Who are you?

I was thinking about this recently while looking at my site meter thing... why do I care if people know who I am? Besides for the whole "there are evil people on the internet" thing, why care? And anyway, it's not like if I tell people my 1st name and where I'm from they'll be able to come stalk me based on what I write. I'm generally a very open person (I'm working on that though because sometimes it's not really a good thing) so it's hard for me to keep my identity such a secret!

Since there are a few people who read this blog who know who I am, I've never written anything too private, so I'm not embarrassed about anything I wrote.
If I had a blog where no one knew who I was, then maybe I'd write private things.
Maybe it's bad for shidduchim? I don't know... I don't think it's "weird" to have a blog, and like I said before- there's not much personal stuff on here.
The only thing I'd have to change is any posts with stories about people in it because if they find this then they'll know I'm talking about them!

On my site meter, there are people from all over reading my blog... it's so weird to think that there's someone in Virginia reading this. I don't think I even know anyone in Virginia! So maybe I'm just really nosy (well not maybe- I know I am lol) and want to know who YOU are, so I'm willing to reveal who I am in hopes to get something in return???

It's like an unofficial rule with blogging that your identity has to stay a secret.

Lost Generation

My teacher showed us this in class today... it's amazing.

Unfollowing

You know how "unfriending" someone on facebook is kind of making a statement? What about "unfollowing" someones blog? Is that the same thing?

Kid high on laughing gas

This is soooo funny!!!

(Sorry, I don't know how to add videos on here...)

I didn't even know I was that frum!

I saw this on Nameless, Faceless's blog and thought it was cute.





Your Test Scores

Left Wing Modern Orthodox: 2%
Right Wing Modern Orthodox: 34%
Left Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 84%
Right Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 70%

The Orthodoxy Test
says that I'm Right Wing Yeshivish

What does it mean?

You know the difference between a Borsalino and a Stetson and your gedolim cards selection is almost complete. You never ever wear jeans, period. The gedolim are probably so proud of you. Why can't all other Jews just be frum like you?

Childrens Lit

This semester, I am taking a class called "Children's Literature". The other day we were discussing a book titled "When Sophie Gets Angry- Really Really Angry" by Molly Bang.
This is a picture book about a girl who gets angry at her little sister, so she leaves the house, climbs a tree, calms down, and goes back home.

We talked about how the main theme of the book is anger management. One girl pointed out that when the girl came back home, the whole family was doing a puzzle on the table. She said that this could be symbolic to construction, and the family is "putting things back together".

But what if that's not what the author meant? What if she just had them doing a puzzle for no reason? She could of had them coloring or making dinner.

I think people analyze books too much.

Why aren't you married?!

I was at a wedding tonight, and someone pulled my friend aside to ask her what kind of guy she is looking for. I always think it's really nice when random people think of me or my friends, but some people are just stupid. When they were done talking, my friend told me what she said.
The woman had made a comment that she didn't understand why my friend wasn't married yet- because she's such a great catch!

It really annoys me when people say such ignorant things. Being a "great catch" has nothing to do with when you will find your bashert. I know plenty of 25 year old "great catches" who are still single and looking. I know even more 20 year old "not such great catches" who are happily married. My friend who is 26 recently got married to a 21 year old guy! So for the past 6 years she was going crazy with dating, while he was graduating high school! THAT is why she wasn't engaged yet.
People shouldn't assume that just because a girl is pretty, skinny, and smart that she will be engaged the minute she steps foot off the plane from seminary. Fat, ugly girls get engaged too ya know!

There are reasons for everything.

I wanted to go over there and punch that lady.

Airport etiquette

When every seat in the terminal is full, people should not be using seats to put their bags on. It is very rude to make people stand because you need a seat for your bag.

Inspired by a 17 year old

This past shabbos I went to a kiruv shabbaton for high school kids. Friday night my girls and I were sitting in bed eating potato chips and talking (while I cringed but kept quiet because I HATE when people eat on my bed!)

One of the girls goes to public school and has a difficult family situation. She is 17 and has a 22 year old non Jewish boyfriend… the kind that has tattoos and you don’t want to disappoint. She told us all that she loves coming to these shabbatons and they always make her want to keep shabbos, but its very difficult for her because of peer pressure, and her family. She also commented that she kinda feels like she already went so far down that its not even worth it to try and be good again… that she wont be forgiven for all the horrible things she’s done.

