Toronto Trip

I flew in to Toronto for a family gathering Friday, returned yesterday. 

My niece's daughter was having a bat mitzvah and I thought that for the sake of familial and filial responsibilities I should attend. 

I hadn't been there since Buzz's funeral and that is eight years time early next month.

The trip gave me an opportunity to see two of my sisters that I rarely see and a bunch of other members of my family.

John is still missing in action, somewhere in Pennsylvania, hopefully alive and kicking.

His daughter showed up, with her wife.

I like Toronto, a multi-cultural city that works better than most.

I will spare you a lot of the details. 

Nobody cares about anyone else's family reunion, let's face it.

I won't show you mine if you won't show me yours.

Anyway, two days is sort of a whirlwind, I stayed out by the airport to save money and took public transportation in and out, a long city bus or train ride.

Unfortunately my att phone service conked out and I couldn't call an uber if I wanted to, no data signal.

Makes it awfully hard to function in today's world.

Took over three calls and two frustrating hours on hold before we finally got the no data roaming problem sorted out.

I met everybody at the temple the first day, my niece did fine with her reading but the rabbi's talk made me remember why I hated religion so much.

Love the tribe, just hate the bullshit. God loves the conquerors, smites the infidels like wiping up ants with a wet paper towel at a picnic.

Afterwards we went to Chinatown and I treated my clan to roast pork and duck at one of my favorite haunts, King's Noodles. 

We walked around the Eglington area and Kensington Market and checked out the shops. 

An old Jewish guy grabbed us and led us into an ancient and decaying temple with a beautiful art deco Jewish decorated chandelier but wouldn't let me take a picture because it was shabbos and that would mean pressing a button on my phone, which is verboten.

And I had a weird epiphany. Except for my sister Barbara, four years older than me chronologically after her birthday earlier this month, I was possibly now the oldest person extant at the family gathering. 

I mean the entire bat mitzvah gathering, besides Justin's dad anyway, let's say it is a very small group.

So I am the old guy now. Just how in the hell did that happen?

Later that evening there was a party.

Those that know me know I am not comfortable in parties or crowds, not being a drinker and a person that enjoys compression.

I enjoy the company of strangers more but that is another story.

So this picture is of the celebrants having a great time at the party.

And this one is me, trying to hide in the next room, actually pretty successfully. before I was finally caught and rousted.

I talked for a bit with an older woman who was a little drunk and then exited as early as I could, not wanting to be a total buzzkill.

Unfortunately I went to the wrong train station and then had a nightmare getting back to the airport and then couldn't get a shuttle for what seemed like a planes, trains and automobiles' eternity.

But I did.

I lounged around in my hotel room the next day, my sisters both shipped out back from whence they came. 

Great hotel, the Westin, great breakfasts too.

I thought about leaving early but did not.

Took a swim in the cool pool, Toronto being insufferably hot this week, much hotter than California.

I didn't bring a camera but took some architectural shots of the interesting building with my phone. at least I thought the shapes were interesting.

I was all set to call the weekend a day and lay in bed and watch movies until it was all over when I got a call from my wonderful niece Rachel, asking me I wanted to have a last dinner with them.

Why not? 

I re-bused into the city, she picked me up off of Dufferin and we ordered excellent pizza, which we ate with her wonderful Calabresian neighbors. Zach showed up, his sweetheart completed a triathlon that day and he had been up since four.

I had a very nice time and then ubered back.

Next morning I met my sister in law at the terminal, she is coincidentally coming here on a business project, training medical staff. Customs hassled her, why couldn't she get an American to do the job? Unbelievable to me how we are treating Canada.

I had a huge observant Jewish guy sitting next to me on the plane, or sprawled sleeping next to me. Kippah, talis, whole bit. His body dwarfed mine and I am a big guy, he ended up taking about a third of my leg room.

I thought about waking him up and having a heart to heart about boundaries but didn't want to cause an international incident.

He finally woke up and he turned out to be a nice guy. Showed my a picture of his rabbi like an Indian devotee showing off their guru. Schneerson, a chabadnik. He told me he kept kosher and was worried about finding proper food.

It was his first time in California, he was a sales rep. Never saw a palm tree before, I told him that it might be time for a ham sandwich too, but he demurred.

As we were leaving he asked me if I wanted to put tefillin on and pray and I gracefully declined. I guess we were now even. He told me that it was his duty to ask.

After another interminable wait, I got picked up bu the folks from the Laurel St. Parking garage where I had left my car.

If you ever consider using them, don't. My car was on the roof, a six floor walk up. They told me it would be fixed Monday, it wasn't. In fact, one guy said it had been years. Walls are crumbling, trash in the stairwell. When I asked about it, the guy said, "We rent the building, we don't own it." I guess the elevators were never maintained. 

Place is a wreck, go to Aladdin or Wally, don't make my mistake, whatever you do, for your own good.

Good to be home. 

I barbecued a New York from the new subprimal I bought before I left. 

Made my first chimichurri, Leslie said I was a little heavy on the red wine vinegar. 

Going to buy more parsley and try to balance it out. 

Not far from really good, steak was wonderful, would make an Argentinian blush.

My first Beatle's taping aired last night at three in the morning. I slept through it. Anybody else hear it by chance?