Mothers’ Day Cake crop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well that’s what they call it in England and other parts of Europe and they’ve been celebrating the holiday since the 16th Century!
Our own American Mother’s Day is fairly recent. In 1912, a woman named Anna Jarvis from Grafton, West Virginia declared the first Mother’s Day in the United States.
Well here it is, Mother’s Day 2012 and it’s just after 2pm. I haven’t heard from my daughter yet or my grandchildren (who would be part of my daughter’s phone call). I was going to be included in some Mother’s Day event being organized by my son-in-law but I had to be out of state today. The phone just rang and guess who called? Chiara and Finley! It was very sweet to hear Happy Mother’s Day from both of them! However after a few sentences, Finley pushed the mute button and that was it for Gigi! S0 five minutes later my son-in-law called back to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day too.
The day started off nicely…I had no desire to go out for breakfast, so I made eggs for Peter and I and while I was cooking, my second cousin who is slightly older than my own daughter called to tell me how much she loved me. Christine is like another daughter to Peter and I and over the years has spent considerable time living and visiting with us in NYC.
I got an email from my son two days ago telling me he loved me, wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day and suggesting that we drop all these other holidays except for Christmas, Halloween and Easter. Sort of cynical, don’t you think? Well I wrote back and informed him that superfluous or not, I kind of liked this holiday so if he could, I thought it would be nice if he called.
It has been a very sunny and beautiful day here at the shore and we have been working in the yard. It is never ever finished around here. Peter mowed the lawn, washed the front of the cottage and washed the porch while I planted my window box for the front porch, transplanted a Hosta and planted some Purple Puffs which are supposed to spread.
Well of course by this paragraph, you realize that this post had been started over a week ago! Oh but I have been busy, so busy that I am either dead tired with no brain cells left to write or actually working well into the night and then going to bed. I considered just omitting this blog post, but then desired, oh why not?
The day ended on such a delightful note – we joined our friend Alice and her daughter Heather for an early dinner at The Breakers in Spring Lake. They were spending the weekend there and invited us to join them. It was very elegant and the four of laughed and chatted away for a couple of hours. My salmon was delicious and even though we all shared some tartufo…on the way home, I insisted we make an ice cream run to Day’s for my Mother’s Day fix!.
Oh the world becomes such a better place after Mother’s Day in Ocean Grove. Dave and the gang are back in town scooping up scrumptious ice cream in exotic and not so exotic but ooooohhhh so good! I had Mission Fig and Toasted Coconut.
Hope to get back in the groove of writing consistently… hang in there with me.
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Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
UNA NOCHE – It’s Only 90 Miles
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, New York Speaks, Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged Cuba, Elio, Film festival, Miami, New York, Raul, Tribeca Film Festival, United States on April 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
FREEDOM!!!
That’s what they say…. it’s only 90 miles away! FREEDOM seems so close yet it is another world and century away. I had the great joy of viewing UNA NOCHE at the Tribeca Film Festival last week.
UNA NOCHE takes us to Havana Cuba where we get an intimate glimpse into the lives of three young adults. They are poor, discouraged, desperate and oppressed. Their lives are minimal, sometimes miserable and they reveal life in Castro’s Communist Cuba, sometimes not so bad and sometimes very.
It’s the story of three teenagers who try to escape their island home and life of poverty. Actually, only one of the three yearns for freedom from oppression and he longs to reunite with his father, who left years ago and has never been heard from again. It’s Raul’s fantasy that’s the impetus of the expedition. He can’t do this on his own, so he entices Elio, his friend and obsessed admirer to take on the task of building the raft. And then there’s the very pretty Lila; She is deeply attached to her brother Elio, her own savior in a chaotic household. Her teenage angst is fueled by the scorn some cliquey classmates and the knowledge that her father is cheating on her mother.
Overall the snapshot of life in Cuba that we see, is quite dismal. The fact that it is a police state is quite evident and the dark side of Socialism, the black market flourishes. As one line in the movie states, “Nothing is for sale in Cuba and you can buy anything….”
The movie is a powerful 86 minute drama and I don’t want to be a spoiler. The film and its actors won awards at the Film Festival– well deserved!
However, it was the disappearance of the two twenty-year old actors, Javier Nunez Florian and Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, a real life couple who portray the brother and sister in the movie, that has gotten more press than the film itself. The three actors were invited to attend the Tribeca Film Festival. When their plane landed in Miami for a layover before flying to New York, the two disappeared. When the plane landed at JFK airport, it was discovered that their luggage was empty, implying this was a pre-meditated plan. Indeed it was, as now 10 days later, the two have surfaced in Miami and announced their intention to defect and have hired a lawyer to assist in their claim for asylum.
I wish them the best and hope they are successful in their desire to remain in America. I’ve been to Cuba and although life as depicted in the film is somewhat exaggerated for effect, and I understand that although things are loosening up since Fidel stepped down, it’s still basically a repressed society.
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