Avalanche of awesomeness? Back in touch with Aunt H..

So, around a year ago my favorite aunt, Aunt H, sent me an email asking me what's up. I wrote back all about how I was getting married to B, he wasn't jewish, etc.

I never heard back from her, so I assumed she was upset about me getting married to someone not jewish. Or something. I don't know what I thought, but I spent the past year being somewhat miffed that she would just ignore my email and never write back like that, especially since her family are more to the left than my family (still modern orthodox, but she wears pants, doesn't cover her hair, etc), and she was always the one arguing with my charedi cousins about how they are being too extremist (part of the reason she is my favorite aunt).

Well, now I think it's possible the email never even reached her!

See, a couple of weeks ago I was checking out some pictures on my cousins's webpage (her daughter) and noticed my Aunt H had joined facebook! I was still a little upset from never hearing back from her last year, but I decided-what the heck, I'm going to try to friend her, and if she rejects my friend request then it'll be on her, not me.

But about a week later she DID accept my friends request and sent me a facebook message asking me how I was doing! I wrote her back a really long message and asked her some career advice, since she is the only woman in my family besides me who has a full time career (another part of the reason she is my favorite aunt). So I figured asking her about career advice would be a good way to get her to write back, if she was hesitating about that. Got this back:

So good to hear from you Abandoning Eden! It has been entirely too long!! I want to reply to your email message, however, for purposes of privacy I would like to do so from my yahoo account. Please forward your email address to my account at EMAILADDRESS

So I sent her an email from my school email address (the same one I sent her the email from last year), and no reply. A few days later I sent her a facebook message giving her a different email address, and YES instant reply to that email! Which started like this:

Hi abandoning eden, I just received your email. It was so good to hear from you. Congratulations on your wedding. I hope that we can see you soon and meet your husband.

wooo!

So now I'm thinking a) she might not have ever gotten that previous email, since she didn't seem to get the email I sent from that same email address this week
b) uh oh, I hope she knows that my husband isn't jewish, since I didn't mention it again (although I did say something in the facebook message about my parents possibly meeting B for the first time at my graduation, and my grandmother/parents/other cousin knows he's not jewish, so someone must have told her, right? Unless they are really secretive about it, also possible).
c) awesome!!!! I'm back in touch with my favorite Aunt, and she wants to meet up with me and my husband.

In other awesome news, I had an interview this week for an assistant professorship at a lovely small private college that is about an hour and a half from where my parents live. While I was applying for jobs I was especially applying to tons of jobs in the midwest, since I figured my half of the family would never talk to me again, and B's half of the family is all over the midwest, so I would love to be close to some family that actually acts like a family to us. Unfortunately none of those midwest jobs panned out for me, and the one interview I've gotten so far was at this school that is closer to my half of the family.

But now it seems at least some of them are coming around. I doubt we will ever have a really close relationship again, but I really liked the school I interviewed at, so it's nice that they are coming around a bit. I don't know if I got this job or not, but I hope I did- I really liked the department, and so far it's my only option. I also will be hearing back from a couple of postdocs I think I have a good shot at in the next couple of weeks, some of which are in the midwest. It's getting to be late in the year, and I'd love to know where the heck I'm going to be living 6 months from now.

Oh and the best part of the interview? The chair of the department was a huge deadhead- had dead and jerry pictures all over his office- and we ended up spending like 45 minutes talking about him going on tour with the dead in the 1970s! I'm hoping that little connection will give me an edge in this job. They are interviewing 4 people, and I was the first, so I might not hear back from them for like a month though.

Also this:


is my block this morning. Me and Barkley had a grand time beating a path to the coffee shop for croissants and orange juice= he kept trying to follow up previously beaten paths into people's houses...around here, as you can see, a lot of people have porches, and he climbed onto at least 5 during out walk.

Look what showed up on friends of irony today

Ha, I love it!

The shocking reply- will B finally meet my parents??

From my dad:

I will note DATE on the calendar. We would be very proud to attend. This is a big deal.

Immediate thoughts: He said nothing about B, but B will definitely be there, as I said in my email.

He said "WE": does that mean my mom too? I sent the invitation to him, figuring he would be willing to come and meet B more so than my mother would. Maybe "we" means my dad and my brother? I doubt he has discussed this with my mom yet. It's now been over a year since she sent me that letter saying she couldn't have a relationship with me if I married B, and since then the only time we have spoken was when I ran into her briefly at my cousin's wedding when she was polite to me and talked to me for a whole 2 minutes during the entire wedding.

Trying not to get too excited about this...in a weird coincidence, my graduation date is also my one year wedding anniversary, so that means there is a distinct possibility that on the same day I get my PhD and celebrate my one year anniversary with B, B might meet one or both of my parents. Nice!!!

Attempt #70 billion at getting my dad to meet B

I haven't talked to my dad in a few months, but I emailed him just now to ask him a question (that unfortunately no one else can answer for me). I ended it with this:

My graduation ceremony will be on the morning of DATE and I would love if you would come. It would also be a good opportunity to meet B, especially since there's a significant possibility that we will be moving somewhere halfway across the country over the summer (and once that happens it will be much harder to meet up with us). I'm going to invite D too. No need to make a decision yet, just wanted that to be on your radar.

(D is my non-religious brother).

I'm not holding my breath, but you can't say I didn't try...

My secret jeans

Well, I just finished writing one of my chapters (63 pages! It might get shorter when I edit it though), so I figured I could reward myself by taking a short break to write a blog post, before I start on the next chapter. I'm now about half way done with my dissertation - I've now written 2 empirical chapters, and if all goes well I'm planning on writing 2 more before I hand in my dissertation to my committee in 5 weeks, so that I can defend my dissertation at the end of March.

I have an on-campus job interview coming up next week, my first (and so far only) interview this job season. Yesterday B and I went to the mall, where I bought a nice pants suit for the interview- I spent approximately twice as much on this suit as I spent on my wedding dress, which just shows where my priorities lay I guess :)

There is some discussion among academic women about whether to wear a pants suit or a skirt suit to an interview- the consensus it doesn't really matter unless you're interviewing at a religious school (which I'm not), and that you should go for what you are more comfortable in. Which for me, is pants. But it wasn't always that way.

