Alan Barkin, or "Papa," Beck's grandfather and Margie's father, died suddenly last Tuesday the 12th. While very sad, everyone agrees that it was painless and ultimately saved him from a long, drawn out decline in health. That said, he will be extraordinarily missed by those who knew him - Alan was a great man, the center of every party and a vivacious liver of life. And Nyet, Alan's "grandfriend," would like to raise the virtual equivalent of a Scotch toast to him - here's to setting an example and letting 'em know what you think - whether they like it or not :)
So another sad week for the memory banks and another long hiatus from the art of blogging - que puedo decir, the muse she done left town. But whatchagonnado, and here's an attempt at recapturing the last week point five.
So Monday I sat in on Corin's class to see how the other half lives, or more exactly to see where they were in the book. So I gathered that info into my brain and set upon teaching them on Tuesday - an adventure, stepping back into my algebraic brain, but one I've pulled off pretty well. My class is very cool, and just for the record, here are there names:
Sophie, Rachel, Tory, Grace, Mikayla, Teddy, David, Rylie, Jimmy, I Chun, Jin Wuk, Hyun & Joi
Those last five are all Taiwanese students who are ESL 1, meaning they are just starting to learn English. They are extremely nice kids, but are (not surprisingly) not very quick to volunteer in class and shut down if called upon. Plus they didn't show up until the Tuesday I started teaching and the rest of the class was halfway through the first chapter, so, ummmmm... first test didn't go great, but they seem to be catching up. They'll probably be the challenge this semester - very difficult to strike a balance between giving the extra help they need but also throwing them into the fire to make them learn English. I trust I won't destroy their lives too viciously with my mishaps - which is pretty much the same token angle I take with all my students. I'm an equal opportunity lifewrecker, you see? Actually, today a student and I had the following exchange:
| Why do you teach here? | For the mad cash. |
| No, really. | Because I love teaching artists. |
| That's why we come to school - for your class. | You're lying. |
| So are you. | True. |
| So why do you teach here? | Because I like to see young people living their dreams. |
| Awwwww... | Right before they're crushed. |
| WHAT?!?!?! | The dreams, not the students. |
Nothing much else memorable happened Tuesday or Wednesday that I can remember at this now-distant point, so I won't try. Thursday morning I ran a statistics lab where the students had to give me stats about M&M packets. probably one of the more boring things in the world, but since candy was involved, eyes lit up. And over the weekend they made ridiculously beautiful pie charts and histograms, all colored according to M&M artificial dyes. Sweet.
Thursday night, iPMM, iPJ and Jamie came into town around 5. We met them, Meghan & Greg and the Harrises (Greg's parents) for dinner in Natick at Dah Mee, resulting in yumminess (Bul Go Gi!) for all involved. The entire weekend was nice despite the circumstances - Barkins, Manns & Searls, just a big family gathering to honor Papa. Friday morning Beck and I left the house about 7:15 so we would get to Newton by 9:20 - and of course, there was no traffic so we got there at 8:20. Boston, you fickle mistress of patternless traffic patterns, I curse you with the manliest of Honda horns. BWWWeeep. We used the extra time to grab Dunkin-ness (we had noted that there are no less than eight Dunkin Donuts between our house in Grafton and Walnut Hill on my way to work. America does not generally exercise, but it runs...). And then headed to the synagogue at 9:20 where we joined the family in the back room. I wore a yarmulka, a first for me. I was mistaken for George, Beck's cousin and son of Margie's brother Danny, repeatedly. Cheeks were pinched. I responded to "I last saw you when you were this high" with "No, you didn't." Not really. But lots and lots of people showed up - Papa attracted a party to be the center of from beyond. Seriously, he was a civil servant and well-respected lawyer in Newton, so all of his old friends and acquaintances came to the service. The service itself - the very serious rabbi conducted matters very smoothly, and Jamie/Beck/Meghan/Danny/Margie all said kind words. I got a "funeral shout-out" from Beck as she recounted the story of the time Papa called me after the Cubs lost game 6 of the 2003 NLCS and, without identifying himself on the phone, said something to the effect of "Now you know how it feels." Jamie recounted Papa and his Diner Debates, and the time he grew a goatee as the result of something of a lost bet with Jamie over a political factoid. Margie read a letter from Papa's youth when he turned 21 - and it contained a really great line about "not wanting to waste his life in olive drab" - he was serving in the Army in India at the time. Really nice service - I am glad that a funeral can contain the severity of ceremony and a stone-faced rabbi (seriously, how did he not laugh at Jamie's stories?) but also contain jewels of life, real accounts / reflections. I neglected to mention that the grandchildren and Greg and I served as the equivalent of pallbearers, walking the casket into the synagogue, so we also walked it out and helped unload it at the cemetery. Backing up... we left the synagogue and drove in a long funeral procession (long in both number of cars and distance) to the cemetery for the burial. There was a military salute and taps played, and two Army men presented Margie a flag for Alan. In the last part of the ceremony, people were invited to shovel dirt onto the casket, a "mitzvah that can never be repaid."
