Resetting the Bar
A bright side to meningitis. I now have had a headache by which to measure all other headaches.
Which is how I did NOT end up at the ER last night.
I’ve had a horrible headache since Friday night. Tried to kick it all weekend. I was up in the middle of the night, but it did not come close to touching the blinding, searing pain caused by the meningitis. What did finally occur to me, at about 4:30am, that the pain might be caused by a sinus or ear infection.
Both. As it turns out, the pain was caused by both a sinus infection AND an ear infection.
Once again, I am grateful to God for giving wisdom and courage and curiosity to the scientists who discovered antibiotics.
Rather, I’ll be grateful in another 24 hours or so when my head no longer feels as though it might self-combust.
Iceberg, Greenberg…
In preparation for the upcoming holiday, the Passover books and CDs came out of hiding just after Purim. Not wanting to “plague” my kids with my own negative attitude (a topic for another day…I promise!), I make every attempt to take this very serious holiday and bring it to the appropriate levels for my kids.
Peach has fallen in love with this book. “Read. Book.” Over and over again, he insists that we read this book to him. He enjoys pointing out “bad. king. (Pharaoh),” “boobah (who is actually baby Moses),” and “sick (boils).” When we get to the page with the Mah Nishtanah, he exclaims “bim bam!” Given that it isn’t a book about Shabbat, we correctly take this to mean “please sing this Hebrew song that doesn’t actually sound ANYTHING like bim bam.” He sleeps with it. Eats with it. And loves it.
And drooled all over it. And ate all over it. And broke it. Which is quite a feat given that it is a board book.
“Broke. Oh NO!” exclaimed Peach.
And so off I went, in search of a new book.
First store:
Didn’t have it. The computer said that they had it. But they didn’t. Not worried because there are PLENTY of other book stores in SoCal.
Second store:
Didn’t have it and has no plans to carry it. I did notice the Easter book display but didn’t say anything.
Third store:
A HUGE Easter display in the children’s section. A very meager Passover section on one narrow side of a display that had THREE sides devoted to Earth Day. Earth Day??
Now I am starting to get worried…
Fourth store:
Walked into the children’s display with THREE tables devoted to Easter books.
“May I help you?” inquired the bookseller.
“I need a Passover book. Do you have any or should I just get something from one of the THREE Easter tables?”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” answered the bookseller.
And he was serious.
“Um…Easter and Passover have nothing to do with each other so I’m gonna need a different option,” answered FS with as much patience as she could muster.
End result — they don’t carry the book. In fact, NONE of their stores in SoCal carry this book.
“Our buyer just didn’t feel that there would be much of a market for it. Would you like me to order it? It could be here in 5-9 working days.”
“Thanks, anyway. I’m going to the local Judaica shop,” FS replied, thinking that is what she should have done in the very first place.
And, indeed, it was at that shop where she found SEVERAL copies of Peach’s favourite book.
It was just one more reminder that we are often out-of-step with the rest of society.
Seriously, though, didn’t that guy know the difference between Passover and Easter??
Overqualified?
In the current employment crisis, thousands of highly educated workers are flooding the marketplace. Due to economic circumstances, many of them will accept jobs for which they are overqualified.
I desperately hope one of them takes a job from the guy at a local establishment who answered the phone this morning.
Guy: Good Morning! This is Guy. How can I help you?
Frume Sarah: Hi! Can you tell me what time you close on weeknights?
Guy: Sure! We close at 11:00pm on Saturdays.
Now how is that helpful, Guy?
Beware the Ides of Adar
Did you happen to catch a glimpse of the full moon on Tuesday night?
****
“Look at the moon tonight, Sweetie, isn’t beautiful?”
The wife moaned something that sounded like a curse.
The man, who has never quite grown accustomed to his wife’s oddities, inquired, “what”s wrong?”
“That moon means one thing and one thing only. Pesach is just four weeks away!”
A Little Behind
I’m fine. Really. But since I returned to work a few weeks ago, I use every bit of mental and physical energy at the shul. And completely neglect the blog.
My hours are still limited but I am strong enough to have physical therapy so things are looking up for Frume Sarah =)
And I’ll be back this week — b’li neder.
Payback
FrumeSarah:Beernut, how in the world are you going to get all of your work done before bedtime?!?”
Beernut: I dunno, Mom, a miracle??
I am having flashbacks. Except in the memories, I am the child. And now I am the mother.
With seventeen more years of homework.
A fact they somehow forget to mention in those baby books.
Celebrating the Possibilities
During the recent elections, schools around the country held mock elections as a way of teaching schoolchildren about the democratic process. Two of the occupants of our home participated in their school’s election. Both individuals used the same criteria but with opposite results. Each voter selected a candidate that “looked like me,” referring to skin or hair colour. A benchmark test they need to learn is not the best way to select a national leader.
But it got me thinking. Why was it that I sat, transfixed, by the image of this ethnic family on the stage in Grant Park on the evening of November 4th? What could I possibly have in common with the darker-skinned faces smiling at me through my television screen? And then it hit me.
