The summer I was eleven, my mother took me to visit Highland Middle School so I could familiarize myself with the building before starting school. We were greeted by an office worker who looked at my mother carefully and asked, “Are you Hanna Rita Wolfson?” My mom would have just turned 42 when this happened, […]
Category Archive for 'Family'
I used to rather smugly consider myself something of a historian. I did, after all, spend five years in graduate school studying the languages and cultures of the Ancient Levant and Mesopotamia. Read enough about historiography, translate enough cuneiform, and spend a couple of seasons in the field, and you start to feel like you […]
Thanks to everyone for their happy pet stories after I posted about Kitty Friend. It looks like Kitty Friend’s story is getting added to the pile. He has now been with Jim and Evie for two weeks. They both think he’s just as sweet and wonderful as I did, and the new family seems to […]
Monday through Wednesday this week, Kitty Friend moved onto my porch and deck. He waited for us to come out and play, he ran between mine and Simon’s legs when we raced around the house (Simon demands that we alternate winning these races), and he plopped in my mom’s lap for a nice snooze when […]
Last night, with a ton of help from my mother, I hosted my very first Passover seder. A hybrid preschool/family affair for 14, I went into it with a few clear-cut goals: Create a seder that was short and sweet enough for 3- and 4-year-olds to sit through; Cook a vegetarian Passover dinner; Invite new […]
By last Thursday, I was ready to give up on birthdays (not everyone’s; just mine). It just seemed that weather or illness or post-holiday fatigue always gets in the way, and has done so from the very beginning. My birthday is January 6. Not because my mom went into labor and naturally delivered me on […]
Smoky Mountain Misery
Posted in Family, Jessica, Little Boy on Dec 22nd, 2009
Matt and I left for a holiday in the Smoky Mountains on Thursday, arriving at our chalet at dinner-time. The first thing I did was pinch my finger in a corner cabinet, creating an immediate and painful blood blister. No big deal, I thought, Then we realized our phone didn’t work in the house, and that we […]
One of the reasons I moved back home was to be near my family. After 17 years away, I was sick of literally phoning in my participation for every Rosh Hashanah, every Chanukah, every Thanksgiving, every Passover, and every birthday. And once my nieces and nephews came along, I was really sick of blindly (and […]
Chanukah 2009
Posted in Family, Jessica, Little Boy on Dec 13th, 2009
Last night was the Goldstein family Chanukah party at Bubbie’s (my Mom’s) house. Dreidels were spun, gelt and 7 pounds worth of latkes were consumed, and many blue-wrapped boxes were opened. Today the combined effects of the same are making me feel sluggish, and in a mere 4 hours we go over to friends to […]
Today in History, Part II
Posted in Family, Jessica, Little Boy on Dec 7th, 2009
From three years ago today: Today is a special day for me for three reasons: 1. It’s Pearl Harbor Day. That one’s a gimmee. 2. It’s my zadie’s birthday. Lester M. Wolfson was born on December 7, 1911. Even though he died almost 13 years ago, I still think about him often and miss him […]