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Moving Day

March 4, 2025 by mountainmornings

We moved over the weekend to a new AirBnB.

The first place was a last minute booking because our new grandbabies couldn’t wait to arrive earthside. This spot with a garden was the original plan; two bedrooms in a quaint carriage house within walking distance of shops and cafes. I settled right in and made sweet potato lentil soup for the new parents. We’re only a little over a mile away from the hospital where the twins are thriving and growing stronger each day. They will be moving home soon enough, best friends for life.

But did you know that once upon a time people packed up all their belongings and moved every year? I happened to bring Atlantic magazine’s March issue with me for the plane, and I was intrigued by Yoni Appelbaum’s essay, “Stuck in Place.”

”The great holiday of American society at its most nomadic was Moving Day, observed by renters and landlords throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th with a giant game of musical houses. Moving Day was a festival of new hopes and new beginnings of shattered dreams and shattered crockery – quite as recognized a day as Christmas or the Fouth of July!”

Of course I played musical houses growing up between Nell in Victory Gardens, and the Flapper in Scranton. All my memories are glued to a dilapidated leather album – dressed up for Easter, hiding between appliances in the kitchen, sitting on the hood of an old car in a frilly bathing suit. And there’s my favorite, I’m about five years old and posed like Shirley Temple in front of a poster at the circus. I was wearing a pair of oxfords, my “circus shoes.”

I’ve been blissfully unaware of the political circus happening all around us at breakneck speed. My priority is moving between this carriage house and the hospital, supporting the new parents as best I can, and beginning a course of physical therapy. Balance and equilibrium are the order of the day.

And so we’re off on a hunt for a small freezer to store breast milk for two babies. I cannot wait to move them into their new nursery.

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Hollywood is Buzzing

February 25, 2025 by mountainmornings

…and not because of the Academy Awards.

I’m back in Southern California where I woke not to birdsong but to a loudspeaker roaming the early morning streets telling people they do not have to open the door if ICE comes to their house. There’s a Town Hall in Malibu to help people dealing with fire debris removal. There are runs and benefits for the displaced victims of the wildfires. Another Fire Aid Benefit concert is being planned with Billie Eilish, No Doubt and Jellyroll performing. There is even a movie prop company donating all of its furniture to people! Imagine receiving the couch from “Friends!”

It is a very different vibe among the lollipop palm trees and the incessant sunshine… but then again a lot has changed. We have a new president, unfortunately, and I’m no longer encircled by a cervical collar.
But most importantly we have two new baby girls that decided to arrive early.

Big congratulations to the Rocker and Aunt Kiki! Weighing in at nearly 5 pounds our brand new baby girls are holding court in the NICU for a few more days They are simply perfect in every way. We are so excited to bring them home, so stay tuned for more updates .

Two Jersey Nanas whispering in their ears.

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Party Planning

February 19, 2025 by mountainmornings

Bob and I have been known to throw a good party over the years. We’ve done a clambake in our Jersey Shore backyard, we did Bob’s infamous 40th “Come as You Were in the 60s” birthday bash, and of course the post-flood homecoming in Rumson, not to mention the Big Chill Thanksgivings and numerous Grandma Ada birthday parties – and the 2000 Millennial New Year’s Eve. There’s nothing I love better than cooking for a crowd, well maybe catering…

I had to laugh when I overheard one political commentator say, “The Democrats have to throw the kind of party you want to go to.” A light went off in my head!

Of course, we don’t want to be all doom and gloom. But I also don’t do raves either, luckily that trend has skipped my generation. Still, turn on Fox News and their anchors are actually having questionable fun. I don’t stay on Fox for long, but everyone is sitting around telling jokes, instead of stating facts or analyzing policy. They are not worried about the end of democracy while their president and his oligarch, tech-bro, side-kick go about trampling everything in their path like two giant Gullivers run amok.

So what kind of party would you want to attend? I hear that Rubrik’s Cube parties are all the rage in Paris. I’m not quite sure how you play, but wearing articles of clothing in the cube’s colors is de rigeur. Or what about a Knives Out mystery party? Maybe we should leave weapons out of the equation. An escape room? I’d love to escape reality, forget this past year, a year of nearly dying from a simple fall that happened the day before our election.

Well, both splints are off my hands and the Aspen collar has been packed away. I look perfectly normal, if not shorter, but that is an illusion. I’m tempered. I’ve had to face mortality and my head still feels like a bowling ball. My right hand doesn’t work the way it used to, but then again, pretty much nothing else does either. Ah, to be seventy again!

Let’s plan on throwing a party for the Dems. Let’s brainstorm all the things we want to happen, like getting egg prices down, controlling bird flu, and not whether or not to buy Greenland. Let’s talk about the positive things we can do to help the climate, and help families with childcare. We need to make our party fun again and build community.

