No more kaynehores!

I grew up with a grandmother who was fluent in Yiddish. If she didn't want me to know what she was talking about, she would speak to my mom in Yiddish and say words like "meshuganneh" and "kaynehore." I thought that kaynehore was a swear word and used it while playing Barbies. I later found out that it meant "it shouldn't happen to you." Years down the road, I was watching "Will and Grace" and Grace said something about not giving herself a kaynehore. That's pretty much the same as not jinxing yourself.
I am proud to say that I have never broken a bone in my 33 years of life. However, I've given myself a kaynehore by saying so, as I've gotten myself into stupid and embarrassing accidents instead. In college, I managed to sit on a letter opener one year and burn my hand on hot pans the next. I think I was okay otherwise. And I've been fine up until we moved here....
Then the week we moved, I managed to step on a piece of glass (while wearing a slipper, mind you) and slice through the bottom of my foot. I didn't go to the ER though. I just kept pressure on it and now I can't even tell which foot was injured anymore.
In early November, on my way out to an interview (for the job I now have), I managed to bump into a shelf with my left eye. I actually considered going to the ER then, but my friend's dad said I should see an eye doctor instead. I did and my eye was taken care of and healed up in a couple of days. I had to wear an eye patch between doctor visits, but I didn't let it keep me from living my life (other than needing rides everywhere). I also learned that even with Lasik, I see better out of my left eye than my right. So that was a bit frustrating.
At the end of November, I was trying to open a wine bottle (of one of my favorite wines) with a cheap corkscrew and managed to break the top of the bottle and slice my hand in two spots. Thankfully, my mother-in-law and stepfather-in-law were here and were very helpful. They wanted me to go to the ER but I insisted that just keeping pressure on it would make it heal. They were impressed with my barely visible scars the following week!
This past weekend, I slipped on some snow and fell on the pavement underneath. It hurt by my left hip area but I iced it and was fine....until last night. I finally decided that something was worth going to the ER for when I had a major muscle spasm in my back. At first I thought it was in my chest and that I was having a heart attack. Then I thought it was a slipped disk or that one of my lungs collapsed. It hurt that much to breathe. I wasn't taking chances at playing doctor to myself this time. My husband was smart enough to give me some ibuprofen and that helped soften the pain a little. However, it flared up again right before I was about to have an X-ray. I woke up this morning with a sore upper back and decided to take it easy for the day. I feel a lot better now, B"H. I don't plan to lift heavy objects or shovel the heavy snow we're expecting this weekend. It also puts a crimp in my exercise schedule. However, I can't complain too much and my BFF told me to look at the silver lining of being able to get in a lot of reading time at the ER and also getting a day to relax from my normally hectic schedule.
I just hope the season of kaynehores is now over and that I can get back to my regularly scheduled lifestyle. I think I paid my dues. (And I still have the scar from cutting my forehead when I fell on cement at age 1. I think I was owed no broken bones over that one!)

Bally Who?!?

Back in the day, I used to go to a fitness club to work out. For the most part, I belonged to Bally Total Fitness. There was a time when I had an X-Sport membership, but I didn’t renew it and went back to Bally afterward. X-Sport was beautiful and convenient, but expensive! And there was a creepy exercise bike guy there. :P Anyway, I enjoyed working out and went all the time. Then I got pregnant with my younger son and stopped going to the gym after a while, to the point where we ended up cancelling our membership because my husband had no time to go at all either. I then started walking around our neighborhood in NJ. There were sidewalks and I had a walkman for a while (yes, I am that old school). That helped keep me fit during my pregnancy. I even walked outside in the freezing cold. Eventually, I put on Denise Austin’s pregnancy workout video and moved along to cheesy 80’s songs. After my younger son was born and when I went back to my work-at-home job, I pretty much gave up on any exercise. I’d take him on occasional walks when it was nice out, but nothing like before. This past summer, my older son had some time off from school before we moved. I’d take him out for a bike ride (for him) and walk (for me) every day if it wasn’t swelteringly hot out. Then we moved and there was another family (in our new neighborhood) having a moving sale around that same time. She sold us a barely used treadmill in perfect condition, along with 2 lamps, for a really good price. Impossible to refuse! Once we got the new treadmill, I started working out again. I built up slowly to a good workout. Then I started my job and fell behind on working out. I’m just now starting to get back on the treadmill again. It feels nice to fit a workout into my routine. And I feel less guilty about the chocolate and other snacks I eat at work. :) The other two awesome things about working out at home are that I can listen to my music without needing headphones and I can wear whatever I want without anyone else caring. Another perk is that I don’t have to shower in a gross locker room where women are randomly sitting around in the buff.

