songbird's crazy world

You've alread met the Princess Daisy: I'd like you to meet Mr. Kitty: We got Daisy first, a friend of my mother had too many cats in her apartment and needed to get rid of some kittens. Mr. Kitty adopted us. He was abandoned at the age of 4 weeks at a pond about 1/2 a mile from my house. He showed up in our back yard one day. At first we thought it was Daisy, because his markings are similar to hers, and at the time he was smaller than she is. You won't make that mistake now. Daisy weighs all of 6 pounds, Mr. Kitty must weigh at least 20. His favorite activity is chasing Daisy. Really, he won't leave her alone. and all he wants to do is eat from her food bowl, he won't allow her to eat undisturbed. He's truly a pesky little brother. So when I saw them today, I couldn't believe it:

Ever have a book that you've read multiple times, one that stays with you long after you put it down? To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity. I read this book as a teenager, long before I fully appreciated Steinbeck, long before I read The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.   There was much my teenaged self didn't understand about Steinbeck...

My cat   The Princess Daisy has taken over my bed.  When I come home from work and head upstairs to my room, there she is...all six pounds of her...curled up in the very middle of the bed.  She may open one eye, as if to say "oh, it's you," before going back to sleep.  But the real joy comes when I try to share the bed with her.  Yes, she actually lets me sleep in "my" bed at night.  You would think such a small cat wouldn't take up much room.  You'd be wrong. Hwer favorite spot seems to be right in the middle of the bed.  If she's there when I want to go to sleep, it takes much negotiation for her to move over and let me lie down.  Inevitably she will either (1) sit on my chest and stater at me imperiously for having displaced her, or she will crawl under the covers and "knead" the sheets (and perhaps my leg...ouch!) If, by some chance, the cat isn't around when I get into bed, she's likely to show up after I've fallen...

I am an idiot. The saga of the missing iPod has ended, my nano has been found. I thought I'd lost the nano two weeks ago, at the gym.  thought I'd left it on the bench in the locker room. I was wrong. You are not going to believe what REALLY happened. The nano wound up in the laundry hamper, along with my dirty t-shirt and shorts. which I did not realize until this morning. yes, this morning. almost two weeks later. when I took a load of laundry out of the dryer and found the nano. yes, in the dryer.  I'm lucky the battery didn't explode or cause a fire. there are 6 people living in my house -- 7 when Jen is home from college.  My mom does laundry for herself and my dad.  My two younger sisters do their own laundry, and usually do Becca's as well.  Jen does her own laundry when she's home.  The only laundry I have to do is my own, so sometimes it piles up.  and I was in a hurry last night (I was running out of things to wear), a...

Ever lose an earring? Sitting at my desk this morning, I happened to touch my left earlobe...and realized there was nothing there.  Did I forget to put on earrings today?  Touched my right ear and realized I was wearing one earring. Searched all around the desk, searched my coat and scarf, looked into my tote bag.... No earring. Drat. what do you do with one earring?

You pick up the newspaper, and there it is.  A story about a car accident, and a teenage victim is dead.  There are questions -- was the driver speeding?  were drugs or alcohol involved?  There are photos of the young man or woman, a sweet-faced child on the edge of adulthood.  there are the lamentaitons from friends and family:  "He was a good kid."  "She was too young to die."  There are grief counselors at his or her school to console classmates and friends.  A yearbook page is dedicated to a lost classmate. You read about it every day.  It's almost mundane. Until it happens to someone you know. Then, every time you pick up a newspaper, it's like it's happening to you, to your children, all over again. I see an article in the paper and I'm flashing back again. I've blogged before about the worst Homecoming  ever.  October 2006.  A day of celebration and school spirt at my daughters' school that became a day o...

Remember how I won the Jimmy Buffett tickets in November? I won them from Newsday, they have contests for subscribers. well, newsday just ran a contest for tickets to see Riverdance at Radio City on March 17. Drew won a pair of tickets.

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Becca and I will soon be doing another round of .....the college road trip. It feels like I've been doing the college road trip thing forever!!!! My girls are two years apart in age. Jen is currently a college sophomore and Becca is a high school senior. My life on the road began during Jen's senior year in high school. Prior to her senior year Jen had no desire whatsoever to even discuss her college plans, let alone actually visit a college. But when senior year hit...we packed our bags and off we went. At first I it was overwhelming...most of the other students had begun to look at colleges in their junior year, and we were playing catch up. I am a college graduate, but it's been many years since I was a student, and I felt a little bit like a fish out of water....until I began to realize that most of the changes colleges have made are in the details, the overall experience isn't that much different from when I w...

first I lose my iPod, then I fry my mini camcorder. today I left my cell phone home. waaaahhhhh.....

