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Laura
Southern Florida
My hair's still curly and I love being a mother, a daughter, a friend, and a pet-sitter! I seek time alone to read and ponder how to make this world a better place for us all.
Recent Activity
Jewish Women Are Lionesses, Not Material for Mockery and Easy Jokes
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Jewish mothers are rising and we are lionesses! We’re done being mocked for loving our families too fiercely. There can be no “too” much love, as there can never be enough kugel or rugelach (two tasty signs of that love).... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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October 7 Broke My Heart: Sharing My Words and Feelings at this Devastating Time
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Cafe life in Tel Aviv in better times Last week was my younger daughter’s birthday. She turned 28. She and her boyfriend went to a restaurant near their home for dinner, then to a bakery for birthday cake to complete... Continue reading
Posted Oct 21, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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On Reading in Retirement: The Lesson of Too Much of a Good Thing
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I thought I learned a lesson about retirement when I visited my grandparents in Miami Beach when it was still a retirement haven, long before it became the hip place to party. By the shuffleboard court (with nary a pickleball... Continue reading
Posted Sep 14, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Rosh Hashanah Gifts for My Daughters: A Delicate Balance
Thinking about the upcoming Jewish High Holidays and my triannual conundrum of gift-giving and holiday reminding to my daughters, I wrote my latest post, "Rosh Hashanah Gifts for My Daughters: A Delicate Balance." You can read it at The Times... Continue reading
Posted Sep 5, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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The Use of Regrets; Or, Appreciating Conversations with Friends
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Stormy waters at Ocean Reef Park After a few wide-ranging conversations with friends recently, it’s clear that each person has their own issues to deal with. We have empathy for each other, as well as opinions (stated or implied) about... Continue reading
Posted Aug 22, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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The Aging Body—Not Mine, Yet
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My private pool at one house where I dogsit. A comedy skit of old women going out to eat wouldn’t be as funny and poignant as my mother and her friend, Ann, getting out of and then back into my... Continue reading
Posted Aug 18, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Dogsitting and the Perils of Temporary Love
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One dogsitting neighborhood had a flock of peacocks wandering around and in the trees Jerry, a laidback chunky Beagle mix, one of my oldest and favorite clients, died last week. I cried when I read his owner’s text. When I... Continue reading
Posted Aug 9, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Redneck Man & City Woman Talking: Seeing Across the Red-Blue Divide in Conversation
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Sunset in Snoqualmie, Washington (author's pic) When the people who had already boarded the plane (they had seemed so lucky a few minutes ago, already sitting and with their luggage in the overhead bin long before those of us in... Continue reading
Posted Jul 24, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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My Latest Post at The Times of Israel
My latest post at The Times of Israel has just been published. Please go there and read, "My Failed Aliyah: Back in the States, But Where Is My Heart?" In this piece I talk about my initial aliyah journey to... Continue reading
Posted Jul 23, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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“This Thing,” Or Thinking about Death and Getting Older
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Mt. Charleston, Nevada “I’m bothered about this thing with Sandy,” my mother said. “You mean that she died? You can say that she died,” I responded, a little harshly. The “thing with Sandy” was not just her discomfort with the... Continue reading
Posted Jun 23, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Conversations with Friends About Our Parents and the Stages of Deterioration, Our Bodies, and Our Children’s Lives
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Tropical and desert plants living side-by-side in Lake Worth Beach Conversations with friends lately have invariably steered, at some point, to our parents. For most of us, it’s our mothers and mothers-in-law, though for some it’s concern for both parents,... Continue reading
Posted May 26, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Not Having a Room of My Own
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Hoping to dogsit here one day I’m back dogsitting for Jerry, my best customer. I watch him for about a week every couple of months. His house now feels almost as uncomfortable as my mother’s apartment: neither place is mine,... Continue reading
Posted May 25, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Talking My Way Through a Food Tour
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Art Deco building Last week I went on a food and Art Deco tour in South Beach, Miami Beach, which was part of acting on my decision to “travel” where I live. The tour met my travel needs of learning... Continue reading
Posted May 5, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Aging Is So Much Fun!
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South Beach in Miami Beach My 89-year-old mother is at the time in her life when she has enough pills to take that she needs a pill organizer. Of course, organizing the pill organizer requires remembering what she needs to... Continue reading
Posted Apr 27, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Making a Single Lady, Netflix Watching Bowl
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Improvement has been made, but still a long way to go In this week’s pottery class, we learned how to make bowls. As the instructor demonstrated pulling the thick walls and developing the shape, we talked about size. Up until... Continue reading
Posted Apr 4, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Happy Hour Conversations: Making Connections
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Lunch for one along the New River, Ft. Lauderdale It was one of those events at which you don’t think you’ll see the people again, so you talk freely or question others with abandon. Somehow, in my desire to use... Continue reading
Posted Apr 3, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Retirement Hobby: Pottery with Purpose
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Were they supposed to be bowls? Throw clay on a wheel—whatever that meant—I wanted to do it! Shape clay with wet, slick hands. Go beyond painting-on-pottery that I did when my daughters were young. I wanted to create something that... Continue reading
Posted Mar 26, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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No Bucket List for Me: But Still Places to Be
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Street about 20 minutes from home I don’t have a bucket list. That phrase doesn’t make sense to me: how can a bucket be a list? Anything related to a bucket would be chaotic, a mess, a blob, a pile,... Continue reading
Posted Mar 22, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Single Women and Their Blood Pressure
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Flamingo Park, West Palm Beach In the latest edition of—whether you want it or not, you’re getting it—the AARP magazine—I read the article, “8 Habits That Are Raising Your Blood Pressure,” which got mine up from reading it, when I... Continue reading
Posted Mar 8, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Retirement Phase 2.0: My Mother’s Keeper
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It’s retirement 2.0 for me! The change from 1.0 is not because I’ve relocated to a Caribbean Island with—or without—a lover. Nor is it because I’ve become a babysitting grandmother, correcting mistakes that I made with my daughters. Nor is... Continue reading
Posted Mar 5, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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My Friends’ Husbands
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Dogs and Cats Walkway Sculpture Garden, Maurice A. Ferré Park, Miami My friends have nice husbands. That observation came about when a friend’s husband briefly chatted with me as I started a zoom call with his wife. Later that same... Continue reading
Posted Feb 7, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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Retired Women Don’t Like Clothes
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Lake Worth Beach Parrots It turns out that retired women don’t like clothes. Okay, maybe not clothes altogether. I don’t think that they’re turning clothing-optional, but the process of having to dress to head outside and, you know, interact with... Continue reading
Posted Jan 18, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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The Ways I Define Myself
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Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas During the holidays, I travelled out West to visit my daughters. (Thankfully, I was neither delayed by storms nor technical meltdowns, and my luggage stayed with me, though it was tight in some bathroom stalls.)... Continue reading
Posted Jan 16, 2023 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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New Blog Post: The Retirement to Florida Cycle
My latest piece, The Retirement to Florida Cycle, has just been published at the Times of Israel. Thanks for reading! Continue reading
Posted Dec 23, 2022 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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New Blogging Opportunity
I'm excited to announce that I now have a blog at the Times of Israel. Some of my writing will be posted there (depending on the topic), rather than here. When that happens, I will post a link here. Here's... Continue reading
Posted Dec 14, 2022 at Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman
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