Goldfish on Prime Time

We went to a close friend's daughter's Bat Mitzvah on Saturday morning down in New Jersey. Since my son had the honor of holding the Torah, and since it was a 9 a.m. service, and since there's no telling what traffic will be like on the Cross Bronx Expressway, we headed down to NJ on Friday night, where we met friends for dinner, and stayed at the Hanover Marriott. Of course I brought my GSLIS 700 notes and text to study!! The service was held in the temple we were members of before our move to New York. It was nice to see familiar faces, and even Rabbi Rossoff came over to us to say hello. It's strange to move away after you've put down roots for 15 years, and then come back to see that everyone's lives have continued as always. The Bat Mitzvah was over by 10:30 and we headed back to the Marriott for the festivities. I wasn't ready to imbibe that early, but I had orange juice with seltzer and snacked on the appetizers during the cocktail hour. The doors to the ballroom opened an hour or so later, and the DJ was already screaming into his microphone and the dancers were getting the kids out on the floor. The theme of the decorations was the beach, and every table had been named for a different beach, like Sandy Hook, Jones Beach, Cape Cod. There were huge fish-shaped balloons, flip flops and beach toys galore, and the table centerpieces were huge round glass bowls filled with live goldfish! Whoa. Somehow, at the end of the afternoon, I found myself in the front seat of the car with a saran wrapped fish bowl between my feet. Thirty or more goldfish got added to the 20-gallon tank in my son's room, where two zebra fish had peacefully co-existed for the past 2 years. Suddenly, the fish tank was like a magnet for Gigi. After circling the tank and knocking everything off the dresser in the process, she plopped herself down and watched the tank like she was watching tv. We could not distract her from her show. I guess it's a healthy break from watching the birdfeeder.