When my husband and I were first dating and even for a while when we were married, he was the primary challah baker. I know that is non-typical, but he did such a good job that I just let him do it. We had a bread machine and he had a great recipe to go with it.
In early 2005, I became pregnant with my first son and decided to take over the challah making responsibilities around that time. I followed the bread machine recipe my husband gave me and it was foolproof. Delicious challot every time.
Around Pesach of 2008, I managed to lose the paddle of the bread machine while cleaning for the holiday. Afterward, I sought out challah recipes that could be made by hand. I received a few and ended up going for one my friend gave me from her chef school. After a few trial runs, I modified the recipe to my liking and it came out even better. I used the Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook at this time. I also decided to switch to whole wheat flour in early 2009. I was making the challah this way for a while and had a lot of success with it.
This past November, I attended an event at our local Chabad called "Loaves of Love." It was in honor of Rivkie Holtzberg, the Rebbetzin who was tragically killed by terrorists in Mumbai. She used to make challot for everyone in the community or whoever needed it for Shabbos. The program allowed everyone involved to make challah for themselves and for a friend, neighbor, colleague, etc. (I gave ours to a close friend who is also our neighbor.) There was a raffle at the event and yours truly won a huge bowl with challah ingredients and an apron inside.
The next time I baked challah after that event, I started using the bowl and kneading the dough completely by hand. I can't imagine making challah the electronic way ever again. It's so satisfying to knead the dough with the strength of my arms and my love for Judaism and Shabbos. Sometimes I let my son help mix the ingredients. He enjoys it too.
I've mentioned before (perhaps more indirectly) how the "Loaves of Love" event got my mom interested in challah baking. Recently, she had over some family members and friends to do a challah baking party on Super Bowl Sunday. They took pictures and sent them to me. My 9 year-old cousin was one of the bakers and it looked like she was having a fantastic time. I got verklempt from looking at the pictures because it was so special to see women coming together to bake challah. I hope I can take part in that the next time I'm in Chicago. I'd also love to have my mom help me bake challah the next time she's here for a visit. It's such a beautiful experience every time. And the results are always delicious!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Judgment day
I was reading an article in "People" magazine about women who were secretly alcoholics because they felt it made them more secure about being mothers. One woman even said that she drank because she felt all the other mothers she knew were better than she was. I also saw this note on PassiveAggressiveNotes.com. Both items brought me back to when I read "Goodnight Nobody" by Jennifer Weiner. It started off by sharing the insecurities of a mother based on her thought that the other mothers she saw in the park had it more together than she did. It probably wasn't the best choice for me to read as a brand new mother, but it also affirmed to me that I shouldn't have to feel so insecure in my own parenting.
There are about a million parenting books, manuals, websites, articles, etc. about how to raise your kids the best way possible. I enjoy reading parenting magazines but I don't obsess over what the articles say. How did parents get by in raising their kids before the information era came around? I find it all completely overwhelming and choose to learn through experience. I went to a parenting seminar and found some information helpful, but other information was just swimming out there in space (as in, "I will never retain this or even need to use this in my parenting habits"). I got laughed at by the teacher for giving my toddler choices. Has he ever met my toddler? No!
I know that I have some shortcomings in the parenting department, but I don't expect to be perfect. I need to be firm without having to yell to get my point across. I usually end up as the "mean parent" (so I can relate to Lynnette on "Desperate Housewives"). I could have a little more patience too. However, this is for me to figure out....not the leader of a parenting seminar, not my parents or in-laws, not my friends, and certainly not strangers! One of my pet peeves is when my child is throwing a tantrum at a store and someone comes up to them to try to resolve the tantrum and look like some sort of hero. It undermines me as a parent and just gets on that one nerve that the tantrum didn't completely destroy already.
I don't tell other people how to raise their kids. I may not agree with every choice, but it's not my place to judge or show some expression of judgment. If someone wants advice, I'm glad to share what worked for me, but I don't expect it to work for everyone. All kids are different and I respect that. I just hope other people can afford to share the same respect. All I know is that the mom who looks like she has it all together may just be showing a facade. Kids are unpredictable and no parenting expert will have all the answers all the time. Everything has to be learned by experience. The true test of a "good" parent is being able to laugh off a tough day and still look forward to seeing your kids when they wake up the next morning. My kids have their moments, but I do feel like I must be doing at least something right. I just need to figure out what that is and keep doing it.
