I've been blogging with three fabulous women for two years and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.
This week, Froggie chose the topic: This week is about fortune cookie fortunes. Do you have a fortune cookie fortune that came true? One you wish would come true? Do you think they are silly? Share your thoughts!
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
This topic is perfect for me, given I used to work at a Chinese restaurant. I'd get to take home the broken fortune cookies at the end of the night and found some pretty funny fortunes from time to time. My favorite is "You will receive a fortune (cookie)." No joke!!!
When I was living in New Jersey, we always got take-out from the best Kosher Chinese restaurant (one of the few things I still miss about living there). One night, in early summer 2007, I received one that talked about increasing my family (or something along those lines) and on the back, it said "younger brother." (Most fortunes I get have a phrase that you can translate into Chinese.) Shortly after receiving that fortune, I found out I was pregnant with my younger son (whom I thought was a girl until the day he was born). What are the odds of that happening?!?
Another time, almost a year after we moved out here, my husband received an interesting fortune about luck being related to hard work, which was related to an ongoing discussion I've had with a close friend. I wrote a post about it at the time, which you can read here.
This past week, we went out for our usual pre-Pesach Chinese buffet dinner. The fortune I received afterward said: "You will travel to exotic places on your next trip." Given we just got back from a big trip, I have a feeling it will be a while. However, I hope this means that a trip to Hawaii is in order!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
52 Stories: Fashion is her passion
Inspired by One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern, I've decided to ask people some thought provoking questions about themselves, as I feel that everyone has a story to tell. If you're just joining me on this journey today, please check out the previous posts from this series, as well.
This storyteller and I have quite a few things in common, but saying what they are might give away who it is, and she does want to be anonymous. All I can say is that she's really nice and I'm lucky to have her as a friend!
Name: FashionistaDC
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Location: Washington, DC
What is your guilty pleasure? Haagen Dasz might night cookies and cream ice cream...lots of it
What is something you've never done but you would like to do? Sky diving with my husband for our 10th anniversary
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why? My new iphone, it's amazing, the best part is doing face-time with my brother, who recently moved to Texas.
What is something you did that changed someone's life? Indirectly set someone up and they got married!
What part of your personality is now extinct? The insecure part from middle school (but sometimes I wonder if there are still aspects that I still struggle with)
What is one thing that you find really funny? Louis C.K., I love how a lot of his humor is about child rearing, I can really relate.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue): My organizational and time management skills.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life? Modern Family because my extended family is very lively!
What is something that not many people know about you? I'm left handed and I'm the only one with this trait in my extended family!
This storyteller and I have quite a few things in common, but saying what they are might give away who it is, and she does want to be anonymous. All I can say is that she's really nice and I'm lucky to have her as a friend!
Name: FashionistaDC
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Location: Washington, DC
What is your guilty pleasure? Haagen Dasz might night cookies and cream ice cream...lots of it
What is something you've never done but you would like to do? Sky diving with my husband for our 10th anniversary
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why? My new iphone, it's amazing, the best part is doing face-time with my brother, who recently moved to Texas.
What is something you did that changed someone's life? Indirectly set someone up and they got married!
What part of your personality is now extinct? The insecure part from middle school (but sometimes I wonder if there are still aspects that I still struggle with)
What is one thing that you find really funny? Louis C.K., I love how a lot of his humor is about child rearing, I can really relate.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue): My organizational and time management skills.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life? Modern Family because my extended family is very lively!
What is something that not many people know about you? I'm left handed and I'm the only one with this trait in my extended family!
Friday, March 22, 2013
Merrylandgirl does Disney World
The last time I was at Disney World, George H. Bush had just been elected as president. It was 1988 and I was 12 years old, in seventh grade. Needless to say, I was excited as my children to go to Disney World last week. Of course, I knew about the trip long before they did. We didn't tell them about it until we got to the airport. If you think keeping a secret for a few months is hard (like during the first trimesters of my pregnancies), try keeping one for NINE months!
I've decided to highlight my Disney adventures here so I can look back upon this and smile, or so I can give other families insight into what goes into planning a trip to Disney Parks. (Consider yourself warned....this is LONG!) This is not your mother's Disney World! When I went as a kid, we'd just walk around without a strategy in place. We'd see what rides we could just happen upon and then we'd get in line. The lines seemed to move pretty fast and I don't remember waiting all that long. Nowadays, you have to plan out what rides you want to hit at what times of the day or you may just well forget about them altogether. The lines are very long, but Fast Pass is definitely a time saver! With Fast Pass, you just bypass the long lines and get right on the ride. In the meantime, you can check out other rides with shorter lines, go to shows, grab a bite to eat, etc. In any case, as much as I wanted to fight this truth....having a strategy helps. Sure, you'll stray from this strategy. Without it, we wouldn't have accomplished all we wanted to at any of the parks we went to. (Hollywood Studios had some exceptions, but more on that later.)
When we arrived at the park and got ourselves situated, the first ride we went on was Peter Pan. This is one of the rides I remember from my youth, but it had a different feel now. Maybe I was hoping they'd sing instead of having the music be all instrumental. A lot of it was dark too. However, being caught up in the magic of my first ride at Disney World in almost 25 years got me a little verklempt. Afterward, we went on the classic ride, "It's a Small World." While I loved this ride as a kid, it is definitely different to experience it as an adult. The dolls creeped me out. I was expecting them to stage some revolt at the end of the day. The part with Israel amused me, since it just looks like a Jewish wedding that could even take place in the US. The kids liked this ride though. I was the only one who refused to go on twice. The Winnie the Pooh ride was decent. They had stuff to entertain the kids who were waiting in the longer line. I thought that was smart. Some parts of the ride were a bit trippy (as in psychadelic). It was cute otherwise.
There's a 3D movie called Mickey's Philharmagic. I enjoyed that a lot. Not sure why Mickey gets his name on the title when it mostly features Donald Duck. It was one of the only shows that my daughter was able to sit through without freaking out at some point. It was pretty short though. There were some fun effects too. The next big ride we went on was Under the Sea, which was all about The Little Mermaid. This was a great ride! It took us through the story of the movie, from beginning to end. There was singing, bright colors, realistic looking animatronics, etc. The only slightly scary part for young kids is when Ursula appears, and she just stands over a crystal ball and sings. We went past her really fast anyway. The most time was spent in the "Under the Sea" room. That was the best part of the ride, as well. The second best part was "Kiss the Girl."
After that ride, we went to a dance party by the castle. It was basically a parade and then the characters would get off the floats and dance with the audience. It was cute and the kids seemed to enjoy it. After lunch, we walked around the Liberty Square/Frontierland/Adventureland area. I took the younger two kids on a longer walk while everyone else went to the Haunted Mansion. I used to be a fan of the Haunted Mansion but now I don't like being scared and I know the little kids would have been freaked out. My older son loved it though! We had to take turns with Pirates of the Caribbean, as I knew the younger two wouldn't ride on that either. There was a pirate show to keep them entertained in the meantime. And my older son was able to warn me about the dip since he had already been on the ride once. The Jungle Cruise was fun and the tour guide made corny jokes, as usual. I think I burst my husband's bubble in regards to that ride, but I won't say how as I don't want to ruin things for anyone else.
Next stop was Tomorrowland and the speedway. I tried driving that little race car once by myself and banged my elbow on the car a bunch of times. The boys liked that ride a lot and wanted to go on many more times. We saved it for the next day and instead did some other rides, like the People Mover (which was kind of lame and a lot of time was spent in the dark). The Buzz Lightyear ride was cool though. It was like a live video game.
That night, we spent some time hanging out in Downtown Disney, which is really inconvenient to get to from Disney World. They need a better system like a monorail that goes directly there, or a bus straight to and from the park. Transporting there and back was a huge waste of time. At least we had gotten a lot accomplished that day and we made it back just in time for the Electric Parade. For the kids' sake, I'm glad we got to see it. They loved it. For me, it seems a bit outdated with all old school movie characters. The music is weird too. I never liked the music for that parade to begin with. However, the shows at the castle were cool. They displayed different movie scenes on the castle and played music to go along with it. Afterward, they had a fireworks display above the castle. It was a perfect way to end the day. And luckily, people who work at Disney World know how to get everyone out to the monorails in an efficient manner. It still took a while to leave the park. I think our monorail kept stopping for long periods of time, as well.
And that was just the first day. Tired yet?
We started out later on the second day, arriving at the park at around 11 am. We first took pictures with a bunch of characters. My older kids liked the characters dressed in Mickey and Pluto costumes, but my daughter was scared of them. However, when we met the princesses, she went to them like they were old friends. It was so cute to watch her interact with Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and even Snow White (which worked well since she had the same dress). I was hoping to meet Belle since she's my Disney alter-ego, but that didn't happen.
Afterward, we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. The show was cute and my daughter laughed for a little while. Then she decided she had enough, making it hard to follow the rest of the show because she was about to freak out. We went on the Carousel of Progress afterward. It was another ride I liked as a kid but find to be weird as an adult. First of all, the characters are immortal. They are the same age from 1900 to 1920 to 1940 and then at the end of the 20th century. The dog seems to live a lot longer than your average dog, as well. And if they're going to modernize it to show more current progress, they should at least get it updated to the end of the first decade of the 21st century. It was fun for the kids to see, as we're always telling them how lucky they are with what they have, compared to what we grew up with.
We spent time in Fantasyland again after that, riding Peter Pan and Small World again. (I didn't go on Small World this time, but my sister gets the "best aunt" award for going on again). Afterward, there was a parade featuring lots of Disney characters. It was cute. The ground was slick and some people were slipping around while trying to dance. A couple of them fell. I felt bad for them.
After the parade and a snack break, we made our way around other areas of the park, checking out things we didn't see or do on the first day. I went on the Aladdin ride with the kids, which was fun but I definitely felt like I was moving up and down a lot afterward. I skipped the Dumbo ride, but I know the kids had a blast on that one. I got to go on the Under the Sea ride again, which I was glad about. I even let my younger son drive while I worked the gas pedal on the speedway. I just know that I am never going with him when he practices for his license. We did the Buzz Lightyear ride one more time and then met Buzz afterward. We left the park early that evening by way of ferry boat, in order to get dinner and do some souvenir shopping. We still got home late anyway.
On the third day, we went to Animal Kingdom. The first thing that hits you when you get there is the smell of animal poo. However, it isn't bothersome throughout the park, just at the main entrance. I was expecting the place to be like a zoo, but it was way different. There were some animal exhibits, but most of the park is focused on culture. There's an Africa section that tries to authentically replicate a neighborhood in Africa. Then there's an Asia section that branches out beyond China and Japan. There were these guys demonstrating an instrument called an Angklung. It was really cool and they even played "It's a Small World," much to my younger son's delight. They were really nice and when I told them where we lived, they said that they had gone there recently for some sort of music convention. Small world! Afterward, we went on the safari ride. That was really cool. A driver just takes you into this area with lots of different animals. My daughter loved seeing the giraffes and elephants up close. They had some rare animals, as well.
