Val-isms

Movies, both home & away

The short work week is almost over. 

Linda started summer hours this week.  They work an extra 45 minutes on Monday thru Thursday and then get to work from 8:30-12:30 on Fridays. 

This means that on Fridays, I am getting up in the morning first.  I hate that.  I'll get over it!

Tonight, after services, will be movie night with Sophie.  The chosen flick is the first Indiana Jones movie: "Raiders of the Lost Ark".  (I've never seen it!)  My parents are coming over to join us.  Though they've seen them all (including the new one)!  Should be a fun night.  We've ordered the other 2 Indiana Jones movies so we will be well versed in all that is Indiana Jones over the next few weeks!

Tomorrow, if the weather holds out (rain is expected), Linda, Sophie & I will be doing a bike ride on a nice local path in the morning.  In the afternoon, she has a playdate with a classmate (Megan), and we will be poolside for a few hours!

After dropping the classmate home and Sophie to my ex, Linda & I will be heading to Yulan, NY (???) for an away "Movie Night" sleepover at our friends' Packie & BIll's weekend home.  There will be a few other people going as well and from what we've heard of the place, we're in for a very nice time.  Tina & Jess will be there, so it's bound to be a lot of fun!  There's a list of movies we have to choose from.

Shabbat Shalom.

47 years later...

The weekend was a blur, but what a wonderful blur it was.

Linda's fundraiser bike ride went spectacularly.  8.5 hours to do 80 miles on Saturday and 5.25 hours to do 50 miles on Sunday.  She arrived looking happy and proud of herself.  What an accomplishment.  The ride ended up raising over $300K for the camp.  Excellent.

I worked most of Saturday... unfortunately, things that had to be done prior to Tuesday and it would be my only opportunity to do so, as Sophie would be with me from Sat night thru Monday night.

Saturday night, Sophie & I watched "Nancy Drew" together for movie night. 

Sunday morning, we had a nice relaxing morning and then got on the road about 9:30 to head up to Mystic to be at the finish line to greet Linda.

On the way there, we stopped at the Submarine museum at the Navy Base in Groton.  It was excellent.  Lots to look at, videos to watch and then an actual submarine to walk around in - all for FREE!  I couldn't believe there still was anything out there that wasn't trying to drain my wallet, but there is.

We got to Mystic and had a picnic lunch while waiting for Linda to arrive.  The rest of her team got in about 1/2 hour ahead of her and were at the finish line with us when she rolled in.

After having some food and Linda getting a free massage, we headed home for a nice afternoon dip in the pool.  We had the pool to ourselves.  Very nice.

Monday morning, we dropped Sophie off with the brownie troop who was lining up for the Memorial Day parade.  My ex marched with her and the other kids and Mom's.  Linda & I got a nice spot and watched the parade.  Wasn't able to get a good pic...

Afterwards, Sophie had 2 friends come back for an afternoon of swimming.  We are totally enjoying having that pool available to us.  Again, there were only a few people to share it with.  Very nice.

Last night, Linda & I watched "The Children's Hour".  I'd heard of this movie and had been told it was a "must see' for any gay person, but I'd never seen it before.   It stars Audrey Hepburn (SO amazingly beautiful and classy) and Shirley MacLaine.  It was done in 1961 and for it's time, it took on a pretty dangerous topic - lesbianism at a time when even the 60's sexual revolution hadn't even begun yet!  It was kind of corny and didn't spell things out until the very end... but wow.  Powerful movie.  Highly recommend it.  It really shows how far we've come with gay rights, yet in some ways, it's sad to think that we have quite a ways to go.

Here's a big cheer for a 4 day work week!

Some pics from the start

  

Above, that's Linda, of course.  Ready to go.

And here's us:

 

Inspirational is...

... seeing 200 bike riders line up on a pretty crisp/cold Saturday morning with smiles on their faces knowing that they have 130 miles to cover over a 2 day period of time.

... seeing the many volunteers milling all around doing everything from doing baggage claim, registration, health & safety talks and traffic control.

... knowing that there are countless volunteers that were aleady stationed over the 80 mile course today, to hand out refreshments and beverages.

