songbird's crazy world

Another HodgePodge from Joyce . 1. What makes you feel accomplished? Explain. There is a lot of feedback in my profession.  You win a case, you feel good.  You lose, you feel awful.  You reach a good settlement, before trial, you feel satisfied.   2. If you had your own talk show, who would your first three guests be? Tell us why. I'd love to talk with Billy Joel. I love his music.  And he's a fellow Long Islander, I know we have a lot in common. Senator Al Franken is a fascinating speaker and conversationalist. I love his sense of humor. My favorite author is Nelson DeMille.  I'm sure he'd keep me entertained for awhile as we discuss his works, what motivates him, how he develops a story line. 3. Do you have a great burger recipe? What's in it? What do you like on a hamburger and where is your favorite spot to order one out? I don't do much cooking, probably haven't made a burger in years.  Drew likes to grill burgers and top them with mozzarel

Remember I told you that Becca needs a new roommate?  A few weeks ago she thought she solved the problem, Drew's friend's daughter was looking for a place to live. But the other girl backed out, she decided to move in with her sorority sister.  Well, today Drew's friend contacted him to see if Becca was still looking, the other girl's plans fell through.  So maybe ... Jen's boyfriend is working on Fire Island again this summer, he's got a job working weekends in one of the bars.  The summer communities on Fire Island are accessible only by boat, he commutes to the job via ferry. She's picking him up from the ferry tonight and driving him home.  The first of many times she will meet the ferry this summer.  Yes, Memorial Day weekend, the opening of the summer season.  And the weather was more like early April than late May.  Way too cold. Drew had his first BBQ of the season yesterday.  Nothing fancy, just burgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, potato salad, corn on th

One thing for which I will be forever grateful:  Drew introduced me to Greek food long before it was popular. Drew's mother's family is Sephardic.  Sephardic Jews trace their heritage to Spain.  In 1492, during the Inquisition, the Jews were given the choice: covert to Catholocism, or leave Spain.  Those who were expelled from Spain settled in various parts of the Mediterranean.  They continued to speak Ladino -- Jude-Spanish -- but they adopted the culture and cuisine of their neighbors.  Drew's family originated in Greece and Turkey, hence the familiarity with Greek food. It's like soul food for him.   One of our favorite places to get our fix  is Ayhan's.   Ayhan Hassan owns several restaurants here on Long Island.    His food is slightly different from most Greek places, since Hassan was raised on Cyprus, and brings Turkish influences into his menu. We satisfied our craving last night.   The meal started with soft Turkish bread and garlicky tzatsiki sauce, follo

So Wednesday night Drew and I took the train into the city, and walked up from Penn Station to the Theater District. It's Fleet Week here in New York, and that means that during our walk we saw a lot of sailors and Marines in dress uniform, taking in the sites of the city.  One enterprising street musician even tried to hustle a few extra dollars by playing "Anchors Aweigh " and the Marine Hymn. Our destination was the Shubert Theater. You know how much I  love live theater.  When the house lights go down and the curtain goes up, it's magic. This time around, we had tickets for Hello, Dolly! Yes, Hello, Dolly! , Jerry Herman's iconic musical from 1964, has been brilliantly revived, with Bette Midler -- the Divine Miss M herself -- in the title role. Dolly is one of Drew's favorite musicals, and when he heard there was to be a revival, he knew we'd be seeing the show long before tickets even went on sale.  He bought these tickets back in Septem

Who decides your medical care?  You?  Your doctor? Or your insurance carrier? The word "authorization" is the bane of my existence right now. So during my first visit to the orthopedist, he examined me, took an x-ray, and said "I know what your problem is, but you need an MRI to confirm the diagnosis.  I'll have my office get an authorization for an MRI from your insurance company." Second visit to the orthopedist.  "The MRI confirms the diagnosis, I'll get an authorization from your insurer to do the gel injections.  It will take a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm sending a prescription to your pharmacy.  It's a cream that will help with the inflammation." Visit to the pharmacy.  "We got the prescription from the doctor, but your insurance company needs to give us an authorization to dispense it.  We called your doctor, he'll call the insurance company to get the authorization." Frustrating!!!! So it's Al

So my latest "medical crisis"? My right knee. I'm sure you'll appreciate the irony that the reason my knee hurts is that I decided to stop being a couch potato and that I've lost weight and become more physically active. My knee doesn't hurt when I am walking.  But it hurts when I'm exercising, when I do squats, hamstring curls, lunges, anything that puts weight on my right leg while my knee is bent. And sometimes, when I'm sitting or lying down, if I shift position, I'll hear a "pop", and I'll feel pain shooting through the knee. The physician's assistant at my orthopedist's office tells me that the X rays and MRI show I have an old injury, that I likely tore my meniscus years ago, and that I aggravated the condition when I started to get active. He prescribed a topical cream, an anti inflammatory, that I can use for temporary relief.  And he is requesting authorization from my insurance company to give me injecti

An Ariana Grande concert.  An arena filled with 21,000 fans, mostly tweens and young teens and their parents.  The concert ends, the house lights go up, people start leaving the arena... And then, terror.  An explosion.  Terror. The all-too-familiar images pouring in from Manchester, England.  19 dead, 50 injured. I'm sick to my stomach.