My older son wanted to get his face painted, so we hung out watching that for a while. Then we went to the Finding Nemo musical. That was totally worth the price of the park tickets. It was very professional and the songs fit perfectly into the story. It wasn't long, but they managed to get most of the story in there. The woman playing Dory was adorable....so full of energy! Everyone wore costumes and carried around replicas of the characters that they could control, as well. They were able to make the characters' mouths and eyes move. If my daughter hadn't melted down by the end, it would have been a lot easier to stay focused on it. I could totally see it going to Broadway someday and being expanded with more music and effects.
After the show, we had a picnic lunch in the Dino-Rama area. It's like a Dinosaur themed carnival. They had lots of games, but for $4 a ticket (yes, you read that correctly), there was no way ANYONE was going to play them. We then walked around for a bit so I could settle my daughter down for a nap. Then everyone except my younger two kids and myself went on the dinosaur ride. They said it was awesome, but it didn't sound like my cup of tea. (Speaking of tea, I had no voice for most of the trip and finding a cup of hot tea at Animal Kingdom was rather difficult.) I think we just walked around for a while after that and then saw a 3D movie based on A Bug's Life. I wasn't too fond of that one...especially all the extra effects. I don't want to ruin things for people who like to be surprised though. I liked all the bug-themed Broadway posters though.
Later in the afternoon, there was a parade. It was actually really cool. I liked all the floats and how artsy they looked. My daughter loved seeing all the characters and would wave "bye bye" to each of them as they left. Then we went to a Lion King show that was more like Cirque Du Soliel. Simba just stood there and talked a little. Pumbaa also didn't get to dance around with Timon. The main guy leading the show sounded exactly like James Earl Jones. There was some interaction with the audience. They had guys dressed like monkeys doing a cool tumbling routine. There was also a nice air ballet (that's the best description for it) act to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." (Of course, they sang the pop version instead of the movie version.) My daughter eventually started to lose interest though. It wasn't even as long as Finding Nemo.
After the show, we left for the day and met up with some friends for dinner. One of them is an author I had met up with last summer. It was cool to see her again. I felt bad keeping her waiting, but our GPS messed up on directions and sent us to the other end of town first. Couple that with lights that are as long as the ones in Maryland and it was a longer drive than I expected. Once we got there, it was nice and she got along well with my family. She even had a lot to talk about with my husband, as they had some things in common. I learned from her that the Winnie the Pooh ride replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. (I don't even remember Mr. Toad's Wild Ride though.) She also told us about concerts at Epcot. (We didn't go to Epcot at all, but I was told by my family that the kids would have been bored, so I'm glad we made that decision.)
On our last day at the parks, we went to Hollywood Studios. Being a movie buff, I really liked it there. We first went on the Great Movie Ride. It was cheesy though. The tour guide got out and suddenly there was this wild west fight going on. Then one of the characters took over the ride and later got himself in "trouble," so the tour guide was able to come back. The tour guide reminded me of the manager at Babies R' Us when we were registering. (Are you here to see a movie or movies?) Afterward, we went to Star Tours, but had to split up the group since our daughter was too little for it. She wouldn't have liked it anyway. I thought it was a cool ride and I'm usually not one for lots of crazy motion. I didn't like that they incorporated Jar Jar into the ride, but you can't win 'em all! While I was waiting for my turn to go on the ride, I took my daughter to watch a light saber demo done by kids. Standing in front of us was another kid with cochlear implants. It made me really happy to see that. (I had also seen a kid with hearing aids at Disney World.) From Star Tours, we made our way to the Muppets 3D movie. It was cute enough, but not as good as Mickey's Philharmagic. (Maybe I was just hoping Jason Segel would have a cameo. Is that too much to ask for?!?)
After lunch, we took the kids to a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area. They loved it. My daughter was crawling around all over the place and going down slides. The boys didn't want to leave that area. However, we had to get to the car stunt show. They were only doing it twice a day and we didn't want to miss it. My daughter wasn't a big fan of this show and I lost interest after a while, so I took her out for her nap. Then we went to the Midway Mania ride. BEST. RIDE. EVER!!!! It's based on Toy Story and you wear 3D glasses and play different types of carnival games with this device in front of you. It is so fun and addictive! I could have just gone in there over and over and kept playing! On the way to the parade, the unthinkable happened. My older son became separated from our group. Thankfully, he didn't wander too far and my husband and sister found him. He was more upset than we were, if that's possible. The whole trip, he tended to wander a bit and we kept warning him something like this would happen. We all got so lucky but we made him hold hands with someone or hold the stroller for the rest of the day. We weren't taking any more chances.
The parade was cute. It was all Pixar themed. However, they left out Wall-E and Cars. (I was surprised about Cars since it seems like such a big deal these days.) It was a short parade though. Afterward, we went to take pictures with characters from Wreck-It Ralph. For such a new movie, they had quite an elaborate set-up for the people waiting in line to get pics.
Overall, we had an amazing trip. It was fun to be a kid again in some ways and also see the parks through my kids' eyes. I definitely want to go back in a few years, when strollers and diaper bags aren't as much of a necessity (or when we can get away with schlepping something smaller around in which to carry our snacks). I do wish the parks would consider that people fork over tons of money just to get in the door and not charge an arm and a leg for ice cream, soda, souvenirs, etc. That's wishful thinking though, and once you're in the Disney monopoly, that's what happens. I am definitely thankful to the people who told us to get a guest assistance pass. We were weighing out the idea before we even left for the trip, thinking we'd feel guilty about it because our kids can walk. However, it was really good for shows where it would be easier for our kids to read lips when needed. And after reading this blog post from another mom who has a kid with cochlear implants, I also felt validated. For all the kids have been through with speech therapies (and all the miles we've logged going to and from these sessions), getting the implant surgeries, the first scary time for my daughter when she got activated, etc., for a way to make their trip more pleasant, it was very much worthwhile. It worked the same as a Fast Pass for the most part. No one looked at the card except people working at the park, so for what most people knew, we had a Fast Pass too. There were some rides where it was more obvious though. (Pirates of the Caribbean just bypasses the Fast Pass line altogether.) There were other people using these cards at the same time we were and looked even less obvious, but I wasn't going to judge since some needs are more internal. (Such as sensory issues, physical pains, etc.) What my husband witnessed and didn't like was when some girl used her card as a Fast Pass for a ride and was taunting her friends with it. It's what gives people a bad name. Really, no one said anything to us about using it, so we just let the kids enjoy being able to quickly get on a ride whenever they wanted.
Also, it was nice to be able to share this experience with my parents and sister. I remember going to Disney World as a kid and my late maternal grandma being there too. (I remember after riding Big Thunder and how she was all freaked out by it, I joked around saying "Throw mama from the train!") It was nice that my kids got to experience Disney World with their grandparents and aunt and that we got to relive some family memories (such as my sister and I taking an updated picture with Snow White). The kids loved having them there and it was a lot easier to team up on handling three young children at one time. Especially since one of them tended to wander off a lot. There were times when we did our own thing too, but it was easy to find everyone when we needed to, thanks to cell phones, which didn't exist the last time I was at Disney World.
Then..... And now!
So long, Disney World, for now...we WILL be back!
I've decided to highlight my Disney adventures here so I can look back upon this and smile, or so I can give other families insight into what goes into planning a trip to Disney Parks. (Consider yourself warned....this is LONG!) This is not your mother's Disney World! When I went as a kid, we'd just walk around without a strategy in place. We'd see what rides we could just happen upon and then we'd get in line. The lines seemed to move pretty fast and I don't remember waiting all that long. Nowadays, you have to plan out what rides you want to hit at what times of the day or you may just well forget about them altogether. The lines are very long, but Fast Pass is definitely a time saver! With Fast Pass, you just bypass the long lines and get right on the ride. In the meantime, you can check out other rides with shorter lines, go to shows, grab a bite to eat, etc. In any case, as much as I wanted to fight this truth....having a strategy helps. Sure, you'll stray from this strategy. Without it, we wouldn't have accomplished all we wanted to at any of the parks we went to. (Hollywood Studios had some exceptions, but more on that later.)
 |
| Our older son with the "strategy map" my husband put together |
There's a 3D movie called Mickey's Philharmagic. I enjoyed that a lot. Not sure why Mickey gets his name on the title when it mostly features Donald Duck. It was one of the only shows that my daughter was able to sit through without freaking out at some point. It was pretty short though. There were some fun effects too. The next big ride we went on was Under the Sea, which was all about The Little Mermaid. This was a great ride! It took us through the story of the movie, from beginning to end. There was singing, bright colors, realistic looking animatronics, etc. The only slightly scary part for young kids is when Ursula appears, and she just stands over a crystal ball and sings. We went past her really fast anyway. The most time was spent in the "Under the Sea" room. That was the best part of the ride, as well. The second best part was "Kiss the Girl."
After that ride, we went to a dance party by the castle. It was basically a parade and then the characters would get off the floats and dance with the audience. It was cute and the kids seemed to enjoy it. After lunch, we walked around the Liberty Square/Frontierland/Adventureland area. I took the younger two kids on a longer walk while everyone else went to the Haunted Mansion. I used to be a fan of the Haunted Mansion but now I don't like being scared and I know the little kids would have been freaked out. My older son loved it though! We had to take turns with Pirates of the Caribbean, as I knew the younger two wouldn't ride on that either. There was a pirate show to keep them entertained in the meantime. And my older son was able to warn me about the dip since he had already been on the ride once. The Jungle Cruise was fun and the tour guide made corny jokes, as usual. I think I burst my husband's bubble in regards to that ride, but I won't say how as I don't want to ruin things for anyone else.
Next stop was Tomorrowland and the speedway. I tried driving that little race car once by myself and banged my elbow on the car a bunch of times. The boys liked that ride a lot and wanted to go on many more times. We saved it for the next day and instead did some other rides, like the People Mover (which was kind of lame and a lot of time was spent in the dark). The Buzz Lightyear ride was cool though. It was like a live video game.
And that was just the first day. Tired yet?
 |
| I know someone was tuckered out.... |
We started out later on the second day, arriving at the park at around 11 am. We first took pictures with a bunch of characters. My older kids liked the characters dressed in Mickey and Pluto costumes, but my daughter was scared of them. However, when we met the princesses, she went to them like they were old friends. It was so cute to watch her interact with Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and even Snow White (which worked well since she had the same dress). I was hoping to meet Belle since she's my Disney alter-ego, but that didn't happen.Afterward, we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. The show was cute and my daughter laughed for a little while. Then she decided she had enough, making it hard to follow the rest of the show because she was about to freak out. We went on the Carousel of Progress afterward. It was another ride I liked as a kid but find to be weird as an adult. First of all, the characters are immortal. They are the same age from 1900 to 1920 to 1940 and then at the end of the 20th century. The dog seems to live a lot longer than your average dog, as well. And if they're going to modernize it to show more current progress, they should at least get it updated to the end of the first decade of the 21st century. It was fun for the kids to see, as we're always telling them how lucky they are with what they have, compared to what we grew up with.
