puppycam

I have a new love. No, it's not a man. No, it's not a new book, or an old book, or even a sweater.

It is a website. I am obsessed with the puppy cam. It's this website where you can watch a batch (6) of really cute puppies (not sure what breed). All day long. Most of the time, they're schluffing, or playing with each other, or schluffing.

Work will never get done again. Oh, happy day.

Check it out yourself; your day will instantly get better! http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

we'll ask the local jet set, to dine on our dinette-set

This week was jam-packed with wonderfulness and busy-ness in a crazy way.

Last Tuesday, as the universe knows, was the election. I don't think I can remember a time in my life when I was quite that excited to wake up at 5:45am, but I zoomed through getting ready and bustled my way to the polling station in Skippack. It was totally packed with people, which made me happy, and so I spent a beautiful hour chatting with other citizens and waiting to cast my ballot. Note to self: casting a ballot in person is really so much better than absentee. I spent all day at work checking the polls and being ridiculous, and was quite glad that I have a non-office job because if I had been near my computer for any more time I would have exploded.

I got home, and Bubbie and I had a yummy meal, then alternated between CNN, ABC, and Jon Stewart all night. I got a lot of needlepoint done, and my poor Bubbie had to endure renditions of "Ohio" and "I was Born in Virginia" throughout the evening. I was on the phone with Schutz when Virginia was called, and we both figured out that this meant that he had won, and we were still on the phone together when they called it for Obama -- AMAZING.

So needless to say I went into work on Wednesday a very happy me. We were all pretty excited about things, and the day was going quite well until around 2:00 in the afternoon, when I got pulled off the floor. Turns out visitor numbers are way down, and they had to lay some people off, so we had this big awful scary quiet meeting, and my boss was laid off. It doesn't really affect my day-to-day so much, but I think before this economic crisis thing felt very far away, like it didn't really impact my life, and this made it much more personal.

Considering last week was only a three-day week of work, it was pretty ridiculously up-and-down. The trip to Boston that followed was even more ridiculous and was filled with many more good things, and not so many bad as the week before. More on that in a later post.

I'm just the cleverest feller twas ever my fortune to know

A bit of an update seems necessary, since it's been a while, and I no longer have the stress of the GRE preventing me from writing in the proverbial unnecessary, self-aggrandizing blog.

Speaking of which . . . I'm done with the GRE! I did well enough that I'm totally not going to retake it, and it's one thing on the need-to-get-done-in-life checklist. And, I'm now required to go to grad school within the next five years, or I'll have to take it again. Which would be gross, so grad school it is.

In much more exciting news, I'm headed to Boston/Brandeis/my happy place in two weekends -- I'm ridiculously excited to a. not have Hebrew school for a week (although I'm loving it and it's going well, I could use a break), b. see all the people I miss desperately, and c. be social, goshdarnit. I really don't love the whole not-seeing-friends ever situation that seems to be where I've landed myself at home. Perhaps it was silly to lose connection with all of those people from high school, but everyone I love is away or busy for the most part. And realistically, high school friends aren't quite the same as college friends (with some notable exceptions). So needless to say I'm excited about going to Boston.

In decidedly ridiculous news, my mother and I were sitting in the office the other day and decided to make her a facebook page. So Mona is now on facebook. I'm not quite sure how to feel about this, but amused is definitely a part of it.

So I believe a few countdowns are in order:
4 days - spending a night in NYC just for fun!
7 days - election!
9 days - Brandeis!

Happy happy day. Even if it is intermittently snowing and hailing and blowing nasty stuff. Plus, I just bought a new coat. So even that can't bother me that much, because I have prospect of happy warmth coming into my life soon!

One thing has been really bugging me throughout this very long, very fatiguing campaign. The accusation that Barack Obama is a Muslim drives me up a wall. First of all the evidence clearly indicates that he's not, but much much much much more importantly, it shouldn't matter. Not at all, not one bit. This is America, and there are Muslim-Americans who fight in Iraq, who run for Congress, who are every bit as American as my family or George Bush's family or John McCain's family. So if Barack Obama were a Muslim, I'd STILL vote for him. There are moderate Muslims all over the world (out of 1 billion people, I'm sure they don't all want to wipe Israel off the map), and I'm much more interested in a candidate's ability to affect change, position on the environment, position on Israel than anything else. And Obama's got it together on those counts. 

I've been ranting about this to everyone for months. It's a real pet peeve. But when Colin Powell said the same thing (and infinitely more eloquently than I could) on Meet the Press this Sunday, I have to say my heart leaped. Here is a moderate, thoughtful, former General who really knows a lot more than me about this country and he also thinks that the behavior of those who insist that a Muslim-American couldn't be President is deplorable. Of course, Obama isn't even a Muslim, but if he were, what would matter?

I almost feel like this is the Muslim version of the song If You Were Gay from Avenue Q. "If you were muslim, that'd be okay I mean cuz hey, I like you anyway. .. etc etc, followed by "but I'm not Muslim". Of course, it doesn't rhyme as well . . .

Anyway, check out the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_NMZv6Vfh8 

I am finding it simultaneously frightening and exhilarating (from a purely historical perspective) that the Northwest Passage opened briefly this summer.

by order summer lingers through September . . .