My heart broke for her. I almost started crying right there. I told her that Hashem loves her and if she regrets it, then she’s forgiven. I kept telling her this over and over, trying to get that message through to her! I told her that she doesn’t need to start doing everything at once, but she could start with one tiny thing… like for example- to just stop drinking non kosher drinks. No one would know about it but her. I gave her a few more little things she could do, that would be amazing changes, but wouldn’t change her life style at all. And then when she’s ready, she can move on to bigger things.

I came to the shabbaton to inspire these kids, but I came away inspired myself. This girl, who is in a situation so much more difficult than mine, still wants to grow and try to implement religion into her life. How could I not?!

(BTW, Saturday night, she called her boyfriend and broke up with him!)

Welcome

Welcome to my "new" blog! :-)

(This whole export/import blog mishagas is so cool! It made this VERY easy for me!)

Sick and ugly

I discovered this new blog, and as I always do when reading a new blog, I go to the 1st posts and start reading backwards.
After the 1st post I wanted to throw up. But I couldn't stop reading. I only got through the first dozen or so, and now I literally feel nauseous.
I made myself stop reading.

I want to cry for her.

YU Chanukah Concert!

(Stole this from Ezzies blog)

Check out this year's YU Chanukah Concert!

Yeshiva Boys Choir, Kuntsler, Gabay & Menucha

Tickets can be bought at Jewisheventtickets

You can look for me there- I'll be the girl with dark hair with a group of girls.

Yea, I know, so easy.

Road trip

This is very sad… I'm beginning to think that blogging was just a phase I went through! I'm trying to keep up with it, but I really have no time! I have a ton of half posts started, but I never get around to actually writing them.

Next week starts my winter break (Finally!), and someone here asked me if I could drive their car to New York and then fly back. I figured why not since I won’t be doing anything anyway. I'm leaving here on Tuesday afternoon right after my last (and only) final, and then stopping in Ohio, staying there for the night, and then going to New York early the next day. I feel a little like Frum Satire, taking a road trip alone, but it just didn’t work out to go with anyone else. I had a friend in a different city that wanted to go with me, but that would mean going 2 hours out of my way just to pick her up. I didn’t feel like it was worth it. I'm not nervous or excited about driving alone for almost 18 hours.

I'm going to bring a lot of music, some shiurim on CD/tape, and someone suggested getting a book on tape/CD from the library. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Erev Thanksgiving

My mother asked me if I could go to the store to get her a few things, and being the wonderful daughter that I am, I happily drove to the store. On erev Thanksgiving!

On the way home, the usual 7 minute drive that it normally takes, took 45 minutes! But I didn’t get annoyed at all because there was a verrrrry interesting person behind me. This olderish lady was behind me in her Volvo. Every few minutes she would start shouting and making lots of hand motions. The lane next to us was closed off ahead of us, so people were trying to switch into our lane. She wouldn’t let anyone switch over in front of her, and when she saw anyone in front of her let someone in, she would start yelling and throwing up her hands. After a little bit, she started driving in between the 2 lanes so no one could pass her. When the light turned green, but we still couldn’t go because traffic was all backed up, she started honking! (Where I live, the only reason you honk is if someone is about to hit you.) She would randomly bang her head down on the steering wheel, and kept looking around very nervously and kept trying to see up ahead to see what was going on. This lady was insane, but she kept me entertained!

Weddinged out

My life has been crazy for the past few weeks, and is now finally getting back to normal!
2 weeks ago, I went to a kiruv shabbaton, which was of course fun as always, but very tiring! (I really want to post about that- but it will take too long! Maybe another day…) I got home on a Sunday, and then on Tuesday I went to New York. I stayed by a friend in Boro Park and Wednesday and Thursday nights I had friends wedding in Brooklyn. Straight from the Thursday wedding I went with a friend to Far Rockaway and stayed there for shabbos, then came home Sunday morning and went to another friends wedding Sunday night!

And in between all this I had 3 tests.