We spent time in Fantasyland again after that, riding Peter Pan and Small World again. (I didn't go on Small World this time, but my sister gets the "best aunt" award for going on again). Afterward, there was a parade featuring lots of Disney characters. It was cute. The ground was slick and some people were slipping around while trying to dance. A couple of them fell. I felt bad for them.
After the parade and a snack break, we made our way around other areas of the park, checking out things we didn't see or do on the first day. I went on the Aladdin ride with the kids, which was fun but I definitely felt like I was moving up and down a lot afterward. I skipped the Dumbo ride, but I know the kids had a blast on that one. I got to go on the Under the Sea ride again, which I was glad about. I even let my younger son drive while I worked the gas pedal on the speedway. I just know that I am never going with him when he practices for his license. We did the Buzz Lightyear ride one more time and then met Buzz afterward. We left the park early that evening by way of ferry boat, in order to get dinner and do some souvenir shopping. We still got home late anyway.
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| Only 11 years to go...then look out, world! |
On the third day, we went to Animal Kingdom. The first thing that hits you when you get there is the smell of animal poo. However, it isn't bothersome throughout the park, just at the main entrance. I was expecting the place to be like a zoo, but it was way different. There were some animal exhibits, but most of the park is focused on culture. There's an Africa section that tries to authentically replicate a neighborhood in Africa. Then there's an Asia section that branches out beyond China and Japan. There were these guys demonstrating an instrument called an Angklung. It was really cool and they even played "It's a Small World," much to my younger son's delight. They were really nice and when I told them where we lived, they said that they had gone there recently for some sort of music convention. Small world! Afterward, we went on the safari ride. That was really cool. A driver just takes you into this area with lots of different animals. My daughter loved seeing the giraffes and elephants up close. They had some rare animals, as well.After the show, we had a picnic lunch in the Dino-Rama area. It's like a Dinosaur themed carnival. They had lots of games, but for $4 a ticket (yes, you read that correctly), there was no way ANYONE was going to play them. We then walked around for a bit so I could settle my daughter down for a nap. Then everyone except my younger two kids and myself went on the dinosaur ride. They said it was awesome, but it didn't sound like my cup of tea. (Speaking of tea, I had no voice for most of the trip and finding a cup of hot tea at Animal Kingdom was rather difficult.) I think we just walked around for a while after that and then saw a 3D movie based on A Bug's Life. I wasn't too fond of that one...especially all the extra effects. I don't want to ruin things for people who like to be surprised though. I liked all the bug-themed Broadway posters though.
Later in the afternoon, there was a parade. It was actually really cool. I liked all the floats and how artsy they looked. My daughter loved seeing all the characters and would wave "bye bye" to each of them as they left. Then we went to a Lion King show that was more like Cirque Du Soliel. Simba just stood there and talked a little. Pumbaa also didn't get to dance around with Timon. The main guy leading the show sounded exactly like James Earl Jones. There was some interaction with the audience. They had guys dressed like monkeys doing a cool tumbling routine. There was also a nice air ballet (that's the best description for it) act to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." (Of course, they sang the pop version instead of the movie version.) My daughter eventually started to lose interest though. It wasn't even as long as Finding Nemo.After the show, we left for the day and met up with some friends for dinner. One of them is an author I had met up with last summer. It was cool to see her again. I felt bad keeping her waiting, but our GPS messed up on directions and sent us to the other end of town first. Couple that with lights that are as long as the ones in Maryland and it was a longer drive than I expected. Once we got there, it was nice and she got along well with my family. She even had a lot to talk about with my husband, as they had some things in common. I learned from her that the Winnie the Pooh ride replaced Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. (I don't even remember Mr. Toad's Wild Ride though.) She also told us about concerts at Epcot. (We didn't go to Epcot at all, but I was told by my family that the kids would have been bored, so I'm glad we made that decision.)
On our last day at the parks, we went to Hollywood Studios. Being a movie buff, I really liked it there. We first went on the Great Movie Ride. It was cheesy though. The tour guide got out and suddenly there was this wild west fight going on. Then one of the characters took over the ride and later got himself in "trouble," so the tour guide was able to come back. The tour guide reminded me of the manager at Babies R' Us when we were registering. (Are you here to see a movie or movies?) Afterward, we went to Star Tours, but had to split up the group since our daughter was too little for it. She wouldn't have liked it anyway. I thought it was a cool ride and I'm usually not one for lots of crazy motion. I didn't like that they incorporated Jar Jar into the ride, but you can't win 'em all! While I was waiting for my turn to go on the ride, I took my daughter to watch a light saber demo done by kids. Standing in front of us was another kid with cochlear implants. It made me really happy to see that. (I had also seen a kid with hearing aids at Disney World.) From Star Tours, we made our way to the Muppets 3D movie. It was cute enough, but not as good as Mickey's Philharmagic. (Maybe I was just hoping Jason Segel would have a cameo. Is that too much to ask for?!?)
After lunch, we took the kids to a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area. They loved it. My daughter was crawling around all over the place and going down slides. The boys didn't want to leave that area. However, we had to get to the car stunt show. They were only doing it twice a day and we didn't want to miss it. My daughter wasn't a big fan of this show and I lost interest after a while, so I took her out for her nap. Then we went to the Midway Mania ride. BEST. RIDE. EVER!!!! It's based on Toy Story and you wear 3D glasses and play different types of carnival games with this device in front of you. It is so fun and addictive! I could have just gone in there over and over and kept playing! On the way to the parade, the unthinkable happened. My older son became separated from our group. Thankfully, he didn't wander too far and my husband and sister found him. He was more upset than we were, if that's possible. The whole trip, he tended to wander a bit and we kept warning him something like this would happen. We all got so lucky but we made him hold hands with someone or hold the stroller for the rest of the day. We weren't taking any more chances.
We wanted to go back on Midway Mania after that, so we did. This time, I had my daughter with me and she wasn't such a fan. Made it a little harder to play the games though. Then we took a tour of the back lot. It was more interesting for adults than for kids though. They had some action sequences that we got to witness, but otherwise we were just riding on a tram through different areas. We were hoping to get pictures with the characters from Monsters, Inc. but it would keep us from seeing the last Beauty and the Beast show. As big of a BatB fan as I am, I wouldn't have minded missing that show. It's not the same as the Broadway version. However, I was amused to see a Katy Perry look-alike as one of the dancers. The girl playing Belle wasn't that great though. She didn't carry off Belle's sweet personality all that well. And, of course, my daughter got antsy about halfway through....and it was a short show anyway.
One thing with Hollywood Studios is that the show times are set up to conflict with other show times, so you really can't see all the shows you want unless that's all you do all day, which would mean not going on rides or eating. My husband wanted to see an Indiana Jones stunt show, but the timing didn't work out. I get that the cast can't do the same thing the entire day and they need a break. We probably should have had a better plan in place for seeing shows to begin with. And really, taking toddlers to too many shows in one day is very taxing. Having said that, we went to one more show at the end of the day. A show that also required people to arrive an hour ahead of time to get seats. It's called Fantasmic. They do stuff with water, fire, lights, film, and lots of characters. Thankfully, they had some people entertaining the audience before the show. There was this one part where a cute little girl sitting right by us got to sing. They asked her to sing "When You Wish Upon a Star," but she sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" instead. Too funny! Fantasmic was pretty cool. I will advise anyone and everyone not to sit too close to the show. The water sprays out a lot. I'm sure it's the reason my cold escalated the way it did. They also have a lot of bright lights, making us shade our eyes at times. The way they projected movie scenes on the spraying water was cool, but I would have liked it more if I didn't have the water shooting mist at my face the whole time. There was a lot of focus on Disney villains during this show. They also brought up movies I had forgotten to associate with Disney, such as Pocahontas. There were some Hercules references too. I think the kids enjoyed the magic element of the show. After the show, it was time to go home. Getting out of the theater was a bit scary, but once we were at the stroller area, there was a passageway through the park that brought us right to the front.
Also, it was nice to be able to share this experience with my parents and sister. I remember going to Disney World as a kid and my late maternal grandma being there too. (I remember after riding Big Thunder and how she was all freaked out by it, I joked around saying "Throw mama from the train!") It was nice that my kids got to experience Disney World with their grandparents and aunt and that we got to relive some family memories (such as my sister and I taking an updated picture with Snow White). The kids loved having them there and it was a lot easier to team up on handling three young children at one time. Especially since one of them tended to wander off a lot. There were times when we did our own thing too, but it was easy to find everyone when we needed to, thanks to cell phones, which didn't exist the last time I was at Disney World.
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So long, Disney World, for now...we WILL be back!
Bonus: Here's a video showing how we surprised the boys. There's even a photo slideshow afterward.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
With a rebel yell
I've been blogging with three fabulous women for almost two years and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.
This week, Mom of Many chose the topic: As teens or young adults we all did something our parents would not have been real happy about. What did you do? Did you ever tell your parents about it?
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
When I was a kid and even throughout high school, I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes. I am glad I grew up in the 80's/early 90's. Hearing the stuff that teens do these days would have sent me hiding in the safety of my room if I were still that age and with the mentality I had back then. I was like "Sandra Dee." (I even thought, in the song, that not going to bed till she's legally wed meant that she wouldn't sleep in an actual bed till she got married. Yeah, I was THAT naive.) I didn't drink till I turned 21. I didn't smoke...ever. A Sweet Valley High book scared me off of even considering trying drugs. And I didn't sleep around either. (Not like I could even get a boyfriend when I was younger, but when guys took even the slightest interest in me, it freaked me out.) I swore though. My friends thought I was so innocent and hearing me swear would shock them. Yeah...I was so "rebellious" in that way.
My good girl phase ended when I started going to Rocky Horror. One week, I'm dancing around in my underwear (much to the chagrin of the girl who gave a guy oral sex in the school library the following year......she thought what I did was disgusting). Suddenly, I had found this whole group of new friends who liked me for ME. I wanted to go every week to hang out with them. In the eyes of my parents, however, I was not being safe if I went by myself, even though the people I was meeting had become friends of mine. I was also staying pretty local, as the theater was about 20 minutes away. There was one night when I had a HUGE argument with them about it. They ended up "winning" and drove me to the theater and later picked me up from The Rainbow (restaurant). That wasn't embarrassing or anything. (As a mom, I get it. As a teenager, I resented that level of protection.) After that happened, I decided to tell them I was going with friends on the weekends that I was going by myself. (There were weekends I went with friends, but not EVERY single time.) I know that it was deceitful and I feel guilty about it almost 20 years later. However, it was the ONLY way to preserve everyone's sanity at the time. There was one weekend it almost backfired, as I stayed out WAY later than reasonable and my mom kept saying she was going to call my friend's mom to ask if it was okay with her. I managed to talk her out of doing that. Another time, that same friend who was my "alibi" almost blew my cover. Thankfully, she covered up for it.
