New for Fall

The HHDs are upon us now. I'm going to my final writing class for the quarter this Wednesday, and then downtown to deliver Erev Rosh Hashana. Dad will be taking G with Cathy, and it will be nice to have them in the congregation. Thursday I'm at the Wiltern with a lot of kids in the Youth Choir whom I don't know, with choral books that no longer match the books the congregation has. Problem! I need to update my book now. Alas...

G had her first LACC rehearsal today, and she looks kicky and mod with her new, cool haircut. She seems quite confident to me.

Our new kitchen stuff is starting to come in - new dishes, pots and pans, etc. It's like being a newlywed. Hey, come to think of it, it all is feeling like being a newlywed.

As soon as September is over, I start my new quarter at school, and my new life. It's strange to be so thoroughly turning the page. There is nothing gradual about any of this.

I miss Jeanne. I always think we're not speaking, somehow, and it never ends up being so. Maybe this is still one of those occasions. I have been friends with her for over twenty years, and we have had words exactly twice, both over the phone, and both over Don Henley. How many people can claim him as the central topic of debate in their decades-long friendship?

My mother has recently returned from Anderson Cancer Center with a literal new lease on life. We all have some real hope now. All is well.

JW heads off on tour for the rest of this month in a couple of days. Back to single-parenting...

Home

This is where I will be spending most of the foreseeable future. I am now homeschooling my 10-year-old, and have resigned my job. I will be teaching (aforementioned progeny), studying (still trying to be Cantor Shapiro for reals), and traveling (with one husband by the name of Jack Wall).

I think I'm happy, although some days it's still a little hard to tell. We have chosen Oak Meadow as our home school school and curriculum. So far, we love it. Plus I have G doing Rosetta Stone French, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain art, piano at NoHo Piano Academy, singing at Los Angeles Children's Chorus, and she is also a member of two home school groups. She has a new best friend and seems happy to me. My little A+ girl. She was always A+ to me.

No more schlepping on the 405 several times a week, sweating bullets, wondering if I will make it on time, no matter how much time I've given myself. I have one more High Holy Days cycle to go through, a few more Shabbatot, a couple of girls to nurture through their Bat Mitzvahs, and then, it's blond and pink hair for me in a symbolic casting off of the veneer I've had to don in order to pass muster these last few years.

Freedom beckons...

P.S.

The new blog template that I have chosen was created by a friend from ancient days (about 1983 to be a little more precise) Jeffrey Zeldman. (I've always called him just "Jeff".) Now he's a big macher in the field, and deservedly so, and also a dear and true friend. He doesn't even know that I'm using this template yet. Do you think I should I tell him? (Whoever "you" are...)

Who's Bad?

Okay. Not me. Not anyone I know. I just have that little Michael Jackson phrase in my head right now for some reason. He wasn't "bad" in the good sense. He was just bad. You know, in the dictionary sense. But, I digress.

If you know me, then you will either be ecstatic, or you will be sullen, questioning, and disillusioned to know that Jack is Back. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm still married. And I will be for quite some time. The heart wants what it wants. My daughter is smiling sunbeams out of her mouth. I'm on the trust diet, and am due for a feeding right about now. Say what you want, I'm still Cindy Shapiro.