If you follow me on Twitter, you know about my daily hassles with my commute. It's often crowded and uncomfortable, and the lack of control over the situation drives me crazy. But there are a few bright spots for me: listening to my favorite Glee tracks, playing endless games of Revomem, and of course, the people watching.
I've been taking the Green Line for many years now, and by far my favorite phenomenon is the return of the ballerinas. Each summer, a group of teenage ballerinas starts getting on the train at Kenmore Square, and riding the few stops to Copley Square. With their yoga mats and hair done up in perfect buns, I'm just fascinated by them. I don't know anything about their program, but seeing them as I'm trudging off to my office tower just makes me happy. I imagine that they're putting a little more grace out into the universe (whereas I don't a graceful twitch in my body). I've noticed that other commuters seem to cheer up in their presence too. They're on the T for such a short time, and only for a few weeks, so it's like this elusive, hidden part of Boston, and I feel lucky to get to see them.
What are the insider parts of your neighborhood that make it feel special?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Kids Grow Up
The last few weeks have been beyond hectic, with a big event happening almost daily. We had birthday parties, class parties, a block party, a goodbye party, a school party and a family party. We hosted my sister-in-law Rachel and two year old niece and nephew, Evie and Nate, with my in-laws staying locally as well for a few days. There's been so much to celebrate, but it's also been a time of transition with the ending of first grade for Hannah, and moving on to a new classroom for Max.
Hannah has been looking forward to the start of camp for months, and is beyond thrilled to be in a group with her oldest friend from Gan Yeladim and her best camp friend for three years running. But when I picked her up from the last day of first grade, well, some tears were shed at the thought of moving on and being in second grade. It's been such a big year for her, and she has been so proud of all the progress she's made at school, that it was difficult to say goodbye to it all, but she seemed happy at camp drop off this morning.
Tuesday was Max's last day in the Room E Elephants, and he proudly sang along to all of the songs with his friends. He's moving on to Room K Koalas (the animal aspect is a big part of the identity to him), and unfortunately, away from the group of kids he has been with for the last two years. We didn't point that out to him, and have been talking about all of the positive aspects of the new class, but my heart breaks for him a bit. Hopefully, he will enjoy the new class too much to notice. After five days at home, going to school today made for a rough morning in the house, but he seemed resigned to it by the time we dropped him off.
Marc said I seemed more excited about all this change than the kids do, and I guess I'm trying to show them that they have so much to be excited about (and they really, truly do). But it's another year done too - and I'm not going to burden them with the lump in my throat that forms while hearing Green Day's "Time of Your Life" during the first grade slide show or leaving them to navigate their way through a sea of new faces.
Last night I watched the documentary "The Kids Grow Up" (dumb idea to watch it on a Sunday night, leaving me too amp'ed up to fall asleep afterward), but it's the story of filmmaker Doug Block's only child, Lucy, and her last year at home before going off to college. But seeing as she doesn't actually want him filming much of her life anymore, it's generously supplemented by many scenes from throughout Lucy's childhood and adolescence. Lucy is ready to go, but dad Doug isn't ready to let her. Some would say it's narcissistic, that he's filming her but it's really all about him, but isn't that what so much of the parenting experience is? Aren't we spending all of this time and effort on them with our own hidden agendas (or sometimes even in plain view)? How can we not focus on our own feelings about what our children are going through, when they are ostensibly the most important thing in the world to us?
My friend Candace snapped a picture of the kids at the JCC picnic last week, and I put it on my desk at work today, updating the picture I had there from three years ago. We're not ready for college yet, but time is flying.
June 2008, 4.5 and 0.5 years old
June 2011, 7.5 and 3.5 years old
Hannah has been looking forward to the start of camp for months, and is beyond thrilled to be in a group with her oldest friend from Gan Yeladim and her best camp friend for three years running. But when I picked her up from the last day of first grade, well, some tears were shed at the thought of moving on and being in second grade. It's been such a big year for her, and she has been so proud of all the progress she's made at school, that it was difficult to say goodbye to it all, but she seemed happy at camp drop off this morning.