I think there got to be a certain point where my parents threw in the towel and just let me go by myself. I don't know if they caught on that I was actually going by myself or they just realized that nothing bad was happening to me there. Of course, at the time, they didn't know about a guy who had come to the theater regularly that got arrested for murdering a girl in Wisconsin. I think I brought that up later down the road. They had nothing to worry about though, as the cast stuck together and made sure no one was alone at the theater or outside, after we found out the news. And maybe because I seemed more "innocent" in relation to everyone else, some people in the cast felt a need to be protective of me more than for others. (I "blame" that on one of the guys who told everyone that I was an innocent girl, on the night I played Janet. However, it felt nice to be cared about and looked after.)
All in all, I was a "good girl" at the show. I still didn't smoke, drink, do drugs, etc. The most that ever happened was a contact high at a cast New Year's Eve party, which probably made me crazier than anyone who actually inhaled the stuff. (NYE was the only other time I let my parents drive me to the theater, as it was snowing out really bad. I got a ride to and from the party with some friends.) I'd sometimes bring guys home to spend the night, but we didn't do anything more than sleep or talk. (One of them was gay and another time a girlfriend of mine was there too.)
I know my "karma" will eventually come when my kids become teenagers and want to go off and do their own things. I just hope that I won't have to give them a reason to rebel and that the future will be less scary than the present.
This week, Mom of Many chose the topic: As teens or young adults we all did something our parents would not have been real happy about. What did you do? Did you ever tell your parents about it?
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
When I was a kid and even throughout high school, I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes. I am glad I grew up in the 80's/early 90's. Hearing the stuff that teens do these days would have sent me hiding in the safety of my room if I were still that age and with the mentality I had back then. I was like "Sandra Dee." (I even thought, in the song, that not going to bed till she's legally wed meant that she wouldn't sleep in an actual bed till she got married. Yeah, I was THAT naive.) I didn't drink till I turned 21. I didn't smoke...ever. A Sweet Valley High book scared me off of even considering trying drugs. And I didn't sleep around either. (Not like I could even get a boyfriend when I was younger, but when guys took even the slightest interest in me, it freaked me out.) I swore though. My friends thought I was so innocent and hearing me swear would shock them. Yeah...I was so "rebellious" in that way.
My good girl phase ended when I started going to Rocky Horror. One week, I'm dancing around in my underwear (much to the chagrin of the girl who gave a guy oral sex in the school library the following year......she thought what I did was disgusting). Suddenly, I had found this whole group of new friends who liked me for ME. I wanted to go every week to hang out with them. In the eyes of my parents, however, I was not being safe if I went by myself, even though the people I was meeting had become friends of mine. I was also staying pretty local, as the theater was about 20 minutes away. There was one night when I had a HUGE argument with them about it. They ended up "winning" and drove me to the theater and later picked me up from The Rainbow (restaurant). That wasn't embarrassing or anything. (As a mom, I get it. As a teenager, I resented that level of protection.) After that happened, I decided to tell them I was going with friends on the weekends that I was going by myself. (There were weekends I went with friends, but not EVERY single time.) I know that it was deceitful and I feel guilty about it almost 20 years later. However, it was the ONLY way to preserve everyone's sanity at the time. There was one weekend it almost backfired, as I stayed out WAY later than reasonable and my mom kept saying she was going to call my friend's mom to ask if it was okay with her. I managed to talk her out of doing that. Another time, that same friend who was my "alibi" almost blew my cover. Thankfully, she covered up for it.
I think there got to be a certain point where my parents threw in the towel and just let me go by myself. I don't know if they caught on that I was actually going by myself or they just realized that nothing bad was happening to me there. Of course, at the time, they didn't know about a guy who had come to the theater regularly that got arrested for murdering a girl in Wisconsin. I think I brought that up later down the road. They had nothing to worry about though, as the cast stuck together and made sure no one was alone at the theater or outside, after we found out the news. And maybe because I seemed more "innocent" in relation to everyone else, some people in the cast felt a need to be protective of me more than for others. (I "blame" that on one of the guys who told everyone that I was an innocent girl, on the night I played Janet. However, it felt nice to be cared about and looked after.)
All in all, I was a "good girl" at the show. I still didn't smoke, drink, do drugs, etc. The most that ever happened was a contact high at a cast New Year's Eve party, which probably made me crazier than anyone who actually inhaled the stuff. (NYE was the only other time I let my parents drive me to the theater, as it was snowing out really bad. I got a ride to and from the party with some friends.) I'd sometimes bring guys home to spend the night, but we didn't do anything more than sleep or talk. (One of them was gay and another time a girlfriend of mine was there too.)
I know my "karma" will eventually come when my kids become teenagers and want to go off and do their own things. I just hope that I won't have to give them a reason to rebel and that the future will be less scary than the present.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
52 Stories: Through the Looking Glass
Inspired by One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern, I've decided to ask people some thought provoking questions about themselves, as I feel that everyone has a story to tell. If you're just joining me on this journey today, please check out the previous posts from this series, as well.
I met this storyteller during my junior year of college. She was friends with some of my friends, so I'd see her around a lot. She was always very friendly. I remember being stuck at school over Easter weekend '97 (because it wasn't the same time as Passover that year) and completely bored. I was chatting online to her and some other people and we decided to meet up in a dining center and hang out. When our college years ended, we lost touch, but thankfully reunited through a mutual friend.
Name you'd like to go by: Girl1Dir
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Location: San Diego, CA
*What is an experience that is legendary for you?
Getting a Septoplasty. This was the most painful experience of my life, but the most life changing (after meeting my husband). I was constantly congested, was a “mouth breather” most hours of the day, always had sinus headaches, never felt substantial relief from allergy medicine. I met the life changer, Dr. Brian Weeks. We agreed surgery was needed, that it would be really painful, but it would change my everyday life – not just how I sleep (which was not well). He was right!!
*What is your guilty pleasure?
Ice cream or Frozen Custard. Ice cream simply makes me happy and melts away the problems of the day or is the perfect end to a perfect day. Mint Chocolate Chip is near the top. I think it shares the number one spot with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream.
I grew up on in suburban Chicago where Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors only as a special treat since we didn’t have a lot of money growing up. Those two flavors from BR are my old school heaven.
As a married adult, we moved to Saint Louis, MO, and found Fritz’s Frozen Custard. Oh heaven! It’s smooth and creamy like ice cream, but better!! I love vanilla and chocolate custard mixed together with M&Ms and Peanut Butter Cups! Talk about indulgence!
Now that we are in San Diego, AND since we typically do not eat like that anymore… I occasionally get a Love It sized “Mint Mint Chocolate Chip” from Cold Stone Creamery.
What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
I simply want to live a very long life with my husband for as long as possible. We have had 15 years so far… here’s to 85 more!
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
There is one person that I think would really value some of my favorite things. I would gift my Lewis Carroll collection to a good friend of mine. I have several old copies of “Alice” and my friend Tom already loves Lewis Carroll, but he’s never seen or held my old musty books that don’t have copyright dates. He’s let me borrow one of his Carroll books because he knows of my love for Alice.
What is something you did that changed someone's life?
I chose not to procreate.
What part of your personality is now extinct?
Hrmm… that’s a great question. If it’s extinct and knows I used to be like that, did it exist?
What is one thing that you find really funny?
My husband. If he can be the one thing – that’s it! He is funny. Hilariously funny. He makes me laugh every day – several times a day. I will have very deep laugh lines when I am older, and they will happily be because of him.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
One thing? I just have to pick one thing? This may sound ultra silly, but I totally love my nose! I think it’s a perfect hit, has a cute button, but mostly – I can breathe out of it! See “Legendary Experience” for more details. I also love my sense of humor and the cool colors of my eyes.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
Alice in Wonderland. I very often see two sides of every situation or decision to make. I have often wanted to disappear into my own wonderland. I love the ideas of animals really being able to tell me what they’re thinking. I would like to be more adventurous and I can live vicariously through Alice!
What is something that not many people know about you?
I don’t know… I’m pretty much an open book… And the person that needs to know everything… knows everything.
I met this storyteller during my junior year of college. She was friends with some of my friends, so I'd see her around a lot. She was always very friendly. I remember being stuck at school over Easter weekend '97 (because it wasn't the same time as Passover that year) and completely bored. I was chatting online to her and some other people and we decided to meet up in a dining center and hang out. When our college years ended, we lost touch, but thankfully reunited through a mutual friend.
Name you'd like to go by: Girl1Dir
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Location: San Diego, CA
*What is an experience that is legendary for you?
Getting a Septoplasty. This was the most painful experience of my life, but the most life changing (after meeting my husband). I was constantly congested, was a “mouth breather” most hours of the day, always had sinus headaches, never felt substantial relief from allergy medicine. I met the life changer, Dr. Brian Weeks. We agreed surgery was needed, that it would be really painful, but it would change my everyday life – not just how I sleep (which was not well). He was right!!
*What is your guilty pleasure?
Ice cream or Frozen Custard. Ice cream simply makes me happy and melts away the problems of the day or is the perfect end to a perfect day. Mint Chocolate Chip is near the top. I think it shares the number one spot with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream.
I grew up on in suburban Chicago where Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors only as a special treat since we didn’t have a lot of money growing up. Those two flavors from BR are my old school heaven.
As a married adult, we moved to Saint Louis, MO, and found Fritz’s Frozen Custard. Oh heaven! It’s smooth and creamy like ice cream, but better!! I love vanilla and chocolate custard mixed together with M&Ms and Peanut Butter Cups! Talk about indulgence!
Now that we are in San Diego, AND since we typically do not eat like that anymore… I occasionally get a Love It sized “Mint Mint Chocolate Chip” from Cold Stone Creamery.
What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
I simply want to live a very long life with my husband for as long as possible. We have had 15 years so far… here’s to 85 more!
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
There is one person that I think would really value some of my favorite things. I would gift my Lewis Carroll collection to a good friend of mine. I have several old copies of “Alice” and my friend Tom already loves Lewis Carroll, but he’s never seen or held my old musty books that don’t have copyright dates. He’s let me borrow one of his Carroll books because he knows of my love for Alice.
What is something you did that changed someone's life?
I chose not to procreate.
What part of your personality is now extinct?
Hrmm… that’s a great question. If it’s extinct and knows I used to be like that, did it exist?
What is one thing that you find really funny?
