Yesterday, Wednesday 12/13/07

My cousin's wife, Marilia, came to get me late afternoon. It was raining but not that much, so we started walking slowly on Visconde de Piraja, the busy commercial avenue where my sister lives in an apartment building. We were supposed to go to Mause's (my sister) office of plastic surgery down a few blocks on the same avenue.

Marilia teaches English as a second language. Her husband, my cousin Emanoel, has a Ph.D. in Engineering from Cornnell. I spent my first Christmas in the US in 1976 with my son at their graduate student apartment on campus. They also had a baby, Gustavo, who is a physician himself today. Gustavo has cerebral palsy due to a blotched delivery, so my family believes. Gabriel (who was born in Sao Paulo, in Piracicaba) and Gustavo are the same age.

Marilia wanted to buy a gift for Sonia, my sister's office manager. She likes Sonia very much because she treats everyone with kindness and she has a great sense of humor. So we visited many, many of the mini-stores that are along Visconde de Piraja and inside many so-called "galleries", high rises with stores on the first floor. Each store specializes in something, many are outlets for designers. They are a feast to the eyes. Brazilian design has come a long ways, so the summer clothes for women are fun, creative, very, very, very feminine, with funky details, and very colorful. I could not stop thinking about Jan Kagan. She would spend all her money here!

Marilia bought a t-shirt in purple, 100 percent cotton, nothing special but of good quality. In a jewelry store (she makes fashion jewelry herself) we saw a bracelet made of tiny saphire beads in many colors, strung to form a design of flowers. It cost 10,000 reais, aboutUS$5,000. It was totally magnificent, a delight to the eyes. No, I would NOT buy it... There are many, many jewelry stores on this avenue. There are two high rises completely dedicated to the manufacture and sale of high end jewelry to tourists, H. Stern and Amsterdam Sauer. You cannot believe the beauty of the pieces against the ugliness of the poverty you can also see everywhere. What about that for contradiction?

At my sister's office, Marilia had her stiches removed from her ears. My sister developed a system to rejuvenate ear lobes. She had done Marilia's face lift--which turned out PERFECTLY. By this Marilia explains, "I look like a 55 year old woman with money in the bank." By which she means, she does not look young, she just looks really, really, good for her age, 55. And, she does. My sister is that good as a plastic surgeon! So, my sister did her ear lobes to complement.

After the stiches we took a cab to my sister's apartment because it was raining cats, dogs, and other tropical domestic animals as well... My cousins Elisa (Paula's mother, for those of you who remember my Paula living in Oswego), Alzira, and Emanoel (Alzira's brother and Marilia's husband) also came for a simple meal of brown rice, salad and organic roasted chicken in orange sauce, and flan for dessert--"pudim" as we say it here. We talked a lot and planned Christmas dinner at Elisa's, our traditional "Orphan's Christmas"--a light way to confront the fact that all of our parents, with few exceptions, died at age 50 or less. We have been orphans for a long time.