No weight watchers meeting this week, I wasn't at work. instead, I was poked and prodded by various members of the medical profession -- my arm felt like a pincushion. but I did an informal weigh in at the gym (yes, I've been going to the gym) and was pleased with the results. As for the show.... It starts with the blue and yellow teams and their at-home challenge.  Blue team is working hard at home, but so is yellow team. Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... The teacher/student concept -- each team will be represented by one player on the scale.   The teachers will work with the trainers, then teach the students what they've learned.  the students will weigh in.  Stephanie and John are paired up, each is the sole representative of their team due to eliminations.  The temptation -- chocolate candy.  5 calories per piece, but who wants to start eating chocolate?  If you don't eat you're out of the competition.  Competition is over after 2 pie...

Trying to think of what to write today...and all I could come up with was hand cream, facial masks, chapstick and hair color. Not that there's anything wrong with cosmetics.   I just thoguht I was trying to be deeper than that in this blog. Yes, it's the winter blah, all right.

the mini camcorder....tried to load music onto the MP3 function...now it says "Loading" but won't load....and I can't find the user guide....

Thin envelopes arrived from two different colleges. Becca was afraid to open them. turns out they were "dear applicant, we've received your application and will review it" letters. It's getting tense around here.

I've got them...bad. Can't stand this cold, icy weather much longer. Can't stand that it gets dark in the middle of the afternoon. Can't stand worrying about the next snowstorm, the next icy patch on the sidewalk, the bitter wind whipping through the trees. Can't stand being cooped up inside. Can't stand the cold air sucking all the moisture out of my skin. Can't stand my "winter lips" anymore, even though I've used tons of chapstick. Can't stand it, I tell you. We're only halfway through january and I'm beginning to wonder if spring will ever arrive. Old man winter, GO AWAY!!! SCAT!!! VAMOOSE!!!

songbird is bereft. she is inconsolable. she is in deep, dark mourning. songbird has lost her iPod. Have you seen my baby?  It looked just like this: 3rd generation Nano, the square ones with the great screen for video.  when last seen, my baby was wearing a pink leather case and black earbuds. songbird without music is ...inconcieveable. it's tragic. it is a crime against nature. It must have happened at the gym. Took the nano with me last Sunday, used it while I walked laps around the track. (I loaded it with tons of Jimmy Buffett, I want to get ready for the cruise....can you believe we sail in 24 days?). after my walk I went back to the locker room to retrieve my things. I thought I put the nano back in my gym bag, but when I went to the gym again on Monday, the nano was not in my bag.   I asked at the lost and found, but without success. I am not totally without tunes, of course.  My cell phone -- a Voyager -- is loaded with music th...

no, not really. but he's going to play one. I mentioned before that Drew is involved in a local community theater group. they produce Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. this year they're doing "The Pirates of Penzance." Drew is in the chorus, he'll be playing a pirate. I promise to post photos....

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) One day last week, I came home from work to find Becca hyper-tense and stressed out.  Art supplies were scattered all over the kitchen table as she  meticulously lettered the oak tag poster she was working on, as she cut and pasted sections of text and downloaded photos .... She was preparing the visual for a group project. Becca?  My Becca?  Prepairng the visual display for the group project?  The child who did the "happy dance" in 8th grade because it meant she didn't have to take art class anymore?  How did she wind up doing the artwork portion of the group project? It seems that the teacher for this class is very fond of group projects.  And each time she assigns a project, she creates the groups, so that the students don't always pick the same three or four friends for their group. And this time around Becca was assigned to a group that...well, they were less than cooperative.  She wound up ...

OK, I'm back in the swing of things...at weigh-in I .lost 2.2 pounds.  etools prompted me to re-evaluate my points target, and guess what?  I'm in a different category, I get fewer points now.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  LOL Working out now, I took a long walk in my neighborhood on Saturday -- up and down hill. Made it to the Y on Sunday, 45 minutes in the pool followed by a 30 minute walk on the track. As for the show...it's the week 2 curse.  The show starts with a painful workout, Jillian doling out sympathy and hope along with pain.... Dr. H  shows up to deliver the bad news about the contestants' health.  Oy.  Dr. H has tasks for each of them.  Each task is tailored to the team's needs.  That's something new.  the idea is to let them know how unhealthy they are and how they need to change.  Jillian looked sick when eating the orange team's meals for the day. The first challenge -- a balance beam over t...