My husband. If he can be the one thing – that’s it! He is funny. Hilariously funny. He makes me laugh every day – several times a day. I will have very deep laugh lines when I am older, and they will happily be because of him.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
One thing? I just have to pick one thing? This may sound ultra silly, but I totally love my nose! I think it’s a perfect hit, has a cute button, but mostly – I can breathe out of it! See “Legendary Experience” for more details. I also love my sense of humor and the cool colors of my eyes.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
Alice in Wonderland. I very often see two sides of every situation or decision to make. I have often wanted to disappear into my own wonderland. I love the ideas of animals really being able to tell me what they’re thinking. I would like to be more adventurous and I can live vicariously through Alice!
What is something that not many people know about you?
I don’t know… I’m pretty much an open book… And the person that needs to know everything… knows everything.
Friday, March 15, 2013
I'd like to thank...
I've been blogging with three fabulous women for almost two years and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.
This week, I got to choose the topic: Make your "Oscar" speech. Thank someone (can be as many people as you feel necessary) for something special that has happened in your life.
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
I'm glad I got to choose the topic this week because it happens to fall on my nine-year wedding anniversary. Yesterday, I posted a special essay about how I met my husband. Last year, on our dating anniversary, I also listed some catalysts that allowed us to meet. Therefore, I'd like to thank the following people (in no particular order)....
*Mike, our matchmaker, for listening to me say, to no one in particular, that I had to bowl in the morning, and putting two and two together. All catalysts could have led up to that moment, but it was all on him to do the matching in the end.
*Froggie, for connecting me with the right circle of friends to make this moment possible. For making me go out with her on Thankgiving night to meet up with one of these friends, which led me to meet NJ boy. Also, for getting herself kicked out of the bar even though she didn't do the things the bouncer accused her of. Gotta love a rebel! Also, for the beautiful toast she made at our wedding and for being a special part of that day.
*NJ Boy (Dave) for coming to town the particular weekend that I had to pre-bowl and inviting Mike to join us.
*"Jack" for hosting a Super Bowl party that caused me to pre-bowl that morning.
*Scott, for getting me back into bowling to begin with.
*Lauri, Jenny and Kris for being a great bowling team. If we didn't have this team, I wouldn't have had a reason to bowl that next morning at all.
*My husband, for going to the same school as NJ Boy and Mike, which led to us eventually meeting. Also for finding a job in the Chicago area (right down the street from where I was working at the time) and then deciding to live in the suburbs (five minutes from where I was living). And for not being a cliche by asking to meet for coffee....instead asking to meet for hot cocoa!
*My husband's ex-girlfriend, for being a "Debbie Downer" and not having enough interest in growing with Judaism, which caused him to break up with her in time for our meeting to be possible. She also motivated him to do Weight Watchers (even though she gave up), which allows him to stay healthy. He hadn't lost all the weight by the time we met, so I obviously wasn't superficial about it. :)
There are others I also want to thank, like my mother-in-law for bringing my husband into the world in the first place, but really, she took him to the chuppah. (Meaning, she raised him to be a nice Jewish boy with whom I wanted to have a family.) I could also thank my parents for paying for braces and day camp, allowing me to meet Froggie, who introduced me to the people that made all the Jewish Geography fit into place. And I could thank them for allowing me to go to Israel when I did because that trip had a lot to do with the person I became right before I met my husband.
This week, I got to choose the topic: Make your "Oscar" speech. Thank someone (can be as many people as you feel necessary) for something special that has happened in your life.
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
I'm glad I got to choose the topic this week because it happens to fall on my nine-year wedding anniversary. Yesterday, I posted a special essay about how I met my husband. Last year, on our dating anniversary, I also listed some catalysts that allowed us to meet. Therefore, I'd like to thank the following people (in no particular order)....
*Mike, our matchmaker, for listening to me say, to no one in particular, that I had to bowl in the morning, and putting two and two together. All catalysts could have led up to that moment, but it was all on him to do the matching in the end.
*Froggie, for connecting me with the right circle of friends to make this moment possible. For making me go out with her on Thankgiving night to meet up with one of these friends, which led me to meet NJ boy. Also, for getting herself kicked out of the bar even though she didn't do the things the bouncer accused her of. Gotta love a rebel! Also, for the beautiful toast she made at our wedding and for being a special part of that day.
*NJ Boy (Dave) for coming to town the particular weekend that I had to pre-bowl and inviting Mike to join us.
*"Jack" for hosting a Super Bowl party that caused me to pre-bowl that morning.
*Scott, for getting me back into bowling to begin with.
*Lauri, Jenny and Kris for being a great bowling team. If we didn't have this team, I wouldn't have had a reason to bowl that next morning at all.
*My husband, for going to the same school as NJ Boy and Mike, which led to us eventually meeting. Also for finding a job in the Chicago area (right down the street from where I was working at the time) and then deciding to live in the suburbs (five minutes from where I was living). And for not being a cliche by asking to meet for coffee....instead asking to meet for hot cocoa!
*My husband's ex-girlfriend, for being a "Debbie Downer" and not having enough interest in growing with Judaism, which caused him to break up with her in time for our meeting to be possible. She also motivated him to do Weight Watchers (even though she gave up), which allows him to stay healthy. He hadn't lost all the weight by the time we met, so I obviously wasn't superficial about it. :)
There are others I also want to thank, like my mother-in-law for bringing my husband into the world in the first place, but really, she took him to the chuppah. (Meaning, she raised him to be a nice Jewish boy with whom I wanted to have a family.) I could also thank my parents for paying for braces and day camp, allowing me to meet Froggie, who introduced me to the people that made all the Jewish Geography fit into place. And I could thank them for allowing me to go to Israel when I did because that trip had a lot to do with the person I became right before I met my husband.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Bowling for Besherte
I entered an essay into a contest for Ladies Home Journal. The topic was "The Moment that Changed My Life." I didn't win the contest, but that frees me up to finally post this here, in honor of my NINE year wedding anniversary!
I mentioned last year on our 10 year dating anniversary that I would eventually tell this story, so now you can see how some of the catalysts fit together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I have to bowl in the morning” is probably the dorkiest thing I could have said while standing outside a Lincoln Park bar at 2 a.m. on a weekend. It was this somewhat random utterance that changed my entire life….for the better.
Like my curly hair, a passion for bowling has been passed down through the generations of my family. Both my grandfather and father bowled, and that passion was inevitably passed down to me. So, it wasn’t odd for me when a guy I was dating in the beginning of the new millennium asked me to join a breakfast bowling league with him. For anyone else, waking up on Sunday at 8 a.m. to go bowling would be crazy, but I thought it would be a good start to the day. My dad was thrilled and we would practice together. The league was short-lived and didn’t even go an entire season. During the short season, the guy and I decided we were better off as friends (and we still are friends....and he now bowls in my dad’s league). In the meantime, simply bowling with him had set the events of “besherte” (Yiddish for “meant to be”) in motion for me.
Although I was done dating for the time being, I wasn’t done bowling. I joined a league that my mother’s friend was in, as they were looking for a mid-season replacement. I was probably the youngest woman there and didn’t really fit well with the rest of the group. My mom’s friend was nice, at least. In the fall, I decided to get a group of girlfriends together and bowl in a Sunday night pizza league (at the same place where the breakfast league bowled). I had a blast with my friends and we even came up with code names for ourselves based on Sex and the City (I was Samantha). We made T-shirts with our names on them, as well! Sometimes we’d take the pizza to my apartment afterward and just hang out and chat. Anytime one of us was unavailable to bowl at our designated time, we had to pre-bowl, which meant going at a different time prior to when our league met. When Super Bowl Sunday rolled around in 2002, I was invited to a party at a close friend’s apartment. Two friends on my team had other plans, but I invited the other friend to join me at the party. We decided to meet that Sunday morning to pre-bowl.
Around this same time, I had met some guys through my best friend and the concept of “Jewish Geography.” One of the guys lived in New Jersey (I call him NJ boy), but was in town for some job interviews, so we decided to make a weekend out of going out for dinner and getting drinks. On the second night, we decided to venture into the city after dinner and hang out at John Barleycorn’s in Lincoln Park. NJ boy invited one of his friends to join us, as well. His friend seemed nice enough and we exchanged casual “hellos.” I didn’t think much else of it.
After we had left the bar, due to a misunderstanding between one of my friends and a bouncer (involving levels of sobriety), the guys decided they wanted to go back to the hotel where NJ boy was staying and hang out at the pool. And that’s when I delivered the aforementioned dorky line: “I have to bowl in the morning.” NJ boy’s friend laughed at me. I told him I knew that I sounded lame, but then he said something that had the power to change my life forever…. “I have a friend who is single, Jewish, lives in the suburbs, and LIKES TO BOWL.” Even though NJ boy’s friend was slightly inebriated, I gave him my number to pass along with doubts that he’d even do it. I did say that it could be besherte though. However, when we got back to the hotel, he called his friend…at 3 a.m.! Thankfully, he didn’t wake the guy up.
The next morning, I bowled as planned, and then came home and took a long nap. I woke to a friendly voice message from NJ boy’s friend’s friend. Naturally, he had invited me to go bowling that night. I called back and left a message explaining why I wasn’t able to join him. The next night, we talked for three hours on the phone. We also e-mailed a lot between calls. We found out that we lived about five minutes away from each other by car.
That Wednesday, he asked me to meet him at Barnes and Noble for hot chocolate. (Neither of us are fans of coffee and I always thought asking to meet for coffee sounded pretentious anyway. Asking me to meet for hot chocolate earned him mega bonus points!) As soon as we started talking, I just knew we had a future together. I had never felt so comfortable with anyone like I did with him. About a week later, we had our first real date….bowling, of course. He taught me how to walk while throwing the ball and improved my score big time!
After that first date or so, we soon became inseparable. We would go on many bowling dates and support each other at league games. I was still bowling with my girlfriends and he was bowling with the guy I used to date. (Later he joined my dad’s league for a while, as well.) He proposed to me on a cruise the following spring. We were married a year later. Since then, we have grown together with our Jewish observance, moved to two different states and are the parents of three kids, one of whom will inevitably become a bowler too. Eleven years since that fateful night and we’re still crazy in love and make each other laugh all the time.
Thinking about the moment that caused us to meet in the first place still shakes me to my core. I shudder to think that if one thing had been different, we might have completely different lives. Or maybe we would have met under other circumstances at another time…after all, he is my besherte! However, we might not have the same kids we do now. It's all about timing.
