Driplet

When we're growing up, especially through the teen years, our parents have this uncanny ability to embarrass us. Be it with nicknames they shout out at your basketball games to get your attention from the free throw line, or dropping you off directly out front of your school in the rusted-out jalopy that was once known as a "shaggin' wagon", parents just know how to ignite your cheeks and make your little rabbit heart skip an embarrassed beat.

As you get older, and I know nobody really wants to hear this, you'll appreciate those little moments. Maybe not the time your cowboy dad holds you upside down in a dirty stable stall and dips your head in manure in front of your crush...but other stuff.

That same crazy cowboy dad has a nickname for me. It came around about a time when I was feeling low, I was probably about 13 or so, and he called me "Driplet". What is a driplet? Well, he'd tell you:

A driplet is a droplet

A Droplet is water

Water is nature

And nature is

Beautiful

Whenever I'm feeling insecure, and yeah even we supermom's get the blues, I just remember those words :)

Love you, Pops.

My Ruski baby

My daughter, who will be turning 3 in another month, telling her Grandfather some Russian nursery rhymes. She's just too cute not to share.

Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song!

Because who doesn't love that song? And Adam Sandler is a babe. Don't argue.

Intro: this is a song, that uh, there's a lot of xmas songs out there, but not
Too many about hanukkah, so I wrote a song for all those nice little jewish
Kids who don't get to hear any hanukkah songs--here we go...

Put on your yalmulka, here comes hanukkah
Its so much fun-akkah to celebrate hanukkah,

Hanukkah is the festival of lights,
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.

When you feel like the only kid in town without a x-mas tree, heres a list of
People who are jewish, just like you and me:

David lee roth lights the menorrah,
So do james caan, kirk douglas, and the late dinah shore-ah

Guess who eats together at the karnickey deli,
Bowzer from sha-na-na, and arthur fonzerrelli.

Paul newmans half jewish; goldie hawns half too,
Put them together--what a fine lookin' jew! [esus]

You don't need deck the halls or jingle bell rock
Cause you can spin the dreidl with captain kirk and mr. spock--both jewish!
[esus]

Put on your yalmulka, it's time for hanukkah,
The owner of the seattle super sonic-ahs celebrates hanukkah.

O.j. simpson-- not a jew!
But guess who is...hall of famer¡ºrod carew--(he converted!)

We got ann landers and her sister dear abby,
Harrison fords a quarter jewish--not too shabby!

Some people think that ebeneezer scrooge is,
Well, he's not, but guess who is:all three stooges. [esus]

So many jews are in show biz--
Tom cruise isn¹t, [tacit] but I heard his agent is. [esus]

Tell your friend veronica, it's time you celebrate hanukkah
I hope I get a harmonica, on this lovely, lovely hanukkah.

So drink your gin-and-tonic-ah, and smoke your mara-juanic-ah,
If you really, really wanna-kah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy
Hanukkah¡ ¡ . happy hanukka!

Gut Yontif!

*Happy Holiday!*

It's Friday, aren't we all glad for that? And this evening marks the first night of Hanukkah 2009--The Jewish Festival of Lights! I'll post a picture of our menorahs on the 8th night. Pretty when all lit up.

********Happy Hanukkah!********

I'm pressed for time (working my butt off on another draft of "FA") so I'm going to borrow from Wikipedia:

Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה‎, Tiberian: Ḥănukāh, nowadays usually spelled חנוכה pronounced [ˈχanuka]in Modern Hebrew, also romanized as Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar.

Snow!

The state of Pennsylvania has been hogging it until tonight. We've got our first flurries of the season in New York City!

Happy Holidays!

We are a multi-cultural family and so the holiday tree signifies a number of things for us. My husband is of Russian/Jewish heritage. In his former home country, they celebrate the New Year much like the Christian American Christmas, with a tree and gift-giving. My heritage is extremely diverse, but I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, an area heavily influenced by the German/Dutch culture and a large part of my ancestry stems from those people.

We are not religious (that does not mean we are atheist either) so I suppose our holiday celebrations are somewhat secular, but it's what we do. We celebrate Christmas (I know, how dare we partake in a celebration that we are not religiously involved in! *cough* Saturnalia *cough*) and we celebrate the New Year and we celebrate the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah. We leave our tree up until January 13th. It's usually falling apart by then, but we keep him, in honor of the old Russian New Year. Hanukkah starts at sundown on the 11th this year so I'll be sure to post Menorah pictures, but until then, this is our tree!

As a child, my sister, my mother and I would ride horseback out to the family Christmas tree field, and pick and cut our own tree and drag it back behind the horses. Living in NYC makes it a bit difficult to continue that tradition, so instead I take my kids down to the parking lot by the mall each year and we pick out and buy a tree there.

It's much more beautiful in person, of course, but we don't go all out with tinsel and ribbons and bows. I prefer it's more simple beauty :)

Turkey Day!

I apologize for having not posted in a few days. Busy with the holidays, you know. I just wanted to stop by here and say that I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I spent mine with my family, including my mother and father and one of my sisters and her family. I had a total of ten adults and my two children over for dinner. I cooked (my first Thanksgiving) and thankfully, everything turned out perfect. Couldn't have asked for a better day. Of course, I would have enjoyed it more had I not come down with a cold that night...

How was your holiday? Anybody get the Christmas tree up yet? My mom and the kids and I bought ours that Friday and had it up in front of the window by Saturday morning! I'll get some pictures here soon.

Sisters in Sanity

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1 Reprint edition (April 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060887494
• ISBN-13: 978-0060887490
• 
  

Have to admit, I'm not crazy about the paperback cover. The hardcover was much better.

Product Description from Amazon

Have you ever had the out-of-control dream? The one where you know you're not crazy, but no one around you—not your parents, not your teachers, not even the authorities—will listen to you?

For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, the out-of-control dream comes true when her dad enrolls her at Red Rock, a bogus treatment center that claims to cure rebellious teen girls. At Red Rock, Brit is forced into therapy, and her only hope of getting her life back is in the hands of an underqualified staff of counselors. Brit's dad thinks Red Rock can save her, but the truth is it's doing more harm than good.

No girl could survive Red Rock alone—but at a treatment center where you earn privileges for ratting out your peers, it's hard to know who you can trust. For Brit, everything changes when she meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie, four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together they'll hold on to their sanity and their sisterhood while trying to keep their Red Rock reality from becoming a full-on nightmare.

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This book is about sisterhood. It's about believing in yourself and taking a stand for what you know is the right thing. Brit, V, Bebe, Cassie and Martha form a sisterhood in the secret confines of an empty office when the "goons" at Red Rock--a school for misguided teen girls--turn their backs. Together, the girls learn the ins and outs of Red Rock. They learn to survive it and they learn to rely on each other.

Sisters in Sanity is not a typical coming-of-age tale but the reader follows Brit through her stay at Red Rock where she discovers who she is and what she's made of. It's well written, an easy and entertaining read that can make you laugh one minute, cry the next and be fuming with anger when you turn the page again. The characters are unique, full of individuality and life. You feel like you're right there with them in the quarry, building walls or hiking up the hills in 90 degree heat. You can't help but feel like a part of their sisterhood.

Thank you, Gayle Forman--author of IF I STAY-- for writing this book. I plan on gifting it to my "Sisters".