I know I promised that this blog would not be about my kids. Technically, this entry was more about me as a parent and my own convictions. I wasn't using it to brag about my kids or even share stories about them. I just wanted to clarify that fact. :)
There are about a million parenting books, manuals, websites, articles, etc. about how to raise your kids the best way possible. I enjoy reading parenting magazines but I don't obsess over what the articles say. How did parents get by in raising their kids before the information era came around? I find it all completely overwhelming and choose to learn through experience. I went to a parenting seminar and found some information helpful, but other information was just swimming out there in space (as in, "I will never retain this or even need to use this in my parenting habits"). I got laughed at by the teacher for giving my toddler choices. Has he ever met my toddler? No!
I know that I have some shortcomings in the parenting department, but I don't expect to be perfect. I need to be firm without having to yell to get my point across. I usually end up as the "mean parent" (so I can relate to Lynnette on "Desperate Housewives"). I could have a little more patience too. However, this is for me to figure out....not the leader of a parenting seminar, not my parents or in-laws, not my friends, and certainly not strangers! One of my pet peeves is when my child is throwing a tantrum at a store and someone comes up to them to try to resolve the tantrum and look like some sort of hero. It undermines me as a parent and just gets on that one nerve that the tantrum didn't completely destroy already.
I don't tell other people how to raise their kids. I may not agree with every choice, but it's not my place to judge or show some expression of judgment. If someone wants advice, I'm glad to share what worked for me, but I don't expect it to work for everyone. All kids are different and I respect that. I just hope other people can afford to share the same respect. All I know is that the mom who looks like she has it all together may just be showing a facade. Kids are unpredictable and no parenting expert will have all the answers all the time. Everything has to be learned by experience. The true test of a "good" parent is being able to laugh off a tough day and still look forward to seeing your kids when they wake up the next morning. My kids have their moments, but I do feel like I must be doing at least something right. I just need to figure out what that is and keep doing it.
I know I promised that this blog would not be about my kids. Technically, this entry was more about me as a parent and my own convictions. I wasn't using it to brag about my kids or even share stories about them. I just wanted to clarify that fact. :)
A mix of sticks
This is my progress over the past week. Most of it was done at the hospital while waiting for my older son to go into and then come out of surgery. The rest was done during "American Idol" (the first episode this week was 2 hours long). Both episodes of "American Idol" will be 2 hours long next week, so I expect to get a lot more done!
I got new needles this week. This time they are made of bamboo. I still feel way more comfortable knitting with separate needles vs. using an attached set. I also like the longer needles better. They feel more comfortable in my hands.
Finally, I joined ravelry.com thanks to some peer pressure. I am eema2boys. Come say hi and add me as a friend. :) I don't know how active I'll be, but it's worth a try. I've been told that it's easy for new knitters to follow along.
All in Hashem's Plan
I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each other's blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.
Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness
This week's topic comes from Froggie:
I've been hearing a lot lately that G-d has a plan for everyone's life and that you just have to trust that though what you are going through today is not great it will get you to where you should be going. Write about a time that seemed like it was leading nowhere, but took you to your next destination in life.
Here goes:
I had been living in the Chicago suburbs for over 30 years (except when I was living downstate for college), when all of that changed on our 3 year anniversary. My husband called me to tell me that he got a job in New Jersey and that we'd have a month to move there. We had thought about moving to that area to live closer to his family, but I also thought we'd have more time to plan for it. I wasn't clamoring to move there and told my husband that the only way I'd do it is if he found a way to get us there. And so he did. Then we had to sell our townhouse (which was successful and probably wouldn't have been that way when the real estate market had trouble a little while later) and find a place to live in NJ. I found a shul in northern NJ that was Modern Orthodox and had a ton of young families. And they were even renting out a house next door to prospective members. All things seemed to fit into place in that respect. It was very hard for me to move away from family and friends and I appreciate the support they gave me when all tears were shed and everything else was said and done. I'm thankful that most of them haven't de-invested in our friendship and I enjoy seeing them when we visit Chicago (and would love to have them visit us here too).
