”Estas son las mañanitas” is the song the elders in my family sing to us youngins on our birthday. Hear it: Learn about the song and read the translation: http://gomexico.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/mananitas.htm Not quite sure why this Mexican birthday song is a tradition in our American-Dominican-Turkish-Jewish-Puerto Rican-Venezuelan-and-who-knows-what-else family but it is! Interestingly, the song is said to… Continue reading Happy Birthday to Me!!!!
On Shabbos, someone tried to sing “Happy Birthday” and someone else switched to the Hebrew version and last but not least, the Spanish version: Feliz Cumpleaños! But none of those were right. Where were my great-grandmother Abuela and my grandmother who I still call Mami there to sing this for me? Here is the song… Continue reading Back by popular demand
Yesterday, I turned 30 years old. Thanks to the fan who donated $25. She didn’t even know it was my birthday but it was the perfect present! Of course, now that I’m 30, I will be telling people I’m 25. Until I’m 40. Anyway, now that I am 30, I look back on how far… Continue reading I’m 30!
I miss Friday night movie openings. I really do. Right now, I want to be gearing up to watch “New Moon” but alas, I have to wait until Saturday evening (at least Shabbat ends early this time of year) to beg my husband to go with me. (Yeah, I also miss when I went to… Continue reading Werewolves, Vampires, Teenagers…oh my!
OMG, I’m, like, 29. That’s like almost 30! Here is the song my family sings along with “Happy Birthday” or rather “Feliz Cumpleaños.” It’s called “Estas son las Mañanitas.” Las Mañanitas Lyrics: Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David,Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti,Despierta, mi bien, despierta,… Continue reading Happy Birthday to me!
My great-grandmother turns 97 next month. Pretty amazing. Hopefully, it’s an indication that I have a long life ahead of me. And that’s a good thing. Living into my 90s will give me plenty of time to play catch up. Plenty of time to learn Hebrew (especially considering I keep dropping out of all my… Continue reading On my 90th birthday
Getting snood-y. Today even the Rastafarian beret failed me. I threw it on over my head to join my husband for his birthday dinner and well, it hurt. A lot. I figured, I hoped, it would get better but by the end of the meal, I was cowering in my corner with pain. That was… Continue reading Head Case: Update on My Head Covering Woes
(Ah, the little headband/hair scarf. Works sort of like a thong but for my head.) “You’re a hypocrite,” he said but he didn’t use those words exactly. He tried to be polite about it even though it was obvious from his tone that every single hair on my head had offended his sensibilities. How could… Continue reading The Many Stages of Getting Pissed
Here’s a rough draft of a cultural criticism essay assignment for one of my writing classes. No one talks about what Sammy Davis Jr. contributed to Jewish culture. Nor do they talk about what the newly converted Isla Fisher, star of the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” film and baby mama to Sacha Baron Cohen, is… Continue reading Rough Draft: Beyond Sammy
Todays’s Jewish Treats on grandparents got me thinking about mine. Mis abuelos, my grandparents, never had a chance to spoil me. Because of a family schism, I didn’t see my father’s mother before she died. And I have only one faded, threadbare memory of her. I thought it was a recurring dream but my mother… Continue reading The Book of Our Heritage: Mis Abuelos and Abuelas
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 