Story Time Mondays in Soho

A great, FREE activity you can do with your children ages 3 and under, story time at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe down in Soho.

While the actual story time (including stories and songs as well), is free, the books, magazines and drinks they sell goes to their lofty and noble cause of ending homelessness and AIDS in NYC. As a NYC Mama, that is definitely a cause I can get behind.

Here's the link for more info:

http://www.examiner.com/x-3601-NY-Family-Events-Examiner~y2009m3d30-Monday-Story-Time-at-Housing-Works-Bookstore-Cafe

So Tired

Exhausted really. My energy is so low. I have been running on fumes for months now, but the events of the last two weeks (my bout of the flu, my Dad's hospitalization, then my catching a cold), has left me considerably weakened -- spent, actually. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually as well. I'm so tired. I was actually glad it was a rainy day today so that I could have an excuse to just lay around the house while Theo plays. I'm just so damn tired.

A Sobering Week

My father went suddenly blind in his right eye on Monday. He is a Federal Police Officer and a two-time hero at both bombings at the World Trade Center; the one in February of 1993 and of course again on 9/11. He is not only my hero, but a hero to the lives he has saved many, many times over. This man, my father, while at work, went suddenly blind in his left eye on Monday. They raced him from 26 Federal Plaza where he is stationed to St. Vincent's hospital because they knew - he was having a stroke. Suffice it to say, although his vision came back because the blood clot that escaped from his heart and caused his temporary blindness moved onward and didn't lodge, he has had to deal with other issues now. They performed mildly invasive procedures, the last one, today, involved pushing a catheter into a vein into his heart and placing a stent to keep the arterial blockage from breaking off and killing him. He will have to be on blood thinners to prevent another blood clot from forming and then dislodging from his heart and killing him. He (as well as I), have faced his mortality this week in a way that all of his years in law enforcement never seemed to do.

As he lay there awaiting the procedure, I could see fear etched all over his face. It was a fear that he surprisingly voiced. This is a man who ran into a building that had just been bombed, and went in blindly because the smoke was so thick you literally couldn't see your hand an inch away from your nose, and yanked people out to safety - and went back again to save more people - FOUR TIMES. This is a man who has received not one, but two Medals of Valor from the United States government for his deeds as a Federal Police Officer; and this man lay on that bed -- small, unsure, and afraid. I cannot begin to explain how that rocked me to the core.

As a single mother, I place a lot of importance on my father's role as the primary male role model for my son. My Dad is several sandwiches short of a full picnic, LOL, but he embodies many of the qualities I hope my son will as well one day -- responsibility, forthrightness, dependability, caring, generosity, and so many others I couldn't begin to list them all. I want my father to live a long time because I love him and I cannot bear the thought of the excrutiating pain I will face the day I lose him. But more importantly, I want my father to live a long time so that my son can see that he comes from good stock, and that he has it in him to be a truly great man. My Dad and I have had our share of ups and downs, but this week has reminded me that no matter how annoyed I may get with him sometimes, he is truly, truly one of the most precious things in my life. My son and I need him and he isn't allowed to go anywhere for a very long time.

I want to take this moment and offer immense gratitude to the Universe for seeing my father through this trying time. As men go, my guys, my father and my son, are the Alpha and the Omega in my world, and I appreciate You for helping me to keep that balance still. I am not ready for him to "go gentle into that good night", I will fight to keep him here much longer still; thank you, Universe, for not making me fight too hard.

I'm Such A Geek (This isn't news to anyone who knows me personally)

I just found out about a puppet house that specializes in peformances by Marionettes!!! I'm so stoked! I used to love Marionettes as a child, I had even forgotten that I was given one by my Mom when I was like 5 years old (one that I grew to resent for not performing to my standards, as if it was HIS fault and not mine that it soon only became a tangled mess). Isn't it amazing how you forget things about your childhood for decades upon decades and then all of a sudden once you do remember it, it becomes so vivid you can't believe you ever forgot it? That's what it was like when I remembered how much I used to love Marionettes.

My Mom had a really close friend who lived down the block from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, and in the late seventies we used to hang out there all the time. Among the musicians and other performances in the park, I remember lots of puppet shows, most of them using Marionettes. I can't imagine why that artform seems to have withered. It's beautiful, magical, surreal, and captivating. Alright, I'm starting to sound like John Cusack's character in Being John Malkovic (a movie I really loved by the way, lol).

So, in order to honor the lost memory of the joy that Marionettes brought me as a child, here's my latest article. I hope some of you get a chance to get out to Brooklyn and visit Puppetworks, Inc. If you do, drop me a line here and tell me how much you enjoyed it!

http://www.examiner.com/x-3601-NY-Family-Events-Examiner~y2009m3d2-Marionettes-tell-the-tale-of-Sleeping-Beauty