Consideration

I was in my doctor's office over the weekend and it seems that most people there were suffering from a cold. The office staff posted a sign that said, "If you are coughing, sneezing, have a fever or a sore throat, please put on a face mask while you are in the waiting room". A box of face masks was on the countertop next to the sign in sheet. Since I was not sick, I just sat down. Within a few seconds I noticed that almost everyone was sneezing, coughing and sniffling but not one person in the entire office had a face mask on. I had a cold a few weeks ago and did not want to get another one, so I got up and got a face mask to protect myself. When I was called in to see the doctor, I told him that the office staff needed to change the wording on the sign to say, If you are healthy and would like to remain healthy, please put on a face mask, as the sick people are not being considerate".

Cyber Baby

I am not one for state of the art technology. I have a basic cell phone and only recently started to use texting. I never understood why people waited on line all night to buy the new ipod products when they would be readily available to the public a few days later. More recently, though, I am beginning to appreciate modern technology more. For the past few days, my daughter in law has been sending me pictures of the baby playing on her mat and wearing cute clothes. All she needs to do it snap the photo and email it to me. It takes one minute. Years ago you had to buy the film, load it, take the pictures, unload it, bring it to the store to develop them and hope no one would lose them. It was a week long process and sometimes when we got back the pictures, people's heads were cut off. Now we see the picture in a moment and save it even quicker. When I visit my parents in a few weeks, I promised to Skype with my children so my parents can meet the baby "screen to screen". It is wonderful that they do not have to wait months to see her "in person". I am slowly becoming a cyber grandma.

Male Bonding

It only took eight hours, but my tree is down. I hid in my house from 2pm on, waiting to hear a crash. After a few hours, I ventured outside to find my husband up a tree and a complete stranger helping him. I walked to the back of the yard and saw a man, who seemed to be in his 60's, guiding my husband on where to cut the tree. I said hello and went back into the house. I watched as the stranger stood there under the tree for about four hours, assisting in the project. I heard the buzzing of the saw and the sound of logs dropping to the ground. Directly underneath the tree was a car and it is a miracle that not even one twig fell on it. I would have waited for the car to be moved before I started cutting, but no one listened to me. Later on, I found out that this man had relatives who lived on the block behind my house. I guess that all men are little boys at heart and the thought of cutting down a big tree seemed like an exciting adventure that could not be passed up.

Still Cleaning Up

It is almost two months since the hurricane and we are still cleaning up. Now that the holidays are over, the focus is back on our home. As I write this, my husband is hanging off of a tree. He decided that cutting a tree down is "man's work", so I am hiding in the house. I hope calling 9-1-1 doesn't become woman's work. He is merrily using his new chain saw and raking to his hearts content. I am going to make sure he is safe before I start cooking dinner. No need to exert any unnecessary energy cooking, in case he needs to go to the hospital. I am joking of course. I said we should hire someone to cut the tree down, but Woody the Woodsman wants to do it himself.

Kindness Of Strangers

When I saw my daughter in law on Christmas Eve, she looked so upset. It seemed that she had ordered very special holiday gifts and was tracking them on the UPS website. They were clocked in as delivered at 3pm that day, but they were never delivered to her. We all speculated that they had been stolen off of her front stoop. She called UPS and they said they could not do anything about it until Dec. 26. The gifts were all personalized, so they would be of no use to anyone else. She thought they would be thrown in the garbage. In New York, some people had been trailing the UPS truck and stealing gifts as soon as the truck pulled away. She worried all night. She worried all day Christmas. When they went home that evening, they saw a car slowly circling their block. My son went outside and the car pulled up to him. It was an elderly lady looking for his address. She said that UPS put some boxes on her front porch and they were not hers. She had been away until that evening, but she wanted the gifts to go to their rightful owner. My daughter in law was thrilled. She gave us the gifts, personalized with our granddaughter's name, the following day and we will cherish them forever.

Best Gift Ever

Just when I thought things could not get better, I was wrong. Yesterday, after having dinner with my extended New England family, my son's phone rang. It was my younger son and daughter in law. They wanted the family to be together when they made their special announcement. They are expecting their first child. This June, I will have a second grandchild. A winter baby and a summer baby. What could be nicer? The excitement will start all over again. Setting up a nursery, buying the furniture and a baby shower. Another person to love!

