More Than Four Sides

Category: Family & Friends

  • Code-switching…

    My boys are with me for three weeks, in Baltimore. And, I enrolled them in Tennis Camp, at Druid Hill Park, right near my apartment. Last week was their first week there.  They have three days to go…before we drive down to Harrisonburg, VA for our annual 4 days of immersion in Ethiopian culture, thanks…

  • Visiting the past

    I spent a week in Sunnyvale, CA, with my closest, dearest, longest-standing (don’t want to say oldest) friend, S, and her husband W/M (complicated).  She and I met when we were 11 years old, and our first meeting was not auspicious.  At least, not for me.

  • Refugees and immigrants

    During my run this morning, I listened to Reveal – The Smuggler.  It was a fascinating story about a french reporter, Raphael Krafft, who gave assistance to two Sudanese refugees and helped them cross into France.  The story is harrowing, and at times heartbreaking, and, as often happens to me when I’m hearing stories of people…

  • The importance of community

    I don’t think of myself as the most social of people.  I have difficulty dealing with crowds of people I don’t know.  I hate showing up at a party where I don’t know anyone, and trying to get into conversation with people.  When I do end up at big crowded parties, I am most comfortable…

  • Why I moved out… 

    It’s now been nearly nine months since I moved out of our suburban Rockville home to an apartment in Baltimore, and several times over those months, I’ve been made aware that the outside perception of the fact that it was I who left (rather than my husband, the more traditional partner to vacate the family…

  • Building a Jewish Home—On My Own – Tablet Magazine

    Source: Building a Jewish Home—On My Own – Tablet Magazine This story hit home for me, and then, while reading it, I was asked that the writer had been abandoned by her husband after only 7 months! My marriage had lasted 22 years before imploding. But, the notion of placing mezuzzot on my doorways in…

  • Art in London 

    There are several mandatory stops for me whenever I’m in England. I managed to get to two of them, and added a new stop – the Tate Modern. I mentioned going to the British Museum with S last week, and I might have gone back, as it is huge (or “yuge” as our new president-elect…

  • Waiting for a delivery…

    I’m waiting for my bed. I moved, on April Fool’s Day of this year, 2016, to an apartment in Baltimore.  Many of my friends have interpreted that the fact that I was the one who moved out meant that it was my idea to leave my family.  It wasn’t. But, the fact was, I have…

  • Art in London 

    There are several mandatory stops for me whenever I’m in England. I managed to get to two of them, and added a new stop – the Tate Modern.  I mentioned going to the British Museum with S last week, and I might have gone back, as it is huge (or “yuge” as our new president-elect…

  • Vacation

    I arrived last Tuesday, and was delighted when the U.K. automatic passport reader recognized me and let me through. The guy just ahead of me in the queue failed to be recognized, and watching him, I was sure I was going to suffer the same failure, and have to go explain why I have a…