Book Review: If Today Be Sweet

Tehmina, a Parsi woman from India comes to Ohio following her husband's death and upon an invitation from her son to move in with his family. During her stay (not her first in the US) in a suburb of Cleveland, Tehmina is both happy to be with her family and pained at her separation from her home and late husband. Tehmina has a short time to decide whether she wants to stay with her son's family permanently or return to her apartment in India. 

I enjoyed Umrigar's window into Indian culture (here and in Bombay Times). Cross culturally I liked reading Tehmina's comparisons of what she was familiar with in Bombay compared to American customs. Umrigar did a particularly good job developing Tehmina and her son, Sorab's, characters. Both had a good deal of insight into their behavior. Umrigar let them have natural reactions to other characters or developments but gave them a good deal of empathy as well. Sorab's wife, Susan, was less well developed but overall a likeable character. I would've liked to have gone more in her mind, but I appreciate Umrigar's choice not to do this, giving Susan more of an outsider presence.
 
Spoilers ahead:

It seemed that, for Tehmina, whatever life threw at her during If Today she got through it. Not only that, from the halfway point I had to increasingly suspend belief by how everything worked out so well and smoothly. But the characters felt real. And frankly, it feels good to read a heartwarming (in an 'all's well that ends well') book like that every once in a while.

I'll have my answering machine call your answering machine

My computer works again! In other news...

A few weeks ago a client became homeless. A coworker recommended me a housing program and gave me Corrie, the intake worker's contact info (I already had an application but saw more info was requested). Last Friday I left her a few messages and finally Tuesday she called me back but I wasn't available so she left me a message. I decided to be more detailed in my message back and asked what info she needed to process my client and later found a message from her asking for my fax number. Got a list requesting over 15 items, from IDs to income info to mental health records to what my client had for breakfast. Some items that I wasn't sure what they referred to. So I left another message following up on them. So far we've been successful in moving the process along somewhat, although of course not as quickly as we could have if we would've caught each other on the phone. In fact, I don't remember the last time I've conversed this long with another provider solely through voice mail.

No Computer, No Computer, No Computer

I haven't had a working computer in two days. I just have this box in front of me, screen black, cut off from everything. Some problem with the hardware. Until that's fixed, I'm experiencing a world from the past. The other week my agency actually closed 10 minutes early because computers for all staff needed to be shut down for a network update. As if we can't find anything non-computery to do for 10 minutes.

But so many tasks can't be done. I haven't been able to record case notes and knowing I'm getting behind is honestly distressing me a little (the thought that not 10 years ago coworkers used to record their notes by hand impresses me deeply). I needed to write down my schedule because that too was saved on the computer. Couldn't listen to my CDs. Come on, it's not like I can use some alternate device that plugs into the wall and is capable of playing music.

One good thing is that my interaction with other staff has exponentially increased since I've been fairly frequently dropping by their offices to ask to use their computers. A few minutes here to write a letter on behalf of a client, and a few minutes there to make a quick search in the internet. With a little planning, no one else will be able to work!