from nearly three (J) to 78 (my oldest uncle). Throw in a table full of food, lots of fizzy drinks and several bottles of wine.
I suppose you could say the trip out there was mostly successful.
But I'll backtrack a little. Our morning didn't start out great.
Ok, I'm going to backtrack some more. Last night didn't exactly go to plan either.
D and I took J and went out to lunch yesterday. We decided that we could take the opportunity (namely, the big two being in Tel Aviv for the night) to hang out with J and forgo the nap, then put him to bed early and really have the evening together. J takes forever to fall asleep these days, so it seemed like the right thing to do. He was in bed by 7, but didn't actually fall asleep till close to nine. So the romantic dinner for two was punctuated by J's appearances in the kitchen. Eventually we finished eating and I went into the bedroom with my laptop to "stay" (J's term for having someone in the room while he falls asleep) while D washed dishes and then joined me with his laptop. So much for an early...ahem...bedtime for us :-/ We eventually got there, though, and even managed to get to sleep fairly early. Of course we were both awake for hours during the very early morning hours and decided to take advantage of it ;-)
We woke up around nine to the sound of J crying out. Here's the thing, though: he hasn't woken up like that in over a year, so it was completely out of character for him and kind of worrying. Well, I thought maybe it was a bad dream. I called him over to our bed (he usually stays in his own bed till I do that) but he just sat limply on the floor. I carried him over and put him on our bed and he flopped lifelessly against the pillows. He wouldn't smile or laugh or talk. It was kind of worrying, really. We briefly considered taking him to the out of hours clinic, though when I proposed breakfast, J slowly made his way out of the room and into the kitchen, even went over to the cupboard where we keep the cereal. It was almost as if he just didn't have the energy to do more than was necessary to get by. I got him a bowl of cereal and he walked to the table and let me strap him in his booster seat, but he didn't make any move to eat until I loaded up his spoon and held it to his mouth. Like I said, it was scary and slightly surreal. Eventually he asked for an egg (which he didn't eat) but at least he was sort of talking. He did ask for a lot of water, then soymilk, then more water, than more soymilk and then diluted juice. I'm wondering now if he wasn't slightly dehydrated or something.
D got him dressed and took him to the old city for baklava and I stayed home (alone!) to wash the floors and cook a veggie main course for us to bring to the family gathering (I figured there would be lots of salads, but sometimes it's nice to have a protein). J seemed much better upon their return, and my father and B and M arrived shortly after. I made J a sandwich and we left.
We were the first ones there, which is good because I wanted to put J into bed for a nap. A bed was found and I stayed there with him. He took some time falling asleep and I could hear people arriving. The longer it took to get J to sleep, the more awkward I felt. When I was finally able to leave the room and come downstairs, all eyes were on me. I would say that less than half of the family had arrived, yet things were already starting to feel a bit crowded. What was interesting is that no one really said much about me not having been in touch at all (for years, literally), so everything felt a bit wooden. My oldest uncle's youngest son and his wife were at my brother's wedding last July and when I saw the wife (I've only ever seen her during the wedding weekend) and was obviously happy to see her, people were a bit taken aback.
At some point I sat down next to D - chairs were arranged all around the living/dining room - and more cousins arrived, greeted our hosts and made the rounds. My oldest cousin - well, oldest until my oldest uncle discovered his long lost daughter, N, in the UK - has gotten into photography over the last few years and has an exhibit in Tel Aviv in two weeks. Hers was the first wedding I went to (I was 13) and I was pretty happy to see her. But then the other cousin arrived - the one I was trying to avoid. Luckily no one said anything and we managed to make nice and keep everything swept under the rug. Ok, so it's been 20 years. But I still found some of the things she did and said really hurtful. Like when I was 18 and planning to move to Israel, she wrote that everyone was really busy and involved in their own lives and wouldn't have time to help me get started here, so maybe it would be better if I just spent the rest of my life in the US. I mean, seriously - wtf??? It was her parents that i stayed with when I first moved to Israel, and I opened the door when her now husband (it was a blind date) came to meet her for the first time. Her younger sister and another aunt were both working for the same company and decided that the two should meet. He took one look at me (19, barefoot, wearing shorts) and was absolutely horrified until I explained that my cousin was getting dressed and would be out in a minute ;-) Anyway, they have three kids and they live up north somewhere and want us to come visit. We'll see if it happens. I know people are supposed to get over things, but it's not like i can really pretend to feel close to her when I don't.
There were a lot of salads and side dishes so I had quite a lot to eat. My curry went down very well and a few people asked for the recipe. There were some raised eyebrows when I was asked why I wasn't having the quiche or the chocolate and whipped cream cake, but then again most of my relatives struggle with their weight (and many are really obese) and so perhaps they just put two and two together and decided to shut up. J eventually woke up, but he wasn't so interested in eating and spent a lot of time outside in the garden with the other kids. He bit my cousin's little boy and I felt terrible about that (and apologized profusely) and at some point we decided that we'd stayed long enough with a child who wasn't a hundred per cent well and it was time to go. We went back to Jerusalem and my father hung out for a bit and took some photos before driving back to Tel Aviv.
