Twenty Seven

Yesterday was my brother, Kenny's birthday. He would have been 27. I can't even imagine him at 27. Would he have a real job? Would he have gone to law school and then found some other way to not work? Would he have gotten out of Michigan? So crazy to think that Kenny could have ever been older than 23.

When he died, my biggest fear was when the rest of us grow older, and he stays the same age, and for the first time this year, it is happening. The last picture we took as a family actually looks out of date - Jeremy looks a bit older, my parents look a bit older (and less happy), and I definitely look older. Kenny looks the same. I think 30 and then 40 will be worse.

On happier notes, there is no Labo(u)r day in Singapore. We worked today, and in fact, Matt is still working (at 10:30 at night!!!).

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend. I went to shul on Friday night. It was interesting, because the shul looks like an old, beautiful shul you would see somewhere in Europe, but the decorations look like a simple, Sephardic shul in Israel. The davening was actually really hard for me to follow. I enjoyed parts of the davening. The disappointing part is that I said "hi" and "Shabbat Shalom" to people, and only ONE person spoke back to me. Women were actually sitting next to me and turning their backs to me. I even said to one person, "hi, I am new here, and I don't think I have met you," and he said, "I'm really late, so you'll have to excuse me as I walk fast," and then tried to walk away (though I kept in step with him just to make it awkward).

Saturday we did our ritual shopping and then Settlers. Thank the lordy that Lee Fong loves Settlers. It was so fun. So fun.

Saturday night Matt and I went on a romantic date to Holland Village. I didn't even get sick afterwards (first time...).

Sunday we met a family that we're friends with at the American Club for brunch. It was awesome. We got to eat lox and capers, and tomato juice, waffles, pancakes...you get the idea. I even had a five year old make a sundae for me - so I got lots of m and ms and also LOTS of rainbow sprinkles (those were the most important).

Then our friend, Arkadi came over. We had a Hildebrandt family fun day - first swimming, then hanging, and then we played tennis. Arkadi is good, and it was so fun. I also made a lasagna. It was my second time baking, and it was damn good.