And then came the big move....
When we first got there, I had this impending feeling of dread just from walking around the downtown suburban area. However, I was determined to stick it out and make the best of things. Our first Shabbos there was hectic, but I made the effort to meet new people, despite the crowdedness from the Bar Mitzvah going on and my older son having a series of tantrums. I even made a new friend that day and we connected up a week or so later. Our kids were very close in age and adored each other. That was a bright spot in an otherwise stressful move.
To sum things up from that point on, we were driven by various factors to realize that where we were trying to establish ourselves into a community was not where we were meant to be for the long term. It started with a new shul president taking over and trying to push us out of our lease before we even had a new place to move into. It was a catalyst that helped us realize where we fit in (or didn't fit in) to the community. Thankfully, we had some nice friends who were very supportive. There were also issues with the job that helped my husband get us out there in the first place and then the second job he got afterward. It took him only a month to find the job he'd stay at for almost 2 years though. This job was definitely part of Hashem's grand plan.... In the meantime, I had a terrible time finding a job and didn't even know where I fit in to the career world at that point. I thought I had landed one job but then it was taken back when they realized I was Shomer Shabbos/Yom Tov. And while we had made some great friends, schedules were conflicting often and we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we'd like. We did have a playgroup going on for a while, but the play dates became less frequent after my younger son was born. There were also times when we felt invisible altogether. Throughout all this, we decided to check out different Modern Orthodox communities throughout the northern NJ area to see if there was any area that might be a better fit for us.
In the meantime, I started a new job in February 2008 and my younger son was born a month later. The following month, some friends of ours from shul moved next door to us. As a result, we became much closer with them. We settled into a routine, going to our shul for the most part and still shul shopping on the side every now and then. We gave up shopping after our older son turned 3 in September and decided to wait until the new year.
In November 2008, everything changed for us, in a good way. My husband had a work conference in Silver Spring, MD. It was close to DC, so the boys and I tagged along and got to do some sightseeing and visit old friends I hadn't seen in a long time. The moment we stepped out of the Metro and into the capitol, I fell in love. I couldn't get over how perfect DC felt. We were living close to NYC at the time and my husband was working in the city, so he definitely got a different feel from DC in comparison. That week, we started talking about checking out communities in the DC area. My husband's brother pointed us to Silver Spring and his chavrusa had a friend who used to live there and connected us to someone in a Modern Orthodox community.
A year ago (as of this weekend), we spent our first Shabbos in Silver Spring and attended the Bar Mitzvah of a boy with Down Syndrome. The whole experience was incredible (the Bar Mitzvah itself, the friendliness of everyone at shul, the hospitality of people in the community, etc.). We decided to visit again in the spring to make sure this was what we wanted. After an even more incredible weekend of meeting people and getting a feel for the community, we were sold. A few weeks later, we put a contract on a house and here we are now.
The hardest people to move away from this time were my mother-in-law, our friends (or the people we actually stayed close with throughout the entire 2 years in NJ...especially our next door neighbors), my bosses and my older son's school. We didn't feel bad about leaving the shul as that was our intention for a while anyway. A few weeks after we put the contract on the house, we found out that the Rabbi from our shul in NJ was moving away too. That helped us realize even more that our decision was a good one (not that we didn't know it already). The other affirmation of our decision came from my older son's teacher in NJ. She told us that the county we were moving to was the best place for people with hearing loss. (We also were told that the ENT who performed his implant surgery yesterday is one of the best in the entire country.)
I've mentioned in other blogs how much I love living here. I could reiterate it over and over again. We connected with a family whose son also has hearing loss (and has already been through the cochlear implant process) and they offered to bring us pizza after our older son's CI surgery this week. That is just a small highlight of how great people are in this community. We have fabulous neighbors who all came together last week during the blizzard (and friends who decided to have a pot luck lunch when I hurt my eye and couldn't get a Shabbos meal together like I had planned). I am actually disappointed when I can't make it to shul for weather (or lack of eruv) reasons. We have family nearby in Baltimore, as well as cousins in Virginia. We also have friends nearby who don't live in our neighborhood but are close enough to get together with at other times. This move has definitely enhanced our social life. :) (A huge change from me crying every night over having a hard time fitting into our community in NJ...which I felt better about once we became closer with our next door neighbors.)
