On Friday, we went to the Rigneys' Christmas carol; a tradition they’ve been having for 35 years. I don’t think we have missed it for at least the last four years. This year, both Moody and Tala were enjoying themselves, and we got to mix more with adults and enjoy it too. Previously, Moody was too young and we had to alternate chasing him and keeping him under control, and then Tala came, and it was time to keep an eye on her too. This year,they were both "mature," having fun with the friends they made for the night and were not tempted to storm the cookies table in the back! At one point, Peter asked Tala, "Do you look like Mom or Dad?" She looked at him and said, "Tala!" I have a picture of Moody for every year we were there; I will post the pictures once the computer is back.
On Thursday, something went amiss with the computer; kept turning itself off. I made many calls to try and solve the problem; one person concluded "It’s a virus!" Ha, a virus, "get out of here!" was my response. We never had a virus—we have a Mac. I love the Mac for its high immunity; it is just uninfectable! The price is high, but it’s worth it. Sol had a Mac since 1996, a G4; in January we added the magnificent iMac G5! When Sol got home, Tala told him, "Our computer died!" She must have heard me talk to the technician at the Apple store, and I must have mentioned "dies off," or something of the sort. So now, we’re confined to using the G4 till the other baby gets home. I cleaned it up yesterday, reinstalled the OS and everything "needed;" --about time to do that. The only drawback is that it’s not configured to transfer pictures from the camera and the printer/scanner is not connected here! We’ll just have to wait.
On Saturday morning, the "boys" went swimming, and the "girls" went shopping! We, the girls, had fun shopping for toys and home décor items. On our way to meet the "boys," Tala said, "I love going shopping, Mom!" We’re going for more shopping today--it’s the big sale day. We rearranged the basement the other day and discovered that the computer desk is about to fall down with one leg almost completely detached!
Yesterday, we went to see the Chronicles of Narnia--a great movie. Moody and Tala loved it; Moody kept saying, over and over, "It’s a great movie!" Tala didn’t flinch for one minute and the suspense was very high. It’s a must see... over and over!
Moody and Grandma Amna
Today is a holiday... At least retail and food places are finally open; it seemed like they closed for a long time! While we were having breakfast, Moody said to Sol, "I’m sorry Grandma Amna died." She passed away in October of 2000, shortly after her return to Libya from her visit with us that year. She came when I was pregnant with Moody and stayed till after his birth. I don’t know what made Moody start this conversation about the dead. He asked about "uncle Khaled," Noha’s husband who passed away in 2001 at the age of 38, and about my uncle with the "three fingers." He was asking if uncle Khaled was buried, who buried him, where is he buried, and could he see the burial place when he goes to Libya; then he asked the same questions about Grandma Amna and uncle Faraj. Now he’s set to visit these places when he goes to Libya. Last summer, Noha, Rahaf, and Ru’a were planning to come visit (they were denied the visa!) When Moody noticed that we were only talking about the three of them he started asking about their dad, we told him that he's dead and answered all the questions he had about that. He got very interested in learning more about death and talking more about uncle Khaled. For sometime, he would say, out of the blue, "I’m sad that uncle Khaled died." Toward the end of today’s conversation, I just wanted to talk about something else--it still hurts deep to think of Khaled, Noha, and the girls, and the way he died...
Saturday evening, xmas eve, we went out looking for a place to eat, and I was reminded of my student days in Pittsburgh and my fellow members of what we called the Homeless Waif Society. On Saturday, everywhere we went was closed, and we kept going downward in restaurant quality... Ultimately we got to McD's and of course there was a long line of customers in the driveway! I noticed that most of them were in minivans, i.e., like us they were families looking for food. I think things will change eventually, and there will be a lot of open places on occasions like xmas, and they should. I bet it took a long time before stores opened regularly on Sundays in the US. Of course that hasn't really caught on yet in Europe, but then again, we have to remember we're talking about Europe, where a common political party name is "The Christian Democrats." Interesting, I say politely... I'm just happy that they don't also try to stick the word Galileo in that name. Anyway, if democracy is about anything, it is about the unholy marriage of enlightenment and individual empowerment, but I digress...
ReplyDeleteThe Homeless Waif Society was formed by three founding members: Dave Shine, Dan DiMartino, and me. We were all single and never really made preparations for holidays, such as having some food at home. Every time,we'd get caught and we'd end up roaming around town looking for food. We did this so many times that it eventually became a tradition and we even had customary places. Yes, for Thxgiving, we went to the Red Bull Inn, a hotel restaurant about a couple of blocks from my apt. And for xmas, it was Rhoda's Deli in Squirrel Hill, with a large Jewish community. Man, the town would be all but dead, then you go to Rhoda's and every throat-clearing, oye-ing geezer/ette was there, and we were thankful. I tell you, it was more fun to be depressed on holidays back then. Now with homefulness comes the responsibility of being cheerful, or at least pretending. Long live the homeless waif society: an Italian American, a Jewish American and a Libyan American, united by the determination to overcome holiday depression and actually succeeding, (only) in Pittsburgh, USA.