When I was a child, I wore pants all the time. But around my Bat Mitzvah time, my mom confiscated all my pants, which she also did with tons of other clothing I wore that she even mildly disapproved of for tzniusdik (modesty) reasons- I would send it downstairs for laundry, and it would never return. I was pretty upset when I figured out that all my pants had been 'disappeared' and had some arguments with my mother about it, who stood firm. But after that, from age 12-18, the only time I would wear pants was when skiing, and even that turned into a huge argument with my mother, in which I would argue that wearing a skirt while skiing was dangerous. Really, I just wanted to wear pants and look normal for once- cause who the heck skis in a skirt? If I recall correctly after getting away with wearing just ski pants once or twice, she made me wear ski pants with a knee length skirt over it.

So pants were always this symbol to me of something that religion was preventing me from wearing, but that I really wanted to wear. Apart from being something 'forbidden' and therefore awesome (to me as a teenager), there was a comfort issue. The way my hips are built, my thighs rub together when I walk. I used to think this was a weight thing, but even when I dieted down to approximately 60 pounds less than my current weight when I was in college (weight watchers), and my bones were all sticking out and I was probably an unhealthily skinny weight, my thighs still rubbed together when I walked. My body is just built that way. As a result, whenever it was warm outside and I was walking anywhere in a skirt, my thighs would get sweaty, rub against each other in a sticky and horrible way, and I would get a rash on the inside of my thighs. And it HURT with every step I took. I remember one particularly warm shabbas I spent at a friends house when we walked a particularly long distance, and when I got back to my friends house I had bloody blisters on the inside of my thighs.

So in the summer I would get rashes. In the winter, I would get freezing cold- no matter how thick your tights are, and how long your skirt is, wearing a skirt in the winter is always cold. Basically, I hate skirts. Even the couple of nice hippie skirts I have, I wear over pants. I also only wear them when I'm going to music festivals. Since moving out of my parents house 5 and a half years, I've only worn skirts at music festivals and when visiting my parents.

But how does one transition from wearing all skirts to wearing all pants? It started with a pair of secret jeans.

For my first two years of college my parents wouldn't let me live in the dorms, so I would commute to school every day. I would take a train (actually, 3-4 trains) into the city every day, and come home at night- which took roughly 3-4 hours round trip. The last leg of my trip to school was the subway- I could either take one subway that dropped me off about 6 blocks from school, or I could take 2 subways (and transfer) and get dropped off right where I needed to be.

One day it was nice out, so I decided to walk to the farther away subway station. On the way there I passed a levi's store and I ducked inside. I walked around looking at the pants, utterly mystified over what all the different things meant- what did all these different names of pants mean? What were flare versus boot cut versus straight cut versus skinny cut? I tried on a pair of straight cut jeans, and I looked hideous. See, apart from having thighs that touch each other, I also have a butt which is much larger than my waist. An 'hourglass' figure. Straight cut (and skinny cut) jeans are not cut for that shape- they are cut for little skinny white girls with no ass, and if you have an ass they make you look really fat. Anyway, I saw those jeans looked hideous on me, so I went on my way. My idea of how hideous they looked was also no doubt influenced by the weirdness and self-consciousness I felt in wearing jeans at all.

I don't know why, but a few weeks later I checked out the store again and tried on some more jeans. I really wanted to buy a pair of jeans, and I figured if I could try on a bunch of different types of jeans, I might find one that didn't make me look like a whale. And then I discovered them- boot cut jeans. Boot cut jeans are jeans that have a bit of a flare on the bottom (pictured above), and they look great on ladies with a bit o' junk in the trunk, like myself. These jeans were the first I tried on that I looked at myself in the mirror and said "Ok, I could go out in public in these and not feel like everyone is staring at me."

So I bought them.

But then the problem was, how could I wear them to school? I wanted to wear them to school, but I was still leaving my parents house every morning, and I knew they would flip out if they saw me in pants. At first I would put my jeans in my bag and change at the train station where I transferred trains. But then once I missed my next train and was late to class.

So I started a system- I had one particularly large flowey skirt that wasn't really tight. So I would put my jeans on, put that skirt on over my jeans, and roll up my pants leg so they wouldn't stick out underneath. Then after I got out of sight from my parents house, on the way to the train station, I would quickly take my skirt off and put it in my bag, and roll down my pants legs. I would do this basically in the middle of the sidewalk- it was a suburb, but I'm sure some people saw me at times and were like 'wtf?'. I would put my skirt back on when I was on the train home, and walk home, take the pants off from under my skirt, and go have dinner with my family, who were none the wiser.

When I wasn't wearing the pants, I was very careful about hiding them so that my parents couldn't find them, particularly my mother, who was fond of going through my things when I wasn't home and then being all like "HOW COME YOU HAVE SECRET CONDOMS HIDDEN IN A BOOT I HAVE NO BUSINESS LOOKING IN, AYE?" (That particular incident ended in a pitiful lie about a health fair giving them out at school, which she bought into, due to the incredible power of denial). I would hide them between old pairs of pajamas I hadn't worn in years.

Another problem was how to wash my pants. Jeans don't need to be washed super frequently, but once I wore them to a party and someone spilled beer all over my pants(beerpants!). And I couldn't wear them to school smelling like beer, obviously. So I had to wait until I knew my mother would be out of the house for several hours so that I could use the washing machine without her knowing what I was doing. It took a few weeks until my opportunity arose- when my parents both went to a bat mitzvah I wasn't invited to- and I rushed around washing them, all the time terrified that my parents would come home early and catch me.

All that seems somewhat ridiculous and silly now, but I was very afraid of what they would do.

I don't really remember what happened to that first pair of jeans. I've had so many jeans since then. Most likely they got some holes and I threw them out, or I gained some weight and donated them somewhere. But for two years, they were my only pair of pants, and I secretly wore them almost every day I went to school.

I only once in my life wore pants in front of my parents (after age 12 of course and barring those ski pants of course). A couple of years ago I visited home for a few days. One night I went out to meet with some friends and changed into jeans before heading over there. At that point I had been financially independent and living on my own for around 4 years, and was starting to be more open about my OTDness around my parents. My mom glared at me but didn't say anything, and my dad said something like "oh so you're wearing jeans I see *nervous laughter* have fun tonight"

Crock pot weekend!

