It's the Fourth of July and, as always, with the Macy's fireworks booming and sparkling right outside my window, I am reminded of how much you loved that annual show in the sky.
Earlier today, America the Beautiful was our closing song at minyan, and we even changed "God shed His grace on thee..." to "God shed God's grace on thee..." I think you would especially have enjoyed that nod to equality in one of your favorite patriotic songs. You'll also be interested to know, I think, that the new assistant rabbi at Shaaray Tefila, who attended his first minyan this morning is Joan Glazer Farber's son-in-law. He, Joan's daughter, and their newborn son recently moved from Los Angeles to NYC for him to take this job.
My celebration wasn't nearly as exciting as in years past, but I did spend an enjoyable afternoon in Barnes and Noble, where I'd gone to find a small reading light to take with me next week, when I'll head out to Gambier, OH, to attend the Beyond Walls Writing Seminar at Kenyon College. Needless to say, with time to write, faculty and fellow writers to critique the work, and a whole new community of people to get to know, I'm looking forward to six days of wonderfulness.
In all honesty, it will be a nice break from the office, too, where I worked four ten-hour days this week. Victor left his job at the URJ two weeks ago for a position around the corner at the CCAR, and I've inherited his responsibilities related to Ten Minutes of Torah. Although it's much more interesting than writing condolence notes, and there's a good group of people that has my back while I get up to speed, it's not going to be feasible to maintain that pace for the long-term, especially without some sort of pay increase. That last matter, though, has yet to be settled...
Daddy's coming into the city tomorrow and we're going to visit some museum or other. Originally we were going to go down to the South Street Seaport to see the Hermione, but I got the dates wrong in my head and the ship -- a replica of the one that brought the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1824 -- left New York for Boston today. There's a John Singer Sergeant exhibit at the Met, and I suspect that's where we'll end up.
Amy's at Melissa's parents' lake house in the Poconos for the weekend -- and, to her credit, she went without her wig. With chemo finished, her hair's growing back, although she's continuing infusions of Herceptin and Perjeta every three weeks through January, and is taking Tamoxifen, which she'll continue for 10 -- yes 10! -- years. Thankfully, she's watching this whole last year fade rapidly into the rearview mirror, which is exactly where she (and all of us) wants it.
The fireworks have ended, and it's quiet once again. I'm glad to be upstairs where it's calm and cool, rather than among the hoards of humanity trekking westward from the river. That's about all the news from here for now.
Happy Fourth, The Mums.
xoxo,
~ Boo!
