You know how you spend an entire Saturday complaining about how you didn’t get the house cleaned up like you wanted to, and then your neighbor calls and talks to your seventeen-year-old, telling him that they have a minor family emergency and could he grab the spare key that you keep at your house and go to her place to shut off the Crock Pot, and then after he says “Sure, no problem” and hangs up, NOBODY CAN FIND THAT KEY ANYWHERE because it never got hung up on the key rack after you let their dogs out the last time they needed you, and after ripping apart nearly everything…
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Proud Moments In Parenting
I was always adamant when the boys were little that I wasn’t going to be one of those moms who always put the kids’ music on in the car. I mean, we had a couple of cassettes (YES, I SAID CASSETTES: my boys were little in the 90’s.) that were in the genre of Children’s Music–and by “a couple”, I literally mean “two”–but for the most part the soundtrack for our time in the car was made up of Top 40 radio and tunes from the 1980’s and early 1990’s. I figured that the boys would grow to like whatever music we listened to, and I was right. Of course,…
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Jingle All The Way
Though I was born Jewish, I have celebrated Christmas in addition to Hanukkah at different times in my life. I should mention that by the words “celebrating Christmas”, I mean “celebrating the secular parts of the holiday”. When we were kids, my sister and I got stockings every year*. We would’ve had a Christmas tree too, had our mom been able to talk our dad into it, but he wouldn’t even go for a Hanukkah bush** and so we had to settle for Aunt Jemima. Our uncle married our aunt (duh), who was not Jewish (still isn’t), so we used to make the trek to their house for the Christmas…
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On Crossed Wires
It’s super funny when you and your sister make a date to go to a friend’s house for lunch and cotton candy on a dreary, rainy Saturday, and this phone conversation happens: *ring ring* Jen: Hello? Me: Hi! So…is 11:30 okay? My sister asked me what time we were doing lunch and when I told her 11:00, she thought that meant we were leaving at 11:00 but *I* meant that we had to be there by 11:00, and due to that misunderstanding we’re running a little late this morning. So is 11:30 okay? Jen: Uh… Me: No? Is 11:30 a problem? Jen: Uh…*I* had 12:30. Me: OH! 12:30? Okay, that’s…
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Speeding Its Way Across The Globe Like Ryan Gosling, Just In Time For Halloween
D called me a couple of weeks ago to ask for my assistance in ordering a vital part his Halloween costume from an eBay seller. His college, like most others, has lots of fun activities going on for the holiday and he’s cared more about his costume in the last couple of years than he has since he was about eleven years old. “Sure,” I said, “What are you going to be this year?” “The Driver from the (Ryan Gosling) movie ‘Drive’.” I haven’t yet seen the movie so I had to go off of his excitement–and my sister’s enthusiastic endorsement of his idea–as I opened up my laptop to…