I'm not into designer purses, my pocketbook is a utilitarian item designed to hold my gear.  Really, it's something to schlep around. So the accessories I get for my bag tend to be functional rather than decorative. Here's one of my favorite gadgets.   Drew and I dine out fairly often.  When we are seated in a restaurant, I use this gadget to hang my pocketbook from the table, so that I don't have to place it on the floor. Here's another favorite.  I hook it to my keychain, and hang my keys from the side of the bag, so that I don't have to dig through all my stuff when I need the keys.   I bought both items at Amazon.  It's amazing what you can find there, isn't it?

Going to the movies these days is a different experience-- reserved seating, reclining seats, so civilized.  The theater where we saw Alien Covenant  even has a liquor license and a full bar.  Drew ordered pretzel nuggets, and they brought his order to our seats. Drew keeps reminding me that he took me to see the original Alien  back in 1979.   So of course we had to let Ridley Scott scare the living daylights out of us again. And yes, he did scare us.   A sleeper ship headed for a colony planet experiences technical issues, causing the crew to wake prematurely.  The captain discovers what appears to be a habitable planet close by.  There they find David, the artificial life form from Prometheus.   Terror ensues.  Thoroughly enjoyable. We saw the movie in the late afternoon, then headed to our favorite seafood place, Southside Fish and Clam, for dinner -- I had a mini crab cake appetizer and Parmesan-crusted tilapia, Drew had lobster bisque and mini lobster tail

Yes, I succumbed... My new fidget cube.   It joins the spinner I bought a few weeks ago.   Desk toys for those of us stressed out at work.

 We're fairly frequent visitors to the Willow Wood Shoppes.   And when we found out that Stewart's planned to open a restaurant there, we were very excited.  We are fans of their root beer and black cherry soda, and we had heard good things about their other locations. So of course we had dinner there shortly after the place opened. The decor is very very orange, and suggestive of Stewart's carhop roots.  I was amused to see that the top shelf behind the bar was not occupied by beer or wine (though both are available), but rather, by bottles of Stewart's sodas. The night we were there, we encountered numerous service issues.  Everyone was friendly and trying really hard, but they missed the mark.  I attribute that to the newness of the restaurant, I'm sure they'll work out the kinks as they get more experience. The food?  Fries were pretty standard.  My patty melt -- hamburger patty, rye bread, grilled onions, cheese -- was juicy and tasty.  And the di

I am at a loss to explain it. The American Jewish community is not a homogeneous group. Most American Jews lead a secular lifestyle, affiliate with religious organizations that are part of the Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist movements, and tend to be liberal in their politics and vote Democratic. About 10%  of the Jewish population identifies as Orthodox or ultra Orthodox.  They tend to lead a more insular lifestyle.  Politically they tend to be conservative, aligning with white Christian evangelicals on issues such as school vouchers, gay marriage, etc. One of the key questions American Jews ask every time they head into the voting booth is "which candidate would be better for Israel?" There are as many answers to that question as there are American Jewish voters... Though to be honest, American foreign policy, as it relates to Israel, has been consistent no matter which party has held the White House.  When Obama, as a lame duck president, ordered that t

1. May 17th is National Pack Rat Day. Sidebar- should we be celebrating this?  Hmmm... Are you a pack rat? Even if you're not a full fledged pack rat, most people have one thing or another they struggle to part with. Tell us what's yours. We are a family of pack rats.  'Nuff said. 2. What are two things you know you should know how to do, but you don't? Sewing.  I've tried and tried to learn how to do it, but practice does not make perfect. Crochet.  Ditto. 3. Do you crave sugar? Do you add sugar to your coffee and/or tea? Do you use artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes? When dining out is dessert a given? Are you someone who has slain the sugar dragon, and if so tell us how you did it. I like my sweets.  I can never eat just one cookie.   I take my coffee with milk or half and half, I never learned to put sugar in my coffee, because neither of my parents ever added sugar to theirs.  I can always tell when someone put sugar in my c

