HUSSEIN HANGED!

I woke up yesterday morning and the headline read: HUSSEIN HANGED!

So weird.. Like Good Morning Baghdad! A blast from the past.

We like to say Justice is Swift there however he was after all hung for crimes he committed 25 years ago. Is that like a commuted sentence or something. Talk about a mercury retrograde ...

One less twisted, tortured soul on this planet and without a morning paper delivered to my doorstep I never would have know.

Is there a Lubavitcher on the face of this planet that did not immediately go back in time to the first Gulf War and or think of this like Haman being hung on the Gallows? I think my eyes initially read it as "Haman Hung" and I felt like I should find a grogger or something. But, I was groggy and I felt like I was in a time warp and could suddenly hear farbregens in my head where the Rebbe spoke about that time and place. How many years ago was that? Time does catch up with everyone, doesn't it?

The man was a bad man. Not much more you can say about him. He's gone now. About 26 years too late I suppose. If people can indeed sell their soul to the Devil for power and gold, than he was a prime example.

I had a beautiful Shabbos on my English birthday yesterday. Shul was nice, quiet. The Real Rabbi Wineberg was there though he didn't speak. No kiddush, no farbregen; just a lot of women with recent simchas wishing each other Mazel Tov after davening. It was nice to have so many engagements and babies being born in one week or so. Nice to hear details, makes me smile and feel like all will be well in the world. My brother and sister-in-law took me to Thai Treats where I had my favorite soup and we had fried bananas with ice cream and chocolate syrup for my birthday.

The kids are well... scattered somewhat around the world.

It's very windy outside. Somewhere, sometime in the middle of the night the winds picked up and started blowing strong out of the East. I keep wondering on what the weather is like in Iowa and Chicago in winter. I have a son who is going to move to Postville. So cool. So very, very cool. Probably meteorologically cool too... Well it works for me as I think it will work well for him and his soon to be wife. I'm so happy. Does a person really need to wear long underwear in Postville in the Winter? Who knows, we will see.

Somewhere between traffic jams and the noise and confusion of Miami I am going to take my daughter to the Mall today. It's a fast day and I hope it goes fast. Been promising Rivky a shopping trip for months now and am going to try to get this done before the calendar turns from 2006 to 2007!

People have been kind. I got a Victoria Secrets Gift card for my birthday and am hoping they have my shampoo and conditioner on sale for their big sale. And, I have a Target Gift card for me to go look for long underwear. Unless they have those leggins on a big clearance in VS.

So, what message do I want to impart here on my birthday?

Change is Good.

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Do Acts of Goodness and Kindness!

When in doubt of which path to take... go with your heart!

Home IS where the heart is and a heart alone always feels lonely... so may this be the year where everyone finds their beshert.

I love Miami, it shines in the dark on a tropical balmy night lit up like a picture postcard. Bathed in colors, basking in the balmy breeze it awaits tourists from all over the world. In the morning sun the buildings on Miami Beach sit quietly with their playful art deco flourishes as majestic Royal Palms flutter in the beach breeze. It is beautiful. So beautiful. The sights and scents of the city waking up are better than anything you see on TV.

But, the traffic is horrible and the noise level of people everywhere is beginning to make me feel like those people on that doomed planet in Star Trek. Pretty amazing image brought to mind for someone who is not the world's biggest Trekkie. Just... that's how you feel sometimes down here.

I love Key West because it's quiet, simple and poetically beautiful. It occurs to me that people must think I am a party girl when I say I love Key West. Nah, off the beaten track away from the beer drinkers on Duval Street... Key West is as close to the Garden of Eden as I have ever seen. Flowering vines run in and out of white picket fences race up Poincianna trees and then weave their way in and out Bougainvillea Bushes. The sky is clear at night, the breeze blows in from across the Straits bringing the flavor of Havana to the mainland. It's wonderful! It's one of the few places you can watch the sunrise out over the water and set over the water on the same day.

But, home is where the heart is and if there was a nice Lubavitch man in Alaska or New Mexico I would learn to love the sunset on the desert or to light the menorah in the dark night of Nordic Winter.

