We just got back from Syracuse yesterday -- on a pre-dawn flight. The kids and I went to bed at 1am and got up again at 4:30am -- or 1:30 am west coast time -- though Jon doesn't agree with me that that means we only had a half hour of sleep.
It rained much of the few days we were there for my nephew David's Bar Mitzvah, but I got to see the leaves changing! No jumping in them or raking up big crunchy piles, but lots of beautiful color. Beautiful gold, some orange, a little red creeping out. The reds weren't in full force yet -- we managed to arrive before the peak, which was fine. I was happy. I didn't even mind the rain and clouds. It's the feel of home. It wasn't sunny all the time when I lived there, after all. And I saw the trees changing their colors from the car window as we went back and forth to the temple.
I also appreciated our temple, Temple Concord, which is one of the oldest congregations in America, founded in 1839 and in this location for almost 100 years. Most other temples I've been in are new and modern, and never feel quite the same to me. Temple Concord is old and stately, with cream-colored pillars against light blue walls, and super high adorned ceilings. It also has, I remembered, many nooks and crannies, and rooms down all kinds of hallways, and layers of heavy curtains on the stage in the social hall, where I remembered hanging out in its dark folds with other teenagers during youth group meeting breaks.
The women's room off the big social hall I remembered was another favorite, with a lounge area and couch, and about 20 degrees hotter than the larger room. It was still a sauna. Toward the end of the party I went in there and found two 14-year-olds stretched out on the floor like they really were taking a sauna.
David did a great job at his Bar Mitzvah, and I felt the deep emotion of a centuries-old tradition. There is something about those traditions that is so deep and sometimes so unexpected for one who doesn't even belong to temple these days. When Aaron was 8 days old we held a bris, the Jewish circumcision ceremony, for him. It hit me way more powerfully than I'd expected. I felt in that quick, practiced moment of cutting, and the rabbi's prayers, and the friends and family gathered, the generations that had preceded us, the great history and belief that had guided us to that moment. It was visceral. My very body responded with blood and milk.
Every thing and its seasons.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
African Fortune Cookie
Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river.The loveliest fortune I ever opened.
A gift Saturday night at the end of a benefit concert by the lovely (at 8 1/2 months pregnant, no less!) Omega Bugembe Okello and Village Enterprise Fund for Anti-Poverty Week to help fund start-up enterprises in Africa.
Tonight fall breezes touched down and the gentle rain began.
Friday, October 9, 2009
I'm Talking About the Weather
You know how when you've been out of touch with someone it's kind of hard and embarrassing to get back in touch...and then you stay out of touch longer, and then it's even MORE embarrassing? That's how I feel right now. I've meant to blog. In the summer I managed to blog every day about filing, but then skipped right over whole blocks of incidents and more important subjects in the fall.
So I'll do what people have done for years to get to know you again: talk about the weather.
Our northern California edition of the New York Times shows our weather on the top right of the front page. At the beginning of this week it read:
"Abundant sunshine and very pleasant...tomorrow, more of the same."
This made me laugh. Such a cliche, and so desirable, and in some way, so boring, all at the same time! As if it was a lack of weather that left it the same. Perhaps I am just permanently shaped by growing up in cold, cloudy Syracuse, New York. The weather report there NEVER said that -- not once.
This morning is still cloudy here in Northern California, and strangely, I feel a little happier. I find it so hard to stay inside and do work when it's so obnoxiously nice outside! California, I like you, but sometimes I don't really love you.
Then again, it's always this time of year that I miss the east coast -- October, fall, the changing leaves. Maple trees are planted along some of the streets of our neighborhood, but they are petite, and the color change polite. The east coast may get bitter winters and rainy springs, but fall -- at least outside of the cities -- is a blast of brilliant color and crunch whose least concern is politeness. And you don't get the state of fall without the the rest of the package. And then there are apples, and cider.
In any pros and cons list there are trade-offs. Pretty much anything can be a pro or a con.
So I'll do what people have done for years to get to know you again: talk about the weather.
