Friday 5

I’m doing it on Friday this week! Yes! Can you believe it?

1. Yesterday, we (my sister and I) finished plasticking our windows. Now that we’re nearly sealed up (I’m going to caulk our 2 small front windows this weekend), we’re hoping for a smaller energy bill.

2. We made a run to Home Depot in the middle of our project for more plastic and decided to buy a toilet seat. Our landlords didn’t change it when we rented, and since we’ve officially decided to go month-to-month until the summer, we think we deserve it. It was hysterical, looking and choosing a toilet seat. Our super sister special communication had her on the floor, looking “under” the display seat for a box, and falling on the floor in laughter. (I had to sit down, too, but I sat on some boards). Of course, we got strange looks from the employees in orange…it was a good time all around.

3. I bought myself a grinder and french press today, using the extra “partner” holiday discount. Now, I’m a grownup

4. We’re getting our first big snow storm on Saturday. I’d say that I’m looking foward to it, but I’ll be at work from 11-5, and then at a Chanukah party that night (hope it doesn’t get canceled!). They say that there will be ice too….

5. Flannel sheets, mmmmmm

Remembering the woods

I often forget that I live 2 blocks away from a piece of the UW arboretum, which is divided by the beltline (the highway the goes through/around Madison).

So, today, which dawned windy, but with blue skies and crisp air, I decided to reacquaint myself with the Evjue forest. Traditionally, if my family is around Madison on Christmas, we take a walk in this portion of the arboretum. It’s always fairly empty and it’s really nice to crunch along on the snow in the silence. This year, I’m hoping to bring my friend(s) on a walk here on New Year’s Day.

I followed the service road trail and walked through pine forests and oak forests, as well as some prairie. It was startling, as always, to notice the Fitchburg development which abuts the arboretum. When we moved to Madison, the part of Fitchburg that I could see from the crest of a hill was not developed. I used to take my mountain bike and bike up and down this large hill before a road cut through it and then later, where houses were built. Now, if I’m driving to the ‘bux from my parents’ house, I take that same road.

I walked around the woods for about an hour, just getting too cold as I was heading towards the entrance, and down the block to my apartment.

5 Things on Saturday

Ok. So, I’m slacking on the Friday 5 thing. But, I’m going to try to keep it going somehow. So here are 5 thoughts.

1. Thanksgiving has passed. I love winter. I love fall. I do not love Thanksgiving and the Christmas season.

2. I worked on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and today.

3. Wednesday was busy. Thursday was really busy after the Berbee Derby, but people were really nice and in a good mood. Friday, it was quite busy, for some reason chaotic, and people were not nice. Saturday. Well, apparently, people did not want more coffee on Saturday.

4. A little boy came in today dressed in the Spider Man suit with muscles. He demonstrated his strength by holding up a bottle of water.

5. On Thanksgiving a 2-year old came in and I discovered that he knew120 signs. That’s a lot of signs. Both of these little boys were with their fathers.

5th Annual Operation Gratitude

Every year for the last 5, my friend Virada has sent out an email asking us (her friends from home and college) to list 5 things that we are grateful for–from the humorous to the serious to the mundane. We began this tradition in college, when we all were so self-involved and focused on our studies and dramas. I think that it’s a wonderful tradition and I hope that we continue it for years to come.

If you’d like to embark on an Operation Gratitude with your friends, here are the rules:

What you do:
1. Name five things you are thankful for this year. You decide the
scope and level of seriousness/silliness/both: something that made you
smile today, people, activities, anything! Please don’t be a smartass
and say, for instance, you’re grateful that something annoying didn’t
happen to you today. We all have those days, but this isn’t a forum
for complaints.
2. Resend to the person who sent it to you + anyone else you want to
be part of the Operation.
3. Have an awesome Thanksgiving (Thanks-taking!) remembering what you
are grateful for!!!!
And below is my Operation Gratitude for 2007

In no particular order of importance:

1. Starbucks. No matter how much I complain and grumble, without you, oh Starbucks, I would not be able to have a flexible, part-time job with health insurance. And, Starbucks has helped me come into my own as a person and pushed me out of my shy shell.

2. My friends. You all live so far away, but no matter, phone calls and emails still suffice. And, when we get to visit, it makes it extra nice! (ok, I wasn’t planning on rhyming).

3. Wisconsin state parks. They are amazing and have made my return to Madison bearable. Beautiful and clean and cheap entertainment to boot!