Tuesday was Max's last day in the Room E Elephants, and he proudly sang along to all of the songs with his friends. He's moving on to Room K Koalas (the animal aspect is a big part of the identity to him), and unfortunately, away from the group of kids he has been with for the last two years. We didn't point that out to him, and have been talking about all of the positive aspects of the new class, but my heart breaks for him a bit. Hopefully, he will enjoy the new class too much to notice. After five days at home, going to school today made for a rough morning in the house, but he seemed resigned to it by the time we dropped him off.
Marc said I seemed more excited about all this change than the kids do, and I guess I'm trying to show them that they have so much to be excited about (and they really, truly do). But it's another year done too - and I'm not going to burden them with the lump in my throat that forms while hearing Green Day's "Time of Your Life" during the first grade slide show or leaving them to navigate their way through a sea of new faces.
Last night I watched the documentary "The Kids Grow Up" (dumb idea to watch it on a Sunday night, leaving me too amp'ed up to fall asleep afterward), but it's the story of filmmaker Doug Block's only child, Lucy, and her last year at home before going off to college. But seeing as she doesn't actually want him filming much of her life anymore, it's generously supplemented by many scenes from throughout Lucy's childhood and adolescence. Lucy is ready to go, but dad Doug isn't ready to let her. Some would say it's narcissistic, that he's filming her but it's really all about him, but isn't that what so much of the parenting experience is? Aren't we spending all of this time and effort on them with our own hidden agendas (or sometimes even in plain view)? How can we not focus on our own feelings about what our children are going through, when they are ostensibly the most important thing in the world to us?
My friend Candace snapped a picture of the kids at the JCC picnic last week, and I put it on my desk at work today, updating the picture I had there from three years ago. We're not ready for college yet, but time is flying.
June 2008, 4.5 and 0.5 years old
June 2011, 7.5 and 3.5 years old
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Fast Few Weeks
It's been a fast few weeks around here. Frustratingly, my latest blog posts on Allison's bachelorette and the Temple Emanuel Retreat didn't pull into facebook, so I'm sharing the links to those here. Here's what we've been up to since then.
After the retreat we dove right back in to Temple Emanuel, and I attended quite a few meetings in the last three weeks. They mostly centered around the Yom Hashoah committee and the direction that group is going to go during the next year. It's been a really interesting process, and I'm really proud of the work our committee is doing. It's great to be part of a group that has such a high level of dedication. We also had Hannah's last day of religious school for the year, with its closing assembly. While she really enjoys religious school, I have to admit that I'm happy for one less morning of rushing around now that it's ended for the summer! And we had our 12th Ruach Shabbat Family Service - so exciting!
Marc and I accomplished a big goal of refinancing our house, and we had the closing for that recently. The transaction was a bit complicated, but we had an excellent experience with Sovereign Bank and everything went very smoothly. It's been something we've been waiting to do for quite some time, and I'm happy that we were able to get that completed.
Work has been really busy for me. Really good, lots of exciting things going on, but really busy. And so with all of this going on, it would be a really convenient time for my back to start acting up again, right? Sigh. Yea, The Back (it gets capitals now because it's really become a separate entity from the rest of me and deserving of proper noun status) got pretty bad for a while there. I had to go to a couple of doctor's appointments trying to get it functioning properly again. Last Friday I began a round of prednisone, aka The Wonder Drug, because Gd knows what it does but it has helped. I'm pretty close to normal again, for which I am very grateful. Prednisone is loads of fun for me, as I get very jittery and PRODUCTIVE with a major caps lock. If only this level of energy was sustainable! But it felt good to get so much done after coping with pain for a few weeks. Yes, I promise I'm being really careful not to aggravate The Back again, and I think I will be starting physical therapy for it soon. (This has also meant the exercise project has been put on hold - hopefully temporarily.)
