Ezra has a report due on Friday. He is supposed to read and write an autobiography of a famous person. He chose Abraham Lincoln and he picked a small book about Honest Abe from his classroom Library. I believe it is a Scholastic Book and it is fairly new.
The book tells about young Abe's early life, his entrance into politics and about the work he did to abolish slavery. What it doesn't mention is how Abe Lincoln died, or even that he died at all.
I was shocked about this. I was obviously not alone because when Greg read over Ezra's report he asked, "was there any information on Abraham Lincoln's death?"
Abraham Lincoln's murder is just as much part of his history as the fact that he was born in a log cabin (or not) and that he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I don't think the book needed to go into gory details and I would even be ok if it didn't mention that he was assassinated.
But it doesn't even mention that he died. Is death not politically correct anymore? Are we so worried about children and their exposure to violence that we won't even write a book in which we mentioned that one of our founding fathers actually (gasp) died? The man was born in 1809. I certainly hope he isn't alive anymore. But there is no way for me to know now, is there.
So, for the past week or so, every night I have been having different dreams that cause me to wake up and feel completely aggravated. In each of these dreams, I am doing something that is totally futile and frustrating. They are stupid things, but they still make my nerves rise like crazy.
Here are some examples of the dreams: I am having a large amount of people for a shabbos meal and for some unexplainable reason, I only have 5 place settings of china and silverware. I know in my brain that I have more and I am searching all over my house for them but can't find them.
In another dream, I have to go to banquet at an NCSY regional shabbaton (ok, we are going back years here) but I can't find any shoes. I am frantically searching for shoes for hours and I miss half the banquet but I still can't find them.
In another dream I am trying to go to a wedding but people keep bothering me and talking to me and I can never get there.
Finally, last night I dreamt that I was trying to catch a flight to Israel and I kept remembering things I had to take and people I had to pick up and I wasn't able to go to Israel because I missed the last flight before shabbos.
Like I said before, each of these dreams leaves me feeling completely aggravated and out of control when I wake up. They are stupid dreams and do not reflect at all on my real life. Any suggestions on what they might mean?
Recently, I have picked up a lot of slack for starting a H@rry Potter Podcast with my husband. I get all kinds of reactions when I tell people I have one. Mostly people look at me with the look reserved for the kid who sat in the back of the classroom trying to do the
Vulcan nerve pinch to his classmates. I don't know if it is because people are dissapointed with my decline from coolness (assuming I EVER had the coolness factor), if they think I must be pathetic, or if they just don't even get the whole podcast concept. I think it is a mixture of all three things. First I explain the concept of podcasts and then I tell them why Greg and I started this H@rry Potter podcast. I still get the looks. It is almost as if people are looking at me and thinking, "I am so much better than you because I DON'T have a H@rry Potter Podcast". This infuriates me.
To paraphrase from the movie, "The American President", For the record, I do have a H@rry Potter Podcast. But the more important question is why don't you?
Is there nothing in your life that you find interesting enough to want to think about and intelligently discuss? Do you not take any enjoyment out of anything that doesn't have to do with your daily life, your family, or your job? Do you look forward to anything besides watching "America's Next Top Model" on TV every week?
Greg and I started the H@rry Potter Prognostications Podcast on a lark. I would listen to some other H@rry Potter Podcasts on my iPod when I was walking to the D.C. Metro from work or while I was cooking, and although I enjoy these podcasts immensely, I thought to myself, "I can do that just as well as those guys." I brought up the idea to Greg who had been wanting to have some kind of regular podcast and he agreed that we could easily fill up 20-30 minutes (and no more than that since we didn't want to drone on and on and on...) of dialogue about one of our favorite book series' from an adult point of view.
We decided that Greg would be the producer of the show, coming up with the content each week for the main discussion segment and eventually booking the guests (which we look forward to doing once we get some name recognition) and I would compile that week's H@rry Potter News and keep up with our website and myspace page. When we do the podcast, I report the news and then the two of us talk about whatever H@rry Potter topic we find interesting enough to discuss, argue about, opine about and cogitate on.
I wanted to start this podcast because I thought it would be a fun idea. I didn't realize that I would look forward to the preparation as well as the in depth look at the H@rry Potter world that I have been privy to. It is a fun and interesting exercise for the mind.
The best part of the podcast is the 30 minutes-1 hour a week that Greg and I set aside for each other to discuss something without children around and without distractions. If this makes me a loser, then I hope to be the queen of the podcast losers!
This is going to be completely random but here were my stream of conciousness thoughts while I was just preparing the carmelized slivered almonds for a salad for tommorow night's G. Family Thanksgiving dinner.