... also knowing that there were countless other volunteers who would be either driving the lead motorcycles ahead of the pack of bike riders or driving the SAG wagons (vans with supplies and seats to assist all riders who either get hurt or just need a drink or just want to ride for a bit)

... meeting the girl named Angela whom the ride is named for "Angel Ride" and hearing her speak to the crowd of riders just before they took off.  She thanked them for doing all they do - raising the funds for the camp and riding the great distance for those who can't.  It brings tears to my eyes remembering her as I type this.  She is 17 now and can no longer attends the camp but still stays active with encouraging support. 

I hugged and kissed Linda goodbye at 8:30 this morning.  She was nervous but excited about this challenge.  I've heard from her twice.  Once at the 31 mile mark (about 11:30) and again at the 51 (about 1:30pm) mile mark.  She's feelin strong (God knows how, as she probably only had a couple of hours of sleep.  Our hotel room was on a busy road, the bed wasn't too comfy and we were up and having breakfast at 5:45am!) and was looking forward to getting to camp for the evening.

From seeing Linda and her teammates off, I headed to work.  I've been here for about 5 hours and am heading out to do some errands.

Sophie & I will have "Movie night" ourselves.  The "Nancy Drew" movie will be playing!

Tomorrow, we'll head up to Mystic, CT to meet Linda and cheer her and the rest of the Team Triumph team across the finish line!  I'm hoping she's taking some good pics for me to post.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend so far.

"Gotcha" 2008

Today, May 17th, marks the anniversary of when my parents & I flew for almost 24 hours to meet my daughter.  2001.  7 years ago.  She was 9 months old. 

Within the first hour of holding her, she peed on me.  She wasn't wearing any diapers.  Just a cute short and t-shirt set.  They told me that she was toilet trained.  She wasn't even walking.  She WAS crawling, standing, scaling furniture and extremely curious about EVERYTHING!  Oh, and yes, BEAUTIFUL.  Even with a lovely 'bowl' hair cut*.

I can remember the feelings I had as we flew.  Anxious.  Excited.  Scared.  Tired.  When we landed in Cambodia, we were met by our adoption facilitator, who drove us to the hotel.  Very Americanized.  The staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful.

They had set up a suite with 3 beds and a crib.  We had brought enough different sized baby clothes to cloth 4 or 5 kids and enough jars of of food and baby cereal to feed that many, too!  We had plenty of diapers, as well, as bottles.

It turns out that all that little girl needed was love.  And we had brought plenty of that.  Between her grandparents and me, it was a continual fountain pouring all over that precious little girl.

She became mine legally on the 19th of May in Cambodia, and therefore, mine legally in the United States, then too.  (Due to the insanity of our legal system that doesn't allow 2 non-married people, we had plenty of paperwork written, signed and authorized to ensure that if anything were to happen to me while I was away and until the 2nd parent adoption was done in Connecticut, my ex would automatically become Sophie's Mom.)

Gotcha Day.  The day I got her.  Get it?

We were in Cambodia for 6 days.  We returned Memorial Day weekend on Saturday the 26th.  My ex met us with a stretch limo at JFK to bring us home.

Every year, we have celebrated on Memorial Day weekend by doing something to acknowledge this significant date.  In some ways, for us, it's even more important than her birthday, as we were not part of her actual birth.  This is her 'birth'.  She became a part of us when we brought her home in May. 

We decided that to do something special to celebrate "Gotcha Day", we would take Sophie to see a Broadway show.  The 3 of us spending the day together.

Thankfully, we've even done this since my ex & I have split.  She's seen "Beauty & the Beast" and "Lion King".

Tomorrow, we're going to see "Hairspray", but not on Broadway, as the other shows she's gone to have been.  We're going to New Haven, CT. 

It's also the last day of Sunday school and there is a concert being given by the kids choir, so the 3 of us will go to that and then have some lunch and go to the matinee.  Should be a great day.

I think she's finally realizing why this day is so special for us.  Versus when she was about 3 or 4, when I had finished reading her a book about "Gotcha Day" to her and I turned to her and said, "Isn't that nice that there's other children also celebrating this special day, because they're adopted, too?"  And she stared at me and said, "I'm adopted?" (all incredulous!).  [We had always used the word adopted to her and told her how I had flown over to get her and how we knew from her picture that she was the little girl for us...] 

