Now that we are in the home-run stretch of the holiday season with the Thanksgiving feasts, company-sponsored Christmas parties to attend and all that comes with New Year’s Eve debauchery; we’ve got to be mindful about how we finish off the year and start off the next one. Continue reading
While traveling home from my trip, I was unfortunate enough to sit in front of a mother/son duo who happened to be planning the son’s bar mitzvah. The son was acting like Spaulding from Caddyshack, he was discussing his desperate “wants and needs” for the celebration after the ceremony. His mother, in utter exasperation, finally shouted at him the equivalent of “You will get nothing and like it.” She lamented that she wished her son would spend more time and energy in preparing for the ceremony rather than the magicians, sushi bar, 14 piece band and the rest of party’s entertainment he was demanding. His response was to say, “Why do you want to make me so unhappy?!” Continue reading
I recently was asked by my friend to pick up the mantle of the Super Squats column here at Crasstalk and I humbly accepted, of course. Why else would I be writing this? So anyway, I’ve been a self-proclaimed “gym rat” for many years now and with that has come a lot of knowledge about what challenges people face when they’re trying to lose some weight or get back to the gym or just improve their life. Continue reading
Here it is everyone, our Crassiversary! I cannot let it pass without paying homage to our beloved CCLC ~ Crazy Cat Lady Contingent. I am grateful for all of your fun and contributions and though I sometimes mock, you know I lurve you CCLC. I am also grateful that I have you all corralled here at Crasstalk where I can keep an eye on you. Have you ever tried herding cats? Well, Crazy Cat Ladies are equally wily.
My gift to all of the CCL’s and the people who love them; A Definitive Shopping & Gift Guide for the discerning (but still way crazy) cat lady. Because, really, how many cat tapestry tote bags do you need? Continue reading
I was bullied horribly and it was terrible. It’s not something I talk about. I turn forty this month and I still have not talked about this to anyone other than my mother and sister. My mother’s gone and my sister generously does not bring it up. I buried it in the back of my mind and deliberately didn’t think of it until I had children of my own and watched the social game begin. Continue reading
Remember when you were in the pre-teen/early teen years? Those can be particularly awful years, especially if you are a girl. Cattiness, cliques and awkward times were the hallmark of those years for me. Sadly, it seems to be a similar experience for my oldest daughter. This is where you Crassers come in.
A little background: my daughter attends a school that she enrolled in when she was in 5th grade. Most kids have been there since pre-school and it is a very small community. There is one girl in particular who appears to get great joy in pointing out every error, flaw or flub my 12-year-old does/has in order to garner laughs from the rest of the class. She is bossy and nasty and dances on the line of bullying. Now, I could go to the administration and have this stopped – and I still might – but I want to try to empower the eldest wildkid to do it herself first. Continue reading
I was a late in life child for my parents. So, I grew up as possibly the only Generation x person with a father who fought in World War II. Also, both of my parents lived through the Great Depression. That meant that they and my grandparents knew how to save a nickel. Also, my parents were pretty poor so we had a whole bunch of frugal habits. Continue reading
I love long-distance train travel. When I was a kid, we took an overnight train trip every Easter, with roomettes. I’d lie awake and listen to the rattle of the train, see the dimly-lit little stations that we stopped at at 2am, 3am, one or two people got on or off then rattle rattle off we went again. You could see the far-off yard lights of isolated farms, close to the track but far from any major road. Breakfast in the dining car!
We went from the wilds of northern Ontario to Toronto, to see the big department stores’ fancy Easter windows. Stayed at a reasonable hotel, with a big lobby the way old-fashioned hotels have, big sofas, an enormous crystal chandelier overhead. Ate at restaurants, of which my small town had none. The Grill didn’t count, it was just a diner. Whatever the opposite of glorified is, it was that kind of diner. So real city restaurants were a revelation, and an education.
As some of you know, I spent the past summer in Hong Kong. I was there for an internship helping people apply to the UN for refugee status. This will be nothing at all about that experience, although I could write for days about the refugee status determination process and its many faults, especially in Hong Kong. Instead, as I walked through the many food markets, I was reminded of some life lessons that I would like to share. Continue reading
I had some down time between watching World Cup gymnastics and the Bears game, so I did some channel surfing. When I got into the 200’s, I found OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Now, this is a different network from Oxygen, the “O” network she launched a few years ago. Programming on Oxygen is sort of a rag-tag affair of “Bad Girls” shows, reality / competition shows, and infomercials.
