I Feel Bad About My Neck

I opened the paper this morning to an unexpected obituary - Nora Ephron.  I feel like I knew her, even though of course we had never met.  She was the me I wished I was (although there is nothing wrong with the real me) - smart, sassy, beyond talented, approachable, down-to-earth and of course, a Maven.  Oh I enjoyed her silly stories and screenplays like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Julie and Julia" with the rest of the world but when someone writes a bit of their personal story you feel like they have offered themselves to you as a friend and, as they say, opened the kimona. 

So it was for me when I read "I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman".  I remember bits and pieces from it (I read it four years ago) like "after a certain age you will be unable to avoid getting a tummy no matter what you do or how thin you are" and "hair dye is your best friend". 

Her best advice?
Don't learn how to iron or someone will make you do it.
Don't eat anything that's not worth eating.
You know as much about investing your money as they do.
Marry a man who was unhappily married to his first wife for 17 years.
Get a dog.
And sadly, Life is too short.

Very Brave

Victoria and I took Kyra to see Brave last night.  Only for Kyra would I venture into Miami, into the Aventura Mall, a busy, noisy, overcrowded throng of humanity dressed in designer duds and upscale acessories.  But I digress...

Brave is a little girl's Disney fairy tale - the heroine is a cute and funny Princess (what little girl isn't?) and it comes with a witch, a spell, a faithful horse and loving parents.  But am I I the only one who noticed? - there is no handsome Prince!  Not even a hint that one is waiting on the sidelines.  In fact, one of the themes is "I am OK alone".  

Beauty has her Beast.  Cinderella has her Prince Charming. Snow White has whats-his-name.  Mulan has Mushu. Ariel has Prince Eric. Jasmine has Aladdin.  Brave little Merida has herself, her skill with a bow and arrow, and her guts.  This is something new.

And a valuable message for little 21st century girls...  

;-)

DIY

Scott on the roof circa 1992

I confess, if given a choice I prefer to Do It Myself.  This comes from two things: I think I can do it better and I am somewhat of a cheapskate.  I do know my limitations however and would never attempt something like wallpapering or extracting an ingrown toenail (luckily I have never had the latter). Cutting my own hair is also out (although trimming my bangs is fine).  I used to cut our grass on the riding mower in Illinois but the Florida heat and cheap labor makes that a silly proposition here. 

Hubby is very talented in all things homeowner so we once tackled several DIY projects ourselves including drywall and recessed lighting.  But when Scott turned 12 he became the helper of choice. Together they built a sauna, remodeled the attic, built an arbor over the deck and countless other weekend warrior projects.

Now Scott is a homeowner himself.  He can and has built and rebuilt homes (including his current one) from the ground up.  I am so proud that he lends his skills to friends, neighbors and Habitat for Humanity.  And I am especially fond of saying that the student has surpassed the master!

;-)

Mess of Trouble

I confess, I like Bounty and Tide as much as the next person but c'mon on, stealing $400. worth of the stuff?  It took the folks at the Boca Raton CVS a little longer to discover the crime, perhaps because they could not believe anyone would fill up a shopping cart with Bounty and Tide and saunter out of the store without paying for such mundane items. 

I do hear Tide is a hot commodity on the black market.  I can understand this because I certainly cringe when I pay three times as much for it over other (albeit inferior) products. 

Shoplifting is crime and it scares the bejesus out of me.  I believe this was instilled in me at an early age when Dad told me the story of Jean Valjean, who stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and niece and spent decades in prison for that crime. The story of course went on to morph into the wildly successful "Les Miserables" whose ticket price constitutes another brand of "highway robbery". 

Haha just kidding  ;-)

Good Stuff

It's morning and I am feeling good.  The sun looks like it will be out today so the kids will have a good day in Florida.  I'm leaving soon for some medical tests but they are just routine.  Victoria gave me a matched set of all three "Fifty Shades of Grey" books plus two new plastic flamingos for the yard and the kids (even Carter) can say "Bubbe" so I am feeling loved.  Not to mention the three boxes of Girl Scout cookies they shlepped from Chicago ;-)

Ok so the scale has not been co-operating lately and I need to watch the consumption of said Girl Scout cookies and tonight's dinner at Le Tub but hey, all-in-all it's a pretty sweet deal.

Life is Good.

The Kids Are Coming!

The kids - Scott, Victoria, Kyra and Carter - are arriving today for 8 great days!  I am secretly amazed and astounded that of all the places they could go and things they could do they still want to spend the greatest part of their vacation time-off with us and that they go through all the hassle and expense of getting here and renting a van big enough for the six of us.  OK so I get that Florida is a fun place and the beach condo is not exactly skid-row but c'mon, in June?  Hahaha!

When my folks moved to Florida in 1979 I dutifully came to visit every year.  Honestly, it was more of an obligation that anything resembling "fun". So I am determined that my god-kids are going to have the bestest time every time they visit. 