Which brings us right up to today. It's a beautiful day here in Newton. Hannah's wearing green for Color Day at Bowen, and Max is wearing pajamas at the JCC to simulate staying up all night studying Torah for the holiday of Shavuot. Tonight I won't be attending any study sessions per se, but I will be going to the Glee Live concert in Boston. As Marc said, it's Torah in its own way, or at least it is for me. Tomorrow night Marc is planning to bring the kids downtown to meet me after work to check out the Jimmy Fund's Scooper Bowl, a Boston event I've always wanted to attend (and in keeping with Shavuot's dairy theme). Thursday night is Hannah's after care group's annual picnic. Then the weekend has some birthday parties and Village Day to look forward to. Time is just flying by, and even with The Back issues, I've been really happy lately. Hoping you're all having a great start to summer as well.
After the retreat we dove right back in to Temple Emanuel, and I attended quite a few meetings in the last three weeks. They mostly centered around the Yom Hashoah committee and the direction that group is going to go during the next year. It's been a really interesting process, and I'm really proud of the work our committee is doing. It's great to be part of a group that has such a high level of dedication. We also had Hannah's last day of religious school for the year, with its closing assembly. While she really enjoys religious school, I have to admit that I'm happy for one less morning of rushing around now that it's ended for the summer! And we had our 12th Ruach Shabbat Family Service - so exciting!
Marc and I accomplished a big goal of refinancing our house, and we had the closing for that recently. The transaction was a bit complicated, but we had an excellent experience with Sovereign Bank and everything went very smoothly. It's been something we've been waiting to do for quite some time, and I'm happy that we were able to get that completed.
Work has been really busy for me. Really good, lots of exciting things going on, but really busy. And so with all of this going on, it would be a really convenient time for my back to start acting up again, right? Sigh. Yea, The Back (it gets capitals now because it's really become a separate entity from the rest of me and deserving of proper noun status) got pretty bad for a while there. I had to go to a couple of doctor's appointments trying to get it functioning properly again. Last Friday I began a round of prednisone, aka The Wonder Drug, because Gd knows what it does but it has helped. I'm pretty close to normal again, for which I am very grateful. Prednisone is loads of fun for me, as I get very jittery and PRODUCTIVE with a major caps lock. If only this level of energy was sustainable! But it felt good to get so much done after coping with pain for a few weeks. Yes, I promise I'm being really careful not to aggravate The Back again, and I think I will be starting physical therapy for it soon. (This has also meant the exercise project has been put on hold - hopefully temporarily.)
Which brings us right up to today. It's a beautiful day here in Newton. Hannah's wearing green for Color Day at Bowen, and Max is wearing pajamas at the JCC to simulate staying up all night studying Torah for the holiday of Shavuot. Tonight I won't be attending any study sessions per se, but I will be going to the Glee Live concert in Boston. As Marc said, it's Torah in its own way, or at least it is for me. Tomorrow night Marc is planning to bring the kids downtown to meet me after work to check out the Jimmy Fund's Scooper Bowl, a Boston event I've always wanted to attend (and in keeping with Shavuot's dairy theme). Thursday night is Hannah's after care group's annual picnic. Then the weekend has some birthday parties and Village Day to look forward to. Time is just flying by, and even with The Back issues, I've been really happy lately. Hoping you're all having a great start to summer as well.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Retreat
For the first time, Temple Emanuel opened its annual 6th grade family retreat to the entire synagogue, and as soon as I'd heard about it, I wanted to go. I LOVED camp (hi, GUCI facebook friends) and have often said I'd go back today if they'd let me.
We spent the weekend of May 13-15 at Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire. It was a lot to pack up four people and the traffic to get there was hairy, but once we pulled in to camp, it was perfect. We stayed in a brand new bunk, and I was SHOCKED at how nice everything was. While it was secluded in the woods, everything was close together. We sang and prayed, ate and played, and mostly spent lots of time talking with one another. That's always the most difficult part for Marc and me - as much as we want to create a community at our synagogue and are often busy attending events there, we're still constrained by the presence of small children who interrupt conversations or need to go home to nap. The retreat gave us a prolonged opportunity to let those conversations develop and deepen. And of course the best part of the weekend was the unscheduled time spent with friends, laughing under a porch roof while the rain fell down around us.
