Memoirs of My Life

I went to Buffalo this weekend for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah. My father has 5 siblings- 4 boys and 1 girl. Each of the boys has 2 children. This was the last Bat Mitzvah. I cried. It's the end of our childhood. We'll have to look forward to weddings in the future. It was an amazing weekend, and I enjoyed seeing my family together.

I never realized how hard cities work to develop tourism. I know people talk of Philadelphia's blue collarness, but I guess I've taken the many museums and great restaurants and King of Prussia Mall for granted when I visit. Buffalo's got nothing. Its biggest claims to fame are the Anchor Bar, where wings supposedly originated, and it's proximity to Niagara Falls. We stayed at a hotel in the heart of downtown. Strangely, there was a night life, though I don't know that it was truly "happening" so much as it was just going on. I saw ads that the Dalai Lama is coming to the University of Buffalo. I also saw ads that said "Buffalo? Yes, Buffalo!" It was for the promotion of tourism... unfortunately, I said the same thing on Thursday night as I drank my 2nd martini at Beacon Bar...

One of my cousin's turned 21 on Friday. This didn't really matter since she lives in Montreal where the drinking age is 18, but I felt that we should take a shot all the same. We went to a great bar called the Chocolate Bar which served alcohol milk shakes, Raspberry Truffle martinis, and shots in edible chocolate shot glasses. The t-shirt worn by the employees read- "Chocolate Bar, Buffalo, NY. Nobody knows the Truffles I've seen."

My brother was up from Auburn, AL. College students live in double wides in Auburn. My brother and his friends hold luaus with pig roasts and pay $250 a month each in rent for a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom with a hot tub room. He's a true Southerner. So, he wasn't impressed when the waitress at Chocolate Bar told him that they didn't carry Bud Light because Chocolate Bar was a high-class establishment, did he want a Corona instead? My brother didn't realize that the choice beer of Cinco de Mayo was so classy??

It wasn't Josh's fault he found this irritating. He was starving. As he put it, he's a carnivore. One of my cousins is a vegetarian and some of the others keep Kosher. The food was basically all vegetarian all weekend, and not in the fancy cheese variety. The only meat we ate all weekend was our entrée last night which was entirely too fancy for Josh's tastes... it was chicken pâté rolled in a chicken breast rolled in a puff pastry. Josh came to the mall with all the ladies purely so he could get a Johnny Rockets cheeseburger.

It was a wonderful weekend to spend time with my family and bond with my cousins. I am very sad that it is over.