Currently in the crock:
Enchilada Pie

1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 pound ground beef
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 box of that blue corn muffin/bread mix in the baking aisle (you know the one)
2 tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

brown beef on stove on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, drain, put in crock
add drained and rinsed kidney beans, enchilda sauce, garlic powder, mix
in a seperate bowl mix corn bread mix, butter, milk until just combined (don't mix it more or your cornbread will have a bunch of air bubbles). Mix in cheddar cheese. Spoon over kidney bean/beef/sauce mixture in crockpot

crock on low 5 hours or until corn bread is 'set'


Tomorrow's crock:
Easy beef stew
1 pound stewing beef (i recommend buying from the farmers market or an organic source, the quality of the beef really affects the taste)
2 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
4-5 red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 cup beef stock
1 cup apple cider/beer/red wine/orange juice

put veggies in crock pot, then meat, then onion soup mix, then pour liquids over everything.

crock on low 6-8 hours. If it's too liquidey at the end you saute 1-2 tbsp each of flour and butter or oil in a sauce pot and then ladle the liquid from the crock pot over the flour/oil mixture and stir it with a whisk until it thickens, and then add the thickened liquid back to the pot.

My favorite part about this recipe is that I can get everything except the soup mix and beef broth (which I keep on hand anyways) at the winter farmer's market. I got a bunch of cool heirloom carrots today- orange, red, and purple.

My very first death threat!

I feel like I've achieved some kind of blogging milestone!

(A thread on a post about what non jews must think about jewish rituals)

abandoning eden January 21, 2010 at 4:04 PM

if you give me a list of different jewish rituals I can go describe what it would look like to my husband, and see what his initial reaction is. :) I bet that would be an interesting blog post…except he already knows about a lot of them

18 pinchos January 21, 2010 at 4:06 PM

I have one, it involves running a spear through jews who fornicate with goyim

19 abandoning eden January 21, 2010 at 4:21 PM

good thing I’m an atheist, not a jew. :)

20 pinchos January 21, 2010 at 4:24 PM

Not to worry, i dont discriminate. after all, that argument wouldnt have saved you from the nazis

21 abandoning eden January 21, 2010 at 4:25 PM

well technically fornication means shtupping someone you’re not married to, so it still doesn’t apply.

22 pinchos January 21, 2010 at 4:27 PM

Halacha doesnt recognise your marriage and neither does my spear

Once again, the religious prove they are morally superior to the immoral atheists, because religion is the source of all good morals.

His words are a real tribute to his religion.

The story of me and B

I've decided to temporarily come out of hiatus, because today is the three year anniversary of me meeting B!

Here is the story of how we met: It was January 2007, and over winter break I had decided to check out some okcupid people. As a grad student I didn't have a lot of time for socializing with people who were not in my grad program (and FSM knows I didn't want to date THEM), and I didn't have a lot of time for socializing in general. As such, I would usually date during breaks in school, because that was the only time I had to spend on dating. And yes, the dates usually (but not always) came from internet dating websites. I am not ashamed! I mostly went on jdate, but had recently decided to check out okcupid, and limited the people who could see my profile to those who were jewish, atheists, or agnostics (B was under the 'atheist' category). Meanwhile, 90% of my dating over the beginning of grad school happened during winter, spring or summer break.

Anyways, over winter break I had started talking to this guy from okcupid, B, who intrigued me with his knowledge of south park and hippies. We chatted online for a week or so, and we had lots to 'talk' about over instant messenger. So maybe a week or so after we started chatting, we decided to meet up.

Now, I will have to admit, when I first saw B's picture on okcupid, I did not think he was very attractive. He had a 3 or 4 year old picture up, which was from when he was a lot younger looking and significantly skinnier, and I am not at all attracted to skinny guys, or guys who look like they are 6 years younger than me (which he did in this picture, which I think was taken when he was like 19 or 20). But I was charmed by his witty chatting style, and I figured- hey, I haven't been on a date in a couple of months, winter break is almost over, so I should meet up with this dude so that I can go on a date over winter break before going back into grad student hibernation for spring semester.

So we met up on January 12th. For about 45 minutes. Since I was not super attracted to his picture, I decided to meet up with him about an hour before I had to leave to go to a potluck dinner so that I would have a reason to leave if he turned out to be creepy or weird. But he completely charmed me. We just talked for 45 minutes. He turned out to be a whole lot more attractive in real life, having gained some weight and some age since that terrible picture. It was like 70 degrees that day, which is pretty weird for January. I remember walking to meet up with him, and not wearing a coat, and wearing short sleeves and sandals.

That night at the potluck dinner I kept saying to my friend- "I went out with this guy today, and I think I kinda like him." I couldn't stop thinking about him.

Maybe a day or two later I IMed him again, and asked him if he wanted to come over to my place the next weekend when I was having some friends visit. (He later told me that he thought he would never hear from me again after our first date, maybe because it was so short). We chatted that whole week as well. He came to visit with my friends the next friday night, whereupon one of my friends decided to spend the whole night sitting between us on the couch. He stayed till like 3 in the morning. The next night he was going to come over after me and my friends went to a show, but I ended up fainting at the show (dehydration probably) and didn't feel up to it. So he was all "How about we hang out on Sunday, without your friends"

Sunday we hung out at his place for several hours, just talking again. I stayed till around 2 in the morning, and lingered at the door to see if maybe he would kiss me, which he didn't. When I left his house to walk back to my place, it had snowed- the first snow of the year- and I called him to tell him about it.

The next weekend we hung out again, and this time there WAS kissing (among other things). In fact, that weekend I stayed at his place the whole weekend, and then on Monday morning I stopped by my place to change for school, went to class, and then came straight home to his place. That Monday night, at around 3am, after spending like 4 straight days in a row together, he adorably was all "so, I was talking to my friend, and she asked if you were my girlfriend, so I was wondering are you my girlfriend?" Awwww.

Since that weekend we have spent pretty much every night together. For the first year and a half we were together, I spent every night at his place (he occasionally stayed over at my place too), would walk back to my place in the morning, change and shower, feed my kitties, go to school, and then go straight back to his place. After about a year and a half of that, he moved into my apartment for reals, and the rest is history.

So happy anniversary of the day we met B! Tonight we will celebrate with fillet minion, baked potatoes, and B's aunt's microwave chocolate coffee-mug cake


B and I, February 2007
---------------------------

In other news, 95 people voted on my last poll (and are remarkably just about evenly split over the pronunciation of 2010), and yet I have only 4 comments on my last post. So what's with all you lurkers, aye?

Back to work!

Over winter break I realized a few things:

1. If I want to graduate in May, I need to defend my dissertation in early April
2. If I want to defend my dissertation in early April, I need to give it to my committee in early March
3. Holy crap that's in 2 months

So if you don't see me around much in the next couple of months, that's why. I'll be back in full force once I can call myself Dr. Abandoning Eden.