We will go to the Everglades Holiday Park and ride on an airboat through the swamp and see live alligator wrestling!  We will visit the Miami Seaquarium and the Miami Zoo!  We'll rent Segways on Fort Lauderdale beach and eat at the Food Truck Invasion at the Hollywood Arts Park!  Stuff ourselves at Jaxson's and Le Tub!  I'll babysit while the kids have a night out at the Seminole Hard Rock and I'll take Kyra to see Brave! 

Then when they leave I'll collapse!  ;-)

The American Dream

If you listen to the news a lot (which I find myself doing less and less of) you might wonder if the American Dream is kaput.  I don't know for sure but I seriously doubt it. 

It takes a lifetime of hard work to achieve the American Dream (or any version of it).  It takes never letting your guard down when you're up and picking yourself up when you're down.  Having a "plan" is less important than being willing to adapt and to learn and try new things. Sometimes you have to "re-invent" yourself and sometimes you have to do it several times. Pick the right life-partner and your Dream is 7/8 complete already.

I guess that is what I would say to new graduates if I were giving one of those many commencement addresses  ;-)

Dream On!

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

I love it when I can say "I read the book" way before the rest of the world first discovers it in movie form.

The book will be hard to top (You WILL Believe!) but I think Tim Burton (although I am not usually his biggest fan) will do a bang-up job on this one.  While staying true to Lincoln's actual history - I know because I followed up by reading Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Lincoln" - this story injects a secret life to an Abraham Lincoln we never knew.

Caution - SPOILER!!

The book ends with Lincoln still "alive" today.  If this is true, I'm pretty sure I saw him on the NBA basketball court   ;-)

Can't wait until Friday when it's in theaters!

Vote for Dick

OK, I bet 99.9% of folks do not have a clue who the City Commissioner from their district is, but having worked for the City of Hollywood for twelve years I am acutely (painfully?) aware of local politics.  There are only three or four of our local elected officials I would not classify as complete nincompoops but fortunately one of them is my own District 4 Commissioner, Richard "Dick" Blattner.

Dick is member of our Temple and the "voice of reason" when tough issues come up at the Commission meetings.  You can tell he actually reads the back-up material provided by the ubiquitous "staff" (I used to be one).

So last night in my new role as retiree (not something I could have done as an employee) I volunteered to assist him in his bid for re-election (Lord knows why he wants this thankless job) and do battle against the upstart challenger, a Lake Worth fire-fighter who is using his mother's address as his Hollywood residence.  It was interesting to hear Dick's campaign manager, Marty Gould (a James Carville look-alike) dissect the precincts of District 4, their previous voting records and tell us FOD (Friends of Dick) what needs to be done in terms of campaigning.

My part?  I'm going to host a meet-and-greet for Dick with my neighbors & make calls to folks who have requested absentee ballots  ;-)

Happy Together

I had a great time last night at the fabulous Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, almost walking distance from our house.  For a little while I was back in the 60s, back in the Summers of Love, the greatest time ever to be young, to look forward to the future, to listen to music on the AM radio or on little plastic records, to hang with friends and flirt those oh-so-handsome young men. 

People say it was a simpler time and it must be true if the music of those days tells the story: silly songs of love (yummy, yummy, yummy, I have love in my tummy) to songs of deep relationship heartache (kind of a drag when your baby don't love you).

Where did the years go?  I had them back for a few hours last night...

Dose of Happiness

My late BFF had a niece, Lindsay.  I babysat for her once ;-)  but only through Facebook have I come to feel I actually know this amazing young woman.  Her blog, "Dose of Happiness" is terrific.  I hope this recent college graduate can soon find meaningful work in her chosen field, Communications and Media, because she certainly has the talent, beauty and drive to succeed in it.

This is a screenprint of her blog.  Do you think I am slightly prejudiced because she is a dead ringer for my angel Sheryl?  Nahhhhh!

Go Lindsay!

Wedding Album

I am so proud of myself!  I made a photobook!  Not as easy as it sounds when you have an old wedding album - almost 43 years - with 85 yellowing 4x6 pictures in jackets encased in plastic.

I had to dig the pictures out, scan them into the computer, try to edit the yellow out with Photoshop, crop the junk like the lamps and wall sockets out (the photographer was not the best I guess) and use the really cool features of the online software to artfully arrange the photos and include meaningful captions and quotes and "stickers".  I also added new pictures of our Ketubah and the wedding invitation.

What a trip down memory lane!  Seeing my Canadian relatives minus 43 years, my Mom and Dad, old friends, and sadly, folks that are no longer with us.

Can't wait to see the finished product when it arrives in a couple of weeks!   

The Butterfly Effect

Ray Bradbury, science fiction author (and predictor of the future?) died this week at 91.  He is responsible for the term “butterfly effect” which was coined from his novel The Sound of Thunder in which a man on a safari steps on and crushes a butterfly thus causing a drastic change on the future.

How serendipitous that I am reading (listening to) Stephen King's latest opus, "11/22/63".  It has a similar theme - how a well-meaning time traveler drastically distorts the future by performing a seemingly "good" act, in this case averting the assassination of JFK.

So do bad things really happen for a reason that is beyond our understanding?  When calamity strikes good people does it mean the way has been paved for something better? 