Drew won tickets to see that new Harrison Ford/Brendan Frasier movie on Wednesday night and I can't go with him!!!! I serve on the board of trustees at my synagogue.  Our monthly meeitng will be Wednesday night.  I seldom miss a meeting, but for this movie I would have opted out, if.... ....if the synagogue were not in crisis right now over a conflict between the board and a significant number of congregants. Won't go into details here, but this is not what I signed up for when I joined the board.  Another example of "no good deed goes unpunished."

One of the poorest...if not THE poorest ...island nations in the Caribbean has been hit with an unbearable disaster.  Who would have imagined that there'd be an earthquake in that part of the world, or the damage such an earthquake could bring about? Humanitarian aid is rushing to the island from the four corners of the globe.  I made my donation to the relief fund.  How could I not?  the faces staring back at me from the television....who would not be moved by the plight of those people? but why did the world wait until disaster struck to concern itself with Hati's welfare?

And the Jets are in the playoffs. I'm not a big football fan, I care only because my office is just a few miles south fo the Meadowlands and I have hometown pride.  Besides, the Jets used to play at Shea, and they used to practice on Long island -- my home. I can tell you who won the Superbowl in 2008, but I can't tell you who won in 2007 or 2009. Superbowl Sunday, 2008.  The New York Giants vs. the New England Patriots. and Jen and I were taking a college road trip to Hartford, Connecticut.  we were expected to be at the college early Monday morning, so I booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Hartford Sunday night. so all during the drive up to Connecticut, Jen is busy texting with her friend Billy -- billy played football in high school and he's a major Giants fan.  Billy gives her updates about the game. Just as we pull ito the hotel parking lot, jen says "The giants just won the game." we walk into the lobby and there's a huge ...

After months of planning (documented in my cruise blog ), we're in the final countdown to our cruise.30 days until we set sail for the warm Caribbean. We fly to Miami on 2/14 and board the ship -- the Carnival Valor -- for a 7 day cruise the the Western Caribbean.  We have shore excursions planned for each port of call.  In the Cayman islands, we will take a ride on the Atlantis submarine and then tour Grand Cayman Island.  In Belize we will take a riverboat ride through rainforest and then climb Mayan ruins.  We will take a boat tour of coral reefs off of Roatan Island.  and we have a beach day planned in Cozumel, Mexico. I've been planning, shopping, making packing lists.... Yes, the excitment is starting to build....

Right now I'm worrying about Drew's father. Drew's parents retired to Florida in 1990, just a few weeks after Jen was born.  Drew's mother passed away in 1994.  About 2-3 years ago, Emil became ill and wound up in the hospital, followed by a stint in a rehabilitative facility.  The social worker determined he could nto return to his house, and he moved into an assisted living facility.  Since then it's been a cycle -- injury or illness, hospital, rehab, back to the facility. So the other day, when Drew got a phone call from the facility explaining that emil had taken another bad fall, he expected the pattern to repeat itself. But not this time.  Emil is no longer able to live in assisted living, now he needs a nursing home.  so now Drew is scrambling to find placement for his father. and I am wondering....Emil lives in the Ft. Myers area...maybe we should fly to Ft. Myers a day or so before our cruise, check up on him, see how he's doing, then rent ...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) We have now reached that stage in the college application process where my daughter Becca can actually breathe. Her applications have been finalized and submitted, every "t" crossed and "i" dotted. She's clicked through the common application so many times she has it memorized, she's written and rewritten her essays so many times she can recite them by heart. SAT and ACT scores have been ordered, transcripts and letters of recommendation have been mailed. Her fate is no longer in her hands.... Round two begins at the end of next month, as the admission decisions begin to pour in...as we travel from school to school for "admitted students" events....as the second part of the decision process begins. but for now...it's quiet. She can breathe.

Anne Frank's diary was one of the books that influenced me most during my teen years.  I remember how Anne described Meip, and I feel like I've lost a friend today. obituary (CNN) -- Miep Gies, who ensured the diary of Anne Frank did not fall into the hands of Nazis after the teen's arrest, has died. She was 100. Gies was among a team of Dutch citizens who hid the Frank family of four and four others in a secret annex in Amsterdam, Netherlands, during World War II, according to her official Web site, which announced her death Monday. She worked as a secretary for Anne Frank's father, Otto, in the front side of the same Prinsengracht building. The family stayed in the secret room from July 1942 until August 4, 1944, when they were arrested by Gestapo and Dutch police after being betrayed by an informant. Two of Gies' team were arrested that day, but she and her friend, Bep Voskuijl, were left behind -- and found 14-year-old Anne's papers. "A...