Jen and Becca are headed to Walt Disney World on Thursday.  They've got a very nice trip planned, just the two of them.   At our Mother's Day dinner, we were reminiscing about the trips we took to Disney when the girls were little, and Becca put on the Minnie Mouse costume I'd bought for her when she was 8.  Yes, she could still get into the costume, but it does fit a bit differently now... And she's decided to make a birthday party for herself.  She'll be 25 in July.  She was planning a vacation with her now-ex boyfriend to celebrate the milestone, but now she'l celebrate with all of her friends at some NYC bar.  I'm glad she has a lot of friends who want to celebrate with her.  And who knows, maybe by then she'll be on to her next romance. Jen is winding down the school year.  She doesn't want to go back in September, but she doesn't have a different job/career in mind either. I've urged her to talk to the career counseling people at he

Eisenhower Park is a huge county facility in East Meadow, NY.  It started life as Salisbury Country Club in the jazz age, but went bankrupt during the Depression and became a county park.  It was renamed fir President Eisenhower in 1969, shortly after his death.  A statue of Eisenhower in his military uniform greets parkgoers at the main entrance on Hempstead Turnpike. It's my favorite non-beach place to walk.   I usually head over to the lake.  It's a man made lake, like a huge concrete pool. The water is very murky, so I'm not sure how deep it is, but at one time people were able to ride around the lake on small paddle boats.  The lake is home to the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theater, an outdoor amphitheater that was supposed to host Chapin's concert the night he died, as well as the county's armed forces memorial and tribute to 9/11. I usually find myself looking at the ducks and geese. I spotted the fine family on one side of the lake, and later on the other.  I'

  Courtesy of my daughters, my nails and toes are now mint green.

 

1. Share a favorite memory of your mother  or  share a favorite something from your own life as a mother. If you're a mother (or stepmom) tell us how your experience as a mom differs from your own mother's experience. My mom was a married, stay at home mom until my sisters and I were older, when she went back to work, then back to school.  I got divorced when my kids were very young, and I always worked outside the home.  So yes, my experience as a mother is very different from my mom's . 2. In May we celebrate teachers (May 9) and nurses (May 6) both. Most every family has at least one in their midst, so tell us something (or a few things) you appreciate about the teacher or nurse on your family tree. It's no wonder my Jen wanted to be a teacher, my dad was a principal and my mom was a teacher before she went back to school to become a lawyer, and Drew is a teacher.  Teachers work so hard.... My high school Social Studies teacher inspired me to major in history i

Do you look up at the sky? At night? I've always been fascinated by the night sky. I guess it's because of all those trips to the planetarium -- the high school in my district has a wonderful planetarium, and the elementary school students are frequent visitors.  It sparks a child's imagination. Last night I saw the moon, near full, and a single star, through a break in the clouds. Beautiful, isn't it?

Well, the people of France can officially say that they are smarter than Americans...their new president will do them proud. We did not have Mexican takeout for Cinco de Mayo,  Instead, we waited until Saturday and went to one of our favorites, Margarita's, because besides excellent food, they also have live mariachi music.    We had queso fundido (can't go wrong with melted cheese), Drew had paella and I had fajitas.  I'm not crazy about tequila, so we drank sangria instead. So our Friday takeout was from the deli.  Jewish soul food -- pastrami, corned beef, knishes, pierogi, kasha varnishkes ... Yeah,  Guardians of the Galaxy  lived up to the hype.  Very funny and enjoyable movie.  The original was on TV last night, I turned it on, but fell asleep halfway through. The weather has been unseasonably cool for the last few days.  Hard to believe that Memorial Day and the start of the summer season is just three weeks away.  Over the weekend I reminded Drew that he sho

Walk at least a mile a day?  Yeah, I got this. Record progress in the walking challenge record?  I record my results every 3-5 days or so, guess that's an improvement. Meditation?  Yes, every day, thanks to the Zen 31 challenge. Conventional prayer?  Got an app on my phone, I look at it almost every day, Synagogue attendance? No, not happening.  Though I did go to a Kabbalah meditation program at the synagogue. Kabbalah is all about balance, about opposing forces being interconnected, like Yin and Yang in  Chinese philosophy.   It's about an awareness of conscious from the ordinary, terrestrial world in which wevlive all the way up to the celestial sphere where G-d is found, and about the light pouring down from the heavens and filling our world.  While a yogi might speak of feeling connected to the universe, a Kabbalist speaks of a connection to G-d. Our teacher said what we were practicing was "Kabbalah mindfulness", and the techniques she used were Bu

