Shabbos

So, we went to my sister and brother-in-law's for shabbos in Woodmere, it was so nice. We went to their shul, Aish Kodesh, which is SUCH a nice shul. Physcially, it's beautiful. The doors are bronze, and very detailed, the mechitza is made out of one-way mirrors, so that the women can see what's going on, and the Aron is beautiful. The nicest thing, however, was the everyone sang together. No one groaned when the chazzan tried to sing... they sang with him, enthusiastically. And when the Rabbi spoke, people listened. Tzvi went to a mens seudat shlishit at the shul, and he said everyone sang there too, and people crowded around to hear the Rabbi speak. It was just a really nice change.
Of course, it was also great spending time with my sister and Michael. They're always fun.

Accent: New York, I suppose... but not a strong one.
Booze: Sea Breeze, Black Russian
Chore I hate: Cleaning the bath tub
Dogs/Cats: Big fluffy dogs. I hate cats, except for Zoloft - who sheds like crazy, but is just as her name suggests.
Essential Electronics: My beautiful baby ibook.
Favorite Perfume/Cologne: Hanae Mori
Gold or Silver: Anything silver colered
Hometown: Staten Island, NY.
Insomnia: All the time (said in the voice of the kid from the sixth sense)
Job Title: student
Kids: None yet. And no, I'm not pregnant. And for the next 15 times you wonder, "Is Minna pregnant?" No.
Most Admired Trait: Ummm.... I take tests really fast, people in my class hate it cause I make them nervous.
Number of Sexual Partners: Just my baby.
Overnight Hospital Stays: 1. When I was a baby, I spiked a high fever, and convulsed while I was eating corn, so I choked and turned blue. But my daddy saved my life.
Phobias: spiders.
Quote: Like a midget on a urinal, you gotta stay on your toes.
Religion: Judaism
Siblings: 1 sister and 2 sisters-in-law and 3 brothers-in-law.
Time I usually wake up: Mondays and Tuesdays - 6:30. Wednesday - 8:30. Friday - 8:00. Thursday, Shabbos, and Sunday - whenever the phone rings, or Tzvi wakes me up.
Vegtable I Refuse to Eat: Tomatoes. I love tomato sauce, but hate the texture. Avocados too. Are avocados veggies?
Worst Habit: Laziness
X-Rays: In camp, I popped my knee cap off... They x-rayed that. It was gross... all the liquid that is usually under your knee camp went in to the rest of my leg.
Yummy Foods I Make: 40 clove of garlic chicken... I made that this shabbos, it was really yummy. Turkey Salad. Tollhouse Cookies. I don't know... generally if I follow directions, the food comes out good.
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Boro Park

If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this first: Arrest Sets Off a Protest by Orthodox Jews
What is there to say?
On one hand, I can understand the beginning of the argument. The guy was deaf, couldn't hear the cop, and the people who stood up for him were right - considering the circumstances, I agree that there was use of excessive force.
But talk about excessive force. Burning a cop car?
It makes me sad because they should know better. They should know that they're going to be judged based on the fact of their Judaism. That people will see it and think poorly of Jews. How could someone burn a police car and not think of the chillul Hashem that they're making?

My name is jewchick, and I am SO grateful that I am not an alcoholic.

I'm taking a psychiatric nursing class, and one of our assignments is to go to an open AA meeting and write an observation paper. So, today was my trip to the AA meeting. It was exactly how it sounds in books, or in movies. There were the guys who have been sober for 25 years, the guys who just got out of rehab, and the guys who were drunk yesterday. They talked about everything that's gone on. The guy who spoke told about getting high and drunk in highschool, then on his job as a construction guy working on elevators (which, by the way, doesn't make me feel very safe), about losing his wife and his daughter. He's been sober for two and a half years, and just got back with his wife three months ago. It made me really happy that his story had a happy ending.
The most interesting thing to me was my reaction. Going in, I was like, "okay, this is a little scary, but it'll be fun - even, maybe, funny." After sitting there, and listening to everyone's stories, I feel totally different. It was kind of a bittersweet experience - hearing about the guy who was contemplating suicide was really sad, but everyone's reactions to him were sweet. They all reminded him that he was at the meeting, which meant that no, he doesn't want to kill himself, he just wants the pain to go away. And while everything out of everyone's mouth sounded completely cliche, you know, "a day at a time," or whatever, it was cliche in the most honest, most sincere, most caring way.

I am so pathetic

So, I didn't sleep Monday, or Tuesday night, but I slept last night. So, I thought - "hey, maybe I'm getting better. Maybe I can go to class today, maybe my nose will start to heal, and the white dead skin will go away. Maybe I'll be up for going out to dinner tonight, maybe I'll even get some pesach cleaning done. Maybe I'll be able to enjoy this beautiful weather."
So, I showered, moisturized my face, got dressed and went outside. About a half hour later, I came home, got back into pajamas, and I am currently lying down on the couch.
I hate being sick.

How nerdy are you?

Happy Anniversary To Us...

So, today was our 1 year anniversary. A year ago right now, we were at our wedding... probably dancing, not having any idea what time it was... or maybe at this point Tzvi was singing Eishet Chayil to me. Whatever we were doing at exactly this moment, today we did not celebrate... we were supposed to go out for dinner, have a nice night, but instead I spent the day lying on the couch, not doing much except for blowing my nose and eating chicken soup.
Pretty sad way to celebrate an anniversary, no? But we're gonna make up for it later this week.
Anyways, on a happier note, a year of marriage. Crazy, no? What's insane is that when we got married, I didn't realize how much I would love him. I mean, I knew I loved him then, but I didn't realize how much it was possible to love someone.
Does everyone feel that way about their marriage? I'm the youngest person in my nursing class, and most of the older women in my class are divorced. Did they feel this way? Was there ever this love? If there was, how did they lose it? Didn't mean to go there, but it makes me sad when they talk about their ex-husbands.
I definately got lucky.

:)

I was in 4th grade when Alin came to my elementary school. She just moved here from Israel, so her English wasn't great. She was in 4th grade English, but 5th grade Hebrew. We made friends easily, as kids do. She lived in the next neighborhood over, but she would walk in sometimes on shabbos. She lived here for about three years before her family moved back to Israel. On her last shabbos in America, she walked into the neighborhood, and we spent the afternoon together, hanging out with our friends. It was right before she was going home when she told me that on her first day of school I smiled at her. This was, obviously, something I had no recollection of. She told me that my smile on that first day, when she was so nervous, meant everything. It meant that everything was going to be okay, that she'd find her way in this scary new place.

I'm not trying to pat my back, or say that I'm a wonderful person. I didn't smile at her because I wanted her to feel good about herself. I could have been smiling at someone standing behind her.

All I'm saying is smiling is good.

Uncle Jesse

I'm watching Full House. Yes, I'm a 22-year-old watching children's television, let's get past that.
Uncle Jesse is wearing a blue and white sequined suit.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that wasn't cool in 1987, was it? I may have only been 3, but I think I'd remember seeing something so painful.
And why is he the hot guy? I can't imagine going gaga for a guy who says "Have Mercy" and not much else. And his "great" hair is kinda creepy looking. And it's kinda creepy that he's so crazy obsessed with it.
Am I missing the 'hot' part?