The 1st wedding was at Ateres Shlomo. I don’t have so much to say about this since I'm not such good friends with the girl who got married and didn’t get to the wedding until after the chupah. My good friend is best friends with her, and she knew I would be in town so she invited me. Everyone wore black.

The 2nd wedding was at The Renaissance Ballroom. That place is gorgeous! It’s smaller than Ateres Shlomo but MUCH nicer! My friend (who is totally litvish) married a chassidish guy. I've never been to a chassidish wedding before, so it was definitely an experience! The chupah was outside in the freezing cold, right next to the train. An ambulance passed by like 3 times, and the train went by a few times also. Not exactly the ambiance you want at your wedding. There was no music at the chupah- the men just sang him down the isle. And then under the chupah they didn’t use a microphone, so my friend and I went inside halfway through since we couldn’t hear anyway. At the meal- the chosson and kallah didn’t sit together! They each sat on separate sides!!! The kallah is from my city, and we went to high school together and there were a bunch of girls from my city in New York, so they all came to the wedding also, so we all made it a very “out of town” type of wedding. It was really a very nice wedding, and I had a great time.

Back home on Sunday, the 3rd wedding in a week, the wedding was VERY nice! The girl’s family has a bit of “extra” money, so it was much nicer than the typical wedding here. Both the chosson and kallah are from my city which made it nice. I don’t know what’s normal for New York weddings, but this wedding had 600 people! She is the 1st girl to get married from her high school class and seminary friends, so she had 7 friends from seminary come into town, and basically her whole high school class was there and she invited tons of other girls. Usually by the 1st dance, the kallah dances with her relatives, and then friends make their way in at the 2nd dance. At this wedding, the friends TOOK OVER. After the kallah danced with her and the chossons immediate family, the friends were the wedding. But none of the girls actually danced- they all just screamed and jumped up and down. THE ENTIRE TIME! All the ladies stood on the side and watched. It was way too intimidating for them to get in the screaming, jumping circle! The only adults (besides for her family) that she danced with, was our principal from high school, and her best friends mother.

My sister said she never danced (read: jump up and down and scream) so much at any wedding, even at our sisters wedding! So for the kallahs friends, it was a really fun wedding! Me and one of my friends didn’t want to scream and jump up and down (especially since it wasn’t one of our good friends- both of our sisters are good friends with her, and I went to high school with her), but we still wanted to dance, so a lot of the time we stood right outside the jumping mob and clapped, or we would start a circle around all the girls. We felt pretty old.

They had a really good singer/band, even though they played some “interesting” music. You know Pink’s song about getting in a fight or whatever? So they played the music from that at one point. Verrrrry interesting ;-P

Not everyone wore black. It was a very colorful wedding. That's what happens at an out of town wedding!



I love weddings, but right now I'm a bit weddinged out.

Will you marry me?

There are stories about people proposing on billboards, at baseball games on the big tv screen, and a lot of other public ways... But would you have ever thought to put an ad on a website?! Check out Onlysimchas today! Someone proposed to Michelle!
It's a pretty cute idea actually.

A day to remember

I remember when I was really little, my father took me to the airport and there was a huge crowd of people singing and clapping around some man in a long beard. I couldn’t remember who it was, but I do remember knowing that he was obviously very special. Then he came to my school, and everyone sat along the hallway, and the man walked through us all while we sang. It was something I’ll always remember. (My friends and I were talking about it today, and we figured out that it was Rav Pam.)

A gadol hador (I’m not sure if I should say who because then maybe someone will find out where I live- even though I really do want to put some pictures up!) came to my small little city today for a sheva brachos he was attending. The community made a huge deal out of this of course because it’s something that happens so rarely to us. I thought that the school did a great job of showing the kids how important this man is. The entire elementary school- boys’ school and girl’s school- went in school buses (which makes it a whole field trip) to the hotel that the Rav was going to be at. Everyone waited quietly for the Rav to come, and then when he did, all the boys sang and clapped. Then everyone went into a huge ballroom and danced with the Rav and the girls danced with the Rebbetzin (and with the chosson and kallah). The rebbetzin even danced with each class individually! Then everyone sat down and each kid got a bag of chips and a drink (very special snack) and listened to the rav speak. Even though the younger kids had no idea who this man was, or his significance in our world, they will ALWAYS remember today.

