Category Archives: Time to Cry Tuesdays

March 21, 2011 · 9:23 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Laughing Baby or Tragic Toddler

Not a tough choice, right?

This morning I logged onto facebook and found this link to the most adorable baby laughing.

How can you not smile when you see something like this? I shared it with Gary. And then I shared another one I had seen last week that was similarly charming. We smiled, laughed a little and said, hey this is not a bad way to start a rainy monday.

And then the damn morning news spewed its usual horror stories, one in which a toddler was left in the hospital in critical condition. Sandwiched in between tsunami/earthquake/irradiated spinach/air strikes… yadayad-bad news-yada.

Talk about a buzz kill.

That is when I turned to Gary and said, “We can choose to start our day with the laughing baby or the tragic toddler.” These 2 videos currently have over 7 million and 12 million hits. I am thinking perhaps if more of us started our day with the laughing babies we would probably be a lot healthier.

I am not saying that we should not empathize or be outraged by the tragic toddlers… but maybe if more people unwrapped their day with a little more joy and a lot less tragedy we would be a hell of a lot better off.

Just saying.

3 Comments

Filed under Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , , ,

March 14, 2011 · 10:29 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Just Kids

I don’t usually do book reviews here at Time to Cry, but this one I could not resist. I just finished reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids and it left an indelible mark on me. A promise made to a soul mate on the day before he died to write their story makes this all the more poignant.

Not because I am a fan of Patti Smith (although I am) or of Robert Mapplethorpe (I am(ish) with a caveat that some of his work is just way too graphic for me). But because this is the story of two of people who were their art. And simply because this is one of the truly great love stories. Not just of romance, but of  two people who were inextricably linked. The story of young artists feeding each other’s souls in a way that is almost difficult to understand. In many ways they were but one soul. Their relationship started as a romantic one and transcended Mapplethorpe’s coming out.

With NYC of the late 60s and early 70s as it’s backdrop, Smith has woven their story almost as if it were poetry.

As with any biographical account, I am sure the omissions where plenty and the story romanticized a bit, but the net of it all is that these two people were so incredibly connected. In many ways, one completed the other. They reveled in each other’s fame and suffered from each other’s failures. Their sense of responsibility to one another was inspiring.

If you create, this will give you chills. If you don’t, it gives you insight into the minds and hearts of those who do. And if you have ever loved deeply, this will give you a good old fashioned Time to Cry at the end.

4 Comments

Filed under art, book review, friendship, photography, Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , ,

March 1, 2011 · 12:27 am

Time to Cry Tuesday – MyCeliac Friend

Sometimes tough things happen to little people. Things that make them ask, ‘Why me?’ Things they feel they will never be able to overcome.

And then there is ‘The Reason.’

I have had the pleasure of mentoring a charming young blogger who has been dealt the difficult hand of living with Celiac. If you are unfamiliar, those who suffer from this illness need to live a Gluten-Free life.

According to Celiac.com Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects at least 1 in 133  Americans. There are a host of complications that I will leave you to explore if you wish.

But what I am here to tell you about is not how sad it is that she has this illness, but how she has learned to LIVE with it – and to take it one step further. How she found her voice, took the hardest thing in her life and committed to helping other teens feel a little less alone in their struggle.

The daily complications of navigating adolescence is hard enough, trying to do so with such strict dietary restrictions takes it to a whole new level. When her mom came to me I totally related as I had suffered from severe food allergies as a teen and could not eat wheat or chocolate. This was back in the day where specialty foods where unheard of (you know, because I am old). I remember the way it felt when everyone was eating pizza and soft pretzels, chocolate shakes and pasta and I was sitting with my little plastic cup of sliced turkey and carrot sticks. Yeh, I was really pretty cool at the cafeteria table. But I dealt.

And so is she. After surfing the blogosphere with her mom, they found that there were no blogs written by teens living a gluten-free life. She thought that it would be a great idea to connect with the teen Celiac community, and maybe even help them cope with tips, recipes and basically a place to go where other people understood.