Overall, if we hadn't moved to NJ in the first place, we wouldn't have been able to establish ourselves as Modern Orthodox and my husband wouldn't have had the job that sent us to DC in the first place. I feel this was all in Hashem's plan. That as rough and shaky as things were for us at times in NJ, we found where we were meant to be all along...in MD. We still miss family and friends who live far away, but we know they are happy that we're happy in our new home and community. We hope everyone can come visit us, and we still wouldn't mind having our family and friends move even closer. I'm sure if that is meant to be, it will happen when the time is right, as well. ;)
Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness
This week's topic comes from Froggie:
I've been hearing a lot lately that G-d has a plan for everyone's life and that you just have to trust that though what you are going through today is not great it will get you to where you should be going. Write about a time that seemed like it was leading nowhere, but took you to your next destination in life.
Here goes:
I had been living in the Chicago suburbs for over 30 years (except when I was living downstate for college), when all of that changed on our 3 year anniversary. My husband called me to tell me that he got a job in New Jersey and that we'd have a month to move there. We had thought about moving to that area to live closer to his family, but I also thought we'd have more time to plan for it. I wasn't clamoring to move there and told my husband that the only way I'd do it is if he found a way to get us there. And so he did. Then we had to sell our townhouse (which was successful and probably wouldn't have been that way when the real estate market had trouble a little while later) and find a place to live in NJ. I found a shul in northern NJ that was Modern Orthodox and had a ton of young families. And they were even renting out a house next door to prospective members. All things seemed to fit into place in that respect. It was very hard for me to move away from family and friends and I appreciate the support they gave me when all tears were shed and everything else was said and done. I'm thankful that most of them haven't de-invested in our friendship and I enjoy seeing them when we visit Chicago (and would love to have them visit us here too).
And then came the big move....
When we first got there, I had this impending feeling of dread just from walking around the downtown suburban area. However, I was determined to stick it out and make the best of things. Our first Shabbos there was hectic, but I made the effort to meet new people, despite the crowdedness from the Bar Mitzvah going on and my older son having a series of tantrums. I even made a new friend that day and we connected up a week or so later. Our kids were very close in age and adored each other. That was a bright spot in an otherwise stressful move.
To sum things up from that point on, we were driven by various factors to realize that where we were trying to establish ourselves into a community was not where we were meant to be for the long term. It started with a new shul president taking over and trying to push us out of our lease before we even had a new place to move into. It was a catalyst that helped us realize where we fit in (or didn't fit in) to the community. Thankfully, we had some nice friends who were very supportive. There were also issues with the job that helped my husband get us out there in the first place and then the second job he got afterward. It took him only a month to find the job he'd stay at for almost 2 years though. This job was definitely part of Hashem's grand plan.... In the meantime, I had a terrible time finding a job and didn't even know where I fit in to the career world at that point. I thought I had landed one job but then it was taken back when they realized I was Shomer Shabbos/Yom Tov. And while we had made some great friends, schedules were conflicting often and we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we'd like. We did have a playgroup going on for a while, but the play dates became less frequent after my younger son was born. There were also times when we felt invisible altogether. Throughout all this, we decided to check out different Modern Orthodox communities throughout the northern NJ area to see if there was any area that might be a better fit for us.
In the meantime, I started a new job in February 2008 and my younger son was born a month later. The following month, some friends of ours from shul moved next door to us. As a result, we became much closer with them. We settled into a routine, going to our shul for the most part and still shul shopping on the side every now and then. We gave up shopping after our older son turned 3 in September and decided to wait until the new year.
