 |
July 15, 2000 |
|
By the time I awoke, Susan and Rob were sleeping on the matress next to me
in the living room; they weren't there when I went to sleep. I heard that
they arrived at the Palm Beach airport at roughly 3am. That's rough! I
was so tired last night when they arrived that I slept through their call.
It's okay, since Fred was the one that
picked them up from the airport. I'm not very familiar with the Palm Beach
airport, and there was no way that I would be able to pull that off at the
state I was in last night.
We had plans for lunch. Our plans to were to take the Water Taxi to the restaurant. We still had
to coordinate with another group of cousins, who were Jeff's, since he
picked them up from the airport the night before. So there were six of us
at Fred's and four of us at Jeff's. Jeff didn't know the location of the
water taxi station nor Charley's Crab, the place where we were going to
have lunch. Not that I'm trying to forebode, not at all.
We did have breakfast though. Have I mentioned that Fred is an
exceptional cook?
We ended up leaving past 1pm, which would make for a fairly late lunch.
The jeep that Fred rented yesterday had miraculously turned into a minivan.
Okay, not really… he just exchanged vehicles. The plan was to meet at
the restaurant, drive to the Water Taxi station and take it in to the
restaurant, Fred would drive back to make sure we got transportation. Tino
took a binder with phone numbers with him, since he had some personal
business to attend to. We had to make one stop on the way to the
restaurant, which is for the yearly souvenir. This was a cap this year
with a logo for our reunion. Pretty Slick!
I was sitting in the back seat of the minivan with Tino. During the entire
trip he was on the cell phone. The moment he got off the phone with one
person, he would be calling the next. At this point, all of us in the van
were urging him to get off the phone and talk to us, since that's the point
of the reunion… to no avail. He said he had something to finish.
Among the six of us in the van, there were four of us with cell phones…
myself included. Picture this, Tino was sitting right next to me,
and he kept talking on the phone, one call after the next. I kept trying
to dial his phone number on my phone, but he kept dialing his
numbers too quickly. Eventually, I was able to get through; everyone in
the van notices since until that moment this was the first call he
received. He answers, "Hello, this is Tino" and I scream into my phone,
"Tino? Get off the phone!" Everyone in the van bursts out
laughing… well, except maybe Tino.
We arrive at the restaurant and there is no sign of Jeff. Curious. Fred is familiar with the staff at the restaurant and asks the valet if he had seen Jeff's car. Nope. We wait in the car while six of us try to track down a cell phone number for one of the remaining four cousins… with little luck I might add. Eventually, we decide to head in to the restaurant and get a table. Many of us were hungry. The remaining cousins arrived a short while later, having gotten lost for a while. It had been a year since I last saw them… Jeff, Christina, Melody and David. I've missed them.
We
got a table outside overlooking the intracoastal. It was warm about
80° and humid, much like yesterday. Although it was threatening to
thunderstorm, the sun was still bright enough to shine. The view was
simply stunning.
We ordered this appetizer that resembled a centerpiece. It was as appealing to the eye as it was to the palate, although thank goodness it didn't look dressed up, because it would've triggered my snottiness reflex. Or maybe it had something to do with the company, I'm not sure. None of us were too concerned about how we looked and how we behaved, but instead we concentrated on spending time with each other.
The food too was exceptional. I know this is going to sound a bit strange, especially having grown up in Florida, but I can only take seafood in limited doses. I'm not like my friend, Len, who simply does not eat seafood, but if I were to have an entire weekend where we only have seafood, it would drive me batty. So I ended up with a chicken dish, very good I might add.
We were about halfway through dessert when we realized that we would miss the water taxi on the return ride if we didn't hurry, so we rushed through the remainder of lunch and got on. Well, some of us got on, Fred, Jeff and I stayed behind and were going to drive and meet them back at the end of the ride.
