doles e 4CD ) WOMEN'S CONTEMPORARY CLOTHING 24 tx:,10. Discover Clothes Encounters, a truly unique women's clothing boutique. For 10 years, we have been and continue to be the jewel of Downtown Farmington. Located on Grand River, between tile Village Shoe Inn and the Civic Theater, our store is easy to find and very accessible. Open every day of the week, including Sundays, women can always find time to shop. Guy's Eye View The winds of change can separate families, and bring them closer together. Clothes Encounters offers its customers the most unique clothing at very affordable prices. Our buyers travel to New MATT MOSSMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS ood-byes are hard for me. And with family and friends spread across the continent, it seems I'm always at the airport. It's amazing how a Friday evening flight turns from joyful hellos into a sun- ny Sunday after- noon stuck in a gray, vinyl airport chair, waiting to be whisked away /- from the loved ones I saw for an all-too-fleet- ing moment. I've just returned from a cousin's bat mitzvah. It was a wonderful, fun-filled weekend with family, a quick and increas- ingly rare hit. We're all caught up in our own lives, my family and I, and it's /– hard to get us all together. At each simcha, we pledge to do it more often, away from the fren- zy of a bat mitzvah-packed week- end when there's so little time to just enjoy each other. But it's got to be done. It's easy to let the other stuff dominate your life — building a career and a new life, keeping up with college friends who are no • longer a short walk away, down • a dorm hall. We're all trying to set up our lives for the next 60- some odd years, but I worry about losing the family in that compet- itive arena known as my leisure time. At my grandfather's funeral two years ago, I realized some- thing important — my family members aren't just the people who pinch my cheek and talk about how cute I was as a baby ("and whatever happened since then? Heh, heh."). They're real people with interesting lives, ex- periences and outlooks. It's fun to get the guitars out and jam, run up and down the driveway with the kid cousins (cute as ever), endlessly racing to this tree and that fence. A healthy mix of photo albums, dri- veway basketball and Grandma's cooking — I dare anyone to stack someone else's matzah ball soup against hers. I love hearing my uncles reminisce about Lafayette Coney Island and Tiger Stadium, back when the Lions played there, too. It's great to remember the old times, but it's also great \ _) to enjoy the people they are today Matt Mossman grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C. — these guys are cool, and I hang out with them just like with my buddies. It's a sad reality that I can't share more time in my life with these aunts, uncles and cousins who are so far away from me and each other. It's tempting to use sparse vacation time running with friends. A week in Cancun is the stuff of which great memories (and stories) are made. But I'm going to make the time to keep these relationships vital. It may have to be a long week- end now and then, or a Passover seder, but I gotta have them in my life. We love each other no matter what, and we don't spend enough time just hanging out, reminding ourselves that we love each oth- er, regardless of the blood bond. It leaves me with a bittersweet feeling. Family values aren't about abortion and inappropri- ate language issues on prime- time TV — they're about these simple and joyous times. So I'm sitting in this gray, vinyl chair, watching luggage being loaded onto planes, kids pressing their faces against the window of the gate, ignoring their aggravat- ed parents who are debating whether to get bumped in turn for a few free tickets. In a couple of hours Fll be home. As easily as I slipped out of town and away from the everyday grind, I'll slide right back in, as if this weekend of fam- ily bonding never happened. Saying good-bye outside the terminal, I looked at my fresh- ly-bat mitzvah cousin — thank- fully they don't get nine Swatch watches and wear them all at once like we did — and I told her how I remembered her as an in- fant, a 2-year-old, and so on. And I told her how I remember hold- ing her when she was just this lit- tle. For the first time in my life, I was on the other end of the cheek pinch. As my heart filled, I immedi- ately understood those once-in- explicable tears that rolled down my grandfather's face in his last years, consumed by the awesome joy of watching beautiful children grow into beautiful adults. Sunrise, sunset. It's really hap- pening, and you've gotta cherish the days in-between. ID , California and abroad to bring to its customers a style s all their own. merchandise we carry covers a broad array of styles. 10 z es Encounters can dress you for the weekend in sPortY casual wear, for the office in classic suits, for a night out on the sultry dress or for running errands in stylish comfort me to the store and experience Clothes Emounters for , You'll love it! doles eviccuivrers womEN S CONTEMPORARY CLOT,- NC. (810) 471 • 5620 33306 grand river east of farmington rd. • next to village shoe inn mon-thus. 10-7 • fri. 10-9 • sat. 10-7 • sun. 12-5 .01 cook,,,,, Simsbury_ Plaza arm 33250 W. 14 Mile Road es b3 :6 Design '. 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