Snow and a Seder

My goal over this (last) semester at AU is to get some really great photographs of campus to remind me of this awesome college when I am gone. I did not let the snow that fell Saturday stop me from beginning this endeavor.

I bundled up and set off towards campus. Then I became distracted by the mirror on a neighboring drive way.....

After a mini-photo-shoot I made it to the campus.

Katzen in its snowy glory. This building is stunning in any weather, but snow and a crystal winter blue sky made it really stand out.

Note to self - wear sun glasses when out in the snow on a sunny day....

Especially when taking pictures of a huge reflective sculpture...

Good thing I wore my boots!

This guy cracks me up.

Especially in the snow.

I was feeling the AU love today.

And what better to do on a snowy Sunday (besides course work)? Go to a Tu B'shevat seder!

The Jewish holiday with the least amount of guilt. You get to eat fruit, lots and lots of fruit!

So? Orange you glad it's Tu B'shevat?

Exactly, this is a holiday to surely smile about!

Reflections on Birthdays

My 22nd birthday was just as sweet as the vanilla frosted cupcakes I whipped up!

Saturday night I enjoyed a dinner with some good friends.

We enjoyed sushi, sake, and chatter about the semester.

Before coming back to my place to enjoy the cupcakes.

I've never been good at thinking up wishes! I came up with a good one, but you know the rule, if you share the wish it won't come true!

1:36 on 1/24 my actual date and time of my birthday! Who did I get to spend it with? My mom, just like 22 years ago!
Also, nothing like hearing a Jewish rock star to be the icing on the cupcake, either!

But the real icing on the cupcake, getting to spend my special day with my Mom!

So far 22 is pretty great!

22

22

There is something about 22....

They say 18 is a big year, you're finally legal...

They say 19 and 20 are so so since they are between milestones....

Then there is 21, when a whole new level of adulthood is reached....

Then comes 22.

It could easily be another come and go year, nothing to major, no big milestones....

But - this year feels different to me. 22 means something to me.

In my 22nd year I will graduate college and begin graduate school.

Yet....

I feel ready. I feel 22. I feel mature and ready to move into the world.

From a little peanut...

to a young women ready to take on the world....

all in 22 years!

Happy birthday to me!!!

Stress

The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Ce nter in Burlington

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins.

The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may need to take a vacation.

No Need to Reply, I'll be on Vacation


Never take life seriously.

Exit 36

There is something about that area near NJ Parkway Exit 36. To the east lies Atlantic City, all around it - a quiet beach resort. Come Labor Day - the shoobies leave and life continues for all the regulars. It's a life of work and school. Pretty much common suburban life. Not much to do during the winter, but it's a place to live.

Last night at a dear family friend's wedding we saw former fellow South Jerseyians.

Larry asked us, "So, do you miss Margate?"

I did not waste anytime going, "Nope."

That of course got me thinking.....

I left Northfield 2.5 years ago. And I think I needed to leave to learn two important lessons. One that there is life outside of South Jersey. The other? That is that despite it's sleepiness and lack of "culture" our little area of South Jersey was a really nice place to grow up.

Nice, but definitely full of quirks....

I mean can you drive down Post Road and see this in someone's front yard? Nope only on Route 40!

Once you leave Atlantic City, it's a whole nother world... one complete with stuffed deer and swordfish......

Moo - that is all.

But even with all the quirky bits - one big perk to living where we did was definitely this...

Nothing like running up and down the beach in the summer. Nothing like walking the beach after a fall storm. Nothing like walking down the beach and looking at hurricane clouds down in the south.

So over all, do I miss South Jersey, yes and no. Do I regret having grown up there. Nope. It was a great place to grow up, but now it is time to go somewhere else.

Thanks for the childhood Exit 36. I'll be hanging out around Exit 6 on I-287. But no worries, I will cherish the childhood I had down by the shore forever.

This one i want to remember....

In the history of strange dreams, this one is pretty high up there, and for sure worth remembering....

I am married (as always no face to my mystery man). It is the first big snow of the winter. Our toddler daughter wants to go out and play in the snow. My husband bundles her up while I got get something. I come back and the kid is flapping her hands and seems very anxious.

I ask my husband, "What is wrong?"

He replies, "I am not sure I keep asking her to tell me and she just whines and waves her arms"

I look at the over-bundled and overheated toddler and back to my husband, slap him and through tears of laughter go, "Honey, she is wearing her mittens, she cannot use sign language...."

I woke up laughing. I guess it's true, pretty hard to sign with mittens on.