The Weeds

Once again the weeds have popped up. Usually it is one. This time it was two .I call them the weeds because you never know where they will pop up. I arrived in Massachusetts yesterday and heard a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around to find my sister and brother in law. After the shock wore off, I asked when they got here. I had just spoken to her and she said she was eating at the local bagel store. She was really in Boston at the time. That's the dangerous part of cell phones. No one knows where you really are. They traveled 250 miles to meet my new granddaughter, their great niece. The plan was for them to meet her in a few weeks, but my sister could not wait! We spent the evening holding and feeding the baby and just staring at her beautiful face. I was so touched that they would make the trip, just for one day, to see my baby.

Another Christmas In New England

In a few hours I will be leaving for Massachusetts to spend another Christmas holiday with my son and daughter in law and their extended family. Since I am Jewish, I do not celebrate the holiday in a religious way but in a festive way nonetheless. The word Christmas rolls off my tongue easily. I equate Christmas with family, food, and the warm feeling you can only get from those you love. If you asked me 15 years ago if I would be spending Christmas anywhere, I would have said no. I have learned a lot since then. I have learned that I would not trade either of my daughter in laws for any other girl in the world. I learned that I respect other people's religions as I would like them to respect mine. I learned that our religious beliefs are either inherited from our families or the way we feel most comfortable accepting G-d. I learned that when all is said and done, we will wind up in the same place with the same G-d welcoming us. The only difference is the route we took to get there.

Belated Birthday

I can't believe I forgot his birthday. With all of the excitement over the past few weeks, I never realized that Shelby turned five on December 21st. He never even mentioned it. The thought popped into my head last night. For five years he has brought so much happiness into our home. It is amazing how 18 pounds of fluff can become such an important family member. He is always in good spirits and is there to cuddle up when you are sad. Without him, I would not have made it through the hurricane as easily as I did. His body heat alone helped me to sleep through the night. Even though we thought we would never get another dog after Shannen died, getting Shelby was the best decision we ever made. Happy Belated Birthday, Shelby. We love you!

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday. I cannot believe another year has flown by. So much has happened. Two new babies were born and a wedding is being planned. In my heart, I feel eighteen. In my mirror, I look slightly older. Okay, maybe not "slightly" but humor me, it's my birthday. I woke up this morning to my phone ringing. It was my parents singing to me. Already, it is a wonderful day. Then I scratched off a birthday lottery ticket and won four dollars. After that, my sister and brother- in -law called and sang to me. Then, I heard a funny story. One of my friends called my cell and sang Happy Birthday to me. That is not the funny part. It seems that the first call that was made, was to a wrong number. After she sang the entire song, the lady on the other end of the line said, "Today is not my birthday". My friend just hung up the phone. Embarrassing, but funny.

The DMV

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting my local DMV. I would have rather had a colonoscopy. Each of those is a shitty experience but the latter one is at least for your health. I had to make 3 trips back and forth to the DMV before I even got a number to wait on line. Each time I went, I was told I needed another form filled out. I have no idea why the first person couldn't have told me everything at once. Each time I needed a new form, I needed to go to my son and have him sign it. Since he needed this transaction to be done that day and he had to go to work, he did not have the time to wait there himself. When I finally got my number and waited the 1 hour until it was called, I had the pleasure of getting the nastiest customer service person. I named him Poindexter. He was a sullen, redheaded, eyeglass wearing geek. He reviewed the papers and said that he didn't like the way the "D" was signed on one of the papers.Sometimes when we sign our names, the signatures are not always identical. I told him that my son signed every one and that is why I had to make 3 trips to his house. He said he would not do the transaction. I asked for a supervisor. She came over and looked at the papers and said, "Just put them through". Now Poindexter was livid. He had a hissy fit and flung the papers around so much that they fell on the floor. He also informed me that he was going to order an "audit" on this. I said fine. I have no idea why he would need to waste taxpayer's dollars on the issue of a crooked "D". I finally did what I needed to and went home. I hope Poindexter loses all of his teeth except one, and that one should give him a toothache. (That, by the way, is an old proverb).

Bug Busters

There is nothing I would not do for my children, no matter how odd it seems. Last week my younger son had a bug issue. He had removed a toilet during remodeling his bathroom. Even though he capped the hole, bugs started to appear. He opened the cap and tiny flies swarmed out. He quickly recapped the hole and put bleach down the pipes. The next day he planned to open the hole and clean it, bleach it and stop the problem. He needed a hand, so, you guessed it, he called me. Mom, aka, the "bug buster". I came home from work, changed into my bug busting clothes and went to his house. I was all ready, with tools in hand as he uncapped the hole. I was ready to bust bugs. One, two, three, he opened the cap. One tiny bug flew out. I guess the bleach he put in the day before killed off everything. It was so anti-climatic. The bottom line was that I was there to help, just in case.

