Shabbat dinner with Rachel

Last night Rachel and I were on our own since Drew was working a Thursday/Friday schedule in Seattle (he'll also do this next week, since I'll be attending a marketing class at Willamette. The students in the class, which I took last year, will we developing a marketing plan for the Oregon Area Jewish Committee).

We went to synagogue, a last-minute decision that I made because OAJC's director, Emily Gottfried, is very ill with a cancer-like disease and it seems as if everyone in Portland is praying for. When Rachel mentioned to Teacher Joe that we were going to synagogue, and Mommy's friend Emily was very sick, he said, "Is that Emily Gottfried?" Turns out his wife knows her. So does the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, with whom I've been exchanging worried e-mails over the last week or so. Sometimes Oregon seems like one large town...

Rachel was wonderfully well-behaved in synagogue, as usual; when she wasn't cuddling on my lap she insisted on turning to the same page in the prayer book as I was, and I pointed out the words and the transliterations to her. In a couple of years she will be reading Hebrew better than I ever could, and she won't need to rely on transliterations like Mommy does.

Our friend Bill, whose wife is the executive director of the synagogue, has known Rachel since she was a baby and has always been enchanted by her (he and his wife, Sydney, are expecting their first grandchild any day now). Last night was no exception, especially when Rachel waved to him in her Sleeping Beauty outfit, which she had worn for costume day at school.

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"I have a idea," Rachel said at dinner, as we were talking about my upcoming chorus competition in Boise (she and Drew and I are doing to drive there and back; it should be a fun family trip, and it will be great for her to watch Mommy's chorus win first place in regionals):

"You can sing at home and you can show Ryan how you sang at home, and then you'll get a more chance winning the next contest!"

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Rachel is already planning for her wedding. She said the invitations will say this: "I'm going to invite you to my wedding. It's going to be a great ceremony. Love, Rachel and her husband."

***

I was lamenting the fact that soon the current dean, Peter, won't be my boss anymore when the new dean starts in July.

"When he doesn't be your boss anymore, you can always see him again," Rachel reassured me. "It's not like you can't visit him anymore. Peter's a stand up guy!"

Me: "That's true."