Miss Completely
Right. So first day of school is behind us. It has become something of a tradition -- the first day of school has typically been a half day, after which the girls and Tara and I go for ladies' lunch. We've done casual and fancy. Yesterday was Cheesecake Factory. We sat in the booth, the four of us, having a fair time. My head was elsewhere most of the meal. While we waited for the chocolate cheesecake Kate ordered, a mom and daughter walked over to say hello. The little girl was in Kate's class at the montessori last year. Her name is Katrina. She has a small sister. The girls look vaguely Asian. The mom -- not Asian. Italian perhaps. Greek. We sat together at the end of the year stuff in June -- we were both getting ready to travel. She was speaking an unfamiliar language to the children -- I was surprised when she said Arabic. It took a good bit of that first conversation for me to figure out that the mom (whose name I still, regrettably, don't know) grew up in Israel. Her entire family is in Israel. She speaks Arabic and Hebrew, English and a little Chinese to accommodate her Chinese-American husband. Katrina and her sister speak Arabic, English, Chinese. Mom and I discussed our synagogue's Hebrew program at great length in June -- she thinks it's important for her children to speak her national language. Katrina tried to teach me to count to ten in Chinese and didn't laugh when I got it wrong. They were supposed to be spending the summer in Israel. We were spending a bit of the summer in Italy. We talked about travel and the short summer left to us and the thrill of seeing the world with our children. We didn't talk about The Situation. I don't know if she's Christian or Muslim. It couldn't have mattered less. When I saw her yesterday, I wasn't thinking. "How was your trip?" I asked, all smiley and cheerful. "Oh, well," she said, looking a bit uncomfortable, "you know. We couldn't go." Duh. So I felt like a complete moron. Of course they didn't go. I inquired about her family and she waved me off. "Most everyone's fine." Most, only? Yikes. Katrina and her sister and her mom are getting on a plane this week for Jerusalem, anyway -- Katrina's uncle is getting married and they can't miss that, no matter what. They're coming back October 11th, Katrina's mom wanted to know what she could bring us from Israel. I couldn't quite bring myself to tell her how much I really just wanted her to come back safely, with a story of a big Arab wedding gone off perfectly. I want to hear about henna and honey and how brightly the bride smiled and with how much abandon the grandmothers danced.
