So I’ve been speaking to people about dogs – here a dog there a dog, hell Tin and I even looked at cats at the shelter despite the fact that a litter was born under my neighbor’s house sometime a few months ago. One woman said to me, “I just want to make sure you will keep the dog because this time of year, people long for a dog because of the holidays.” Well mam,…
A friend invited me to dinner this week and we went with another couple. The couple have just met – each about a year after a divorce with grown children (read: in their 20s). My friend and I marveled at their joy on finding each other at this time. A friend of mine’s daughter who is 14 went to a dance last night for the first time and was nervous and giddy on departing and…
I went to see Philomena yesterday and I’m still haunted by Judi Dench’s performance. Or should I say Stephen Frears’ directorship. If you’ve never seen Frears’ The Queen, I suggest you rent it now because it was a movie that was so very English in its subtlety and so spot on powerful in its performance. The same with Philomena. Recently, people have been posting quotes by Nelson Mandela and how he forgave his captors and…
The woman asked me what trait I am looking for in a dog and I said, “Kindness. The same thing I look for in a human.” How does a dog show kindness? I believe it is obvious. I have known sweet dogs that make me kinder and I’ve known aggressive dogs that make me irritated and aggressive myself. I’m looking for a dog or let’s just put it in the parlance of the day, I’ve…
I noticed several things about what this year looks like versus other years. My posts on this blog have been cut in half as I started my other writings on race and parenting. And both have suffered from my indulgence on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Since the Times-Picayune quit publishing a daily, I’ve taken to getting my news off FB – I figure if something happened, I’ll hear it there unless I’m getting an…
It’s been quite the week starting with returning after midnight on Sunday night to Tuesday’s latke extravaganza (24 dozen gluten free and vegan latkes fried and eaten) and menorah lighting to Wednesday’s kindergarten presentation complete with latkes, candle making, and dancing the hora, to Saturday’s homecoming celebration honoring the four year anniversary of the first time I laid eyes on my son to his friend’s birthday at the Monkey Room to a playdate uptown. I…
I pulled out all the wigs, bought a few stocking caps from the second hand store (including one that looks like a chandelier) and got the boots out, and the sweaters hung all for the 85 degrees it has been here in New Orleans. Humid days with barely a Gulf South breeze blowing, and you’d think we would know what to do with ourselves but considering there was frost on the ground just short of…
I was trying to explain to Tin that his world is expanding as we flew to San Francisco to go to a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah. Tin does not do well with greetings and new people and there could be an underlying reason for that as he was shuffled around as an infant and perhaps he “greets” people smiling at him and trying to introduce themselves with the trepidation it deserves. But as we were…
During Passover, the youngest child asks, why is this night different than other nights? But this holiday season all of us are asking why is Hanukkah falling on Thanksgiving creating Thanksgivukkah. The answer my friend is so complicated it makes my head burn but the short answer is: The quirk of Thanksgivukkah is that the Hebrew calendar, which follows the sun and the moon, and the Gregorian calendar, where Thanksgiving sits on the fourth Thursday…
The confluence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah along with the arrival of cold and damp weather as well as all of this happening at the same time as my friend’s son’s bar mitzvah is enough to make anyone discombobulated. As I approach the holidays or rather as the holidays encroach on me, I’m taking stock of how things are at this very moment. I have not had a glass of wine or any alcohol for three…