As the Wheels Turn

I have not seen her yet. She is a new love I hope to share with my husband. This year has been difficult on us — the kids and their school were a constant source of conflict. Then there was an albeit brief job scare. The stress of establishing a new business. Broken limbs and scary diagnoses. No family vacations for two years.

She is a signal that life will be good again. Promising and exciting. That maybe this is the white stripe we are living this moment.

She is a beauty. I can’t wait to cuddle in her lap and drive down the serpentine coastal road while we sing. We will be single and carefree again with the wind blowing through our hair. We will check out our favorite beaches and stop at small cafes.

She is a new girlfriend that my friends are eager to welcome. She reminds them of freedom, too.

She is as much an epitome of California for me as is its palm-edged freeways. Don’t laugh — I come from a cold country with bad roads.

She is a new car — a convertible and I am waiting for my California Moment to arrive. Continue… »

Recession Be Damned — Kid Entrepreneurs Rule!

It began innocently.

“I feel like a smoothie,” my seven-year old announced when he came home from school. “A strawberry banana smoothie.” I happily oblige. I like whipping up something quick and nutritious.

“How about we have a smoothie stand?” he asked.

“Uh, we do not have that many bananas.” I am looking for excuses while trying to figure out how bad it would be to get involved in another messy afternoon project. I came from work and I am tired.

“The strawberry smoothies?”

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A Jewish Mom Adopts Me During Holiday Traffic

She honked while I chatted up a driver in the opposite lane.

“I just spend half an hour getting from Costco to here.” The driver was complaining; Costco sign still in vicinity.

“Me, too,” I sigh.

“They have a serious problem.”

“Seems so. It happens every year around this time,” I concur.

“You have a good memory.” I am not sure if the driver is joking.

“I would use it, too, if not for the pet.” I am pointing at the white box with red lettering where a little brown critter is sleeping in the corner. “I could have not bought a pet weeks in advance.”

She honks again. She has a perfect hairstyle and I am sure well-manicured fingers that are lying on the steering wheel now. We are both stuck in a traffic jam around our local mall. I call her Jewish Mom. She seems to have adopted me. There is a little bit more space in front of me so she makes sure I fill it. Continue… »

Say a Little Prayer

Despite my numerous warnings about its scary and rather unscientific nature, Carl really wanted to see “Jurassic Park III” because it features his favorite dinosaur — Spinosaurus, a prehistoric predator bigger than T-Rex.

He waited impatiently for the copy I reserved to arrive at the public library next to us.

He watches it halfway from the hallway ready to dart behind the wall when a dinosaur approaches. Afterwards, he decides to sleep with us. I don’t mind. I would be scared, too, to be by myself.

“Are you scared?” I ask when he snags close to me.

“No. The nightmare will come later,” he explains. Continue… »

Everybody hates Kombucha

How ’bout that for a TV show name!

I have had this Kombucha culture growing for a little while now. I’ve been so successful that I can open a Kombucha bottling plant out of my own kitchen.

Unfortunately, no one but me would drink it at home.

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Bribes are the Junk Food of Honesty

My four-year old refuses to put on his pants.

If not for the the flu he is having or the slime building in his sinuses turning his eyes into puffy, narrow slits — dressing him would not become a major goal of my life.

I need to keep him warm even if it means putting certain pants on without his consent.

He wiggles out of my arms and the pants. I’m beyond frustrated. I’m now waking up several times nightly to check on his temperature, give him medicine, rub vapors on his chest, and generally checking that he is still alive and breathing.

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Injury

Now that we have a high-deductible insurance, I am more than easily chagrined at every act of stupidity and self-destruction that my boys tend to conduct.

Like jumping off the table into the bed. The four-year old knew that when he just held his toe lying on the bed wailing quietly. I was no comfort: jumping off the desk is stupid! I wanted to have a look. He refused to show.

I started calculating the likelihood that the injury is serious and we have to go to the doctor. Or even worse, the Emergency Room. For today is Friday. And if we will not resolve it by the afternoon, we will have very few choices.

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Tatiana

In our house talks about animals that escape from a zoo occur regularly. Usually the escapee is tranquilized and returned into the enclosures of one of the zoos that our seven- year old son created in a computer game. I try to explain how each escape negatively influences the zoo attendance, the zoo’s reputation and thus the bottom line, and in the end, the viability of the zoo.

His answer is usually switching to unlimited money mode.

I am sure Manuel Mollinedo, the director of the San Francisco Zoo wishes he could switch to that mode after a tiger jumped out of an enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of them on Christmas Day last week.

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Ramadan

Today is the 26th day of Ramadan, a lunar month when every Muslim is suppose to fast from sunrise to sunset. Wars are stopped, quarrels are set aside and peace is celebrated.

Neighbors visit each other after dark to break the fast together. They start with sweet things like dried figs or dates and proceed to the feast that lasts into the night. I can imagine it vividly even though I’ve never been to an Arabic country and missed most of the magic of neighborly feasting while growing up in a place intolerant to any religion – the Soviet Union.

My aunt, whose mother prayed five times daily till the last day of her life, told of the times when they hid while praying so as not to be discovered by patrols who checked every window in their village. Their family hid under the dinning table to read the special Ramadan Taraweeh prayers and break their fast.

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Perch

My friend is remodeling her backyard and wants to add a lot of “funky,” kid-friendly places.

This morning I pause on top of the ladder after cutting a dead branch, thinking this is the perfect spot to catch a hummingbird in flight with my digital camera.

Here, up high, I can see in the trees. I hear neighbors walking by and stopping to greet each other. I spot a lizard speeding across the yard. I feel like an eagle. Swooping at him with my camera. Zooming in and adjusting the focus. Shot! Shoot! Fast little beast!
I am having so much fun, I do not want to climb down. Then it dawns on me: Perch!

Perch is one of childhood’s treasured hidden places.

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