Last week moved along quite briskly, with a few ridiculous highlights punctuating my relatively humdrum existence.

Last Saturday, I went into work as usual, having heard rumors of an intense former hurricane coming the way of Philadelphia. I figured it wouldn't really affect me so much since I work inside and my walk to work isn't that bad. Needless to say, I went out after work to meet someone only a few blocks (maybe 6 or 7) away, and almost blew away. Like actually, I felt like Almira Gultch again. Only not on stage, and minus that amazing ruffled shirt I got to wear. Anyway, dinner at Fuji Mountain was amazing -- I totally recommend it for those in Philly. But I can't remember the last time I was that overwhelmed by the weather. Oh wait, yes I can -- remember when it snowed 3 ft at Brandeis? ... that was similarly overwhelming.

The next day I woke up to a frighteningly idyllic day (especially in comparison to the previous one) -- I went to the ACAJE (jewish educators) Supplementary School conference at KI in Elkins Park. It was an okay morning, lots of chatting with Beth Or people and Or Ami people and stuff life that. Definitely nice to see my old teachers now that I've been away from Beth Or a while and have some distance from it, but I'm also really glad that I'm not teaching there -- I think it'd be too weird. Maybe at some point in the future, but for now, I'm loving Or Ami. Anyway, my first session on different types of learners was nice but rather typical, and I didn't feel like I got anything new out of it. The second session on the other hand was wonderful -- it was led by Ellen Walters, who was my 3rd grade Hebrew school teacher, and who is one of those master teachers that everyone should learn from. Anyway, the session was on giving early elementary kids a set of problem solving tools and empowering them to think through their own problems -- definitely some food for thought there.

I did have one moment where I felt really uncomfortable at the conference -- I saw Michelle Shapiro, whose husband gave us Harley when they moved to an apartment and couldn't have a dog -- anyway, she asked how Harley was, and I had to tell her that he passed away and the whole awful story and it was just miserable. I'm really fine about it, it's not like I'm still missing my dog like a crazy person 8 months later, but there's something awful about having to talk about something when you're not expecting to have to.

Anyway, after ACAJE, I dropped the car off in Jenkintown and took the train into Philly, which was wonderful because I got to see Jackieeee :) (and the elder Ms. Feinberg as well :) ). It was so great great great to see her before she took off for the land of kilts and haggis, and we had a beautiful afternoon of wandering around in the sun, playing in South St. and checking out the decidedly wonderful GreenFest. goodtimes had by all. Note to self: the key to happiness = eating more Maoz falafel.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. Highlights included:
- an accidental and unfortunate addiction to that stupid secret life of an American teenager show. it's like a train wreck. i can't stop myself from watching.
- a chat with Skrevsky on the phone!!!!
- the pronouncement by Bubbie Ethel that "I'd rather have Newt Gingrich than that awful Sarah Palin woman." This may not seem remarkable to you, but considering Bubbie's previous history with Mr. Gingrich, I was shocked (in 1994, she repeatedly threw pillows at his image on C-SPAN while stuck in bed due to heart troubles. 8-year-old me was mildly frightened, and grew up thinking that Newt Gingrich was the devil).

look, I find some of what you teach suspect

RIP, RENT.

I'm having trouble believing that RENT is actually over -- it's been a part of Broadway basically since I knew what Broadway was (well not quite, I WAS watching Peter Pan and South Pacific as a 3-year-old), but still.

I didn't start off loving RENT. Like many things in life, I refused to get excited about it until Matt Stern Made me (the story is the same for Wicked, Avenue Q, and Stephen Sondheim, as well. Parade, too for that matter). But I digress. As a kid doing musical theater in the Beth Or and PV world, I was convinced that RENT was too commercialized -- everybody liked it, and I was a musical theater purist, so of course I wouldn't. Having every word memorized and shouting it on buses to youth group events and during rehearsals for other shows did not appeal to me. In fact, I blocked it out so well from my repertoire of musicals-i-like that I didn't see it or listen to the full CD until 2005, when the movie came out. Matt told me I had to see it, and that I was ridiculous if I didn't, so I got the CDs from him, listened to them over and over until I felt like I got the plot, and then went to see the movie. Which I enjoyed thoroughly. I became a latent RENT-head, somehow knowing all of the words to the songs I had judged people for 5, 10 years earlier. The allure wore off about a year later, when I worked as a counselor for Rockwood Adventures, a teen tour. Nothing kills a RENT buzz like 12- and 13-year-old girls screaming the lyrics.

Anyway, fast forward again to this April, when I took a well-deserved weekend off from the craziness of senior year at Brandeis to go see the show with Ronis in New York. I'm sure the show lost something over time, and I get that it's now a relic of something that doesn't quite exist anymore, but its music still resonated with me. At the time, I loved the feel of the theater itself (although in retrospect, it was a little East Village theme-park-y). Anyway, I'm definitely glad I got a chance to see it before it closed, if only because it's a part of musical theater history, and there are few things in life I love more than musical theater history.

So rest in peace, RENT. Lots of people will miss you.