About Me

Washington, DC, United States
Heather Capell Bramble is mother of two kaleidoscoping kids, Jonah and Vera. She has a magical kaleidoscope, often in her back pocket, and it usually helps her turn her normally chaotic life into something beautiful. Her goal is to have as much fun and try to be as happy as they can while on the uncharted journey of motherhood. This means doing lots of arts and crafts, going on crazy adventures, and celebrating all kinds of holidays - and yes, trying to laugh along the way!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

HOMELAND for the holidays… just MY SO-CALLED LIFE!

From Dicitionary.com:

Homeland: [hohm-land, -luh nd]  Noun 1.one's native land. 2. a region created or considered as a state by or for a people of a particular ethnic origin: the Jewish homeland. 3. any of the thirteen racially and ethnically based regions created in South Africa by the South African government as nominally independent tribal ministates to which blacks are assigned.

In 1994, I was living and working in Manhattan, two years out of college.  Everyone in NY was watching Seinfeld and Friends.  I did too.  But I also watched a girl named Angela Chase in a show called, My So-Called Life.  Before there was Felicity and Dawson’s Creek (I know I am dating myself here – but I am 44, what can I do?), there was My So-Called Life… and at the time I was hooked.  I must admit, many years later, after I was married and had started accumulating kids, Jocelyn bought me the DVDs for My So Called Life for Chanukah one year.  I watched them all one night!  I was/am still in love with the show – the teenage angst, the anxiety of being in high school – the grittiness of it, the reality, the comedy – not to mention the awesome writing and acting.  It is in the category of shows that sort of outline how I matured as a consumer of the media… other serious favorites – thritysomething, ER, xfiles… you get the picture. I knew Angela Chase - sometimes I had been Angela Chase. I hated her, I loved her, and her friends – the new and the old ones… I knew all of them too – I was most of them in some way.  I was having my own version of the so-called life in Manhattan living in a one room studio apartment on East 91st Street. The show lasted one season and then it was over.  At the end of the season and that year, I picked up and moved to Austin, TX and began a new adventure.  That is just how it goes.

About six weeks ago, I told Jocelyn we needed a new TV show to watch.  We had just finished watching all of the Criminal Minds episodes.  (We are a one TV show at a time couple – I don’t watch all those other shows like Scandal, The Good Wife and all the ones I don’t even know the names of.. we pick one show and then watch it until it is over and then start another one…)  I heard about this show, Homeland, so we decided that would be the next one.  It had already been out for four seasons so we could binge watch it – which is like our favorite decadent thing to do! Other similar shows we have loved to watch are Alias, SVU and 24, so we figured we’d love a good CIA drama.  We started watching Carrie Mathieson and her literally crazy (bi-polar) mind take us to places that were anxiety provoking and heart stopping.  I don’t know Carrie and I do not like her in any way.  I think I actually hate her and her way too smart, quick, mentally diseased mind – but I absolutely LOVE watching her.  I just cannot stop – I am completely and totally addicted. As of today, we have watched all four seasons and we are waiting for the next episode to air next Sunday… it is awesome.

The other day I was thinking of how my current so-called life is nothing like it was back in 1994.  I was also thinking how Claire Danes is a fantastic actor but her two characters despite their dramatic age difference and unique plot lines are somewhat similar.  Both Angela and Carrie – they embrace the whole “the world revolves around me and my story is the only story worth telling philosophy” – I am the star of my own movie sort of thing.  Now it is true, they are the stars in their own shows but the characters really embody this perspective.  In Angela, it is endearing but in Carrie, it is addictively annoying. I am not sure what any of these perspectives say or reveal about me… but I do find all of this interesting.  In my mindfulness work, I love how this exact idea comes up all the time.  I learned that part of the practice is to be able to really get, deep inside, that “the movie playing in your head all the time, it doesn’t always need to star you” – or even to just realize that everyone else also has a movie going on in which they are the stars – interconnectedness and lack of permanence solidify this notion.  The ability to be in the present, and breathe is what brings it all together… when you can get yourself to that place.  I would say that watching Homeland is definitely not that “place” of being… or maybe it is…

But what the hell does Homeland really even mean… Jocelyn and I have discussed this as I thought it was a weird name for the show.  I didn’t even get it until I was reading a headline and read the Department of Homeland Security and realized the title of the show, Homeland, is meant to be Homeland as in the USA is our homeland… or something like that.

Today, my so-called life has its own HOMEland.  We have our 100 year old home that we live in.  Much of this married with 2 kids life happens in this home of ours.  We LIVE in our home: we eat breakfast in the kitchen before school and work; celebrate shabbot dinner in the dining room on Friday nights; watch My Little Pony with the kids every single night before they go to bed; dance and wrestle with the kids on the fancy rug we bought in Morocco in the living room; play with Legos, baby dolls, the WII, Hotwheels, Lincoln Logs, and Little People in the play room; brush our teeth with super hero tooth brushes in the bathrooms; put on and take off shoes, coats, and hats upon leaving and returning in our foyer; throw and kick balls, climb trees, run races and blow bubbles in the backyard; stay up late doing work at our desks in the study; watch Homeland in the master bedroom; read bedtime stories to the kids in their bedrooms; store bins of holiday decorations in the basement; take lots of family milestone and holiday photos on the swing on the porch; and have the most amazing silly and snuggly weekend morning cuddles in our king size bed on the third floor in our converted attic, wacky, master bedroom with the kids…  Regular, ordinary, mundane, life in my homeland. Exhausting, exhilarating, frustrating, joyful, busy, rewarding, exasperating life but hopefully almost never a cliff hanger, heart stopping, anxiety provoking, adrenaline pumping spy drama.  A very different so-called Homeland.