We need to party like it’s 1999! And Happy Anniversary to these two!

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On the Cheap

February 10, 2025 by mountainmornings

I was cheering last night as the Eagles demolished the Chiefs. My feelings have nothing to do with football, it’s simply that my great great grandfather got on a boat from Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania. I may have grown up across the Delaware Water Gap in NJ, but my PA roots run deep. Like Jill Biden, my blood also runs green.

My concentration wavered after the halftime show. The outcome was obvious, so I may have tuned into Celebrity Jeopardy, but I swear I didn’t see the camera cut to Mr T once; I saw Taylor, and Ann Hathaway, and even Sir Paul. He was always my favorite Beatle. And since the one and only time I met our current president was at an NFL game in NY in the 80s, I had to wonder if he had enough attention last night to satisfy his outsized ego?

That morning my brother, Dr Jim, was recounting his experience of attending the Super Bowl with the Minnesota Vikings in 1975. He and his wife Anita flew to New Orleans on a private jet, attended the parties, rode on the team bus and entered the stadium with our brother Mike, the Vikings president and GM. We all knew that Mr T was trying to acquire an NFL franchise, at the same time he was acquiring a new wife, but none of the owners were willing to sell. Or maybe he didn’t have the money?

So the conman realtor bought his way into the rival, fledgling US Football Leasue (USFL) and proceeded to mount a hostile takeover of the NFL. Does this sound like a familiar business plan? His incompetent management was likely one of the reasons the USFL failed. He sued the NFL and was awarded a grand total of three DOLLARS.

In the trial, NFL attorneys framed their case around Trump, arguing that the lawsuit was a charade orchestrated by Trump as a way to get into the NFL on the cheap. The argument worked.

“I thought he was extremely arrogant, and I thought that he was obviously trying to play the game,” juror Patricia Sibilia recalled in a telephone interview last year. “He wanted an NFL franchise. . . . The USFL was a cheap way in.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/donald-trumps-long-stormy-and-unrequited-romance-with-the-nfl/2017/09/23/979264a4-a093-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html

I guess the Commish has a short memory!

I think we are witnessing a hostile takeover of our government, a kind of coup from within, and Elon Musk is the General. We should have learned from Mr T’s business tactics, or from his biography. He’s shown his true colors time and time again – in his real estate dealings, in his marital infidelities, in his obsession with the NFL. He once said that if he’d been allowed to purchase the Buffalo Bills, he probably wouldn’t have run for president! When I read that, I nearly choked on my coffee. All he needed back then was 80 Million Dollars.

Maybe Fox gave Mr T pre-game exposure, but I didn’t watch it… besides, I was excited to see a certain ad that the Rocker’s company produced. Ticket sales to this year’s Super Bowl went down for the first time ever, and womens’ sports teams are rising which is a tiny silver lining to the past few weeks. Here is the Bug, on a winning streak.

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Cheerio!

February 4, 2025 by mountainmornings

Today’s the day. It’s been three months since my family room fall. Today I see the spine doctor for X-rays of my neck – extension and flexion or tilting my head up and down. My fracture at C2, sometimes called a hangman’s fracture, has not exactly healed. It’s difficult if not impossible for older people to grow new bone, but the doctor tells me that fibrous tissue has bridged the gap, like a spider’s web of scar tissue. “No more roller coasters for you,” he tells me.

“And no bumper cars!”

I should feel lucky, if not downright jubilant that I’ll be free of the cervical Aspen collar. Goodbye, Ciao, Cheerio! So why do I feel conflicted?

Yesterday I shared a table for lunch with a widow. Her opening question, “What happened to you?” wasn’t new. Most people assume it was surgery that resulted in this head immobilization. But Bob had to leave to take a call, and before long the young widow and I were immersed in a deep conversation about life, our daughters, the choices we make, and her fall (totally alone and without her phone) off a ladder in the small storage unit of her high-rise condo in the Gulch.

INTERMISSION FOR 9 AM DOCTOR APPOINTMENT

I’ve just returned from the doctor collar-free. I had a rendezvous with death, but I tricked the grim reaper. My head is sitting on its axis just fine. Here’s a little anatomy lesson:

“The axis, also known as the epistropheus, is the second cervical vertebra (C2) that has some similarities to a typical cervical vertebra but is categorized as an atypical vertebra because of its unique features. Its most characteristic feature is the prominent superior projection known as the dens axis, or odontoid process. The dens axis plays an important function for the movement of the head, acting as a stable pivot around which the atlas and head rotate.“

It figures that I broke an atypical vertebra. Last week was my last hand therapy appointment, so now what do I do? I’m not allowed to drive for a few months, or play football…. “tackle” football. I started a book in California, “The Last Lecture,” by Randy Pausch, that I’d like to finish. He received a terminal cancer diagnosis and his book is a look back at his exceptional life. If you’ve never heard of him, check this out:

I guess my joy at being cut-loose from doctors and therapy is being blunted by the daily assaults on our democratic process by a president who would be king. The Groom’s critical care funding from NIH may be in jeopardy. One of their friends who works for the government has been asked to sign a “loyalty” pledge. This is real, Mr T’s crazy missives, his crazier “special government employee” Elon’s directives are all engineered to foment fear. Do not lose faith. It’s time to pull out those old pink pussy hats and resist dear readers.