Shidduchim shiur

Last Wednesday, at the weekly shiur for girls out of seminary, Mrs. S spoke about shidduchim, and I really liked what she said. I really only wrote down the points she was making, so that’s why it’s a bit choppy. And I also forgot to write down any of her sources. (Funny thing she said though: “Speeches about shidduchim after seminary are like speeches about tznius in high school- way over-talked about.”)

We know that finding your match is compared to the splitting of the sea.

The sea didn’t split until Bnai Yisroel cried out. Same with shidduchim, it doesn’t happen until we “cry out” - daven more, do more mitzvos etc. At the time that the yam suf split, everyone knew it was from Hashem. Also in shidduchim we see Hashem so clearly in it. Everyone’s stories are always, “it was SUCH hashgacha!”

The yam suf split into 12 separate paths- not just one. Each person in shidduchim has their own path. Everyone has their own different, separate path that was tailor made just for them.

Before the sea split, Bnai Yisroel thought it was impossible, but then they davened and it split. There was darkness before dawn. Why? Because when we’re in the dark, we intensify our tefillos, and then get the zchus for the light. The darkness is there SO we will strengthen our tefillos.

When the world was created, Hashem made a “deal” with the Sea. The sea was going to split when Bnai Yisroel came to it. It was set to happen. But then when the time came, and Bnai Yisroel was at the sea, it didn’t split. Bnai Yisroel thought it was impossible, so they went INTO the water, and then it split. Why? Because they believed in Hashem anyway. They had no idea that it was SUPPOSED to split. The same thing applies to shidduchim- Its necessary that we daven and have CONFIDENCE in our tefillos. We need to really believe. If we have confidence in our tefillos, then we’ll daven harder. We need to KNOW it’s there.

An example of this is a kid whose father comes home with candy in his pocket. The child KNOWS the candy is there, so he will put extra effort into asking, and won’t just stop after the 1st time the father says no. He really believes that he will get that candy and doesn’t give up.

You need to believe that your tefillos will 100% make a difference. You need to have complete faith in your tefillos. Because it’s in the blueprint of the world that our zivug is there waiting for us. It is SET to happen. At the exact moment that we believe and daven with complete faith, Hashem gives it to us.
This idea of davening for something and getting it is guaranteed with shidduchim, because it’s ours- it belongs to us. With other things, tefillah of course makes a difference, but it’s not necessarily answered in the way we want.

Sometimes when something bad is going on in our life, we bunch all our problems together, and say our whole life is a problem. All the little annoying things all of a sudden become a huge negative thing. So you need to focus on the bracha that you have. You want to be married? Of course you want to be! But that’s not Hashem’s ratzon right now. You need to live accordingly to His ratzon. And you need to be HAPPY living by Hashem’s ratzon. If that’s not where He put you, then that’s not where He wants you.

Hypothetical question

How halachikly wrong is it for a person to take a test for someone else (with 100% guarantee that they wont get caught)?
Hypothetically.
Ya know like on a scale from 1 to 10. Or on a scale from "You are going to need a lot of kaparos" to "You will go to hell".

And remember, this is totally hypothetical.

Not frum enough for mishmeres

I live in a pretty small “out of town” city. There are not that many single girls here, but it happens to be that I'm the “least frum” (I don’t pin my shirt to my chin, wear black tights everyday- even in July, I'm looking for a working boy, and I'm not a 8th grade chumash teacher) out of all the ones that are left. I'm still pretty close with a few girls, but it’s definitely a noted point among everyone. More than once I've declined invitations to events or activities because they're just things I'm not interested in.

Tonight at our weekly Wednesday night shiur (which hopefully I’ll have time to write about later), the speaker was going on and on about this whole mishmeres thing that “we” are all doing and how it’s so nice, and its such ahavas yisroel to daven for someone else, and it’s cleansing our mouths so that our tefillos can go straight to Hashem. And how it’s so nice that for 2 hours everyday, we watch what we say… and on and on and on. I was totally lost. I was like huh? What mishmeres thing?