It has been about 5 mos since I last checked in.  Last time, we were about to dive head first into the deep pool of the hot, humid, bright and long summer Washington, DC days. And today, it is December 1, the final march towards darkness is before us.  I get the urge to write when the seasons shift, when the light changes, when the rhythm of life moves to a different beat.  I tell myself to remember – yours is not the only movie, even though you do often feel like a star in your own life.  But it is OK to get that I want to take a snapshot of this movie I am starring in – much like Angela and Carrie (and Claire for that matter), it is OK to embrace the role and go with it sometimes – but I must also remember to breathe – and I try, I keep trying.

Much of what has happened since July 1, involves holidays.  As you know, I love the holidays so – the ritual and the performance of it – I am addicted to it. We celebrated the quintessential Homeland holiday, July 4th with a kitschy neighborhood parade in Palisades with our Karate school.  Jonah decided that our self-proclaimed “summer of fun 2014” should be called the “summer of the fun” and it stuck.  We summered intensely – road trips to beaches, visits to many different pools, and even recorded some geocaches! It climaxed with a family vacation road trip to Pennsylvania Dutch and ended with a week long session for Jonah & Vera at Nana Camp. And then there was Labor Day and a trip for Vera &me to California for a Bar Mitzvah while Jocelyn and Jonah hung out in Baltimore with the Grandma and the cousins.  Jonah played a role in his movie that weekend by IDing the guy who stole grandma’s purse while they were at the Aquarium – very Carrie Mathieson, if I do say so myself.  In September, the Jewish Holidays overrun our homeland.  And this year, we joined a synagogue, and spent the holidays with family and new friends at services.  We love our new community and we are so happy to have found this new Homeland to celebrate the holidays and grow as a family. We did Rosh Hashannah with family & friends.  We did tashlich, just the four of us right down street at Rockcreek Park.  And then on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year – I went to Kol Nidre services with a good friend and had an amazing spiritual experience, only to return to my Homeland to find my family missing – in the ER – because Vera swallowed a penny.  We all recovered from the hospital and surgery to remove the penny in time to host guests each and every night during Sukkot in our sukkah. We ended the Jewish holiday marathon at synagogue where we danced with the Torah and then unfurled the entire thing! When we finally looked up and at the calendar it was mid-October.  Quickly, it was Halloween, my 44th birthday and a big work trip to China for me for 10 days.  That would be 10 days away from my Homeland.  And then this past week it was Thanksgiving in Baltimore with our family – our homeland away from homeland of sort. 

Soon it will be Chanukah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  We will be spending those holidays first here at home, then road tripping to NJ for another Bat Mitzvah, then pilgrimaging over to NYC, my favorite Homeland of them all, and then stopping in Baltimore on the way back to Washington DC to ring in the New Year with the best of our friends here in our Homeland – this old house in which we live our ordinary, mundane, always interesting so-called life – school, work, karate, Torah School, Swim lessons, dance lessons, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, Shabbots, TV, synagogue, grocery shopping, and sleeping (and all of the intense melt downs, psychotic temper tantrums, and battles of will that end in tragic time outs - we must not forget those...) This is my so-called Homeland.  

But I also realize that there is a bigger world out there.  And that world often resembles Carrie's Homeland more than it resembles mine - death, violence, lies.  That is what is actually the scariest part of all of this.  From Ferguson, Missouri to Har Nof, Israel to Syria to Iraq to Bill Cosby - the world's everyday headlines are scary. Racism, sexism, anti-semitism, terrorism, violence, discrimination, sexual assault, classism, war, social injustice and homophobia - these diseases infect our world and our lives every day.  The same days that in my little homeland we stop for dinner at the local diner or pick up milk at the grocery store.  It all happens - day in and day out. I try to talk to the kids about these issues, but it is hard and complicated, but I try.  And often it helps to explain these issues in the context of our daily lives, and sometimes when we are observing holidays.  These are my big thoughts on the eve of the first day of the twelfth month.  I have no answers, only observations. 

In the end, we are perpetually Homeland for our holidays – this is our so-called life.  I embrace it. I love it. I live it.  I am the star in my own movie – this movie, that is our life.  And I am oh so thankful for all of it – including the next soon-to-be watched episode of Homeland with Carrie Mathieson…

Happy December 2014 everyone!

As it seems that my current so-called life includes no exercise and way too much eating, This post on December 1 marks my slow return to exercise -so that my days in my homeland shall be many.  All of Carrie's talk of running six miles has inspired me to get back on run/walk wagon.  This morning I was able to get up by 5am and out the door by 5:05 for a 30 minute fast walk.  Literally baby steps, but I am moving forward.  My so-called life is definitely a work in progress and public declarations always motivate me... wish me luck.