4. laughter. Without laughter, I wouldn’t have been able to get through the last year.

5. My religious/Hebrew school students. Thank you for keeping me on my toes, making me laugh, and providing perspective. I enjoy sharing my love for Judaism with you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is why I’m bad at sports

At Badminton tonight I played with some different folks. Of course, since I’m at the low end of the skill level, they were better than me. I was greatly entertained by my partner during one of the games. He was one of those men that replays his shot immediately afterwards (especially when it’s bad), lightly flicking his racket or walking to the place where he played and making some kind of movement. Why does he do this? What does it do for you?

Growing up, I disliked gym and organized sports. I did play tennis from early elementary school years through middle school. I was even on the middle school tennis team, but rarely did my games count for anything (they were part of what we called exposition games). I am a perfectionist, but not competitive, I guess. And, although I’m not easily distracted, I have difficult time keeping my head in the game. With badminton, I’ll be standing there, waiting for a serve or watching a volley that does not involve me and begin to contemplate the army advertisement on the scoreboard behind my opponents (the source of a huge Madison controversy), what I should cook for dinner the next night, or the meaning of life. And then, a birdie will whisk by me and if I’m lucky, I’ll return it at the last minute. Mostly, though, I’m not.

So, along with working to always send strong serves, return accurately, and keep moving around the court, I’m going to work on staying present and in the game.

Friday 5 on Sunday

So, I’m a little behind the times. My week got all mixed up, because I went to Chicago on Tuesday-Wednesday. According to my Starbucks schedule, yesterday (Saturday) was my Friday, because I have Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off. I always have Sunday and Tuesday off.

So, here are five random things.

1. The three friends that I visit regularly in Chicago lived in my neighborhood, Logan Square, while I was there. Two still live there, one moved to Rogers Park to be closer to nursing school at Loyola, but we all slept at the apartment on Tuesday night. I got the guest room, which was actually my room the summer after Smith before the 3rd moved to the city.

2. I love to discover new restaurants and neighborhoods. Since we were picking up the “Other One” (this is my sister’s name for her) from her clinical at the VA hospital, I was given the task of finding us a new spot. I found Jimmy’s Place, which is a very nice family-friendly Italian restaurant. The Reader review I linked to is quite entertaining. And E agreed that the Gorgonzola Alfredo was definitely edible, “the Other One” liked her pasta with white clam sauce, C really liked her cavatelli with vodka sauce. I had never seen cavatelli before. I must admit that I’m not a huge Italian food fan (outside of Italy). But, this restaurant seemed homey and fun, and there weren’t a ton of choices in Forest Park/Oak Park (surprisingly). I had the spicy linguine, which had some tasty roasted red peppers, which I enjoyed.

3. On Wednesday morning “the Other One” cut class and the three of us (E’s class wasn’t until the afternoon) made our way to Devon Ave to buy/eat some Indian food. We shopped at Patel Brothers, where I picked up some Jalebi to share with my Hebrew School class later that afternoon (they found it to be incredibly sweet) along with other treats. I ran out of cash, because my tips were so low from the week before, so I found myself buying extra things to make the $10 minimum needed to use a credit card. At the snack shop, Sukhadia’s Snacks & Sweets, where we had an early lunch, I ended up buying one serving (2) of samosa’s for “here” and 2 (4 samosas) to go) along with mango juice and a poori. I ate the rest between Hebrew School and band, for dinner. I don’t usually have stomach issues, but let’s just say that I regret all of that fried, spicy goodness.

4. It’s disturbing how 2 oil spills happened recently, one in the U.S. and one in the Black Sea. But, besides E telling me about the Spill in the Black Sea, I hadn’t heard anything else about it. Maybe I had my head in the sand this week? All those poor animals and habitats.

5. On the grad school front, things keep moving along. My recommender’s have most of my recommendation forms (the rest will be sent on Monday), the list is final, and the first deadline is December 15. The personal statement will hopefully be finished before Thanksgiving. Cross your fingers!

Growing Together, an article in Our Lives Magazine

I was very excited to discover that a profile I had written for the new LGBTQA magazine/online community in Madison, Our Lives Magazine, was finally in print and online. This profile, Growing Together (PDF) , was a lot of fun to write. The couple, Tim Spires and Richard Kilmer, were a joy to interview.