We then followed Scott "Bullitt" Searl through the mad streets of Newton as he Connected things in a French fashion. Luckily Robbie and Ginny (sp?) were ahead of us with Robbie's gigantic melotron dome now featuring Scott-Spot tracing technology, so we were able to follow their fastfeet-licensed mobile to Lesley's (a cousin) house where the post-funeral gathering was held (i.e. wake or sitting shiva). Another nice family gathering featuring yummy foods, none less yummy than the noodle kugel. After an afternoon of talking and reminiscing and occasionally being informed that uninvited people would nonetheless "not be going" to our wedding, we jumped back to Grafton to walk dogs and then went back down briefly to Lesley's and then on to Legal Seafood for dinner with Scott, Margie, Greg, Meghan, Beck and me. Good times - we all downed Scotches in Alan's honor and then partook of delicious, law-abiding seafood.
Saturday was a down day for me as I read and Beck SOAPed; the Searls and Danny/Catherine/George went on Duck Tours for the afternoon and we met everyone at a Texas-themed barbecue joint in Brookline. After the requisite ritual quota of 17 Texas jokes were made, we sat down... to wait. Seriously seriously... wait. An hour and 15 minutes and a Sam Summer and a Margarita later, we actually sat down to order. Great meal, to their credit; I had ribs and barbecued sausage, my favorite foods pretty much.Greg, Scott and I had a wacko, enthusiastic conversation about societal constructs and our indebtedness to the activities of our ancestors. Great times, great food, great convo - we headed home. Sunday I read and did a boatload of schoolwork, watched the Bills win and the Patriots start to win. We had dinner (Bul Go Gi, again, for me) at the aptly named "Korean Restaurant" in Westborough with Ben & PGOAT. Let's see - Ben is taking bets on whether he will go bald or grey first; they've eliminated Denver as a future locale possibility; everything is up in the air but Ali-Ben laugh off life in the way that makes them great. We followed dinner with a final weeks visit to the S&S, where I had the Best Flurry Ever and Ali all but sent her ice cream back. Then Ben played goofy devil's advocate to Beck's veterinary ethics, and Ali corrected my pronunciation of "sentient" and "niche," the first correctly (where the hell in my life did I pick up sent-ee-ent - I am blaming a rogue ethics professor somewhere along the line) and the second incorrectly, unless you're French or something. A much ballyhooed poker game looms in our near future - pscyhed! I miss poker nights.
The working week wearily resumed Monday - and nothing earth-shattering has passed since then, except that I finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics and I have run 8 miles and hit the gym once this week thus far. I also picked up a couple of tutoring clients, so hopefully that will pick up soon. Okay, self reminder now... I owe the universe reviews of:
Citizen Kane / Special Topics / The Progress Paradox / The Squid & the Whale / Easy Rider
Aside from that, the boat just keeps sailing.
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