Raw end of the stick or right end of realty? Go over there and put your excuses in the “Doesn’t hold water bucket.” It contains and I quote – I couldn’t find your number, I lost my phone, I already found a 4th , 5th or 6th for the game, I thought it was Sunday and made another plan, I over booked my week and so on. The victims club has closed membership. The numbers of people who signed up exceeded the space limit. Suck it up, man up or just confront the reality. You’re not my cup of tea, I prefer not to sit at your table, you press the wrong buttons in me. “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now. From up and down and still somehow. It’s clouds illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.” Oh, Judy Collins, both sides now, indeed. Lessons come wrapped in perfectly sealed, beautiful ribboned packages. They’re ours for the taking. Too little, too late, no worries. Once burned adages streaming in double digits. Option “Turn it off”- thank you Elder McKinley- shout out to Bettie Ann. The song from Book of Mormons. ” I got a feeling, that you could be feeling, a whole lot better than you feel today. You say you got a problem, well that’s no problem. It’s super easy not to feel that way!”

By the way next to the bucket that holds no water, there is a “forgive everyone everything line.” Your choice to stress less or deal with the mess. Let’s do it Sunday – Om shanti!

Old story new reality. And so the chapter unfolds where less of the same becomes the new normal. Bumps and grinds have nothing to do with Chippendales and everything to do with not falling. We step up our “careful” game and lunge our way to Happy Hour. In the absence of gruesome details, as we see it, so far so good perhaps enough. With flea markets and canasta tables expanding rapidly we hope when they call our number at The Bingo Game of life we hear it loud and clear. We won the chance to be doing what we’re doing. We don’t bemoan our fate at all and we appreciate our abilities to assess the shortest line at Publix. Blessings in disguise shoot out at rapid fire speed. And then the alarm rings for water aerobics and all of the above was just a dream disguised as a nightmare. You’re kidding,”​

​ I hear myself saying out loud – ” they have no olive cream cheese at the Bagel Place?”  One day at a time!

Oatmeal, cottage cheese with coffee yogurt and bran, or 1/2 bagel with muenster for breakfast. Turkey with cole slaw on a wrap, a Chicken Caesar salad or an omelette with broccoli and cheddar for lunch. Dinner well, Carte Blanche to make the simplest event a happening. A regime, routine or any activity that offers stability and the sense of knowing is how we approach our days. 

The curves, the mishaps and the unexpected come at us with rapid fire speed as we boom. So we hold tight to the “predicables.”

We sat down at the round table, took our unassigned but close to where we sat before seats. The evening unfolded in pretty much the same way as it has now for the better part of three years. Hugs, catch ups, shared, “what have you been up to moments.” Treasured familiarity with the look how far we’ve come looks. One piece of difference as I saw it, was how much our Julia- ( Just Us Ladies into Aging) evenings have become the oatmeal, perhaps the chicken Caesar and with certainty the Carte Blanche choice at dinner, where the simplest of events have been embroidered into our lives as true Happenings. Make mine a double.

Find your success early perhaps, but recognize it when it comes along. Consider late blooming as an option. Do what you like and do a lot of it. Lots of avenues one better fit. Bank on nothing- we are on our own missions. Take the hat when it is a matter of survival. Don’t give up on the dream that didn’t happen long ago. Some come with maturity and peace of mind. Then they are likely to stay,  your longer is limited. Figure it out. You’ve had 100 chances. Live within limitations and you end up on the same street. Yad Vashem remembrance tour today- when in Jerusalem go to the wall more than once. You never know who the guest speaker will be.

From your perch with keen eyes, an open heart, in quiet observation. As the pieces on the board game of your world expanded and the trees came into leaf, you welcomed more thoughts deserving of process. The focus of community as family, one in the same. Interchangeable players formed a line and with abundance of spirit and thoughtfulness everyone became equal. The floodgates to your heart opened. A vast cavity to be filled and stretched passed boundless limits. You are one of a kind. As you know we all are. Come sit at my table, come raise a glass, here have a slice of life well healed. Profound and deep and connected to a harbinger of historical beginnings we walk along in unison. Different, albeit the same. With eyes and heart and the chance to make our lifetime filled with an abundance of meaning and lovingly displayed with grace.

