Sherry and I just came back from an action-packed weekend full of celebration. We started with a trip up to Saratoga Springs to celebrate Norm’s 85th and Yona’s first birthdays. That same evening we joined the Saul and Mimi for a Korean feast to celebrate the marriage of their daughter Surin to Billy. We finished the weekend with an 80s themed annual Gala celebration at WJC. Whew!
Birthdays large and small
Saturday was an early-morning wake-up-call and drive up to beautiful Saratoga Springs north of Albany NY (about 3 hours away). My brother-in-law Scott arranged a family gathering and celebration for two momentous birthdays. His father Norman (we call him Poppy) turned 85 and his grandson Yona was turning 1. He wanted to take a family portrait to share with his Dad and ask that I act as photographer. So I dusted off all the old SLR equipment, tripod and flash and headed for the carousel in Congress Park. As it turned out, there was a festival in the park, preventing cars from approaching, so we u-turned to the visitor center across the street. I experimented with a few angles and picked this one on the side of the visitor’s center.
It is never easy to get large groups to cooperate, and I am always a little nervous because you can walk away with nothing. People tend to get distracted and do not look towards the camera at the same moment. Especially when there is a baby – but with Sherry waving a cloth behind me, and help from the flash, we managed to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.
The celebration continued at the Olde Bryan Inn with lunch, drinks and candles in the ice cream. Yona was delicious as usual and Poppy was delighted. I had a great time catching up with my nieces and reconnecting with Scott’s brother, niece and nephew, and yes – I even got to play with Yona a little bit!
A Korean feast with old friends
Ali had a very close group of friends in High School and we developed relationships with all the parents. So we were pleased to get an invitation from Saul and Mimi to celebrate their daughter’s wedding.
After the birthday party, Sherry and I raced down from upstate back to our old town of Larchmont, where Mimi and Saul gathered us together at their home for a Korean feast.
We enjoyed catching up with everyone and sharing in some dishes we had never tried before, many of which Mimi spent the day preparing for us: japchae (Korean noodles), soba salad, miso greebean salad, scallion/fish/crab pancakes, beef with lettuce wrap, lemongrass chicken, and ghimbop (seaweed rice rolls). Catching up with old friends on their retirements, work life balance and what their children were up to is always enjoyable and this was no exception. Mimi and Saul were great hosts and the desserts were delicious too!
WJC Gala
Each year, WJC hosts a fundraising evening to celebrate our volunteers and to raise funds for our programs. This year was a throw-back to the eighties and we honored Tracey & Evan and Mark & Marcie who are very involved families and officers of the synagogue. Each year, our gym is transformed to a ballroom and our team outdid themselves this year by adding bright eighties colors to every surface they could find. The hallway was draped with movie posters, the back lobby decorated with colorful drapes, and the pièce de résistance was the chandeliers, manufactured by Scott in his garage from cases of colored slinkies. Our Director of Facilities, Jose did a great job hanging this sculptures from the ceiling, altering the space into a party atmosphere.
As the outgoing President, I had a few roles to play in selecting the honorees and forming the committee. During the event, I also had the “honor” of getting everyone’s attention so we could introduce the honorees. However, the adventure for me was all in the set-up. The designers wanted four monitors in the corners of the ballroom, each showing a playlist of 1980s music videos. My job was to make them all connect and play, in sync, when each monitor was a different brand and positioned more than 80 feet apart! We got it done along with the help of some wireless equipment, and also added a couple of monitors and a projector showing the journal ads.
It was fun dressing up in bright colors. I finally found the right occasion to wear that old skinny MTV tie! It was a really great evening and fun to see the synagogue community enjoying themselves.
