The thing about September is that it's all downhill from Labor Day.

Thankfully, the High Holidays positioned themselves in such a way that I was able to use personal days to the effect of a four-day weekend in honor of Rosh Hashanah. During that glorious time, I was able to spend a day with wonderful friends who were visiting from Michigan. The fact that we met on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was somewhat balanced by my friends' two bright, beautiful boys -- neither of whom were with us on that awful day.

The following weekend was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day, it is traditional to fast. In order to make the fast go a little faster, my sister and I went to see "Easy A," a modern take on "The Scarlet Letter." It was a smart little teen comedy, with more than a couple nods to the John Hughes films of my youth.

My mother, however, still has not forgiven us for spending a couple of hours of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar in a movie theater -- probably because it wasn't cheap.