When NJ boy’s friend connected us, he had no idea what I was looking for in a guy. This was his first time meeting me, after all. All he knew was that his friend wanted a girl who was Jewish, had curly hair and liked to bowl. (He said as much in his best man speech at our wedding.) And I only asked him if his friend went to temple regularly, as I had just returned from a Birthright trip to Israel and wanted to become more active with Judaism. (He answered in the affirmative.) Even so, he found me a perfect match, right down to our similar sense of humor. It was like he was created with me in mind. He even told his friend that I said “besherte” a lot, as he heard him say it often, as well. Sounds like that note I put in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, asking to have a good relationship with a guy, was finally answered! (Such a quick response time, for that matter!)
May this be a lesson that it doesn’t hurt to say what’s on your mind, even if it sounds completely silly, absurd, dorky, etc. For all you know, you may end up finding your besherte (whether it’s the love of your life, an amazing career opportunity, a new best friend, etc.) as a result!
I mentioned last year on our 10 year dating anniversary that I would eventually tell this story, so now you can see how some of the catalysts fit together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I have to bowl in the morning” is probably the dorkiest thing I could have said while standing outside a Lincoln Park bar at 2 a.m. on a weekend. It was this somewhat random utterance that changed my entire life….for the better.
Like my curly hair, a passion for bowling has been passed down through the generations of my family. Both my grandfather and father bowled, and that passion was inevitably passed down to me. So, it wasn’t odd for me when a guy I was dating in the beginning of the new millennium asked me to join a breakfast bowling league with him. For anyone else, waking up on Sunday at 8 a.m. to go bowling would be crazy, but I thought it would be a good start to the day. My dad was thrilled and we would practice together. The league was short-lived and didn’t even go an entire season. During the short season, the guy and I decided we were better off as friends (and we still are friends....and he now bowls in my dad’s league). In the meantime, simply bowling with him had set the events of “besherte” (Yiddish for “meant to be”) in motion for me.
Although I was done dating for the time being, I wasn’t done bowling. I joined a league that my mother’s friend was in, as they were looking for a mid-season replacement. I was probably the youngest woman there and didn’t really fit well with the rest of the group. My mom’s friend was nice, at least. In the fall, I decided to get a group of girlfriends together and bowl in a Sunday night pizza league (at the same place where the breakfast league bowled). I had a blast with my friends and we even came up with code names for ourselves based on Sex and the City (I was Samantha). We made T-shirts with our names on them, as well! Sometimes we’d take the pizza to my apartment afterward and just hang out and chat. Anytime one of us was unavailable to bowl at our designated time, we had to pre-bowl, which meant going at a different time prior to when our league met. When Super Bowl Sunday rolled around in 2002, I was invited to a party at a close friend’s apartment. Two friends on my team had other plans, but I invited the other friend to join me at the party. We decided to meet that Sunday morning to pre-bowl.
Around this same time, I had met some guys through my best friend and the concept of “Jewish Geography.” One of the guys lived in New Jersey (I call him NJ boy), but was in town for some job interviews, so we decided to make a weekend out of going out for dinner and getting drinks. On the second night, we decided to venture into the city after dinner and hang out at John Barleycorn’s in Lincoln Park. NJ boy invited one of his friends to join us, as well. His friend seemed nice enough and we exchanged casual “hellos.” I didn’t think much else of it.
After we had left the bar, due to a misunderstanding between one of my friends and a bouncer (involving levels of sobriety), the guys decided they wanted to go back to the hotel where NJ boy was staying and hang out at the pool. And that’s when I delivered the aforementioned dorky line: “I have to bowl in the morning.” NJ boy’s friend laughed at me. I told him I knew that I sounded lame, but then he said something that had the power to change my life forever…. “I have a friend who is single, Jewish, lives in the suburbs, and LIKES TO BOWL.” Even though NJ boy’s friend was slightly inebriated, I gave him my number to pass along with doubts that he’d even do it. I did say that it could be besherte though. However, when we got back to the hotel, he called his friend…at 3 a.m.! Thankfully, he didn’t wake the guy up.
The next morning, I bowled as planned, and then came home and took a long nap. I woke to a friendly voice message from NJ boy’s friend’s friend. Naturally, he had invited me to go bowling that night. I called back and left a message explaining why I wasn’t able to join him. The next night, we talked for three hours on the phone. We also e-mailed a lot between calls. We found out that we lived about five minutes away from each other by car.
That Wednesday, he asked me to meet him at Barnes and Noble for hot chocolate. (Neither of us are fans of coffee and I always thought asking to meet for coffee sounded pretentious anyway. Asking me to meet for hot chocolate earned him mega bonus points!) As soon as we started talking, I just knew we had a future together. I had never felt so comfortable with anyone like I did with him. About a week later, we had our first real date….bowling, of course. He taught me how to walk while throwing the ball and improved my score big time!
After that first date or so, we soon became inseparable. We would go on many bowling dates and support each other at league games. I was still bowling with my girlfriends and he was bowling with the guy I used to date. (Later he joined my dad’s league for a while, as well.) He proposed to me on a cruise the following spring. We were married a year later. Since then, we have grown together with our Jewish observance, moved to two different states and are the parents of three kids, one of whom will inevitably become a bowler too. Eleven years since that fateful night and we’re still crazy in love and make each other laugh all the time.
Thinking about the moment that caused us to meet in the first place still shakes me to my core. I shudder to think that if one thing had been different, we might have completely different lives. Or maybe we would have met under other circumstances at another time…after all, he is my besherte! However, we might not have the same kids we do now. It's all about timing.
When NJ boy’s friend connected us, he had no idea what I was looking for in a guy. This was his first time meeting me, after all. All he knew was that his friend wanted a girl who was Jewish, had curly hair and liked to bowl. (He said as much in his best man speech at our wedding.) And I only asked him if his friend went to temple regularly, as I had just returned from a Birthright trip to Israel and wanted to become more active with Judaism. (He answered in the affirmative.) Even so, he found me a perfect match, right down to our similar sense of humor. It was like he was created with me in mind. He even told his friend that I said “besherte” a lot, as he heard him say it often, as well. Sounds like that note I put in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, asking to have a good relationship with a guy, was finally answered! (Such a quick response time, for that matter!)
May this be a lesson that it doesn’t hurt to say what’s on your mind, even if it sounds completely silly, absurd, dorky, etc. For all you know, you may end up finding your besherte (whether it’s the love of your life, an amazing career opportunity, a new best friend, etc.) as a result!
 |
| Tale as old as time.... |
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
52 Stories: A Cool Cat
Inspired by One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern, I've decided to ask people some thought provoking questions about themselves, as I feel that everyone has a story to tell. If you're just joining me on this journey today, please check out the previous posts from this series, as well.
I met this storyteller when I was going to Rocky Horror in 1996. We became instant friends and hung out at Denny's a lot after catching the latest movies. We lost contact for a while and I was thrilled to find him on Facebook.
Name: David Michael Ross. I use my middle name professionally now because there's too many Dave Ross-es out there. You've got that radio guy on the West Coast. And now the Red Sox have signed Dave Ross the catcher, meaning I'm way down in the local Google results for my own name!
I guess I could go by "D. Michael Ross", but that sounds too much like a guy that wears a suit to work every day. Not the guy sitting at the coffee shop with his laptop.
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Location: Just outside Boston, Massachusetts.
What is an experience that is legendary for you?
Mother's Day...probably 2003 or 2004. I was a programmer for one of the big online flower retailers at the time, and the week leading up to Mother's Day was always our busiest of the year. As our CEO used to say, "not everyone has a valentine, but everybody has a mother". And we delivered, even if Mom was in a cemetery.
That week was a mandatory 60-70 hour week. Our main conference room was turned into "the war room". Our entire IT department worked, ate, and occasionally slept in there. Lunch & dinner were catered, and anyone who didn't live less than 10 minutes away was put up in the hotel across the street. This was serious business.
Saturday morning, the florists always started running out of stock and once we crossed a certain threshold we stopped taking orders until Monday. Sunday was, therefore, our day to spend with our loved ones. And my mother, bless her heart, wanted to have the family together for brunch at Old Country Buffet. So we waited at least a half-hour for our table and got our first plates of food. No sooner did I stick a fork in my salad than my pager went off. There were problems with some of the orders!
We had sold a tremendous number of flowers and other gifts that week, and now customer service issues were clogging the system. There were questions about lost orders, incorrect credit card charges, and all sorts of craziness. And with hundreds of thousands of orders in one week, our end-of-week reports were crashing! I worked from 10am to 3am straight that day, and only got to spend a half hour with my mother.
I tell this story to a lot of the entry-level programmers I meet as a reminder not to fall for that romantic notion of 60-hour "heroic" work weeks. They're a symptom of bad management, bad planning, and really a fundamental lack of respect for employees. The things that really matter to you will suffer, and your employer will see it as just part of the job. If so much money is at stake that they need to work you like that, they can afford to hire more people.
What is your guilty pleasure?
TV shows about hoarders. I'm not a big fan of reality TV, but I've dealt with my own "collecting" bug for most of my life. I understand where these people come from. It's exciting to see people's homes cleaned up and turned into something beautiful.
But the worst episodes for me involve animal hoarders. I've been inside an animal hoarder's home as preparation for a rescue, and I know what happens to those scared cats and kittens most of the time. It breaks my heart.
What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
I'd like to pet a lion. So much of what I do as a volunteer animal rescuer involves learning the animals' languages, and big cats speak with a lot of the same body language that house cats use. I'll bet they can be convinced to do a little snuggling, too.
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
An Apple TV. Or a Roku, or any of the other streaming media boxes out there. At one point, my wife & I were paying over $100/month for high-definition satellite TV, and spending most of our time flipping channels trying to find something to watch.
Now, between Netflix, Hulu Plus, Rdio, and occasional iTunes purchases we spend maybe $50/month on media and have access to so much. Know what's funny? With access to all that entertainment, we watch a lot less.
What is something you did that changed someone's life?
Does that someone need to be a person? I was volunteering at a cat shelter in the Chicago suburbs and someone abandoned a young calico cat in a carrier outside.
The cat was scared and pissed off. She left my hands pretty bloody, even with thick leather gloves on. In many shelters, she would have been deemed "too aggressive" and put to sleep immediately. But she had two things going for her: she was at a no-kill facility, and she was with me.
I worked pretty closely with her for the next six months. I got her to let me pet her, then pick her up, and finally she trusted me enough to fall asleep in my lap. Meanwhile, other volunteers were starting to warm up to her, and I found her and a volunteer passed out in a chair together a couple times.
After being in the shelter for a year, we brought a young couple up to see her. She had been indifferent to potential adopters in the past, but she jumped right up on the guy's shoulder and started rubbing against him.
Last I heard, she's made herself part of their family, and she sleeps in bed with them every night. I was hooked, and I've been working mainly with feral & abused cats ever since.
What part of your personality is now extinct?
The "nice guy" is dead, buried, kaput, pining for the fjords, etc. etc. etc.
Everything they say about the "nice guy" trope is true. I was a doormat, trading my own wants & opinions for "whatever you want, dear". And then I'd get frustrated when my girlfriends didn't return my overenthusiastic devotion.