While we're celebrating this, Linda will be doing a warm-up bike ride for her fund-raiser next week and then I'll meet up with her at our bowling picnic later on.

Oh, and Sophie and Linda have decided to celebrate their own "Gotcha Day" (Sophie's idea) in October, on the anniversary of the day that they were first introduced to each other back in 2005.  A child just can't have too many things to celebrate, right? 

[* a haircut that looks like they put a bowl over the childs' head and just cut the hair off that fell below the rim of the bowl.]

Yonah-ism

My youngest Isreali nephew, Yonah, is 4.  He just had his tonsils and adenoids removed earlier this week and has been home recovering since Wednesday.

I've called daily to check on his condition and gotten to speak with him each time since he's been home.  From what his Ima (Mom) says, he's thoroughly enjoying all the attention and concern he's getting from phone calls and other good wishes coming his way on a pretty much daily basis.

So I called this morning, right before Shabbat started in Israel and asked to speak with Yonah.  The following conversation took place:

Y: Hi, Auntie Val!  How ya doin'?! (in a breathy high little voice that make me want to climb through the phone and squeeze him!)

Me: Hi, Yonah.  I'm good.  How are you feeling?

Y:  Good.  But my throat is sore.

Me:  Sorry to hear that.  Did you have ice cream yet?
Y:  No.  It hurts.

Me:  It'll feel better soon.

Y:  Can you come to my house tonight?

Me:  I wish I could.  But I can't.  I'm going to come visit in a few months.

Y:  Call your Ima and ask if you can come visit my house. [said very seriously]

[I bit my lower lip trying to stop from laughing]

Me:  Let me talk to YOUR Ima.

Y:  No, you talk to YOUR Ima! [giggling]

This went back and forth a few times until both of us were giggling together and then finally, his Ima took the phone and asked what was going on!  When I explained and said that her youngest was killing me, she agreed that he was quite the character!

So I guess there's only one thing to do... I have to call my Mom to see if I can go to Yonah's house tonight!

.. and next will be CT??

California became the 2nd State to allow same-sex marraige yesterday!  How excellent is THAT?!!!

Now, Connecticut needs to do the same in their case.

It's a great way to end the week.  Congratulations to the many happy couples in California who will be able to marry their partners very soon.

I look forward to being able to do the same.

Now, if we could just get a President with balls enough to make it a Federal mandate, all this State bullshit would be over and done with.  Here's hoping that in my lifetime, we'll see that happen.

Shabbat Shalom.

Fun learning

Last night, Linda, Sophie & I attended a concert that was held at our Temple.

The group Emunotes performed.  They were really entertaining despite 99% of it being all in Hebrew.  They had many costume changes and had some pretty professional looking dance moves and choreography.

Sophie had grumbled about going, since she thought it was a music themed 'service' that was being added to her weekly service duty!  I assured her that it would be fun and dragged her in.

After about 10 minutes, she turned to me and thanked me for bringing her.  (yeah, I had a moment!)

Aside from these kids being pretty inspirational due to their unfortunate backgrounds and challenges, it was so great to see so many Jewish kids of color for my daughter to identify with.  Don't get me wrong, she is certainly not the only Asian Jewish child in our Sunday school program, but there aren't any others in her grade, as far as I know.  And the handful that are in the other grades (both older and younger), she doesn't see that often.

I try and empathize what it must be like to live in a world where pretty much everyone around her is white.  And as much as I tell her all the time how beautiful the color of her skin is, and how all the people hanging out on the beach in the summertime are trying to attain that look, she insists that she doesn't like being different.  Yes, no one does. 

But, I do remind her that different isn't necessarily bad.  To have everyone be the same would be boring.  Everyone would have the same story and then there'd be no reason to talk to each other.  She has a story just like everyone else does, but hers is more obvious, as the the color of her skin is out there.  People who are different for other less obvious reasons have to deal with people's assumptions that they are the same as other people and sometimes that's just as upsetting or frustrating.

During the performance, she was enthralled with all the costumes and dance movements of the girls.  She was focused on a few specific girls and shifted continuously to ensure a view of them as they moved about the stage.

But at the end, when they all came out with blue satiny long skirts and white blouses with big Star of David's on the front of them, she turned to me with a kind of incredulous look on her face and asked, "They're all Jewish?".  It struck me that it never occurred to her that the kids of color could be Jewish, even though SHE is.