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Well, Well

January 28, 2025 by mountainmornings

When I was in high school in the 60s, we walked out to protest the dress code. The girls wanted their skirts shorter and the boys wanted to wear jeans. This morning the students at Antioch High School in TN returned to school after last week’s shooting only to promptly walk out to protest gun violence. They carried home made signs saying “Ban Guns, Not Books,” “Safety and peace should not be privileges,” and “I want to attend graduation not funerals” …

and they chanted “Not one more” on the street.

I was thinking in the shower – I do some of my best thinking in the shower – what will it take for us as a country to ban assault rifles? We did it once before. What if we could repeal Citizens United? Delete insider trading in Congress? Just get gun money and all the money out of legislators’ hands, abolish the electoral college! Is this a pipe dream? This should be a bipartisan issue; no parent wants their child’s school to turn into a war zone.

They closed the cafeteria at Antioch High School; students that remained in class should be eating lunch in their homerooms today, because the cafeteria is where 16 year old Josselin Corea Escalante was murdered. Would it surprise you to learn that the 17 year old male shooter had extreme-right and antisemitic writings in his social media?

Escalante’s family set up a GoFundMe to help with costs associated with the funeral and with sending her body back to Guatemala. Meanwhile, the owner of Middle Tennessee Caskets donated a casket for Escalante, which was filled with medals of her accomplishments and a pair of soccer cleats.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/antioch-high-school-shooting-tennessee/

A pair of soccer cleats.

What will it take? Maybe if we asked every parent who lost a child to gun violence – inside and outside of school – to donate a pair of their son or daughters’ sneakers and we built an exhibit outside Congress, a see-through monument of footwear, and we installed a rotating camera that streamed live views around the world. It would be like an eagle cam, only this nest would represent death instead of new life.

Pictures of Josselin’s quinceanera are all over her bedroom. Her family fled the violence in Guatemala, only to lose her here, in the middle of the country, in her high school outside of Nashville. Here, where the Bride is planning a Bat Mitzvah this year. Here, where we scrubbed swastikas off a neighbor’s home. Here, where I picked up an hate package on the street in a zip-lock bag telling me which representatives were Jewish.

Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. An emotional King Charles paid a visit to Auschwitz, 80 years after its liberation – 6 Million Jews perished. When I see video on the news of ICE agents rounding up undocumented people, putting them in handcuffs outside their churches and schools, I think of Jews wearing yellow Stars of David and cattle cars. I think of internment camps full of Japanese people who were herded onto buses on the West Coast.

I am not surprised that Elon Musk told a group of right-wing Germans to leave their guilt behind them and ended with a straight-arm salute! Our country has a long history of racist, restrictive immigration policy. The only question I have, is what are we going to do about it?

Here are some high school prom pictures Bob unearthed. We thought we knew everything.

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MLK Day

January 20, 2025 by mountainmornings

Here is a list of the things I did today:

I took a shower – not an easy task with a broken neck.

The Bride and Bug came to visit with Maple dog.

The Bride left to bring the Pumpkin to band practice – yes he plays guitar.

We talked about Dr King and non-violence and social justice.

We made dumplings for lunch.

I read more of Stanley Tucci’s new book, “What I Ate in One Year,” which starts out in Italy and is the best book and is totally in his voice. I’m afraid I’m in love with another man! And the Bug read a book for her English class.

The Love Bug and I made gingerbread cupcakes with buttercream icing; thanks Pinterest.

I plan on doing my nails when time allows…

The deep freeze has hit Nashville and we are NOT watching the inauguration today. We took down our American flag and hoisted a big “Welcome” flag with my favorite bird, the cardinal. Maybe we’ll go see the movie that Tucci was filming in his book, Conclave, full of cardinals!

Thank you so much for contributing to the families who lost their homes in the California wildfires. I hope you are well and being kind to yourselves today.

