Love

The yield from a pomegranate is not really worth the effort it requires, but when I was growing up, my mother would peel the pomegranate and put the seeds in a bowl for me to eat. We ate a lot of pomegranates at my house and my mother's fingers were often black. When we go home, my mother still does it. We roll out a big white sofreh (cloth) in the living room and my mom peels pomegranates and we eat them. I have joked with my mom several times that when my kids want pomegranate, I will hand them a knife and a bib.



Not so. Cyra wanted one and I happily peeled one for her and when she was done I asked her if she wanted more. Love is peeling a pomegranate.









(Jared didn't get one because he was on the couch trying to read really fast and finish my book before I did. Love is competitive reading?)

Oh, and don't mind the hair in the pictures. Jared got out the bones (what Cyra calls rubber bands and bows) and did their hair. Love is sitting still while your dad puts a "Who" ponytail on the top of your head even though you would rather be destroying something.

D.C. for N.Y.C.?

Jared and I went on a secret mission. Our security personnelle took some of these pictures.


Lunch in Dupont


Beautiful fall leaves


Where we stayed.

Just kidding, but D.C. is so beautiful this time of year and if any of our friends that live in DC would like to do a house swap with us during the inauguration, please let me know.

The Princess and the fading childhood

My daughter wanted to be a princess for halloween. Any normal mommy and daddy would have just sucked it up, taken her to the halloween store and gotten her a nice princess outfit.

But not us. First, her dad tried to convince her to be a soccer princess for the ward party:


Then for her school, I dressed her up as a Persian princess:




She came home from school and said: Mom, I don't want to be a Persian princess. I want to be a pretty princess (Emphasis on the pretty).

So, when it was time to go trick-or-treating, Jared and I had to suck up our paternalistic gender consciousness and just let the girl be a pretty princess:



And we went Trick-or-treating in Harlem (specifically Astor row and Striver's row--we're not messing around):







And totally scored! I don't know if you can tell by the pictures, but these wonderful people who clearly understand the true spirit of Halloween are giving out full goody bags of candy.



Trick-or-treating at the bodega.

And then, this random man who was just walking on the street put some candy in Cyra's bucket:





And then as we were just walking along, this man stopped us and said he liked Cyra's princess outfit and gave her a DOLLAR BILL!!! I am telling you. Harlem knows how to do Halloween.



Hediyeh with the pretty princess.



I am the Dow. I didn't dress up for trick-or-treating. We went to a nice party at our friend's Marci and Dan's house afterwards. I was in the shower and had the genius idea of being the Dow for Halloween. I would dress all in red, etc. I was giddy making my costume thinking that I was the biggest genius who ever lived for having thought up such an ingenious idea. I show up to the party (of about 20 people) and there was another Dow! Maybe someone told him about my idea?.... Stanton Jones is my new nemesis.



And Lucia was a skunk for three reasons: 1. She cannot speak so she couldn't protest; 2. Rebecca was nice enough to lend us a hand-me-down skunk costume and 3. She actually stinks. My beloved Lucia is one of the sweatiest sleepers in the world. She lives in my closet and when I open the door in the morning a waft of pungent baby sweat odor sweeps across the room. It makes my eyes water and wakes Jared up if he's not already (I write in superlative, but only to make a truthful point).



When Cyra saw Lucia's costume, she suggested that we put her on the road. (In San Francisco, we saw a dead skunk in the road and we told Cyra that he was just hanging out there).

I let the kids stay up and watch.

That is the true genius of America, a faith -- a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles.--Barack Obama, 2004.



About 4 years ago, Jared and I stumbled upon a debate on CSPAN between Alan Keyes and Barack Obama for the Illinois state senate seat. We both stopped what we were doing and just watched as Barack Obama restored our faith in politics. A short time later, we watched Obama give the keynote address at the DNC and as most people who watched, felt inspired and hopeful. Shortly after that, I read his first book (and then his second) and became convinced that this man needed to run our country at some point. Not just because Obama was a great speaker and writer or because he was a Black man, but because these speeches and writings gave me a glimpse into his character and I really liked what I saw. I have never felt such personal fondness for a leader (I also like his policies). I was elated when he announced that he was running for president and we have been trying to help the campaign ever since. I still cannot believe what happened last night.

I hope that he will be a president that we all respect and that he will be able to bring the country together as he has promised. I know a lot of my friends and family are disappointed that Obama won, but I ask that you give him a chance and I hope that he will gain your trust.

Sorry to go into politics on my trivial blog, but I just can't help it today. For those of you who are mad at me right now, I ask you to just look at this picture and try to be mad at the mother of this: