about to go to brunch at my grandparents', only, this being my family, naturally we're running late. last nite what i thought was just a matriarch-patriarch-brood dinner turned out to be a matriarch-patriarch-brood + friends-relatives-and-wellwishers surprise event for my parents' 25th anniversary. held at la ferme, a fancy french place to which i hadn't been since lisa's batmitzvah ohsomany years ago. the kids all had disposable cameras on their tables and i took a picture of geoff looking soulfully into someone else's eyes -- i don't even remember who now -- but he tracked me down, grabbed the camera, pulled the roll of film out and tore it apart. emotions ran high in middle skool.
this being my family, everyone was running around taking pictures last nite. as the centerpiece of the evening was a science-fair type display board covered w/ photos from the last 25 years, it seemed both appropriate and redundant. to me, both my parents look better older which is rather odd. my mother takes excellent care of herself and she really is lovely, although she's never believed that.

the banquet lasted 3 and a half hours after which i was just too tired to do anything else. liz and i had spent the afternoon cheering each other up, pawing thru Second Story, buying $7 worth of diet soda at Giant, and eating no pudge w/ alexandra. after that excitement, cosmic bowling would have been plain anticlimactic. ended up having a fun conversation w/ the fella and reading some more of quixote. i complained to my father that i was tired of reading depressive lit and he threw that at me.