Memorial Day

Most of what I'm going to say here is basically inconsequential... just daily things we did for those who just might be interested. But at the end is something I did that I'm proud of hope you can consider doing to.

I spent Memorial Day not memorializing a heck of a lot of anything... just life pre-house, I suppose. Bergen County which is one of the most Jewish counties in the entire U.S. ironically still has "blue laws" on the books that prevent most stores from being open on Sundays. So Jews have to do all shopping either on weekdays or wait for days like Memorial Day. So we did a ton of shopping for the house... no parades or anything although I did buy two poppies from a veteran.

We also went to a BBQ where I was happy to be with friends but disappointed at how quickly the conversation turned towards really annoying and crass subjects. I felt bad for indulging in dead animals and talking about nothing (and gross things) on a free no-work day put aside to appreciate people who put their lives at risk for us.

I did have fun sending a few cards to soldiers through Let's Say Thanks.

That still felt impersonal.

Now, my assistant has a brother who serves in the army. So here's the simple (but intimidating) thing I did. I wrote her an email and asked for his address (also email) and I wrote him a real thank you note.

That's all. And I didn't even get it done on Memorial Day, but a few days after instead.

I'm sure Thank You is always appreciated.

Breathing Now...

I can't believe I've almost gone a whole month without posting...

So we moved in three weeks ago tomorrow.

We've been SWAMPED.

At last it's easing up a little. Here's what I mean... please compare and contrast the following.

A sampling of the kinds of problems we faced in our first week and a half here:

-No phone despite scheduling this well-in-advance
-No DSL despite scheduling this well-in-advance... this took a week longer than phone to fix.
(The tech guy that finally came out didn't know Mac either, so he had to call tech support. Cute, huh?)
-Massive sewage flood in basement

A sampling of the kinds of problems we face now:

-Garage door is broken and needs to be completely replaced but we're not keeping anything in there right now anyway except moving boxes to be given away, my bike which is locked up and gardening tools
-Still haven't found my phone charger, but I can use U.'s
-Our suet blocks for the birds are only lasting two days each. I need to find where to buy them in bulk
-Our new pool table that came with the house is not completely level

Hopefully you can see a shift in stress between those two lists.

We LOVE this place and it's gradually becoming home.

Fantastic neighbors... last week U.'s parents were here. We got some yard lessons from his mom. While we were out weeding all the neighbors suddenly began to notice us. Across the street from us is a yoga teacher, a chemically-sensitive former science teacher who nervously said he hopes we won't use pesticide, etc. I found a lot in common with that man. He knows Oregon and even has a golf cart battery type lawnmower that I used to ride in Corvallis. Oh, the nostalgia!

Sweet, nice people who walk dogs that ND likes to watch and call "gogog." I'm working hard to remember names.

The house is bigger than we had thought we'd ever find, but it feels exactly the right size for us. Things are compartmentalized and clean. Most boxes are even unpacked except in my special office room that I think I'll call the treehouse. It will contain, not only my desk etc., but also my dollhouse, books for school, sewing machine etc. I love that I can have it all and with the door closed. It's at the end of the upstairs hall so I actually forget it's even there most of the time.

So now I'm also about halfway through with anecdotals for school and am also working hard on the camp. I was actually happy this week to stay home on Tuesday. ND and I both had a minor cold and we rested and I got things done.

This is the week it's really started to feel like home as we've relaxed a bit, even enjoying our new Netflix subscription (mother's day present) and the pool table. Also, today and Tuesday I finally got back into the rhythm of my Torah learning. On Tuesday only for 10 minutes with my phone chavruta. This morning for a half hour on a call-in class I do with our Rabbi.

More later... don't know when... but it will come.