Zev News – June 2010

June started with a couple of excellent theater performances by kids.  The first was “Les Miserables” by Class Act Theatre’s high school group. Benjamin was joining Class Act Theatre over the summer, and so they gave us two free tickets to check out the quality of the performances.  We bought two more tickets and the whole family went.  Class Act did a great job.  We were humored when Jean ValJean’s voice cracked on one of the songs.  Can't fault the actor for going through puberty!  The other show was "Peter Pan" by Nobel Middle School’s drama class.  This show was orders of magnitude better than the show put on by Lawrence Middle School's drama class.  We were very impressed by the difference. 

After Peter Pan ended, we had dinner and went to our square dance club’s annual Guide Dog fundraiser. This square dance always gets a great turnout, as all the proceeds go to the Guide Dog Association. Guide Dogs we have sponsored come and there is always a silent auction, raffles and often a traditional auction too.  Jackie won a handmade shrug she had been coveting.

The next day (6/6,) we marked the end of track season with the awards ceremony and picnic.  We had to leave after an hour and a half, to take Benjamin to Valley Youth Chorus.  The following weekend, we marked the end of Chorus with a concert and BBQ dinner.  It was very casual and relaxed.  The Segals came to hear Benjamin sing and have dinner with us.

The next day (6/14,) we marked the end of Square Dancing class with the class graduation.  They do a whole ceremony, complete with caps (no gowns though) and candlelighting.  School ended for Benjamin the following Friday (a week early due to furlough days.)  After school, Benjamin walked over to his friend Nick’s house for a birthday party.  Nick’s birthday party included a sleepover and a trip on Saturday to Santa Barbara to see a car museum.

Saturday night we then saw "The Producers" at College of the Canyons.   Another amazing performance.  We continue to be amazed at the value of the Canyon Theater Guild shows.  For the price of one show at Pantages, you get 9 at Canyon Theater Guide.  And at the Pantages, you are sitting in row C in the Mezzanine.  At Canyon Theater Guild you are sitting in Row 3 from the stage!

On Sunday, we joined the Steinfeld’s in celebrating Father's Day and Jordan's birthday at Emle’s.  Marc and Benjamin ordered the restaurant's special French toast, which turned out to be battered and deep-fried and covered with deep-fried batter curls and powdered sugar.  It was way too much both Benjamin and Marc regretted not being the regular French toast. 

We left the restaurant at 1230 Two Drive to Garden Grove (about an hour away) for a square dance.  The club hosting the dance, the "Croakers" is a teen club, and it is a lot of fun to dance with him.  The caller for this dance, Pat Carnathan, was excellent and we had a great time. 

A few days later, Benjamin started camp.  For the past two years, he had gone to summer camp at Wilshire Boulevard Temple's Camp Hess Kramer.  This year, Benjamin decided to try their other camp, Hilltop.  In 2007, Jonathan had gone to Hilltop and loved it.  In 2008, Jonathan went to Hilltop and we talked Benjamin into going to Hess Kramer, so that they would be both be away at the same time.  In 2009.  Jonathan had aged out of summer camp, and Benjamin decided to go back to Hess Kramer.  This year, he wanted to try Hilltop.  Jackie had wanted to take the family to the National Square Dance convention in Louisville, but the convention started the day Benjamin left for Camp. Since he couldn't go, the rest of us decide not to go either.

Not going to Nationals meant to Jackie was able to attend Sisterhood's annual donor luncheon.  This luncheon honors Sisterhood women who have volunteered their time or contributed money for Sisterhood and only those being honored and their guests can attend.  Jackie had volunteered enough time to earn the right to invite three guests.  She brought her mother and her mother-in-law.  The speaker, Seth Front, was a guy who invented a "Jewish Zodiac" based on deli foods and who sells “Jewish Zodiac” paraphernalia.  He spoke on the history of deli, which hopefully appealed to Jackie's mother and mother-in-law more than it appealed to Jackie.  Halfway through Seth’s speech it dawned on Jackie that she knew this guy.  In 1976, in the summer before 11th grade, Jackie had gone on a nine-week trip to Israel with some 90-odd teenagers and Seth Front had been on this trip.  So afterwards, she went up to him and said, "I don't know what you've done with the rest of your life, but I know where you were in the summer of ’76."  He looked at her in disbelief and said, "I was in Israel in the summer of 76." "Yes," she replied, "so as I."  Upon hearing her maiden name, Seth responded with, "Oh my God, I don't remember many people from that trip, I remember you!" Jackie wasn't sure how to take this and decided to follow the adage, "If you are not sure you want to hear the answer, don't ask the question."

On Monday (6/28) she is Jackie took the day off from work, and drove to Costa Mesa.  Her friends Phyllis and Mike (who owned an alpaca ranch in Colorado) had been attending a seminar which had ended Sunday, but their plane home wasn't until Monday evening.  So Jackie drove down to spend the day with them.  She printed some geo-caches in the area, and the three of them spent the day walking along the beach in Corona Del Mar, talking and geo-caching.  It was a really nice day, and Phyllis and Mike said the seminar was worthwhile, but the weekends negatives probably outweighed the positives.  First of all, Phyllis had tripped and fallen over the weekend and was pretty bruised from it.  Also, one of their alpaca moms died over the weekend leaving a two week baby and another alpaca gave birth, but didn't bond with the baby.  So Phyllis and Mike came home to two bottle babies that had to be fed every two hours round-the-clock for months.  Yikes! 

After lunch, they walked around some more, and then Jackie took Phyllis and Mike to the airport.  She drove home, and then she and Marc went out to dinner to celebrate Marc’s birthday.  They went to ?, which Jackie found somewhat disappointing.  Afterwards, they walked over to REI and Jackie bought a hat for their trip to Costa Rica in December.