In November 2008, everything changed for us, in a good way. My husband had a work conference in Silver Spring, MD. It was close to DC, so the boys and I tagged along and got to do some sightseeing and visit old friends I hadn't seen in a long time. The moment we stepped out of the Metro and into the capitol, I fell in love. I couldn't get over how perfect DC felt. We were living close to NYC at the time and my husband was working in the city, so he definitely got a different feel from DC in comparison. That week, we started talking about checking out communities in the DC area. My husband's brother pointed us to Silver Spring and his chavrusa had a friend who used to live there and connected us to someone in a Modern Orthodox community.
A year ago (as of this weekend), we spent our first Shabbos in Silver Spring and attended the Bar Mitzvah of a boy with Down Syndrome. The whole experience was incredible (the Bar Mitzvah itself, the friendliness of everyone at shul, the hospitality of people in the community, etc.). We decided to visit again in the spring to make sure this was what we wanted. After an even more incredible weekend of meeting people and getting a feel for the community, we were sold. A few weeks later, we put a contract on a house and here we are now.
The hardest people to move away from this time were my mother-in-law, our friends (or the people we actually stayed close with throughout the entire 2 years in NJ...especially our next door neighbors), my bosses and my older son's school. We didn't feel bad about leaving the shul as that was our intention for a while anyway. A few weeks after we put the contract on the house, we found out that the Rabbi from our shul in NJ was moving away too. That helped us realize even more that our decision was a good one (not that we didn't know it already). The other affirmation of our decision came from my older son's teacher in NJ. She told us that the county we were moving to was the best place for people with hearing loss. (We also were told that the ENT who performed his implant surgery yesterday is one of the best in the entire country.)
I've mentioned in other blogs how much I love living here. I could reiterate it over and over again. We connected with a family whose son also has hearing loss (and has already been through the cochlear implant process) and they offered to bring us pizza after our older son's CI surgery this week. That is just a small highlight of how great people are in this community. We have fabulous neighbors who all came together last week during the blizzard (and friends who decided to have a pot luck lunch when I hurt my eye and couldn't get a Shabbos meal together like I had planned). I am actually disappointed when I can't make it to shul for weather (or lack of eruv) reasons. We have family nearby in Baltimore, as well as cousins in Virginia. We also have friends nearby who don't live in our neighborhood but are close enough to get together with at other times. This move has definitely enhanced our social life. :) (A huge change from me crying every night over having a hard time fitting into our community in NJ...which I felt better about once we became closer with our next door neighbors.)
Overall, if we hadn't moved to NJ in the first place, we wouldn't have been able to establish ourselves as Modern Orthodox and my husband wouldn't have had the job that sent us to DC in the first place. I feel this was all in Hashem's plan. That as rough and shaky as things were for us at times in NJ, we found where we were meant to be all along...in MD. We still miss family and friends who live far away, but we know they are happy that we're happy in our new home and community. We hope everyone can come visit us, and we still wouldn't mind having our family and friends move even closer. I'm sure if that is meant to be, it will happen when the time is right, as well. ;)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
One show....glory
A little over 13 years ago, I was introduced to a new, modern musical take on “La Boheme.” It was called “Rent,” and it was all about people living in NY with very little money, drug addictions, HIV/AIDS, etc. Not your typical musical, right? However, it won a Tony for Best Musical in 1996 and I received the Original Broadway Cast recording for Hanukkah later that year. At first, it took a while to get used to the songs and dialogue. Then one day I just started catching on to the music and story and was hooked. I hadn’t even seen it yet and I felt I knew the characters just through the songs. I checked out the story and pieces started falling into place, helping the songs make that much more sense. A year after I first received this fabulous CD, I got to see it on stage for the first time when it came to Chicago. I immediately fell in love with it. Knowing the story and characters helped me feel even more connected and I felt like I was visiting old friends by the time I got to see it performed live. I even cried during some parts of the second act.
A few months later, my sister and I were home on spring break and we got stuck home in a major snowstorm. (March in Chicago, go figure!) We were determined to wait all day for front row seats (and we had plans to meet a friend in the city for that purpose too), and so we dug the car out of several feet of snow and took the Metra downtown the next day. Then we waited outside all day in the freezing cold for our chance to get front row seats for $20 a person. People were nice and brought us food and later the theater manager let us sit inside. The line didn’t really start forming till later and we were right in front. The show was even more amazing the second time around and we got to meet the cast and take pictures afterward. It was such an awesome day!
