“Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Give Them Back”
Dear That’s Life, Thanksgiving is honestly one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy the preparation, the table decorations and the gathering of friends and loved ones. Unlike all of the other holidays I celebrate, the qualifications for partaking in this one are simply that I am an American. Faith and religion aside, roasting a turkey [...]
My Oven: Part Tres
Dear That’s Life, So, you thought my oven was fixed – didn’t you? You thought wrong. Me and my big mouth. When we last left Miriam’s oven, the oven repair superhero had saved it from self-clean hell, as the mechanism burned out the computer panel in what is a clear design flaw. With one week [...]
The Road Less Travelled
Dear That’s Life, It is amazing how driving just a couple of miles away from The Five Towns can often take you to what seems like a completely different world. That has its pluses and its minuses. However, with Peninsula Boulevard looking more like the moon and less like a street, I’ll take any opportunity [...]
A Holiday Miracle
Dear That’s Life, If you heard the screaming coming out of my house this week, that was the sound of my legs getting natural sunlight for the first time since last summer. (Bright light! Bright light!) The tights are off, I’m wearing short sleeves and I’m this close to breaking out my Naot. Spring has [...]
Oven Repair Part Deux
Dear That’s Life, File Under: Oven Status Update I had only left one semi-frantic voicemail for the oven repair service, although it did not stop me from leaving another and then calling the emergency number they have on their message. This was not an emergency like “I just shot the staple gun in my hand [...]
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Dear That’s Life, Every chag is marked by certain traditions. Before Rosh Hashannah, I take time to prepare all of the simanim (signs) that accompany the meal, the fish head my least favorite of the group. There is a specific kind of challah that is also part of that preparation which I do not make [...]
April Fools!
Dear That’s Life, While I am not a fan of silliness, it does have its place in life and often offers a healthy break from the doldrums of every life. Silly is how I would describe myself as I walk into Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, becoming absolutely giddy when I see Mickey himself. I am, [...]
Is Purim Over Yet?
Dear That’s Life, At the risk of being stoned by a masked and angry mob for saying this: I do not like Purim. I enjoy the megillah, love the story with its hidden meanings and appreciate the miracles, but on the whole if we skipped it, I’d be fine. As a child I relished the [...]
New York State of Mind
Dear That’s Life, “I’m in a New York state of mind.” – Billy Joel I walked through Penn Station and the usually hurried crowd seemed to be walking in a deliberate and cautious manner, as if being lead by a pace car. New Yorkers are not the laid back, “let’s take a stroll’ kind of [...]
By Candlelight
Dear That’s Life, By the time this article hits the street, Chanukah will be just about be over and the neighborhood will stop smelling as if it has been submerged in a Big Daddy Deep Fryer. Having one’s house smell for eight days as though you have been frying absolutely anything and everything, the smell [...]
There Goes My Hero (Watch Him As He Goes)
Dear That’s Life, For what seemed like a supersized Sukkot (two three-day blocks of no showering will do that to a person), people complained about the abundance of family togetherness, the incessant eating, the bizarre weather and the Yankees. Some were just trying to look for a glimmer of proof that life was returning to [...]