It's all about the candy

There’s a term called “High Holiday Jew.” This applies to Jewish people who only attend shul twice a year, during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I used to fall into this category during college and a little bit beyond. Then I went to Israel in 2002 and all that changed. Anyway, I’m not actually spring-boarding off this topic to talk about the steps I’ve taken in my path to become more observant. That will come another time. I am just wondering if there is a term for more observant Jewish people who celebrate non-Jewish (but not church-related) holidays. I’m not talking about the American holidays of Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day or Thanksgiving. I’m referring to Halloween and Valentine’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day could fit in this category too, but I don’t follow that one at all. Could it be “Non-Jewish (but non-Church) holiday Jews”?
I wanted to touch on this topic because I have enjoyed celebrating both Halloween and Valentine’s Day my entire life. (Even when I wasn’t seeing someone during the latter.) I know there are things involved with both holidays that people who are even more observant than I am will not even fathom celebrating. However, I celebrate them for the surface things; the fun stuff I did as a kid and can do with my own kids. I love dressing my kids up to go trick-or-treating. I know that Purim is around the corner and that it still involves costumes and treats, but it’s different. I love carving a pumpkin and baking the seeds. I love that Halloween takes place during autumn, which is my favorite season. I love all the excitement my kids show for Halloween. We focus on the fun and silly things instead of the scary and macabre things. One of my friends throws the best Halloween parties, which I haven’t been able to attend since we moved away. I love seeing the pictures she takes of everyone in their clever costumes. I love the creative games and treats she has at these parties. I threw a Halloween party during the first year my husband and I were dating. It was a lot of fun and I still have my pictures and memories of that night. I went trick-or-treating or to Halloween parties with my friends in college. I’ve gone to “Rocky Horror” shows for Halloween on occasion. The movie fits best with that holiday. I’ve only had a couple of bad Halloweens, but it never ruined the holiday for me overall. This past Halloween, we couldn't go trick-or-treating because it was on Shabbos. However, we took the boys to a Halloween festival at an aviation museum. There were snacks, crafts, stories and a hayride. It was really cute. The boys still got to dress up too. I also stocked up on lots of costumes at the thrift store for both dress-up and Purim.
As for Valentine’s Day….I always liked making the pretty foil covered boxes to collect Valentine cards from my classmates. The candy is as much of a perk as it is on Halloween. If the conversation hearts were Kosher, I’d have them in my house. Somehow, a Hershey’s kiss wrapped in pink foil tastes that much sweeter. As I got older, I still enjoyed V-day even without a significant other to share it with (that didn’t happen till I was 18). I liked sending cards to family and friends. I enjoyed having a busy night at work (at my Chinese restaurant job in high school). I’d even get dressed in red and pink for school on V-day. Throughout college, my parents would send me fun V-day care packages with lots of chocolate. This was carried over from when they’d give me V-day presents as a kid. V-day was even a wake-up call for me one year. When I met my husband, we started dating around V-day and he brought me a card and rose on our first real date. Then he came over the night before V-day (he was going on a ski trip on the holiday and I had planned a girls’ night before I even knew he’d come into my life) and that’s when we had our first kiss. We went on fun and romantic dates every V-day. Our last real V-day date was the year I was pregnant with my older son. After that time, he joined us on our dates. This year, that is going to change and we’ll have our first V-day kids-free date since 2005! My older son is now aware of Valentine’s Day and excited to celebrate it at school. He’s always asking if it is V-day yet and then asking if it’s February yet, just in case he thinks he missed out on a holiday. I read him a story about it last night and I think he’s even more excited for it now.
I also like volunteering at my older son’s school for these holidays. I did it for Halloween and plan to for Valentine’s Day, as well. I love baking holiday-themed treats.
Before I became observant, I did actually like Christmas. (I never liked Easter though, since I couldn’t enjoy the candy due to Pesach.) That has changed for me though. However, nothing can change V-day or Halloween for me.

Missing

We’ve been living in our new home and community for almost 6 months. It feels like we’ve lived here forever. We’re just so comfortable and happy here! We love our house too. However, I’ve realized that no matter where you go, you can’t have it all. We moved to NJ from Illinois in 2007 and that was definitely a lifestyle change for us. Then we moved to MD from NJ just recently. While this was definitely a good move for us, there are some things I can acknowledge that I miss about NJ. I don’t think my 2 years there were a waste by any means and I probably am more negative about being there than I really should be. In lieu of that, here is a list of things I miss about living in NJ:

