Hello and Welcome!!

My name is Rose Feinberg and I am 73 years young. I live in Miami Beach, Florida, by way of Flatbush, Brooklyn, and I am typing this on my very own computer, which my son Howard said I didn't need. Ha! Look at me now, Howard!

I learned how to make a home page in a class at the library, Tuesday mornings, from a very patient young man named Hector. Hector, you're a saint. You never once raised your voice, not even when I unplugged the whole row.

My Condo

I live on the ninth floor of a building on Collins Avenue. Two bedrooms, two baths, a little balcony, and if you lean over the railing just a bit (don't tell Howard) you can see the ocean. I moved down in 1991 after forty-one winters of shoveling. I said, Sy, enough with the snow, and he said, Rosie, wherever you go, I go. So we went!

Now, about the humidity. Everybody told me, Rose, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. I thought they were exaggerating. They were NOT exaggerating. My first August I walked out to get the mail and my glasses fogged up and my hair doubled. That was eight years ago. My hair is still doubled.

My Sy

My husband Sy, may he rest in peace, was a pharmacist on Kings Highway for thirty-four years. Everybody knew him. He had a joke for every prescription. We had four wonderful years down here together before he passed in 1995.

Sy loved the early-bird special more than any man alive, and he never once left a restaurant without a couple of extra rolls wrapped up in a napkin. I still do it. It's a tribute.

The Girls

Every Tuesday and Thursday at one o'clock it's mah-jongg with the girls: Bea, Mimi, Estelle and me. We take turns hosting. Whoever hosts bakes the rugelach, except Estelle, who buys it, and we all pretend we don't know. Estelle, we know. We love you anyway.

Every spring the new card comes out from the League and every spring we all say it's impossible, nobody could ever make a hand off this card. Then we play it all year. Last Thursday I called Mah-Jongg three times in one afternoon and now Bea says she's checking my tiles. I'm a very honest woman, Bea!

Humidity update: we keep the air conditioning on 68 during the game and Mimi still brings a sweater. Go figure.

The Early Bird

Let me tell you about the early bird. At Sammy's on 41st Street, if you're seated by five o'clock, you get soup or juice, a salad, a main course, dessert AND coffee for $7.95. The brisket is very good. The flounder is better.

People ask me, Rose, who eats dinner at 4:30? I'll tell you who. Smart people, that's who! By six o'clock that place is full of tourists paying full price and sweating. (See above, re: humidity.)

My Grandchildren!!!

I have six grandchildren and I'm proud of every single one: Jessica, Michael, Rachel, Danny, Sam and baby Lily. I was going to put their pictures right here. I have a whole album. But for that you need a thing called a scanner, and the only scanner in the family is at Howard's house in New Jersey, and I am NOT mailing my good pictures to New Jersey. So you'll have to take my word for it. They are gorgeous. Every one.

PICTURES COMING SOON!!
(As soon as Howard visits.)

Sundays with Howard

My son Howard calls every Sunday morning at ten o'clock on the dot. Eight years, he hasn't missed once! He asks, Ma, how are you feeling? Ma, are you eating? Ma, is it hot? Howard, it's Florida. It's hot. And yes, I took my pills. (There, now it's on the Internet, so you don't have to ask.)

P.S. Hurricane News

Last week, with that Hurricane Floyd, everybody in the building filled up their bathtubs and bought batteries and forty cans of tuna. Then it turned and went up to the Carolinas instead, those poor people, I'm praying for them. So now I have forty cans of tuna. If you're ever in the neighborhood, come for lunch!