Our northern California edition of the New York Times shows our weather on the top right of the front page. At the beginning of this week it read:
"Abundant sunshine and very pleasant...tomorrow, more of the same."
This made me laugh. Such a cliche, and so desirable, and in some way, so boring, all at the same time! As if it was a lack of weather that left it the same. Perhaps I am just permanently shaped by growing up in cold, cloudy Syracuse, New York. The weather report there NEVER said that -- not once.
This morning is still cloudy here in Northern California, and strangely, I feel a little happier. I find it so hard to stay inside and do work when it's so obnoxiously nice outside! California, I like you, but sometimes I don't really love you.
Then again, it's always this time of year that I miss the east coast -- October, fall, the changing leaves. Maple trees are planted along some of the streets of our neighborhood, but they are petite, and the color change polite. The east coast may get bitter winters and rainy springs, but fall -- at least outside of the cities -- is a blast of brilliant color and crunch whose least concern is politeness. And you don't get the state of fall without the the rest of the package. And then there are apples, and cider.
In any pros and cons list there are trade-offs. Pretty much anything can be a pro or a con.
Friday, September 11, 2009
9/11
I'm feeling overcome by emotion all over again. Things have gone on, but I remember this day the same. I remember being at home with my 1-year old early in the morning and getting a call from my husband on his way to work telling me something terrible had happened and to turn on the TV. I remember finding out a week or two later that an old friend I didn't think even lived in NY anymore had moved back, and didn't make it out of the towers.
Thinking about it all makes me incredulous that we're even considering a move back to the NY area. Except, of course, that it could happen anywhere people live.
For years, the imagery worked its way into anything I was writing. The sense of falling and crumbling, of destruction and loss, the revealing of a chaos we couldn't shield from that reached all the way to California. But the image of the two towers falling exists as a simple image. Whatever its ramifications, whatever happens in the future, however we interpet the events, that symbol endures.
And with one look at the calendar or the New York Times, it's powerful enough to draw the whole emotional body back again.
Thinking about it all makes me incredulous that we're even considering a move back to the NY area. Except, of course, that it could happen anywhere people live.
For years, the imagery worked its way into anything I was writing. The sense of falling and crumbling, of destruction and loss, the revealing of a chaos we couldn't shield from that reached all the way to California. But the image of the two towers falling exists as a simple image. Whatever its ramifications, whatever happens in the future, however we interpet the events, that symbol endures.
And with one look at the calendar or the New York Times, it's powerful enough to draw the whole emotional body back again.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Secret Spaces
Every time I start to clean up one little area of the house, I am dismayed to see the areas radiating out from that one that also need attention. I'm still admiring the kids' cleaned-up art bins -- my paradigm of perfection.
Today the kids cleaned their desks. Unfortunately, they did not bother much with the stuff that came off the desk and landed on the floor and all around. At least Aaron's room doesn't have any paper to speak of in it yet. Toys are easy to put away. Paper is not.
We went to the Farmer's Market today and sampled grapes. It's amazing how the little grapes burst with flavor in your mouth. The rest of the day was pretty boring, I'm sorry to report. I was hoping to go to the beach with the family, but it was kind of windy and cooler over the hill, plus Jon had to do work most of the day (Yep, on the weekend, too) and the kids were no help at all. It's so weird to me how they don't want to do things. But then if we go and do them anyway, they usually have a blast.
Yesterday was swimming, following by a couple of hours on scooters and bikes with a visiting friend at the playground up the street. Sophie and Aaron have discovered a "secret" area to hang out in there, and I watch them circle around once in a while. I love secret areas. Watching them is almost like having my own. I don't mean I spy on them, I mean knowing that they have one. Kids are supervised so much more now than when I was a kid and roamed my neighborhood undisturbed. I can appreciate the wonder and excitement of found spaces. It's especially cool because we've been going to that park since the kids were babies but they just discovered these new parts.
Today the kids cleaned their desks. Unfortunately, they did not bother much with the stuff that came off the desk and landed on the floor and all around. At least Aaron's room doesn't have any paper to speak of in it yet. Toys are easy to put away. Paper is not.
