June 11, 2008

making it all official and stuff

This site is on an indefinite hiatus. Future plans to be determined...

Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2007

Quite an Introduction

Yet again, I have been entirely neglectful. Does anyone even read this site anymore? Here's the thing--I've had an online journal/blog/something since 1994. So one possible explanation for my prolonged silence is that I've simply run out of things to say. Unlikely. Let's face it--I'm a talker.

Another is that my life is SO boring that all I have to talk about are things like my observations about how this is the dustiest place I've ever lived, or about my recently revived complete obsession with musicals (and trust me, I could give you an entire thesis on Why Wicked is Beloved Even Though It Kinda Sucks, and Which Performers Have Done the Lead Roles Justice; or give you heaps of trivia about things like Bob Martin, aka original Man in Chair and creator of the Drowsy Chaperone, naming the main characters in that show after himself and his wife; or-- yeah, I'll stop, sorry) or risk going into emoville when talking about All The Crap I'm Dealing With Emotionally.

Side note--remember back in my day, when we said angst? Everything was angsty? Now it's emo. I miss the good old days. Bring back angst in 2008!

Anyway, back to potential reasons I haven't been updating. There's also the matter of me not being sure how I feel anymore about my whole life being on the internet. It's a phase I go through every couple of years. The "do I really want everyone to know what I'm thinking?" phase. Then there's the "I'm not feeling very witty lately" factor, and really, who wants to read a grocery list? Well no, actually, I don't care much what other people want to read. But I really don't like to write grocery lists. I prefer to ramble at will. Like I'm doing now.

Annnnnnnyway, this was supposed to be a very short introduction to a links post but at this point, I've rambled long enough that I think it's a post on its own. Let's take it as a hopeful sign, shall we? A sign that I'm not wasting my money keeping this domain name and webspace year after year, a sign that I'm going to post more, a sign that if it comes down to it and I have nothing else to say, I will tell you the top ten reasons I love Broadway actress Julia Murney and want to hire her to hang out with me and entertain me.

So. Perhaps--just maybe, if I believe hard enough--deliciously.org is gonna come back.

Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:49 AM | Comments (5)

August 14, 2007

Getting to know all about you...

Oops, I forgot to come back and post my answers to Carly's questions. Here they are, questions now, answers after the cut, and same thing applies as the last one if you want to be interviewed in return.

Carly's questions:

1. Is rabbinical school still on the table? Say more about that :-)
2. Think about yourself ten years ago. What advice would you give that Rebecca if you could?
3. What is it about Lauren that made you fall in love with her?
4. What's your favorite thing about yourself?
5. Do you think you'll stay in MN? If not, where would you like to go? And why?

1. Is rabbinical school still on the table? Say more about that :-)

Sigh. I covered that pretty thoroughly on my last post. If you want a new question, I will answer, otherwise, see below.


2. Think about yourself ten years ago. What advice would you give that Rebecca if you could?

In the words of the great Leila Green, "It's not that deep." No, actually, ten years ago today, I was preparing for my first trip to New York City, I was falling in love with my now-wife and trying to figure out if I would ever tell her so, I was seeing Rent on a weekly basis and had a community of fellow Rentheads who did the line with me overnight at the Ordway, and I was weeks away from entering the arts high school. My life was about the best it had been in almost ten whole years prior to that. And yet I was miserable. I don't know if anything I could go back and tell myself would change that much, though. Even telling myself to take it easy wouldn't have helped. So maybe what I'd say is, "You're no diferent from everyone else in your pain, but you're very different from everyone else in ways you don't even understand. And it just doesn't matter, so try to connect with people instead of thinking you're so alone." Sigh. Very emo of me, huh? But I was a pretty miserable 16 year old and I could have stood to hear it.


3. What is it about Lauren that made you fall in love with her?

You know, it's kinda hard to say. It's been ten years, and neither of us are the same people we were then, honestly. I truly think it was one of those situations where we were just right together. There were a lot of circumstances, too, that really makes it hard to say what first made me fall in love with her. But I do know the things that make me still love her as much right now as I did then. I love her cheerfulness, and the way nothing can ever really get her down for long. I love the way she draws people in and makes them want to talk to her. I love that she can eavesdrop on strangers and then cut into their conversations, and rather than getting mad, they get excited to talk to her. I love that she's intensely optimistic but often assumes or expects the worst--that kind of contradiction is endearing to me. I love that she would put other people first to an extent so ridiculous that I think she deserves someone who would do the same (I would not, I admit) just so that someone puts her first all the time. I love that she cracks herself up in her sleep. I love that even when she has no idea what she's talking about, she'll find something to say. I love that she loves my family and tries really hard to understand what it means to be a sibling to my brothers. I love that she can be righteously indignant in one moment and then have let it go and be laughing or grumbling or who knows what in the next. I love that she's patient with me when I can't be with myself. And I love that even though she would probably be the last person to say this about herself, there is no challenge that she isn't up for.


4. What's your favorite thing about yourself?

You know, you kinda stumped me here. Not because there's nothing I like about myself, but because all the things that I like about myself are ultimately problematic, because they're the things that don't really fit well into The World. So I guess my favorite thing is the way my brain works. I feel like sometimes I see things that other people don't see. Now granted, I don't see 90% of what most other people do, and that's hard, and it's hard to never be able to explain myself, but I like the world that my head is in. I like the way everything makes sense and I like the way I come at trying to figure out the things that don't make sense. It makes it really really hard to live in a world with people who I can't explain myself to, but to me, it's a really comfortable place to be and I like how I think.


5. Do you think you'll stay in MN? If not, where would you like to go? And why?

I'd like to think so. This is home. Despite my feelings about the Jewish community here, it has everything else going for it. I would hate to be without a communal spiritual life for the rest of my life, but compared with what I'd be giving up elsewhere, I'll take it. That said, where would I go? Well, do you know of any cities that are as full of greenery and lakes as this one and have a gay population who's more distributed than concentrated and has a lot of theatre and other artistic stuff going on, and is considered to be in a liberal area? Probably not.

Places I might consider though... Western Massachusetts still, I really did like Northampton even though I didn't feel cool enough to be there, but I really would rather be near a city about the size of Minneapolis. Decatur, GA still intrigues me although it seems that once you're outside of the actual little tiny main part of the city, it could be Any Suburb. Lauren wants to consider Denver. I've never been, but it's someplace that's always interested me. Same applies to Santa Fe. I'd consider cities like Boston, Providence, Baltimore, and DC. I liked Oakland, CA a lot. And Orlando has the bonus of Disney World being right there. Realistically, though, unless my parents move somewhere else... no, I don't really want to move away from here again.

Posted to Lauren & Mental Health & Minnesota & Miscellaneous & Nostalgia at 12:37 PM | Comments (4)

August 11, 2007

Getting to know you...

It seems that that whole 5 questions interview thing is going around again, and I'm a sucker for not having to think about what to talk about, so I'm doing it. In fact, I requested questions from two people, and if you request questions from me and then do it yourself, I'll probably ask for some in return.

Here's how it goes:
1. Leave me a comment and I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
2. Update your website or blog or LJ or whatever with the answers to the questions.
3. Include this explanation and when others comment asking to be asked, you in turn ask them five questions.

**REMINDER: This isn't LJ--if you comment asking for questions, you won't get an email in response when I answer you, you'll have to remember to check back here.

And here are Amanda's questions for me:

1) When an artifact from your childhood (like a certain type of toy, or a television or book series) enjoys a resurgence in popularity, does it make you feel happy and nostalgic or angry and nostalgic? Why?
2) Are you still pursuing rabbinical school? If so, how is that coming along? If not, why did you decide to put that goal on the backburner?
3) I just read on your deliciously.org 'blog that you are a Harry Potter fan. What is your opinion of the last book? What, if anything, would you have changed about the outcome?
4) If you had to change your name, what alternate name would you select? Do you feel intimately connected to your name?
5) What cancelled television program do you wish could be revived (or, if you'd rather, would have lasted longer in the first place)?

Answers after the cut, and yes, obviously, #3 will have spoilers for Harry Potter. Answers to Carly's questions coming in a post soon.

1) When an artifact from your childhood (like a certain type of toy, or a television or book series) enjoys a resurgence in popularity, does it make you feel happy and nostalgic or angry and nostalgic? Why?

This may make me a horrible person, but I usually feel angry. It's the same feeling I get when someone tells me that they're a fan of Rent but I find out they've never seen the play or they didn't see it for the first time until years after I did. I don't really do anything with Rent anymore, but did they sleep out on the sidewalk every Tuesday for an entire summer to see the show? No, I don't think so. Bite me. Anyway, my point is, I get very possessive. I end up feeling like the kids who get to enjoy it now Just Don't Get what it really is all about. Plus, all too often, it's altered to be rereleased, which I just can't stand.


2) Are you still pursuing rabbinical school? If so, how is that coming along? If not, why did you decide to put that goal on the backburner?

Carly asked me this too, so I know it must be glaringly obvious that I haven't talked about it in awhile. There are basically two answers to this question. The first answer is that I'm not pursuing anything except breathing right now. I am currently deep in the trenches of figuring out if I can ever work, if I can ever be a parent, if I can ever be anything other than a resource draining lump. And if I sound depressed there, it's because I am. I'm really pretty unhappy about where I'm at on this whole journey and issue but basically... I have no plans or lack of plans.

The second answer is... IF I got to a place where I feel like I can work and I do decide to pursue a career path... The rabbinate is still really really appealing to me. I feel like the actual schooling is a terrific fit for me. I also feel like I really don't want to live in Philly for six years, and having lived somewhere I was miserable last year and now being back here, I'm not sure I'd give up six years living somewhere else for anything. I might. I really don't know. But that leads me to the last issue... I had forgotten, while I was in Oberlin, just HOW much I hate the Jewish community in the Twin Cities. Being back here, Judaism has been much less a part of my life, even internally. I don't like the community or the synagogues or the people I'd be working with. And if I want to live here long term (which... I think we do), there's really no point in being a rabbi because I would never want to work in this community. Right now for me, Judaism is really... whatever the opposite of salient is.

So in sum? I have no idea. It's not off the list of possibilities, it's still the thing I would most like to do. But it's not likely.


3) I just read on your deliciously.org 'blog that you are a Harry Potter fan. What is your opinion of the last book? What, if anything, would you have changed about the outcome?

