Stuffed...

Jewish Holidays are like Thanksgiving, on overdrive...two day overdrive. I am still stuffed two days after the eating celebrating ended.

Looking back on the menu I am beginning to wonder if the foods that were stuffed themselves played a part in my own stuffed-ness...

We had zucchinis stuffed with lentils, tomatoes, onions, and zucchini. I wonder if stuffing a zucchini with its own zucchini can cause some crazy mad zucchini disease...

The apples we dipped in honey were even "stuffed," although I doubt the "honey" in honeycrisp comes from actual honey!

Even our new fruits were stuffed. The sabra was stuffed full of sweet juicy fruit and the asian pear, well its a stretch but it was stuffed full of sweetness.

I even "stuffed" a fish shaped platter with gefilte fish, over stuffed? Not yet any ways....

Then came the cookies stuffed with honey...

And the apple cake stuffed with, well I just gave that away, apples...

So I am stuffed, stuffed like a zucchini boat on Rosh Hashana...how many weeks do I get until I get stuffed on Thanksgiving?

Shana Tova!!

A New Year

525,600 minutes.

Nearly that many minutes have elapsed since the year 5769 began.

525,600 minutes.

It has nearly been that many minutes since my Bubbe died.

Where have these minutes gone?

How can I measure how I spent the last year of my life, a year without Bubbe?

I've laughed, I've cried, I've grown, I've learned, I've closed some chapters in my life, and begun to write others.

I've experienced more pain and more joy. Never had I sat days before Rosh HaShana really thinking about where the last year has gone. Really evaluating who I was as a person this past year, as a daughter, as a granddaughter, as a sister, as a student, as a teacher, as a friend.

I have been measuring who I am and who I am becoming. I have been making sure I savior every single one of the 525,600 minutes in the year.

Never have I thought about Rosh HaShana in this way. Measuring my life in 5769 as I look to seasons and opportunities 5770 will bring for me.

Entering the new year with a somber heart from missing my Bubbe can only help me look to the next 525,600 minutes I have to grow, live, and remember.

The book of life may close but the connection remains into the new year.

May we all be sealed for a new year, a year full of sweetness, love, laughter, and growth. Shana Tova.

Zayda in the Outfield

There are some sports rivalries that are infamous...and probably the most famous one is the Red Sox and Yankees. It causes fights at games and can cause family rifts if one member dare support the other team. Well, I am that member in my family....

My zayda was a Yankee fan, he supported the team his entire life, he probably watched a game on his last day of life. Me on the other hand.... yeah you guess it, a Red Sox fan. We kept this a secret for a long time, his hearing issues helped, but eventually, probably when the Sox won the series '04 he found out. Fortunately love prevailed and I was not shunned. We had fun making comments about each others teams and enjoyed talking about their wins and losses.

Flash forward to this season. The Sox were having a great season, beating the Yankees, beating the other teams, first place in the league, a great start. The Yankees, well they weren't doing so well, I loved this, Zayda, well not so much. Then it all changed.... on July 20th..... the day Zayda died....

That day the Red Sox lost their grip on first place and began to lose left and right. The Yankees, began to win. At first I thought it was temporary, but it lasted. Mom began to say "They're winning for Zayda." I began to wonder if it was that... Soon the Sox had lost their large lead in the N.L East and the Yankees' lead eventually grew to 9 games.

So, the Red Sox season is probably over. I will admit it. If that makes me a bad Sox fan, so be it - I love my Zayda more than that. And if you ask me, Zayda is out in the outfield at Yankee stadium catching fly balls. He the angel to a season that was heading south fast. And if the Yankees win the '09 series, I will cheer and cry knowing that Zayda was pulling strings for his team. But don't worry Zayda the Red Sox are back in the game next year!!

Show us your life - School Pictures

My oh my, today's post is so humbling! Kelly at Kelly's Korner is having a show us your school pictures blog carnival today. Well, since I did happen to scan in my school pictures last winter and they were all just waiting there in iphoto for me I had to participate.