Why I blog...

The first known "blog" was written by a Englishman from 1660. For nine years this man wrote daily. He wrote about what he ate, things he did, places he went, and and things he lived through. His writings were honest, entertaining, thrilling, but usually boring.

That man was Samuel Pepys.

It appears that Mr. Pepys never showed his writings to anyone. He just wrote for himself, to chronicle his life, to remember things that went right and the things that went wrong. To Mr. Pepys, writing down these things made them important. By writing them down he had a new way to look at them.

When I began this blog it was a way for me to journal. I had never been good at journaling on pen and paper. Maybe it was how mundane it was, maybe it proves that we live in an age where we cannot function without being connected to an electronic device, maybe it just wasn't for me.

I found myself thinking last week about this. Do I care if people read my blog?

Nope.

Yes, it'd be nice to connect with others, and I enjoy when people comment, but I blog as a way to get things off my chest.

I sometimes read blogs where people seem to be clearly talking to potential readers, and that is fine, it is what works for them. But, I blog so I can express the thoughts I have spinning around in my mind.

There is a slight addictiveness to this blogging thing. It almost makes me want to get things off my chest - the silly and the serious. I wonder if there had been blogs when I was in high school and my mom was always begging me to journal my thoughts about such and such if I would have been less reluctant to do so.

I guess the bottom-line is that I enjoy this blogging thing, it's journaling, with the benefit of being able to include pictures, and connect with people if I so wish. Either way, I enjoy it, and it feels good to use this as a place to process my life!

Though Shall Not Covet....

....Pottery Barn furniture from the catalog......

Yeah right, that is way too hard to do when you see these lovely welcoming rooms staring up at you from the thick catalog:

My dream kitchen one day (in the future when I have a family's schedule to juggle) features a wall with amazing boards like this. Maybe not the yellow color. Dunno, yellow walls and nice white cabinets, it may be growing on me, pottery barn can have that affect on you I guess.

If I could magically jump into the catalog I would, this couch looks so inviting. I love my couch here at home but I have a love for those sectionals full of comfy plump pillows. I could curl up in the corner and read for hours....

I want to be able to be creative and make a wall of pictures like that. And have the guts to paint a wall that color too....

OKay, enough coveting for this evening....

What I want to be when I grow up....

...or at least this week.

So, after a semester of being in a second grade classroom and working with the children in the class with special learning needs (and seeing how at times the main teacher had a hard time teaching to all the class's needs equally) AND after being accepted to the Integrated Elementary and Special Education program at Wheelock I am beginning to wonder where I may end up one day.

The program at Wheelock aims to educate a new generation of teachers who can teach children with special needs in resource room settings and in a mainstream classroom setting (where the elementary part of the program enters in). In today's world children are being placed more frequently into mainstream classes (if possible) so that they are with their peers rather than isolated in resource rooms.

While being able to work one on one with students with special learning needs is appealing (and next week may be my dream job) right now this new idea of having a classroom teacher who is trained to teach every student in the way they learn best is appealing to me. It is almost a way for me to re-experience school myself. My teachers had no idea what to make of my situation and at times I lost out on the learning experience (or didn't learn the lesson at all). But if I can make a classroom community so special that every student is taught in the way that they learn best - special and non special needs alike - I'd feel like I am giving back. Giving back where I didn't get.

While this may never come to pass, I can dream, and think about how amazing it would be to part of a community of little learners who all feel special and all get what they need and deserve out of the curriculum because I can make sure the curriculum fits each one of them!

But who knows... maybe next week I'll want to be an acrobat (-;

I Heart Faces - Best Face

Happy New Year! 

I Heart Faces is kicking off this year with the theme - Absolute Best Face Photo of 2010.  You know, nothing major.  

Clearly, I would be a mean auntie if I didn't choose my nephew, Noam, as my best face photo of 2010.  I mean between my sister and I there are close to probably 3000 pictures (possibly more) of this little guy, and he was born in November. He's amazingly adorable and photogenic, so it is beyond hard to just choose one for this week!

I just love this picture of him, though.  It was taken around a month ago, and he is so much bigger now and tomorrow he will be 2 months old! Seriously where does the time go!? 

I just love how contemplative he is and how he has his hands clasped.  He's a cutie for sure, and I know I am biased, but really, look at that face!

So here's to a year of lots more pictures, of Noam and other people, but let's face it, mainly Noam! May your year be happy and your shutter busy snapping pics!

To see more faces from 2010 click on over to I Heart Faces!