September 29, 2011

• A Jewish New Year

  It's a rainy dreary day, a day off from work. I knew it was going to rain, I like it. I planned a nice relaxing indoor rainy television holiday for Rosh Hashana.

  Growing up in California we did not have these holidays nor the awareness of them.

  I meant to set candles out on all the window ledges last night at sunset but as soon as I got home I lay down for a second and had one of those "death sleeps" where you just go black deeply and wake up stunned at 8:30 PM and it is already fully dark...

  I am not Jewish, but I celebrate all holidays.

  It's a nice dark morning, I hope it rains all day long. Sometimes I love rainy days.

  I wonder if it is that the sunshine might tempt me to go out.

  I planned this but now I feel a bit overwhelmed, the place is cluttered and a mess and I don't know where to start.

  Should I put on a light and start picking up? Should I plop down and put on a movie? Should I go out for breakfast?
  Should I do chores, pay bills, attend my accounting and get it done and out of the way?

  Should I do a yoga session? I have yoga DVDs and sometimes I do yoga... I should do it everyday.

  I have more coffee in the pot, I'm printing out the Times Crossword and taking the next hour to relax. I got up extra early. If I get tired again I will nap.

  I love these 'blank' days. The next one is Columbus day!

  I dreamed last night, a long convoluted dream but no details...

  If I think about it, I feel a bit frustrated.

  It seems a time of transition, a cycle... going through a cycle...

  I'll ride it out.... riding the cycle...

  I just love these Victoria Thompson Gaslight Mysterys, they put you right there in the late 1800s Manhattan! They are fast and easy reads but disappointingly short! This is the 13th and now I'm gonna have to wait a whole nother year for the 14th, I"ll be finished with the book today...

  I have a feeling that one day these will be a movie or a series.

  There is one Protagonist, she is a doctor's widow and has chosen to be a midwife and betray her high society upbringing and parents.

  She just happens to get involved in helping solve murders with a Stg. Frank Malloy, an Irish Police officer, the lowest of low according to Society in Gaslight Manhattan and you can tell, although her skirts are thick, they are hot for each other. The writing is smooth and detailed and takes you right into life in Manhattan in that time.

  Since she is a midwife she gets into the cracks and crannies of the Lower East Side, now, after delivering a prostitute's baby unknowingly in a brothel ( shocking, to say the least ) she is involved in the murder of a woman who had a rescue house for prostitutes....

  This is during a time when ladies swoon and people actually die of "Apoplexy" the catch phrase for any type of natural death that was unexplained and people were superstitious. Ladies could die from a good shock, the rules of society are followed by the high class and the low class are as low as they are today!

  Living in New York City in the late 1800s was really not pretty and an awful experience for a lot of people....

  It talks a lot about the politics of the city at this time and the corruption and bribery too. You had to pay the police to solve a murder and homeless people roamed the streets. Bored society ladies set up settlement houses and helped the poor while their husbands all had mistresses which they knew about...

  There is a lot of room for drama and foul play.

  They are a very quick and easy read too.

  Do you get the day off?

  Are you aware of Rosh Hashana in your region of the world?

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  • 7:17 am
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