Happy 2013

I think I will post facebook page to rally against forced joy. How do I capture the words and thoughts of A? If I remember I will blog them. We were watching the ball drop in Time Square. A says " I thought it would be more... epic. 10 mins later Epic like the best performances of 2012 - Beyonce's I am here. or Coldplay's confetti party. Last week. After an ice skating lesson she said "getting off the ice was my salvation". This morning on our way to school, I can't remember what she said - but I must keep a pen nearby.

SCOTUS and Gay Marriage and Talmud Torah

Back in 1982, the summer I worked as an intern at ERAmerica, a non-profit in WDC trying to pass the Equal Rights Amendment - or rather the extension of the ratification of the ERA, the question of whether the passage would allow gays to marry floated in the air. As an 18yo, I felt it would allow gays to marry. Here are the words: Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. If the world were up to me, I would get rid of marriage totally and make civil contracts for all. If two people who are just good friends without any sex want to make a pack to help each other in sickness or health, it should be the same as if someone gets married for sex. On another level, we learned in High School at a Hebrew Day School (Orthodox) that the reason there are Jewish Laws about Homosexuality is because men would choose men to have sex with and not women. And if this occurs, the breakdown of the Jewish family unit would occur - no one would have children and no one to pass on the Jewish religion. Self Preservation in the highest order. Let's face it - Boys hung out with boys in the Talmud Torahs. I remember the rumors we heard about MTA and YU boys. I look forward to hearing what the SCOTUS has to say.

Where There's Smoke There's Mirrors

I'm following the Patraeus scandal. Petraeus, a now ex-CIA chief, who's impeccable career and is married commits adultery with his young biographer Paula Broadwell. A socialite, Jill Kelly , who take pleasure in telling people she knows know important people in the military, gets a few emails telling her to get off her high horse. Kelly gets annoyed and asks the FBI to look into these annoying emails. The emails were coming from Paula Broadwell’s computer. They search it and uncovered the illicit affair with the CIA Director. Jill Kelly goes under the knife. She’s striped of her honorary titles and her Cancer Charity turns out to be a charity in name only to travel and throw parties. Moral: Where there’s Smoke there’s a hidden agenda. Another life lesson. Stay true to yourself. Don't worry about what other people say. The honest and best will succeed in the end. BTW - Aliza started 3rd grade a 5th grade reading and math levels.

J'accuse

What do you do if someone accuses you of something that is not true and you are not even told who accused you or what was allegedly said? Wow! So much has happened in the past month and most of it was negative. There's someone on A's team who wants her off. I suspect it's the mom with the daughter who practices 12 hours a week, has a team coach, and at 8 is working on her triples. REALLY? Now A is younger and on a higher level than her daughter and me thinks she is just jealous. The problem: someone told "the board" that I said mean things about her daughter's line and her coach. I have no idea what they are talking about. They even asked me to apologize to the coach in question. So I did “I’m sorry for whatever I may have said that offended you”. I don’t know what it was, I don’t know who said it. I’m going to say I’m sorry for the trouble someone else put you through. Here’s a box of you’re a star chocolates.” It was really bizarre. Maybe they don’t want A on the team next year. Several months ago I was concerned that she was not at the level of the other girls on the team. She’s 2 years younger than everyone else. I just don’t want her to get hurt. You put her on this team. We are happy you did. But we would have been happy on the level with girls closer to her age (still would have been one of the youngest). The whole thing doesn’t bother me except A is getting weird vibes. Unprovoked on the car ride home after a training session she tells me the coach is acting like she doesn’t want her on the team. It is true she missed several practices and competitions due to illness and this was her first day back. She’s a smart girl. If she says something like I am alarmed. If you are not comfortable in the relationship between coach and player, accidents are more likely to happen. 1. Should I pull her off the team? 2. Tough it out 3. Move to another team after the season

Going Public 1

A is in 3rd grade at a local Public School. She's in a double class of 45 children and her full-time teachers make close to $120,000 per year. Most all the teaching is done by the assistant teachers or the student teacher. Our property taxes are extremely high. 70% goes to schools. And they high paid teachers don't even teach. What's that about? Monica

Books we are reading

We started 3rd grade last week. So far so good. Lots of reading and writing. We should keep track of the books she's read. The Diary of a Whimpy Kid The Diary of a Whimpy Kid the last straw The Diary of a Whimpy Kid the Ugly Truth Dork Diaries not so fabulous life Dork Diaries Ice Skating Baby Mouse Ice Skating and all the baby mouse books Animal Farm - listening to in the car. Dragondale - listening to in the car. Freindle - Listened in the car Jewish Stories (Saul Bellows, Shalom Alecheim, Singer ect) - listening in the car The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda Lunch Lady series The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee

1000 on the Hapmeter

Yesterday was a great day. Ali was so happy taking her Preliminary MIF test. The best part was she had the ice all to herself. Oh yes, she passed all three judges (only need 1) with a score of 15.2. She was so happy and animated. Joy.