After the shiur was over, I asked one of my friends what she was talking about. My friend was like, “oh yea, I wondered why you weren’t on the list.” She told me that girls take on 2 hours a day to not speak loshon hora, in the zchus of a different girl every 2 weeks to get married.

And apparently ALL the post seminary girls were doing it. But they didn’t ask me. Did they think I wouldn’t be interested in not speaking loshon hora for 2 hours a day? And how come no one is not speaking loshon hora for MY zchus to get married?!

I know I can be sensitive sometimes, but seriously, in a community this small, with so few girls, you don’t just FORGET about someone.
I'm working on not taking it personally.

Bridal Showers

In the last week, I had the zchus to be at 3 bridal showers. Living in a very small out of town community, things like that don’t happen often! Bridal showers are a funny thing. Different people go about it different ways.

One of the showers I went to recently was really unique and fun. Everyone was told to bring a recipe and a piece of advice, and there were tables set up with tons of scrapbooking materials and everyone made a scrapbook page. I had a great time and I actually stayed a long time, getting really into my page.

There are some girls who open presents at showers and some who don’t. It’s becoming a new thing (at least in my part of the world) to skip the present opening. Because what’s the point? Everyone knows what you’re getting already. They all saw the registry. And then when you open the presents what are you supposed to say? “Oh thank you Mrs. Katz! This is exactly the set of measuring cups that I wanted!” Um yea, well you did make a list of everything you wanted, and then on the shower invitation it told everyone what stores they should go to.

At some showers the chosson comes in and gives his present to the kallah. All the mothers "awwww”, and say how sweet he is.
Or he comes at the end to help carry everything and the mothers still “awwww”.

I haven’t yet been to a shower where someone DIDN’T register at Bed Bath and Beyond. Though one of my friends registered at Walmart. I had no idea people who shopped at Walmart actually got married. I thought they just have a “baby daddy”. JK! I go to Walmart all the time!

There’s usually one friend gives the bride lingerie at the shower. It’s always from Victoria’s Secret, so everyone knows right away what it is by that pink striped packaging. The kallah blushes and everyone laughs kind of awkwardly. She NEVER opens it in front of everyone.

Mostly everyone finds showers boring and can’t wait to leave. The best kind of shower games are the ones played WHILE the bride is opening the presents. People get annoyed when they play a 30 minute game about the bride, and then they have to sit there and watch her open presents.

I hope to have many more bridal showers to attend in the future!

Prank phone call

This guy I know just called me and told me he was calling me back. I told him that I never called him. Someone who sounds like me had called him from my number and said something really obscene and perverted over and over again, but the reception was bad, so he hung up and called me back. I was in the middle of watching a movie and my phone was right next to the whole time. I told him it wasn’t me, and he knows I'm not the type of person to say that to someone! I've heard about these calling cards or whatever that you can put someone else’s number to show up on the caller ID… but no ones ever done this to me! This is so high school. Is there any other explanation?

WHO WOULD DO THAT?!?!?!?!

Security you can count on

A friend of mine took this picture at a shul in LA, and I thought it was pretty cute.

He's so gay. Um, well actually he IS.

There’s this guy I know from this kiruv program I do, lets call him Moshe. My group of friends and I were friendly with him at a past shabbaton (or maybe I should say that HE was very friendly) and I'm friends with him on Facebook, and I’ve always noticed that his statuses are always very “gay”. I just assumed he was a very feminine guy who was obsessed with Gossip Girl and very excited to see High School Musical 3. I was actually impressed that he was so confident with his masculinity that he wasn’t afraid to be open about these things. Today, he uploaded a new album titled “My obsessions”. In this album are pictures of all the celebrities that he really likes. More than half are pictures of guys. And about 2/3 of THOSE pictures, are shirtless guys. I was like hmmm, something’s up. I IMed my friend who knows him and this is our conversation word for word (names changed):

me: u know moshe
Sara: ya...hes gay!!!!
me: is he gay?
like for real?
Sara: we were friends with him on the shabbaton!
call me now!
me: WHATTTTTT
omgggg
k

Of course I called Sara right away and she proceeded to tell me about how a few weeks ago she was at a birthday party for her friend, and Moshe was there. He was a bit drunk, and they were talking about the upcoming kiruv shabbaon. He said he wasn’t going anymore because they kicked him out.
Because he is gay.
HE CAME OUT TO MY FRIEND!


