New Friends and Accents:The NCTA Picnic
By Eugenia Teytelman
I hate driving alone to unknown remote places. On a bright morning in June, with my husband out of town, and a 5-year-old in tow, the perspective of an hour-long drive to Tiburon did not seem like fun. But I promised my son Lev some fun in the sun. And besides, I badly needed company of fellow adults.
It was my second time at an NCTA event, and I was not sure I would find familiar faces right away. With a cheerful smile and the magical word “NCTA”—which had already paid for my parking—I was directed to a BBQ-frying couple who turned out to be Raffaella Buschiazzo and Marc Weber.
The park was great. A real paradise, with a splendid view of the bay and the San Rafael bridge, with lazy fishermen on the pier … but no playground! What a bummer! And no kids of Lev’s age! That meant I’d have to entertain him myself!
So I was torn apart between pleasant adult company and a sweet tyrant who made me fill his balloons with water almost nonstop. Later on, Michael Metzger’s wife Chikako came and joined him in his play. Probably, the fact that she did not mind getting wet made Lev think that adults in general loved this, and he approached Marc Weber from behind and just poured water on him. Thank God Marc was good-natured about that and it was a warm day.
A mixture of old and new faces, accents and perspectives, jokes and handshakes. With all the socializing and water play, I didn’t have time to eat, but still I got a taste of gourmet food: from sushi and salads, to pastas and BBQ meats, to home-made cookies, sesame balls and strawberries.
A delicious afternoon, by any account!
