Yesterday… and Tomorrow

Yesterday I had an ok kind of day up until it was time to take Mal to therapy. Yesterday was apparently take your mom to therapy day. No one told me. Almost every woman there her her mom with her for some reason, or her mom was picking her up, or she was on the phone with her mom… you get the picture. While I was slowly realizing this, it also occured to me that I spent a good portion of my life with my mom at various therapy joints (yep, they are joints now, just like bars and boites) and perhaps the universe was preparing me then for not having mom to bring with me now.

My world is entirely Jenn-centric. Isn’t yours?

I realize that the universe didn’t give us Erin just to prepare me for Malachai. That would be a little too Jenn-centric, even for me, but…. Well, you just never know, right?

So I texted my husband, whom I adore, and told him I was missing mom and I wanted to go out when he got home, even if it was just to StarFuckers or someplace like that, to sit. Well, Eshiva wouldn’t go to sleep, and finally did around 9.30, so we went out. Can I shoehorn in here, that my sister had her friend go home so she could keep an eye on Esh? She is such a love. I had him print out the free drink coupon for B&N, so that’s where we wound up.

Normally B&N is a bad, bad, bad idea for me. I can drop a hundo easy there, and usually do. Well, we get there, and I’m not even in the door yet and I realize I don’t want a cup of coffee (or whatever frou-frou drink the coupon is for) and we just shmy around for a half hour or so. I see a ton of books and magazines I want, but don’t get any. This is bad people, I am beyond pick-me-up shopping and into save the money, I don’t need it anyway territory. Everything I looked at was photography, graphic or cooking related. It all reminds me that I let everything fall by the wayside, that I can’t stick to doing anything. Which of course, puts my somewhat funky mood into piss-off territory.

So we come home, my husband feels like crap because he can’t fix it (and he isn’t expected to, but I appreciate the thought) and I get in bed and turn the lights out and listen to an audiobook. Fin.

This morning I was woken up at 6.30 because dad is still at work and will not be home to wake and take the twins to school. So I wake up Sara and Michael wakes up Michael and agian, being the love that he is, takes them to school because I just can’t drive at this hour safely.

Malachai was impressed with himself that he woke up before the alarm clock went off. We had a nice chat. He told me his teeth feel like there are little people in there playing them like xylaphones. He asked when his birthday was going to be. Tomorrow? No Mal. After tomorrow? After lots of tomorrows, yes. I have no idea if he understands time outside of yesterday, today and tomorrow, because any real length of time is just “after tomorrow.” I know he gets that it’s eight days to Halloween and ten days till we go back to the beach, but I think he still thinks of it in terms of “after tomorrow.” It’s kind of endearing.

Today is a half day, so I need to figure out what this afternoon will bring. Tomorrow is off, which will be interesting as we have Edinea at 9.15, so we’ll have to figure that out. Maybe we’ll take them all and go to breakfast after. We’ll see.

I tried to not write this year, but here I am anyway

My moms yartzeit was last week. Right before Rosh Hashana. What bittersweet timing, that every year right before new year I light a candle, pray for my mom, and look ahead to the coming year.

I want to be able to hug another woman without it being more than a hug. I don’t have that relationship in my home with anyone other than my husband and my kids. I don’t hug my gram, or my aunts. If you know me, I’m not generally a touching kind of person so most people probably don’t think this matters at all to me, but… I really miss hugging my mom. I try to hug Sara now and then for this very reason.

When Passover was over last year, I bought something like a hundred yarzeit candles, because I got them for a quarter a piece and I’m never going to not need them.

I don’t know where I am going with this. It just hit me, so this is what poured out.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | German tried over Nazi war crime

A former German infantry commander has gone on trial in Munich for a Nazi war crime, in what is expected to be one of the last cases of its kind.

Josef Scheungraber, 90, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in a Tuscan village in 1944.

He has previously been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military court to life in prison.

Scheungraber “completely and thoroughly denies the accusations in the charge sheet” said his lawyer.

Outside the courtroom, dozens of demonstrators held banners calling for Scheungraber to be put behind bars.

Some have been outraged that he has only been put on trial now.

He has lived for decades as a free man, and served on the town council in Ottobrunn, outside Munich.

He ran a furniture shop, attended German veterans’ marches and recently received an award for municipal service.

Retaliation

Scheungraber wore a traditional Bavarian suit to the proceedings, which he followed through a hearing aid.

The court has determined that, despite his age, he is fit to be tried, though he will be allowed regular breaks.

The court heard how events unfolded 26 June, 1944.

German troops are alleged to have shot dead a 74-year-old woman and three men in the street before forcing 11 others into a farmhouse which they then blew up. A 15-year-old boy survived the attack with serious injuries.

The massacre was allegedly in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.

Scheungraber said in his statement that he had not given an order for the killings and was not at the scene of the crime.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | German tried over Nazi war crime.

I am torn. Torn between being thrilled this is probably one of last trials of it’s kind, and saddened over it. Why sad? While many of these war criminals (monsters! following orders my ass) are dying, so are our survivors. I have been lucky enough in my lifetime to hear many survivors speak, but so many have not. So many never will, and the number of voices claiming the Holocaust never happened will someday be louder, or the voices remembering it will be fewer, or both.

I have a lot of posts on here about the Holocaust. I’ve been to Yad Vashem. I’ve been to the museum in DC (a heartbreaking experience, and one I urge anyone in the area, within driving distance, to have). I have not been to the one in Miami. I just do not understand how people can say it never happened. So many families just gone, so many destroyed. It’s like saying the towers didn’t happen, or… I don’t know, that’s the most recent big event I can think of. Like saying Katrina didn’t happen.

Meh. I don’t really have much to say about the article itself. Just the taste it left in my mouth.

If you see me eating SAD, tell me to stop!

I fell off the wagon, and I fell hard. So, if you see me eating something cooked, tell me to stop!

OK, it isn’t as serious as all that. I am still aiming for my 85%, but I’ve found that 85% is so very close to 100%, and when I aim for 85, I often get 100. I just need to readjust my aim.

This morning I made a small batch of gazpacho. I just threw everything in the processor. No difficult hand prep (last time I made gazpacho I made it by hand), but it was a little more… processed… than I like. I have enlisted my husband to help me with prep for chunkier gazpacho later today.

Jan 29 2008

OK, pics from tonight

http://www.azxuredawn.com/photos/v/Art/tat…ons/2008_01_29/

and the highlights:


Malachai drew Santa, his sleigh, a reindeer, gifts and a house for me.


Dorian drew a sad iPod blowing up for me


Eshiva’s name came out might nice, if you ask me.