20 minutes before my 1st Weight Watchers meeting of the year...a co-worker is taken away by ambulance after experiencing chest pains. A real "scared straight" moment. first meeting of the year -- since we're an "at work" meeting, it's time to reorganize. old members (like me) get to weigh in....and see just how much I've gained over the holidays. groan, more weight to lose. I joined the Pound for Pound challenge. and started going to the gym again.  mostly I'm walking around the track, but on sunday I actually ventured into the pool. as for the show...new season is a couples version of the show -- parents and kids, married couple, siblings, cousins. starts with 11 teams finding out what their team color is. then, weighing in -- in front of their friends and family, in their home towns. it's an act of courage to actually get onto the scale. James and John, the two young men from Orlando, call themselves "the half-ton twins...

we really took our laundry seriously back then

Drew and I watched this on DVD. Nice little movie. Cute romance. Richard Dreyfus steals the movie, though, just loved him as Irv. I am now madly and passionately in love with Greece. Maybe I can vacation there someday.

Fifty. A mind-boggling thought for a war baby like me. Fifty is not "just another birthday." It is a reluctant milepost on the way to wherever it is we are meant to wind up. It can be approached in only two ways. First, it can be a ball of snakes that conjures up immediate thoughts of mortality and accountability. ("What have I done with my life?") Or, it can be a great excuse to reward yourself for just getting there. ("He who dies with the most toys wins.") I instinctively choose door number two. I'm with you, Jimmy. I've spent too much of my life picking door number one.

Yesterday I saw the first Valentine's Day merchandise of the year. I am a hopeless romantic, I love the whole notion of Valentine's Day, despite some bittersweet memories of the day. Last year I lamented that I had not found a soulmate. This year I am nurturing a new yet old love. so I am truly looking forward to Valentine's Day this year. and not just because our Valentine's Day dinner will take place aboard the Carnival Valor....

 It was a long-running musical in London and New York.  It was a long-running joke in Forbidden Broadway performances and  on TV. Even now, years after the show closed, when I walk past the Wintergarden Theater, I expect to see this on the marquis:    It was one of my favorite musicals of the 1980's.  I saw the show at least 3 times, bought the cast album from London as well as the one  from New York, memorized all the words.  One Halloween I dressed as a cat because I was inspired by the show.  I even named my black cat "Mr. Mistoffeles". So, for your listening pleasure today, I present the opening number from Cats .

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Sometimes I walk a tightrope, trying to maintain a delicate balance between "helicopter mom" and letting my daughter learn from her own mistakes. My daughter Jen is 19 and a sophomore in college.  She attends school in New England, about a 4 hour drive from our home here on Long Island. When she was in high school and living at home, I was able to see how she handled her school work, whether she was studying and doing her homework, and I would get report cards and interim reports and all sorts of feedback from her teachers.  I could "make" her do her homework or study for the big test, I could intervene if she ran into a problem with a teacher.  Now that she's in college, however, and miles away from home, there's really very little I can do. As she keeps reminding me, she's an "adult" now,  responsible for her own schoolwork. So if I see red flags , there's very little I can do. She came ho...

Yes, it's time for the next season of The Biggest Loser ! Great show, very inspirational, I can't wait to meet the new cast and hear their stories. I will also be re-joining Weight Watchers today. the motivation this time around?  The cruise in 6 weeks.  If I am going to be roaming around Mayan ruins, I need to be in shape -- the pyramid at Altun Ha is 54 feet tall, and I intend to climb it.

 Best. That's the NaBloPoMo theme for January. No further explanation was given. Are you supposed to be the best you can be?  Are you supposed to enjoy the best life has to offer?  Is it a competition and you have to be the best blogger among those who are participating? Curious, isn't it? I will try to do my best to stay on track  to meet the NaBloPoMo  challenge.

George Clooney could hold my interest just reading a phone book.  How much better iti is when he's doing more than that! But I really liked this movie.  Clooney's character is an anti-hero, and the movie is both funny and bittersweet.  Definitely worth the effort to see it in the theater.

a palindrome if ever I saw one

some souvenirs from last night's party:

It's the start of a new month and the start of a new year.  some would say, the start of a new decade -- I am a purist and realize that 2010 is the last year of the decade, just as 2000 was the last year of the millenium. This is a year full of changes, a year full of promise.I will, G-d willing, have a major celebration in February -- my 50th birthday.  What a milestone that is in anyone's life.  but for me it's even more important -- just before my 45th birthday (in January 2005)  I was diagnosed with uterine cancer, and genuinely wondered if I would make the "5 year" mark.  Of course, this "double occasion" will be celebrated with as much joie de vivre as I can possibly muster, on a cruise to the Caribbean.  My birthday will be spent visiting tropical rainforest and ancient Mayan ruins, and with a lavish dinner aboard ship that night. There will be other lifestyle changes as well.  Becca will graduate from high school at the end of June and wil...