Val-isms

Great game and a fun-filled weekend

Linda & I have created a ritual of sorts when we attend the UCONN games at the Hartford Civic Center.  We try to get up there about an hour or so before the game and park the car.  We walk a block over to the local sports bar and get in the 'game mood'.  There are usually enough other UCONN fans around to generate some good-natured smiles and nods while we're there.  Then we walk a few blocks to the Civic Center to enjoy the game.

Last night, we had to make one detour before parking and hitting the bar.  We stopped on the other side of the building so that the Rabbi could get a ticket to the game.  Her seat was in a lower section than our seats were in and we laughed about Linda probably taking off and going to sit in the better seat!  The Rabbi wanted to sit with someone who could explain the game and give some insights during it.  We agreed that we'd just find some empty seats in our section and sit together.

We got to the bar and ordered some drinks and the Rabbi ordered a burger, as she hadn't eaten all day. 

All of a sudden over the loudspeaker, we hear:  "Can I have your attention, please?  There's a nice gentleman at the door who has 4 tickets to the game tonight if anyone is interested in upgrading."

I looked at Linda and said, "Go check it out."

Off she went and as she approached the man, I couldn't tell what was going on and didn't see any tickets get handed off, but I couldn't see everything from where I was sitting.

When Linda turned around to walk back to our table, she held up the tickets.  YES!

We ended up with 7 tickets for the game last night!  But the seats that were given to us, were in the corner across from the UCONN bench, about 6 rows from the court.  We've never EVER sat that close to the action!  It was excellent!  Boy, those girls are BIG!  And Maya Moore is just incredible to watch.  She only played 15 minutes, but had 17 points!  It was such a blowout of a game, that the 2nd string got some time on the court, too!

It was also great to watch the game and provide information to somoene who had not watched the game before.  The Rabbi totally got into it!  She also hadn't seen live cheerleaders or 'dance teams' before so the entertainment factor was high!

UCONN beat BYU (not really a challenging game!) soundly  nd we had a great evening.  The Rabbi will most likely be joining us for future games.

Tonight is "Movie Night" with Sophie.  We'll be watching the Disney classic "Pollyanna" (the beginnings of my childhood crush on Hayley Mills!). 

Tomorrow morning, Linda & I will be going to services and then doing some shopping, while Sophie will be attending a classmate's birthday party at the American Girl cafe in NYC!  To say Sophie is excited about this is an extreme understatement!  This event trumped the GE Children's Holiday party which we are blowing off!

Saturday afternoon, after the party, Sophie will be showing us her 'wishlist' items for Hanukkah at 2 of her favorite stores.

Saturday night, Linda & I are attending a fundraiser at the Temple.  The concept is that everyone meets at the Temple for cocktails and hors d'œuvres   After about an hour and a half, everyone is given a location to go to for dinner at a host home.  It's a way to meet some new people in the congregation.  We've never done this before, but I'm sure it'll be fun.

Sunday, Linda has her long run (12 miles!) and we have a bit of shopping to do.  The weather is supposed to be cold and chance of some snow (not much where we are, but north of us may get a few inches).

Shabbat Shalom.

A new Huskie Fan?

I'm not one of those people who decided at an early age that the law or medicine was for me and my journey led me to advanced educational degrees and my practice has been thriving for years.  No.  You could say that I'm no longer or ever was searching for what I'm going to be when I grow up.  At this point, it's more about the here and now and doing things that will help me survive with as much inner peace as possible.  Doing things for myself and others enables this for me.

I'm in Corporate America in a job that I enjoy, but certainly I didn't aspire to.

I try and be a good person and think of others.  Over the past few years, I have found a spiritual home where I have met many wonderful people and have been cultivating new relationships and doing more outreach that is outside of my normal comfort zone.  And I've been learning.  There is much to learn.

But in my comfort zone, where I know things about certain topics, sports and perhaps the lesbian lifestyle (if there IS such a style!) in general, there isn't much need for my expertise or opinion on any type of regular basis.  (Though I'm sure that Linda would agree that I try to give my opinion as often as I can!)

Until now.

It seems that in getting to know our new Rabbi, (though she's been with our Congregation for over a year now, so she's not so new anymore!) it's been a process held more or less on her turf (i.e. Services, classes, committee meetings and a few informal gatherings). 

I decided to throw caution to the wind earlier this week and invite her to a sporting event - a UCONN women's basketball game.  Now this wouldn't be that strange, except that our Rabbi, though a lesbian, is more of an intellectual, not sporty. (STRONG understatement, as she has multiple degrees, including a PhD and was ordained as a Rabbi at the age of 33, AFTER obtaining all her many degrees! Impressive, to say the least!)  She is also from the UK.  (Hebrew sounds so cool with that accent, I must say!)

Her partner, though American, is also an intellectual, so sports are not part of their activities!