1. Not having to pump my own gas, especially in the winter! Somehow gas was cheaper as a result.
2. The friends we made whom we still stay in touch with and enjoy talking to (including friends in NY). We enjoyed seeing some of them when we came up for a visit in December.
3. Being close in proximity to my mother-in-law. However, we saw her 3 weeks in a row around Thanksgiving and Hanukkah time and I know we’ll see her again very soon. I’m still happy to have family nearby, as my brother-in-law and sister-in-law live about 45 minutes away and their kids are close in age to ours.
4. My older son’s school. He has a fantastic school program here and his teachers are wonderful. However, I really think his teacher in NJ made a huge difference when it came to getting him to where he is now. I still keep in contact with her, as well.
5. My bosses (a husband and wife) from my job there. I like everyone I work with now and I still have a wonderful boss. It doesn’t mean I don’t miss them as people. My job in NJ was the first one where I felt truly respected and trusted. I also had a great rapport with the wife. We had some kids the same age and always had so much to talk about. I actually set criteria that if we were to move to a new community, I’d want all the women to be like her in terms of personality. I have not been disappointed!
6. Access to Kosher food. There were so many Kosher restaurants by where we lived and the grocery stores had huge Kosher sections, not to mention the all Kosher stores. Also, I miss the Kosher bakery at Costco.
7. My hairstylist. I was reminded of this the other day. I am hoping I’ll find someone just as good out here.
8. Two words: Amazing Savings.
9. Having a bunch of playgrounds in walking distance for Shabbat afternoon play time.
10. As much as I’m not crazy about NYC, it was nice to be close enough to be able to take in a Broadway show every now and then. Not that we got to see all that many (only 3 within 2 years). It was nice for my parents when they came to visit because they’d do a Broadway marathon.

I could come up with a list for what I miss about Illinois, but it really boils down to my family, our friends and deep dish pizza. (All pretty obvious, if you ask me.) Show Tune Sunday at Sidetracks is a nice perk, but it’s not like I got to go all that often. I kind of lost my connection to Chicago after a while and stayed suburban for the most part. I like the shul we went to, but I’m still in touch with anyone from there who wants to make the effort to stay in touch and my husband still gets updates on the latest news.

We plan to stay where we are for a long time, so there won’t be any more “what I miss” lists anytime soon. I do plan to make a list of what I love about being in MD though. Stay tuned….

Date and Eight rhyme!

Since my husband and I met 8 years ago (on February 6th, but it fell on a weeknight during that time), I thought I’d honor the occasion with a list of 8 things you may or may not know about us as a couple:

1. The necklace he made me for our 1 year wedding anniversary is symbolic of a nickname he came up with when we were first dating. It has both biblical and Kosher connections.
2. We play the “Newsies” soundtrack during every road trip.
3. We spent most of our honeymoon playing billiards.
4. Not only were we connected by our love for bowling, but also because we both liked to say “besherte.”
5. We feel that no meal is complete without dessert.
6. If I were to be cloned a thousand times, my husband would be a famous comedian by now. He can make me laugh over the craziest things that no one else would understand or appreciate. :)
7. Our birthdays are both on the 20th of our respective months.
8. My husband asked me out for hot cocoa when we had our first date because neither of us drink coffee. However, I ended up having tea.

Not-so-plain Jane

Another author I like a lot is Jane Porter. Between reading her books and Kristin Hannah’s books, I feel like I know Washington state like the back of my hand, even though I’ve never been there. I started out by reading “The Frog Prince” in late 2007 and followed that up with “Flirting with Forty”. Both were fun, enjoyable stories. Next came “Odd Mom Out,” which spurned a bunch of books about characters to whom the main character was connected. All the books that came out of that connection with Marta have been great stories and very hard to put down. I’m excited for “She’s Gone Country”, for which I just read a description on Amazon. I got to follow Marta’s friend Shey in OMO and “Easy on the Eyes,” based on her friendships with Marta and Tiana, and I’m excited to read more about her this summer when the new book is released. “Mrs. Perfect” was more about Marta’s rival, but it allowed readers to see her from another angle and it spoke to women about a fear we all have to consider in this day and age. “Flirting with Forty” was made into a movie on Lifetime and I enjoyed that too. It followed most of the story, with a few changes. It was cute overall though.
Keep up the great work, Jane!

Introspective

Since I started this blog, I’ve noticed that I am more conscientious about how I live my life. I had posted about being a hoarder and now I’m starting to give away things I don’t want/need anymore. I find work to be a great source for this, as there is a table in the kitchen where people can leave stuff for anyone to take. I’ve taken things other people have left and have been leaving a lot of things for people to take. Most of the stuff I have left has been taken. So I know I’m not the only one with a VCR! I also give things to my older son’s sitter. She’s very nice and I prefer to freecycle to people I know first, if I think they’ll enjoy what I have to share. (This also applies to family, friends and neighbors.) Now that we opened our Pandora’s box of an insanely large VHS collection, I’ll be giving more items away soon.
Also, I started exercising again! I work out in the morning before I get ready for work. It’s invigorating and a great way to start the day. I usually read during my workout until I have to walk so fast that it’s not worth reading anymore.
After attending the style seminar, I cleaned out my closet last week to see my style options and also get rid of clothes I was hoarding. I’m starting to work on my kids’ drawers now to see what still fits and what I need to get on my next thrift shop and/or Target run.
Finally, I’ve been flossing my teeth more than I usually do. I think my upcoming trip to the dentist has prompted this behavior, but I think it’s worthwhile to make it into a habit again.
I’m sure more things will come to light as I continue blogging.