It is May 18, 2007.

My parents still live outside of Boston. I grew up in a middle-class Jewish home. During the time I was growing up my parents were somewhere between orthodox and conservative Jews. Judaism was very strong in my family. My mother’s father was not a rabbi but he was very much into the kabala and mysticism. He came from a family of rabbis whose lineage supposedly extended back to the founders of Hasidism.

His son was Rabbi Nachem (sp?). There is some connection between him and our family, but it is kind of vague.

My father worked in the liquor industry while I was a young boy. He sold Narranganset Beer out of Cranston, Rhode Island. My mother was a stay-at-home mom but she had graduated from Mass Art; she was a painter. I grew up with a lot of smells of oil paints and canvas.

While I was growing up some friends of my mother’s would occasionally asked her to help decorate her home. She became known as quite a good decorator. Then, more friends would ask her. Before she knew it, she was an interior designer. She is nearly 80 years old now and still doing interior design. She became quite good at it. And we now brag that she has been in the “Who’s Who” of interior design for a number of years. She’s been an interior designer for about 40 years.

I have one brother and one sister. I am the oldest. My brother Barry just turned 50 a few weeks ago. My younger sister Kim recently turned 40. It’s been an interesting year of decades. My son turned ten. My sister turned 40. My brother turned 50. My father turned 80. And my grandmother turned 100.

I had a brother who died who was between my brother and my sister.