songbird's crazy world

My news first. Despite a food-oriented week, I lost 1.6 pounds this week, and I face Thanksgiving over 10 pounds lighter than I was when I rejoined the program. Still haven't carved out time to exercise, but I'm working on it. the show.... never had a chance to watch it, but  Wednesday was Biggest Loser --  Where are they Now?   It was interesting to see where past contestants have gone... most have kept off the weight, and many have become motivational speakers.  Interesting.

The United Nations voted to partition Palestine. ... And a 2000 year old dream became 20th century reality. I wish I could have been there to see it happen! Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

See this? It's the Colgate Clock. It's a landmark on New York Harbor, a relic from the days when Colgate Palmolive was headquartered in Jersey City. There's a walkway along the riverfront, it ends in front of the Goldman Sachs building, just north of the clock. And if you look south, past the clock, you see this: No wonder New Jerseyans think the Statue of Liberty should belong to them, not to New York!!!

 Remember when I posted about Double Check -- that I mentioned there was a similar sculpture called makeshift Memorial in Jersey City?  Mee t Makeshift Memorial .  He's part of a memorial to the 9/11 victims in Jersey City. The memorial is located on the Hudson River, across from lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site.

and I can't wait to visit all the traditional holiday sights -- the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, the windows at Macy's, the giant Menorah in Central Park, the Charmin Restrooms in Times Square... Yes, it's an annual event...every Christmas for the last few years, Charmin has sponsored temporary restroom facilities in the heart of Times Square, so that tourists and New Yorkers alike can enjoy clean restrooms while shoppping, enjoying the shows, siteseeing....

A holiday song from Bing Crosby:

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Can I just go spend the next four days on some tropical island? I am just so tired of being in the middle! My ex husband/current boyfriend wants our girls to spend Thanksgiving with him. My parents and sisters want the girls to spend the day with them.  Drew is NOT invited. Drew's suggestion, a compromise -- lunch at his house, dinner at my parents.  the girls aren't thrilled with that, but they're OK with it. My sisters are up in arms!  they told my parents that Jen was hysterically crying about how she "didn't want to go" to her father's house. My parents are upset because my sisters are upset.  And I am being portrayed as evil incarnate because I dared to support a father's right to see his daughters for the holiday.

This band from Wisconsin will march on Thursday. They were practicing in Jersey City today. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

My news first. I lost almost 2 pounds this week, was pleasantly surprised at weigh-in because I'd been to a birthday party over the weekend at a Mexican restaurant -- lots of tortilla chips found their way to my plate because we didn't eat our meal until an hour after the party started....I'm hoping I can make it through Thanksgiving without too much damage.... As for the show....guess I was in a very blah mood last week, nothing about the show captured my interest. This week.... No more teams, they're playing as individuals now. And they get videos from home. But Ada does not have a video from home! And she's not surprised. Bob has to deal with the issues. How can anyone possibly do that to their own child? So the other contestants made her a video....I'm in tears..... and so is she.... The Elizabeth issue -- Jillian doesn't like it that others are "carrying" her....Jillian "sinks her teeth" into Elizabeth...she's doing the st...

Come to New York.

The first part of the question is easy. I've been living here 16 years. Jen was almost 4 and Becca had just turned 2, and I was in the process of what would become a very nasty divorce. It seemed quite natural to move back to my childhood home and live with my parents. My kids grew up in the same house as I did, went to the same schools, joined the same synagogue, have roots in my community. Where to next? I'm not sure. So many considerations. Not about a school system, anymore, since the girls are in college. In fact, when I move from here, they will not be coming with me. Should I wait until they finish school? They do come home after all.... My work is in Jersey City but my life is on Long Island. Stay close to my friends or shorten the commute? What about Drew? Where are we going and will it be together? Yeah...that's a biggie. Drew....

Harry Potter and Johnny Rocket Friday night, Morning Glory and Italian restaurant Saturday night, and I'm headed out to a steak house for a friend's birthday celebration in a little while. not to mention I spent a few hours this morning at the synagogue, collecting donations for Chanukah gifts for indigent Jewish families. Busy is good. 