The Truth

I am not looking forward to work this morning. After a long meeting yesterday, I have the task of telling a loyal employee that she is now on probation, after 9 years. This task was a long time coming. While her work ethic is wonderful, her attitude is not. There is just so much her co workers can take. So, it is up to me to set her straight. My boss was trying to think of ways to tell her how everyone feels. I came up with a great concept. The truth. I hate to hurt anyone's feelings and I do not want to see someone cry, so I will deliver the truth in the kindest way possible and hope for the best.

OCD Man

We have Superman, Batman, Spiderman and many more. The only one that actually exists but we do not count is OCD man. There are many of these type of super heroes. Their super power is doing things over and over again. Making sure things are done a certain way. Not stopping until things are just right. Not only done, but done to perfection. Sometimes, to mere mortal people, there is no rhyme or reason to the tasks he undertakes. That is not for us to question. OCD man has his reasons. Keeping the universe safe and clean. Thanks OCD man.

Saving Days

I have sick days, vacation days and personal days. Each year I try to use them wisely. I never want to be caught without days and have my paycheck docked. Two years ago, I used the last day on December 30th only to wake up on the 31st to a snowstorm. One day away from being safe. This year I used the days sparingly since I was not sure how many I would need when my granddaughter was born. Now, I have an overflow. I am off today and off on Thursday. Then I will not return to work until January. I will spend some of those days in Massachusetts, watching my baby grow. By the time I get back to work, I will have a small taste of retired life. I am already antsy.

The Lines

Even though I have everything I need for the holidays, I still had to go to a few stores yesterday. I had a few coupons for free items and if I did not use them, they would expire. I got what I wanted and then found myself standing on a line that was over 30 people long. Each person's hands were filled with clothes that were intended to be holiday gifts for other people. Their faces looked weary as they shuffled from foot to foot. Then I began to laugh to myself. In two weeks there will be the same line but in reverse. All of the people that received these gifts will be standing on a line, 30 long, shuffling from foot to foot, returning all of the clothes that the people were purchasing for them today.

The Unthinkable

The unthinkable happened yesterday in Newton, Connecticut. Twenty seven innocent people were gunned down for no reason other than one man's insanity. When my son told me the news yesterday afternoon, I had to block it out of my mind in order to enjoy the day with my new granddaughter. The older I get, the more overwhelmed I feel when a tragedy involving children occurs. It is as if I freeze and cannot think of anything else. I helplessly pray for their souls and for their grieving families. I will avoid the television and newspapers for a week as to not have the visuals of the distraught people. If I saw their faces, I would not be able to do anything else all day but cry for them. I will dwell on why things like this are allowed to happen and then I will tell myself that it is G-d's will and we have no right to second guess him, even when we cannot fathom the situation.  I believe in the theory "so it is written...." and find a bit of consolation that maybe we, as humans, are not supposed to understand, but are only supposed to have faith and trust in G-d and know that those 27 people are now in his hands, at peace.

Beautiful Girl

We arrived in Massachusetts and went straight to the hospital to see our new baby. The pictures that my son sent did not do her justice. She is so beautiful with her round little face and beautiful mouth. She slept most of the time and I only saw her eyes opened for a moment. From the moment I stepped my foot into the room, she never left my arms. I held her and fed her and burped her. It has been quite a few years since I held a baby but you never forget. Since she was the first baby born at the hospital on 12/12/12, a newspaper article was written about her. One day old and her name is in print. When we returned to visit again after dinner, she had just received her fist Hep B injection and was quite feisty. As my son held her to calm her down, she opened her eyes and stared into his. She knew that daddy would keep her safe.

She Is Here

Finally, after months of waiting and speculation on "girl or boy", she is here. Seven and a half pounds of pure joy. As my son puts it, "The most beautiful little girl I ever saw". In a few hours, we will be heading to Massachusetts to meet the newest and most important member of our family. She was born on a lucky day, 12/12/12. Her parents will give her a wonderful life. Now my son will finally see how it is to love someone instantly and unconditionally. He will understand why parents act as selflessly as they do. He will understand why, at 31 years old, I still stare at him and cannot believe how much I love him. I know I will cry when I meet my granddaughter. It will be love at first sight.

12/12/12

Once a century this date comes around. There were 11 other matched dates from 2001 on but this will be the last one I will see. I am hoping that this date will hold a special meaning for another reason. As of last night, my daughter in law was in the hospital waiting to give birth. We are hoping to get a call soon, since she went into labor yesterday morning. All I want to hear is my son tell me that we have a healthy baby and mommy. I am too excited to go to work this morning. So is my daughter in law's mother. The grandpa's seem calmer. So for now, it is a waiting game and then tomorrow off we go to Massachusetts.