I had a great time, and it sounds like we'll get to make this an annual thing. Temple friends, mark down May 11-13, 2012, and I'll see you there!
Friday, May 27, 2011
22 Hours Away
Gah, I can't believe May is almost over. It's been such a busy month, so forgive me for the gap between posting.
On Saturday, May 7, I got to spend a glorious day in NYC to celebrate my future sister-in-law Allison's bachelorette party. It was a surreal experience, mostly because it all went by so quickly, but also because I was without Marc or the kids for the day.
I took the Amtrak from the Rte. 128 station in to Penn Station, catching the train at 6:55 am. Which meant I was up from about 5 am on, heading in to a very full day. Maid of Honor Charlotte planned everything expertly and we all had a great time. After a really good brunch, some of the group took a bike ride through Riverside Park, and then we all gathered together for presents, cupcakes and bride-themed Pictionary ("to have and to hold" is very hard to illustrate!) while wearing our matching t-shirts. Allison and I got our make-up done at Sephora and then we all went to drinks and then dinner at Bread Nolita (the only place I'm listing by name here because it really was fantastic). We ended the night at a bar with the future bride and groom texting each other for most of the time spent there, which I thought was very cute. I caught a 2:40 am (no, that is not a typo) train back home. I managed to stay awake for 22 straight hours, but I had so much fun meeting Allison's friends and spending time with her that it went by in a flash.
Marc and the kids picked me up at 8 am and we went out for a Mother's Day breakfast. As wonderful as it was to be on my own for a day, I really missed them, and can't wait until we can all go to NYC together some time.
Thanks to Charlotte for such a wonderful day, and to Allison (and Ryan) for giving us all something to celebrate. Now on to California - July can't get here fast enough!
Monday, May 9, 2011
So long, sippies.
It's happened so suddenly.
Passover came, and Marc didn't buy any sippy cups to use during the holiday, when we swap out all of our usual dishes for the eight days. Max had been using "big boy cups" at school forever, but at home, he still loved his sippy cups. There were some tearful mornings, but by the end of the holiday, he'd gotten used to the new cups. And so I didn't bring back the sippy cups.
I should be thrilled. It's a milestone. Less plastic in the dishwasher. Less time spent making sure lids are closed properly. He's growing up.
But that's just it. My baby is gone. Other than his attachment to his beloved blanket, all the trappings of babyhood are behind us - diapers, pacifiers, formula, teethers, onesies. I haven't pushed to get rid of the sippies because they were the last signs of the baby and toddler that he was.
I recognize that it's really more about me than him. Max is probably my last baby. Carrying another child, both inside me and out in the real world, would likely destroy what's left of my back. That's the prevailing reason not to have another child, but I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that the decision isn't really my own. I love Hannah and Max so much, and I know I have more love to give (the financial resources are another matter, but one that I'm sure we'd find a way to overcome). I'm only 33, and I just don't feel done. But I can't avoid the fact that not having another child is what is best for the children I already have, as well as for my marriage, since I'm not sure Marc wants to handle another episode of me being incapacitated with back pain to such a degree.
So I've got to put this chapter of my life behind me. No more reading up on baby gear; from now on I'll read about $1500 strollers as part of social commentary, not for just how awesome and life-changing the features might be. And I'll take every opportunity I have to hold someone else's baby, just to be close to that kind of sweetness again.
And I'll do my best to remember the sweet babies that Hannah and Max were for me.
Passover came, and Marc didn't buy any sippy cups to use during the holiday, when we swap out all of our usual dishes for the eight days. Max had been using "big boy cups" at school forever, but at home, he still loved his sippy cups. There were some tearful mornings, but by the end of the holiday, he'd gotten used to the new cups. And so I didn't bring back the sippy cups.
