im a turkey..your a turkey

Thanksgiving.  I have fond memories of thanksgiving at 816 avenue K in Brooklyn.  My dad's parents house. We were greeted with chopped liver and crackers..stuffing and kishska from L&E..really good stuffing.  So good, that fat Banji wasn't really allowed to eat it so she had to surreptitiously sneak it in when no one was looking...good times. Memories are triggered by tastes and smells...all I have to do is look at my dining room set to have those memories, as it is the same one that was in my grandparents house.  Times were simple then, uncomplicated. No horrific storms or rockets being launched. No family squabbles. Or maybe there were and I was just protected from all of that.  Who knows..we remember what we want to and forget what we want to (those, as I get older I forget things that I dont want to, but my aging brain isn't allowing me to remember...)

Im not sure why people make a big deal about thanksgiving..as orthodox jews we seem to celebrate it every weekend..though, at shoprite, they only think the kosher folks are worth a free chicken. Subtle anti-semitism at its best.  I spent hundreds of dollars a week at that store, and Im only eligible for a free chicken. A small, pathetic, frozen chicken. For thanksgiving. The holiday based around a turkey.  Really?  I would boycott shoprite, but then I wouldn't have access to my supply of Tab...though they haven't had that recently either so maybe someone is trying to tell me something....and Drakes is out of business so husband #1 is now out of his major food group-coffee cakes...is there a rehab for that?

In any event, the point of thanksgiving, aside from being with relatives you don't like, is to be thankful.  So Im thankful for my beautiful boys(when they are not fighting), for husband #1 for filling my car up with gas, on an odd day, when I only had 4 miles left to go, for my home, which is still standing, for friends who cheer me up on my birthday which really didn't happen because we didn't have power so im not actually a year older, and for all of the blessings God has given me. May you all be blessed and be thankful for those blessings as well.

Happy Wednesday and here's to Peace......

losing power never gets old....

So after 5 1/2 days without power, the lights have once again been turned on in my town...a town filled with so many different kinds of people. And before i begin this rant, I am fully aware of the devastation that sandy has caused and it breaks my heart that people have lost their homes and don't even have socks, when my kids keep leaving their socks all over the house-power, no power, it doesn't matter..My boys just assumed that laundry service would continue when we had no power and kept using different towels and wearing different sweatpants and then complained to the hired help(me) when they noticed supplies were running low. yessirree-i am one lucky gal. During this period of cold and darkness, the best comes out in people...a friend hosted 30-40 "refugees"..family, friends, friends of family, kids of all ages...everytime she opened the door i was waiting for her to hold her torch up and say "give me your tired, your poor." She and her husband were just awesome AND, her hair always looked good(which is really all that matters..) One across the street neighbor could not have been more sincere about wanting my entire family to come move in. And I would've taken her up on it but I still wanted her to be my neighbor, so instead, she had the important job of guarding my leftover chinese food so I had what to eat for breakfast each morning...yes, i ate it for breakfast. and it was delicious and i LOVE kosher express in Fair Lawn... My other across the street neighbor let my kids and i come over for quality internet and schmoozing time, and i , in order to repay the kindness, gave her kids leftover noodles-hey, it was the best i could do, and what kid doesn't love noodles? My next door neighbor, for the time being, gave us the biggest gift of all. The gift of letting us hook up our sump pump to their generator. Turns out that sandy's plans did not include so much water(just scary ass wind gusts....)so my boys, who don't know how to use an oven, do laundry or take out the garbage, figured out we could hook the tv up to the outlet...thats right folks, no heat, food in all the fridges bad, but we had tv for the entire blackout. Kids with generators would come over to watch tv in our cold dark home, because where there is tv, there is love....and good snacks, if you could find them... And then there is the whole category of people who "invite" the whole neighborhood to come over, but then pray you don't actually show up because they don't want you charging things in their outlets. Those people are poopies...and thats all i have to say about that. But the last issue i would like to touch upon is my birthday that wasn't...ok, it was on thursday, I am 39 for the third time...I did have some great friends come over and do lemon shots with me in the middle of the day...infront of my kids...but who cares, right? it kept us all warm and I felt the love. (One of my friends also got me a wrap that did actually keep me warm and it's yummy) And from my special children, I got a pillow that you can wrap into different configurations...like a head rest for the plane(we don't go on planes) and pillow to keep your head comfy on your couch(they dont let me on the couch) a pillow to sit on if the floor is too hard(umm, circumference of pillow vs circumference of my bedonkadonk-excuse me, does this come in a bigger size?) But, it was the thought that counts...and its always appreciated when someone gives you some thought... So as my 39th for the 3rd time birthday comes to an end...I am grateful for hot showers even with no power, garbage pick up during a black out, and friends that make you feel they really care about you...and my greatest gifts of all, my boys....even though i wanted to kill them several times these past few days...life is good here's hoping your lives get back to normal as soon as possible and that everyone gets their power back and that romney pulls it off this week so i can get a generator instead of giving all of my money to the government(well, husband #1's money..as I am just a house servant....) Happy Sunday!!