OMG I really loved this movie! Each movie in the series has become progressively darker and more foreboding. This latest chapter is no exception. They're 17 now, the age of majority in the Wizarding World, with all the problems that go along with being an adult. There were scenes that made me cry... and a few lighthearted moments to brighten the gloom. The artwork on the Ministry of Magic propaganda really echoed Nazi and Soviet propaganda from the 30's and 40's. There are a few deviations from the book, a lot of subplot eliminated, but overall it was exactly what I hoped for and expected to see. It's going to be a long 7 months until the next (and last) movie comes out. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Resistance was futile. And the cake was yummy.

I've come to the realization that depsite having over 100 channels (thanks for Fios), there's very little I actually want to watch on TV these days. You know I'm watching The Biggest Loser (I write a post about it every week) and Dancing with the Stars .  Add The Apprentice and Survivor, and you've got my network must-sees.  I'll watch Law & Order:Los Angeles i f I remember that it's on, but I've stopped watching Law & Order:SVU because I'm actually  sick of Olivia and Elliot. Cable doesn't have much to interest me either, except occasionally I'll watch Keith Olbermann or Rachel maddow on MSNBC, and Law & Order: UK if I remember it's on. And I do watch the local news. All those channels for 8 or 9 shows. Is it really worth it?

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) I took a vacation day  Friday, needed to stay home to take care of some personal business (including what turned out to be a very expensive auto repair). Middle of the afternoon, I was upstairs in my room doing some paperwork, when I thought I heard a familiar voice down in the foyer.  But no, it couldn't be... A few minutes later, Jen was standing in the doorway. She'd decided, on impulse, to come home for the weekend.  She'd been home for Columbus Day, and she'll be home again next week for Thanksgiving, but for some reason she just felt the need to come home Friday, so she hopped in her car and took the 3 1/2 hour drive. Of course I took advantage of  her visit....I asked her to give me a ride to the bank, as my car was going to spend the night at Toyota...don't worry, she was amply rewarded  -- she hit me up for cash even before I  set foot inside the bank.  (I wasn't the only one to take care of...

First my news, 4/10 of  a pound this week, a total 7.2 since I'm back on  program. Realized today that I'm not that into the show this time around.  Prima donnas and unrealistic weight loss, and the meltdown and drama at the weigh-in.... The temptation challenge ...eat enough sweet stuff and get to choose who will partner with whom this week. Reward challenge, build a tower of sugar cubes.... Weigh-in time -- two pairs will be below the yellow line, and one of those pairs will be going home. Everyone thinks both pairs of girls wil be below the yellow line.  Everyone is wrong. Lisa and Elizabeth go up against Jesse and Aaron.  Will the girls go home or will the boys?  And do I really care?  Maybe I should change the channel and watch the Dancing Wtih the Stars results..... And Aaron and Jesse get sent home.

Or rather, park scene. Zuccotti Park -- it used to be called Liberty Plaza Park.  It's in Lower Manhattan, it takes up the whole block (33,000 square feet)  -- bounded by Broadway on the  east, Trinity Place on the west, Liberty Street to the north and Cedar Street to the south.  Its northwest corner is across the street from the World Trade Center site. It's a small park, with a few trees and some benches.  And this fellow: Interesting sculpture, isn't it?  It's called Double Check ,  by  John Seward Johnson II. He's a 9/11 survivor, the only piece of art in the area to make it through intact. He's got a "brother" across the river in Jersey City, right near my office  Right after 9/11 this sculpture was used as a makeshift memorial.  So Seward made another cast of the work, added a hard hat and other paraphernalia, named the new work Makeshift Memorial, and allowed it to become part of Jersey City's 9/11 memorial....

How could a "songbird" resist this writing prompt? What was your favorite song this year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty? My musical tastes, as you may have guessed, range far and wide.  2010.  My current favorite song has got to be Jimmy Buffett's cover of the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, "Southern Cross".  Aside fromt he fact that I've become a real Parrtohead in the last year or so, and have gone to two Buffett concerts, but the lyrics of this song...well, when I went on my cruise in February...I had to do some star-gazing aboard ship. 2005.  Two songs come to mind.  Melissa Etheridge's "I Run for Life" and Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying".  That was my year from hell, with surgery and radiation and chemo, and those two songs touched me deeply. 2000.  Well, for me, that was a year dominated by Billy Joel.  I have his concert album from the show he did at Mdison Square Garden on 12/31/1999.  A two-disc...

