Amber's Journey

I don't know Amber and I have no idea who posted a link to her new page on Facebook.  I "like" very few pages to avoid having to wade through any more FB posts than I already do every day.  But I was intrigued by her quest to get from 400 pounds to healthy and could not resist liking her page on Day One of its existence.

I love success stories, especially stories that feature an underdog who prevails against almost impossible odds.  Losing hundreds of pounds without surgery certainly qualifies.  I'm cheering for this young lady who is trying to encourage others as well as keep herself motivated.

Yes Amber, it is never too late to change your life.

;-)

Oil Change

We took the car in to Pep Boys for an oil change on Sunday.  I know better than to go by myself and see mechanics' eyes light up and not because I am so good looking.  I am happy to let hubby navigate the maze of viscosity, oil filters, drain plug washers, top and bottom mount cartridge filters and other stuff I have zero interest in learning about.

But I can read signs and this one, which attempted to compare Pep Boy prices to other local chains, clearly stated that the tire rotation was Free.  Free means no charge, right?  Apparently it means something different at Pep Boys. 

So I sent a complaining e-mail to the Customer Service address on the Pep Boys website.  I am waiting to hear back.  Hubby asked why do I bother?  I told him it's who I am.  I hate social injustice and I severely dislike being duped or mislead. 

I remember our old "salad days" when hubby would save money by changing the oil himself, lying on the ground with the car up on little lifts.  Scary!  Thankfully those days are over and I guess I can even spring a little extra for the tire rotation.

;-)

Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama,
 
You are always saying that "the most fortunate among us" should be paying "our fair share" (more).  I'm pretty sure hubby and I qualify to be in this "lucky" group so I would like to share a few tips on how many others (if not most people) can also attain the level where they too can pay more in taxes.

1. Get good grades in high school.  This will get you some kind of financial support for college. Save your birthday gifts, earnings from babysitting and any other income for college. Forget owning your own car at 16.

2. Live at home and commute to a local state university.  Walk the three miles (like I did) to save bus fare.  Try and get your textbooks from the library, buy them used or share with a classmate. Take the hardest classes you think you can pass because those are what employers need. Bring your own snacks.

3. When you marry (or cohabit) use birth control.  Share a single car with your partner.  Eat beans, pasta, hot dogs and whatever else is on sale.  Take the relatives' used furniture and other usable stuff that's been discarded. Check the thrift shops weekly.

4. Pay your bills on time and in full every month.  Build your credit score.  Save one salary and live on the other.  Max out 401K and IRA contributions every year.  Decide on what's important to you both and prioritize.

5. Do the very best job you can at work.  Keep vigilant about opportunities for advancement either in or out of your current company.  Take a risk.  Keep your skills up-to-date. 

Do all this and barring a truly awful turn of events by the time you are as old as me you will have safely weathered many financial storms and career setbacks.  You will be proud of your accomplishments and your strong relationship with your partner.  You will have few regrets, if any.

And best of all, you will qualify as "wealthy" and thus able to pay more taxes to help support those folks who did none of the above!

Yom HaShoah 2013



Gittel Silverstein Rabinowitz

This is a repeat,slightly modified...



Today is Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance commemorating the Holocaust, the most heinous crime ever committed against humanity in the history of the world.

The Holocaust is never far from my mind. It is built into everything I am and it haunts the deepest reaches of my psyche. Whenever I do hard physical work, I remind myself that it is nothing compared to what my people were forced to endure. I will not buy anything made in Germany or from a German company if I can possibly avoid it. I will not (cannot) watch movies depicting Jewish torture and suffering. Visiting Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. brought me to tears. I am filled with emotion thinking of my three living relatives who bear tattoos on their arms, and of my Aunt Gittel, her husband Ben Tzion Rabinowitz and their daughter Rifka who were murdered at death camps. I pray every Friday night (well almost every Friday night) for all who perished without anyone to say Kaddish for them.My only comforting thought, my only way of mitigating this horror, is to think it took 6 million lives to establish today's State of Israel and end our long exile in foreign countries.   A homeland for the Jewish people is built upon their ashes. 

May their names forever be a blessing.

Siskel and Ebert

Roger Ebert passed away yesterday, two days after announcing he would be taking a "leave of presence" and that from now on he would be reviewing only the movies he wanted. 