The 2000s: A Decade in Review

2000: Started off the new year sleeping at home, since it was a friday night and I still lived with my parents. Dated A (ex fiance) the entire year. Graduated high school, after retaking hashkafa and navi finals over the summer- they wouldn't give me my 'real' diploma until I had retaken finals for the jewish subject courses that I never showed up to class for, and therefore failed. Started the year working at one rockland county area take out place, quit that job dramatically when the boss started yelling at me for not doing something that was not my job to do, worked at a different rockland area take out place all summer long, made crazy money from doing deliveries, was sexually harassed by the manager who kept trying to feel me up when I passed by him, and kept asking me to have sex with him in the bathroom, and the owner didn't believe me, and the dude didn't stop even when my bf threatened him, so quit that job. Started college, commuted from home.

2001: Spent new years watching the ball drop at times square. Left for birthrite soon after, spent an extra week or two in Israel crashing at my friend's place by Bar Ilan, and watched the inauguration from tel aviv. Discovered sociology, decided I wanted to go to grad school, discovered after I got my grades for the first semester that if I actually try to do well in school I can get straight A's, decided to change my major from music (with a media minor) to media (with a sociology minor) to sociology (with a media minor) to sociology (with a women's studies minor), which is the one I kept. Got a job as a peer adviser at school, and joined the school senate. Dated A most of the year, although we broke up for a few months over the summer and got back together after I dated a few other dudes. Went on a labor day road trip to the beach with A, rented a hotel for a couple of days, and drove to the beach on Saturday morning- first time I drove on shabbas. 9/11 happened- I was at home and was supposed to commute into NYC that day for college, but obviously didn't. Started following political news after that. Dyed my hair hot pink, mom freaked out and made me dye it a more 'natural' dark red color. Spent that fall semester taking cabs and being perpetually late to my first class (With a prof I later coauthored two papers with) because there were constantly fake anthrax attacks on the subway. Started my first blog at the end of the year.

2002: Started my first sociology research assistantship, got accepted to my college's honors program, still dated A all year, worked as a peer adviser, got a raise, joined the sociology club and became president, met a Palestinian girl who worked in the student government office and who challenged many of my ideas about israel (don't think she ever knew I was jewish). Took the GREs and went to my first sociology conference, visited some grad schools. Got promoted from peer adviser to student center receptionist (they paid more, and supervised the advisers). Moved to a college dorm in September after mathematically proving to my parents that it would be cheaper than commuting (also my bf lived right near my parents at that point, so i think they figured I would be safer if I was farther away). Pressure to get married from my parents.

2003: Worked three jobs: receptionist, research assistant, and statistics tutor. Got laid off from the receptionist job for being "too smart for the job" (and also they "ran out of money" in the student center), but right afterward got a student-faculty grant to get paid for my research assistantship job. Got engaged to A on July 4th. Realized as we started planning the wedding that I philosophically disagreed with many jewish wedding traditions. Won a few awards in college for leadership and academic achievement. Presented my research for the first time this year- at two conferences. Started putting together grad school applications, and was dumped by A the night after I sent out the first one. Finished all my applications in a daze. Ate non kosher chicken for the first time a few weeks after A ended our engagement.

2004: Started off the year in a crazy depression- after pushing myself to finish all my applications, suddenly the break up caught up with me in January when I ran out of things to distract myself with. Went on dates with a few dudes. Started going to hippie music shows with a good friend of mine. Went to cognitive therapy for about 10 weeks to deal with break up with A, and ended up breaking off an 8 year toxic friendship. Got into 8/9 grad schools I applied to, went to several visiting days with people trying to recruit me, shocked several of my friends who thought I was stupid because I talked like a valley girl back then, graduated college summa cum laude, and was inducted into phi beta kappa. Ate non-kosher beef for the first time right before graduation, when my friend was making empanadas in the dorm kitchen. Went to my first music festival in May. Moved to my parents house for 2 months over the summer, and then moved to my current city. First time living in my own apartment- my first day there I saw a roach the size of my palm. Didn't date a whole lot that year. Started grad school, worked my ass off for a semester, had a mini nervous breakdown around finals week, but made it through.

2005: Dated like crazy this year, mostly from people met on jdate. Had 6 week relationships with K and B, and a few hookups with people. Got my first cat, Durkheim, on May 1st, and my second cat, Foo the ninja cat, around mid October. Durkheim cured the intense mice problem at my old place. Won a prestigious fellowship that allowed me to move from the mice/roach infested studio apartment to my current comfortable 2 bedroom apartment (that costs approximately twice as much). First journal article was published. Went to my second music festival and joined the hippie message boards that all my friends kept telling me to join. Had an eyebrow ring for about 6 months. Went to conservative services on rosh hashana and yom kippur, but went to a diner with a friend after yom kippur services. Did not visit home for any jewish holidays, and celebrated them by attending grad student meals and not much else. Worked over the summer for my adviser. Started growing dreadlocks in December.

2006: Decided to take a year off from dating, and figure out what makes me happy. Stopped attending jewish grad student events, and took my profile off jdate. Attended over 30 music shows and 3 music festivals. Grew dreadlocks. Went on a couple of dates here or there despite resolution, including my first date with someone not jewish in the fall. Finished my masters thesis and got my masters degree. Took my first comprehensive exam and decided to do the joint sociology/demography phd instead of just sociology. Cut off dreadlocks in the fall, right before TAing for the first time- for stats.

2007: Met B after putting up an okcupid profile (he contacted me there, and we met up about a week later). Dated B all year. Went to around 20 shows and 5 music festivals. Finished taking classes in the spring and took 2 comprehensive exams (demography in the spring and the family in the fall). Grandmother died, started this blog, parents went crazy because I was dating B, tried bacon, shrimp, and lobster for the first time. Taught my first class that Fall, with 70 students and 2 TAs.

2008: Dated B all year. B moved in around tax day with his kitty (skittles), and I proposed to him around June, right after he came to the first music festival we went to together- I decided at the festival that I wanted to marry him (we had been talking about it for months, but that's when I decided for sure), but waited till we got home to propose to him (that Monday- over the phone-while crossing the street- when I was all "hey, lets get married for reals." Yes, those were my exact words). Told the in-laws and facebook and my parents in July, and started planning the wedding 'for reals.' Went to 5 music festivals and around 15 shows. Defended my dissertation proposal in June and became "ABD." Taught a class in both the Spring and the Fall. Got a grad certificate in gender studies, and another one in teaching at the university level. Second journal article published.

