I'm a Leaving on a Jet Plane

So Monday we are off to visit my parents (Cincinnati), my husbands parents (Poughkeepsie) and then wrapping the two weeks up with a visit to some old friends in Passaic. Oh and a nine hour layover in Rome (anyone want to meet me in Rome?) My bags are not packed (I'm sort of last minuting it in the hopes that the Moshiach arrives and my family will be knocking at my bayit (house). I wonder what I'll feed all of them?  Hope they light potatoes!) I'll be doing that Sunday.

You'll notice us as the disorganized bunch rushing around with mismatched luggage marked with a BIG A (no little a's though) in yellow and green cloth tape. If you see us shout out ANOLICK's!

We'll turn wondering who calling for us and you can cite this blog (then I'll bask in the knowledge that I'm known and loved. My husband will just be shocked!) Okay, I know the chances of it happening are a bit more likely then winning the lottery, so I'm not expecting it, but cool if it does happen! (How badly did I date myself in that last sentence).

I'm gong to try and work on putting myself in a good mood. I'm going to try and ditch the worrying for a bit. Wish me luck!

Taking bunches of books and my letters which I have to catch up on (no stamps at the moment I'm hoping to get out the ones to those in the USA at least.) I might catch up on some podcasts.


I do hope will be able to hit a bookstore or two but other than that I don't expect will be doing a lot of sightseeing.


But if you do see me give a shout out! I'd love to say hello.

Point Taken

OK Hashem. I remember having this conversation with You recently...I mean I know I'm getting older but my memory isn't going yet.

I remember saying basically I CANNOT take it anymore.

Too much. Too much stress. Too much worry. Not enough of what I need; money being tops in my mind, but other things as well.

I can't take it anymore! Let me off this ship! Let me sleep and do nothing for a month. I want quiet. I want rest. I want, most of all, to have a break from worry.

So what happens? YOU GIVE ME MORE!

What gives? WHY? You don't believe me? You really think I can take more on my plate? You want to prove me wrong....

Oh...

Point taken.

What's Cooking?

There is a very good cook who lives somewhere near where I work, if scent is any indicator. By about noon, everyday, a delicious aroma wafts up and I'm once again hit with the desire to find the door and plead for "just a bite" of whatever she is making.


Yesterday it was soup, and I was so inspired by the aroma that I came home to chop vegetables and mix spices so I could have my own delectable brew. Not as good as hers was, I'm fairly certain of that, but good nonetheless. Todays menu, at her house at least, was fried fish. Coming from a family, aside from myself, of non-fish eaters I passed, rather reluctantly, to turn my hand to a sea-based meal.


We have never, to the best of my knowledge, ever seen each other, spoken to each other, met in any way shape or form. If we have passed on the street I wouldn't  know who she was, unable as I am to locate through smell the kitchen of my unknown chef.


But she, unbeknownst to her, has a power over my mind, and my stomach. Daily she goes about her business, preparing dinner for her children, her husband, herself, her mind perhaps drifting from "needs more salt?" to whatever tasks she has for the day, to a beautiful Torah shiur (discussion on the Torah) she learned that morning. Certainly she isn't thinking about a woman standing on the landing to her office wishing she could have "just a bite."


So much of our life is lived that way. We just do; and we may never know, for good or bad, the effect that doing has on another. How much more so can we affect another's life when we actually have an interaction with them, casual and as unimportant, on the face of it, as it may seem?