I should be thrilled. It's a milestone. Less plastic in the dishwasher. Less time spent making sure lids are closed properly. He's growing up.
But that's just it. My baby is gone. Other than his attachment to his beloved blanket, all the trappings of babyhood are behind us - diapers, pacifiers, formula, teethers, onesies. I haven't pushed to get rid of the sippies because they were the last signs of the baby and toddler that he was.
I recognize that it's really more about me than him. Max is probably my last baby. Carrying another child, both inside me and out in the real world, would likely destroy what's left of my back. That's the prevailing reason not to have another child, but I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that the decision isn't really my own. I love Hannah and Max so much, and I know I have more love to give (the financial resources are another matter, but one that I'm sure we'd find a way to overcome). I'm only 33, and I just don't feel done. But I can't avoid the fact that not having another child is what is best for the children I already have, as well as for my marriage, since I'm not sure Marc wants to handle another episode of me being incapacitated with back pain to such a degree.
So I've got to put this chapter of my life behind me. No more reading up on baby gear; from now on I'll read about $1500 strollers as part of social commentary, not for just how awesome and life-changing the features might be. And I'll take every opportunity I have to hold someone else's baby, just to be close to that kind of sweetness again.
And I'll do my best to remember the sweet babies that Hannah and Max were for me.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
I Hate Exercising.
Well, if that isn't the most obvious blog post title ever written, I don't know what is.
As I've said before, I've never really exercised in my life. There has never been a sport or physical activity I've found interesting. I get tired just thinking about moving. No matter how many times I've thought my weight might be holding me back from something, I never could get it together enough to do something about it, at least not for very long.
So I'm not sure what made me start now, except for the feeling that I've got everything else going so well, that I needed to finally improve this aspect of my life. In April I saw a personal trainer at the JCC for the first time, and have gone to the gym at least twice a week for the last six weeks (ideally, I'd like to get there 3x/week, but that hasn't happened yet). I've got a strength-building routine and then get myself onto the treadmill. I like my trainer, and I love being able to read on my phone while on the treadmill (especially since I can tweet about working out while I'm doing it - thanks to all those who send me encouraging tweets back!).
It's not fun. I can think of a million things I'd rather do than be there. I don't get a rush of endorphins from it. In fact, I don't think I get anything from it other than a lighter bank account. But I'm trying to stick with it and see if I can find some benefit. My back continues to be an issue - not that bad, but not totally perfect - so I'm being careful, but hoping this will help. I'm trying to model good behavior for the kids by doing it. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in pain, and I hope it will make some improvement to my weight.
But goodness, I hate exercising.
Any tips to make this work?
As I've said before, I've never really exercised in my life. There has never been a sport or physical activity I've found interesting. I get tired just thinking about moving. No matter how many times I've thought my weight might be holding me back from something, I never could get it together enough to do something about it, at least not for very long.
So I'm not sure what made me start now, except for the feeling that I've got everything else going so well, that I needed to finally improve this aspect of my life. In April I saw a personal trainer at the JCC for the first time, and have gone to the gym at least twice a week for the last six weeks (ideally, I'd like to get there 3x/week, but that hasn't happened yet). I've got a strength-building routine and then get myself onto the treadmill. I like my trainer, and I love being able to read on my phone while on the treadmill (especially since I can tweet about working out while I'm doing it - thanks to all those who send me encouraging tweets back!).
It's not fun. I can think of a million things I'd rather do than be there. I don't get a rush of endorphins from it. In fact, I don't think I get anything from it other than a lighter bank account. But I'm trying to stick with it and see if I can find some benefit. My back continues to be an issue - not that bad, but not totally perfect - so I'm being careful, but hoping this will help. I'm trying to model good behavior for the kids by doing it. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in pain, and I hope it will make some improvement to my weight.
But goodness, I hate exercising.
Any tips to make this work?
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