lernen torah

is a besser zach.

drisha is cool.

good shabbos.

a conversation

me: i like to think of myself as a 'collaborative decision maker.'
jose: that sounds a lot better than 'codependant.'

why does it matter?

Now that my kidlets are done with school my duties are mostly clerical and, as is the habit in my school, ill-defined. (Hence the sitting around blogging during the school-day...) Anyway, the first day of our relative freedom a bunch of us showed up late, and my boss was not happy. However, when I asked if I could come in early and leave early (thus fulfilling my contractual 6 hour 40 minute day) he said OK, and seemed to indicate that I could leave early even without coming in early.

So, why is it OK to come in on time and leave early, but not OK to come in late and leave on time?

I think it has something to do with being on time indicating a certain zrizus or seriousness to get whatever boxes have to be packed packed, whereas he will look the other way if I leave early because he, like the rest of us, knows that the ammount of work to be done would take 3-4 hard-working days, and is only expanding to fill the time we have to be here anyway. So I do my part as an employee by pretending it matters, and he does his as an employer by acknowledging that it doesn't.

making friends...

About a year ago* this time I met a man in Riverside park with whom I had the following conversation or something very much like it, I forget exactly):

Man: My name's Kenneth. What's yours?
Me: Mary (A small and meaningless precaution in the face of quasi-sketchy peole who might just be stalkers)
Kenneth: Where are you going?
Me: home to take a nap. (I was actually going to a museum, but didn't feel like I wanted to have to disinvite him...)
K: Can I come with you?
Me: (fumbling confusedly - I thought I had avoided the need to disinvite!)
K: Can I be your boyfirend?
M: I have a boyfriend.
K: (undeterred) Can I be your lover?
M: No.
K: Ok, well it was nice to meet you.
M: (some formal farewell before I skedaddled...)

At the time I was amazed at having been bested in conversation (ie, left speechless) by a homelss, and clearly not mentally normal, person. The reason I tell this story now is that I met a man on the subway on Friday, with a bunch of plastic bags and a CD player, who came over to me to compliment me on "my purple outfit" (purple skirt and blue shirt) and then went back to his seat. His nasal voice was familiar, and for the rest of my train ride I fought the temptation to ask him if his name was Kenneth.

So far, just a story of funny coincidences, but when the same man was on my train back from Shabbos, and he came over to me (out of a dozen plus people on the train) and woke me up from my traditional Q-train slumber by poking me in the knee to compliment me on my Big Straw Hat, then returning to his seat again without a conversation, I wondered if Someone Out There was trying to send me some sort of message. I mean, if I believed in bashert I might be convinced ;)


*I thought I posted about this before, but I can't find it, so I apologize for any redundancy or discrepancy in the rendition...

The Beautiful People

I had a lovely shavuot in Teaneck, NJ, depsite being the only woman in shul in sensible shoes who wasn't severely pregnant or old.

oncarrying stuff, especially cool stuff

i went to chicago with exactly one piece of hand luggage, and returned with two carry-ons and three checked pieces, all of which I had the pleasure of transporting home by public transport. Lucky for me, one of the things I was carrying was a guitar case (not mine). It really seemed like people were nicer to me becasue I looked all struggling-artsy.

richard m. daley, mayor

thoughts on my first visit to chicago in nearly exactly a year.

1 - I forgot how lovely Hyde Park can be.
2 - When you're young and only have been gone for a year, it's not too hard to get back to complete familiarity with a place despite the gaps (like completely forgetting about the existence of S. Lake Park Ave)
3 - I imagine if I come back in 30 years I will not be able to feel familiar again in the same way, which is sad in the way that all change is sad for packrats like me.
4 - Last time I left in too much of a rush (of stuff to do as well as of excitiement for the future) to be sad, but somehow being back makes me feel like I'm reliving leaving, with more time for moping and angst about the Past That Can Never Be Recaptured and somesuch...
5 - I hate new york.
6 - The Lake.

many thanks to zevi for inspiring this trip, and congratulations!

"jazzberry jam."

on thursday i went to an all-girls school for an interview, and stayed for a concert by an all women's jazz ensemble who, despite their corny name, were pretty good, and certainly very good in the educational school performance stuff...

this lady was awesome. reminded me a little of my high school history teacher, mrs. kaufman. pants practically up to her armpits, grumpy (though that was mostly for show, i think). And, despite looking like grandma, she played some awesome drums and got the biggest applause at the end.

evolution, shmevolution

while i generally think all of this is silly, and i would like to see a mathematical-type model of the strength of pressures necessary to maintain mutations with these adverese effects based solely on the advatages the allegedly confer in terms of survival (though such models are themselves highly speculative, i think), i have often wondered, in a less serious way, if the selective pressures for intelleigence in the ashkenazi, or general jewish, community, might not be sexual - ie, everyone wants to marry the best bochur in lakewood ;)

i think that might be the longest sentence on this page... sorry, and good shabbos.