Luckily our only way of altering the future is to make the best choices we can today...

The Dissertation

For several years I worked diligently for beaucoup hours on nights and weekends assisting hubby on The Dissertation.  I learned about constructs, sampling sizes, constructural frameworks, relationships between variables, data analysis methodologies, test design, confounding variables, box plots, histograms and P-P plots. 

The result for hubby was a solid career doing something he always wanted to do - teaching college - with hopefully many more years of rewarding work ahead.

And for me?  I am the recipient of a handsome engraved plaque, one of the very nicest gifts I've ever received.  It reads:

EVELYN GOLD

for outstanding service

in support of her

husband Stuart Gold while

completing his doctorate

You've gone above and

beyond, given your best

and provided love

support and assistance

without which a PhD

would still be a dream and

not a reality for Dr. Gold



Grief

Sheryl's yartzeit was yesterday, June 5th.  I plugged in the little memorial light into the electric socket, I said Kaddish for her last Friday night, I posted our pictures on Facebook with a message to the world that I still missed her and always would.  I called her widower and thought of her throughout the day. 

There is so little we can do to assuage our grief for a lost loved one.  We can give to charities or form a new one in their honor.  Put a plaque up on the Shul wall or buy a brick with their name.  Dedicate our next big accomplishment to them or tattoo their name on our body.  Make a pile of teddy bears and candles by the roadside or in front of their house.  Write a eulogy or a song or a poem. Go to grief counseling sessions with other bereaved folks.  Cry.

In our lives there will be times of profound sadness.  But I believe each of these times will be balanced by times of white-light joy and blessings bordering on miracles.

Thanks Sheryl, for the miracle of my 40 years with you.

Treasures

I ventured a little further from home and checked out the newer, bigger, better Goodwill store in Pembroke Pines today.  Their stenciled window signs promise a "treasure trove" of great stuff with "new treasures arriving daily".  Of course, today was the perfect day for this small adventure as it is 15% off senior citizen Tuesday.  I, of course, qualify.

Unlike the other Goodwill and the nearby Salvation Army (which has a musty smell) this newer, bigger and better Goodwill has oodles of new merchandise with the original store tags.  I scored a pair of cute shorts (not too short, not too long, with nice deep pockets like I like), brand new sunglasses and a brand new Hanes-Her-Way bra.  Wonderful stuff for only $6.74 including tax.

The moral?  It pays to venture a little farther?  I had forgotten the simple pleasure of the big score?  I've been overpaying for stuff lately?

I think I'll choose "new treasures arrive daily". 

;-)

God Save The Queen

The world is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  It is good to see that grand old lady - 86 and counting - and her 91 year old Prince Charming still so vibrant and regal and beloved.              

So what does this momentous occasion mean to me?  Well, after her coronation, the Queen made the rounds of ummm, the Entire World, and included a brief visit to Chicago.  My father, considering this a not-to-be-missed opportunity, let me play hooky for a day and see the Queen presented with the Key to the City by Mayor Daley (the original) at the Grant Park amphitheatre.  Since I remember the event, it had to be a few years after the actual coronation - I had to be at least 8 years old. This lovely souvenir of the day was available, and as you can see, it is not some shlocky plastic doo-dad that would be an acceptable souvenir if such pageantry were held today.

Thank you Dad, for the souvenir and for the day downtown with my Dad. You were The Best.



. 

Field Trip

Today will include a pleasant visit to the Boca Raton Museum of Art and lunch at one of the quaint outdoor cafes at Mizner park, home of upscale shopping, dining and entertainment. How genteel! How civilized! The "good life"! 

Or at least that's how I always pictured the good life.  Yep, ever since I was a small child I equated the many Chicago museums to magical kingdoms (forget Disneyland) filled with exotic treasures beyond my imagination.  The Field Museum of Natural History!  The Chicago Art Institute!  The Museum of Science and Industry!  Even the Shedd Aquarium.  I would get on the CTA and take myself to those places even without a friend to accompany me.  An unheard of expedition for a child in this day and age!  I'd even save on a transfer fare by walking from downtown, through Grant Park, to the Field Museum (my favorite).

I dreamt of an uber-sophisticated future where I'd be able to go as often as I wished and have lunch at an "artistic" cafe with congenial companions.  And today is the day!

;-)

11/22/63

I'm reading (listening to) Stephen King's  new novel 11/22/63.  The premise: A secret portal to September 9, 1958 exists.  You can go and stay there as long as you want and return to the exact same time you left.  But you will age if you stay there.  An erstwhile time traveler stays four years in the hope of making it to 11/22/63 and diverting the assassination of JFK.  But he comes down with terminal lung cancer while he is living in the past.  He returns to the present to convince a young English teacher to go back in time to complete the mission. 

If this was your mission would you choose to accept it?  I certainly would if I could go back and stop Hitler and World War Two or if I could avert the Viet Nam war or 9/11/2001. 

And while I was there doing whatever needed to be done to save the world I'd buy a few shares of IBM, Coca-Cola and McDonalds!