January 14, 2017 – Sarasota, FL

Luckily, our long time friends, Kala and Ken Sheckler, had this Shabbat planned out for us as we all had tickets together to see The Million Dollar Quartet at Florida Studio Theater. Kala made dinner featuring stuffed cabbage, salad, and Caribbean sweet potatoes with beans. She shared with us the actual picture of the recipe and what was on our plates did not aesthetically match the foody picture at all. Matter-of-fact, her youngest teenager opted out of dinner with us because the food was just ugly! We just laughed and enjoyed an adult Shabbat!

The show was remarkable as each actor not only played the characters of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash on the one night they had magically gathered on December 5, 1956 at Sun Records in Tennessee, but each also entertained us with their instrumental perfection. Towards the end of the show, when the cast really rocked out and had us on our feet, the character, Joe Casey,  who played Johnny Cash, locked eyes with me – I was star-struck. What’s even funnier is that Steve caught the exchange. Yes, I flirted with Johnny Cash. During the show, I had leaned over to Steve and asked him if we could invite him to our bon fires to see in the deep Johnny Cash voice. It wowed me over!

The exceptional observance of Shabbat is that it lingers from sunset on Friday night to sunset on Saturday night giving us time to continue to celebrate from one day to the next where we met back up with Ken and Kala to enjoy the simcha of Eden Glickman’s Bath-Mitzvah. Temple Emanu-El  was packed with congregants, family members, and friends of Rabbis Brenner and Elaine Glickman. It was simply joyous, and we felt so happy for their family. At the Oneg Shabbat or luncheon, Denise Cotler and her college graduate son, Max Cotler, who mentored our son, Jake, in 7th grade came up to say hello. It was so special. We chatted about his recent graduate work at Harvard and how he met his girlfriend, Rebecca. It is important because Max was the president of the local B.B.Y.O chapter when he was in high school, and he met his girlfriend through a BBYO event. I had the opportunity to start the chapter 22 years ago with my friends David Gruber and Mitch Blumenthal. One never knows the impact. It was a great pleasure to connect with Max.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, we were hosting Lauren Gayle, the daughter of one of our St. Thomas connections, Carrie Ann and David Gayle, who now live in High Point, NC. Lauren graduated from the Ringling School of the Art & Design last year, and was back in town visiting. We closed out the Shabbat with dinner at Casey Key Fish Restaurant with additional St. Thomas friends, Terri Shirmer and beau George, Charlie Lose-Frahn and Lelia, founder of BroccoBabe.

It’s amazing how much life you can live in a 24 hour period – here’s to ugly food, good friends, and Shabbat celebrations.