After that, I saw “Rent” six more times, including twice in one week.
In July 2001, I got to meet and take a picture with Adam Pascal when he was performing in “Aida” on Broadway. That moment ranked up there with the day I waited outside for tickets.
When the movie version came out, I had to go out and see it on the first day. I wasn’t as thrilled with how they changed songs into short bits of dialogue, but it was cool to see some of the main actors. I recently saw the movie version of the final Broadway performance. It was cool to see the scenes from different angles than I would normally see while sitting down in the audience. It was also nice to see it as a movie with all the songs intact.
“Last night, I had a dream….I found myself in a desert called Cyberland….” Just kidding, but I actually had a dream last night about seeing “Rent” with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal in it. I didn’t get to see them on tour (my sister did though), but I’m sure that must have been amazing. I’m glad I met Adam in person, in any case. I heard he wasn’t really coming out to meet people at the tour shows, but I could be mistaken.
I think I’ll always be a “Rent”-aholic at heart. I can still listen to the CD and sing along. I still like quoting the songs in other aspects of life. I still like reading articles and seeing videos online about it. I may like other musicals that are being performed today or in the past, but nothing will ever come close to finding the glory I’ve found in “Rent.”
The day we waited out in the cold for front row seats, March 1998
Meeting Adam Pascal, July 2001
A few months later, my sister and I were home on spring break and we got stuck home in a major snowstorm. (March in Chicago, go figure!) We were determined to wait all day for front row seats (and we had plans to meet a friend in the city for that purpose too), and so we dug the car out of several feet of snow and took the Metra downtown the next day. Then we waited outside all day in the freezing cold for our chance to get front row seats for $20 a person. People were nice and brought us food and later the theater manager let us sit inside. The line didn’t really start forming till later and we were right in front. The show was even more amazing the second time around and we got to meet the cast and take pictures afterward. It was such an awesome day!
After that, I saw “Rent” six more times, including twice in one week.
In July 2001, I got to meet and take a picture with Adam Pascal when he was performing in “Aida” on Broadway. That moment ranked up there with the day I waited outside for tickets.
When the movie version came out, I had to go out and see it on the first day. I wasn’t as thrilled with how they changed songs into short bits of dialogue, but it was cool to see some of the main actors. I recently saw the movie version of the final Broadway performance. It was cool to see the scenes from different angles than I would normally see while sitting down in the audience. It was also nice to see it as a movie with all the songs intact.
“Last night, I had a dream….I found myself in a desert called Cyberland….” Just kidding, but I actually had a dream last night about seeing “Rent” with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal in it. I didn’t get to see them on tour (my sister did though), but I’m sure that must have been amazing. I’m glad I met Adam in person, in any case. I heard he wasn’t really coming out to meet people at the tour shows, but I could be mistaken.
I think I’ll always be a “Rent”-aholic at heart. I can still listen to the CD and sing along. I still like quoting the songs in other aspects of life. I still like reading articles and seeing videos online about it. I may like other musicals that are being performed today or in the past, but nothing will ever come close to finding the glory I’ve found in “Rent.”
The day we waited out in the cold for front row seats, March 1998
Meeting Adam Pascal, July 2001
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sparks ignite when I read his books
This author blog is about Nicholas Sparks. I was first introduced to him when I saw "Message in a Bottle" over 10 years ago. I thought it was a good movie, but never read the book (due to my thing against reading the book after seeing the movie). Then I read "The Notebook" later that year and was hooked. A few months later, I read "A Walk to Remember" and loved everything about it. I was so disappointed by how the movie changed around the feel of the story. It was written to take place during a simpler time. It didn't work in the 90's and I felt it was only there to glorify Mandy Moore's voice (as beautiful as it is, and as much as I liked "Only Hope").
Later on, I read "A Bend in the Road," "The Rescue," and "Nights in Rodanthe" all within a short time period. As of now, I've read all his books except "Message..." and "Three Weeks with my Brother" (which I own now). As for the latter, I find it cool that he has a brother named Micah since my younger son is named Micah. :) And a girl I met at his book signing told me I'd really like it.
