What would Judi do?

My then-husband and I moved into this house in 1999, I think.  It's been a while.  An old lady lived next to us - she was nice.  No one else talked to us. Then I got pregnant.  The other kooky old lady behind us talked to me.  Twice.  Just twice. Then I had the babies.  People looked but not a lot of neighbors talked to us. As they grew, we started hanging out at our local playground, about a block from my house.  Still, no one talked to me. Then someone did.  And more people started to talk.  Our neighbor, Heli, was like the pied piper of moms in need of friends.  She talked to everyone and suddenly people started to know each other. It didn't matter if it was raining out.  We went to the playground and played in puddles.  When it was nice we went and played.  When it snowed (and I wasn't bitchy about it), we played.  I knew all my neighbors.  We helped each other.  We talked.  It was pretty unusual.  Let me give you some examples: The day my house was burglari

I know this post might get me in trouble with some of my friends but I'm going to do it anyway. So there. I think chivalry has a place in this world.  It's not a man or woman thing.  It's a manners thing. The other day I was walking into a building where I was scheduled to work.  I was several steps behind three people - two women and a man.  They didn't acknowledge me at all; they were just walking and chattering away with each other.  We got to the door and the two women went in ahead of me while the man held the door open.  He waited for me - which I appreciated.  We all get through security and the same thing happened at the next set of doors.  Then we got to the elevator and he did it again.  He didn't say anything to me but I made sure to say thank you to him and quietly said   have a great day! as he exited the elevator.  He was polite and I was appreciative. It makes me bonkers when people don't hold the door open for the person behind them.  If

A year ago today my mother in law died.  There aren't many days I can remember in such detail.  I remember that day clearly.  I started thinking about this last year and all the things that have happened.    I'll limit the list to related things: 1.  We learned that while we were sad for much of this year, life does indeed go on. 2.  My girls grew to be almost as tall as Ruth was when she died.  That's a lot of growth for a year. 3.  My ex and I learned to work together for things that didn't  involve our families.  We were always fine with that but couldn't get ourselves together for other things.  We're better now. 4.  I walked 26.2 miles and my girls cheered countless other walkers. 5. I got my first mammogram in several years.  I'm grateful to the woman at one of the Avon Walk events who asked MY DAUGHTER if she knew when was the last time I had a mammogram.  I think I'd only had one since their birth.  I'm back on track. 6.  She had

I am not the most domestic person.  My office is currently sitting in boxes in my living room.  We are pretending not to see the Christmas tree in the corner.  There might be a sock or two under the couch.  This is not my area of expertise. But every once in a while I get the domestic gene kicking in and I feel the need to do things.  Sometimes it means getting all the laundry done in one day.  That's rare.  More recently it means cooking. My mother lives in a senior living complex that is "kosher inspired".  I don't even know what that means....inspired.....other than they don't eat bacon.  I do know they eat a lot of chicken which means my mom asks me to cook anything but chicken.  Now, I'm not a great cook but when I bother to do things, it tends to be chicken.  So the challenge was on. She asked for meat loaf.  Sigh.  I got my girl scout badge in cooking by making meat loaf.  I'm pretty sure I've made it ONCE since then.  For a reason - I hat