I must admit, since I have not had a long-term relationship of my own, that I found it strange to be writing an article whose function was to both celebrate their relationship and demonstrate to the queer community (especially gay men) that even though same-sex marriage and civil unions are not allowed in Wisconsin, long-term relationships are healthy and do exist. Freelance writing brings some joys, and one is that it allows you to learn something new with every assignment. With this assignment I tried to take it to heart, to really listen to how their relationship worked.

You’re Jewish? What do you think about Jesus?

A few weeks ago, I filled out a survey for my co-worker’s human resources class, which is actually code for educational diversity. It was personalized to my diversities and asked questions about being a Jew and being a lesbian and how those identities developed.

It was an interesting questionaire and made me think about my feeling regarding growing up in a non-Jewish area and what it has been like to return to Madison as an “adult”. In Madison, there are definitely more Jews, but at my ‘bux, which is in the suburbs, there are a large amount (disturbingly) of evangelical christians. At work and in general life I’ve ended up having many conversations about being Jewish and what that means. I have responded to a lot of shocked looks, especially after they ask how we feel about Jesus.

Them: You mean, you think that he’s a prophet, just not a son of God?

Me: No, We believe that he was a respected teacher, just an ordinary man.

Them: really? are you sure that you don’t think that he’s a prophet?

Me: Yes. (and then I attempt to explain the political realities of Jesus’ time)

I also get questions about Sunday school, since religious school is taught on Sundays. And whether Shabbat is the Pentecost….(I think he was confusing that with Passover).

Being in Wisconsin, everywhere I go, if I say something about my Jewish side of life or what I want to study in graduate school, I have to explain myself and represent an entire group of people. It’s different than the encounters I had in Chicago or on the East Coast where it’s more likely that I’m not the first Jewish person they’ve met.

Friday 5

 1. It’s swiftly turning to winter here in Madison, although I have a feeling that we’ll stay in a holding pattern of 30-50s for a few more weeks. that’s ok with me. I love fall. And, winter is my favorite season.

2. I got my flu shot today, without any ill effects as of yet (knock on wood!). Have you gotten your flu shot this year? I highly recommend spending the 10 or so dollars and 5 minutes of your time. I have rarely gotten the flu in the last 12 or so years, and when I have been afflicted, it’s been shorter than normal. Since I frequently fall into colds and bronchial infections, this is a luxury.

3. The Madison Young Adult Havurah is having their first social action event on Sunday. We’re serving food at the Salvation Army (I know that some people have problems with this org, but they do feed and house a lot of Madison’s people in need). I’m looking forward to hanging out and doing good. And, it’ll be a fun event for the havurah.

4. Going to Chicago on Tuesday/Wednesday. I was supposed to go on Friday, but I didn’t get the time off I requested. So, we’ve rearranged. I can’t wait. I haven’t been in the Windy City since June!

5. Starbucks made their own holiday up. It was on Thursday. The “Global day of Cheer“. Can we just all pause a moment and consider how strange this is? And, of course, the store has turned into a sea of red and white. I’m going to be enduring Christmas for the next month.

Text Study with 7th Graders

After taking the Midrash mini-session a couple weeks ago, I decided that I should use a text-study to break up the monotony of studying/learning prayers in preparation for b’nai mitzvah. I know that the prayers are important, but honestly, I don’t think that I would love Judaism in the same way if I had been forced to learn prayers in the same setting as my students.

So, I chose Genesis 24 as my text study, since 7th grade girls are most definitely aware of the opposite sex (or same, but you don’t hear much about that at this age, since peers are so important). Abraham send Eliezer back to find Isaac’s wife, which turns out to be Rebecca, etc. I had them read aloud the English, in the Chumash so that they could see the Hebrew. We listed some questions we had about the story (and I explained some complicated words and background). Then I pulled out Five Books of Miriam, which is one of my all time favorites. After explaining to them the premise for the volume, we read the section on matchmaking. They really enjoyed this! I explained how the last text we read was a midrash and that I wanted us to create their own. I gave the assignment: create a monologue from the point of view of one of the characters in the story (or inanimate objects). We were running out of time, so I gave them 5 minutes to jot some ideas down in their Machberet before Hafsikah and cantillations. They were so excited! So, on Monday, I will briefly review the story and the questions, then they will have about 10 minutes to come up with a short monologue. Somebody is going to be the bucket that Rebecca uses in the well, someone, a camel. It should be interesting.

Because of the age, I wasn’t sure that they’d be too into all of this. But, they definitely surprised me. I think that I will end up doing another one later on, just to spice things up. And, help create connections between their d’var torah, Judaism, Torah, and contemporary life.