We would have to kill about twenty minutes, and we decided to grab a beer. The three of us wandered over to Bootlegger's which is a bar that is right next door to Charley's Crab. It's a beach bar of sorts, except there was no beach, just the intracoastal. There was a pool there and it was certainly warm enough to be out on the pool, naturally there were all kinds of people in swimsuits. Oh, and the twenty minutes were up.
After the water taxi we all drove back to Fred and Aileen's place. We had no immediate plans until tonight. We have made a tradition of having one format dinner where we dress up. That would be tonight… at about midnight. We didn't have much of a choice since we wanted to include everyone. The last ones to arrive are Lily and Bruce tonight at about 10pm; the first ones to leave are Susan and Rob tomorrow afternoon.
We talked about seeing a movie, and the movie of choice was X-Men, although that was not going to start for a while yet. We all wondered down to the clubhouse, which has a pool and a pool table. Along the way there was a clearing with a collection of mango trees. Some of us went into the clubhouse to play pool.
Aileen, Melody, and I opted to pick mangoes. It would appear that there had been someone there just that day having picked the ripe ones from the ground. There were some that were almost ripe within reach and we collected those. We had also tried knocking some off the trees, but with very little success. It's not about the mangoes, you understand.
Eventually, we head back to the house, where most of us go to the movie. I always thought it is a bit silly to go to the movies during a vacation. Think about it, you're there to either spend time with your friends and/or family, Or you're there to visit and experience a different place. It doesn't make much sense to spend two hours quietly in the dark, but that's me. Fred, Aileen, and I decide not to go to the movie, not that I have anything against this movie, it is just that I was still a bit tired from the lack of sleep over the last couple of days. I took a quick nap.
During the movie, Aileen and I also wandered off to get some photo paper for her printer. In the case that we would want to print out some of the pictures that I have been taking during the reunion… and fill up her car with gas. It's always nice to just spend time with just my sister, she's very cool. I suppose that we have the kind of relationship where we never have to do anything fancy, as long as we spend time together. When we got back, I decided to take a shower since the remainder of them will be coming home soon, and everyone will be fighting to get some time in one of the two showers.
Fred picked up the bunch from the movies. And later picked up Bruce and Lily from the airport, and thus the list is finally complete (well, for this reunion anyway). Okay, if you're keeping count (in order of arrival):
- Aileen and Fred (who are hosting the reunion).
- Jeff (who lives nearby in Fort Lauderdale).
- Tino.
- Frank (me, Aileen's older brother. Hi!).
- David (Dennis's younger brother, who is not attending this reunion).
- Melody (Tino's younger sister).
- Christina (Jeff's younger sister).
- Susan and Rob (Fred's younger sister and her boyfriend).
- Bruce and Lily (brother and sister).
Tino, Mel, and Rob were watching some show on television. I think it was one of the MTV spring break shows. Susan seemed a little unnerved that Rob seemed so interested in women in bikinis. I think he was genuinely interested in the lip-synching competition, since they occasionally showed a rather portly college guy doing the same thing, and he seemed just as interested. Or maybe he is equally interested in women in bikinis and portly men in tank tops? Who's to say?
There was a little kink in this dinner thing with my cousins. My other sister, Terry would be attending. To put it as neutrally as I can, Terry and I have our differences, but that's not really the delicate part. I had attended the cousin reunions the past two years; she doesn't know that… not that it is really any of her business, but she's the type to get upset about that. So it is a matter of not really letting her know that this has been going on for this long. If you happen to think that I'm being a bit paranoid about this, I may be. However, Aileen, my mom, and even my cousin, Ling have known that I've been attending these reunions, and none of them have mentioned it to Terry. Incidentally, they're all showing up for this dinner.
I think Tino was one of the first to get dressed and looked quite sharp. Having showered earlier, I also got dressed fairly early. I wore slacks, a dress shirt and a Disney silk tie. Normally, I don't like dressing up, but I don't mind so much for our yearly dinners. As soon as Tino sees me, he says something about not allowing me to show him up and immediately goes to change again. I wish I could be making this up. I certainly wasn't intending to show anyone up, I was even debating whether or not I should bring my dress shoes on this trip.