She received my invite to see a game with us tonight (or anytime that would fit her schedule) with a child-like level of enthusiasm!  I'm really looking forward to our evening at the game tonight.  It's not a big game (as we're playing an unranked team).  But it will offer me & Linda the opportunity to shine brightly in our basketball & UCONN knowledge and let her see for a brief time, how WE feel when she's been sharing her vast knowledge of all sorts of things, historical and biblical related, with us!  Ah, to teach the Rabbi something!  At the tender age of 35, our Rabbi will hopefully catch Husky Fever!  Very cool!

GO HUSKIES!

Hump day survived

It's evening... I haven't gotten much opportunity to blog from the office these days... 

We had the usually busy evening with Sophie tonight, but we're easing into a normal routine in the 'new' residence (new to Sophie, as she doesn't adjust so quickly, as you can tell since we've been in the 'new' place 3 months!).

We cooked one of our quick cuisine meals - Talapia fish with garlic butter sauce.  We had some nice rice on the side, too.  While dinner was cooking, Sophie switched from assisting with the cooking, setting the table and reading.  The meal was delicious.

After dinner, piano practicing commenced.  Sophie is really doing well with learning her notes and getting her fingers more relaxed and comfortable on the keys.  The teacher encourages her interest by teaching her 'standards'  in addition to the simple 2 lines of practice songs in her book.  These practice songs are 5 notes in different formations to help with fingering practice as well as left and right hand coordination.  Though Sophie occasionally still gets frustrated, it passes pretty quickly, as she really does have a strong aptitude and if pushed, she can do things that may take others longer.

She can play one-handed renditions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row, Row, Row your Boat"!  But tonight, she made my day.  In the past few weeks, I've tried to teach her the bass part of "Heart and Soul", figuring it would be easier for her to learn and she did pick it up pretty quickly.  But as soon as I would start playing the melody, she would lose the beat!  We would both start cracking up.  So she asked to learn the melody tonight and not only did she learn it, but we actually played a duet together.  We provided Linda with an impromptu concert and you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face for anything!  Sophie was pretty excited about it, too!

Since the night went so well and she was helpful, polite and just plain cheerful, she got to stay up and watch some Holiday specials on TV.  "Shrek the Halls" - a new Shrek holiday show that was just OK and the classic Dr Seuss "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", which the 3 of us watched in bed together.  Still a great show and a great message.

She's sleeping now.  Laundry is being done.  Linda is watching a show on Alaska and reading in bed.  I've been able to read some blogs and actually complete a post.

A good day.

Romantic or what?

It's a dreary, cold, dark, rainy day here in CT.  Blech.

It would have been nice to throw the covers over my head and hide in the bed this morning.  But to cheer up the mood of the morning, my lovely spouse-to-be commuted to work with me. 

So sweet. 

She wanted to spend time with me ...despite me enjoying morning dj's and lively music?

She wanted to spend some time with me enjoying some nice morning conversation?

No.  She wanted an extra 20 minutes of shut-eye.

Did I mention how beautiful she is when she sleeps?!

Is that smoke I smell?

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  Thanks.

Sophie didn’t come with us, due to her having a very upset stomach and not feeling well.  She stayed with my ex, who was having some people over.

 

We started out the day doing the local Turkey Trot 5k.  Though I didn’t set any record times, I crossed the finish line in just over 42 minutes!  We ran with some friends of ours\ and the Rabbi.  The Rabbi did it in 34 minutes and was thrilled to beat her goal of 35!  Linda came in at 29 minutes.  It was an unusually warm Thanksgiving Day here in CT, with temps in the low 60’s.  A fun time was had by all.  We may be doing a 5k in January!

 

We were in NJ from about 2pm – 7pm, having wonderful food (turkey, duck, veggies, potatoes, pies and such!) and great conversations with friends.

Upon our arrival home, we watched the UCONN women handle Stanford and maintain their #2 ranking.  They play again tonight against ODU and should have no trouble.  They didn’t play magnificent, but they held their own and beat them by 12.  I made it to the end of the first half before falling asleep.  It was a long day!

This morning, Sophie was dropped off to us about 8:30 feeling better.  We hung out and then headed to do some errands, such as a dump run and then to have a bite of lunch.  We then went to see “Enchanted”, which had been highly recommended to us by the Rabbi & her partner.  It was excellent.  The 3 of us loved it.  Great story.  Nice step parent storyline that didn’t involve just a mean one!

 

On our way home, we talked about having our first fire of the season.  Linda had to go and do her daily run and while she was doing that, Sophie & I would get the fire set up and going.  We’d have one of the meals from QuickQuisine and enjoy a movie OnDemand from cable.  The UCONN women were playing at 8:30, so the evening seemed nicely planned out and I love when that happens.

