Norwitz Notions

I’ve hosted a Passover seder at my home every year for the last 20 or so (except for the year my mother died the night before Passover 1996 and the following year, the first with Michael, when Michael and I both had the flu).  Each one has a different mix of people, cultures, familiarity with […]

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Multiple chemical sensitivity is a lovely disease. With a lot of other disabilities, the issue of access is simply that: getting in. With MCS, it’s all about survival. Like anyone else who doesn’t remain homebound, I get whammed once in a while. Depending on what the chemical is, I’m usually okay after a few minutes […]

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Why I don’t get enough sleep. This is what happens when I get up in the wee hours to use the bathroom…

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So, Miriam and I are at Whole Foods shopping for supplies for her birthday party (3 years old!) and we stopped at a display with cut and wrapped pieces of watermelon, one of her favorite fruits. I asked her if she wanted some for her birthday party. She turned to me and asked: “Is it […]

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I don’t know who was more excited: the birthday girl or her mom. Miriam is turning 3 on February 26th and I wanted to get her something special. She’s been planning her birthday party for nearly a year now and, whenever we ask her what she wants (either for the party itself or for her […]

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For dinner tonight I made a simple but elegant meal. Each item wasn’t hard to make, though having four of them took more time. The details make a difference too. Nicer plates, eating at the dining room table (something we should do every night, but don’t), using wine glasses. Miriam and I went to Whole […]

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This is a follow up to Part I from Dec, 2007. We got this bed frame for free from Freecycle and it was a mess. Massive scrubbing ensued. Then we varnished, but the coat done in the late afternoon bubbled due to the cold. It took nearly two months before we had a warm sunny […]

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At two years and ten months (she’ll tell you her age upon request), Miriam knows pretty much all her letters but isn’t actually reading or writing yet. She can’t sound anything out. The one word she knows though is “off” (“O F F spells ‘off’!”). Because it’s a button on our phone. She can on […]

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Written Dec 12: I got a wooden bed frame with drawers from Freecycle December 9 to use for Miriam. It is quite old and solid wood with some plywood. It was pretty filthy, since it was sitting in a walled-in porch for years. I spent a couple hours yesterday scrubbing it all down. When it […]

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