Jews it has been said, like to vote with their feet. We are all in Golus, does it really matter where we live or does it matter the life we lead?

I can close my eyes and I am on Kingston walking my way down to Montgomery (nice corner on this Planet Earth of ours) or... in Long Beach having coffee with Pesha in my smallest of kitchens on San Antonio Way. I am at the Rodeo Collection with Deena Holland having Tofutti or on the Santa Monica Pier with my babies and Shawn's babies on a Summer Afternoon enjoying the only cool breeze in town. I am on Lincoln Road enjoying a Cuban Coffee. My life has been a moving, mirage of fantasy coming to life, an ever-changing mosaic of people and magical moments.

Pretty Awesome if you think on it for a little girl who was raised in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house just off Bird Road whose whole world was a just a few ficus trees away from the Everglades. I grew up, moved to the big city (NY/Brooklyn) and lived in California and came back home to Miami. Maybe one day I will make it to Provence or Paris and maybe one day I will make it to Eretz Israel and daven at the Western Wall but for today.... sitting here waiting for the sun to rise as the breeze out of the East races across me listening to my son's dog snore seems the most perfect place to be this moment.

Someone said in Bais Menechem last week (it may have been Laz) that the biggest lesson Joseph taught us was that wherever you are there is a reason for you to be there. He didn't just sit in prison feeling badly for himself, he talked to his cellmates, his neighbors.. he had dreams and he had a reason for being where he was and he lived that moment of his life to it's fullest. You have to know where you are in life and if you stumble upon a place you never thought you'd be you have to see the reason and purpose in being there and if you can't see it.. Hashem will help guide you to the reason, there is always a reason for everything. Just sometimes we don't see it. Instead of complaining to Hashem we should thank him for putting us somewhere we needed to be.

Happy Birthday Bobbi indeed... Happy Birthday World!

As someone somewhere always says... May you have the weather you enjoy the most today.. and may I add may you have someone special to enjoy it with as well.

Love and Besos, Bobbi
Ps did you know the spellchecker read Postville and asked me if I meant Positive! Funny... was going to say earlier that should be the song for the day... but I couldn't remember the lyrics. Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative and get ready for 2007!

Windy End of the Year Thoughts..from Windy Miami

I woke up yesterday morning and the headline read: HUSSEIN HANGED!

So weird.. Like Good Morning Baghdad! A blast from the past.

We like to say Justice is Swift there however he was after all hung for crimes he committed 25 years ago. Is that like a commuted sentence or something. Talk about a mercury retrograde ...

One less twisted, tortured soul on this planet and without a morning paper delivered to my doorstep I never would have know.

Is there a Lubavitcher on the face of this planet that did not immediately go back in time to the first Gulf War and or think of this like Haman being hung on the Gallows? I think my eyes initially read it as "Haman Hung" and I felt like I should find a grogger or something. But, I was groggy and I felt like I was in a time warp and could suddenly hear farbregens in my head where the Rebbe spoke about that time and place. How many years ago was that? Time does catch up with everyone, doesn't it?

The man was a bad man. Not much more you can say about him. He's gone now. About 26 years too late I suppose. If people can indeed sell their soul to the Devil for power and gold, than he was a prime example.

Had a beautiful Shabbos on my English birthday. Shul was nice, quiet. The Real Rabbi Wineberg was there though he didn't speak. No kiddush, no farbregen; just a lot of women with recent simchas wishing each other Mazel Tov after davening. Was nice to have so many engagements and babies being born. Nice to hear details, makes me smile and feel like all will be well in the world. My brother and sister-in-law took me to Thai Treats where I had my favorite soup and we had fried bananas with ice cream and chocolate syrup for my birthday.

The kids are well... scattered somewhat around the world.

It's very windy outside. Somewhere, sometime in the middle of the night the winds picked up and started blowing strong out of the East. I keep wondering on what the weather is like in Iowa and Chicago in winter. I have a son who is going to move to Postville. So cool. So very, very cool. Probably meteorologically too. Works for me as I think it will work well for him and his soon to be wife. So happy. Does a person really need to wear long underwear in Postville in the Winter? Who knows, we will see.

