ABSILVER's World

I have been accused of late, that my blog has become introspective. Yes, there are times in my life that I look inside for a moment or two of looking at my life and the future.   Should I consider a new career?  Should I be thinking about where I live?  What would life be like if after 30 years I moved back to Savannah?  What is it really like to work at Starbucks? These are things and actions I think about, not as much because I like looking backwards but frankly because they build the building blocks in my mind for the future.  So, I sit here and yes I contemplate and analyze my life at times a little too much but more because I am looking forward than backwards. Yes, I know it is throwback Thursdays and time to post that quirky picture of my childhood or of a moment that happened before today and they are all quite cute and funny from others.  But, I don't want to throwback to another day before today. See, I actually don't do well looking back ...

As I sit on a train headed home from Savannah, my first home town, for the last few days I have a feeling of destiny, connections, and wonderment.  (All non-Starbucks pics are of Savannah, so pretty in the spring!) I realized this week, as much as my roots are in Savannah, my home town is Fort Lauderdale.  This came to me among two Starbucks, maybe four actually.  The first two are in Savannah, one is near my folks, near the synagogue I grew up.  They all serve the same coffee, maybe one is a little hotter than another but basically the offerings are the same. At the one near my folks, I met a friend from college Judy Hirsh.  We were at UGA together and she was a sweetheart for AEPi while dating her future husband from TEP.  I still am amazed at how well she navigated that world between two rivals.  It was great to catch up and hear the wonderment of her children, her efforts for Susan Komen and the Rambam Day School, and ...

Random Thoughts: My lack of admiration for Gwinneth Paltro grows daily!   Her belief that we all want to follow her sense of style.  That her life is so much more difficult than most women trying to raise her kids while on a movie set makes me think how out of touch can one person be?  She ranks up there with people I care about almost as much as the Kardashians. These stars who complain about the paparazzi and their lack of privacy, but then create a web site of "their style" and use it to announce their relationship status need to realize we of the "average" lifestyle learn to care a little less every day.  At least I do, and frankly makes all her pretentious acting look less like real acting doesn't it? I think the her need for admiration and attention is actually a little sad.  Honest, I am glad for their success and worry just about as much about them on a daily basis as the billionaire's who worry about their safety due to income equalit...

Harry was telling me he is getting ready for Luci and a spring snow storm in New Jersey.  Luci is coming home from her winter wonderlands of Florida and North Carolina and Harry is creating a warm home for them to return to in New Jersey. Snow is an interesting thing in my life.  Growing up in Savannah it was a very rare occurrence.  Snow on occasion would bring my home town to a halt.  We had a fireplace in the living room, and we tried as hard as we could to enjoy being in the house for a few days as a family together.  Truth be told, we Silvermans are quite the independent lot and as soon as it was safe to exit the house we scattered.  There was no internet, no VCR, and I don't remember thinking to read a book.  I can also remember one snowstorm actually building a snowman in the morning and being in shorts by the afternoon. Next snow memory was at UGA.  The first snow storm every one assumed classes would be cancelled.  They got cance...

It is a rainy day in Fort Lauderdale.  Which means for me no walk on the beach.  Which means time for laundry.  Which means time for contemplation. I sit here on the verge of spring.  My springs are not noted as many of yours by the change in weather as much as a change of people, although our springs and summers are generally wetter than falls and winters.  It isn't noted by melting snow, green leaves showing up on branches or that pesky yellow flower that will rise above the chill in the air to remind everyone that mother nature is calling for the wakening of spring in the northern hemisphere. No, my spring is first noted by a migration similar to that of birds.  As the weather warms those birds start to migrate north.  My birds are snowbirds.  Some are only here sporadically through the winter.  Some are here for the duration focused on their lives here away from their normal day to day habitat of work and life. I must confess as ...

It was 2am... and my life was changing. I have written some about being in the AEPi Fraternity at GA.  My catalyst to join was being hated, and also being bullied in my first year at Mercer University and then at GA because I was Jewish.  I only start to think what my life would have been like at GA that first year if I had been out as well in 1983.  I remember clearly the day of walking into the dorm with my brother.  I don't think Mom and Dad took me, and I had had a rough few days which will be another post some day. I remember meeting friends from high school, one in particular Sangeeta Chandra.  There was a place across from the dorm that served chicken fingers, spuds and they came with a pickle.  They must have been ok, but the pickle rings true.  She said to me, you don't have to introduce yourself to everyone as a Jewish person.  That doesn't define who you are, but damn if it didn't define me to those on the 10th floor.  They wer...

I must weigh in more on the Arizona and now GA bills that will allow, based on religion, people to discriminate against others.  From what I have seen this bill does doesn't limit this to the LGBT community (not that would make it right!).  I read the bill (three times) and (  link is here)    basically it says if you can prove that it is against your religion to do something and are sincere you don't have to follow governmental regulations. This is being publicized as an anti-gay measure, but it truly allows any business or person to not serve a customer based on their religious beliefs.  So, a Christian store owner could deny a Jewish or Muslim customer entry to their store or visa verse. People decide who to be around.  Businesses decide who to target for their marketing and sales activities.  The issue here is not what they personally believe, either the business or the customer, but should a government in this country pass a law that san...