anniversary dreams and new jeans while Leandra beam
“Let me get you a pair for your trip, Dad.” Melika said. “Your jeans look baggy,” Melika thought as she sneaked a peek.
“Yeah, Dan, you need a new pair of jeans,” Nazy chimed in. “The ones you’re wearing make your butt look bad,” Nazy thought.
I tried on several pairs before whittling down to two.
“Do these make my butt look big?” I asked as I strolled down the runway.
In the (rear) end, we settled on a pair of ‘dress jeans’.
Nazy was somewhat flummoxed by the washing instructions:
There were two huge events this week. (i): We flew to Lebanon to meet the grand(est)daughter; and (ii) We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary.
Nazy and Dan
Special Note: My brother pointed out that previous letters, referring to the grandest daughter could have left Mitra and Melika feeling somewhat, eh, ‘un-grand’. Removal of the space and insertion of the parenthetical ‘est’, should rectify any potential confusion.
Given the situation, we decided to celebrate our anniversary in Lebanon with Darius, Christiane and young (six week old) Leandra. Getting ready for the trip was a challenge. We had a lot of presents — enough baby girl dresses, for example, to allow young Leandra to change dresses every day, never repeating, until she grew out them. It was.
“Over the top, Nazy,” I claimed.
“You don’t understand anything, Dan.” Nazy replied. “Babies change outfits more than once a day.”
“Really?” I replied. “So do grandmothers,” I thought.
Because I am a veteran husband, I had purchased an anniversary gift for Nazy. I planned to give it to her when we arrived in Lebanon. But, just before we left..
“I want you to open this present,” Nazy said. “I want to celebrate our anniversary before we go.”
“That’s not fair, Nazy.” I exclaimed. “We agreed that we wouldn’t get presents for each other. The trip is our present.”
“We can’t bring this on the trip,” Nazy replied. “And I bet you forgot,” Nazy thought.
“It’s great,” I said as I opened a silver frame for our anniversary. “She thinks I forgot,” I thought.
As I was loading the car, I took the wrapped present for Nazy out of my briefcase and left it on her seat.
Courtesy of Melika, we flew to Beirut on Emirates via Dubai. It was a huge, modern, new Airbus 380 with comfortable seats and spectacular entertainment. The first leg, however, was 16 hours long and it was followed by a four hour hop from Dubai to Beirut. Add in a ten hour time change and you can imagine that we were a little jet lagged.
“But not too jet-lagged to meet our newest grandchild,” we claimed.
Leandra is a beautiful little girl with chubby cheeks, a delightful smile and lots of hair. She is also..
“Remarkably quiet, Darius.” I said the next morning. “We were led to believe that she never slept, was always hungry and inordinately loud. I think she slept through the night and when Mom picked her up today, she was quiet and attentive.”
“it was a good night,” Christiane interjected. “She slept for five hours before waking up.”
“Wow!” I replied. “That’s longer than I slept before waking up,” I thought. “I was pooped, but I couldn’t stay asleep.”
The following morning, we went to the…
“Hey, Dar!” I shouted as I began to recount this excursion. “Can you tell me the name of the restaurant and village we went to for lunch yesterday?”
Dar responded, spelling out the name. I dutifully entered it into my iPhone which equally dutifully spelled checked and ‘corrected it’. It didn't look right to me, so I sent an eMail to Darius requesting clarification.
“So Darius, was it the Krzzele Restaurant in Faraway for a traditional Lebanese dinner?” I asked.
“No Dad, it was Arzelle in Faraya.”
“Thanks, Dar.” I replied. “How can a spell checker change Arzelle to Krzzele?” I thought.
In any case, we had a great time and a wonderful family lunch. All of the food was grown near the restaurant, which was high in the mountains (about 2500 meters). As the visitor from America, I naturally expected to be the center of attention…
“You always want to be the center of attention,” Nazy interrupts.
“Ha ha,” I replied craftily. “No one noticed my new jeans,” I thought.
However, for some unknown reason, young Leandra captured everyone’s attention.
We are in the midst of a beautiful trip, enjoying the opportunity to meet a wonderful granddaughter while celebrating our anniversary. More on all of this in next week’s letter.
For last's week's issue, please click here
One more Dan and Nazy photo followed by a Leandra photo
Dan and Nazy