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening. Our prize package included VIP parking.  Parking at the NYCB Theater at Westbury (to me, it's still the Westbury Music Fair) is free, but for a small fee you can park in a designated area.  It saved us about 5-0 minutes in exiting that nightmare of a parking lot.   Our prize package also included entry into the P.C. Richard VIP club.  That meant we didn't have to deal with the crowd in the lobby, but could enter the building through the club entrance.  The club itself is just a curtained-off area of the bar, with nicer furniture and free potato chips on the tables. It was nice having the VIP passes, but I wouldn't spend money on them if I were paying for a show. Our seats were a little disappointing.  We were all the way in the back of the house.  Yes, I agree, there's no such thing as a bad seat at Westbury, but some seats --- up close to the stage -- are better than others. The show itself....There wa...

just enjoy this video of Smokey:

I won two tickets to see Smokey Robinson at Westbury Music Fair (or whatever they're calling it these days.) Small venue, only 3,000 seats, theater in the round so there are no bad views.  We also get VIP parking and admission to the VIP club. The best of Motown right here on Long Island. It's going to be a fun evening.  Debonair lullabies in melodies revealed In deep despair on lonely nights He knows just how you feel The slyest rhymes - the sharpest suits In miracles made real Like a bird in flight on a hot sweet night You know you're right just to hold her tight He soothes it right - makes it outtasite And everything's good in the world tonight! When Smokey sings - I hear violins When Smokey sings - I forget everything As she's packing her things As she's spreading her wings The front door might slam But the back door it rings And Smokey sings... he sings Elegance in eloquence - for sale or rent or hire Should I say - yes I match his best...

... realize you've already done it? I was listening to some selections I'd downloaded from an album. The album is called Harry Chapin: A Celebration in Song by the Chapin Family.  Harry Chapin's family gave a concert a few years ago in Harry's hometown -- Huntington, NY --which included some of his songs as well as other musical tributes to Harry. I haven't heard the whole album yet, but I was listening to Harry's brothers Tom and Steve sing 30,000 Pounds of Bananas   -- which is actually a warped, funny song --and I got very nostalgic for Harry's concerts. After all, I'd seen him several times, was planning to see him the night he died. Hmmm....sounds like a good blog post  topic, doesn't it? So good, in fact, that I've already done it. ;-) Read it here .

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Do your kids get along?  Do they fight?  Do they hang out together?  Or do they avoid each other like the plague?  Or something in-between? Jen was a toddler, 4 months shy of her second birthday, when Becca was born.  That 20-month age difference put them two years apart in school.  In hindsight I think this was a good thing -- they were close enough in age to share interests, but not so close so as to be in competition with each other all the time.  Made it easy for planning after school activities, like gymnastics or dance class.  I think one of the reasons Becca wanted to join the middle school cheer team was because Jen was on the team. Of course they had their moments.  They're sisters, they're girls, there's going to be drama and fighting. Many times we had to remind the girls "You're sisters and you love each other."    But these two managed to share a bedroom without killing ea...

Ready for his close up Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

"Homeless man"? Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

To show you how jaded New Yorkers really are ...when we got off the train this morning and made our way through Penn Station ... most of my fellow passengers ignored the homeless man sleeping on the station floor ...the two or three of us who took another look ... saw an incredible work of art. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

And a bit of their music Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

And another ... Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Penn Station musician Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

My news first.  Managed to eat out three times over the weekend and still lose three pounds!  Track your food in a food diary, it makes a difference. Missed the first few minutes of the show, found myself watching them in a boot camp setting with real Marines.  the first challenge is an obstacle course, with a phone call home as a reward.  blue team takes an early lead. And then Elizabeth passed out.    And the rest of the black team helped her finish the challenge. And blue team won the challenge. And then they did a last chance workout! And then the weigh-in -- as teams this week.  Blue team first. They lost, but not as much as Bob would have hoped.Jesse actually gained!  They blame it on the mess hall.  Aaron, however, lost 14 pounds -- 2 more pounds than the rest of the team combined. Black needs more than 28 pounds to beat the blue team.  No one is putting up good numbers. Elizabeth  gained.  Frado needs ...