I'm very accepting and non-judgmental, but I was so surprised because I have never before known an openly gay frum guy!

Do you think that if I'm really nice to him, he will be my gay best friend? I've really wanted one of those for a very long time.

Parenting

When I think about having kids someday, I have mixed feelings: Excitement, anticipation and fear.

Raising kids in today’s world is terrifying. I want my kids to be open-minded and well-rounded, but how will I know if I'm exposing them to too much? How will I be able to trust my kids (and even let them out of the house!) when I know all the crazy, stupid, bad things I did?

You see these perfect, well behaved kids and wonder exactly what their parents did, but it doesn’t work like that for every child. Two parents can do the exact same thing and end up with very different results. And one parent can do the same thing with two different kids and also have different results.

I believe that it’s not 100% the parents fault if their child does stupid things, but I'm sure there is something that the parents could have done differently.

When I hear a piece of good parenting advice or see a parent doing something I want to make sure I NEVER do, I write it down in my journal. I feel like I better take all the advice I can get now! I can imagine that being a parent is hard, and it’s not easy to always value your child’s opinion or to let them be independent when you undoubtedly know what the best thing is. I guess you have to let your child learn from their mistakes. But I can imagine that that is a VERY difficult thing to watch.

I’ve gone out with guys who have asked me what I want my kids to be like (weird question, right? But I've had at least 3 guys ask me that!). I always answer, “The next gadol hador of course!” and then they always say, “Ok, but realistically?” And I tell them that I’m being serious. Why cant I have big dreams for my children? I don’t EXPECT my sons to be the next Reb Moshe Feinstein or my daughters the next Sarah Shneirer, but why cant I HOPE for that? But nowadays (thanks Ezzie for the spelling help) the most anyone can hope for is that their child keep shabbos.

How do I know I won't be one of those lazy parents who even when they sense that something might be going on, it takes too much effort and strain on their unflawed lives to look into it, and actually do something about it, so they just ignore it. They don’t want to break the naïve faultless image that they have in their mind of their child, so they would rather not know about any problems. So many awful things happen that could be prevented, if parents would just open their eyes and take action before it’s too late.

There are so many different parenting books with different opinions and new ideas, how do you know which one is the best? Do parents try every single one until they find one that works?

How is anyone ever ready to be a parent?!

I guess you can only do your best and pray that GD will do the rest.



I know you’re probably wondering why am I trying to perfect my parenting skills without even having yet found the man to have these kids with? I don’t know. This is just something I think about.

How many 5 year olds could you take in a fight?

I found this from here. It's only a little bit disturbing.
I could take 13. I'm not sure how I should feel about that.

Weight training

Yesterday in my P.E. class, our activity was “weight training”. We went to the weight room, and my teacher showed us how to use different weights and what we were expected to do by the end of the class. We had to choose an exercise in each of the 3 categories, and then we had to do each one 3 times (while holding weights) for about 15-25 times. So that’s 9 exercises. No big deal right?

So that was yesterday.

Today, I can’t walk.

Usually when you’re Charlie horse, it just hurts when you walk up stairs or do something “strenuous”. But I literally can’t even walk. I can’t sit down or get up from a chair. I am in so much pain.

It’s so pathetic. I need to start working out more. (Spencer and Nick- both on the baseball team- benched like a gazillion pounds and I couldn't even lift the bar without any weights on it.)

Low cut shirts

A girl in my math class wears a shirt that is so low, that it shows the top of her bra (brown today). And this wasn’t just a one time thing- she dresses like this every single class. Most non Jewish girls can tell that a shirt is too low when her boobs are hanging out, and way too much cleavage is showing (and this girl has huge boobs!). It just looks slutty and distasteful. I understand that guys like looking at that and girls are trying to impress and get attention, but c’mon, do u have to wear a shirt so low that everyone sees the top of your bra?! I feel kind of bad for her. She’s not a bad looking girl, not gorgeous but not ugly by any means. She is a bit chubby, but not fat. (Ever notice that the frum girl definition of fat is a size 10, while in the non Jewish world, that’s pretty normal?) But all I could think about was why she felt like she had to expose herself so indecently. Maybe she has low self esteem and is insecure? Ok so maybe she’ll get some meaningless flirting out of it, but will a guy ever take her seriously when she’s practically flashing the world? When she gets dressed in the morning and looks in the mirror does she say “oh no, this shirt doesn’t show enough cleavage, I have to go change.” Does she really think it looks good when her humongous boobs hang out of her shirt so that it’s almost like they have a life of their own? I think she needs a non slutty friend to help her go shopping and get dressed. I don’t know if I'm just noticing this because I'm frum and cover my collar bone, so this is an extreme difference than what I wear, but I don’t think so- I don’t see anyone else dressing like that in math class.