Somewhere between traffic jams and the noise and confusion of Miami I am going to take my daughter to the Mall today. It's a fast day and I hope it goes fast. Been promising Rivky a shopping trip for months now and am going to try to get this done before the calendar turns from 2006 to 2007!

People have been kind. I got a Victoria Secrets Gift card for my birthday and am hoping they have my shampoo and conditioner on sale for their big sale. And, I have a Target Gift card for me to go look for long underwear. Unless they have those leggins on a big clearance in VS.

So, what message do I want to impart here on my birthday?

Change is Good.

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Do Acts of Goodness and Kindness!

When in doubt of which path to take... go with your heart!

Home IS where the heart is and a heart alone always feels lonely... so may this be the year where everyone finds their beshert.

I love Miami, it shines in the dark on a tropical balmy night lit up like a picture postcard. Bathed in colors, basking in the balmy breeze it awaits tourists from all over the world. In the morning sun the buildings on Miami Beach sit quietly with their playful art deco flourishes as majestic Royal Palms flutter in the beach breeze. It is beautiful. So beautiful. The sights and scents of the city waking up are better than anything you see on TV.

But, the traffic is horrible and the noise level of people everywhere is beginning to make me feel like those people on that doomed planet in Star Trek. Pretty amazing image brought to mind for someone who is not the world's biggest Trekkie. Just... that's how you feel sometimes down here. I love Key West because it's quiet, simple, poetically beautiful. It occurs to me that people must think I am a party girl when I say I love Key West. Nah, off the beaten track away from the beer drinkers on Duval Key West is as close to the Garden of Eden as I have ever seen. Flowering vines run in and out of white picket fences and race up Poincianna trees and weave their way in and out Bougainvillea Bushes. The sky is clear at night, the breeze blows in from across the Straits bringing the flavor of Havana to the mainland. It's wonderful! It's one of the few places you can watch the sunrise out over the water and set over the water on the same day.

But, home is where the heart is and if there was a nice Lubavitch man in Alaska or New Mexico I would learn to love the sunset on the desert or to light the menorah in the dark night of Nordic Winter.

Jews it has been said, like to vote with their feet. We are all in Golus, does it really matter where we live or does it matter the life we lead?

I can close my eyes and I am on Kingston walking my way down to Montgomery (nice corner on this Planet Earth of ours) or... in Long Beach having coffee with Pesha in my smallest of kitchens on San Antonio Way. I am at the Rodeo Collection with Deena Holland having Tofutti or on the Santa Monica Pier with my babies and Shawns babies on a Summer Afternoon enjoying the only cool breeze in town. I am on Lincoln Road enjoying a Cuban Coffee. My life has been a moving mirage of fantasy coming to life, an ever-changing mosaic of people and magical moments.

Pretty Awesome if you think on it for a little girl who was raised in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house just off Bird Road whose whole world was a just a few ficus trees away from the Everglades. I grew up, moved to the big city (NY/Brooklyn) and lived in West Hollywood/Los Angeles and came back home to Miami. Maybe one day I will make it to Provence or Paris and maybe one day I will make it to Eretz Israel and daven at the Western Wall but for today.... sitting here waiting for the sun to rise as the breeze out of the East races across me listening to my son's dog snore seems the most perfect place to be this moment.

Someone said in Bais Menechem last week (it may have been Laz) that Joseph's biggest lesson he taught us was that wherever you are there is a reason for you to be there. He didn't just sit in prison feeling badly for himself, he talked to his cellmates, his neighbors.. he had dreams and he had a reason for being where he was and he lived that moment of his life to it's fullest. You have to know where you are in life and if you stumble upon a place you never thought you'd be you have to see the reason and purpose in being there and if you can't see it.. Hashem will help guide you to reason, there is always a reason for everything. Just sometimes we don't see it. Instead of complaining to Hashem we should thank him for putting us somewhere we needed to be.