Below are way too many pictures of my "virtual" homeland and so-called life, please excuse my indulgence- but it has been 5 months... .



July 4th, 2014!

At the end of the Palisades Parade with the Kicks Karate guy, Mr Ricky! 


back homeland for a little bbq and sparklers!



July 5th and another celebration with family in Shady Side - I love watching them run ahead of me together... symbolic and profound - I will be forever following them as they run through their lives...

I designed a Coat of Arms for our "Summer of the Fun 2014"


July Super Science Sunday - we cut open baseballs and investigated...


and then went to our first professional baseball game with good friends...

and yes, they ran the bases!


A weekend roadtrip to Rehobeth Beach

rooftop hotel pool!

rehobeth beach family selfie

beach hotel shabbot!


FunLand!  They are addicted!

Auntie Chris came to visit for a day and took lots of great photos of us!

photo by Auntie Chris

photo by Auntie Chris

photo by Auntie Chris



zoo day!

and there were telescopes at the zoo and a special constellation show at an indoor planetarium...



bikes!


PJ Library Sweet Summer Ice Cream Event

Long weekend roadtrip to Long Beach Island to visit our besties! Shabbot in the hotel...

Fantasy Island - addicted to carnival games!


best donuts we have ever tasted!!!!

most awesome kite flying ever!




NY buddies come for a visit!

another trip to the zoo


my first time to Ben's Chili Bowl - yummy!


And it was August Super Science Sunday again.  We spent the morning drawing and looking at mazes and compasses.  then we went to the Building Museum and did the Maze - it was a-maz-ing!




Ready to go Medieval Times for Sunday dinner with sime good buddies...





Belt test - yellow to orange! Summer 2014


Belt test gold to yellow - Summer 2014

Morning after we went to the Lion King with our new and old lions - my simbas!

Summer blackberry picking and Homestead farm.


Roadtrip to Hershey, PA... Auntie Chris and I went to the Hershey Spa for the morning!

then we all went to Hershey Chocalte world - and made our own chocolate bars!





Then we stopped at the pretzel factory I went to as a kid with my family almost 40 years ago - see picture below.  Sturges Pretzel Factory - totalyl old school and awesome... the pretzel homeland...





A ride in first class car on the Strausberg Railroad...



photo by Auntie Chris

Finally made it to Dutch Wunderland!









Saoking up the last days of summer with some geocaches 1 of 2

geocaches 2 of 2



Another road trip to Long Island for the Capell Family bagel brunch!
and the drop off to Nana Camp!


And then the pick up - they got trophies but did not want to leave!

my super heroes!

the money shot!

Maryland RennFest August 2014 with Grandma and the cousins!







Mommy and Vera on their trip to California - Shabbot dinner at the bar mitzvah boy's house!

best hotel room buddies

OYP Best Friends 24 years later

The big night!




and then we went to SeaWorld

and then drove from san diego to santa monica to meet up with more friends!

longhorn reunion in los angeles

next generation of longhorns

meanwhile, back at the homeland, jocelyn and jonah went to the baltimore aquarium with grnadma and their cousins.  grandma's purse was stolen, jonah ID'd the guy and the security found the robber and the purse with everything in it... the chief of security is above with our crew...  


finally first day of Montessori kindergarten for Jonah and primary class for Vera... September 2014

first day of dance class for Vera and torah school for Jonah!

and another swim session with Ms Trina begins! Jonah is swimming the whole pool and Vera gets her first chance to learn with Ms Trina!



September Super Science Sunday - sound...and shofars and blowing recorders into water...

a pj library event at the rockville jcc - last pool day of the season

Capell Bramble Cousins Family photo 2014!

Happy Jewish New Year 5775!




the big Rosh hashannah family dinner


FlatJenna comes to visit Washington DC...

taslich 2014 at rock creek park

we used fish food so we would not upset the ecosystem...

Yom Kippur at Children's Hospital - Vera swallowed a penny.  

and then had it removed...

October Super Science Suday - making goo...


our sukkah - it was busy every night!




and sunday meetup at a bar in Arlington with some law school buddies and their kids... more future longhorns...

halloween dress up day at vera's ballet class

visiting the pumpkin farm





halloween 2014 - elsa and the hotwheel driver in hotwheel car...



And Han Solo and Princess Leia rounds out the crew...

halloween shabbot with jackolantern challahs

and with a cake to celebrate my 44th birthday

november 1 2014 - I am off to China for 10 days on a work trip...

the chinese super fast train from dongguam to changsha

the umbrella revolution in hong kong

november 2014 belt test - orange to green

november 2014belt test - yellow to orange

thanksgiving 2014

thanksgiving 2014

thanksgiving dinner 2014

11/30/14 playing around at the playground... just our so-called life...

and the bench give us a little bit of wisdom...


and we topped it off with lunch at our homeland diner of choice... there is no place like home, the American City Diner and nothing better than grilled cheese!