Choose the Words

When my children were teenagers, I learned a good lesson. Never ask a question that could be answered with a yes or no answer. If you want to get the most out of a limited conversation, you need to choose the right words. Instead of asking, "Did you have a good day at school", ask "What did you do in school today". The first question could have a yes or no answer, while the second question must have specifics. I kept that tip in my mind for all of these years and still use it when I feel it is necessary. Old tricks are the best.

Creativity

I am tired of eating the same foods. Day after day, nothing new, nothing exciting. Years ago some of my friends wanted to do a recipe swap. Each person would write down a few of their favorite dishes and give it to the rest of the group. After much talk, we never did it. I guess we would have liked it better if someone just cooked the dishes and gave it to each other. I decided to look at some cook books to get a few fresh ideas. In the first book, an interesting recipe started off with "parchment paper". I quickly moved onto the next page. If I read the ingredients and they are not things I have in my house, I lose interest. Last night, I opened up my refrigerator and stared at the contents to see if I could create a new dish. I took out croissants, eggs, cheese, corn, zucchini, shallots and asparagus. I pulled apart the croissants and lined a baking dish with them. I pushed them down to make it like a crust. I sauteed all of the veggies. I mixed the eggs and cheese, threw in the veggies and then dumped it onto the croissant crust. I baked it for 45 minutes. It turned out to be one of the best dishes I ever made. Who needs parchment paper when you have day old croissants.

Happy Hanukah

Last night was the first night of Hanukah. I cannot believe how fast the holiday came. Next year, believe it or not, it falls on the day before Thanksgiving! We can have turkey and potato latkes. When I was young, we lit the candles on the stove so it would be safe from starting a fire. Then the electric menorahs came out. They came in two types. The white plastic with the orange lights and the white plastic with the blue lights. I was always a traditionalist so I stuck with the orange lights. Every year as we lit the lights in the front window, we had the debate as to which side should be lit first. Does it go from left to right from inside the house or left to right if you are outside looking in. Left to right from inside is the correct way. Each day additional lights would flicker so we had to make sure they were not screwed in until the correct day. Years later, more modern menorahs were made so now there is a better choice. This year my daughter in law bought a beautiful art deco one. She surprised my son with it. This is a very special menorah, as my daughter in law is not Jewish but she took pride in picking it out for my son. So, happy holidays to all and maybe next year, as the song says, I might be "Spending Hanukah, in Santa Monica, in my sandals, lighting candles, by the sea".

Lost History

Last night my daughter in law came over for dinner. After we ate, we decided to look at picture albums. We wanted to show her our family from the "early years". We went through the old books dating back to 1980. She saw me, at her age. As we were looking at the albums, my husband ran downstairs to the basement and came up with an old tattered album that used to belong to his mother. He wanted us to look at his family history. My mother in law, Gloria, loved family pictures. If you had a picture that she liked, it would disappear from your album and find its way into hers. She used to line up the family and take a picture of "four generations of men" then "four generations of women". I smiled as I told my daughter in law that story. As we looked at Gloria's photos, I realized that I had no idea who most of these people were. I recognized her brothers and their wives and a few random relatives, but all of the others were strangers. If they were in her album, they must have held a special place in her heart. None of the pictures were labeled and when I looked on the back of the photos they were blank. All I had were nameless faces peering at me. Some pictures look like they were taken in the 1920's and were faded and yellow. Ninety years of family history, sitting in a book, lost forever.

Smart Shopping

I am a minimalist. I am the opposite of the expression "go big or go home". I would rather "go small or not at all". I find that to be most true during the holiday season. To me, bigger and more, is not better. The amount I spend on a gift, is in no way reflective of how I feel about you. I never lavished big gifts upon my children. They received nice things but within reason. I was never one to follow the fads. I see now that this philosophy has been ingrained into both of my sons. It bothers me when I see parents filling up their carts in the toy stores, so their children will have an overabundance of gifts to open. It doesn't bother me that they buy the gifts, it just bothers me that a week later, these gifts are put to the side. If you have too much of anything, nothing holds importance. This is just my opinion. I am sure most people will disagree. So, as usual, I will give my family members one gift each, and as usual, they will cherish it.

+1

Our new baby was due to arrive yesterday...or so we thought. (S)he already has a mind or his/her own. No matter what plans the doctors and family have for his/her arrival, our new addition has already let us know who is in the driver's seat. So, we anxiously await the moment when (s)he will decide it is time to enter the world. My bags are packed and my car has a full tank of gas. All I am waiting for is the call.