Happy Birthday Bobbi indeed... Happy Birthday World!

As someone somewhere always says... May you have the weather you enjoy the most today.. and may I add may you have someone special to enjoy it with as well.

Love and Besos, Bobbi
ps did you know the spellchecker read Postville and asked if I meant Positive! Funny... was going to say that should be the song but couldn't remember the lyrics. Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative and get ready for 2007!

A Beautiful Weather Site

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_east_loop-12.html

Anytime you want to unwind you can sit down and watch the world and it's clouds spin by...

Good Shabbos .... Misc. Thoughts Before Shabbos

What a week...

What a really wonderful week!

I can't believe everything that was packed into one week.

I had my oldest son here for Shabbos Hanukah to spend some time with his younger siblings. My son's engagement and all the nice people I met. One of my best friends here just got engaged.

Amazingly Long Beach connections all around. It was nice place to live when we lived there and I have memories to cherish for a lifetime. But, you can't go back because sometimes in life there is no going back. Everyone has moved away so it exists now only in our memories. Frumma and I can sit in Shul and remember but the place the way we remember it exists no more.

There comes a time in life where you have to make decisions. You can move forward or live in the past. You can stay stagnant in the present in some never ending limbo or you can make some choices and decisions. You can choose and sometimes they are not easy decisions but they must be made.

The one caveat here is Crown Heights. You can always go back to Crown Heights. And, although it expands and grows, oozes it's way down past Empire and over towards "East Flatbush" it is still Crown Heights. Walking down Kingston is sort of like going home for the weekend and smelling Mommy's kugel or special cake baking in the oven.

Plan, Decide and Act. I taught that to women along time ago in EMETT classes. You are in control and you plan, you decide but you GOT TO "ACT" or you are still in that half way decision place... should I? shouldn't I? Maybe I should... maybe not. You have to make the decision, buy into it, embrace it and live it.

Nice to dream dreams but some people get quagmired down in dreams. Dreams are nothing if you don't try to live them. I don't want to be a dreamer, I want to be a doer. A doer of dreams :)

So, now what? Finish Hanukah and then decide what to do. My birthday is coming up in a few weeks, my Hebrew birthday is sooner on Hay Teves.

There isn't much to talk about right now in Miami regarding the weather. It's hot today. A warm wind is blowing out of the East and there is talk of a cold front a few days away. No seasons, no storms .. and endless time filled with traffic and tourists and pretty little palm trees swaying.

Making Shabbos and going to relax and even though I say I shouldn't I might daydream a little... and ask Hashem how I go about making those dreams come true. Somewhere it's winter. Here... there is eggplant in the oven baking to make babaganush, chicken and yellow rice has been made. Israeli salads have been bought, hot water put up, eggs put up... soon I will make a 1-2-3 cake for Shabbos breakfast.

Last day of Chanukah, all eight candles about to be lit, big kiddush in Shul for lunch.. "cholent kiddush" and cholent slowly cooking in my crockpot at home as my kids oddly eat it for breakfast but not after 1pm.

Let the world turn without me for a little bit this Shabbos. Let me enjoy the last day of Hanukah. Let me go to Shul, see friends and celebrate simchas. Let me watch the clouds float by in the sky from my bed and give thanks for the beautiful world we live in and............. read through all those little things I brought home from Crown Heights.

What a world when we are happy ... better to be happy than sad. I hope one day soon I will achieve the things I want to accomplish and I hope one day I will be cooking for someone for Shabbos besides my kids.

Serve the Lord With Joy... go out and smell the roses, kiss your children, think good thoughts and do good deeds and may you have the weather you enjoy the most this beautiful Shabbos Chanukah!

Mazel Tov!

Happiness is my son Shuky getting engaged to a very nice girl!

Happiness is having the L'Chaim in Crown Heights!

Happiness is seeing my kids and friends who live up north and being there for good times...

Happiness is.......oh my goodness... Bobbi is happy!