As the notices for Medicare came flooding in… in preparation for…it became apparent that this could be the start of something Big. The suggestion that the bills could get higher as the pace of life got slower. The federal government was going to help pay for medical care. Ok- so as I saw it, this was either a warning to tread lighter, don’t fall and sign up for activities where the majority of time you are sitting. Or get busy, busier, busiest.

I got busy! Put my musings in a printed format, had it published. I cared less about the reviews and more about the accomplishment. Perhaps the accomplishment was caring less. Some of the people, some of the time. Writing is one activity I look forward to as the thoughts pour out of me. Yes AARP, while I’m sitting down. Ira planned a trip, with knowledgeable input from our family to Israel. He took out his Tallis which I’ll be shrouded in when I stand strong with women also in Prayer, Davining, Tefilah, Birkat Ha-Mazon. My wallet now has an AARP card, a Medicare card and an official I am an Author card. I acknowledged my fragility going forward in a positive and delightfully expressed fashion. 

Living without mommy- and then it happened. The fear, the sorrow and the ultimate in never mores- Square in the face, the pain sits quivering. Hey, mom I published a book. Every word had you center stage. I read it aloud to you, as you were the only face starring back at me in the dark. Yes, I hear you now. Wow, really? thank you mamala. My everything!



Nothing better than daddy’s lap- if only they both were still here. The look on his face, when we met up, the sound of his voice when he called me his special nickname- if only they were still both here. When I get scared that one of a kind safety net place, gone to the “if only” column. When I publish a book detailed with the sound of my voice, innermost configurations and musings of the “stuff”- in life. Yes, that too would have been received with the look on his face, the sound of his voice and the seat on the only lap that cradled my pain and exalted my best virtues. Amen Saturday!

Humpty Trumpty sat on a wall 

Humpty Trumpty had a windfall

 Alexander Hamilton was constitutionally correct

A thud like Donald he’d never expect 

Through tweeting and twitching he drove his point across

The United States of America, well yeah, we want a divorce

From this wild man of loose tongue

We will run and we’ll hide

Putting aside every ounce of our pride

We scream can this be happening at noon Jan.20

This is alarmingly serious in the absence of funny.

We confess we accept, this fate to be had 

Our four years ahead portend to be bad

We’ll listen very closely and circumspect when need be

By the dawns early light, O say can you see! 

Last week, during the throws of another one of our coveted “All Girls Nights”- we threw around some thoughts worth sharing. We realized that that amidst the noise of the tiles being mixed we share some pretty interesting realizations. Couple of multiple (really no choice) questions for your review.

1) Who is actually the boss of us? Our hairdressers, our grandchildren, what other people think about us or chocolate? All of the above.

2) How much fun is time at home- with no plans?  They cancelled cool, we will binge watch. So much fun times three- no options.

3) Is setting a dinner table for a party- best part of preparing, lot’s of pleasure, creative and delightful time spent? All of the above.

4) How worth is it, when that one split second not to have another drink, rears through the sound of reason and you don’t wake up hung over? Thank you inner child.

5)- How essential is overlooking shortcomings in friends?  A clear cut version of Important- extremely, unequivocally or important grande.

6)-When you ask a question you know the answer to are you setting yourself up for trouble, repeating old grandfathered in mishegas  or sticking your finger in a live socket while standing in a bucket of water? Answer- all of the above.

We then put down the tiles and broke for dinner. One question clearly temporal.

7) Is Russian dressing best when you mix ketchup and mayonnaise- when it comes from the deli already prepared with relish- or store bought Marie’s brand? Nobody answered, too busy scoffing down dinner.

8)-Our playing resumed -another long question-when we look back and come to see even within our choices, with no magic bullets in sight, do we trade with someone else, or do we turn our “lack there of’s into more than enough’s? We thank our lucky stars that we got smarter in realizing…

In every argument there is a winner and a looser. Know the difference. Don’t push your luck, we should know by now winner doesn’t all take all. Don’t shake the saber rattle.

And when you get gifts by word of mouth- compliments, respect, invitations run to the finish line.

When giving thanks- give back! When you realize you are well equipped in the l have enough department – make charity your raison d’etre.

Back to trying for a jokerless hand!