We went to the Farmer's Market today and sampled grapes. It's amazing how the little grapes burst with flavor in your mouth. The rest of the day was pretty boring, I'm sorry to report. I was hoping to go to the beach with the family, but it was kind of windy and cooler over the hill, plus Jon had to do work most of the day (Yep, on the weekend, too) and the kids were no help at all. It's so weird to me how they don't want to do things. But then if we go and do them anyway, they usually have a blast.
Yesterday was swimming, following by a couple of hours on scooters and bikes with a visiting friend at the playground up the street. Sophie and Aaron have discovered a "secret" area to hang out in there, and I watch them circle around once in a while. I love secret areas. Watching them is almost like having my own. I don't mean I spy on them, I mean knowing that they have one. Kids are supervised so much more now than when I was a kid and roamed my neighborhood undisturbed. I can appreciate the wonder and excitement of found spaces. It's especially cool because we've been going to that park since the kids were babies but they just discovered these new parts.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Other Side of the Office
It's amazing how many areas of one room can hold their own backlog of mess and clutter, layers of pesonal history and mismanagement. I so envy organized people. In the same way that some people envy creative people, I envy the magic and simplicity that is organization. Not that they are exclusive. I must keep reminding myself of that. It is a sick and twisted belief that they are separate characteristics. At least I have to keep telling myself that.
Today was spent cleaning up the other side of my office, a.k.a. the kids' art and homework area. After all, school is starting up again in a few weeks. 21 days to be precise (which I guess I was the first time....) First off, it is so great to throw things away! I listened to NPR for 3 1/2 hours straight while I cleaned. I organized and reorganized and scrubbed until the art bins are gleaming and beautiful in their beautiful organization. Sophie is making labels for the bins of markers, colored pencils, etc..
After effectively blocking out "the other" areas, they have somehow made it into my field of vision. The stack of 4 file boxes in the corner. Yes, I said file boxes. I can't believe there are more. They're not all files. There are some 25 or 50 old notebooks, and what the heck do I do with them? And I don't know what else as I am afraid to open the lids. There is also a whole closet on the other side of the office, with miscellaneous bags, hats, books, envelopes, and stuff spilling out of it (a blond wig, a bag of socks, a 20 year old thesaurus, greeting cards, and much, much more).
Is this really just one room?
Today was spent cleaning up the other side of my office, a.k.a. the kids' art and homework area. After all, school is starting up again in a few weeks. 21 days to be precise (which I guess I was the first time....) First off, it is so great to throw things away! I listened to NPR for 3 1/2 hours straight while I cleaned. I organized and reorganized and scrubbed until the art bins are gleaming and beautiful in their beautiful organization. Sophie is making labels for the bins of markers, colored pencils, etc..
After effectively blocking out "the other" areas, they have somehow made it into my field of vision. The stack of 4 file boxes in the corner. Yes, I said file boxes. I can't believe there are more. They're not all files. There are some 25 or 50 old notebooks, and what the heck do I do with them? And I don't know what else as I am afraid to open the lids. There is also a whole closet on the other side of the office, with miscellaneous bags, hats, books, envelopes, and stuff spilling out of it (a blond wig, a bag of socks, a 20 year old thesaurus, greeting cards, and much, much more).
Is this really just one room?
Bring Back the Erie Canal!
I am posting a link to today's Syracuse Post-Standard where I go to bat for reviving the history and coolness of the Erie Canal and Canal Days! Click here to read my article on the Opinion Page!
And if you're from Syracuse or anywhere in New York State and you agree, please put your comment with the Post-Standard and let's make things happen!
Also, I blogged a while back about cookbooks and my friend Ann Hodgman's book "Beat This!" Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks she's cool. Check out this link to find out more.
Ta!
And if you're from Syracuse or anywhere in New York State and you agree, please put your comment with the Post-Standard and let's make things happen!
Also, I blogged a while back about cookbooks and my friend Ann Hodgman's book "Beat This!" Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks she's cool. Check out this link to find out more.
Ta!
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