My son got engaged over the weekend. Yes, I knew it was coming but still I was so excited and happy. I flew to NY to go to the Ohel with him and to be there for the L'Chaim. I also got to attend a good friend's chasena and watch the kids celebrate.

I got to daven in 770 for a long while.. mincha time on Monday. Spent money on a new Siddur for my son Zalmy .. khaki green and a new Tehillim for myself, pictures, yarmulkes, Neshei Newsletter... all those little things "out of towners" do when in New York. I saw so many "out of towners" on Kingston I thought for a few minutes it was Duval Street in Key West. How did I KNOW they were tourists? They were carrying around yellow bags from Crown Heights Judaica and they had the hungry look in their eyes as they stood staring at Nosh World and the Pizza Shop... like they were on Disney Mainstreet looking for a snack :)

Walked up Montgomery Street to see Mrs. Goldman.. what a BIG hill! When did that hill get so big? Is it getting bigger? A volcano underneath Montgomery? I don't know but when I was 17 it didn't seem so high? Even when I was 30 and pregnant it didn't seem THAT big...

I saw my grandchildren, my children, my friends... it was wonderful!

Spent the day at Touro touching base with my NY campus as I am far away in Miami these days. I took the subway around town by myself.

And.........the L'Chaim.. oh wow. No words.

To see my Shuky, my Shukaboo come back to home base and have a L'Chaim in Crown Heights and get engaged to a very nice, beautiful girl from Postville... wow, wow.. double wow... and be surrounded by my kids, the Slaters who came over AFTER first night Sheva Brochos finished and Rabbi and Mrs. Goldman who came by after their party for their grandchildren.

I davened at the Ohel. I went to Avremie's grave.. may his memory be cherished and may my tefillah be answered. No one should know sadness.. everyone should be happy and Serve the Lord With Joy Always.. in a perfect world anyway.

Mazel Tov! Was perfect!

When I calm down and come off Cloud 9 I will write a normal post..

Bobbi

Yud Tes Kislev in Miami - Rainy December

Rambling post of Yud Tes Kislev and Life

I have been meaning to write this post for days and haven't had any quiet time to get it right.

Maybe there is no getting it "right" and I may not have a chance at quiet time anytime in the near future so here goes.

Follow along. I am just thinking out loud, thoughts crashing around in the corners of my mind and leaking out into the universe via the internet.

Yud Tes Kislev was wonderful! Really, really wonderful. I looked forward to it for a while, it always has such rich memories of being a girl in Crown Heights when I went to Bais Rivkah Seminary and lived there. Those late night winter fahrbregens... wow. I'll never forget that time from all perspectives..one weather. The old Hospital on the big hill between Crown and Montgomery. I used to walk out of the house on Montgomery and see a snow covered hillside, trees peeking through the snow. I stared up at streetlights through all the seasons of the world, both meteorological ones and religoius ones, traditional ones ... listening to the sounds of people singing in their Sukkoths late at night walking back home from someone's house on a quiet, late fall evening. Winter and the ice and cold of transfering on Empire and Flatbush coming back from the Old building, the parking lot by the bustop covered in ice with one puddle of water in the middle and Prospect Park across the street... every season and color on display in Prospect Park... yet I rarely went because my whole world and life was Crown Heights. Okay, a few trips into the city with girls from school cutting class early :) to go out to eat in Manhatten or to go to Far Rockaway for Shabbos. Otherwise... was Crown Heights 24/7 in those days.

I can still walk up and down Montgomery in my head... see Mrs. Friedman standing by the door, Eli Lipskar coming in and out of the driveway, listening late at night to him in rehearsal for his next Chabad Chassidic Boys Choir (or whatever they were called) in the basement next store. Mrs. Goldman's Breakfast cake that I'll probably HAVE to make this Shabbos. Every store as it was can be seen in my mind, traced with magical memories like fingerprints and the lines in my hand. Stationary store on Union... little half empty postcard rack where I used to buy postcards to send home to my baby brothers. My father walking to 770 with me when he came in for Shabbos on rare occaisions. Rabbi Simpson walking down Montgomery towards the house tipping us all off to a "surprise fahrbregen" as he always "knew" when to come in from Boro Park for one.. tipped off so to speak.

