Cinco De Mayo

Today is May 5th. Cinco De Mayo. My granddaughter's Christening. A day of celebration for my family. This will be the first Christening I will be attending, as I am Jewish. I will be proud to stand in the church as she is Baptized. I have my own personal beliefs when it comes to religion. I believe that there is only one God. The way we worship him is either inherited from our parents or the way we feel most comfortable showing our devotion. It is better to bring up a child in one parent's religion, than to bring them up without any affiliation. I never agreed with the theory of letting a child pick their religion when they are older. That would mean that they spend their childhood missing out spiritually. People may not agree with me, but I feel strongly about this. So today, God will look down on my beautiful granddaughter and bless her. What could be wrong about that?

Traveling

It is a beautiful morning and we are on our way to New England to see out granddaughter. Nothing is nicer than taking a long ride on a beautiful morning, especially when you know who awaits you at the destination. I haven't seen her in person since February and cannot wait to hold her. We have Skype visits, so I am hoping that we look familiar to her. This weekend I will have the pleasure of holding both my grandchildren. Last night I held the newborn in the NICU, for the first time. The nurse asked if I would like to hold him and I almost said no. He is so small and I was afraid. My heart said yes, before my mind said no. It was a joy to have him in my arms. He looks bigger in the isolette than he feels in your arms. His head is the size of an orange. He opened his eyes and looked at me as I held him. His eyes wandered around the room as people were speaking and I was amazed to see how tuned in he was to his little world. After about five minutes, I gave him back to the nurse to feed. As we left the hospital, we went by the nursery and looked at the full term babies through the glass. They looked humongous, like baby hulks. I guess my perspective has been totally thrown off.

Big Weekend

There are many things going on this weekend. Today is my anniversary. This is also the weekend that the Kentucky Derby runs and this year Cinco De Mayo falls out on Sunday. The best thing that is happening, is that I will be spending the weekend in New England visiting my children. They are having a party in honor of my granddaughter. This will be a much needed get away as there has been so much going on in the past few weeks. I feel like there is a cement brick weighing down my head. Part of the worrying is real and the other part is self inflicted. I was born a worrier. I am all packed and ready to go. The weather is going to be picture perfect. I hope time moves slowly as I want to enjoy every second of the next few days.

Sweet Pea

I visited my grandson at the hospital last night. I had not seen him in a few days and he looked wonderful. The tubes were out of him and my daughter in law was able to hold him for about an hour. I never took my eyes off of him and the time flew. The nurses in the NICU are wonderful. Each one is pleasant and soft spoken. When we sit there, it is quieter than a library. Very calm and relaxing. After an hour, the baby's hands got cold so he needed to be put back into the isolette. The nurse came and took him out of my daughter in laws arms and rested him back in his bed. As she put him down, she said, "See you later, Sweet Pea". Then she turned around and said,, "I call my little ones Sweet Pea. When they get bigger, I call them Buddy". It seemed so nice that she uses endearing names for the babies. I cannot wait until he becomes her Buddy.

Beige Sneakers

Old men wear beige sneakers. No one else buys them. For some reason if you look at an elderly man's feet, you will probably see beige sneakers. Look at all other men's feet and you will see that everyone else wears white or black. Younger men wear purple, green or orange. This fact holds true from state to state. I have seen it in New York. I have seen it in Florida. I have seen it in New Jersey. I cannot say whether or not this holds true for Europe. I would have to ask an international traveler. So for now, I can only confirm American men.

HIPAA

For the past 12 years, the word Hipaa has been tossed around. No one really know what it is or what it stands for, or even why we need it. The acronym means Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act. It first started off as being a way to protect your privacy when it came to health records. Years ago, anyone could call a doctor and ask about your medical conditions. Now that information can only be released to the people or companies you have given permission to have it. That is, providing your doctor's staff does its job. Somehow Hipaa has morphed out into the mainstream world. Every day I receive mail from credit card companies, Verizon, LIPA, my oil company and other unnamed businesses. They all send a four page letter saying how they are protecting my privacy. We all get these letters, but who has really reads them? I bet no one. If all of the places I do business with are protecting my privacy, how are solicitors getting my information to call and annoy me?

The Man Chair

Most retail stores are built around a psychological mind frame. Items are moved around weekly. It may only be a subtle move, but it is done for a reason. It makes you go into different areas looking for an item that you wanted, but did not buy the previous week. I have recently noticed a new addition to most major stores. I call it the "man chair". I first noticed it a few years back in Florida and it is moving up the east coast. It is a line of chairs located at the front of the store right after the cashier. They are designed to keep a man calm and a woman in the store longer. They are located on the outskirts of the store so the man never gets to see exactly where his wife is. This allows for more shopping time without arguing. If the man is kept "docile and content",  his wife will have time to browse and try on items. Now that I think about it, it is almost like a hitching post. Tie up an animal in front until you need it for transportation later on.