Old people

While I was at shul over yom tov, I noticed something that made me so sad. People either think an elderly person is helpless while they really aren't, or the elderly person really IS helpless. My heart ached as I watched a lady continuously show my friend’s grandmother the place in the siddur, when she CLEARLY knew exactly where it was, and was probably getting annoyed after the 10th time. I felt bad for her that people just assume she doesn’t know what is going on just because she is old. But then what if she was one of those old people who were kind of out of it, and did need help, and then people weren’t helping because they didn’t want to assume that she was helpless, so then the entire davening she has no idea what’s going on or where they're up to. That would be pretty sad too.

I don’t want to get old and be either of those types.

Elementary school memories

This might be boring for people to read, but I had fun writing it!

Up until 7th grade, I went to a co-ed school. In about 5th grade, the girls were all getting their periods, but were very embarrassed about it. In the middle school girls’ bathroom, there was a box of tampons/pads hanging on the wall and when you opened the bathroom door, you could see the box. It was something that at our righteous age of 12, we would steal and laugh at because we were immature. One day in science class, a boy walks in and asks a group of us girls what the box in our bathroom was. I cleverly (or so I thought at the time) replied with, “it’s a juice machine”. He looked at us in awe and exclaimed, “That’s not fair! How come you guys get a juice machine and we don’t?!” and of course, all the girls giggled and it was the joke for the rest of the year.

One day in 5th grade I was taking a drink from the water fountain while wearing my favorite dress (this was back in the day when even 7th graders wore dresses). It was light pink, and had big watermelons on the front of it. I thought this dress was really cute! Anyway, I'm bending down sipping the cool germy (public water fountains gross me out now) water, and the boy in line behind me (Joey was his name), said, “I can see your training bra”. I was mortified. I turned bright red and said something along the lines of “I don’t care”. Oh yea, in 5th grade I had amazing comebacks.

When I was in 6th grade, it was sooo cool to have a disc man, and the Savage Garden CD.

We would pass notes to boys by leaving them in their locker. There were always at least four love triangles going on at once. (Me and 2 of my friends all liked the same boy and he wrote us all notes saying he only liked us. We all felt pretty good until we compared notes...)

6th grade was the 1st time one of my friends kissed a boy. She did it at school, outside a window, where people were watching (she didn't realize until after when she was the talk of the school). She called him her boyfriend. He called her a girl he kissed.

One of my friends stuffed her bra with tissues. (Same girl who was going around kissing boys. Hmmm now I know how she got all the boys!!!)

In 8th grade me and 2 friends were the movie "Mean Girls". Not the year I'm most proud of. Peer pressure sucks big time.

The 1st PG13 movie I watched was "Clueless".

In my Spottie Dottie diary I “rated” boys. I had two categories. One was of “boys I like” and the other was of “boys I think are cute” (the boys I liked were all in the boys I thought were cute category of course). I wrote their name and then next to it was marks. A star meant that I like them as a friend also. Dots meant not only like, but LOVE; with the number of dots showing how in love I was. (4 boys had dots.) A check meant I only kind of like them. And “O.S.” meant I only sometimes liked them. (I guess it depended on the day?) This sounds more complicated than it really was. I had a pretty good system going.

Tapped in the back of my diary I had another paper with our “code names” on it. We had a code name for practically every boy worth mentioning. We even had a code name for Hanson and Jonathan Taylor Thomas (JTT) as well. Because you never know when we might be hanging out with the Hanson brothers or JTT and we’ll want to talk about them without them knowing.