There was still some wood next to the fireplace, but I wanted to make sure we had enough so I wouldn’t have to go outside, so while Sophie held the door open, I made a few trips to bring 2 armloads of wood in and neatly stacked it next to the hearth.  I scrunched up newspaper and arranged the wood in a nice pyramid fashion in order to have it all catch and burn nicely.

I pushed the lever for the flue upward and promptly lit the fire.

Well, the fire caught immediately, which, as Murphy’s Law states will happen ONLY when you really don’t want it to.  It roared to life and stayed lit without any prompting.  The smoke in the living room was noticed immediately.  So I promptly pushed the flue lever in the other direction, thinking that perhaps it had already been open and I had actually closed it before lighting it.

Meanwhile, Linda was opening doors, windows and anything that could be open to get the smoke out, as the smoke alarm beeped loudly just to make sure that we all were aware that there was indeed, smoke in the house! 

I ran upstairs to turn off the alarm.

Ran back downstairs and outside to see if the smoke was coming out of the chimney on the outside.  Nope.  It was, however, coming out of the windows on the side of the house.  Lovely. 

We were all running around trying to open windows and doors, while keeping an eye on the animals (both cats don’t go outside and we didn’t want this evening to be the time they decide to go exploring) and wiping the tears from our burning eyes.

We finally determined that no matter which way the flue lever was, smoke was still coming inside the house.  So the beautifully burning fire was doused with water and put out.

It’s now been about a ½ hour since the fireplace episode and the cats have crept out from under the beds/couches.  Linda is out on her run and Sophie is watching some TV.

It’s too late to call my parents in Israel and find out what magical trick there is to operating their fireplace.  Who knows, perhaps the fireplace just might need cleaning.

In any case, Friday Movie Night will not incorporate a roaring fire as originally planned.  But it’ll be OK.  At least the smoke has cleared and we can see without our eyes tearing.

Maybe another night, we’ll have a fire.

busy bees

zzzzzzzzz... hear that sound?  nope, not sleeping.  TOO busy for that.

Work is crazy and lots of stuff going on outside of work.

It may be too crazy to post anything for a few days, so I hope everyone has a nice Turkey Day. 

If you're traveling, be safe.  Enjoy your friends and family where ever you are.

In this day and age...

A little Friday rant for ya...  enjoy:

A child of 2 Mom's goes to a private girls school.  The school has an annual "Winter Concert".   During rehearsals, the teacher announces that during one particular song, the Dad's will join their daughters.

WTF????

Is there a song during the program where the Mom's get to join their daughters?  um... NO.

Uh... I don't think that this is politically correct NOR do I think that it's necessary to do.  It's also extremely insensitive to those without Dad's.  I hope I hear that this particular song will be sung sans penis accompaniment.  I'll keep you posted.

OK - now onto the weekend.

We have invited our Cantor over for drinks and munchies tonight after Services tonight.  She's a great woman, whom we've gotten pretty friendly with.  She's my age (though technically, 6 months older!), has a beautiful voice, was one of the first female Cantors and is a fun person.  It should be a fun evening.

Tomorrow morning, we're heading to Clinton, CT to cook with some friends.  At a place called:  QuickQuisine.   Then we're having lunch at one of the couple's home who live in the area.  Another fun time with the added bonus of having future meals to eat!

Sunday morning, my ex & I are going with Sophie and her Sunday School class to sing at the local Jewish Home.  I vividly remember singing  there with my youth group when I was in High School.  It's a great experience seeing how much they enjoy hearing people sing, and just having younger people around. 

Then in the afternoon, Linda, Sophie & I are heading to Manhattan to cheer on our niece Maisie as she competes on the JCC swim team!

Shabbat Shalom!

Looking back

9 years, 11 months and a few weeks ago, I turned 40.  A surprise party was thrown for me.  In a small VFW hall that I was brought into were friends and family.  Lots of celebrating, dancing and eating took place.  It was a fun night.

For some reason, turning 40 seemed OK.  No big deal.  I was still optimistic about trying to get pregnant, yet slowly realizing that I would soon have to probably choose an alternate path for becoming a Mom.  I had lots of friends around me and I was working.  Life was just pulling me along.

As I turned 40, my partner at the time was about to take a new job with a startup company that a friend of ours was developing.  That ultimately was one of the big reasons for our relationship becoming strained and unrepairable.  This is not to say that it was all her fault.  Not even close.  But the amount of time that the job took away from us and her family sure didn't help.

At the age of 43 I became a Mom of a 9 month old.  I still felt young.  I loved being a Mom.  I still love being a Mom.

At the age of 45, my job of 17 years was in jeopardy and I was laid off.  It was a stressful 7 months with a partner always at work and a 17 year old (our niece - another blog entry) and a 3 year old to care for.  The day after I turned 46, I got rehired in a different business within the same company that I was laid off from.