Wifey, if you're reading this, just skip to the next question. Basically I feel like JK Rowling set herself up for failure. There's no way she could have pleased me. I feel like Harry should have died. However, if he had, I'd have been pissed as hell. I do feel, though, that at the very least he should have been the one to deliver the curse that killed Voldemort, but what can ya do? I feel like the pacing of the book was really bad. I missed that heart attack-y feeling from book six. I thought the ENTIRE plot about the Hallows was unnecessary and served absolutely zero purpose. I hated the exposition scene with Dumbledore in "King's Cross" and I didn't really care for the Snape/Lily chapter. I loved Ron and Hermione and seeing some growth in them. I love love love love Neville, and almost as much, I love Luna. I loved Kreacher. I loved HOW Ron and Hermione finally got together. I wanted a lot more Snape. I never liked him, in any book, but I wanted more. I was really underwhelmed, and I don't even like action books. That said? I don't think she could have written anything that I would have liked and I don't think any outcome would have satisfied me (although it's very hard to believe it was a truly horrific war with so few deaths). I wouldn't mind nixing that terrible epilogue. And I just have to say, best part of the WHOLE book was Molly coming at Bellatrix and calling her a bitch. It's really sad, though, when the death I was most upset about was Dobby's, when I hated him so much all along.


4) If you had to change your name, what alternate name would you select? Do you feel intimately connected to your name?

I do feel intimately connected to my name. There are times as a kid where I wished I had the last name Rozenberg (my mom's maiden name) instead of Feldman, and I collect long lists of names that I love, but I've never wished I had an actual different name. I used to want something more unique, but I couldn't tell you what, because to me, I am Rebecca. However, I was almost named Rivkah Michal (reev-kah mee-chal, ch being that hard h sound), which is my Hebrew name, and I would be content with that as my name too. That's not really a change, though, is it? There are names I love, but none of them are ME.


5) What cancelled television program do you wish could be revived (or, if you'd rather, would have lasted longer in the first place)?

There are two-- My So-Called Life and Popular. MSCL had so much to offer and I think it was going to go places that teen shows at the time hadn't gone (and maybe still haven't?). It deserved a longer life. I think it could have made a real impact, bigger than it did. Popular was just hilarious and clever and entertaining and I would love to see more.

Posted to Books & Hardly Working & Jew-mania & Mental Health & Mindless Entertainment & Miscellaneous & Nostalgia at 12:27 PM | Comments (3)

August 09, 2007

In a rare showing of political consumption...

I watched the Logo forum tonight, and I'm not the type to live blog or go into a lot of detail on politics, but here's my basic take:

--Barack Obama: I missed the first few minutes of his turn, but, what I saw... I really haven't paid much attention to him thus far, but I can REALLY see why people are so taken with him. I liked what I saw of his answers and he made me feel taken seriously AND understood. I didn't feel like he was forcing me into a group and I didn't feel like he was saying "I get the LGBT community, I really get you!" and I also didn't feel like he was saying "I'm not one of you so I'll never get you." That's talent--to not make me feel isolated. Let me put it this way--unlike Edwards, he didn't call the LGBT community "you". I was really, really impressed. I really wish I had seen his first five minutes.

--John Edwards: is a tool. I honestly don't know what else to say about him. He didn't answer the questions he was given (stereotype of a politician much?) and everything he said annoyed me. I don't care that he went to some Los Angeles LGBT center and saw homeless kids--that doesn't tell me anything except that he has a LONG way to go before I give a shit about what he has to say. He's a tool.

--Dennis Kucinich: it's very hard to comment on him. He basically... doesn't exist on the same plane as the other candidates. In so many ways. He's quite floopy and enjoyable and I love him and I'm glad he's running. I also wouldn't vote for him. I think his path, his journey, and his purpose are better served as a candidate who shakes up the scene a little bit than if he were actually president. It's just not a fit for him, but I love that's running. I agree with like 95% or more of the things he says, I just think he has another calling. Aww, he said he loves all of us, and I believe him. I love you too!

--Mike Gravel: I really know nothing about him going into this. The second he said "the gay issue" and then repeated it again two seconds later, he lost me. I liked that he said he believes "the marriage issue" will be a non-issue in 2012, but he bored me. And he seemed to be really out of touch with the country as a whole. He spoke like a well-intentioned person of a generation no longer at the forefront of what's going on in this country. And stop comparing yourself to Kucinich! Stop copying! I really do appreciate that he's pro-gay marriage, but that's really all I can say positive about him based on this short exposure.

--Bill Richardson: I have to admit, I also know very little about him, although a little more than Gravel... What can I say, I've been trying my hardest to flat out ignore politics for quite some time now. I was wholly unimpressed. For the most part I was bored. At least Gravel got me excited and passionate, even if I was annoyed to hell with him. Richardson bored me. I also had very little respect for his unwillingness to fess up to his own stances. Edwards said flat out, without even being asked, he has not changed his mind about not supporting gay marriage. Richardson, when asked, skirted around answering for as long as he could before they repeated the question like four times and he finally kinda sorta said he's "not there yet". Between that and his skirting/poorly answering the "biology vs. choice" question, he was at the bottom of the list for me. I got the feeling the panel felt the same way, and I missed the laughter that had been there with all four of the previous candidates.

--Hillary Clinton: This is what I tuned in for, honestly. However, she was so deliberate with everything she said that I feel like there were a ton of questions she didn't get time to answer. And I get that because when I'm addressing touchy issues that require deliberate and careful language, I'm the same way. I would rather have someone speak deliberately than misspeak. That said, I wanted more. She makes me feel... safe? I love Obama, more than I thought I would, but he feels young and excited and excitable, whereas Hillary (and yes, I'm aware that I've called everyone else by their last names and I call her Hillary--it's not a female thing, nor is it a clear from Bill thing, it's a comfort and familiarity thing, which I see as positive) makes me feel safe and taken care of. I knew what she was going to say about everything, so I guess what I got out of listening to her just that--that sense that she isn't saying she'll do more than she can, she's not promising that she's making herself completely transparent. And no candidate could be. So I really appreciate that sense of reality, and that comfort.


What do I have to say in the end? I like Hillary. She makes me feel like she has what it takes. But Obama is fantastic too, even if he makes me feel a little like he'd be fumbling to find answers as president. That might not be a horrible thing, but it's not what I'm looking for.

Mostly, though, I learned almost nothing new tonight, but I'm incredibly happy that this kind of forum was put on. It needed to happen and just the fact that it did feels like a small but important step to me. In the words of Breckin Meyer in Clueless, "Two thumbs up, fine family fun."

Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2007

Hey buddy, those things are attached!

I have issues with my childhood/family dentist. I have for a long time. He's older, he's a bit know-it-all-ish at times, all his patients are members of the Jewish community here in the cities--a community I generally can't stand--which means that visits are full of tense hellos, he sometimes gives me minor grief about refusing novacaine (in the form of a tsk), and when I get caught not flossing enough, he sometimes makes me feel about two inches tall. He has one evil hygienist who I can't stand. He's the dentist my entire family uses, so he's all up in our business all the time. He charges more than average. For years, I've been saying it was time to find a new dentist.

Today I went to another dentist, a dentist endorsed by multiple wonderful people, because I've been in a little pain and hell, it was time. How'd it go? Well, let me put it this way. Tomorrow, I'm calling my childhood dentist to make an appointment to go back to him, even though he's not covered on our insurance.

For one thing, my appointment was done over three hours ago, and my teeth hurt. I mean, OW. Seriously, OW. They hurt even when I just sit and do nothing, and forget about chewing. Not going to happen. I've never ever left a dentist appointment in pain before. For another, he was incredibly impersonal. He made a lot of small talk, but whenever I tried to ask actual questions, they got brushed off. I eventually stopped asking, figuring that I'd either never be coming back or I could make Lauren call and ask later. His assistant was flat out mean to me and VERY rough with my mouth (hence the PAIN) and didn't once say, "I'm about to ____" or "sorry I just gagged you." Lauren had an appointment in the next cube over, and her hygienist, who did most of her appointment, was totally different, gave her options, let her know what was going on, etc. The one thing I hate more than bad service is inconsistent service. If I went back to them, I'd always be wondering if it was going to be miserable or fine.

Then onto some bigger issues. They could NOT comprehend that for me, no novacaine means NO NOVACAINE. I do not do needles. I even explained to them that the last time I had a shot, IV, or blood drawn other than via finger prick (ie, no needle) was when I was eleven, and at that time, I was gassed, and I still freaked (read: started flailing and screaming) when they put the IV in. I told them I've done every filling I've ever had without novacaine, and they were still like, "Um, no, I don't think so, you'll want novacaine." Not even, "Let's talk about this, let's consider options before we make a final decision." He also wrote me a scrip for a sedative for before I have a tooth pulled (yeah, I have a dead baby tooth that's gotta come out, which prompted the whole visit) without asking me ANYTHING about my preferences about drugs. Now, it just so happens that it's... not my preference, but I'm okay with it, IF it were a good solution (trust me, a little pill is not going to make twenty years worth of a phobia abate for even two hours). But what if I was on other meds, or what if I didn't believe in them, or... I don't know, maybe I'm just looking for things to be angry about. Oh, and then we got to talking about the issues with my top teeth, which I know are vast. But my plan has always been braces to fix the gap between the two middle, a bridge where I'm missing a tooth, and a cap on my "peg" tooth, all of which would actually correct the problems where possible. This guy wanted to "fix" it with veneers, which is a purely cosmetic solution and would cost a lot more and seems very unnecessary to me. Take me back to old school, thanks, no quick fix solutions here.

What it comes down to is 1) VERY poor communication, 2) impersonal service, 3) not much understanding or compassion, 4) did I mention I'm in tear-inducing pain?

Lauren, on the other hand, loved it there. She loved the hygienist. Of course, as opposed to the dentist himself, the hygienist told her what she was doing every step of the way (I heard her), asked/warned her about pain, and didn't mutter under her breath about Cher for five minutes straight (okay, that part was kind of funny).

So me and my dead, cracked, painful baby tooth will be returning back to my childhood dentist, who I suddenly have a great deal more love for, even though these things won't be 80% covered by insurance with him. Right now, all I want to do is run right to his office and give him a giant hug and beg him never to ever, ever retire, and then give him my life savings. Since I can't, this rant will have to suffice.

Posted to Miscellaneous at 02:36 PM | Comments (4)

January 09, 2007

Welcome to 2007!

