The Fab Four!

My dad gave my mom a Christmas present in which, the family would go to a professional
photographer and get family pictures. The first time we went to see them, we took the subway
to the path and then we took the light-rail train to Hoboken. The studio looked like an
apartment to me. Of course, there were no beds and other furniture, but the layout seemed like
it could become an apartment if they got the right furniture. We met the photographer and his wife. The photographer seemed to be a very nice, relaxing guy. We talked about what we would use the pictures for, what type of pictures we wanted, what we should wear, all that boring stuff. By the time the adults were finished talking, I was ready to start posing! As we were preparing to leave, the photographer offered to take us to a nice restaurant for lunch. He let us ride in his little car. The car was really small and bright orange convertible! I had never seen a car like that. He dropped us off at the restaurant and also told us that we could take the ferry home! After having lunch, we went to the ferry and got on and sailed back to Manhattan.
The next time we went to the photographer, we brought our dog with us, Miss Murray. Of course, we didn't take the train. We rented a car instead. Once we arrived, mom and I put on
the littlest make-up and got ourselves dressed. Mom wore a white denim jacket, a green skirt,
and a white top. I wore a shirt with a star on it and some pink pants. Dad wore khaki slacks and a blue shirt.
Our dog, Miss Murray, was frantic. Mom probably already wrote all about her but just in case,
let me tell you that she was born in Oklahoma and raised on a farm. She was not socialized and
wasn't used to different people. It was hard to get Miss Murray still so that the photographer could take pictures of her and the family. The photographer was very flexible and funny. He would make noises to attract Miss Murray's attention. Usually his little tricks would work. It was like he could speak dog! We posed in many different ways. Mom always says that there was no camera I didn't like and she may have been right. I did many different things. I jumped up in the air, ran toward the camera, did twirls in the air, and many other things.
The wife was the business women. She worked out what we were buying, what size, what type of material we were going to use, the costs, all those type of things. The photographer had already narrowed it down to about twenty pictures that he thought were the best. In the end, we chose a picture of me jumping in the air, a picture of my mom and Miss Murray, and the picture you see above.

THE limo

Well I didn't intend to capitalize the THE but it works for this story. We went off to have dinner in the Village with friends last night carrying our contribution of french bread and blue and red Le Creuset pots full of short ribs. Yesterday was cold and rainy, snowy and generally disagreeable with people on every street corner trying to hail cabs. So we agreed that we might abandon our principles about only taking yellow cabs and take a Black Car if one came by. One came by and we passed but as the situation became colder and more desperate, we reverted to plan B. So we agreed to take the next Limo or Black Car that came by. And lo: it was a white stretch Limo that had 12 seats, indirect lighting, air conditioning, wines by the glass and a very chatty Wewst Indikan driver who regaled us with stories about the rich and famous. Clearly something we weren't as he rescued us from our corner of Madison Avenue. We are so uncool that we called our friends to alert them to our arrival by stretch limo. We had such a great time and as the driver drove off he was chuckling that he had made our day. Indeed he had.

That was just the perfect kick off for Christmas Vacation. We leave on Monday for Columbus and a week of festivities....yowsah, yowsah. We are all so looking forweard to this. Bring it on.

Christmas

In spite of the toxic cloud of the economy, christmas is thundering along. For us it's about getting presents and clothes and ourselves down to Georgia via Delta, Fed Ex and whatever else moves people, equipment and presents.
Last night was the Museum Christmas party which I avoided in order to go to the John Murray Christmas party which I always prefer. Although I am on record as not liking parties unless, of course, I am giving them, this is one that I really enjoy. The lobby is overflowing with poinsettas, a large Christmas tree and several oversize balsam wreaths. There was a musician playing a steel drum, drinks, nibbles, wonderful egg rolls made by the Philippino housekeeper down the hall and Santa Claus played by the day doorman. It was all well staged with what I would describe as a non-clown clown giving out balloons and people from all over the buidling stopping by for a drink or a quick chat. There are so many children living in the building now and most of them are 3,4 and 5 year old little boys who scream at the top of their lungs and careen through the lobby. Kate is now an old lady in this group but she still hangs on and insists on a stocking and sitting on Santa's lap.

She came upstairs last night lamenting the lack of faith among the kids. "Did you know that all the kids know that Santa is really Joe the doorman? I didn't know that for a long time."

