Tobia Ziklik

I mentioned yesterday that Arnon and I had brunch at Lisa’s Tea Treasures over the weekend. Well, it was actually our second visit. Our first visit was in mid-August.

It’ll seem corny to you, I’m sure, but Arnon and I like to mark the anniversary of the day we first met. He always lets me pick the restaurant or activity, so I chose the tea room.

The tea room actually consists of two rooms, and we were seated in the back room. If you hear Arnon describe his entrance into the back room, he’ll say it was like a scene out of a Western, where the patrons in a saloon suddenly stop talking and the piano player stops playing when an undesirable stranger walks in. Only in our case, the women stopped chattering and giggling and dropped their cucumber sandwiches.

I don’t recall the room going quiet, but I do remember all of the ladies looking our way, some with amused faces. Maybe they were simply jealous, wishing their own husbands would accompany them to girly places. Maybe they were irritated that a man’s presence would cast a shadow over their bridal and baby showers (lots of gifts were opened around us). Or maybe they were wondering if Arnon is gay.

Anyway, following our meal, we passed by the front room on our way out and Arnon did a double-take when he noticed a young man sitting at a corner table surrounded by what Arnon calls hens. The man looked absolutely miserable.

So Arnon gave him a sympathetic nod, as if to say I feel you, buddy. Hang in there. And then he turned to me and said, “Really, I had a good time.”

Yeah right … dog house.

The last month has been stressful for me, so Arnon suggested we have a calm weekend, just the two of us, where I could choose all of our activities. So on Saturday, we did absolutely nothing, and it was wonderful.

Today, we started with brunch at Lisa’s Tea Treasures, where you’d think Arnon would be out of place, but he was not the only male present. Thank goodness.

Then we headed to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the special exhibition – Birthplace of Impressionism, Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay.

I’ve always had a negative impression of Impressionism because the only works I was familiar with were a few by Claude Monet, which I would describe as blurry pastels. Thus, I was delighted to see bold, colorful pieces depicting city laborers doing back-breaking work and weary peasants with exhaustion etched into their faces (works that critics of the time labeled “grotesque”).

I particularly liked the paintings by Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas.

After the exhibit, we strolled through the Japanese Tea Garden, stopping for tea and mochi, then headed to Esperpento for a delicious tapas dinner. Although we left there stuffed to the gills, we headed to Mitchell’s in the Mission for ice-cream sundaes. Yes, we’re gluttons.

Now I’m refreshed and ready to endure another work week. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too.

As I mentioned yesterday, there was a change of schedules, so some of the family gathered to have dinner on Cho’s actual birthday. Victoria prepared a delicious meal (Korean dishes and pizza from scratch … interesting combination), and Sia brought individual bundt cakes in a variety of flavors.

Cho has a few “Frankenstein” laptops that work, depending on your definition of work, but it’s painful to observe Cho struggling with them. So Arnon bought him a new laptop. Cho was thrilled, saying that it was the first time he didn’t get a hand-me-down. (Throughout the course of their marriage, Victoria has always gotten the new car, computer, etc., and Cho has always gotten her hand-me-down.)

Victoria expressed her jealousy at Cho’s new laptop, so we reminded her that the laptop that Arnon gave her earlier in the year was a 2010 model and was nothing to be ashamed of.