Random Rachel sayings

On hearing that the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage: "That means I'm privileged to marry Kira anywhere!" after I told her about the decision when I picked her up from camp, and a Y counselor said, "In all 50 states!"

***

"I wish I was immortal," Rachel said in the car on the way back from camp. That led to a discussion of burial methods, and she expressed relief that because she's Jewish, she won't be cremated. Drew has said he wants to be cremated, and I said if he dies before me, cremating him would allow us to spread his ashes someplace nice.

"You should do it where you first met," Rachel said.
"What a lovely thought!" I said.
"Or a gas station," she said as we passed one on the corner of Washington Boulevard. "Or Burger King!"
"WHY Burger King???" I exclaimed.
"Because he likes Burger King," she said, and that was the end of that.

***

"Sometimes I feel like I'm doing and saying all the wrong things," she said during synagogue, "like I'm supposed to be living a whole other life."

Um, okay.

***

 I was describing the retirement ceremony of a high-school friend of mine who went to the Coast Guard, which I attended today. It was nice; I got to meet his wife and grown-up daughters and GRANDCHILD, as well as another high-school friend of mine who had gone to the University of Michigan, so we swapped Wolverine stories.

I said that Don Jillson's youngest daughter, who is in college, had asked what her dad was like in high school. It came out of a left field, so I answered the first thing that was on my mind: "He was handsome, athletic, really smart and so nice," I told her. "I never thought he knew who I was, but then he wrote in my yearbook, 'I'll always remember your nice personality,' and it meant so much to me."

Then I told Rachel and Drew what I wish I had added, which came to me as I was driving to synagogue: He was comfortable in his skin. He was never fake, or did mean things to people, or pretended he was something that he wasn't; he gave the impression of "This is who I am."

And then Rachel piped up, "Much like Babe Ruth!"
"Um, how do you know about Babe Ruth??" I asked her.
She glanced toward Drew. "Baseball dude," she said.
"I thought I was Cookie Dude!" Drew exclaimed (he handled her troop's cookie sales this year).
"Nah, you're baseball dude," she said.