Take a jump over to her blog, myceliac, a teenager’s gluten-free life. I guarantee you will be inspired.

Glass half full, at its finest.

 

3 Comments

Filed under Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 21, 2011 · 10:03 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Laughter and Alchohol

Sometimes that is all you need to knock out what ails you. Seriously, 10 days of antibiotics, countless cups of tea and honey, more bowls of chicken soup than I care to think about and I still was not feeling like myself.

It would appear that all I really needed was one night with my 3 girls – the ones who have known me since 6th grade. The same ones who can say one word and set off the kind of laughter that makes my face ache and my sides feel as if they will explode… in a really good way.

Add a few glasses of wine and a crisp morning walk the next day to chase away the time-release hangover. Halfway home from that walk one of them said to me, “you are SO not sick anymore”. And she was right.

Life is hard. Shit happens. Things don’t always go as planned. Illness lingers and stress is ever-present.

So what!

A little fun on the rocks is all any of us truly needs to counter the demons.

Thank you to my O’side girls; who know everything there is to know about me and love me anyway. Who let me lie in their beds and facebook stalk with me on the iPad, laughing until we cry. Who share their clothes, let me eat off their plates, play practical jokes with me and even ‘break’ a guest or two. (hey, every once in a while someone has to be sacrificed for the good of the joke – it’s harmless).

Feeling very fortunate indeed.


 

1 Comment

Filed under friendship, Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , ,

February 14, 2011 · 11:56 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Valentine’s Day

Danny at 8 years-old, maybe

Scene: Sitting in a client meeting in the middle of an extremely busy (out of the basement) day.

Phone rings.

Quick glance and my son’s number comes up. I excuse myself for a moment and explain I am concerned as he rarely calls. Texts, sure, but call… this could be serious.

Me: Hey man, everything ok?

Danny: Yeh, sure.

Me: Wassup.

Danny: Just called to say Happy Valentine’s Day.

Time to Cry Tuesday… enough said.

7 Comments

Filed under danny, Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , , , ,

February 7, 2011 · 11:16 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – A Hint of Spring

If you live in the northeast, you felt it over the past few days. That ice-glazed mountain of snow you call your yard shrunk down a few inches. Perhaps your gutters came crashing down as the ice dams that formed in them melted. You opened your coat, took off your gloves, gave the snow shovel the finger and smiled when you went outside for the first time in weeks.

You believed in that groundhog, dammit… this winter WILL end soon!

Let’s not get a false sense of security here. We will shift back into the frigid temps before the end of the week. But perhaps we should take a look at this little snow reprieve as a sign that we need to adjust our attitudes about this winter.

It will end. We WILL see our lawns again. The dogs will be able to relieve themselves in places other than the doody lanes that we have shoveled for them. We will garden, and picnic and yes we will actually feel sand between our toes.

And hey, before you know it we will be bitching about the steamy hot summer again.

 

2 Comments

Filed under humor, Time to Cry Tuesdays, weather

Tagged as , , , ,

January 31, 2011 · 11:58 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Snow Fatigue and the Baby Monkey

Are you suffering from Snow Fatigue? Or perhaps PTSFS (Post Traumatic Snow Fatigue Syndrome). Then again, how can we reach the post- traumatic phase when the damn snow keeps falling? Enough already, right?

This morning I was listening to another weather report warning me of yet more accumulation – this time with the added treat of ice on top of all the snow. Just at the moment that I thought I would surely scream, my son sent me an instant message with a link. It simply said, “My friend showed me this. I knew you would love it.”

Now, there is really nothing on earth better than a kid that knows you so well he can imagine you sitting at your desk cracking up at a ridiculous video. It was as if he could feel my weather disgust halfway across the country and knew just when to send out some relief. Funny thing about having a stupid sense of humor… I am pretty sure it is genetic.

