More Than Four Sides

Category: Holidays

  • Spring Break in a Pandemic during Passover

    Spring Break in a Pandemic during Passover

    It’s April 1, which carries a less-than-fun memory for me, although as the years pass, the pain of April 1, 2016 has been replaced by more optimism and hope that I might have imagined possible. In those five years, I’ve bought a house, changed jobs, gained a second synagogue community and seem to be doing…

  • Notes on throwing parties…(found draft)

    I have neglected this blog for months/years, and recently returned to this space – I discovered this snippet was sitting as a draft since December 2018 (just over a year ago)… I like throwing parties.  I think I’ve posted about this before… Last night, I threw a Hanukkah/Housewarming party.  This is the third housewarming I’ve…

  • Musicals, Shmoozicals

    I hung out at the Palo Alto Community Theater throughout my high school years. Like so much of my life then, I was pulled into being involved by my best friend, S. I only was onstage one, or maybe twice. The first time, I was a Bobby-soxer in the opening number of Guys & Dolls.…

  • End of 2017…

    I don’t know about you, but my inbox is just overflowing with requests for donations…there are always a lot, but the past week has been an exercise in daily purging of requests for donations. Given that I am buying a house, and have several trips planned, including a trip in June with my boys to…

  • Through Narrow Straits

    With Easter and Passover overlapping this year, the different images of each holiday are in striking contrast in my mind. I enjoyed sharing Easter dinner with my sister’s family, hosted by her mother-in-law, who I hadn’t seen in many years.  I picked up my mother to bring her to the dinner party, and on the…

  • A sukkah in the Inner Harbor

    I went for a run today.  It was my third run this week, which makes me happy.  I also did a 15 minute yoga practice, and I’ve managed to practice yoga most of the days this week (not all, but we’ll get there). On my run today, I initially headed along the southern border of…

  • Monday – waiting for the Ferguson decision

    Last Monday morning, like most mornings, my commute was in the company of NPR, which, like all the news outlets, was describing the preparations in Ferguson, MO, anticipating the announcement of the Grand Jury decision. My last patient of the day was a man I have taken care of for some time, but this appointment…

  • Letting go of Christmas

    I was never a very good Christian. The main problem was that I was always asking for logic and internal consistency. I couldn’t understand why a monotheistic faith had divided God into a Trinity, for one thing. And the Virgin birth? The Resurrection? The answer was always “You have to have Faith” and “It’s God’s…

  • End of the holiday season…

    This past week marked the end of a string of holidays/Holy Days, starting with Rosh HaShanah on September 24 (actually, starting earlier, with Selichot on September 20, for me, but for many observant Jews, the preparatory month of Elul before is part of the experience). Anyway, we finally wrapped it up, with the exuberant, music…

  • What a weekend!

    Saturday was Yom Kippur (which actually started Friday night). Sunday I ran my first 5k in a few years (with no training beforehand).  This is me, wearing my Mollybethalon running shirt from 2013 (when I did not run 4.4miles – or km – whatever it was…because I was with J, and he didn’t want to…