I'm just rambling, bear with me ... thoughts needed to be expressed...

Yud Tes Kislev just always reminds me of the hand off from Fall to Winter in Crown Heights. A hand off from Yud Tes Kislev to Yud Shvat.

Fall Coat to Winter Coat.

In those days, the old days...before the Rebbe made such a big deal about Chanukah Festivals .. Yud Tes Kislev almost eclipsed Chanukah. Maybe I used to go home to Miami for Chanukah, vacation... who knows.. I don't remember but I remember things I cannot forget.

This year... a special treat, a year when I seem to be constantly being reminded of my past, going full circle somehow before I suppose I can move on.

Rabbi Gershon Shusterman spoke at Bais Menechem in NMB. He was incredible, excellent, wonderful... just what I needed, just what we all needed. There I was sitting with Fruma in Miami the way we sat years ago in Long Beach together, once again listening to Gershon. Was funny, odd, strange, perfect. He gave over great stories, whimsically so. I can relate later sometime but the point is in the story of the Rebbe from long ago... the story about a horse knowing he is a horse... we have to know ourselves and then when we know ourselves we have the bigger job to do. Will explain maybe someday. Don't have time. Have to go to work.

Old saying is that Hashem sends the medicine before the illness, cure before the disease. I suppose that is true and I knew Gershon was coming for Yud Tes Kislev but truth is in my case this week... Hashem sent the medicine just at the right time. I needed it more last Sunday night than I have ever needed it. And, as much as I love hearing Rabbi Feller speak I passed this year on hearing him speak at The Shul. He was in North Miami Beach last year. This year, I needed to sit there... with Frumma and Malka listening to Gershon speak.. like he did when we lived in Long Beach years ago.

Great Yud Tes Kislev. Sorry my thoughts ramble on so on this rainy December morning but I don't have time for grammar or making sense...this is a blog, so this is my post, here is my blog and remember to always light up the world with miracles... be a lamplighter.

love Bobbi

Time, Travel and Weather

Time travels so fast that one can hardly catch on to today's dance before it passes and is yesterday's moments... tomorrow's memories.

I went online this morning to read some inspiration and thoughts from someone I have read for the last 10 years or more. Her website came up on my sidekick slowly and I thought on how she uses that picture and how it is her Logo sort of... her face to the world and below her name was the words 1928 - 2006. My mind went numb. I knew what it meant but thought..nah couldn't mean that and I kept trying to think what else it meant but no.. it meant that. Maya Del Mar had passed away sometime earlier this week when I wasn't watching or checking her website. Blew me away. Floored me. Just somewhere, probably in Sausalito, she died. I might not have always agreed with her thoughts, her views politically but I loved her passion for what she believed and her desire to inspire those reading her columns. People with passion and purpose always amaze me. People with principles who believe standing up for them makes a difference. People who believe that one person reading one column can be moved or motivated to change their views, their lives... their actions. I can't believe she's gone. I may not have bought everything she was selling and she was one of many sites I might randomly check out on any given Sunday but time has moved on and another familar face is gone and now has that end line closer - 2006. And, end date, a page turned, a book closed shut. Makes you think on time...and how fast it passes.

Traveling... I have 3 kids in the air this afternoon. Three. Must be a new record for me. Often I have had 2 kids traveling on different planes but today... Three.

Weather... cool, getting colder.

The wind blows, the whistle blows louder and the kids on the front porch are playing the guitar on a cool Miami night as a cold front slides slowly down the state.

I'm tired. Not feeling good. Contemplating life and the world, my wonderful kids and Yud Tes Kislev off in the near future, Chanukah.

Going to go lie down and rest..after dinner is cooked. BBQ Chicken Wings and later for the later two Meyer kids...sweet and sour meatballs.

Enjoy your time well on planet earth and may you always have the right weather and the right people in your lives. Maybe everyone reading this have someone special to share their lives with tonight. I wish... upon a star? lol... I wish to have one soon too.

Love Bobbi