I've met him at two book signings. I forgot to bring a camera to the first one (in Illinois), but still got his autograph in "True Believer." That was in April of 2005. I met him again this past September in Virginia. I got a picture and his autograph in "The Last Song" this time. I also made a new friend during that signing. (The girl who recommended "Three Weeks...", as she was in line behind me and upset that she forgot her camera, so I offered to take a picture with my camera and e-mail it to her. We ended up talking through most of our wait in the long line.)
In addition to "A Walk...," I've seen the other movies made of his books (I loved "The Notebook" and still cry thinking about it) and am excited to see "Dear John" and "The Last Song" when I get a chance.
If someone were to ask which of his books is my favorite, I'd definitely have to go with "The Rescue." I also loved "The Last Song" and "A Walk to Remember." All his books have been interesting and captivating and I hope he'll write sequels to some more of them or bring back characters into other books. I eagerly await his next book, whatever and whenever that may be.
Later on, I read "A Bend in the Road," "The Rescue," and "Nights in Rodanthe" all within a short time period. As of now, I've read all his books except "Message..." and "Three Weeks with my Brother" (which I own now). As for the latter, I find it cool that he has a brother named Micah since my younger son is named Micah. :) And a girl I met at his book signing told me I'd really like it.
I've met him at two book signings. I forgot to bring a camera to the first one (in Illinois), but still got his autograph in "True Believer." That was in April of 2005. I met him again this past September in Virginia. I got a picture and his autograph in "The Last Song" this time. I also made a new friend during that signing. (The girl who recommended "Three Weeks...", as she was in line behind me and upset that she forgot her camera, so I offered to take a picture with my camera and e-mail it to her. We ended up talking through most of our wait in the long line.)
In addition to "A Walk...," I've seen the other movies made of his books (I loved "The Notebook" and still cry thinking about it) and am excited to see "Dear John" and "The Last Song" when I get a chance.
If someone were to ask which of his books is my favorite, I'd definitely have to go with "The Rescue." I also loved "The Last Song" and "A Walk to Remember." All his books have been interesting and captivating and I hope he'll write sequels to some more of them or bring back characters into other books. I eagerly await his next book, whatever and whenever that may be.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
My most unexpected friendship
I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each other's blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.
Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness
The first topic, which I chose, is "My most unexpected friendship." This has nothing to do with the method in which we made friends, but more about the nature of the friendship itself or about the people involved.
Here goes:
I have had several jobs over the last 10 years. At all jobs, my boss was truly my superior and a role I had to work under and respect. I've gotten along with some bosses and just tolerated others till I could find something better or until the job ended altogether. I got along really well with one manager at a past job and we'd have "tea talks" every morning, but he wasn't directly my superior, so it doesn't count the same way.
When I was living in NJ, I was hired for a job doing part-time medical billing for a privately owned company. It was a new field for me, but I just needed strong typing skills and an eye for detail. My bosses were a husband and wife team that owned the company. I originally thought I'd just be working for the husband and had the most interaction with him for a while. He was very nice, but we mainly talked about work-related stuff. I had limited work interaction with the wife when I started out, but I'd see her at the end of my training shift and we'd talk when we had the chance. She and I were both due with our babies around the same time, so we had that common bond. The couple was Orthodox, so we also had some things in common on that end. (I'm Modern Orthodox, so there were some things I did on a more secular level, but we still could relate on a lot of topics.) As I continued to work for them, I'd come by to drop off papers (I was doing most of the work from home) and would end up chatting with the wife for an hour or so. Eventually, I brought my kids over to play with their kids. Especially since our babies were 2 weeks apart. During the first summer that I worked for them, they invited us for a Shabbos meal while we were checking out their neighborhood as a potential community for us to settle into. My husband had a lot to talk about with my male boss and our kids enjoyed playing together.
Early last year, I decided to take on some more responsibilities with my job, which required me to work at their house once a week. I enjoyed this time because I could do my work and talk with the wife the whole time, when she wasn't on phone calls.