"Well," I said, wasn't it more fun when you beleived in Santa?

Oh, yes.

Getting ready for Christmas

I made another effort to make ice skating here at the Museum on plastic more palatable by inviting another kid to join Kate. Neither of them liked it. No spraying ice as they turn or really going fast. So I'm over this effort. I actually liked it just for the reasons that kids don't like it. You don't suddenly find your find your feet going out in front of you and your rear end on the ground. Kate looks like a hockey player as she goes around the rink and so I'm arranging a safety lesson for her on Sunday. She doesn't skate well enough to go as fast as she does.

It was damn cold this morning and blissfully we did nothing as the windows glazed over with the interior heat and frigid temperatures. I finally roused myself went off on a solo visit to the hair dresser carrying the requisite Christmas offerings. Because we are trying to be abstemious, it's not so fun when you emerge newly coiffed and find that you're hungry -- should I waste the money on eating out -- and interested in buying new socks -- should I buy them at that store -- or just want to
look around and pass amongst them. So I nipped into one store cluthcing my coupons and then came home to find all my family in exactly the same positions that I had left them. Then I dealt with lunch. Next time I will definitely stay out longer and the money spent on lunch being served to me will definitely not be a waste. It will be part of the pleasure.


We finally bought out Christmas tree and for me this is a sacred routine and tradition where you go out to look over the stock of the local guys who have trucked down from Canada with their trees. You have to get them to unwrap every tree, shake it so that you can see the leaves and then bargain. I remember that my father did this in an overcoat and hat. Well, that part of the routine doesn't exist anymore. But we found a tree we thought might fill the room and carried it home. This was another of those ill fated decisions. We didn't really measure the tree and after we go it home we had to cut off some more height. Then after we set it up, we discovered that last year we had splurged on a beautiful top ornament. Too bad we forget about it until the tree was standing. And then there is always a fight about the tree, the lights, the tinset, the something. And then we ran out of time to finish but we had to get moving to go to Kate's soccer which is at the revolting time of 7:00 pm.


Good that we have no life and no commitments to the opera, theature or friends. However it is a real pleasure to watch her play soccer now. She is really very good and not surprisingly, when she started she wasn't so good at all. Plenty of energy but no skill. Now she still has all that energy and good skills.

Sunday we went off to the park with Miss Murray in tow, back to pick up kate for her skating lesson, "I hated it Mom" and then off to her tutoring. Whew. We finally found some time to go meandering and went to the movies without Kate who was safely nestled in with Kathy and Buff.

Tomorrow Kate and I will finish the tree.

Holiday Concert

Last night we went to the Holiday concert at school to see Kate play trumpet as part of the 6th grade concert. She looked sensational. She was wearing a wonderful dress and had just had her hair cut! I've always tried to tell her that it looks elegant, stylish or makes her look older. Anything other than the dreaded "You look so cute, sweetheart." But according to Kate, all her friends think she looks better with long hair. I'm sure I'll live through this period with her hair hanging down her back limply or looking like a failed Farrah Fawcett Majors. But why do I have to?

Global Warming

It's 60 degrees today. Yesterday was 50 and Monday was 16 degrees. Totally discombulating....And I finally heard Christmas Carols today which made me feel much more jolly and in the spirit of the season.

The Weekend

I kpet thinking all weekend that I had momentous things to write about but now that I have 3 minutes carved out of my day....it all seems pretty banal. I learned that work from one of Kate's vocabulary lists! Bravo for me.

Last week seemed crazy in its intensity with heavy work pressures for me and an "encounter" for Kate. She and Lile went to a theatre/circus performance and were bullied by several 11 year old boys who were sitting behind them at this afternoon performance for school groups. They pulled her hair, called the girls "chinks" -- a word that Lile had never heard -- and started to trash talk. I think Kate was furious butnot sure how to deal with boys other than to beat them to dealth but that seemed not possible because everybody was sitting in a theatre. The chaperones apparently missed the encounter and it wasn't until Lile's Mom got there that anything was done. Susan swung into action and was an amazing avenging angel who made people accountable. The girls were still steaming that night and me, too. But these are the encounters that we never want our children to have, although we know that they will. Our job is to let them know that stuff like this happens, it's unacceptable and to give them the tools to take care of themselves. "Throw 'em a beating" seems good to me except that boys are usually much strong. And giving them a tongue lashing sounds good but I'm never sure how effective that is. The irony for me is that I'm always predicting something awful will happen when we leave New York and sometimes it does. But not always. Sometimes these kinds of outright prejudcie and stupidity happen right here in my very own home town.

the rest of the weekend was fairly predictable. We took Miss Murray to Central Park on Saturday which is a most worthwhile investment. She gets to run off all her energy and as she continues to be more and more comfortable in her own skin, and with us, she has more and more energy. When she first came at the end of September
07, she was virtually comatose. Well, not comatose but so depressed as to seem boneless. Not now.