Last night I was watching the Cosby show (and yes I did just start my first journal entry in months with 'last night I was watching the Cosby show') and I was half asleep when I heard Bill Cosby say, "Bennington is the most expensive college in the country right now!" Right away, I snapped to attention, because I have interest in both 1) Bennington, 2) the cost of college, both of those for reasons it would take me way too long to describe.

Anyway, I'm not going to describe the whole scene on the show, but one thing did literally make me say, "OUCH!" out loud. Following saying that Bennington was the most expensive college in the country, they added that the cost of tuition plus room and board was $17,000. That was the MOST expensive college in the country.

Okay, so that episode originally aired in September 1987, but still. Wow.

Because I'm both insane and a nerd, today I decided to compare that to the current most expensive college, George Washington University. Their tuition plus room and board? $49,290. That's almost enough for three full years at Bennington in 2007. And just for curiosity's sake, Bennington, which is 7th most expensive this year, now costs $43,070. And by the way, Oberlin only missed making the top 10 list (which is based on tuition only) by $914. That's just... Great.

Basically, what this tells me, is that my children better be interested in going to trade school. Hope they all want to be mechanics!

Posted to Mindless Entertainment & Miscellaneous & Oberlin at 02:03 PM | Comments (6)

September 08, 2006

Things That Cause My World to End

Are you sick of reading me complain about the things I love being discontinued? Then don't read this entry.

I have these pants. They're my favorite pants. I rarely leave the house in them, although I have occasionally. I bought them in the fall of 1999 from the now-defunct GFLA, a Delia's copycat company that carried--gasp!--plus sizes. They were embarrassing pants, but the least embarrassing of my options. Remember those lounge pants that were really popular back then? The ones that were made of terry sweat material with writing on the legs? They said things like "hottie" or had skulls and crossbones on them.

I bought a pair.

Mine say ALLSTAR down the left leg. They also have a star on the butt. And I've removed some of the embarrassment factor by wearing them inside out for the last four years (yes, it took me 3 years to think of that). You can still tell they have writing on the other side and that they're inside out, but at least no one knows that I'm an all star when they see me.

Anyway, when GFLA went out of business, I went to see if they still sold them, but of course I was too late. And now no one makes them anymore. And after 7 years, including a year and a half of wearing them at least 3 days a week every week, they're starting to get very thin in the knees. And last night I discovered a teeny tiny hole at the back of one thigh.

My world is about to come crashing down on me again. These pants are my favorite! My standby! My security blanket! I LOVE THESE PANTS!

It doesn't help that yesterday Lauren discovered that they stopped making my favorite granola bars, too. But at least I've only liked those for a month, so I'm not so attached yet. Geez.

Next time I like something, remind me to buy 20 of them, no matter how broke we are.

Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)

September 06, 2006

Random Notes from the Desk of Rebecca

98% of the time, I'm glad we chose to come back to Minneapolis instead of moving to Northampton. The other 2% of the time can be divided into two categories: 1% for when I wish I didn't feel like such a bad person for not seeing my friends more and 1% for when I get emails with tourdates for my favorite musicians that list Northampton.

And they ALWAYS do. ALWAYS.

Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:40 AM | Comments (1)

July 03, 2006

You wish you were me, don't you?

The last week has been nothing if not proof of Murphy's Law.

Actually, if you count the disaster that was Lauren's flight to Detroit that got her in 7 hours later than it should have and had her sitting on the plane on the tarmac for four hours and the not-quite-disaster of her flight back, it's been longer than a week, but let's not count that.

I refuse to tell the entire story of our week again, but I'm happy to summarize.

Monday our movers were supposed to come, but instead we got into a big fight with the stupidest man I've ever spoken to at our moving company, were almost charged $400 extra, scrambled to get a cashiers check for the money that we were told we HAD to pay the movers upon arrival, and had to reschedule the movers for the next day.

Tuesday the movers showed up having done the thing that costs the extra $400 and then didn't even know how much we were supposed to pay and didn't take the check.

Wednesday we went on a giant shopping spree at Ikea and got some of the wrong things, so Thursday, Lauren had to go back twice more. She also went to the hardware store and explained our situation to someone and asked which hardware to get, but was told the wrong answer. At the same time, facilities came to check out our apartment because there appeared to be a leak below the apartment. Thursday night, I completely botched the job that needed to be done with that hardware, so Lauren called my dad to see if he had the necessary tools and then drove over to the house to get them only to find out he didn't. That was also the day my cramps and major PMS started.

Friday our bathroom flooded due to some shower-related stupidity before we could shower and, separately, facilities came back and turned off the water to our bathroom sink. My dad came and helped us with our hardware problems, but then we discovered we needed to return yet another thing to Ikea. Then we found out that we hadn't been paying good attention to which bank we were using for our purchases and had racked up 8+ overdraft fees in less than 24 hours. We talked to the bank on the phone and were told they could do nothing, but it might help to go in in person. We did so, and were told they could probably remove some of them, but we'd have to come back Monday after the rest of the charges went through. In the meantime, we had to take all our money from our other bank accounts and deposit it in that one to avoid any further charges, thereby rendering ourselves broke for the weekend while 1) the bank stuff was cleared up, 2) another big chunk of money sat in a cashiers check the movers never took, and 3) the transfer of funds from our savings to our checking took place.

That meant that all weekend, we sat around feeling grumpy that we couldn't finish doing the shopping we needed to do for our new apartment because we had no money available even though we really had several thousand dollars available.

And today, facilities is back to check on the sink and it sounds like they're going to tear up our living room wall to replace a pipe; Lauren is at her first day of work; we have to find time to get to our bank to finish dealing with the charges; and we still have a bunch of errands to run after Wednesday, when all our money is freed up.

And that was the short version.

Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:42 AM | Comments (3)

June 07, 2006

Sleep now?

Normally I keep this kind of thing to my LiveJournal, but I'm very vain, so there is nothing I love more than answering questions, so I'm doing it here too. I've been "interviewed" by Eryn. Here are my answers.

And if you want to be interviewed, reply here. I'll post questions for you in the comments.

1. You are on the road to Minnesota as I write this. What will you miss about Oberlin or the area?
I said goodbye to Oberlin in 2003, thinking I'd never live there again. Being there again for a year, especially as a non-student, non-employee, non-anything else, changed the way I think about Oberlin pretty intensely, so it's hard to know what I'll miss. I guess I'll miss going to brunch on the weekends and seeing the same people who are always at that same restaurant every Sunday at 11. Even though it always bothered me, I'll miss being surrounded by pessimistic idealists. I'll miss the passion and the angst. I'll miss people who care so much about the world, even if they care too little about things that I value. And I'll miss being somewhere that so completely and totally shaped who I became back when I was in college myself.

2. What are you most excited about moving home?
I'm excited to be somewhere where not everything is such a struggle. I'm looking forward to convenience. I'm excited about good food, lakes and green space in the midst of a city, family nearby, politics I can usually get behind, friends who I really connect with. I'm excited to have a good therapist. But the thing I'm most excited about is that this is home. I feel comfortable but challenged here, and I see a future here. I'm ready to move forward, and Oberlin and the lack of opportunities there was keeping me at a standstill.

3. At what age did you know you wanted to become a Rabbi?
I've actually been interested in the job of a rabbi for a long time... I think I became interested around the age of 11 or 12, when I was preparing for my bat mitzvah and spent a lot of time with rabbis who I really disliked. I thought they did their jobs poorly and I thought I could do better. Then after my bat mitzvah I started meeting some really great rabbis, but even my own rabbi couldn't answer most of my questions. Again, I thought I could do better, but I was disheartened because organized religion seemed to be both divisive and inaccurate. At that point, I completely walked away from Judaism except as a heritage. It wasn't until I found the Reconstructionist movement just over a year ago that I considered becoming a rabbi as a real option.

4. What drew you to Rabbinical school? When do you think you'll go?
That's a hard one to answer. I feel most myself when I'm learning, which, historically, is what a rabbi does. I also feel a strong connection to Judaism now that I've been able to figure out how an organized religion can fit into my life. Finding the Recon movement, which so identically mirrors the views that I had come up with on my own, made everything snap into place. As soon as I found it, there was no question in my mind that I wanted to pursue this. As for when... Emotionally, I'm ready now. In terms of academic preparation, I have another year or so left to finish. In terms of my family being ready for the transition... We figure Lauren should stay in this next job for 3 years or so, and we do want to have our first child before I enroll, if possible, so I guess I plan to apply for fall of '09. That seems so far away... I hate that.

5. Where do you get all the BSC books?
Mainly eBay, a few from Half-Priced Books, and a few from some LiveJournal communities. eBay has been the best source!

Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:51 PM | Comments (1)

June 01, 2006

Little things...

...that deserve a mention but not an entire entry:

  • After three years as an Oberlin student and an extra year living here, I saw the college president in person for the first time today. At my favorite Oberlin restaurant. It was a little surreal.
  • It's really fricking hot right now.
  • I finally found a ringtone to use for all my of my family's phone numbers. I choose People Are Strange by the Doors.
  • For some reason, the heat has given me the travel bug. Italy, anyone?
  • We're all packed. Tomorrow I'll pack my suitcase(s) for our month at my parents' and Friday I'll pack up the bathroom. Saturday, we're out of here.
  • The air conditioner in our living room keeps the room at a chilly 78 degrees. Our bedroom is in the 80s.
  • I'm on a crusade to get my friends to join MySpace. It's kind of sad when I look at my friends list and only see one of my closest friends there. It's sadder that I care. But I do. So SIGN UP and add me.
  • I can't sleep.

    That is all.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 04:22 AM | Comments (0)

    May 25, 2006

    How long can you spend wondering who stole Jessi's toe shoes?

    I'm bored.

    I'm sure it's been nice not hearing me complain about that for the last couple of weeks, but now I'm bored again.

    Our apartment is about as packed as it's going to get until a week from tomorrow, when we load up the car. Lauren's spending more time in her office than usual this week wrapping everything up. All I have to keep me company are my Baby-Sitters Club books.

    I'm even caught up on all my email for once.

    Entertain me?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:58 AM | Comments (2)

    May 22, 2006

    My laptop just doesn't go that loud

    I just realized I'm a big ole genius.

    All year I've been waiting for the day when I could play music as loudly as I wanted without bothering anyone. That was one of my favorite parts about living in our last apartment--loud, loud music.

    Today would have been the day I could finally turn it up to full volume.