Take a big suburban house for retired military folk. Add pouring rain,and throw in about 50-odd people from three generations, ranging in age from nearly three (J) to 78 (my oldest uncle). Throw in a table full of food, lots of fizzy drinks and several bottles of wine.
I suppose you could say the trip out there was mostly successful.
But I'll backtrack a little. Our morning didn't start out great.
Ok, I'm going to backtrack some more. Last night didn't exactly go to plan either.
D and I took J and went out to lunch yesterday. We decided that we could take the opportunity (namely, the big two being in Tel Aviv for the night) to hang out with J and forgo the nap, then put him to bed early and really have the evening together. J takes forever to fall asleep these days, so it seemed like the right thing to do. He was in bed by 7, but didn't actually fall asleep till close to nine. So the romantic dinner for two was punctuated by J's appearances in the kitchen. Eventually we finished eating and I went into the bedroom with my laptop to "stay" (J's term for having someone in the room while he falls asleep) while D washed dishes and then joined me with his laptop. So much for an early...ahem...bedtime for us :-/ We eventually got there, though, and even managed to get to sleep fairly early. Of course we were both awake for hours during the very early morning hours and decided to take advantage of it ;-)
We woke up around nine to the sound of J crying out. Here's the thing, though: he hasn't woken up like that in over a year, so it was completely out of character for him and kind of worrying. Well, I thought maybe it was a bad dream. I called him over to our bed (he usually stays in his own bed till I do that) but he just sat limply on the floor. I carried him over and put him on our bed and he flopped lifelessly against the pillows. He wouldn't smile or laugh or talk. It was kind of worrying, really. We briefly considered taking him to the out of hours clinic, though when I proposed breakfast, J slowly made his way out of the room and into the kitchen, even went over to the cupboard where we keep the cereal. It was almost as if he just didn't have the energy to do more than was necessary to get by. I got him a bowl of cereal and he walked to the table and let me strap him in his booster seat, but he didn't make any move to eat until I loaded up his spoon and held it to his mouth. Like I said, it was scary and slightly surreal. Eventually he asked for an egg (which he didn't eat) but at least he was sort of talking. He did ask for a lot of water, then soymilk, then more water, than more soymilk and then diluted juice. I'm wondering now if he wasn't slightly dehydrated or something.
D got him dressed and took him to the old city for baklava and I stayed home (alone!) to wash the floors and cook a veggie main course for us to bring to the family gathering (I figured there would be lots of salads, but sometimes it's nice to have a protein). J seemed much better upon their return, and my father and B and M arrived shortly after. I made J a sandwich and we left.
We were the first ones there, which is good because I wanted to put J into bed for a nap. A bed was found and I stayed there with him. He took some time falling asleep and I could hear people arriving. The longer it took to get J to sleep, the more awkward I felt. When I was finally able to leave the room and come downstairs, all eyes were on me. I would say that less than half of the family had arrived, yet things were already starting to feel a bit crowded. What was interesting is that no one really said much about me not having been in touch at all (for years, literally), so everything felt a bit wooden. My oldest uncle's youngest son and his wife were at my brother's wedding last July and when I saw the wife (I've only ever seen her during the wedding weekend) and was obviously happy to see her, people were a bit taken aback.
At some point I sat down next to D - chairs were arranged all around the living/dining room - and more cousins arrived, greeted our hosts and made the rounds. My oldest cousin - well, oldest until my oldest uncle discovered his long lost daughter, N, in the UK - has gotten into photography over the last few years and has an exhibit in Tel Aviv in two weeks. Hers was the first wedding I went to (I was 13) and I was pretty happy to see her. But then the other cousin arrived - the one I was trying to avoid. Luckily no one said anything and we managed to make nice and keep everything swept under the rug. Ok, so it's been 20 years. But I still found some of the things she did and said really hurtful. Like when I was 18 and planning to move to Israel, she wrote that everyone was really busy and involved in their own lives and wouldn't have time to help me get started here, so maybe it would be better if I just spent the rest of my life in the US. I mean, seriously - wtf??? It was her parents that i stayed with when I first moved to Israel, and I opened the door when her now husband (it was a blind date) came to meet her for the first time. Her younger sister and another aunt were both working for the same company and decided that the two should meet. He took one look at me (19, barefoot, wearing shorts) and was absolutely horrified until I explained that my cousin was getting dressed and would be out in a minute ;-) Anyway, they have three kids and they live up north somewhere and want us to come visit. We'll see if it happens. I know people are supposed to get over things, but it's not like i can really pretend to feel close to her when I don't.
There were a lot of salads and side dishes so I had quite a lot to eat. My curry went down very well and a few people asked for the recipe. There were some raised eyebrows when I was asked why I wasn't having the quiche or the chocolate and whipped cream cake, but then again most of my relatives struggle with their weight (and many are really obese) and so perhaps they just put two and two together and decided to shut up. J eventually woke up, but he wasn't so interested in eating and spent a lot of time outside in the garden with the other kids. He bit my cousin's little boy and I felt terrible about that (and apologized profusely) and at some point we decided that we'd stayed long enough with a child who wasn't a hundred per cent well and it was time to go. We went back to Jerusalem and my father hung out for a bit and took some photos before driving back to Tel Aviv.