We went ice skating this weekend over at Bryant Park which has real ice as opposed to the Museum's rink which has fake ice. Well, Kate and Lile went ice skating while Susan, Arnie and I all watched from the warmth of some inside tables and chairs. Then I went off to challenge the shoppers and get a new Cuisinart at Macy's. I was a warrior on a mission because I hate Macy's and I hate Macy's even more when it's full of tourists and gaggles of kids all going to see Santa. Yuck. Got my severely reduced Cuisinart and got out! And then I made scones in my new cuisinart.Nearly severed a finger because my old Cuisinart was OLD and this one has much sharper blades.

The Talk

Well, the ubiquitous they say that you cannot have The talk and then just be done ith it. It's more like a constant chat.Sort of the way they say that there is terrorist chatter....that's the way you talk to your kids about sex. actually although I had a major chip on my should going into this morning meeting, I came out thinking that the school was doing a good job. Talk to my child about oral sex. i think not. But by the time I left it seemed more reasonable to me to establish some open conversation about sex and to transform that conversation into an exchange about what I expect from her and what her family expects from her. We've had some open discussions, provided the books but then I'm always afraid that we will leave it too long and be sorry. So this is just another way to talk about self identity, limits and balance.

And I was thrilled to have this teacher say that this is a very young and immature class. Not budding Lolitas, thank you.

Perfect Parenting

Just received an e-mail from kate's school calling all the parents to an early morning meeting to hear about the curriculum for their Human Relations class. Last semester it was about nutrition and this semester it's going to be about teeens, tweens and sex. Get the drift here? One of the topics will be oral sex so you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to go to the goddam early morning meeting to hear how they are going to talk about stuff I definitely don't want to talk about.

When I casually, is it ever?, mentioned oral sex as a topic for this class to kate, she asked what it meant. And in my best shrinky mode, I said, What do you think it means? Ah, oral sex is talking about sex?

It's over. The holiday that has the least meaning for me is done for this year. As a child my mother would always carry on about how this was a Yankee holiday and how silly it was to be cooking Turkey which she didn't like. It was also probably silly to her because all her family was in the South. So after fretting about Turkey, she would set up the card table and we would wrap Christmas presents for the dozens of cousins in the south.

Done. During one period of my life we used to forego Turkey totally and cook a huge steak and just go to the movies. That was very relaxing and the movies were never crowded. This year was almost like that. No trips to Arizona, although just before Thursday, I began thinking that we should be in sync with millions of our fellow americans and take to the road. But sanity prevailed. No warm weather, no family and no incredibly long flight. Next year I am hoping that we can persuade everyone to go to California. Or Vienna. Wouldn't that be nice?

On Thanksgiving We took Miss Murray to the Park, went to the gym and saw a new kids movie, Bolt, which was a pretty funny send up of the movie industry and then had dinner at about 6. I had to work on Friday but since we closed early, very early, it was a stolen day. that day Kate and Lile went skating on the Museum's new eco rink and then we all had dinner together. Saturday Kate had a playdate/sleepover and we had a playdate for dinner with friends. All very relaxing and seeming like lots of down town. Read books, went to the Library, fretted about conditions in Mumbai and then went out for a celebratory lunch with Kate to a cuban restaurant with live music after her tutoring. She is doing so well with the Hunter test prep. I think this test is always a scene but this year with so much economic upheaval it will really be a madhouse. Actually we went to the main library that has just mounted a show about Yaddow which is very text heavy but quite interesting. As interesting was trying to explain to Kate why people wrote such long letters. Arnie said the modern equivalent is blogging. Hard for her to realize that there was a world with typewriters and no computers....

Now I'm on to Christmas. On Donner and Blitzen....