    But we sold the stereo yesterday. Oops.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)

    May 18, 2006

    I deserve a medal.

    I am a packing goddess. Worship me.

    I finally got over myself and quit my whining and started packing. I rearranged the living room so that our furniture takes up less space, and now we have a little place to put boxes. I also emptied out the clothes I want to pack well in advance from my closet and moved everything I want to leave out for awhile to one side so that I could block in my closet door, and now we have a good little chunk of space there. That seems to have been enough to motivate me, and I've become a packing machine.

    So far I've packed up all those clothes, nearly all of our board games, our entire bookcase (all 9+ boxes of books), most of the junk cluttering up my corner of our bedroom, and a box of fragile tchotchkes. Plus, I'm going to take credit for two rubbermaid bins that were already packed. So that's a total of 17 boxes.

    Plus, I finally got around to copying all my old clips of RENT on the news and on talk shows and in live concerts onto DVD.

    Of course, the negative of getting all this done is that my hypoglycemic self hasn't had anything to eat other than a couple oreos, and my blood sugar level isn't very happy. Oops.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 03:57 PM | Comments (1)

    May 14, 2006

    because challenges are only challenges the first time around

    Holy cow. I hate moving. I really forgot how much I hate moving, which is surprising considering that it's only been 10 months since our last horrific move.

    We've been back in Oberlin for about a week now, which means that our packing SHOULD be about 1/4 done. But it's not. It took me three days to make myself start calling a bunch of moving companies to price out options. It took us until Thursday night to buy packing tape so that we could start. And it took me until today to finally haul out all the boxes we saved from our last move.

    In the four hours since I got those boxes out, I've packed two boxes. Two boxes full of stuff that I had already set aside before Lauren even got her job offer as things that needed to be stored in boxes for reasons unrelated to moving.

    Very promising, huh?

    It's just that I don't know where to start. I seem to remember that last year, moving was a Big Challenge. I had never organized a cross-country (kind of) move before, so it was fun to prove that I could handle it. It was neat to tell Lauren which boxes things should go in and be right about our system for labeling boxes. It was especially nice to know that Oberlin was covering most of our moving expenses. And it was great that we had both a loft and a dining room that were mostly unused and served as great spaces to stick boxes so that they wouldn't be in our way.

    In fact, last time we packed, we had so much spare room that we managed to house a third person on an air mattress in our living room throughout the entire packing process.

    This time around, it's not new and exciting. This time around, every square inch of space in our apartment gets used daily (or is taken up by the World's Largest Dining Table that the college provided and would not remove). There's nowhere to put packed boxes. We're looking at the definite possibility of having to rearrange the furniture in here to make more room for boxes. Oh yeah, and we have to pay for it all ourselves.

    Anyone wanna come pack up our stuff and/or store our packed boxes for us? We'll love you forever...

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

    April 19, 2006

    So much to say, so little interest in paragraphs...

  • I spent Sunday afternoon pulling up the strips of carpet tacks in my mom's office. I did the whole, big room by myself. I scraped up my hands, but otherwise enjoyed myself.
  • A friend recently told me that the only time she can turn off her brain is when she dances. The only time I can is when I'm doing simple, monotonous, but not-too-taxing manual labor. I enjoyed Sunday afternoon.
  • I spent Monday painting my mom's office (walls and ceiling) with my mom and then moronically decided to roll up the aforementioned carpet it and take it down to the basement. That wasn't as much fun.
  • I'm still missing quite a few books, but I've begun my quest to read every BSC book in order. I am happy.
  • I always thought that Claudia looked a lot like Winnie from The Wonder Years on the first few book covers. Now, as an adult, I still think that.
  • I've gotten a lot of spam on this site in the last few months. Most of it was on one particular entry, so I closed comments on it. Then today I woke up to 22 spam comments. So from now on, comments on each new entry are open for a week, and then I'll close them.
  • It's taking a very long time to go through over 130 entries and close comments on each one. I'm probably too stupid to figure out how to do it all at once.
  • Last night's Gilmore Girls was the WORST episode of that show ever. I mean, the show has had some good periods and bad periods, but last night's show was TERRIBLE. There were a couple funny moments ("I can't pick a side. Either way I look at it, I'm right.") but overall, as a whole, it sucked.
  • Even with all the complaining I do about the noise here, I had totally forgotten how loud it is here while I was gone for 11 days. Last night was horrible. Can I please go back to Minnesota now?
  • It's over 70 degrees outside, and the heat is on in this building. And our living room window is nailed shut by facilities.
  • Oh, yeah, one more thing -- my little brother's girlfriend's mom has cursed my future children. Gotta love that.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:13 AM | Comments (4)

    April 08, 2006

    about nothing

    I'm in Minnesota, land of quietness, better weather, and paint chips. I'm happy to be here, although I already miss Lauren more than I did last time I was here. I'm glad she'll be joining me in a few days. And best of all, we extended our trip here two more days because Lauren has an on-campus interview at the U of MN on Monday the 17th! Please send her all your positive energy -- this opportunity is SERIOUSLY important.

    I'm sending out a major plea, though... Dar Williams is playing at St. Ben's (up near St. Cloud) on Monday night, and I'm DYING to go. I can't find anyone to go with me. If anyone is up for going, I'll happily pitch in for gas, I just need a way to get there.

    And if anyone can tell me why I've had serious pain in my calves for the last 24 hours, I'd really appreciate that. I can't even go up a single step without major pain. For now, I'm going to pretend that they're growing pains and that by the end of the week, I'll be a whole 5'3".

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:45 PM | Comments (6)

    April 06, 2006

    Thank goodness I'll be in Minnesota two days from now. There are people to talk to there.

    In the past 12 hours, I've attempted to write three other posts for this site on three different completely obsessive topics. Each one rambled on and on about details no one but myself would ever care about.

    The first was a public admittance that I actually like Star Trek: The Next Generation and watch it every day and have a favorite character and a favorite episode and everything. The second was about which folk singers I've seen live, which concerts I've missed out in while living in Ohio, and which concerts I plan to go to in Minneapolis next week. And the third was an update on my attempt to collect all 131 Baby-Sitters Club books (I've managed to round up 85 of them, for under 75 cents each, including shipping).

    Conclusion? I have way too much time on my hands, no one to talk to, and nothing significant to say.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:52 PM | Comments (6)

    April 05, 2006

    If Lauren had her way, we would spend all our free time visiting other colleges

    We're back from our little vacation. Actually, we've been back for almost 48 hours now, but I've been in denial. It was so nice to get away from here together. Lauren was able to truly take a brain-break from work. Of course, the trip ended up being a student affairs geek college-tour-o-rama... We saw 8 colleges in one day -- it would have been 9 if we had remembered that Trinity was in Hartford -- and Lauren had the time of her life.

    We spent Saturday late afternoon/early evening checking out Northampton before getting a snack in town and then going to dinner and a Nields concert at the famous Iron Horse. On Sunday we had the yummiest brunch on the planet and then began our whirlwind college tour... We saw Smith, then drove over to the synagogue in Amherst to see how far away it was and checked out Amherst and UMass on the way, and then we ended up at Hampshire because I'm crazy and had some weird need to check out a market near their campus. I have to stop for a second and say that I cannot BELIEVE that I applied to Hampshire. That place is nuts! I also officially believe that Obies have no commitment. They can't commit to being hipsters, like the people in Northampton have, and they can't commit to being crunchy hippies, like the Hampshire students do.

    After that we managed to find Mt. Holyoke despite not having directions. It was eerily like St. Kate's, but I think I prefer St. Kate's. We made a quick stop back in Northampton for ice cream and then decided we were ready to depart and took off for Hartford. After checking into our hotel, Lauren decided she HAD to see Yale, so we headed out again, and we stopped along the way to see Wesleyan and Quinnipiac. And as I said above, we forgot Trinity.

    And that was our trip. It was really nice. I definitely feel like I have a good feel for Northampton now. I can honestly say that I wish I had gone to Smith for college... I think it would have been the perfect fit for me, both in terms of the college and the town. It seems to have everything I got from Oberlin plus all the stuff I didn't get from Oberlin.

    And I can also say that Northampton would be about a million times better than Oberlin if we end up there next year. It's sooooooo much bigger and more lively, and the food.... oh, the food. I expected something about the size of Oberlin, but I was pleasantly surprised. But it's also not what we're dreaming of. It's still more remote than we'd really like, and to be honest, it's a bit too hip for us. We're kind of stodgey and homebody-ish and I wear jeans and sweatshirts every single day and... We felt very uncool there. It seems like a good place to raise kids, though. And the fricking NIELDS live there! And the folk music! We'll never get that kind of folk scene in Minnesota.

    So we have our answer. Minneapolis is home. Northampton isn't a bad 2nd choice, but it's not in contention for a top choice spot. I will say, though, that New England is gorgeous, and if we ever have to move away from Minneapolis, it's definitely on our radar.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:52 AM | Comments (2)

    March 30, 2006

    I call all athletic shoes tennis shoes, and I pronounce it tenna shoes. Deal with it.

    I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm really annoyed that I need new shoes.

    Normally, I fit every single stereotype about women and shoes. I hate buying clothes, and I could wear jeans and a sweatshirt every cold day for the rest of my life and a t-shirt and long skirt every warm day for the rest of my life without complaint. But shoes... I really love them. The only bad things about buying shoes are the cost and finding clothes to go with them. I could go broke on shoes.

    But I really love my tennis shoes. They're totally my style (not too cheesy), totally my colors (neutral, tans, greys), totally fit my needs (they're called "country walking" shoes, which is the only kind of physical activity I would ever do voluntarily), and when I got them, they were the most comfortable shoes I had ever worn. I bought them in the summer of 2003 after I got shin splints working out in the tennis shoes I had been wearing for the previous four years. I felt like I was walking on air. I love pretty shoes, but I have worn them more than 75% of the time ever since.

    Last fall when we started thinking about going on Birthright Israel, I realized I was probably going to need new shoes, especially since I wasn't planning on getting hiking boots. But when I went to the New Balance website, I saw that they didn't make this style anymore. The only "country walking" shoes they make are these, which are so hiking boot-ish. And brown. I really hate shoes that come up that high, so I decided that I could make it around Israel in the shoes I already had. And then we didn't even get to go, so it was moot. This spring, I've applied to Birthright again, but I didn't even bother looking for new shoes. I just figured I'd stick with these. No problem.