Yeah, I'm glad she enjoyed the concert.  Even for the singing and dancing!

Lovely scents

A certain someone special to me loves a certain type of bloom.

This bloom happens to bloom at my now ex's home on a lovely bush in her yard.

Every year since 1993, when we moved into that house, this certain person gets a bouquet of this bloom.

But in case I would ever forget, that certain someone reminds me of her love of the bloom.  She can't help herself!

Wednesday, the reminder was given.

Sophie & I happened to be going over to the house to check on the cat, bring the mail in, etc... that afternoon after work/school.

I noted the blooms.

The bloom was picked in abundance, so we had enough for a nice bouquets.

We snuck the blooms into the special someone's home (I knew that they were out to dinner).  Sophie wrote a nice note to attach to them and helped me set up the blooms for display.

We received a call when the special someone got home.  She asked to speak with Sophie.  She was thrilled with her blooms.

It's doing the little things to let someone, who you think is special, be convinced and realize how special they really are.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.  You mean the world to me.  Thanks for everything.  See ya Sunday morning.

Oh, and the bonus of the 'sneak bloom drop off' was that my Mom only saw the downstairs bouquet and was thrilled.  It wasn't until she went upstairs later to go to bed, that she saw the 2nd bouquet and she couldn't believe how now the whole house would be filled with the beautiful scent of lilacs.  (thought I'd NEVER get around to naming the bloom, did ya?!!!)

Oh, and because I also like to do nice things for other special people, we also brought home enough lilacs for our home, so the smell of lilac is everywhere!

Shabbat Shalom.

Seems that she's been trained well

On the days that Sophie sleeps at our place, the earliest I can drop her off at the before school program is 7:30am.  But we are lucky if we can get out of the house by 7:30!  If she doesn't sleep over, I'm usually out of the house by 7:10-ish.

I don't like to get her up before 6:30, as she has a long day and sleep is important.  She goes to bed about 8pm.  (and I don't usually get up before 6:30 myself!)

The morning rules are that before the TV can be turned on (we have one in the kitchen), she has to be dressed and eating breakfast.  So she pretty much gets up, gets dressed, goes to the bathroom and then stumbles into the kitchen for breakfast.  While she's eating, I'll get her snack packed and then go take my shower and get dressed.

I'll shout out reminders when I get out of the shower and when I'm about to blow dry my hair, to ensure that she's moving and getting things done, such as brushing teeth, hair, putting dishes in the sink, etc..

We usually get out on time, but never early.

She's been with us since Saturday night and on Monday & Tuesday mornings, this week, she was up and dressed when I got up about 6:45 and went out to the kitchen!  We were able to get out by 7:20 both mornings and she needed NO reminders on any of her chores, and instead, announced all the things she had done or were about to do as she was doing them.  It was great.

This morning, I got up early - 6:10 and when I entered the kitchen, I was greeted by Sophie who was already dressed and getting the milk and OJ out of the frig!  She said, "We're gonna get you to work early today, Mommy!"  (How cute is THAT???!)

I packed her snack, while she poured herself a bowl of Cheerios and watched SpongeBob while eating.  I took a shower and got dressed and noted we had plenty of time, so I didn't shout out any reminders.

When I went around the house to open some windows, I noted that Sophie was in the bathroom doing her hair and she told me she had already brushed her teeth. 

When I finished blow drying my hair (usually the cue that we're gonna leave once I pack up my laptop), she yelled to me, "Mom, I'm shutting the laptop down for you."

I came out of the master bedroom area to be greeted by my efficient and helpful little girl all ready to go.  All I had to do was pick up my laptop bag and she grabbed her backpack and out we went.

It was 7am!  Linda left with us!  The 3 of us had a mini-parade out to our cars!  And what a beautiful morning greeted us!  Sunshine and warm.  aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Since we had a little extra time, we stopped at the coffee shop for some coffee and some donut holes.  We got to her school with a few minutes to spare.  So we sat outside with the sunroof open on the car and just hung out chatting.

It was a spectacular way to start the day.

And I was in my office at 7:50am.  It still brings a smile to my face as I remember how nice the morning was.