State of the Union:

I watched the State of the Union Address last night, and though I am still a big fan of President Obama, I felt a real sense of sadness watching. As one side of the room regularly broke into applause, the other side sat with arms crossed, sometimes scoffing- sometimes looking at each other with disdain for our president. It reminded me of a bunch of middle school kids who are angry at each other for no good reason. They want to "win" even if it means the American public "loses." It's not about what the people want- it's about them. I was already depressed over the Supreme Court ruling that corporations can act as individuals where campaign contributions are concerned. We've become an oligarchy- just like that. Big money is completely in charge. So when I watched our president talk about going forward, and I saw the reaction of the Right, it made me sick to my stomach. How can anyone be against health care reform? How can anyone be against green jobs? How is it that all these people are so brazen as to put their own special interests before the interests of the citizens of this nation. The oil lobby wins. The pharmaceutical industry wins. The insurance companies win. And we lose. I'm afraid there's nothing President Obama or the few politicians who walk their walk can do. And it's so very sad to me.

The New Year is Right Around the Corner

I think I've said before that I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, and that's still true. I think we all should try to lead our best lives all the time, and though I'm not always successful, I do try. However, spending Christmas Eve down at the local homeless shelter brought home to me that I don't do near enough. I remember reading somewhere once that most of us are just one paycheck away from being homeless ourselves, and visiting with the people at the shelter made that very real for me. There were mothers with newborn babies- one of the moms had eight children ranging from early teens to an infant. That could've easily been me. I was lucky. I had the support of friends and family, and if I had ever ended up without a home, I had generous people in my life who, I'm sure, would have taken me in. One father stood on the sidelines, watching his kids play games with our group- a sort of sad smile on his face. One mom asked her son if she could take the gifts we gave him and wrap them so that he would have something to unwrap in the morning. Another young teen was overheard saying he was going to put the skateboard he'd gotten as a gift outside another younger boy's door because he had heard the boy saying how much he wished he'd gotten a skateboard. Here's this kid with just the clothes on his back willing to give away his gift to make another child happy! The generosity of that touched me to my core. I got to come home to my big warm house, and these children were spending the night in the family section of SAMM's Shelter, an emergency shelter where they are expected to get up and leave in the morning. A new shelter called Haven for Hope is in the process of being built, and it's a place where all the services a homeless, jobless person might need will be housed together- places to sleep, a medical clinic, classes, job counseling, psychiatric counseling- everything. And I'm planning to find out what I can do there to help. Watching these little children was heartbreaking, and nobody deserves to be in their situation. Seeing their parents doing the best they can under their circumstances - well, it made me think about those who are against health care reform, those who want to criminalize the poor, those who think they're "better than" because they are wealthy- those who will never understand. So I am making a few New Year's resolutions this year- to DO instead of just talk- to HELP instead of shake my head at the sadness - to BE that best person I can be every day to the best of my ability.

May your new year be the best ever, and may we all be grateful for what we have.

A busy month!

December began with a trip to Virginia for Sofia's fourth birthday. My only granddaughter, she is just adorable! It was a great trip, visiting with Kristinn and Tim and Sofia's big brother, Gabriel, who is 6. We left San Antonio amid reports of a very possible snow in San Antonio, which of course is very rare, and didn't happen- of course. But, the day after it was supposed to snow at home, it actually did snow in Virginia! It was lovely, and just enough to enjoy without getting stranded or stuck. We had Fia's birthday party at Chucky Cheese, with a great time had by all. She was definitely the princess of the party, crown and all! Despite the cold weather, we all got out to the Native American Museum and the Botanical Center, all decked out for the holidays. We also were able to just relax, which is always nice when on vacation. Gabe read to me and is doing very well with that and school in general. He has a very funny sense of humor- so does Sofia for that matter!

Upon returning home, it was back to work to get ready for our Chanukah play- a short revue using 40's music with Chanukah-ish lyrics. With only a few rehearsals, we were able to pull that off at the Latke Cook-off and then were asked for an encore performance at the Chanukah dinner at Temple. It's a pretty silly little show, but we had fun, and the audiences enjoyed it- that's good enough for me.

Eli's high school bowling team remains undefeated, and the biggest news there is that during a match against MacArthur High School, Eli bowled a perfect game- a 300! I'd never seen that happen before, and I have to say, it was pretty exciting. Everyone cheered- even the other team and their coach, and their were hugs all around. Just today at Eli's Saturday youth league, his team got their first place trophies for the first bowling season, and now they have two weeks off until they begin anew. At this moment, he's at the award party for his travel league, and I believe there's another award party on Monday night for the scholarship league. Yes, I spend a lot of time in bowling alleys!

I've got the annual holiday poem finished but am waiting for Alan to add the pictures, so I can send it out. Looking forward to a great year. Happy holidays everyone!