    But... Lately my arches have been hurting really badly. In fact, I've been having some serious arthritic pain in ankles, toes, and arches. And I don't feel like I'm walking on fluffy clouds anymore. And then last week in Minnesota, I was tying them and one of the laces snapped off. Since then, I've had to tie my left shoelace in a knot with tiny two-inch pieces of shoelace. We looked for new laces today and couldn't find any that wouldn't look completely ridiculous.

    So I think I have to buy new tennis shoes. I LOVE these shoes. I mean, I loved my Airwalks in 8th grade, and I loved my silver Sauconys in 10th grade (before Saucony was cool, yo), and I liked my turquoise Sauconys after that (they were already cool and pretty much over by then). But I LOVE these New Balance shoes. A lot.

    This exact same thing happened with my conditioner last month. Turns out they've changed the scent, and now the conditioner I've used for the last 10 years is no more. I had to scour the web and buy myself a 9 month supply so that I could have that long to try out new conditioners gradually before I have to go cold turkey and make the switch.

    I think the moral is that I'm weird and obsessive and get attached to things I know, so when I like something, I should buy 37 of it so I'm guaranteed never to run out.

    Anyone know where I could find some old New Balance country walking 745s from 2003 online?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 05:24 PM | Comments (3)

    March 28, 2006

    Huh.

    Um, I'm going to Massachusetts this weekend.

    I'm not really up to going into all the details of why we're going there. I'll just say that it's spur-of-the-moment, probably unnecessary, and something I'm pretty excited about. And it's too late to change our minds, because I just booked the really cheap plane tickets.

    Now I just have to find a hotel and a car and start mapping out all the things we want to find and then... we're going to Massachusetts. By way of Connecticut. I've never been to the Northeast. Wow.

    We could go see the Nields on Saturday night.

    Wow.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 02:03 PM | Comments (3)

    March 13, 2006

    my brain takes longer to recover than my body

    It's been almost a week, and I'm happy to report that I seem to be fully recovered. There are still certain foods that turn my stomach (why, peanut butter, why?), but my temperature is back to normal, nothing aches, and the nausea has totally disappeared. I can even eat things other than plain rice and saltines. It was quite a nasty bug, but I have a feeling no one really wants details, so I'll leave it at that.

    It does appear that in my week of lying on the couch moaning, I missed six whole days of beautiful weather. It was in the 50s and 60s the whole time. Today I'm enjoying one last day of these temperatures with the curtains and windows wide open despite the rain and grey skies, because tomorrow the high is 37. Yuck.

    Also in the past week:

  • my parents moved
  • my baby brother turned 18
  • the Feldman Family Birthday Extravaganza began
  • I discovered that the conditioner I've been using for 9 years has been discontinued
  • we bought the RENT DVD and watched the documentary, which was much better than the movie itself
  • we realized that Lauren is on call during Drag Ball
  • we cleaned the apartment from top to bottom

    This last item is because starting today, in less than an hour, potential Oberlin RD candidates will be touring our apartment. I forgot how much I hate this, but at least it's better than at Ramsgate, where they would just show up at your door with no warning to have people look around. There are scheduled times when the candidates will be here.

    Tonight Purim begins, and we aren't doing anything for it. Tomorrow is Lauren's birthday. Friday morning Lauren leaves for ACPA and I go home for a week. These things are not related, but I felt like sharing them. I have nothing else to say, but it's nice to be able to babble for no reason at all.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:58 AM | Comments (1)

    March 08, 2006

    death, I welcome you

    I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiick.

    I don't know how this happened. Lauren got sick last week, but usually when I catch something from her, I get it immediately. And on top of that, we seem to be suffering from very different things. It appears that I have the flu, while she has a chest/sinus thing going on.

    It came on out of nowhere. I started feeling a little crappy yesterday, but by this morning, I still felt ok, and when I get sick I usually wake up feeling awful. Then suddenly today around noon, I fell apart. I started crying, I felt nauseous, and my whole body started to ache. Within an hour and a half, I had a nasty fever to go with it -- and I never get a fever.

    This is the first time in the last three hours that I've managed to sit up long enough to check my email. I HATE being sick. Please kill me?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 04:59 PM | Comments (1)

    February 23, 2006

    I miss my mommy.

    In the last few days I have:

  • Done a ton of dishes. Why do we always have so many dirty dishes?
  • Discovered that all of the intimidating Hebrew speakers are no longer in my class, so it's safe for me to return.
  • Actually gone out in public and socialized! We had dinner with Kathy and Brad. There's even (really unphotogenic) photographic evidence of this event.
  • Applied for a couple of jobs (!) back home.
  • Talked to my mom on the phone while she was in Maui. No fair.
  • Used an old home design program to draw out our entire apartment with its current furniture for no good reason at all.
  • Read a lot of junky fiction and loved it.
  • Talked on the phone with Carly! And found out that she's leaving me in July for two whole years in the stupid Peace Corps. Stupid Carly.
  • Spent part of a night on the couch in Lauren's office because of a weird mechanical noise here.
  • Earned my keep by being Lauren's job search Personal Assistant.

    My life is thrilling.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 03:31 PM | Comments (2)

    February 09, 2006

    January being so warm gave me a false sense of security

    Every time I see my aunt and uncle, they try to convince us that we'd be happier if we move to San Diego. They do this to the entire family. In the past, it's had no effect on me. This time, all they did was create a goody bag for everyone staying in the hotel they reserved that emphasized the wonderfulness of San Diego. They were so busy that they barely had a chance to mention that we should move there. But I gotta tell you, with this weather here, I'm convinced. If my parents, who are the main reason we want to return home, called up to say they were moving to San Diego, we'd be right behind them.

    Seriously. It's freaking COLD here! I'm pretty sure that last weekend I was sitting out in the sun in a tshirt while Lauren swam in an outdoor pool. And don't think I haven't looked to see what the hall directors in San Diego get paid...

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

    February 06, 2006

    I'm dirty and tired, but I'm home.

    Notes from my weekend trip to San Diego:

  • I got to see one of those laptop that converts to a tablet and that can be both horizontal or vertical firsthand. Now I know FOR SURE that I need one of my own.
  • I met the real, actual Babbette from Gilmore Girls. For real. She exists.
  • I found out that I can actually hold a conversation with people my family likes but I've always been a little scared of.
  • I also found out that drunk extended family members and wannabe standup comics don't stop talking to you no matter how slowly you inch away.
  • I decided In-n-Out isn't actually any better than Rally's. At least the one we went to this week wasn't.
  • Saturday afternoon was spent hanging out poolside with my mom, brothers, and two of my mom's childhood friends while Lauren swam.
  • Today I came home to snow. More palm trees please?
  • As we were about to leave for the airport yesterday, our airline called to tell us that our flight was delayed enough that we weren't going to make our connections.
  • Trying to coordinate 6 people to get on the same flight from San Diego to Chicago but different flights from Chicago to Minneapolis and to Cleveland, while also figuring out rental car return, overnight accomodations, dog sitters, and work/school schedules... sucks.
  • My suitcase was wet inside when we got to San Diego, and this morning there was a reasonable amount of confusion about me and Lauren's flight. With all this as well as the recent luggage-losing experience and a couple other recent problems, I think we're done with this airline whenever possible.
  • My cousins are all grown up!
  • More sun and palm trees please?
  • Click on the photo for more pictures. Email me if you want to see the video of Lauren and my cousin Nathan dancing to YMCA.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

    January 31, 2006

    notes from an absent-minded twenty-something

    In the last 3 weeks I've developed a very strange habit in regards to the bathroom (and no, this isn't anything the squeamish need to skip over). Nearly every time I've used the bathroom, especially while home alone, I've forgotten something.

    It started out that I was forgetting to flush. After the first time that happened while Lauren was home, I was thoroughly embarrassed and it hasn't happened since. However, since then, I've been doing things like walking away without turning off the light or the sink. One time I put soap on my hands and walked out the door without ever even turning the water ON.

    I have no idea what this says about me, but it must say something.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

    washing dishes IS my life

    I know that to most people, this is not at all noteworthy, but I'd like to share my excitement anyway. Here it is: we FINALLY found a good dish sponge. I'm serious. I'm very hard on our dish sponges (we prefer the kind attached to a dispenser), and they tend to crumble and get sliced up when I do the dishes every day. The last one we got also failed to dispense the soap.

    Today I did the whole weekend's worth of dishes (making up for what didn't get done during the lack of dispensing time) and it was just so easy. I love it.

    That's truly the most exciting thing in my life right now, unless you count reading a pregnancy book and two novels, as well as watching almost half of the first season of Popular, in the last three days exciting. Luckily, Lauren and I are off to San Diego on Friday for my cousins' B'nai Mitzvah, so perhaps I'll have something more exciting to share after that.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 12:42 AM | Comments (1)

    January 22, 2006

    What do other people do with their time?

    I'm so bored that the idea of drilling a hole into my eyeball with a pencil sounds appealing, just for the entertainment value. Seriously. Even goofing around online is boring me lately. And as I mentioned in a recent post, I'm waiting for a book to arrive, so I'm not even reading right now, since I don't want to read something else before reading the final installment of this trilogy. Lauren's on call, so we can't get out of town just for a change of scenery. And, of course, I don't really have friends here in Oberlin. That's the hardest part. All of the rest of this stuff would be bearable if I had someone to talk to.

    I don't know what's with me. Even though I'm not always terribly stimulated, I usually know how to stay occupied and entertained pretty well. The most excitement this weekend, however, was catching up on over 3 hours worth of dishes from this past week, when our dish sponge was broken and the dishes were piling up. Right now I'm sitting in the dark because Lauren has a migraine, playing Sudoku and watching a women's figure skating event for which I already know the outcome.

    My life is thrilling.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

    January 09, 2006

    Please laugh at me. I did.

    Last night Lauren and I were lying in bed watching Kitchen Trends (hoping it would lull us to sleep), and they began showing a newer version of the kitchen sprink sprayer. Here is the conversation that followed:

    Me: We had a sprayer in our sink growing up. It--

    Lauren: Rebecca?

    Me: Yeah?

    Lauren: We have one of those sprayers here.

    Me: What?

    Lauren: Yeah, you know, that black thing next to the faucet?

    Me: Are you kidding me?

    Lauren: No, I use it all the time.

    Me: I've never noticed. Are you kidding me?

    Lauren: Do you want to go look?

    Me: Yes!!