To their movie-loving public, and especially to us Chicagoans, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were beloved icons. 

I awoke last night to the sound of thunder, lightning and howling winds.  Siskel and Ebert must have been enjoying a 3-D action flick!

;-)

Israel 101

I'm trying a new class today at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center - Israel 101. It promises to be "an illuminating discussion" on Israel in today's world, the history of the region and current events that will shape Israel's future.  I can't wait because this is exactly the kind of forum I have been hoping to find. 

Israel has become more real and more meaningful to me since our wonderful trip there in 2011.  I came to understand the importance of what I once thought of as a faraway place with not all that much impact on my day-to-day existence here in the US.  I now realize that no matter how "integrated" and successful and valued we may feel in the US or Canada or any other country, the homeland of Jews everywhere is the State of Israel.

In this picture I am physically in Israel, at a place where my distant ancestors may have lived their lives. 

In my mind, a piece of me is always there,  in  אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל  Eretz Yisrael.

Sher The Hope

Since my BFF Sheryl passed away in 2006, her children and their spouses have walked for hundreds of miles in the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.  Their team is aptly named SHER THE HOPE.

This year they honored me on the team's web page with a picture of the two of us standing together, as we did for 40 years.  

I am so incredibly proud of my god-children.  They and their spouses are so smart, so hard-working and successful in their careers, such terrific parents and loving husbands and wives.  Yet with all that they have going on in their lives they devote their time, energy and money to their community and to fighting the disease that claimed my dear friend at only 55.

Sheryl would be so very proud of them!!  And I am happy to kvell along with her and to SHER THE HOPE!

Zinio

Don't you love getting something for FREE??  Especially if it's something you will actually use and enjoy?
I had to stop by the Hollywood Branch library a few days ago because the Stirling Road branch was being recarpeted.  I picked up a card that said how I could get "Zinio -FREE Online Magazines from the Broward County library".  I didn't think much of it - after all, it was going to be FREE - but I checked it out anyway.  Wow!  Dozens of magazines, some super popular and some geared for specific interests, some for iPhone, iPad or the PC, or all three.  Everything from $10 Dinners to Yoga Journal. 

This is my current selection but trust me, I could fill up my days doing nothing but flipping through the pages of a stack of magazines.

Digitally flipping that is...

;-)

The Sins of the Fathers

Germany 's biggest synagogue, in Berlin, has reopened after a lavish restoration.  The synagogue was set ablaze on Kristallnacht, the Night of
Broken Glass, in 1938.  Holocaust survivors from all  over the world attended the "grand re-opening".

Perhaps there is something wrong with me; I feel no joy in this news.  There is nothing anyone in Germany can ever do that will mitigate even a drop of water's worth of guilt in an ocean of evil.

I was born a few years after the Holocaust "ended".  But to Jews everywhere, and especially to the families of Victims and Survivors, as I am, I assure you, it will never, ever be "over".  Ghosts of uncountable lives destroyed, children tortured and murdered, villages and towns that vanished without a trace, visions of my cousin and aunt and uncle gassed in ovens - these haunt my soul and sometimes fill my nights with terror. 

I do not forget, nor do I forgive.  I do not.  

I hear about how the children and grandchildren of the evil-doers, the murderers, the crazy hate-infested monsters, feel "guilty" and "ashamed".  Good.  I really don't care.  I wish upon them just a little of the horror their grandparents inflicted on other innocent children.  It is fitting they should answer in some small way for the sins of their fathers. 

I am sure that is what this "restoration" of what can never be restored is all about.

500

Yesterday I published Blog Post Number 500.  Wow!  What started as a lark has become a true joy for me.  I am actually proud of my blog and deep down I'm astounded that my relatively dull life has yielded so many opportunities for opining.

I write it for myself but of course I'm thrilled when someone compliments one of my posts.  Especially someone I didn't think ever read it. 

What do we leave behind when we depart this world?  Children and grandchildren to carry our gene pool forward?  Memories in the minds of others still living?  A contribution in the form of a work of art or music or literature?  A bequest that changes lives? 

Hahaha my blog is none  of the above.  But it is the essence of me and perhaps in a distant future someone will pick it up and laugh at the things that occupied my thoughts. 

Hope so  ;-)