So, my poor frozen Northeast friends, here is some relief – Danny style, to chase those blues away. And for those who are in more temperate climates, you will just love this for no other reason than it is so endearing. Warning: you will be singing this song for the better part of the day.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under absurdities, danny, humor, Time to Cry Tuesdays, weather

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 17, 2011 · 11:49 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Disorder in the House

This Time to Cry Tuesday has a little something for everyone. If you are a sentimental parent type, it has that poignant touch. If you are someone who could live without the family gushing (cough, cough… Dr. Jimmy) but you are a fan of good music, watch the great video of Warren Zevon and Bruce Springsteen at the top of this post. If you are both (that would be you Uncle Neal) then you will relate on all levels.

This Zevon song has always been a favorite, and although the premise is a little off topic the title is perfect. (oh and I love the line about even the lhasa apso being embarrassed – isn’t that a duplication of terms? I mean are they not the embodiment of embarrassment unto themselves?)

This Tuesday finds my kids back at school and my house a little quieter than I would like. As any parent of a college kid will tell you, they blow back into the house and everything goes back to family hyper drive as soon as they arrive. For most parents, as thrilled as we are to get the family back together, it takes a few days to get used to the…

disorder in the house.

And then we realize how very much we missed it all; the friends, the food, the late nights and even later sleeping habits, the messy rooms and the general lived in feeling the house gets when they are home. The desire to keep the house ‘picked up’ and everything in order soon dissipates for me as soon as I realize that a clean room and an orderly house means only one thing… no one lives there.

So as I walk passed the now recently vacuumed orderly bedrooms of my kids I can think only one thing…

damn i wish there was crap all over the floor in there with the blinds drawn and the countless empty water bottles and equally abundant amount of carmex tubes lying around.

yeh, i pretty much miss the disorder in the house.

 

5 Comments

Filed under college, dr. jimmy, family, Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , ,

January 11, 2011 · 12:48 am

Time to Cry Tuesday – ‘That’ dream

You know ‘that’ dream. The one you have when you are a little stressed out. When you are probably more anxious than you care to admit and it needs to go somewhere.

And there it is, in the middle of some really good REM you find yourself going down that rabbit hole to the land of no return. Somewhere in the back of your mind you know you are dreaming but it still gets you every time anyway.

Mine is the classic, late for class, didn’t study for the test and have no idea whatsoever where the hell the classroom is. And it is in the middle of the semester. AND, I am in High School, no less.

I had this dream last night. The added twist this time was that my daughter was in my class but she did not wait for me. I had no idea what classroom it was in, nor did I remember what my schedule was. I found my way to the office where my friend Rona was working and she typed out my schedule for me on my iPad (she can be sweet that way). Then I ran into an actual friend from HS and she acted like this was all very normal.

Ok, seriously, I am 51. I don’t even have any KIDS left in High School. Don’t you think it’s time I upgrade the anxiety dream?!

6 Comments

Filed under Time to Cry Tuesdays, Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

January 3, 2011 · 10:33 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – 1.3.11=0 to 60

If you were as lucky as I,  you were able to take it easy for the past couple of weeks. I was not officially on vacation, but I did take advantage of both the holidays and Snowmageddon ’10 to slow it all down and lose the frenzied pace.

My kids were home, there were many friends to celebrate with and we saw a bunch of movies and simply just hung around. We started a jigsaw puzzle, I became obsessed with Scrabble and Words With Friends apps (both of which I royally suck at and don’t care) and I even did a little office cleaning and organizing.

It was lovely.

And then I got hit with the ton of all bricks Monday. It was if the business world awoke from its hibernation and was mighty hungry. Somewhere around 3:00 I had a mad craving to finish the top left corner of that puzzle and new I could not leave my desk. (so sad)

Hard to switch gears.

But there is something nice about getting back into the routine and being what you are. Certainly not as nice as a bloody mary at 11 am, but still – it has its merits.

How did you guys do on your first day back?

 

3 Comments

Filed under Time to Cry Tuesdays

Tagged as , , ,