2009: Audited 2 classes in the Spring, and TAed in the fall. Got our dog Barkley on January 23rd. Got married on May 17th, and went on our 2 week European honeymoon (to Rome for a few days including a day trip to Pompeii/Naples, and then a cruise that went around Italy/Croatia/Greece/Bunch of Greek Islands/Turkey/Sicily) in July. Spent fall semester applying to jobs and TAing. Worked on my dissertation a lot and gave 6 presentations this year, including 3 at school workshops and 3 at conferences. Saw Phish 3 times, and only went to 1 other show and 3 music festivals. Traveled a lot beyond the honeymoon, including to San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Virginia, DC/Maryland, and Pittsburgh. Third journal article published.

----------
Resolutions for 2010:
1. Finish my dissertation and graduate
2. Get a job for after graduation
3. Be happy with the way I look
4. Do something really fun (tropical vacation? mexico?) to celebrate graduation

Home, home again. I like to be there when I can.

After a week at the in-laws, 2 days on the road, and an overnight stop at a friend's place, we are now back home. Barkley is back to being normal and quiet, like he never is at other people's houses.

Last night while staying at my friends place, B and I somehow ended up at a pre-production planning meeting for a ghost story investigator show, starring quiet girl's sister as the main ghost story investigator, and my friend who we crashed at last night as one of the back up team. Quiet girl's sister is like a pixie version of quiet girl...they talk the same way and use the same gestures and look very similar, only her sister has a pointy-er face and dreadlocks.

The meeting itself was interesting- they will be investigating local ghost stories, and were coming up with a list of stories they could check out. This devolved into looking at ghost videos on the internet and this dude telling ghost stories about some supposedly haunted paintings at his house (they mysteriously appeared in a crawl space!) and a picture he took of a 'ghost' (it had a weird light in the middle of the picture!). There was a newcomer to the group, who will probably be on a side ghost-investigation team. He was first asked about his views on ghosts (skeptical) and his religious views (raised christian, now agnostic). The key members of the show (2 people on the main 'team' and the producer) clearly believe in ghosts to some extent, and spent a long time discussing the sound equipment they could use so they could pick up 'real' ghost sounds, unlike the other ghost hunting shows, which are clearly faking it and have too much white noise or something.

The meeting took place in the office of this producer, who so far has been a record/music dvd producer but wants to move to tv. They are going to shoot a couple of episodes, his office will do production things to it, and they are going to pitch it to a local tv station as a ghost hunter show specifically investigating local stuff.

Other then that, spent maybe 7 hours on the road yesterday and another 6 hours today. Barkley wasn't bad, I ate a lot of junk food, and very happy to be home and putting stuff back in order. We brought basically all our clothes to my in-laws to do laundry (hey, I'm still a student!) so I have to hang up a stuff, but I'm leaving that till tomorrow. We unpacked most of the other stuff and put it all away. Realized we left one of our gifts at the in-laws...oh well, we'll get that in a half a year or so I guess.

Abandoning Eden...In Print! (real life print!)

Frankly I've been hesitant to post this, in part because it contains a bit more identifying information than I have shared before on this blog. The Rockland Jewish Reporter recently published an article about jewish blogs/bloggers, which they interviewed me for. They quote me several times in the article.

It's not a very well edited article, some of the info is inaccurate (for instance I was raised right-wing modern orthodox, which is close, but not the same, as "ultra orthodox") and the author yanked a photo from my blog and printed it without crediting me or asking for permission (which I believe is against copyright law and it was a photo I had only posted for a few days before taking it down).

I also want to state for the record that I had stopped being religious before I ever started blogging, so the journalists' portrayal of blogging as contributing to me being less religious (which I think is what she meant, although it's a bit unclear) is inaccurate. I have another (private) blog that I started at the very end of 2001, while I stopped keeping fully keeping shabbas and kosher in 1997ish (although I continued to partially observe holidays and shabbas and kosher for years afterward due to living with my parents). The subject of my private blog was never exclusively judaism, although I talked about it on rare occasions (excerpts from my private blog are compiled in the first few posts on this blog- I tried to repost everything I said about judaism in my private blog, although I just noticed that I seem to have forgotten 2004, the year I completely dropped observance of almost everything Jewish except a few holidays here or there).

I only started blogging about Judaism in earnest when I started this blog- which was shortly after my grandmother's death in 2007, when I was dealing with my anger over my father using 2/3rds of the eulogy to talk about how he has to honor his mother's memory by making sure his children turn out to be religious. At that point I had already been dating my (non-jewish) husband B for about 6 months, which my parents knew about (and they knew he was not jewish), and my parents had known I was not religious for at least 7 years.

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Since I found out this article was In Print and has a picture of me, I've been rethinking whether it was a good idea to agree to be interviewed. The newspaper/newsletter/whatever it is, is distributed in jewish venues around rockland county, and my father frequently is in rockland county for business purposes, and frequents kosher restaurants where they carry this newsletter. It's possible he will see it, or a friend will see it and forward to him, and as a result he will find this blog.

On the other hand, it's damn cool that someone thought my blog was significant enough to write about in an article In Print, even if it's just the Rockland Jewish Reporter.

If he does find this blog I guess my message to him is: A lot of things in this blog are unflattering to my parents and to my family. I stand by everything I have said here, and while he may not agree with my depictions of events, or remember things going differently, I write them the way I remember them, I do my best not to exaggerate in any way, and I try to say my feelings as I truly feel them. On the other hand, I don't want to intentionally hurt anyone. I didn't write this blog to hurt my dad or my family, but to deal with his and the rest of my family's reaction to me going OTD/starting to date B by writing about it, in an effort to work through my feelings and reach out to other people having similar experiences. My dad and members of my family were never the intended audience.

It's also possible that as a result of this newspaper some people from my high school years will find this blog, since it's published in the county where many of them live. If so, hello! I've changed a lot since back then, as you can probably tell. But I would love to hear from you if you're reading!

If anyone is coming over here after reading that article In Print or on one of the other blogs that posted it, hello! Feel free to ask whatever questions you would like! I'm thinking of putting together an FAQ at some point soon, since I get asked the same questions over and over again, so if you want to ask some of those questions you would actually be helping me to compile them.