I am just 2 years old in this picture. My mom says this is her favorite picture from all my school years. I love how I am sticking my tongue out and the rocking horse on my shirt. Oh 80s!
I am 4 here. This is my favorite picture. It is so me... the scrape on my nose, the odd grin on my face. And I remember loving that dress so much.

This is first grade. Probably about a month before I got my first pair of glasses, although I did go through a phase in kindergarden where I wore Avi's old glasses with the lenses popped out... we won't go there though...

Here is 4th grade. I am so happy the big round glasses style has come and gone... I remember being pretty happy with the way this one turned out.

5th grade. Another family favorite. Remember the sweater vest fashion era in the 90s? Is it just me or am I oddly staring out into space in all of these pictures?

And here is 9th grade. I skipped the rest of middle school because I am SO not a fan of those pictures... I also loved how this one turned out. I actually look like I am looking at the camera not outer space!

And here is a bad copy of my senior picture (i took the picture of a picture using my computer's camera). Crazy how much I have changed... We once had all the school pictures of Avi and myself hanging up - Ben called it the "wall of shame" and we have since chosen are favorites which I am pretty sure are these ones!

Odd as well is that my dad was a photographer and we still had to do the oh so lovely Life Touch school pictures. "Chin up, eyes here, shoulders back, oh get your chin up!" Why we paid for that when my dad takes these, is beyond me!

Age 19

Age 5

These sure look a heck of a lot better then the school ones!

"Looks like you could use a knife"

Okay, so these two stories both happened a few months ago but I retold them to a friend today and I remembered how funny they were and had to share them with you! They both have to do with pick-up lines that rank up there as being, let's just say, out of the ordinary....

The first odd pick-up line I heard happened one shabbas in May. Mom and I went into the city for a kiddush in honor of a friend's daughter who had gotten engaged. It was at a young adult minyan so besides the family and friends 90% of those in attendance were in their 20s and 30s.

We were in the social room eating kiddush, I was walking around while my mom caught up with her friend. I was eating a piece of watermelon. You know how it is at these cocktail type functions, you are standing up, holding the plate in one hand, and therefore have only one hand to use as utensil, you know what I mean right?

Okay, so anyway....I am trying (key word) to cut my watermelon slice into a polite bite size but it was a piece that was not so ripe and therefore hard to cut. All of a sudden a guy, who I size up to be in his late 20s early 30s says to me "looks like you could use a knife."

Ummm...okay, yeah. I respond that yes I do need a knife and how trying to cut food with just a fork at these type of settings is so hard. Polite laughter, some chatting, etc etc. We talk for some time and finally get around to that question "so, what do you do?" Turns out he is a fellow at NYU in gastroenterology (not shabby, eh?). We talk about that for a bit and then he asks me, "so, what do you do?" The rest of our conversation went like this....

me: "I am a student"

guy: "oh what are you getting your masters in?"

me: "Oh, no I am finishing up undergrad."

guy: "oh, have a good shabbas"

Well there you have it sports fans - A strange pick up line wasted on a gal too young...

Flash forward a week or so to Portland, Oregon. I spend the afternoon with Avi and go back up to the VA hospital with her since she has an afternoon stint in the ICU. I am waiting in the lobby for a bus to head back to their house and I sit down in a chair to wait. Sitting next to me is an elderly gentleman, who seems a bit frail. He's in a wheelchair, has some IV bags on a pole, etc etc.

I smile at him and pick up an AARP magazine (no joke). Not two seconds later I see cute little old man is looking at me. I look up at him and smile and then he says, "hey there toots, how you doing?"

Now what makes this even better is that while he says this he takes his hand and uses it to push his NG tube back behind his ear..... really I could NOT make this up!

And yes, it gets better! Two seconds later his wife comes back from the coffee shop and wheels him away. And as they go, yeah you guessed it, he turns around and waves!

So in one week I go from being too young to being just right! If only the guy I was right with was the one who was the doctor not the one who probably went back upstairs to see my sister the doctor!

Got to love it, really!