Sneakers

I was shopping in a sporting goods store over the weekend and wandered into the sneaker department. I did not need new sneakers but I just wanted to see what was out there. When I was young there were two kinds of sneakers. Keds and Converse. Boys mostly wore the Converse. They were goofy looking high tops and only came in black. The girls wore the Keds. The only time we wore sneakers was on gym days and on weekends. On gym days, we were not allowed to wear our sneakers to school. We had to bring them and change into them during gym class. Girls would carry them separately, but boys would tie the sneakers together by their laces and throw them over their shoulders. Now, sneakers are as mainstream as shoes. They are worn everywhere and by everyone. From infants to senior citizens. The thing I find funny is that now there are various types of sneakers. We have running sneakers, walking sneakers, aerobics sneakers, basketball sneaker, jogging sneakers and sitting sneakers. Just joking about the sitting sneakers. Now I have a dilemma. What if someone is out for the day in their walking sneakers and needs to run across the street. Is that illegal?

Sock It To Me

This morning I got up, got dressed and started getting ready to go to work, when it happened. The socks I put on were "malfunctioning". We have all had this happen to us. We put on our socks and shoes and start to go about our normal routine,when we feel one of the socks start to misbehave. It slowly slips under our shoe until our foot is exposed and naked. We take off the shoe, pull up the sock and hope it stays in place. It doesn't. Then we have to make the big decision. Do we take it off, replace it and throw it away. The first time it happens, we take it off and replace it but do not have the heart to throw it out. We think that maybe if we wash it, it will spring back to life. It never does. So, this morning, with a heavy heart, I tossed my misbehaving sock into the garbage. I just hope my husband doesn't think I made a mistake and transfers it into the hamper.

Am I Laughing?

I have a saying that something is not a joke unless both people are laughing. Sometimes people think that they are funny if they ridicule or poke fun at another person. Their defense is, "It was only a joke". A joke amuses two people and if the other person does not find what you are saying funny, it turns from a "joke" into a mean spirited statement. 

Found and Lost

Since I am still missing some gifts that were supposed to arrive by last week, I began to do some research. I finally got the tracking number to one of my smaller purchases. I went to the UPS site and this is what I saw. My package had arrived at the nearest depot, went out for delivery and returned to the depot in one hour. It seems to have taken a 70 minute ride and returned home. Maybe it got car sick. I called UPS and asked them what happened. The woman said, "The package left at 8:42 am and came back at 9:42am". I said I already knew that but wanted an explanation as to why that happened. She was baffled and began to ramble off a few reasons, none of which made any sense. When she was done babbling, I asked her if the package was misplaced. She said, "No, it was just left there". I prodded her a bit more, even though I knew she had no idea what happened. Now I was just entertaining myself. I think that the person who packs the truck forgot to load it and when the truck left, someone noticed it sitting there all alone and reclocked it in. Supposedly it will arrive Monday. I am not taking any bets on it. Now I know why people pay for insurance on packages. If I did not see the tracking log, I never would have believed it!

Uniondale, NY, United States	11/30/2012	9:42 A.M.	The package was left in a UPS facility. / Delivery rescheduled.
	11/30/2012	8:32 A.M.	Out For Delivery
	11/30/2012	4:35 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Stratford, CT, United States	11/30/2012	3:01 A.M.	Departure Scan
Stratford, CT, United States	11/29/2012	10:53 P.M.	Arrival Scan
Warwick, RI, United States	11/29/2012	8:48 P.M.	Departure Scan
	11/29/2012	6:53 P.M.	Origin Scan
United States	11/29/2012	5:22 P.M.	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

UPS and Downs

It is holiday season. The stores are not as busy as previous years because people are buying more online. This past week I ordered three gifts. One was arriving Fed Ex, one UPS and one USPS. As it turns out, one UPS gift was transferred over to USPS for final delivery. I do not understand why the package went from Tennessee to Uniondale and then had to switch carriers. Makes no sense to me since the final destination, my house, is a mile from Uniondale. Bureaucracy. Fed Ex delivered my package but I am still waiting for UPS and USPS. This makes me a bit insecure. Those two carriers like to "drop and run". They toss the package on my front porch and flee like a thief. They scan in that the delivery was made, but no one really knows if it was. For three days I have been on the outlook for my packages. USPS does not have a tracking number and the store I purchased the UPS package from is closed on the weekend and has not yet answered my email requesting verification of shipping. I feel like a truck stalker. I have been reduced to peeking out of my den window for any truck that passes my house. If I do not get the packages by Monday afternoon, I am putting a stop on my credit card. That seems to make everyone move quicker to resolve my dilemma.