We share a common path, the African-American community and us. We have been shut out of the same jobs. Closed out of the same neighbourhoods. Kept down by the same quota systems that is STILL on the books of some Ivy League universities. We have faced the same unadulterated hatred and prejudice that has poisoned generations of Americans. And we have clung to the common belief that, in fact, all people are created equal in the sight of God and are deserving of certain, unalienable rights. Including the Constitutional right that is granted to all natural-born American citizens over the age of 35 (and who have resided a minimum of fourteen years in the country) to reach the highest office in the land.
Who would have believed that the same nation that heard the call to conscience from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by a Baptist preacher just two score ago would be the same nation to elect a multiracial man as its President? When I look into the face of Barack Obama, I see my own people’s struggles and successes reflected back at me. When I look into his face, I see possibility. The possibility that one day it might be a Jew who is elected.
Today, on January 20th, the nation is observing Inauguration Day. Conservative or Liberal. Democrat or Republican. White or Black. Jew or Gentile. It makes no matter. Inauguration Day is a day to celebrate the hope for which America has stood since her inception. Inauguration Day is the day we celebrate possibilities.
(Cross-posted on Modern Jewish Mom)
Mostly Still Here
Right before PC and I started dating, I told him that I didn’t want to look into his eyes for fear I might lose myself there. I must have heard that saccharine-sweet line on a TV show and I cannot even recall if I truly believed it. But it sound good and very grown-up. To me, at least.
We’ve all heard the cliche’ that the eyes are the window to the soul and while I’m not certain if it exactly true, I do know that one can tell a lot about a person by looking at his or her eyes.
Thinking back to my meetings with two new doctors this week, I was immediately drawn to the eyes. One had kind eyes. One did not. And in both cases, the eyes were accurate barometers of the personalities.
Yes. Two doctors. My two big outings for the week. Though no longer flat on my back, I’m still under house arrest. OK…the doctor didn’t use that exact term. What he told me was that I am still healing and rest is a significant part of that process. As is a ban on lifting, standing for prolonged periods of time, bending, sudden movement, etc.
It’s frustrating. I’ve been sick for a while and miss my life. For Heaven’s sake, I missed most of the book of Genesis!! And I LOVE the book of Genesis. I miss my work. I’m fortunate that the doctors have allowed me to do much of it from my handy (and beloved) Blackberry as I’ve felt able. But it’s not the same. Just as being a mom in bed is not the same as an active mom who plays on the floor and bakes.
Aw…who am I kidding…
I don’t really bake. I mean, I HAVE baked but it certainly isn’t part of my kids’ image of me. (A pretty diplomatic way of stating the reality.)
Though my lack of homemaking skills prevents me from creating warm and fuzzy memories for the kidlets, at the very least I can give them my thoughts. My beliefs. My passions.
Frume Sarah’s World is really the 2.0 version of the diaries I’ve kept since MomGirafe and DadGiraffe gave my first diary for Chanukah. A Hello Kitty diary. (Hey, it was the 80’s!) It has become an extension of my pulpit. A way to teach. And, on a really, really good day, inspire.
Yes, I am still recuperating. And working from home. And, through my writing, teaching from home. With the fervent desire to be back in my study.
Until then…
Thanks for stopping by my world. Frume Sarah’s World.
***********
PS — Haveil Havalim #201 is live at The Rebbetzin’s Husband.
The Painful Truth
“Mom? Why does everyone want to kill us?”
How can I answer him? I cannot, in all good conscience, tell him that it’s not true.
A Jewish cemetery in Sweden vandalized.
A 15 year old Parisian girl attacked.
Verbal attacks on British Jews.
Vandals attack synagogues and school in chicago.
And even closer to home.
I understand that the majority of the world is opposed to the offensive action taken by the government of Israel. And as mentioned in earlier posts, I strongly support the right of the individual to protest. But these actions are being taken out not only on Israeli embassies and consulates. They are actions of violence against Jews for the sake of terrorizing them. They are not “anti-Zionistic” or “anti-Israel.”. These acts are anti-semitic. Hatred for us simply because we refuse to stop living as Jews.
Yes, my son, there are days when it feels as though the world despises us. I can shield you from that truth for just a while longer. A truth that breaks my heart. And will break yours too. Find comfort in the words of our greatest Sage, Moses, who taught:
Be strong and of good courage (Deut. 31:7)
Parenting Success
During a recent lunch, when Beernut was eating his churro, ZaydeGiraffe reminded him that–when she was younger–Tante Pepgiraffe was a churro seller at Disneyland.
ZaydeGiraffe: “Maybe when you’re older, you’d like to work at Disneyland. Teens seem to enjoy doing that. You know, they call Disneyland the happiest place on earth.”
Beernut: “I don’t think Disneyland is the happiest place on earth.”
ZaydeGiraffe: “Really. What do YOU think IS the happiest place on earth.”
Beernut: “Home.”
Frume Sarah is Shabbos-observant -- in a Reform way, that is. Please note that from Friday afternoons until one hour after sundown on Saturday evenings, Frume Sarah will be unavailable, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
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Thank you for your understanding...and gut Shabbos!!! 
Frume Sarah's World 