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And now for something completely different:
The hubble telscope advent calandar. 25 pictures from the Hubble telescope, very cool.

BFFs

Penny (my sister in law's beagle) and Barkley are now bffs and follow each other around the house.





Christmas may be over but I still want to buy this flying spaghetti monster ornament I just found on the interwebs.

Is the chirstmas tree referenced in tanach?

According to my husband it might be. In Yirmiyahu 10:1-4, the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) has this to say:

2. So says the Lord: of the way of the nations you shall not learn, and from the signs of the heaven be not dismayed, for the nations are dismayed from them.
[AE note: This might refer to the classical period practice of trying to interpret the will of god by the position of birds in the sky, which I learned about in a class I took on "magic and science in the ancient world" back in college]

3. For the statutes of the peoples are vanity, for it is but a stock that one cut from the forest, the handiwork of a carpenter with a small axe.
Rashi:a carpenter: Heb. חרש, a craftsman.
[AE Note: note that it's statute with a third 'T', not statue the way I first read it]

4. With silver and gold he beautifies it, with nails and with sledge hammers they strengthen them so that it does not bend.
Rashi: and with sledge hammers: A hammer; it does not bend: Heb. יפיק, it does not kneel with its knees. Comp. (I Sam. 25: 31) “a stumbling block (פוקה) ” ; (Nahum 2:11) “and tottering (ופיק) of the knees.”

5. Like a palm tree they are beaten, and they do not speak; they are carried for they do not step; fear them not for they will do no harm, neither is it in them to do good.
Rashi: Like a palm tree they are beaten: He hammers them with a hammer until it has an upright stature like a palm tree.

[The christian version can be read here.]

So according to Yermiyahu, the non Jewish craftsman of his time would cut something from the woods (presumably a tree) and do some kind of handiwork with it (trim it?), adorn it with gold and silver and hammer it until it doesn't totter around and stands straight. I don't remember ever learning this part of tanach, but this sounds like they can be referring to either a Christmas tree or some kind of idol/statue that they built out of wood.

Certainly the tradition of decorating an evergreen tree around the winter solstice predates Jesus. Via wikipedia:

The ancient pagans, Druids, Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews celebrated the Winter Solstice, (Dec. 21st), the day of the year that the Sun begins its ascent in the sky, thereby ushering a fertile time of planting and bountiful harvests. Hence, the evergreen tree represented eternal life and the promise of replenishment during the cold winter months. Apples and other fruit were hung upon the tree to represent the plentiful food to come. Candles were lighted to symbolize the warmth and brightness of the sun. While the Christmas tree is generally associated with Christ, it predates this religious figure by many centuries.

Ancient Hebrews celebrated the winter solstice? what? I know it's wikipedia and totally unreliable, but....what?

Does anyone know what the Jewish interpretation of this passage is? I'm guessing it has something to do with idolatry.

Happy Erev Christmas!

We are safely at my in-laws place in *Not very popular midwestern state* in an exurb of *only large city in state*. We drove here Monday and Tuesday (Stayed overnight at a lovely motel in Bumblefuck, Ohio on Monday night), and Barkley came with us. He was actually really good in the car, although he went a little crazy with barking in the motel and our first night here- I think he was just confused and discombobulated a bit. The motel we stayed at in Ohio had a box of 'hunter's rags' at the front door, which I did not look too closely at.

Meanwhile there are SO many presents downstairs, and normally we open them on Christmas eve but this year my sister in law has kennel duty (she's a vet tech in training) on Christmas eve and won't be getting in until Christmas afternoon, so no presents until Christmas after dinner! Ahhh!

OK, am I like a 3 year old or what? Well, this IS only my third Christmas. :) B and I had a lot of fun wrapping presents yesterday..he wraps them so much better than me, mine also look like a 3 year old wrapped them. :) Seriously though, there's like a mountain of gifts downstairs and there's only 5 of us and the youngest (my SIL) is 23...although Barkley and my sister in law's dog (Penny, a beagle) also get gifts. We still havn't decorated the tree though, guess we will be doing that today. Tonight we have B's family traditional Christmas eve dinner which is made up entirely of appetizers, and tomorrow we are having a big prime rib dinner, followed by the gift opening of course. We all sit in a big circle and go around the circle each opening a gift one at a time until we run out.

Ooh and my mother in law also said we can have her old giant fake tree once we have a bigger place that it will actually fit into (it's too big for them to handle setting up every year anymore), and said I could pick through her ornaments and take a bunch home for our table-top tree- my father in law worked for hallmark for many years so she seriously has the best ornaments ever. :)

Meanwhile the people must not have much to do around here, because nearly every single house on the block is decked out in crazy lights...there's a house a couple of blocks away that has a crazy light show that is coordinated with music you can play on your radio (they are broadcasting it from their house), we drove by to visit the other night and there were like 20 cars just parked outside their house watching the show. :) Apparently they won an award for having the best christmas lights in the *only large city in not very popular midwestern state* metro area.

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I was chatting with my brother's ex girlfriend today (we run in the same circles so are still friends even though they broke up like 5 years ago), and she was saying how she remembers when she was dating my brother how so NOT into holidays and family I was back then, and she seemed surprised I was so into christmas now. But the holiday experience is so different between my family and B's family (apart from the obvious, that I celebrated different holidays at my parent's). Holidays at my parent's house were always full of yelling and people fighting (always about religion and politics) and people saying racist/super-conservative things that made me want to throw up. Last time I went home to a family thing, around a year and a half ago, my Aunt spent the entire dinner trying to convince me that Obama was a muslim and how we can't have a "shvartza" as president (*vomit*). I mean it wasn't all bad, and people of my generation were generally nice and not judgmental/racist, and there wasn't a huge dramatic fight EVERY time we got together, but it happened on a fairly frequent basis.

Also ever since I was a teenager, going to family holidays meant being criticized for my religious/personal choices, usually openly in front of everyone. My grandma used to always say "IMPROVE" instead of goodbye when she was leaving, people used to stare at my piercings/hair/whatever and openly criticize me -I have 3 earrings in each ear and had an eyebrow ring for about 6 months a few years ago that I don't think anyone in my family ever got over. I also had dreadlocks for a year, which- you guessed it- led to more racist comments.

While at B's place, everyone gets along and is nice to each other and genuinely just enjoys each other's company and likes each other and acts like normal human beings. I love thanksgiving at his cousin's place too. Maybe it's cause I am new to the family and so they are on their best behavior- but I don't think that's it.