During my unemployment, I did a lot of soul searching and realized just how unhappy I was and how much my partner really didn't have the time to deal with our relationship.  I think that after you're with someone for that long (21 years), just maybe the comfortableness is something that becomes a way of life that is soothing and familiar, but for me, it became suffocating.  I felt like I'd wasted a lot of years spending time with someone who had made me believe that I was a person that I wasn't.  I wanted more. 

It's hard to explain.  Too personal actually, to go into here.  Suffice it to say that I chose to leave a 22 year relationship.  By the time I had the strength to say I was leaving, I had already mentally checked out of the relationship.  My ex was stunned with my announcement despite us having had issues over the years and recent evenings of telling her how unhappy I was and how the relationship was in trouble.  I guess that she thought it would just blow over.  It didn't.

Leaving that relationship at the age of 46 was the single hardest thing I've ever done.  I felt like I was taking a step off a ledge thousands of feet up, with no idea where or if I would land. 

Coinciding with me leaving that relationship, I met Linda.  It couldn't have been worse timing.  Somehow in my confused and guilt-ridden existence at the time, I knew deep down how important it was that she be in my life.  I put her through a hellish 8 months before I was able to be completely honest and real with her.

At the age of 47, I exchanged promise rings with my beautiful Linda.

And just one month shy of turning 49, I asked her to marry me.  I'd never asked anyone to marry me before.  I had never wanted to marry anyone before.

I guess turning 40 has been life changing for me.  Though turning 30 was hard for me, my 30's were a blur.  My 40's have been eye-opening for me.  From the inside.  I've gotten to know myself better.  I've lost friends, but actually realized who my real friends are.  I've also made some new friends via this blogging habit I've formed during my 40's, as well.  I have found my religion again and become spiritual.  I am getting back in shape and have discovered bicycling and - gasp - running!

Today's assignment (thanks EB) is to talk/write a bit about what it was like turning 40.  Why, you ask?  Well, it seems that today is a fellow bloggers 40th birthday - - Theresa, I hope you enjoy your day today and that your 40's turn out to be a great decade for you!  Happy Birthday!

New adventure on the Internet

I've joined Facebook.  Why, you ask?  Not sure. 

I'm hearing more from my 13 year old niece lately via it, so that's a good thing.  Not sure what the big deal about it is, but there are lots of 'parts' in it and it's enough of an unknown at this point to keep my interest.

I had the day off from work today, but Linda had to work and Sophie had school.  What could have been a nice day of R & R for me, became a day of doing car stuff.  Too boring to share, but at least I had the smarts to bring my book to amuse me while I was waiting for the car stuff to be done.

I also fit lunch with Linda in, which is always a nice thing.

I pulled my back dancing/standing at the gala Saturday night.  We had an excellent time there.  The food and the music were so great.  So nice when a fund-raiser turns out that much fun.

Fortunately, the back pain didn't come about until Sunday.  I'm still a bit sore today.  I hate lower back pain.  sigh.

We have Sophie until Thursday, as my ex left for a business trip yesterday.  It's nice having a 4 night - 5 day stretch with Sophie staying with us. 

I have my last Temple Leadership class tomorrow night, so Linda will be tucking Sophie in.  Tonight, she asked us, when we were tucking her in, if we could have a 'family' bed some time where we all sleep in bed with her.  It was nice to hear her refer to 'family' as being her, me & Linda.  I love when I can see the little steps of progress where she shows that she's 'getting' how things are.  The time that Sophie & Linda spend together without me only serves to bring them closer and create a relationship that will only grow stronger with time.  Linda is so great with her and Sophie responds really well to her.  I got doubly lucky to have found a woman who not only knows how to love me, but also knows how to love my daughter.

Going dancin' for a good cause

Just last weekend, Linda told me that she missed going out dancing.  Lo and behold, our local gay community center is having a gala this weekend to raise some money and kick off a new vision campaign for the center.  Cocktails and dancing.  What more is there to say?  If you're local, why not come out and have some fun.  We would love to see you there!  Check it out!

Our good friends Tina and Janis are on the board there and encouraged us to help out and attend, so we are.  We're looking forward to it - should be a fun Saturday night.

We'll be helping out with the Gala set up Friday night for a few hours.

Saturday morning I'll be going to Services (it's hard to get Linda up and out that early on a Saturday morning, but we'll see!), dump run and to the gym.  (I actually got to the gym twice this week already!)

Sunday morning, we may get out for a ride before picking up Sophie from Sunday school.  Linda has her 10 mile run, so I may just end up on a solo bike ride.

We hope to get to the "Bee Movie" on Sunday afternoon.

My thoughts go out to our friends Tina, who had back surgery this week, and her partner Kat.  Hope things are going ok, considering.

Shabbat Shalom.