    So we got up and ran to the kitchen, where I was greeted by the site of this:

    We've lived here for five and a half months, and I've honestly NEVER noticed that damn sprayer. I do the dishes in our family. Almost every day, I spend between a half hour and an hour staring right at that faucet. And yes, I am truly that unobservant.

    At least now that I know, I'll have an easier time cleaning out the sink after I finish the dishes, right?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

    January 02, 2006

    My common sense is warring with my anxiety, and it ain't pretty

    I'm back in Ohio. So is my computer, which we carried onto the plane. The same can be said for my iPod, my wallet, my cell phone, and my book. The same cannot be said for anything else I brought with me to Minnesota.

    We got in only a few minutes late today, around 12:20. At the baggage claim, we watched as the carousel eventually stopped, leaving about 20 people from our flight still standing and watching as though it would begin again any minute. After about 10 minutes of that, one of the women went to the airline's luggage office and came out yelling about how ALL our luggage was lost. That's right, nearly 20 people's luggage from the same flight.

    I figured it was no big deal. I've never had my luggage lost before, but it happens all the time and very rarely are things ever gone for good. We all got in line and when we put in our claim, we were informed that it was very likely that our bags would be delivered to us tonight. I believed them. After all, when at least 20 bags from the same flight are misplaced, they ought to be together somewhere. And flights from Chicago to Cleveland are pretty regular. Other than enduring the agent's near freak-out over our insistance that it would be ok to deliver our stuff to a college dorm and that YES, we WOULD answer the phone and be there to let them in, it was pretty painless.

    But now it's been nine hours, and I just called the phone number on our "receipt", and our luggage still hasn't even been located, let alone sent on its way to Cleveland. It's not like I need the stuff in there immediately, although Lauren will have to use my shampoo to shower tomorrow, but it would sure be nice to know that it's going to get back to us. And if it's not, it sure would be nice to know that so I can move on. I hate waiting for things. Not as much as the crazy, upset, yelling lady, but it's not fun.

    I guess at least it's a good thing we didn't pack the hand-me-down KitchenAid mixer my grandparents gave us while we were in town... Right?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:15 PM | Comments (1)

    December 30, 2005

    Hello from very snowy Hopkins, Minnesota

    Wow, it's been more than a week since I last posted... My parents' living room just isn't the best place for this. There are too many people walking around and trying to talk to me. However, I figured it might be nice to post once more in 2005.

    This has been the busiest week of my year, I swear. Lauren and I just had a discussion wherein we agreed that next time we visit Minnesota, we will NOT attempt to replicate this whole "see each person individually over the course of a week" crap. Next time, we'll have ONE get together for all our friends and ONE get together for our family, and the rest of the week we can spend with my parents and brothers and running errands and getting to go the places we want to go. We had a lot of stuff to get done this week, and a lot of it didn't happen. I didn't get to see about half the people who I intended to see. Our New Year's wine-tasting party idea turned out to be a bust. And I'm cranky as hell.

    I think I'm going to leave it at that. I'm cranky, I've enjoyed being away from Ohio, the end.

    I'll leave you with a picture that Lauren took of my parents' menorah on the 27th.

    Oh yeah, and today I got to take my 17 year old brother clothes shopping. He's quite the cutie when he wants to be. That was fun. Especially since I was spending someone else's money to dress him.

    See how cute?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 07:19 PM | Comments (2)

    December 22, 2005

    title. subject. annoyance.

    36 hours from now, I'll be arriving at my parents' house. With Lauren, this time. I'm so excited! I'm less excited about leaving for the airport at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday, but the outcome certainly makes it worth it. My tummy is all floppy inside because I'm so excited.

    Also, the building is wonderfully quiet. Most of the students are gone, as the last final was held today and students have to be out by 9 am tomorrow. It's been getting progressively quieter all week, and I love it. The only loud noises today have been people letting their suitcases fall down the echo-y staircase that shares a wall with our living room and the occasional piano-playing.

    We also decided to remedy the pathetic-ness of not having any New Year's plans by having a get-together of our own. And because our parties usually suck, we're making it a wine tasting. I'm nervous that everyone already has plans, which is likely considering the aforementioned lack of invites, but it's worth a shot. (And if you live in the Twin Cities and weren't invited, please let me know. I'm sure it was just an oversight, not a snub.)

    The only other thing going on right now is that I forgot to do my Hebrew final, which was due today at 2 pm. Oops. Good thing I'm not taking the class for a grade, huh? I was too busy cleaning the apartment and doing nothing to do the exam. Mostly the doing nothing part.

    Oh, and I know more than 15 people are reading this, because my counter goes up about 20-30 hits a day. So go ahead and add yourself to my Frappr map already. Please?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:10 PM | Comments (5)

    December 18, 2005

    sof.

    The website is done. Or at least, it's as done as it's gonna be. I've had enough of messing with the Rebecca/Characters/Album/History pages. I've also had enough of messing with my flickr account, which has shown me how boring my life has been in the last 5 months.

    (I say that now, but check back with me in two days. I'm sure I'll be tinkering again.)

    And now that I'm done spending every minute of my day on flickr, I can resume life again. Just in time to spend the week with Lauren while she has a lot of free time, which is nice. And then we go home for 9 days. Nine very, very busy days.

    Assuming I can get some sleep in the next week, the last two weeks of 2005 are going to be happy.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)

    December 13, 2005

    reaching out for human contact

    Unrelated things that I believe are worth mentioning:

  • Today was my last day of Hebrew class
  • In 11 days, I'll be in Minnesota with my wife. This means that everyone I like to spend time with will be in one state.
  • I don't know why I continue to watch Starting Over, as I haven't gotten one useful thing out of this whole season.
  • I would be very happy if everyone who reads this site even occasionally would add themselves to my little interactive map so I don't feel so lonely.
  • I haven't dusted in over a week, and this apartment is a dust factory. I'll fix that after I finish this pointless entry.
  • I think I don't post enough pictures. That's because I don't take enough pictures. That's because there's nothing to take pictures of in my life.
  • I got an IM from a girl who was one of my campers in 2001. Ok, she was my favorite camper. She's all grown up! Crazy!

    That's all I have to say today.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:48 AM | Comments (4)

    December 11, 2005

    vectors make me tired

    I finally, FINALLY got around to doing SOMETHING with my layout. I don't know why it took me almost 6 months, but it did. It still needs a little tweaking, but it's a start.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 05:23 PM | Comments (4)

    December 08, 2005

    I don't know why, but...

    I think I have a crush on Michael Chiarello. Even if he is a stinky yucky boy.

    That is all.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

    December 06, 2005

    wasting time is an art

    The last 24 hours have been quite stressful. From issues getting group homework done to cancelled classes to rearranging furniture due to freezing cold living spaces to finding out that our building is going to be without water (read: no flushing the toilet) for at LEAST 24 hours to more personal stuff... I'm gonna go nuts.

    So instead of ranting about it, I think I'll post a list of the diversions that have kept me sane.

    • I want to dress my iPod as a cowboy
    • find out how popular the name of EVERYONE YOU KNOW has been over the last 130 years
    • what if there had been a RENT sequel (written by a person with no soul)?
    • these dudes really want your books to stay upright
    • there are actual fancy dishes that I like at the top of this page!
    • these are the cutest puppies in the universe
    • I'm finally a little bit educated about the Jewish concept of afterlife
    • I have my own searches saved here, but you'll have to start from scratch
    • if Ohio is pop territory, why do we even fight about this here?

    If you combine all that with Spider Solitaire and hitting refresh on my Yahoo mail every 15 minutes to see if a certain person has written me back and compulsively visiting my favorite message board, my day has been pretty full.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

    December 02, 2005

    maybe doing things I don't want to do is what this is all about

    I applied for a job.

    That's bizarre for so many reasons. The first of which is that it's in Minnesota and starts "immediately" and... well, no "and", just that. It makes no sense of me. Another reason is that it's the first concrete step I've taken toward working in the 11 months since I quit my last job. I applied for one job that I kinda wanted back in March and didn't get it, and I applied for 2 student affairs jobs in April that I ended up rejecting before they could tell me yes or no, because I just didn't want to. And of course, there was that disaster in August where I was offered a job I never applied for and it drove me into the worst depression I've dealt with in 10 years.

    But... Something about it just made me apply when I saw the listing last Friday. The HR director called me Wednesday, and I called her back today. Now I'm waiting to hear from her. I have a minute sense of dread, but mostly, I feel resigned to the idea that I'm an adult now and that I need to work and that if I take better care of myself, I can do this.

    That's going to be the key. Taking care of myself. Listening to my body. Getting out if I need to, and quickly. Doing the other things that I've found to help keep me sane. Being back in Minnesota would mean I could see my therapist again regularly. I saw her over Thanksgiving break and wow, do I miss that. I could resume EMDR and deal with some of my anxiety that way. I also have a passion in my life besides my family right now, and that's important. It's a passion that, while related to the area in which I plan to work, will remain in my life whether or not I succeed at any job. That was missing during grad school.

    I have this serious feeling hanging over me. Not just about this. About babies and houses and money, too. I have this feeling that this time around, it won't be a game. While that feeling is a little stifling, it's also a good thing. I'll be 25 in a month; it's time be a little more grown up. I feel good about that. It's true that if I could, I'd do exactly what I do now for the rest of my life, but I can't. I've accepted that, too.

    So I still don't know why I applied for a job that logistically, I can't really accept unless Lauren and I are willing to live apart, but I did. And even though I feel kind of sick about it, I'm glad I did.

    Posted to Hardly Working & Mental Health & Miscellaneous & Nesting at 06:35 PM | Comments (2)

    December 01, 2005

    my head is in a sparkly place, but everything goes slowly there

    Oh my god I've never been this tired before in my entire life.

    So last night my sensory issues were bothering me, which made trying to fall asleep nearly impossible. Lauren convinced me that I should get out of bed, calm down, and try to come back later. But I never did.

    First I did some reading. Then I listened to my favorite podcast. Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time reading baby information at my favorite bulletin board. Then I remembered that I'm supposed to be participating in an online Secret Santa for that bulletin board and set out to work on one part of the project (which I cannot discuss here, as I know some of the women from that board visit my site occasionally).

    And the next thing I knew, it was 4:30 am. I had to get up at 8:30 today for Hebrew, so that would have left me with 4 hours of sleep. And, I rationalized, sometimes no sleep is better than just a few hours of sleep. Plus, I've been having trouble getting motivated to go to class lately, and I didn't want to accidentally or "accidentally" sleep through it. So I just... stayed up. I worked on this present for quite awhile, interspersed with more reading and paranoid email checking. And then suddenly, it was 9 am and I was running late to get ready for class.