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Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!

Oy gevalt

Nearly a year ago, my youngest brother E called me from Israel to tell me that he had talked to his Rabbi about B and I, and his rabbi told him that one of 3 things would happen within a year; either B and I would break up, B would convert to Judaism, or B would die.

Clearly none of those 3 things have happened, and I'm pretty sure they are not going to happen anytime soon (although I suspect that one day B will die...but if all goes well that won't be for decades). I'm not sure if he meant within a year of us getting married or a year after talking to that Rabbi, so I'm waiting until our first year wedding anniversary to send him a letter pointing out the stupidity of that phone call.

Meanwhile, I found out today that for the second year in a row, my brother will be spending his entire winter break (about a month) in Israel, learning with this very same Rabbi.

I wish there were a book or something I could send to him that he would read and suddenly magically realize that religion is a crock, and that these people are leading him wrong. I know I will get flack for that because blah blah blah respecting other people's beliefs blah. But really. I feel like my brother has been preyed upon by these people. I feel like he has been brainwashed by a bunch of people who do not have his best interests in mind. He has given up all his hobbies and things he used to enjoy in order to learn all the time. He used to be a huge movie buff, and would make his own short films. Before he went to Israel for a year, he was planning on going into the film industry. Last year (right after he got back) I sent him a dvd of animated short films, the type of thing he would have been all over before he went to Israel. When I talked to him around 6 months later he told me that with his schedule he hadn't had time to watch it. He also told me he was thinking of becoming a rabbi. A rabbi!

Now readers, you don't know my brother, but last I heard being a rabbi involves public speaking, which is the exact opposite of a job my brother would be well suited for. My brother is extremely shy, and a little...well, when he was a kid there was a question of whether he was on the autistic spectrum or not. Only they didn't have words like "autistic spectrum" back then, and my dad managed to find some shrinks who said he was ok so that the school wouldn't leave him back. Had he been born 10 years later, I think he would have been diagnosed as on that spectrum.

Which makes him perfect for these brainwashing asshats, who seem to prey on people like this- people who don't have the best social skills, who don't have things entirely together. Maybe for him religion is actually a good thing, since it gives him structure. But I don't know. I really worry about him going off to these places and having his head stuffed full of lies. I worry that he has given up the things he used to love, what made him unique and awesome, to have more time for religion. I worry that my parents are complacently letting this happen because since me and my other brother ended up non-religious, they think that enabling my other brother become a fundy (because who else is paying for his trips to israel and his yeshiva fees in the states?) is the only way to keep him jewish. I worry about how our relationship will be going forward, and I worry about him, because even if we have no relationship going forward, he is still my brother, and I love him, and I worry that he is being led astray.

Top 10 albums of the 2000s

Given that the decade is nearly over, I've decided to share with you my top 10 albums of the decade. This list is of course heavily biased towards albums I've been into recently, and I've avoided the tiny bands that no one reading this would have access to.

1. Radiohead- Kid A (2001)

This followup to OK Computer which can easily be listed among the best albums of all time is my pick for the best album of the decade. It's hard to say exactly what genre Radiohead is a part of other then "alternative rock" which is really a catch-all, and can only be described as "Frickin Awesome". This album is best listened to as an album, as like many classic albums the tracks sort of blend into each other. My favorite songs off this album are Idioteque-> Morning Bell. I was however disappointed with the version of Motion Picture Soundtrack they chose to include on this album, as I thought it was overly produced.

2. Beck - Guero/ Guerolito (2005)

Beck is another one of my favorite artists, and Guero is one of his best albums. But what is even better than Guero is Guerolito, which includes all the songs of Guero remixed to even greater awesomeness. My particular favorites are the remix of Girl and Que Ondo Guero.

3. Radiohead- In Rainbows (2007)

You can probably tell I'm a big Radiohead fan. When they came out with Hail to the Thief I was a bit disappointed- although that album has some great songs, most of them were..not as great. But In Rainbows definitely made up for it. My favorite In Rainbows songs are 15 step, Nude and Videotape. Bonus: They did an awesome live video recording of their songs from this album (along with some weird band stuff that bands like to do) here that I highly recommend.

5. Sleater-Kinney- All hands on the bad one (2000)

Ahh, the feminist punk movement, how I miss you. This album reminds me of playing diablo 2, and was one of my favorite albums when I was a wee baby feminist in college, just discovering that some music was about how awesome women are! My favorite tracks are #1 Must Have, which brings up my righteous feminist rage, and Ballad of a Ladyman, which should be my theme song. Sample lyrics: I could be demure like/ girls who are soft for/ boys who are fearful of /getting an earful / but I gotta rock! / I'd rather be a ladyman!

6. Franz Ferdinand- Tonight (2008)

You might know the song "No you girls" off this album, which was popularized via an ipod commercial when this album first came out. The album is chock full of classicly awesome songs, my favorite being Ulysess, What She Came For and Bite Hard. There's also an album of remixes, and I really like the remix of No You Girls and Lucid Dreams.

7. Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes (2008)

This is a new indie band that has recently arrived on the indie band scene. They have kinda a Simon and Garfunkel/CSNY sound to them, with lots of harmonies and some epic lyrics. My favorite song is White Winter Hymnal and Blue Ridge Mountains. You can see an awesome live performance of them here.

8. Phish- Joy (2009)

No studio work of Phish can ever come close to the awesomeness of their live performances, but Joy is a pretty great album nonetheless. Stealing time from the faulty plan is one of my favorite songs off this album, but I gotta say- the recorded version plays it a little slower then they play it live, and I like the live version better. Time turns elastic is a great track, as is Twenty Years Later

9. Arcade Fire- Funeral (2004)

Another album that the genre is hard to pin down, this album can only be described as "epic" and "haunting." Particular favorites include Neighborhood #3: Power out, Neighborhood #4: Kettles and Rebellion(Lies)

10. Danger Mouse - The Gray Album (2004)/ The Beatles- Love (2006) / Easy Star All Stars- Radiodread (2006)

Technically none of these are original albums, which is why they are sharing the 10th place.

The Gray Album is a mashup album of Jay Z's The Black Album and the Beatles The White Album. It sounds bad on paper, but it's actually a great and oddly compelling album. I don't think you can actually buy this album legally though, it used to be only available over the internet. My favorite tracks are Encore (Which samples Savoy Truffle and Glass Onion) and Allure (Samples Dear Prudence).