Toward the middle of my 20s, I realized I had to love myself above all. Being confident in who I am, and in what I want out of a relationship, I make myself more lovable.
What is one thing that you find really funny?
Puns. I know they're considered low-brow humor, but I love wordplay, and the fact that puns play off everyday words & phrases make them accessible to everyone with the same cultural/linguistic background. You don't need a college degree to get a pun.
I got an award for "best pun" at a Mensa Halloween costume contest once. I was a gym coach at NASDAQ. My gym shirt said I was number 10:1. So, you see, I was a P/E Ratio.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
I love the fact I got into computers when they first started appearing in people's homes. So I've gone from the days of a 1MHz processor hooked up to my black & white TV, to having a 1GHz computer in my pocket. And, I've gone from a 2400 baud modem to a little over 10Gb/s at home.
It really makes me appreciate how far we've come. I'm typing this on an iPad and this thing is a fucking miracle. It's what we dreamed about in the 80s. This is science fiction right here.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
David Bennahum's Extra Life feels a lot like my younger years, growing up in the dawn of the personal computer era. Bennahum's experiences came a few years before mine, but the basic ideas are the same.
If you want to understand my teenage years, you need to read Patrick Farley's The Guy I Almost Was. Like the author, I was hooked on Mondo 2000, Wired, and 2600 -- magazines for the technology counterculture. They inspired me to dream of a wider world beyond my sheltered suburban existence, and they sparked a lifelong love of the online world as a tool for communication, fellowship, and spiritual/emotional growth. As Timothy Leary said in his later years: Tune in, turn on, boot up. I still keep a little of that rebellious spirit, thankfully.
My 20s and 30s were a mess of different things, but I think Mad Men is a good parallel to what I went through. Don Draper's story of starting out in a crappy job doing ads for a fur store (in addition to his regular work!) and ending up with his own firm is kind of a parallel to how I got where I am today. And I can relate to the way he reached his personal nadir before building a new life for himself based on the things that truly matter to him. I'm excited to see how this story plays out.
What is something that not many people know about you?
I flunked out of college the first time through. Well, not technically, I guess. I had almost straight A's in my computer science classes, but low grades in pretty much everything else. I got a letter saying I could come back for another year on academic probation, but it just wasn't worth it.
Growing up with stories of the rebellious geeks at Stanford and MIT in the 60s through the 80s, I expected college to be a lot different. I wasn't ready for all the bullshit. Here I was, trying to usher in a new era of digital collective consciousness and the graybeards running the department were making me study COBOL on a dusty IBM System/370 in the basement (this was in 1995, mind you!). And why did I have to take poetry and sociology? I had important hacker stuff to do!
This was also the time I read an article about all these college dropouts working as programmers in Silicon Valley, and I decided to stop wasting my time. I moved back home, stopped altering my consciousness every weekend, transferred my credits to a community college, and got my first programming job.
After I had a few years of experience on my resume, I started taking university classes again and graduated with honors. So now I've got two pieces of paper proving I know at least a few things about computers.
I met this storyteller when I was going to Rocky Horror in 1996. We became instant friends and hung out at Denny's a lot after catching the latest movies. We lost contact for a while and I was thrilled to find him on Facebook.
Name: David Michael Ross. I use my middle name professionally now because there's too many Dave Ross-es out there. You've got that radio guy on the West Coast. And now the Red Sox have signed Dave Ross the catcher, meaning I'm way down in the local Google results for my own name!
I guess I could go by "D. Michael Ross", but that sounds too much like a guy that wears a suit to work every day. Not the guy sitting at the coffee shop with his laptop.
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Location: Just outside Boston, Massachusetts.
What is an experience that is legendary for you?
Mother's Day...probably 2003 or 2004. I was a programmer for one of the big online flower retailers at the time, and the week leading up to Mother's Day was always our busiest of the year. As our CEO used to say, "not everyone has a valentine, but everybody has a mother". And we delivered, even if Mom was in a cemetery.
That week was a mandatory 60-70 hour week. Our main conference room was turned into "the war room". Our entire IT department worked, ate, and occasionally slept in there. Lunch & dinner were catered, and anyone who didn't live less than 10 minutes away was put up in the hotel across the street. This was serious business.
Saturday morning, the florists always started running out of stock and once we crossed a certain threshold we stopped taking orders until Monday. Sunday was, therefore, our day to spend with our loved ones. And my mother, bless her heart, wanted to have the family together for brunch at Old Country Buffet. So we waited at least a half-hour for our table and got our first plates of food. No sooner did I stick a fork in my salad than my pager went off. There were problems with some of the orders!
We had sold a tremendous number of flowers and other gifts that week, and now customer service issues were clogging the system. There were questions about lost orders, incorrect credit card charges, and all sorts of craziness. And with hundreds of thousands of orders in one week, our end-of-week reports were crashing! I worked from 10am to 3am straight that day, and only got to spend a half hour with my mother.
I tell this story to a lot of the entry-level programmers I meet as a reminder not to fall for that romantic notion of 60-hour "heroic" work weeks. They're a symptom of bad management, bad planning, and really a fundamental lack of respect for employees. The things that really matter to you will suffer, and your employer will see it as just part of the job. If so much money is at stake that they need to work you like that, they can afford to hire more people.
What is your guilty pleasure?
TV shows about hoarders. I'm not a big fan of reality TV, but I've dealt with my own "collecting" bug for most of my life. I understand where these people come from. It's exciting to see people's homes cleaned up and turned into something beautiful.
But the worst episodes for me involve animal hoarders. I've been inside an animal hoarder's home as preparation for a rescue, and I know what happens to those scared cats and kittens most of the time. It breaks my heart.
What is something you've never done but you would like to do?
I'd like to pet a lion. So much of what I do as a volunteer animal rescuer involves learning the animals' languages, and big cats speak with a lot of the same body language that house cats use. I'll bet they can be convinced to do a little snuggling, too.
If you could give someone one of your favorite things as a gift, what would it be and why?
An Apple TV. Or a Roku, or any of the other streaming media boxes out there. At one point, my wife & I were paying over $100/month for high-definition satellite TV, and spending most of our time flipping channels trying to find something to watch.
Now, between Netflix, Hulu Plus, Rdio, and occasional iTunes purchases we spend maybe $50/month on media and have access to so much. Know what's funny? With access to all that entertainment, we watch a lot less.
What is something you did that changed someone's life?
Does that someone need to be a person? I was volunteering at a cat shelter in the Chicago suburbs and someone abandoned a young calico cat in a carrier outside.
The cat was scared and pissed off. She left my hands pretty bloody, even with thick leather gloves on. In many shelters, she would have been deemed "too aggressive" and put to sleep immediately. But she had two things going for her: she was at a no-kill facility, and she was with me.
I worked pretty closely with her for the next six months. I got her to let me pet her, then pick her up, and finally she trusted me enough to fall asleep in my lap. Meanwhile, other volunteers were starting to warm up to her, and I found her and a volunteer passed out in a chair together a couple times.
After being in the shelter for a year, we brought a young couple up to see her. She had been indifferent to potential adopters in the past, but she jumped right up on the guy's shoulder and started rubbing against him.
Last I heard, she's made herself part of their family, and she sleeps in bed with them every night. I was hooked, and I've been working mainly with feral & abused cats ever since.
What part of your personality is now extinct?
The "nice guy" is dead, buried, kaput, pining for the fjords, etc. etc. etc.
Everything they say about the "nice guy" trope is true. I was a doormat, trading my own wants & opinions for "whatever you want, dear". And then I'd get frustrated when my girlfriends didn't return my overenthusiastic devotion.
Toward the middle of my 20s, I realized I had to love myself above all. Being confident in who I am, and in what I want out of a relationship, I make myself more lovable.
What is one thing that you find really funny?
Puns. I know they're considered low-brow humor, but I love wordplay, and the fact that puns play off everyday words & phrases make them accessible to everyone with the same cultural/linguistic background. You don't need a college degree to get a pun.
I got an award for "best pun" at a Mensa Halloween costume contest once. I was a gym coach at NASDAQ. My gym shirt said I was number 10:1. So, you see, I was a P/E Ratio.
Tell me one thing you love about yourself (or a gift you'd like to get yourself, where money is not an issue):
I love the fact I got into computers when they first started appearing in people's homes. So I've gone from the days of a 1MHz processor hooked up to my black & white TV, to having a 1GHz computer in my pocket. And, I've gone from a 2400 baud modem to a little over 10Gb/s at home.
It really makes me appreciate how far we've come. I'm typing this on an iPad and this thing is a fucking miracle. It's what we dreamed about in the 80s. This is science fiction right here.
What TV show, book or movie is most like your life?
David Bennahum's Extra Life feels a lot like my younger years, growing up in the dawn of the personal computer era. Bennahum's experiences came a few years before mine, but the basic ideas are the same.
If you want to understand my teenage years, you need to read Patrick Farley's The Guy I Almost Was. Like the author, I was hooked on Mondo 2000, Wired, and 2600 -- magazines for the technology counterculture. They inspired me to dream of a wider world beyond my sheltered suburban existence, and they sparked a lifelong love of the online world as a tool for communication, fellowship, and spiritual/emotional growth. As Timothy Leary said in his later years: Tune in, turn on, boot up. I still keep a little of that rebellious spirit, thankfully.
My 20s and 30s were a mess of different things, but I think Mad Men is a good parallel to what I went through. Don Draper's story of starting out in a crappy job doing ads for a fur store (in addition to his regular work!) and ending up with his own firm is kind of a parallel to how I got where I am today. And I can relate to the way he reached his personal nadir before building a new life for himself based on the things that truly matter to him. I'm excited to see how this story plays out.
What is something that not many people know about you?
I flunked out of college the first time through. Well, not technically, I guess. I had almost straight A's in my computer science classes, but low grades in pretty much everything else. I got a letter saying I could come back for another year on academic probation, but it just wasn't worth it.
Growing up with stories of the rebellious geeks at Stanford and MIT in the 60s through the 80s, I expected college to be a lot different. I wasn't ready for all the bullshit. Here I was, trying to usher in a new era of digital collective consciousness and the graybeards running the department were making me study COBOL on a dusty IBM System/370 in the basement (this was in 1995, mind you!). And why did I have to take poetry and sociology? I had important hacker stuff to do!
This was also the time I read an article about all these college dropouts working as programmers in Silicon Valley, and I decided to stop wasting my time. I moved back home, stopped altering my consciousness every weekend, transferred my credits to a community college, and got my first programming job.
After I had a few years of experience on my resume, I started taking university classes again and graduated with honors. So now I've got two pieces of paper proving I know at least a few things about computers.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Giving your best "shot"
I've been blogging with three fabulous women for almost two years and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.