    Anyway, I've certainly gone without sleep before, but I guess that was back in the Olden Days when I had the body of a college student. I'm an old fogey now, you know. Apparently "no sleep is better than just a little sleep" no longer holds true.

    I feel like I'm walking through jello and I feel like my head is stuffed with marshmallow goo. I debated taking a nap, but I know I'll just end up not sleeping again tonight if I do that, and that would be Bad. So after scouring our fridge for caffiene, something that usually doesn't affect me but that I normally avoid anyway, I ended up buying a Mountain Dew from the vending machine. Yuck.

    It's not helping yet, either. I still feel all jello-y and marshmallow-goo-ey.

    And I think my completely forgetting I was in the middle of writing a journal entry to stare off into space is a good indication that this entry is complete.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

    November 30, 2005

    so as not to leave y'all hanging...

    Oh my goodness. In the 8 days I was in Minnesota, I totally forgot what this place was like. OH MY GOODNESS.

    Obviously, I'm back in Ohio. My grandpa is doing much better. I saw him Friday, and about 85% of what he said made zero sense. He was completely delusional. It was scary and upsetting and my family was totally on edge all weekend. By the time I saw him on Sunday, only about 40% of what he said was nonsensical. When I called my mom Monday night to let her know I was back in Ohio safe and sound, she told me he was back to his old self and had been moved from his post-surgery hospital room to a rehab center. I haven't talked to him yet, because I want to check in with my mom again and make sure that he really is with it before I call, but I feel a lot of relief. Things were pretty awful while I was home.

    I was going to write more, but I'm so wiped emotionally... Maybe later.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:13 PM | Comments (1)

    November 25, 2005

    fine, an update

    So, I'm home in Minnesota. And I'm tired. I'm so tired that I've debated starting this entry about 17 times in the last hour and decided I was too tired to go into anything of importance repeatedly. I've finally decided to give it a go.

    I don't think I've mentioned anything in any incarnation of my journal, but for the last year, my grandpa has been having some major health problems. Now, it's absolutely normal for an 80 year old to have health problems, but these came on out of the blue in a man who's always been very active and independent. Over the course of the last year, things have continued to get worse and worse, despite all the efforts to figure out what was going on. Really recently, they finally diagnosed him with normal pressure hydrocephalus and scheduled him to have the brain surgery used as a treatment for mid December.

    However, when I arrived on Monday, the first thing my mom told me was that my grandpa had to be taken to the hospital the previous day and that things were so bad that they were trying to move his surgery to sometime this week. Now, I've talked to my grandpa about this surgery a few times in the last month or so, and he was scared, but also really glad that a possible improvement was in sight. Still, this week was really hard on all of us. The last year has been really hard on us. It's so difficult to see someone rapidly become a completely different person for what appears to be no reason at all. So his surgery was yesterday, and it's hard to say where things are right now. The surgery itself went fine, but of course today was the day after and he wasn't very comfortable. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

    Right now, though, I'm just so tired. My whole family is tired. Our Thanksgiving dinner only lasted 2 hours. My dad, who normally gets up before the sun, slept until 8 am today. We all took naps today. I don't even know why I'm awake except that I had to push to stay awake when I first got tired at 8 pm and I haven't been able to stop pushing.

    I also have no interest in seeing anyone right now. I'm trying to keep as many of the plans I made before getting here as possible, because I do miss my friends, but mostly, I just want to be with my family. I've hardly talked to most of my friends in the last 4 months that we've been in living in Oberlin, and I don't feel like explaining my life. I don't feel like telling everyone about the RRC institute or about the Reconstructionist movement. I don't feel like explaining my plans for the future. I don't feel like explaining what I do with my time in Oberlin. I don't feel like being around people. So far I've only seen Stuart and Mary, and I spent the night babbling like there was no off button. I don't feel like doing that with more people and feeling like a complete moron. I do want to see Sara, who I haven't seen since July of 2004 when she left for Japan; and I do want to see Carly, the one person who I've sort of talked to since we moved; and I do want to see Pam and watch movies and have a slumber party. But I just... Don't have any energy.

    And I miss my wife. Have I mentioned that? I was doing fine about missing her while she was in Oberlin. She was busy and so was I, but when we did talk, it was easy. Now that she's home, I don't feel like I can lean on her the same way. I'm just so tired...

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 12:42 AM | Comments (2)

    November 12, 2005

    just checking in

    Today is the first day since we got back that I have actually been able to breathe without wishing I was dead. Whatever cold or bug the other institute participants brought with them to share with me was a real pain in the butt. Today I'm only having coughing fits every few hours and could actually smell my bath products in the shower. Much better than the last few days.

    I thought about writing a long entry about last week's institute, but I don't think that anything I have to say would make sense to anyone but me, so I'll leave it by saying that although I don't have any future plans set in stone, my IDEAS for the future are closer to making sense and I'm feeling very calm. I have options, Lauren is with me, and I'm happy.

    Obviously, nothing exciting has come about since I got back, since I've been too sick to move. I had to miss both days of class this week. My main activity this week has been reading, memorizing the daytime TV schedule, and counting the days till I go visit MN (as of today, 9). I'm eagerly awaiting a copy of the photo taken of the institute participants on the last day, since I really really liked all those people, and I'm trying to make plans to see some people when I go home, although I don't think I'm going to have as much time as I had hoped.

    Lauren and I decided not to go on Birthright this winter. There were too many things saying that it wasn't the right time, the right trip, the right circumstances. I'm disappointed, but we still have 2 more chances before Lauren doesn't qualify anymore. We'll apply again. And if it comes down to it and we can never go on Birthright, we'll find a way to go to Israel in another way. It's really important to me to go, and I think that as Lauren is becoming more invested in her religious and spiritual identity, it will become as important to her as well.

    That's all. Life over here is boring these days. Boring, but good.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 04:18 PM | Comments (1)

    October 26, 2005

    oy.

    I feel at a loss for words. I've felt very voiceless lately, and I'm not entirely sure why. So instead of trying to get in touch with whatever, I'm going to give a rundown of whatever I can think of and hope that writing it out helps me feel more comfortable with this and gets me back here later on to say something for real.

    The main thing on my mind these days is money. Every time I think I have a reasonable plan set for our household, something HUGE comes up that I don't know how to deal with that makes me wonder if we can even afford a roll of paper towels. I get that financial extremism from my dad. At least I come by it naturally and it's not some sort of weird thing I made up all on my own.

    Three particular finanical hardships are stressing me out this week, along with the ever-looming "we'll never have enough money to buy a house." First, I booked a ticket home for Thanksgiving that cost a lot more than I would normally pay for a plane ticket. It was still reasonably low ($222), but it stressed me out. Then I realized I'll have to pay for my visit to my therapist while I'm home because she's not in my network and I'm not on my parents' insurance anymore. So there goes another $120.

    And then the biggie. I found out that my dad and I had a miscommunication and I actually have $10,000 in student loans that I thought were paid off and are not. Oh, and we found out that Lauren's student loan payments are going to double next month.

    I'm SO sick of hearing the phrase, "We'll take it out of savings; that's what it's for," come out of my own mouth. Our savings is minimal. It's money that should have gone toward Lauren's student loans, but we decided that since the interest rate on her loans is lower than the amount of interest we make in that account, we should keep it there for now.

    But on top of all these things, we have "luxuries" to pay for. We applied for a birthright trip, which is free, but we have to pay for our transportaion to New York, all kinds of supplies (like luggage, hiking boots, etc.), and any spending money while we're there. We just rejoined Weight Watchers, which means spending money on groceries instead of eating at the dining hall (not that we were really eating there anyway).

    Ugh, I'm a mess. And all I want is a house and a baby.

    Ok, this definitely did NOT make me want to write more. I just feel worse. Let's try again.

    Speaking of rejoining Weight Watchers, I'm putting More for Less back up. I spent the last day trying to replicate the layout on Movable Type, but it's not going to happen. I don't miss hand-coding the entries (never thought I'd say that) and dealing with FTP, but I think I'm going to leave it as is...

    Ok, I'm done. This is getting stupid.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 11:22 AM | Comments (3)

    October 15, 2005

    Catching up

    1. Dar Williams' twin sat near us at services on Wednesday and Thursday. We did eventually find out her real name, but we'll keep caling her Dar Williams. She's very nice and sings like Dar, too.

    2. We're going to join Kol HaLev, finances permitting.

    3. Lauren's parent's will be here within the half hour, and then my mom is coming on Wednesday for 4 days. I miss my mommy!

    Posted to Jew-mania & Miscellaneous at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

    October 11, 2005

    See? I'm not always a grump.

    Since my last entry, I got to look and coo at very cute puppies (even if they WERE in a stinky pee-filled room at a horrible pet store). So I'm in a better mood.

    I also tried on every possible combination of nice clothing I have, with the welcome addition of a very cute pair of pants that I bought today, and I came up with two outfits for services that work very well. There was a third that worked even better, but since it involved 3 1/2 inch heels and there's a lot of standing on Yom Kippur, I decided to forego that option, even though it made the pants the actual correct length on me.

    I packed up everything I'll need for our stay in Beachwood and put away all the rejects, as well as some of the other clothing lying around our room. So I can pretend that I did a little cleaning, as well.

    I also ate very good fried chicken and pierogies for dinner and have nearly finished the novel I'm currently reading. The week is looking up.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)

    Reasons Today Sucks

    I. Am. CRANKY.

    I had a massive anxiety attack on Saturday night, and ever since, all has NOT been right in my world. Every little thing pisses me off.

    Today's annoyances:

  • My quiz in Hebrew class was at the end of the class instead of the beginning.
  • I spelled 2 words wrong on the test. I had been hoping for another 100%.
  • I have yucky, yucky cramps. And the accompanying backache.
  • When I have cramps, I need to eat regularly or I throw up. I'm hoping the cramps are over by Yom Kippur because I'm fasting, dammit.
  • Lauren's anniversary tulips came in late and they're kind of wimpy looking.
  • Being that I've gained back all 60 pounds that I originally lost, I have no clothing that fits.
  • This includes nice clothes, so now I have to try to go shopping again (in the 2 hours Lauren has free) to find suitable clothing for shul. And spend money on clothes. Because as I mentioned last week, pajamas/jeans are NOT acceptable.
  • Someone broke up with one of my favorite people on the planet in a rather asshole-ish way.
  • Our place is a mess and I have to get it REALLY clean by this weekend, when Laur's parents come to visit.
  • The building custodian got on my case yesterday and I'm still anxious about it.
  • I found out that several of the people who I considered... acquaintances, I guess, here at Oberlin are in my building at least once a week, but not one has stopped by to say hello.
  • I miss my mommy and my daddy and my brothers and my dog and my friends.