Fun with the Boys

Rachel and the boys were over yesterday, and we had the radio on- playing oldies. Aden wanted us all to dance, so we each had a partner: Alana and Aden, Rachel and Khalil, and Abram with me. We danced a slow song, twirling and moving around the living room; and then a fast song came on, so someone said, "With this kind of music, you have to shake your booty," so we did. Aden and Abram were hilarious- shaking booties and laughing. We all got to laughing so hard it's a wonder nobody had an accident. Later, Aden asked me to sing the "Tree Song." Remember it from Captain Kangaroo? Grandpop used to get us singing it in the car, too. "...the hole in the ground and the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around." Over the years, we've added our own verses, so that now it goes all the way to the "prettiest dandruff that you ever did see..." (after the hair on the wart, and the wart on the flea, and the flea on the feather, and the feather on the wing, and the wing on the bird, and the bird in the egg, and the egg in the nest, and the nest on the twig, and the twig on the branch, and the branch on the tree, and the tree on the root, and the root in the hole, and the hole in the ground...") And we always have to sing it twice. Once that was over, Aden said, "Sing the WART song, Bubbe," and I said I didn't know the WART song, but he insisted because he knows if he insists, I'll make up a silly song, so we sang a song about Aunt Alana with a wart on her butt who had to go to the doctor to get the wart cut, cut right off her butt butt. Rachel loves it when I do this, by the way...haha. I can't think of anything more fun than dancing and singing songs with my grandchildren. I am one lucky Bubbe!

Poor Neptune!

It was bound to happen. Neptune, the Boston terrier, loves to chase Sazoo, the 25 pound cat. Usually Sazoo runs from him and goes through the kitty door into the garage, but about two years ago, Neptune cornered him, and Sazoo swiped him, tearing his left eye. Surgery followed that, and Tune has since had limited vision in that eye. Well, the Tunester is a slow learner and has continued to torment the big fat cat. Saturday night I got home and noticed his OTHER eye was squinty. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was very red, but he seemed to be doing ok- until Aden threw a ball to me, Neptune got in the way, and the ball hit him in the eye. Needless to say, there was a trip to the vet today, and it looks like his eye will be saved but most likely his sight will not. Dr. Hill says the other eye is developing a cataract and that he will soon be blind in both eyes, but that blind dogs do very well since they don't have the psychological issues we people have. Now, how can anyone know that? Maybe at this very moment, Neptune is sitting in his kennel at the vet's office saying, "Damn- I can't see a thing, and this really sucks." I felt terrible leaving him because he hates to stay at the vet's, but there was no choice. I'll pick him up tomorrow to the "tune" of $450.00. Sazoo, in the meantime, is walking around like he owns the place. I wonder how he'll feel about his new job as a seeing eye cat.

Smarties!

I spent the morning with Aden and Khalil while Rachel took Abram to his music class. Aden loves to "play school," so Rachel makes flashcards for him, and while I was there, he got out his flashcards and asked me to "do them" with him. He whizzed through all of the words until he came to "PHONE," at which time he stopped and said, "Bubbe, did you know that a p and an h together make a sound like f? P-h-o-n-e spells phone!" He also has words like "tizzy" and "wailing," and he knows them all. Then he got out his magnadoodle and wanted me to spell "ambulance" for him, which he promptly wrote down. Khalil, in the meantime, at 3 months old is rolling over and trying to crawl. He didn't fuss at all- this was the first time ever Rachel's left him, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I shouldn't have been worried. He is interested in everything around him and just squeals with delight when Aden or I interact with him. When Abram and Rachel got back, Abram told me all about a little roach he saw and how "cool" it was...he likes to capture bugs, examine them and then let them go. Wonder who he takes after???? :)

L'shanah Tovah!

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is right around the corner, and it's a time for us to reflect on the past year and think about what we'll do differently in the new. I've been feeling like good things are coming for some time now, and that's intensifying as the high holy days get closer. Last weekend was S'lichot, the official beginning of these days of awe, and I had the distinct pleasure of putting my play, Ben's Gift, on for the congregation at Temple Beth-El. I was also one of the actors, and I've noticed as I get older, it's more and more difficult to learn lines- especially when there are so many of them! Thank goodness for a patient director! Thankfully also, the play went over very well. Rabbi Block held a question/answer session afterwards. He asked, "What was Ben's gift?" and I was shocked and delighted by the numerous responses- some I hadn't even thought of myself! I received a very meaningful e-mail from Rabbi the next day, so it seems the show was a success.

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the afternoon with Aden and Abram. We went to Barnes and Noble to hear a storyteller, and I let them each pick out a book to buy. Abram went straight to the shelf with the teenager books on it and took the biggest Harry Potter book he could find. He's TWO. I convinced him that that particular book was probably one that needed to wait a few years, so he ended up finding a large Harry Potter coloring book. Alana bought both boys wands awhile back, so Abram runs around the house with his Harry Potter sweater on, pointing the wand and saying, "Expeliarmus!" Aden is much more laid back and found a Sesame Street book to buy. Then one of them spotted some stuffed dragons, so of course we bought those too. From there- off to McDonald's to play and home with two tired out little guys.

The following is a very short poem inspired by the play:

Bubbe

The fireflies of her memories
light and dim the way
I was her mother yesterday
today, her granddaughter
once she called me Tootie,
a long ago friend
flickers of her life that was
as it fades slowly away