The large questions are supposed to be the ones that sustain us, that keep us turning the metaphorical page, swinging our feet out of bed and onto the cold floor every morning. We are supposed to hang around on Earth because we want to see our children grow up, or want to work towards world [...]
Every few weeks, we gather round our kitchen table on a Friday evening, light candles, do a little davening, eat a little challah, and usher in the Sabbath. It doesn’t happen every week, but, when we do it, we are always happier for it. Our Shabbat ritual has settled into a routine, now. We don’t [...]
I was one of the first generations to grow up with rap music. When I was a child (in the good old days of Reaganomics) rap fell into two categories: message rap (Public Enemy) and party rap (Run D.M.C.). Message rap discussed politics and institutional racism and other important things. (Sometimes, but not always, Flavor [...]
Did you have a baby doll, once? I had lots of baby dolls. Orange Blossom I received the Christmas my little sister turned one; when you squeezed her stomach she “blew” orange-scented kisses. And Martha Jean (renamed after my grandmother), my first treasured Cabbage Patch Kid. Eventually, these dolls were lost to history, so to [...]
Traditionally, my New Year’s resolutions come with a hefty dollop of guilt. I don’t, by any means, think I’m alone in this. The very nature of a list of resolutions involves tasks that we feel a nagging need to do — lose weight, get married, lose weight before getting married, etc. Since my birthday is [...]
Once, when I was taking an adult Bat Mitzvah class, I mused that, as a Jewish convert, the thing I missed most about Christmas was the smell of Douglas Fir in the hall. (Apparently, I’m not alone; the rabbi smiled and said, “everybody says that.”) I didn’t mention that I also miss my grandmother. Weeks [...]
Ten years ago last Tuesday, we went from a family of two to a family of three. Everyone says that when you have a baby, your life is changed forever. What struck me, when our tiny, spindly little person arrived, was how oddly the same everything was. Most of my tiny, non-nuclear family was in [...]
(Untitled Fantasy Novel is winning, though it’s a close thing. The dirty dishes are the real loser here.) I’m at 22,241 words of a novel I never thought I could write. I am behind the NanoWriMo curve (I should probably be around 26,600 words by now) but I’m assuming it will all work itself out. [...]
Things I have been doing instead of blogging: 1) Halloween My son is obsessed with the San Francisco Municipal Railway. (No, I don’t know why, either. We just roll with it.) I thought he would enjoy dressing up as a MUNI driver for Halloween. I used my sewing machine! I made my own pattern! The [...]
I’m the girl with the hair. I’ve always been the girl with the hair. It’s always out of the ordinary: thick, puffy, definitely nappy, and, strangely enough, really long. My hair is my calling card, my icebreaker, whether it is cornrowed, natural, wet, pulled back in a bun, relaxed, or pressed within an inch of [...]