Remember this? The Kodak Instamatic camera. I got one when I was in 6th grade. That would have been 1972. Great camera for its time. The film came in a cartridge, all you had to do to load the camera was place the cartidge in the right compartment. the flash was delivered by a rotating cube, so you could take four flash pictures in a row without changing the bulb. the camera was sold as a kit, accompanied by film and flash cubes, all of which came in a bright yellow box with the Kodak label on it. It was one of the first point-and-shoot cameras, it had no features at all. I remember taking the camera on my 6th grade field trip -- a boat ride around the Great South Bay. The day was overcast, and I must have taken a dozen shots of gray ocean and gray sky. Of course, I took lots of other pictures, too -- friends, family, my dog. I really enjoyed playing with that camera.

My little girl   firstborn daughter takes a huge step today -- she can no longer call herself "a teenager".  Yes, today is Jen's 20th birthday.  She's 20, one year shy of legal maturity.I still see the silly, giggling girl she was, but I also see the confident, capable woman she is becoming.  I know it's a cliche to say "it went by in the blink of an eye," but the truth is, it did! This is my little girl:  Wasn't she a cutie back then? And here she is with her sister Becca, at Becca's pre-prom just a few months ago. Still a cutie, isn't she? I am so proud of my little girl.

Look at the bottom of the page.  No, really, please go look.  where it says "about me". do you see it? it says: Divorced mom of two teenage girls...where's my straightjacket? As of tomorrow, that statement will not be true.  I will have morphed into a divorced mom of one teenage girl and one 20 year old woman. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Her birthday isn't until Sunday, but today the florist will deliver this to Jen: Of course I chose pink, it's her favorite color. All of the gear she bought for college -- bedding, towels, etc. -- is pink. I cannot believe my firstborn is going to be 20 on Sunday. Wasn't it just yesterday I'd pop her into the stroller and take her for long walks, just the two of us, and tell her all my hopes and dreams for her?

My gold loveknot earrings, the small ones in the Tiffany box, are special.   I won them in a raffle.  No biggie, except that the raffle took place at Relay for Life. For those who don't know, Relay for Life is an American Cancer Society event.  The objective is to form teams, and each team is expected to take turns walking around a track all night long.  It was June 2007, the first year our school district held this event.  We held the event at my daughters' high school, the one where the football field is dead center in the middle of the track.  At one end of the track was a stage, where the politicians spoke and the school groups performed.  At the other end of the track were the vendors, the raffle tables, etc.  The middle of the field, of course, was tent city. Becca was a freshman that year and Jen was a junior.  Becca was all enthused about the event because her dance team was scheduled to perform early in the evening, her go...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) (inspired by Ora ) Usually I have a full blog post on a single topic.  Today I just have a few odds and ends. I didn't know whether to cheer for Jen, hug her or kill her the other night.  She was in the library until 11:30 PM studying for a heavy-duty midterm.  Then she walked all alone from the library, across a dark campus, to her car to drive home.   She told me she was too lazy to look up the number for public safety to get someone to walk with her.  The next day I looked up the number and sent it to her via text message. Becca's Halloween costume this year was supposed to be Hermione Granger.  She ordered it on line but didn't get it in time for Halloween. She figures she can wear the costume to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a couple of weeks.  She already has her tickets, of course.  we're all big fans of Harry -- you know I used to hav...

A better week on Weight Watchers, lost 2.8 pounds and my brand new jeans are starting to feel a bit loose. Now I need to motivate myself to go to the gym....the gym bag is packed and on the back seat of my car, but.... Never did get a chance to see last week's show.  Moving right along to this week's show... apparently they're in teams now.  this week one member of each team will weigh in,  the blue team will choose which black team member will weigh in and visa versa. and then there was the cooking challenge.  half of each team cooked, half judged.   celebrity chefs looked on.  the teams tied!  the tiebreaker is to guess the calories in your team's dessert.  black team is having meltdown....blue team wins, the reward is a 10 second advantage at the next challenge. a dragon boat race? if you win, you can block the other team's first pick for the weigh-in. and blue team wins! then it's the last-chance workout. and then it's tim...

Monday morning and a brand new month! Another NaBloPoMo, of course.  I'm finding that I like the discipline. It's the month that links Halloween and thanksgiving. The month that we honor veterans. The month that my older daughter was born -- can you believe she'll be 20 years old on Sunday? Should be an interesting month.  Stay tuned.