    I guess that's it. For today. I'm just a ball of cranky. I generally do a very good job of letting this stuff go. But right now, I just wanna throw a temper tantrum and stay in bed for the next two weeks.

    I hate feeling this way.

    Posted to Mental Health & Miscellaneous at 03:08 PM | Comments (2)

    September 26, 2005

    I remember in 1994 when none of my friends had computers and this was how life was every day

    I'm completely cut off from the world!

    Ok, obviously not completely, or I wouldn't be posting this, but if I want to stay in my own home, then I really am cut off from the world. And isn't that the most 21st century thing anyone has ever said?

    Our building is experiencing an unexpected power outage right now. It started out deceptively; we lost power in the kitchen and the lights in three rooms were only at half power. Then Lauren's clock radio was possessed by a poltergeist and started speaking at me even though it was OFF. Then my clock turned off, but the TV still worked. And then suddenly... no power. At all. And they don't know when it will be back.

    And then, since I'm a genius, I decided I should put my new playlists on my iPod before I shut the computer down. However, when I plugged it into my computer, I got a little pop-up window telling me that my iPod software needed to be updated, so I complied. The problem? After updating the software, the iPod needed to be plugged into an outlet. So then I was without power and without iPod. No music. No TV. No Internet. I was All Alone.

    Tragedy.

    Luckily, Lauren's office is in the next building over, and it still has full power, so I'm over here checking my mail in her short break before her next meeting. But after that... Back to tragic alone-ness. I might have to leave the house tonight. (Yeah right.)

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 04:02 PM | Comments (1)

    September 25, 2005

    Just so y'all don't think I'm dead...

    I wrote out this great entry about how I'm a visionary and football players working for CDS pedaling bikes that make smoothies next to the living machine in the environmental science building (inspiration courtesy an MTV show), but I'm sick right now, so I'm not very funny. So I deleted it.

    I have nothing interesting to say. I've been sick this week, and before I got sick, Lauren got sick. I miss her a lot when she's at work, but I had no idea how used to being alone all I day I had gotten... And Lauren, who is now feeling mostly better, is currently stir crazy. Thank goodness for both of us that she's running errands right now.

    So my week has basically consisted of Hebrew class, watching lots of TV, organizing my music collection, crying (I cry a lot when I'm sick), reading (I got Plastic Angel by Nerissa Nields from OhioLink!), and playing online at JigZone and Web Sudoku (thanks a lot, Jenn). Riveting, huh?

    There, now everyone who constantly asks me what I do with myself has their answers.

    And now Ashlee Simpson and Paradise, New York are calling. Excuse me.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 12:58 PM | Comments (1)

    September 18, 2005

    Jew-mania

    I've had such a Jewish week! Between Hebrew class, reading two Jewish novels, my Birthright Israel interview, and jotting down some general ideas for my RRC application essay, I'm all Jewed out.

    In truth, I'm really enjoying it. I'm loving Hebrew class so far, although as our vocabulary list approaches 100 words, I'm beginning to have trouble remembering which verb is which. I'm surprised, though, at how much Hebrew I retained from Talmud Torah. I know so many of the words we're learning, I already know how to read and write (but not translate) in script and block, and the things I don't know are coming easily so far. True, we still haven't finished the alphabet, but I really look forward to every class and come home excited to do my homework.

    Unfortunately, I showed my professor the list of what I'll need to know to get into the Mechinah year of RRC, and two semesters isn't going to be enough. She told me, though, that there's an Israeli student here who could probably help me with the other stuff. I hope so. I understand that it's possible that I won't be able to apply for another year, but I'm really hoping to start next year if I can.

    I've also now done everything I can do to get ready for Birthright. I applied for my passport, did my phone interview, sent in my deposit... Lauren has done the same. I'm still a little nervous about choosing Kesher for our trip provider, but in the end, I doubt it matters much. They said we should know in 2-3 weeks whether we got on. My hopes are high.

    I finally read The Red Tent this week. People have been recommending it to me for years, but I just wasn't that interested. I finally gave in, and I really enjoyed it. It's not up there on the favorites list, but it was really pretty good. I think I'd like to own it. Right now I'm reading The Outside World, and while I can't imagine a non-Jew trying to read it, I'm enjoying that, as well. Reading is fun. It makes me forget to do important things, like bathe and do dishes and go outside, but it's fun.

    That's been my whole week. It's been the least interesting since I got here. And I've enjoyed it.

    Posted to Jew-mania & Miscellaneous at 09:43 PM | Comments (3)

    September 12, 2005

    The only reason I'm posting this is that I've been without human contact all day.

    There's a balcony that runs the length of our apartment, but the balcony is not ours. It's for the residents of the building. I spend most of my day at the desk I'm sitting at now because this room has open-able windows and the windows in our living room don't open and I feel sick sitting in the stale air in there. Even when I'm reading, I sit at this desk. Next to this desk is the door to the bathroom, and next to that is the open window that keeps me from getting sick.

    The problem is that sometimes students are on the balcony RIGHT NEXT TO ME, and more importantly, RIGHT NEXT TO MY BATHROOM. It's one thing to pee in a public bathroom where everyone else there is also peeing. But right now I really need to pee and there are a bunch of students right outside my window. Way too creepy for me.

    I already know I'm uptight. You don't have to tell me.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)

    September 11, 2005

    And I thought Ohio was boring!

    Today in the car I started thinking about what a nice weekend Lauren and I had had and how it would make such a nice journal entry. A refreshingly positive entry about how nice it is to have my wife around and all the fun stuff we did.

    After tonight, I have a whole new entry to write. And it takes precedence.

    Tonight Lauren and I decided to end our wonderful weekend by having dinner at this restaurant in a ridiculously opportunistic shopping area in a nearby Cleveland suburb. We chose the restaurant because of its sidewalk patio dining and then waited nearly an hour to get an outdoor table.

    The night's events started innocently enough. Out of nowhere, a very drunk girl wearing a Browns jersey, a denim miniskirt, and cowboy boots ran across the street (if you could call a very fast stumble a run) clutching the arm of some guy and sobbing. Loudly. Before I even had a chance to ask Lauren if she was really crying and nearly falling down, she was gone.

    However, about ten minutes later, she reappeared with three new guys and another girl in a denim miniskirt. All of them were clearly drunk beyond any level that would be considered "safe", but it wasn't until they started playing in the streets that they attracted a lot of attention. Then a big SUV nearly hit the non-cowboy-boots girl and her response started the entertainment for the evening.

    She held her hand up to the SUV driver to stop, turned around, and pulled her skirt up to her stomach. And everyone in the vicinity got to see brightly colored thong and/or bare ass.

    This led to a good fifteen-minute display of both girls' bare asses. The cowboy-boots one did a cartwheel and fell over. They both started stumbling in circles and holding their skirts up to their chests. I know that to some people, this would be funny, but to me, it was just plain disturbing. Worse still was this other table of people sitting nearby who were cracking up. We had been annoyed with them for quite some time, but to see three high school girls and one of their parents laughing at drunk, bare-butted girls was more than I could take. I was very, very happy when security showed up to haul them away.

    At that point, we figured the evening's entertainment was over. We ate our dinners. We got a discount because of Lauren's mis-cooked food. The really cute manager came to our table to apologize for both the food and the naked ladies. All done. Good to go.

    And then the table of annoying people left. And the mom, who had been drinking and smoking through her entire dinner -- as well as beforehand, while they were waiting -- stumbled out of the restaurant even more drunkenly than the cowboy boots girl, and it became visible to me, her husband, her daughter+friends, the other diners, and the huge crowd gathered on the corner that not only couldn't she walk, but she had also peed in her pants.

    Actually, to be more precise, she had peed in her overalls.

    I just don't know what to think. Who behaves that way? Who goes out in public and drinks until they've lost control of their behavior and their bodily functions? At a nice restaurant. Or on the sidewalk in a ridiculously trendy/expensive shopping area? Who does that kind of thing?

    Anyway, we moved on with our night, and our weekend was still great, but I have to admit, I'm kind of in shock about this. It's ridiculous. I've seen college students with three-inch-thick judicial folders make better choices. Call me a wet blanket, but I'm so not impressed.

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

    August 22, 2005

    When you're broke, this is what you have to do for fun

    My life is so uninteresting to outsiders that I've really had nothing to share lately. The good news is, however, that I'm keeping myself amused.

    Two things have been the center of my attention for the last few days. The first is my scanner. My parents gave it to me for my birthday to encourage my idea to make more books like our wedding album, possibly for some sort of minimal profit. At our last house, I didn't have anywhere to set it up, so I'm just now getting to play with it. This has led me to me scanning my ENTIRE photo collection onto our gorgeous new Toshiba (newly named Janine Kishi, because, if I recall correctly, she was very good with computers). It has plenty of room for moderate quality scans of all 3000 or so of my photos. I've been enjoying reliving my entire life. You had all better be prepared for some upcoming photo tours of my childhood.

    Also, last night I took Lauren through all 427 of my Herzl Camp photos, pointing out all my crushes along the way. Her response was that I totally have such a type, and how did I end up with her anyway?

    The other thing that's been at the center of my attention is facebook. It's a really stupid obsession, but if you had a freakish fear of losing touch with people you might not even have known that well like I do, you'd understand. Unfortunately, it was created a few years too late for people my age, so I have trouble finding anyone I know. Usually the people I find on there are either little siblings of high school friends or kids I babysat. I've tried to avoid adding those people, although I did add Pam's sister, Cindy. So if you're on facebook, take pity on me and let me know.

    That's it. That's my whole life lately. Two free obsessions that take up a lot of my time and no additional money. Isn't my life fascinating?

    Posted to Miscellaneous at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

    August 12, 2005

    Checking in, yo.

    We're getting a new computer! Yes, we're still the brokest people alive, but we do have a very small savings account, and this computer just isn't cutting it. I can't work on any large files that I want to be able to keep because