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The Aftermath part 2

January 17, 2025 by mountainmornings

I remember when Grandma Ada sat me down at the kitchen table and told me how each and every one of our problems weighs the same exact amount – they are all just as meaningful in the grand scheme of things. Just because I was having trouble with fertility at the time, didn’t make the 4 year old Bride’s need for a She-Ra castle any less urgent. It took awhile for this to sink in, but it’s stayed with me. The Flapper would have said, “We all have a cross to bear.”

The people displaced by the Los Angeles wildfire have been in my thoughts, prayers and meditations. After my semi-nomadic childhood, living between Scranton, PA and Dover, NJ, losing my home to a natural disaster would send me reeling. I cannot imagine their pain. And so when the spine doctor told me I’d have to wear this Aspen collar another few weeks, I thought about the women who have to find/borrow/buy a pair of pants because they left their home with the clothes on their backs.

If you can find it in your heart to help, Becky and Kim are very good friends of the Rocker and Kiki, and they are in dire need:

We’re asking for your support for two incredible people, Becky Schlikerman and Kim Janssen, who lost their home in Altadena, CA in the recent Eaton fire. Becky and Kim are more than just friends and neighbors—they’re the kind of amazing people who show up when others need help.

Their home, which they cherished, was where Becky’s mom Fanny relocated from Israel due to the war. It is also where their beloved pets—Ruby, their dog, and Jefe and Max, their cats—shared daily life together.

The funds will be used to help Becky and Kim regain some sense of normalcy during the long road ahead. This is a moment when our community can come together to show Becky and Kim the same kindness and generosity they’ve shown us all. Whether it’s a donation, a share, or simply sending them love and encouragement, every bit of support makes a difference.

https://gofund.me/e66bc552

A not-so-quiet moment in the Rocker’s studio.

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The Aftermath part 1

January 16, 2025 by mountainmornings

As promised, this couple lost everything in the California wildfire. Kelsie and Jake are friends of my son and daughter-in-love and would so appreciate any help we can send their way. Thanking you in advance for your generosity. My Irish Nana used to say, “When you throw your bread out on the water, it comes back with jelly!”

We’re so sad to report we are writing today needing to raise money for our friends and fellow Angelenos, Kelsey and Jake, who are self-employed artist/designers experiencing first hand the current devastation in Altadena.

Their world has suddenly been completely changed so they will be using any raised funds for getting back on their feet to help better serve their new community so tragically effected by the Eaton fires.

Anything you’re able to offer to them would go a long way. Thank you.https://gofund.me/8dc86a06

This was us at a quiet time in LA

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Fire and Ice

January 14, 2025 by mountainmornings

Last Tuesday morning, the Rocker and Aunt Kiki called on their way home from the MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist) – they’re having twins remember! I was looking at the ultrasound on my cell, tracing the tiny femur of one and beautiful lips of the other while Bob was getting the details. They were in a yin yang position, feeling free to flip around at will. Weight and head circumference all perfectly normal as we enter the third trimester. Now I told Kiki she must rest, the baby girls will be growing exponentially.

What I didn’t expect next was an apocalypse – the most devastating fire to break out in Southern California’s history – that very afternoon.

“Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire….” Robert Frost

That evening I called my son. I was hesitant because usually we see the worst on TV and what I think is very close to them (an earthquake, a landslide, a flood or a fire) turns out to be pretty far away. But this time I could hear it in his voice; he had corralled the cats into their carriers and one wasn’t very happy about it, he was talking to Kiki who was driving home through smoke, and he’d call me back later. Later, the first thing he would grab when they left their home was Grandma Ada’s painting.

What would be the first thing you would grab?

This morning they are among the lucky ones, their home is still standing. The nursery they had been painting is just as they left it. The Altadena fire consumed my niece Lucia’s school, the elementary school her daughters attend and where she teaches music. We had just visited with them over Christmas break; the Love Bug huddling with her cousins. Wildfires are so fickle. They dance around until the wind takes an ember flying to the next place, and the next… and the Santa Anna winds are merciless. Joan Didion writes:

“There are a number of persistent malevolent winds, perhaps the best known of which are the mistral of France and the Mediterranean sirocco, but a foehn wind has distinct characteristics:  it occurs on the leeward slope of a mountain range and, although the air begins as a cold mass, it is warmed as it comes down the mountain and appears finally as a hot dry wind.  Whenever and wherever foehn blows, doctors hear about headaches and nausea and allergies, about “nervousness,” about “depression.”

In the next few days I’ll be sharing their friends’ stories of loss, like Kiki’s friend in Altadena who just moved into her first house in December only to see it burn to the ground last week. Let’s not forget these people when the wind dies down, people left with nothing but whatever they could grab. I would grab the pictures of my past, the ones that were never in the cloud – Daddy Jim as a young Navy recruit, Nell and the Flapper on a NYC balcony, the portrait of the Rocker on his first birthday with his big sister.

This was us last month in LA.

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