We just had a whirlwind weekend in Tennessee, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of my parents’ wedding. To mark the occasion, they decided to renew their vows, and it was really so sweet. The Fab Five (Jim, D, J, my sister and me) made the trek from Chicago—we wouldn’t have missed it!—and we were thrilled to be a part of it all. There were twenty-six of us filling the living room in the home of my parents’ good friends from their temple. Jim, D, J, and my uncle held the poles for the chuppah and my parents’ rabbi performed the ceremony. My parents held hands the majority of the time, my…
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So Glad She Was Born.
It’s Momo’s birthday today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMO! (More on that later!) As I skimmed through the thousands of assorted pictures I have stored in my computer (aaaand backed up, thankyouverrrrymuch) to find a good one of the two of us, I reflected on our friendship of more than six years, which in internet time is, like, FOREVER, and I came to some realizations, too. Realization #1: When choosing from all the pictures ever taken of the two of us, I will almost always fall back on the one that was taken in the summer of 2009 at the bar across the street from the Sears Tower during the epic three-dollar…
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Absolute Proof That Time Flies.
I know it’s something we say all the time, but I can tell you without a doubt that time flies because I know it was only yesterday that this happened: Wasn’t it??? And then suddenly, this past Sunday, this happened: That’s right. It’s been four whole years since I was wondering how this house would feel when our older son left for college and it was just the three of us, and now we’re already a year into being empty nesters. D’s graduation from college over the weekend (Mom brag: graduation from college with honors!) was lovely. It was a proud day for our entire family, and I watched in…
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Separated At Birth, But This Day Is All Hers.
As I have grown older, I have gotten really good at counting my blessings. (If you don’t do this on a regular basis, I highly recommend it!) One such blessing—one of the biggest!—is my sistuh-from-anuthuh-muthuh, my chosen family, Liz. I know I mention her in about 42.67% of my posts these days, but that should give you a pretty good idea of how important she is to me. By the way, that percentage will continue to grow because I haven’t even written about last week’s visit to her house yet. Anyway. We met online, which doesn’t sound as weird today as it did a few years ago, and I thank…
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A Gift For Emily.
It’s the end of an era. Tonight I took my last Zumba class for the foreseeable future and possibly forever. My instructor friend, Emily, is moving to Australia in a couple of weeks and tonight was our last hurrah. I’ve been taking Emily’s classes for more than three and a half years now. When I started, she had only been teaching for about nine months and classes were held at a local dance studio three times each week, and I was there for most of those. After a few months, she moved to the YMCA and taught three or four classes each week, and I followed. A couple of years…
- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Favorite Things, Fun in Chicago, I've Got Mad Skillz, My Friends Have Mad Skillz, Pretty Pictures
Listen To Your Mother Chicago 2014: Wow, That Was Quick!
It’s been a full week (eight days, actually!) since the show, and I can’t even believe THAT, let alone the fact that the 2014 season, our THIRD season in Chicago, flew by faster than a…what is one of those cute southern sayings? These last two weeks, in fact, have flown by faster than a…never mind. I can’t think of anything. QUICKLY. They went by QUICKLY. In the last two weeks Tracey and I drove to Milwaukee to see that show, we put on our own show, we drove to Valparaiso to see the NWIndiana show, and yesterday I drove up to Madison, where it all began five years ago, to…
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Donna Day 2014: Bringing Awareness To Childhood Cancer
It’s that time again: today is Donna Day, a day on which I am joining a huge group of bloggers in trying to create some waves regarding childhood cancer. Donna Day is named for the daughter of my friend (and 2013 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO cast member) Sheila Quirke, who blogs under the name Mary Tyler Mom. Sheila and her husband Jeremy, who also have two young sons, lost their beloved Donna in 2009. Donna’s Cancer Story is documented in a series of thirty-two posts that Sheila wrote. Their story is hard to read but I think it’s so important to read anyway. No family should have to go…
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I Just Helped Give Birth to 13 Babies And I’m Exhausted.
After an anxious, emotional (understatement), and sleepless (mostly) weekend of laboring, Tracey and I finally gave birth to thirteen bouncing baby girls. Well, adult girls. And we’ve both already lost all of our pregnancy weight! Amazing, right? The cast of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO 2014 was announced today (by us, the proud parents). I might have even sent LTYM Founder and National Director Ann Imig a text asking, “If LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO is Tracey’s and my baby, would that make you the grandmother?” Maybe I sent that text. (I did.) I am so glad that the hardest part of our season is over, and now it’s onward…
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Our Gang Was Her Gang, But That’s All I Know.
Shirley Temple died a couple of days ago at the age of 85. The news of her passing (from “natural causes”) was sad, naturally, and I spent some time that morning contemplating what I know about her life. First of all, she was one of the most famous child stars of all time, making more than sixty films (features and shorts) over a seventeen-year period. Her most famous song? This one. After working in television during the 1950’s and 1960’s, she left show business and became politically active, eventually becoming a U.S. Ambassador. She was a breast cancer survivor. I posted this on Facebook, after reading about her death: A…
- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, I'm Apparently Old., My Kid Has Mad Skillz, Proud Moments
A Simple Birthday Message
For J, who turns nineteen today… I knew I wanted to write a post on your birthday, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to say. I kind of wanted to say that I can’t believe you are nineteen already but that, although true, sounds overdone. I definitely wanted to write about how I have just one more year of saying I have a teenaged kid, but that’s stating the obvious… I was going to write that I am so proud of the young man you have become. You’re a caring, thoughtful, and responsible person, and I couldn’t ask for any more than that. You care about your school…