A New York Kind of Day

Well, day began to a rough start. I woke up early for a 9 am class, promptly walked into a door, and then checked my email in the vain hope of finding a message announcing a class cancellation. No such luck.

Then, the E train was backed up, so by the time I body-shoved my way on, I had to spend the ride squished against a very tall Chassidishe man, giving up all hope of reading my book...

Speaking of books, I read this one Friday night:




















Hannah's Gift, by Maria Housden. It's about a woman whose four year old dies of cancer. Which is not giving it away, because it even says so on the book! I knew as soon as I added it to my queue (Steve and I pronounce it qyoo-ee--oo--ee) on Booksfree what would happen if I read it, and I was exactly right. I read the book in one sitting, bawled hysterically, and proceeded to grill the poor Steve on why G-d allows bad things to happen to good people, etc, etc. Was an exhausting night and I woke up the next morning with a headache and rings around my eyes!

Maybe it's a mistake, but I ordered another book written by that author, this one about how he chose to give up primary custody of her kids after her divorce. Not uplifting either, I know, but nothing can be worse than a kid dying of cancer, right?

It's the Little Things in Life...

Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I LOVE the little things in life--steaming cups of coffee, freshly baked desserts, a fat historical novel, etc. Sometimes I need to remind myself to focus on the big stuff!

So here's some of the litle stuff keeping me happy lately:

A new peach pie recipe I got from Good Things Catered

Learned how to take black and white photos with my camera, conveniently while I was at the Yale library

Played with some delightful new scrapbooking stuff

And otherwise just enjoying life! Was feeling a bit stressed and down this week, but my weekend begins tomorrow! I look forward to a low-key Shabbat, reading on my couch, drinking smoothies (the new obsession in the Starr household)....

Back to the Grinder

Back to school again for another year! I'm at a new school for the year, so unfortunately back to asking for directions, struggling to learn my locker combination, and making friends. Sometimes I forget that I look at bit different, showing up to school with my colorful, fringed scarves on my head, but l figure, if anything, it should start up a conversation. I'm having some trouble getting into school mode (spent Labor Day visiting family, touring, and scrapbooking, but didnt open a book), but everything with time....

Read two FANTASTIC books this weekend--The Sister Antipodes by Jane Alison, and Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. Gilead has wonderful insights on religion and why and how we believe things--resonated with me, especially since I'm now taking a Law and Religion class where I'm the only person with a religious lifestyle. Sister Antipodes is sad, but powerfully written, about family life and how parents can destroy their own children. Although I still dont know what an antipode is, so if you can enlighten me, please do!

Finally, have been spending WAY too much money on scrapbooking stuff in the past few weeks--just opened 2 packages, and have two coming. I've used just about half of my discretionary dollars for October. This discretionary dollar thing is something my husband and I came up with so that we dont need to argue about fun purchases--ie, my many scrapbooking supplies and his lone scooter:) It really does preempt a lot of marital arguments!

Finally, a random photo of the day:

My beloved pink bumper car from my birthday outing! It was a little sad because the "theme park" was actually a parking lot with bumper cars, go karts, and a fairly lame miniature golf court set up, but we still had a good time! And then left after half an hour and found some kosher gelato!