The place we ended up going to is Kyoto in Pompano Beach, we had midnight reservations for about twenty people. The restaurant closed at 2am, so we had plenty of time. We all climbed into two vehicles, Jeff's SUV and the rented minivan. Though it was a bit of a cozy fit, we all managed. And we got to the restaurant in plenty of time. Well, most of us did. We were still waiting for yet another cousin who lives in South Florida, also by the name of David (not Dennis's brother), as well as my above mentioned sister Terry who seemed to be running late. She was also bringing my mom, Ling, and my two nephews. If you think it is a bit curious to bring a five-year-old and a newborn to a midnight dinner, I would agree with you, but I try to keep an open mind.
They had set aside one of the smaller dining rooms on the side for us, which could easily accomodate all of us. We all settled in and got comfortable and waited for the remaining people to show. We had ordered drinks. I do remember ordering the beer; I don't, however, remember ordering the sake.
The rest of the party showed up, including the remainder of my immediate family. Fred ordered the food for all of us, which is what he normally does. He really is an excellent host and he knows food well. I'm sure he was the one who ordered the sake. Over the years, I have developed a taste for some beer, not microbrews, mind you, but regular beer… like Budweiser and Michelob. The people who will only drink microbrews also trigger my snottiness reflex. I can't help it. Oh, but I digress, I still hadn't managed to develop a taste for sake, but nevertheless I was drinking some tonight.
The one thing that I did that was rather fun was that I called Pam during dinner. No, that wasn't the noteworthy part. Shortly after getting her on the phone, I started to pass the phone around the table to each of my cousins, so they all had a chance to say hello to her despite the fact that she wasn't here. Naturally, they were all curious as to what she looked like and how we met. Tino was on the phone with her for about five minutes before I finally yanked the phone from him. You can never tell with Tino…
Pam also talked briefly with Terry and my mom, who really doesn't speak English, but somehow manages to continue living and functioning here in the states.
Then the order of sushi came…
"Uhmm, Fred… this is a lot of sushi!"And it was. If you have eaten sushi before, you probably know what I'm talking about… sushi is surprisingly filling, but I almost always think to myself, "Is this going to be enough?" Well, not tonight. The plate they brought for the sushi was about three feet in diameter filled with sushi and that wasn't even all of it, there were other plates wondering around the table. Trust me on this one, we had plenty of sushi. There was even a very delightful roll that had… cream cheese, I think, though I still don't know what it is.
As
strange as it sounds, we even ended up taking some sushi home, John,
Terry's husband, was not able to join us. So Terry ended up taking some
with her.
Since our group was so big, we took some home with us as well. Another one of our traditions is to take a group photo, and tonight would be the one group photo with everyone. This was it. The photo was taken at about 1:45am; most of us were pretty toasted by then. We did manage to talk our waitress into taking the picture for us, although her hand was pretty shaky for my digital camera since I disabled the flash, and thus the picture came out blurry. It is temperamental that way.
The one with a blanket on his head is my nephew, Michael.
We stood in the parking lot, talking about what we were going to do tomorrow. We already had plans, but we were trying to finalize them and have some idea of who was showing up where. Some of the other cousins were in different stages of unconsciousness in the minivan or Jeff's car; others were messing with the palm tree in the parking lot. A couple of us, namely Tino and David, even managed to get some of the coconuts off the trees. And you thought I was kidding about that didn't you?
We then drove home. Most of us were exhausted. Tino fell asleep holding a coconut on his lap, or more accurately guarding the coconut. We tried to snatch it from him a couple of times, only to have him stir and tighten his grip. I'm not sure why we kept the coconut. Take it from experience, coconuts are a pain-in-the-ass to crack open.
It must've been past 2am by the time we got to bed, and I went to bed almost immediately. It had been a long day, a good day, but a long day.
July 15, 2000