Star Lord, your mother had excellent taste in music. Yeah, I have Guardians of the Galaxy on my mind.  Loved the first movie, can't wait to see the sequel tonight. One of the best parts of the first movie was the music.  Star Lord's most prized possession is his Walkman and the awesome mix tape his mother made for him. It keeps him connected to his mother, and to his home on Earth. The music on the mix tape is all from the 1960's and 1970's.  The music from my childhood and teen years!  Blue Swede's "Hooked On A Feeling".   The Raspberries' "Go All The Way".  The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb".  And, of course, "The Pina Colada Song". All heavenly sounds right there on my iPod. At the end of the movie, as you may recall, Star Lord opens the last gift his mother gave him, and finds another awesome mix tape. The second awesome mix tape became available on iTunes this week.  You know I had to, simply had to, download

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo  is a minor holiday, observed to commemorate the  Mexican Army's  unlikely victory over French forces at the  Battle of Puebla  on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General  Ignacio Zaragoza . Here in the US, it's become so much more -- a celebration of Mexican culture. Feels weird to be celebrating it this year, given the political climate, the current administration's bigotry towards Mexican immigrants and the desire to build a border wall. A friend of mine posted on Facebook: You're not allowed to celebrate Cinco de Mayo if you've been chanting "build the wall". She's got a point, don't you think? We're not making a big deal of the holiday, but I'd like to go to that mom-and-pop Mexican takeout place we like so much, maybe get some tacos or enchiladas. To celebrate the day ... I was looking for a video of Richie Valens.  the best I could do was Lou Diamond Phillips as  Valens in La Bamba (the voc

I still have those @#$%& stitches in my arm, so no yoga class for me last night. The weather was decent, so I went here: Yes, Sunken Meadow State Park, my second favorite place to walk. Jones Beach is a barrier beach island.  Sunken Meadow is a big green park with a small but interesting beach. It's on Long Island's north shore, on Long Island Sound.  The boardwalk is 3/4 mile from end to end.  I usually park at the main bathhouse, which is in the middle of the boardwalk, then walk to one end of the boardwalk, turn and walk to the other end, and return to the middle -- a total of 1 1/2 miles.  If I feel ambitious, I will repeat the circuit. It's a pretty beach. Nice view. Look across the water and you can see Connecticut. The patterns in the sand were caused by waves, the tide must have come all the way up to the boardwalk. The jetty seems to be wearing down, there are more gaps in the stones this year than I remember

Thanks to Denise  for introducing me to Joyce and From This Side of the Pond . My answers to the Wednesday Hodgepodge: 1. Can you tell I'm embracing a Cinco de Mayo theme here this week? Do you like Mexican food? What's your favorite dish? How about on the side-black beans, pinto beans, refried beans, rice? What about heat-mild, medium, hot? Will you celebrate with Mexican food and drink on May 5th aka Cinco de Mayo? I love Mexican food.  We usually do take-out on Friday nights, so we will probably go to that mom-and-pop Mexican place.  I usually get beef tacos or chicken tacos, Mexican rice, black beans, and occasionally chips and salsa or guacamole. 2. Ever been to Mexico? For work or holiday? Love it or no? If you haven't been is this a place you'd like to visit? Can you speak Spanish? I've been to Mexico twice.  Both occasions were shore excursions in Cozumel during a cruise.  The first time, we did a beach day.  The second time, we went to Chichen Itz

Ever hear of an explorer named Percy Fawcett?  He disappeared in the Amazon in 1925.  Fawcett believed that the indigenous population of the region was descended from an advanced civilization, and was searching for archaeological evidence of that lost civilization when he disappeared. The Lost City of Z  is a movie about Fawcett's exploits. It's a quiet, serious movie, and it dragged a little in spots. But overall, it was an interesting movie.  It captured Fawcett's enthusiasm for exploration, the wonder of discovery.  While Fawcett was a man of his time, he had respect for the indigenous people of the Amazon and wanted to preserve their culture. A thoughtful movie, worth seeing.

A new month, full of new opportunities. Two projects this month. I am still participating in  The Great Walk Challenge .  I made the commitment to walk at least one mile each day from April 5 until July 13.  As fitness challenges go, it's a fairly easy one, and I've been consistent in my walking efforts, less so in recording the results on the form for the contest.  I'm going to try to keep better records. The second involves my spiritual and emotional well being. I like conventional prayer, and I also enjoy meditation.  I find that the two activities address different spiritual needs. I've been neglecting both.  And I can feel it. When I was saying Kaddish for my father, I was in synagogue 3 or 4 days a week.  Kaddish is recited for 11 months after a parent dies.  Since I finished my 11 months of mourning, I've only gone to synagogue 2 or 3 times.  Goal for the month: go to services at least once a week. and open the prayer book at home every morning th