The Beatles- Love is also a mashup- this was an album put together by the Cirque De Soleil people, who mashup Beatles songs with other Beatles songs (or sometimes with other versions of the same song), for their Beatles show. I never saw the show, but the soundtrack is awesome- I believe they had access to the original masters and it was produced by George Martin, who produced the original Beatles albums. If you are as huge of a beatles fan as I am, this album will mess with your mind and blow you away. My favorite tracks are Drive my Car/The word/ What are you doing,
Strawberry fields forever, and Come Together/ Dear Prudence

Easy Star All stars- Radiodread is a cover album of Radiohead's Ok Computer that records the album in Dub Reggae. The first time I heard this album was at the Gathering of the Vibes Festival in 2006 while drinking a mojito, and I remember saying "This album is like my mojito...you have some limes and some mint, and you think they won't taste good together, but they actually taste great together, just in a weird way." Mind you, that was my third mojito.

So there you have it. Soon to come: Top 10 movies of the 2000s.

Oh christmas tree

Oh Christmas tree
Oh Christmas tree
I have a tiny Christmas tree!

(pictures soon maybe)

Last night B and I bought our christmas tree, which is the first christmas tree I've ever had! (other then the ones we decorate at the in-laws, but those are their trees, not mine). It is a table top fake tree, and has these neat LED light things that change colors. Very psychedelic. We also got some of those generic colored glass ball ornaments, an ornament that kinda looks like Barkley (actually we got that one a few weeks ago), and one that has a space for pictures (B! I hope you are getting on that right now!) and says something like "first christmas together." Even though as B pointed out like 20 times in the store, it's not technically our first christmas together, but it's our first christmas together as a married couple, so yeah.

Anyways, I LOVE having a little tree in my living room! Somehow it makes the room all homey and festive. We also hung up some lights on our sun porch and we've been turning them on at night.

Growing up I obviously didn't celebrate christmas...it was always this thing that seemed happy and full of awesomeness to me, but was forbidden and was something that other people did. Later on I started celebrating it in a stereotypical jewish way- for a few years I had big parties on christmas for all my jewish friends, and a couple of years I did the chinese food and movie thing. My first *real* christmas was 2 years ago, at B's house.

I really really like it. All the lights and trees are really pretty, and I love how my neighborhood looks now with all the houses lit up. I love the gift exchange, and buying/making gifts for people is almost more fun then getting them! Getting a bunch of gifts at once is pretty awesome too- growing up my family wasn't much of a gift family, and getting a bunch of gifts at once is something I never really experienced until I started celebrating christmas (maybe at my bat mitzvah, but that's it). I would get maybe one present at my birthday, but usually would just get money to buy my own present, my parents would give gelt (money) for chanukah too. At a certain point my parents stopped giving anything at all to us, and started making charitable donations in our name around Chanukah time. They still do that in fact- I spoke to my dad a few weeks ago and he is going to donate to a battered woman's shelter in my name. Which is pretty awesome, I admit (Last year I asked him to donate to footsteps, but I don't think he actually did that). But you know what? Getting gifts is just nice dammit! And getting a bunch of cash is totally not the same!

I love getting together with family for a big meal too- B's family traditionally has a meal made up entirely of appetizers on christmas eve, followed by present opening, and then a big meal on christmas day. Having grown up in a Jewish family, and having a big meal every Friday night and Saturday afternoon, I really enjoy getting together for a big multiple-course meal. With only two of us at home, we don't really have a lot of opportunities for that, although we usually have a big breakfast together on Saturday mornings and we eat dinner together every night. But we don't even have a real table to eat at, so it's not the same. Once we have kids I'd like to start doing some kind of weekly big special family meal, along with having regular dinner together every night of course.

Is it weird that I feel no desire at all to celebrate any of the holidays I grew up with? I still like thanksgiving, which I grew up with, but all the jewish holidays...they just don't really hold any meaning for me. I guess becuase I always felt they were an obligation, or a restriction on things I couldn't do, but I don't remember feelings of excitement or joy about Jewish holidays that were similar to the way I feel about Christmas. I love Christmas!

Meanwhile I know chanukah starts sometime this week (which I found out from my calendar), but I have no desire to light my menorah, play with dreidles or eat latkes or sufganiot(jelly donuts). And I probably won't do any of those things, unless I happen to run into a chabadnik on campus giving out free latkes (because as a jew and a grad student, I can never turn down free latkes). On philosophical grounds, since Chanukah is a celebration of religion over Secularization/Hellenization, it seems someone wrong to celebrate it.

Also for those who eat latkes and also eat at mcdonalds- are the hash browns at mcdonalds breakfast totally the same as a thick latke or what?

Please no comments about how I'm a nazi/horrible jew/might as well convert to Christianity cause I'm such a goy now. You also can read about The true meaning of christmas over at B's blog.

Grading...

I guess I haven't been posting a lot lately, but it's been a pretty busy semester.

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel! This week I have to grade about 50 final papers for the class I'm TAing for (Introduction to Sociology). I hand those back to my students a week from today, and after that I am FREE of this class until January! (When we will be meeting up to grade the final exams, at which point I will be free for reals). Tomorrow I teach my last 2 recitations of the semester, and while I'm a little sad that I won't be teaching again for a while (I'm taking next semester off to finish my dissertation), I'm not unhappy to be done with this class in particular. I don't want to go into detail on a public forum, but lets just say...it's been rough. I'm really looking forward to getting my weekends back, as this whole semester I have spent at least 1 weekend day (and usually both of them) reading and grading for this course. The prof required something due every week (either a quiz or an assignment) so every weekend I've had 50 of something to grade. Bleh. But after these 50 papers, and the 50 quizes they are taking tomorrow, I have nothing to do until the final exam! :)

In part to celebrate the end of this horrific semester, B and I are taking a road trip to Virginia from Friday-Sunday to see the Charlottesville- Phish show on Saturday night, and will be staying by good friends of ours who we haven't seen since the summer. On the way we will also be taking a detour to visit the National Mall area of Washington DC, and another detour to visit the ever-awesome Quiet Girl. We will have Barkley with us, so we can't go to any museums in DC or anything, but we plan to visit the Washington and Lincoln memorials and walk around outside the White House. Hopefully when we visit Quiet Girl her American Bulldog Bella won't eat Barkley, as I hear Bella likes to eat other dogs.

Today's Dinosaur Comic

(Click on the comic to make it bigger)