If not now, when?

I guess I've been sitting under a rock long enough and decided to hop onto the blog bandwagon. I've certainly spent plenty of hours laughing, crying, staring in disbelief, and a whole boatload of other emotions reading the details of so many other people's lives - perhaps the details of mine will do the same for others (and perhaps not!) But in the words of Rabbi Hillel, "If not now, when?"

Hmm...where to start? I guess I'll start by telling a little bit about myself. I'm 100% Chinese and I am also Jewish - hence the name "Orieyenta". But I must admit, that I am not the original Orieyenta. The original Orieyenta was actually my Grandmother. My family owned a Chinese restaurant on Miami Beach back in the days when Miami Beach was not the trendy South Beach that it is today. Back then, you would walk down the street and instead of seeing all the glamourous plastic surgery enhanced people that you see today, you would see lots of people sitting outside in their lawn chairs and lots of women speaking Yiddish and playing mah jong. My Grandmother is quite the character and those Jewish ladies simply adored her - for even with her heavy Chinese accent, she could jump right in and gossip with the whole lot of them - hence the nickname "Orieyenta". I'm pretty reserved and probably don't qualify for the title of "Yenta" but for what I lack, my daughter makes up for. I remember when she was a toddler and would only make noises or cry when she wanted something and I would look at her and say, "If only you could talk and tell me what you want." What was I thinking when I said that? G-d must have been listening when I said that and he rewarded me more than generously with my little chatterbox. While I love her little voice and I sometimes marvel at what must be going on inside her little head, a little peace and quiet would be welcome every now and then. Here's a picture of "Little Orieyenta":

How's that for Jewish pride? Gotta love it.