So as I have probably mentioned before, I really don't like Jewish music. I tolerate it in my car because my kids really don't need to be (and definitely shouldn't be) hearing the garbage that I call music (which really isn't all garbage, but some of it is definitely innapropriate for their ears) and even though pre-pubescent boy choirs disturb me a bit, I listen to them because the kids LOVE them and they remind me of my old BY choir days (yes, that was me in the 1993 concert tape singing "the ancient wall of stone"- no applause necessary- no really, sit down!). ANYWAY, I have a bunch of jewish music on my iPod so that I can get Ez to clean his room by letting him listening to good old Kermit the Pod or if I ever don't want to listen to the hundreds of "goyish" songs, books on tape, or podcasts that I subscribe to.
Where was I? Oh, so I was just in my kitchen and I was listening to this song "Modeh Ani" by some choir that I don't even know and it is a really catchy tune. I can actually tolerate it. So I was sitting here thinking that I should be one of those cool moms (in the ortho community) who is in tune (no pun intended) with her kids likes and dislikes and I should start waking my kids up with this song. I can put it on a stereo or something in the house. But then it hit me that I have never once woken my children up. If I wanted to do that, I would have to put this song in the stereo at 4:45 AM because that is just about the only time in the morning that I can be assured that all three of them are still sleeping.
So then I realized that by the time I actually have to wake my children up, they will be sullen teenagers who won't appreciate pre-pubescent boys singing Modeh Ani and their music collection will probably look something a bit more like my innapropriate collection. Scary thought, huh?
This afternoon I had planned on (finally) writing about my birthday. I was in a great mood and I planned out everything that I was going to say. Then for whatever reason it was I got in a rotten mood and to top it all off, I drove carpool and there was major flooding on the roads and sach hakol to drive Gila's school carpool and Ezra's choir carpool took me 2 hours. I was in the car that whole time.
So, now I will try to talk about my birthday even though I am still not in a great mood. Hopefully writing this will put me in a better mood.
I have been hesitant to write about the great day that was my birthday. I have two reasons for this. First, because I don't think I can do the celebration justice. I loved every minute of it and I don't know if I will describe it well enough. The second reason is that for whatever reasons they were, some of my friends were either overlooked or never called for the celebration. When you hear about the celebration you will know it wasn't my fault (because I obviously had nothing to do with it), but nevertheless, I have been consumed with guilt about the matter.
So, Greg and I went to New York for two days. We left two days before my birthday and we came home on my birthday. You can read Greg's version of the trip here- he included all the major celebrity sightings and the main events in his post. We stayed in Greg's brother's apartment in TriBeCa (he was on tour at the time) which to me is the BEST LOCATION EVER. If you don't want to do touristy stuff around NY, TriBeCa or the West Village are my choices for great places to be. The neighborhoods are quaint, calm, and cool (much cooler than I am) and being the new New Yorker that I like to think I am (or want to be), it is nice that these places aren't swarming with touristy type folk.
As with all our good vacations, the advantage of staying in Benj's apartment (besides the obvious not having to pay any money and having a nice place of our own) is that he has two REALLY nice TV's- Two being the operative word, with digital cable. Ah, what could be better than not spending quality time with one's spouse when on vacation.
We did some fun stuff including going to see the Colbert Report, getting coffee (how I wish we could have gotten cupcakes) in the newly famous Magnolia Bakery (Yay for Bleecker Street!), visiting with our friends Esther, Sara, Gil, and Nina, Seeing day to day New York life and where some of our friends work (shoutout to shoenet.com,Mr. Joe's shoes- I think, and TV Guide), shopping at Century 21, walking up and down Bleecker Street, up and down Bleecker Street and up and down Bleecker street (you had to be there). All in all it was a great few days.
On the last morning that we were there, my cell phone rang and Greg answered it. Two things to note. 1. My cell phone picks up noise very well and any bystander can hear whatever the person on the other end of the phone is saying 2. My mother doesn't always use a quiet inside voice when talking on the phone. In any event, I heard my mother say to Greg, "So are you guys going to take the train we wanted you to take later?" To most people that might seem like my mother was concerned about picking us up on time. Not to me, I heard what she said and I thought to myself, "shoot, someone is making me a party." Before you go think that I was jumping to conclusions you should know that I figured out what day I was getting engaged to Greg because there were extra bottles of soda in our downstairs fridge. For some reason, I am observant like that. As soon as Greg heard my mother say this and saw my reaction,he hung up the phone and said, "sometimes I can't stand your mother." (sorry, Ma). I looked at him questioningly and he responded, "just forget you heard anything."
We spent the rest of the day walking around the village. I alternated between trying valiantly not to think about Greg's conversation with my mother or thoughts on an impending party (which, since my sister had a 3oth birthday party, I told anyone who would listen that I DID NOT WANT) and between trying to walk around on the world's largest toe blister and not scream in agony every time I took a step.
Our New York trip sadly had to end and we took the train back to Baltimore.
To Be Continued.
Next time: The celebration to end all celebrations
To one of my favorite friends, Tobey.
I can't match the cuteness or originality of your card to me (and I can't even get close to your handwriting), but I can embarrass you on this blog by wishing you a
HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For those of you who know Tobey, leave a comment. If you don't know her, feel free to leave a comment as well. She deserves it. Also tell her to start blogging again.