This week, Moma Rock shared an article with us about nurses being fired for not receiving the flu vaccine. She then asked: What are your thoughts on this? Should they have been fired for refusing the flu vaccine? Why or why not?
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
When I read the article, I was thinking that Jodi Picoult would have a field day writing a novel about this. There's a lot of gray area involved if you look at it from the employee's point of view. The medical exemption raised some questions, as there were no details about why she'd need such an exemption. The egg allergy issue is the only medical exemption they referenced in the article. I didn't even know about the egg free vaccine being approved. I also wondered about the religious exemption. I've never heard of flu vaccines going against any religion, but perhaps I am just ignorant.
I recently spoke to a pediatrician I know about this topic. They told me that flu shots are mandatory at their clinic, as someone who picks up the flu from a patient could spread it elsewhere. They also could give it to their patients if they are carrying around the germs. That definitely made sense.
With the flu causing more widespread panic these days, I can see why a health facility would want to be extra strict when it comes to their employees all being vaccinated. At my office, which is NOT a health clinic, the shot is offered for $10 and is optional. However, I don't even have to think twice about getting it. I have kids and don't need to pick up the flu from someone and share it with them. A two second needle in my arm will make for a healthier household. Given that people are working in a place where germs are flying around left and right (no matter how much they sanitize), I can see why their employers would crack down.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I don't think it should be a condition of employment. Maybe they give them a furlough period during flu season so that it's unpaid time off but their job is safe. I also like the idea at the end of the article about doing administrative work for that time period so that they're not affecting patients. If someone has a job position and it requires certain tasks, the employee should fulfill those tasks that are expected of them. If they have excuse after excuse for not doing so, they shouldn't be in that position. However, it doesn't mean they can't still be part of the organization, especially if they are as valued as their employer says they are. This seemed to be the case in the aforementioned article.
As Forrest Gump would say..."that's all I have to say about that."
This week, Moma Rock shared an article with us about nurses being fired for not receiving the flu vaccine. She then asked: What are your thoughts on this? Should they have been fired for refusing the flu vaccine? Why or why not?
Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock
When I read the article, I was thinking that Jodi Picoult would have a field day writing a novel about this. There's a lot of gray area involved if you look at it from the employee's point of view. The medical exemption raised some questions, as there were no details about why she'd need such an exemption. The egg allergy issue is the only medical exemption they referenced in the article. I didn't even know about the egg free vaccine being approved. I also wondered about the religious exemption. I've never heard of flu vaccines going against any religion, but perhaps I am just ignorant.
I recently spoke to a pediatrician I know about this topic. They told me that flu shots are mandatory at their clinic, as someone who picks up the flu from a patient could spread it elsewhere. They also could give it to their patients if they are carrying around the germs. That definitely made sense.
With the flu causing more widespread panic these days, I can see why a health facility would want to be extra strict when it comes to their employees all being vaccinated. At my office, which is NOT a health clinic, the shot is offered for $10 and is optional. However, I don't even have to think twice about getting it. I have kids and don't need to pick up the flu from someone and share it with them. A two second needle in my arm will make for a healthier household. Given that people are working in a place where germs are flying around left and right (no matter how much they sanitize), I can see why their employers would crack down.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I don't think it should be a condition of employment. Maybe they give them a furlough period during flu season so that it's unpaid time off but their job is safe. I also like the idea at the end of the article about doing administrative work for that time period so that they're not affecting patients. If someone has a job position and it requires certain tasks, the employee should fulfill those tasks that are expected of them. If they have excuse after excuse for not doing so, they shouldn't be in that position. However, it doesn't mean they can't still be part of the organization, especially if they are as valued as their employer says they are. This seemed to be the case in the aforementioned article.
As Forrest Gump would say..."that's all I have to say about that."
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
52 Stories: A Stand-Up Kind of Gal
Inspired by One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern, I've decided to ask people some thought provoking questions about themselves, as I feel that everyone has a story to tell. If you're just joining me on this journey today, please check out the previous posts from this series, as well.
I met this storyteller when I lived in the Chicago suburbs. We were in the same Hadassah group for a while. Then we stayed in touch after I moved away. We love chatting about How I Met Your Mother.
Name I'd like to go by: Halle Berry, but I guess I'll go with my real name, Pam Herstein
Age: 56 (crap!)
Gender: Female
Location: Chicago, IL
Experience that is legendary for me:
OK, Barney, let's see. I guess it would have to be hanging out with Dakota Fanning & her mom courtesy of Make-a-Wish. Seeing my daughter Rachel & Dakota trying on dresses together at Betsey Johnson's boutique in LA--priceless.
Guilty pleasure:
Hearing songs like "I'm Sexy & I Know It," or "Call Me Maybe" & turning them way up in the car & dancing & singing at the top of my lungs. As a sort of musician, I know these songs are NOT artful or creative, but damn it, I can't help it!
Something I've Never done but would like to do:
See the Grand Canyon & hope I don't throw up on the way up!
If I could give someone one of my favorite things as a gift, what would it be & why:
Can't answer that one. My favorite thing is probably my guitar, but sorry, I'm keeping it! Guess I'm a selfish bitch! Or, maybe my crazy mutt--Sparky--you can have HIM! (Just kidding, I wuv him).
What is something you did that changed someone's life:
Ok, time to be serious. When we decided to have our daughter undergo brain surgery to help her epilepsy. Guess it helped a little--seizures seem to be milder, and maybe a few less per month, but she has some deficits from the surgery--she can't read much & she has frustrating word retrieval issues. I beat myself up over this sometimes, but we did what we thought was right & I'm sure we would have beaten ourselves up if we DIDN'T do it.
What part of my personality is now extinct:
No one believes me when I tell them I was painfully shy as a kid. I am very outgoing & will talk to anyone--I could go to a party, not know a soul & it wouldn't bother me. My personality changed the day after my father died, when I was 11. One day I was shy, the next day I was getting in trouble for talking too much in class! Thanks Dad!
What is one thing that I find really funny:
I find almost EVERYTHING funny! Sometimes I think I should be a stand-up comic! I also have a really dirty mind!
One thing I love about myself:
I love that I can sing & write music. I just wrote a song for my son Adam's upcoming wedding, did a rough recording at my friend's house & my husband actually said it should be on the radio!
What TV show, movie or book is most like my life:
Maybe Parenthood. Our daughter isn't autistic like Max, but we do have to deal with the fact that she isn't like everyone else & the issues that go along with that.
What is something that not many people know about you:
Not much, I'm afraid. My husband says I talk too much about our personal life & I'm on FB too often. Plus, get a couple of glasses of wine in me & I'll tell you anything!
I met this storyteller when I lived in the Chicago suburbs. We were in the same Hadassah group for a while. Then we stayed in touch after I moved away. We love chatting about How I Met Your Mother.
Name I'd like to go by: Halle Berry, but I guess I'll go with my real name, Pam Herstein
Age: 56 (crap!)
Gender: Female
Location: Chicago, IL
Experience that is legendary for me:
OK, Barney, let's see. I guess it would have to be hanging out with Dakota Fanning & her mom courtesy of Make-a-Wish. Seeing my daughter Rachel & Dakota trying on dresses together at Betsey Johnson's boutique in LA--priceless.
Guilty pleasure:
Hearing songs like "I'm Sexy & I Know It," or "Call Me Maybe" & turning them way up in the car & dancing & singing at the top of my lungs. As a sort of musician, I know these songs are NOT artful or creative, but damn it, I can't help it!
Something I've Never done but would like to do:
See the Grand Canyon & hope I don't throw up on the way up!
If I could give someone one of my favorite things as a gift, what would it be & why:
Can't answer that one. My favorite thing is probably my guitar, but sorry, I'm keeping it! Guess I'm a selfish bitch! Or, maybe my crazy mutt--Sparky--you can have HIM! (Just kidding, I wuv him).
What is something you did that changed someone's life:
Ok, time to be serious. When we decided to have our daughter undergo brain surgery to help her epilepsy. Guess it helped a little--seizures seem to be milder, and maybe a few less per month, but she has some deficits from the surgery--she can't read much & she has frustrating word retrieval issues. I beat myself up over this sometimes, but we did what we thought was right & I'm sure we would have beaten ourselves up if we DIDN'T do it.
What part of my personality is now extinct:
No one believes me when I tell them I was painfully shy as a kid. I am very outgoing & will talk to anyone--I could go to a party, not know a soul & it wouldn't bother me. My personality changed the day after my father died, when I was 11. One day I was shy, the next day I was getting in trouble for talking too much in class! Thanks Dad!
What is one thing that I find really funny:
I find almost EVERYTHING funny! Sometimes I think I should be a stand-up comic! I also have a really dirty mind!
One thing I love about myself:
I love that I can sing & write music. I just wrote a song for my son Adam's upcoming wedding, did a rough recording at my friend's house & my husband actually said it should be on the radio!
What TV show, movie or book is most like my life:
Maybe Parenthood. Our daughter isn't autistic like Max, but we do have to deal with the fact that she isn't like everyone else & the issues that go along with that.
What is something that not many people know about you:
Not much, I'm afraid. My husband says I talk too much about our personal life & I'm on FB too often. Plus, get a couple of glasses of wine in me & I'll tell you anything!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Know Me Better-March 4th
I am a Reader, Not a Writer is a blog I've been following. The blogger's initiative is to pick five questions off of her author interview list to answer. She invited her readers to share their answers to these questions, as well. One of the ways to do this is through our own blogs. So I'm going to do it right here. (Keep in mind I can't be consistent with them every week, but if the questions interest me, I'll do my best to get them posted!)
This Week's Questions:
*Books You Are Dying to Read
*Foods you wish you could eat and never gain a pound
*Things you have in your purse/bag/wallet now
*Movies you never want to see again
*Movie you watch over and over again
Books You Are Dying to Read:
I have a lot of the books I want at the moment, but am still eagerly awaiting a chance to read Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella, Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger and Fly Away by Kristin Hannah. Also excited to find out what Jennifer Weiner's next book will be about.
Foods you wish you could eat and never gain a pound:
CHOCOLATE!!!!!! Need I say more?
I have a mega sweet-tooth, so cookies, cake, pies, candy, etc.
I also wouldn't mind eating lots of pizza and pasta.
Things you have in your purse/bag/wallet now:
This post says it all.
Movies you never want to see again:
Les Miserables. I was so excited to see it for so long and was let down by a lot of things.
Most comedies from the past few years (i.e. The Hangover, Bridesmaids, etc.). I'm just not impressed.
The 41 Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It. Worst. Movie. Ever. There's only one funny line and I can't even post it because it's so disgusting!
Movies you watch over and over again:
Where the Heart Is (based on novel by Billie Letts)
The Princess Bride
Office Space
Airplane
Beauty and the Beast
Dirty Dancing
Legally Blonde
I could go on all day with this list... :)
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