Sugar High and Good Deeds

I might be feeling guilty (I am) for not blogging in almost 2 weeks (gasp), but you know the story - Significant Eater is working in our nation's capital and I'm going back and forth to DC, as is she, getting us set-up with a second home in that fair city. The guilt might also stem from the fact that last weekend we attended a Bat Mitzvah here in NY for the last of our nieces and nephews to attain that age (between SE and me, there are 9 altogether, and thank you sisters and brothers for letting us be able to remain child-free by keeping our parents so occupied) ...so yeah, the guilt might have something to do with the Jewishness, but who knows?

I digress. Back in the '90s (the 1990s wiseguys), SE and I used to go see a performer named Coyote Shivers. He was quite the glam boy, a good rocker, and he even (for a while) held the imprimatur of being married to Bebe Buell, a model and altogether great rock-star groupie (she did spend time with EC, you know) as well as mother of Liv Tyler. Props. As a matter of fact, here's my autographed copy of Shivers' first CD - he called me Mick, but it might've been the booze...

The reason I bring up Coyote Shivers is that he wrote and performed a great song, called SugarHigh. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to a bar or bat mitzvah, but they've changed a bit since my friends and I attained the age of 13, a few decades or so ago. Oh, we had parties back then, and we had bands; now they have DJs and nonstop music from start to finish. Hot DJs. Loud music. I don't mean to sound like an old fogey here, but I wore earplugs last week...all those concerts over the years have taken their toll and I'm trying to keep the hearing that I have left.

If you've ever seen a bunch of teens at a party, with loud hot DJs, I'm really not thinking they need much sugar. Or caffeine. But take a look at was was around the room, for all to partake. It started off with...

And then moved onto the sweets table, where there were bags for the candy (yes, I packed a bag for myself)...

Now, if you think that it was all sweets and nothing but, you'd be mistaken. There was a really cool station set up, where a couple of chefs kept at it most of the night - though if you tried to take a piece before they were "open," you were liable to lose a finger in the process...

Yep, the sushi brothers made some pretty serviceable sushi for the crowd. Sashimi, too. And after sushi, more sweets. First, a fountain of chocolate, with many dippables...

And we can't forget the ice cream...

There you have it...a Sugar High indeed.

But there's more. When we received our invitation to Emily's Bat Mitzvah, it read that instead of gifts, Emily wanted people to donate to her favorite charity, called The Toby Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the number of unwanted pets. Pretty important in a city like ours, where thousands upon thousands of animals are born without homes every year.

Significant Eater and I did just that, as it's a cause we both believe in. We've both loved and had animals all our lives, and our cat is named Rescue, because that's what we did - we rescued her from a shelter. But little did we know just how awesome a mitzvah Emily was able to produce by turning her Bat Mitzvah into a charitable donation...close to $5,000 has been received by The Toby Project due to our niece's generosity. The story was even picked up by a number of our local news outlets. The Daily News did a story about it, and CBS news did a piece with an interview of Emily, accompanied by the family's two dogs, whom I've often had the pleasure of playing with...click here for the CBS news piece and the video is here.

Once you've become a Bar or a Bat Mitzvah in the Jewish faith, you've attained the age of adulthood according to Jewish law. That brings with it certain obligations, including moral responsibility for one's own actions. SE and I were both impressed and moved by the moral responsibility of our niece, as well as by the actions she has taken to ensure those responsibilities are being met. If you have a few extra bucks, we urge you to donate to The Toby Project.

And to Emily and her whole, extended family, Mazel Tov! You should all be proud.