The whole job overall was a great arrangement in terms of flexibility. We'd also get gifts for each others' kids on birthdays and holidays and gave each other shalach manot last year for Purim. Nothing was expected on either end, but we enjoyed being able to share in such special occasions and holidays.
When we decided officially to move to MD, telling my bosses was one of the hardest things ever, harder than telling my friends and acquaintances or even my older son's teachers. This was because I enjoyed working for them and I had formed such a special connection with the wife. I gave them plenty of time to find someone new before I left and even helped them look for new employees on my own time. I still stay in touch with the wife and we share the latest news in our lives and in our families' lives. When I was going through the hiring process for my new job, she gave them an amazing referral that completely sealed the deal. She even shared with me what she told them and it was incredibly sweet. We had a great professional relationship aside from our friendship. Both she and her husband trusted me and it motivated me to do my best. I hope we'll continue to stay in touch, as this is a special friendship that I still cherish. I also hope that anyone who works for them currently or in the future will realize how wonderful their bosses are and will want to work as diligently as I did to continue to help their business thrive.
The reason this friendship is unexpected is because I never expected to be close friends with anyone I worked for and I am very happy that this is the opportunity I had to establish such a friendship.
Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness
The first topic, which I chose, is "My most unexpected friendship." This has nothing to do with the method in which we made friends, but more about the nature of the friendship itself or about the people involved.
Here goes:
I have had several jobs over the last 10 years. At all jobs, my boss was truly my superior and a role I had to work under and respect. I've gotten along with some bosses and just tolerated others till I could find something better or until the job ended altogether. I got along really well with one manager at a past job and we'd have "tea talks" every morning, but he wasn't directly my superior, so it doesn't count the same way.
When I was living in NJ, I was hired for a job doing part-time medical billing for a privately owned company. It was a new field for me, but I just needed strong typing skills and an eye for detail. My bosses were a husband and wife team that owned the company. I originally thought I'd just be working for the husband and had the most interaction with him for a while. He was very nice, but we mainly talked about work-related stuff. I had limited work interaction with the wife when I started out, but I'd see her at the end of my training shift and we'd talk when we had the chance. She and I were both due with our babies around the same time, so we had that common bond. The couple was Orthodox, so we also had some things in common on that end. (I'm Modern Orthodox, so there were some things I did on a more secular level, but we still could relate on a lot of topics.) As I continued to work for them, I'd come by to drop off papers (I was doing most of the work from home) and would end up chatting with the wife for an hour or so. Eventually, I brought my kids over to play with their kids. Especially since our babies were 2 weeks apart. During the first summer that I worked for them, they invited us for a Shabbos meal while we were checking out their neighborhood as a potential community for us to settle into. My husband had a lot to talk about with my male boss and our kids enjoyed playing together.
Early last year, I decided to take on some more responsibilities with my job, which required me to work at their house once a week. I enjoyed this time because I could do my work and talk with the wife the whole time, when she wasn't on phone calls.
The whole job overall was a great arrangement in terms of flexibility. We'd also get gifts for each others' kids on birthdays and holidays and gave each other shalach manot last year for Purim. Nothing was expected on either end, but we enjoyed being able to share in such special occasions and holidays.
When we decided officially to move to MD, telling my bosses was one of the hardest things ever, harder than telling my friends and acquaintances or even my older son's teachers. This was because I enjoyed working for them and I had formed such a special connection with the wife. I gave them plenty of time to find someone new before I left and even helped them look for new employees on my own time. I still stay in touch with the wife and we share the latest news in our lives and in our families' lives. When I was going through the hiring process for my new job, she gave them an amazing referral that completely sealed the deal. She even shared with me what she told them and it was incredibly sweet. We had a great professional relationship aside from our friendship. Both she and her husband trusted me and it motivated me to do my best. I hope we'll continue to stay in touch, as this is a special friendship that I still cherish. I also hope that anyone who works for them currently or in the future will realize how wonderful their bosses are and will want to work as diligently as I did to continue to help their business thrive.
The reason this friendship is unexpected is because I never expected to be close friends with anyone I worked for and I am very happy that this is the opportunity I had to establish such a friendship.
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