I'm leaving on a jet plane

But I'll be back next week--- yeeeeehaw! It's off to Texas-- home of shopping, the Riverwalk and of course the Alamo.

I bid you all ado because I am insanely superstitious and believe that if I don't say my goodbyes then the plane will surely go down. And so, I will be up most of the night writing "see you soon. I love you" letters to all the members of my family.

I'm like this with shoes too. My husband and I were in New Orleans two days before Katrina, and I am sad to say I forced my husband to spend the day looking for shoes (hey, a girl needs a good pair of shoes).

Anyway, I found them. Loved them--- until I heard the price. My husband begged me "Please, buy the shoes."I'm sure he envisioned more hours of shoe shopping in the blasted humidity. But I refused. I'm not paying ***** for a pair of shoes. Hours later,I settled on a lesser pair.

And then, New Orleans was drenched. I'm sure the shoes were too--- and all because I was cheap. I swear that was the reason. Now whenever I find the perfect shoe, I don't even ask, I just hand over the card (we can't risk another natural disaster on my account).

On a lighter note--- Spanish is DONE. I am SO incredibly happy not to have to hablar anymore (unless I want to hablo because we all hablamos).

Although I do wish I had a friend who would habla with me in Texas because it would be fun to talk in Spanish around Anglos who don't understand a word we say. Now I know how the maid across the street must have felt --- man the power-- I'd feel like such a spy. My mother says these types of desires are completely rude because I really shouldn't talk in a foreign language that no one else in the house speaks. And so, as soon as I get off the airplane, I'm looking for someone who speaks Spanish so we can hablamos.

Well, I will hablo some more from the Lone Star state, but in case I don't--- I just want to wish all my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah.

See you all soon-- and maybe I'll even have some new shoes. Hasta Luego!