Mesila in Baltimore Tonight!

Via SaraK, this is great:

Join Mesila tonight, Monday, Feb. 20th, and gain some hashkafic views as well as some practical starting points for the budgeting process.

The ad:

The Talk

R' Yanky Horowitz is giving The Talk in Baltimore, KGH, Monsey, and Brooklyn over the coming weeks. See info below and here.

Don't Pass Over

From the time I was born until I finished high school, I spent every Pesach at my parents' home in Cleveland, with fond memories of my sister somehow getting drunk on the four cups of wine and singing "Who Knows One" in a drunken yell, or the constant re-stealing of the Afikoman by my father, brother, and myself, or the hidden notes planned a year prior by Vervel for when she'd be in Israel asking if we missed her. The next two years, I split the sedarim in Israel: One at my cousins with many other cousins (figure 17 kids + the adults) and my aunt, and one with my friends from OJ at one of the rebbeim. Since then, it's been a mix of Cleveland and Monsey as we shuttle between my parents and Serach's - enjoying the dramatic difference between the two styles (my father-in-law is Sephardic, my father Litvak-American) and weather (like the drop from 80 to 28 + 8 inches of snow in one day in Cleveland).

One thing I've never done, however, is go to a hotel for Pesach... and neither have either of my siblings... until now. My dear older sister Vervel will be spending this Pesach at the stunning Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Resort by Chesapeake Bay, Maryland (I just found out the hotel is only 7 years old - wow). The company she works for started an annual Pesach hotel there and from what I've heard from people it's absolutely amazing. In one of those 'all worlds come together' things, one of the owners of HLF Leisure Tours is an old friend who went to OJ shortly after me and who has done an amazing job of putting this together with his partners. Perhaps interesting for regular readers here is that R' Yaakov Horowitz of Monsey is a main draw and will be spending the whole Yom Tov there. I also really like the whole presentation and approach - I was told it's a really family-friendly hotel and people really get to feel like they're a part of everything, and when my sister was telling me about the place and asking me to tell people about it I couldn't help but notice how they presented it - from their families, and from themselves:

Dear Friends,

HLF Leisure Tours is excited to once again host Passover at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Gold Resort, Spa and Marina in Cambridge, Maryland. We look forward to having you and your family join us for Passover. Please contact us with any questions or concerns. We can be reached at 877-HLF-TOURS or info@hlfleisuretours.com. Please check out our website at www.hlfleisuretours.com for more information.

Sincerely,

Ed Hoffman Josh Lewis Jacob Fader

Anyway, the place looks absolutely gorgeous, the food is supposed to be amazing (anyone who has ever had Hoffman Catering knows this to be true), it's such a relaxing, fun getaway, and perhaps more importantly, the people who go that I know are all really great, nice people. It's not far from New York/New Jersey or Baltimore, and the prices are really reasonable for something like this. There's even a Facebook page (which already has over 100 fans - geez) for it. Plus, if you go there for Pesach, you can probably keep an eye out for my dear old sister and her grape-juice buzzed shenanigans. Trust me, it's worthwhile entertainment.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping it won't be snowing in Cleveland again.

Here's the PDF for those interested [click to enlarge]:

Good4Her

Congratulations to Bad4Shidduchim on being selected to fly to Israel to accompany the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight leaving this coming Monday! I think she's a great choice (duh), and expect to read some great stuff from her over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, I'm taking off a day of work so we can make a little round trip (and avoid traffic in the process) to Baltimore (Shabbos) and Philadelphia (Sunday) this weekend, then take part Labor Day morning in a rivalry softball game here in Kew Gardens Hills between my company and its larger counterpart.

This blog will continue to be sporadic probably until after the Yomim Tovim. Thank God, work has been incredible, and life has been busy. Kayla is walking, Elianna is a grown-up, and Serach is finally on vacation for a couple of weeks.

Please daven for my grandmother, Chaya bas Pesel. Thank you!

JES Fact Sheet

A few interesting tidbits from the Jewish Economic Survey so far:

• 45.3% of respondents rent their place of residence.
• 56% of the people living within the NY-NJ area rent their place of residence.
• 73% of the people living outside of NY-NJ (but within the United States) own their place of residence.
• While just 6% do not have health insurance, over 40% of respondents do not have life insurance.
• 74% of the respondents to the open-ended question “What do you think is/are the most important financial issue(s) facing the Orthodox Jewish Community?” included Tuition or something similar to tuition in their answer.
• The average 1-bedroom apartment in the NY-NJ area goes for $1,111. The average rent married couples in the NY-NJ area pay for a 2-bedroom apartment is about $1,200 a month.
• 2-bedroom apartments in Baltimore are rented at an average of $910/month. A 3-bedroom apartment increases the costs to $978/month.
• The average mortgage for most married couples who own their residence in Baltimore is $1,469 a month – and they live in a 4-bedroom house.
• In the Midwest (including people from MI, MO, OH, and WI; excluding Chicago, IL), the average respondent’s family lives in a 4-bedroom house and pays a mortgage of $1,187/month.

There's plenty of other data coming out of the survey, but the sample sizes are too small for most categories to feel comfortable enough to even mention them. Housing is an area which is easier to get a handle on more quickly, as a 2-bedroom apartment is a 2-bedroom apartment no matter how many people are stuffed into it. Life insurance you either have or you don't. But food costs are obviously greater even among otherwise similar families if one family has an additional child.

Of the statistics listed above, the biggest surprise is the cost of two-bedroom apartments in NY-NJ; apartments in Queens are far more expensive than that. On the other hand, people have who lived in apartments that size for 5 years or more would be paying much less than that amount, as prices started climbing fast right around the time we got married. In addition, apartments in Kew Gardens, Teaneck, and Passaic seem to be somewhat cheaper than Kew Gardens Hills or Washington Heights. In addition, while it was expected that a higher percentage of people in the NY-NJ would be renting as compared to everywhere else, the gap (44% ownership in NY-NJ vs. 73% elsewhere) is much larger than many people might have expected - and it's not as if the respondents are all young couples, either. 56% of the responses to date have been by people at least 30 years old, 21% from people 40 or more.

The lack of life insurance is a bit of a surprise. While one could argue that singles or even married couples with no children have less of a need for life insurance [and in fact, less than 5% of childless singles and 29% of childless couples have life insurance], the percentage of people with children who have no life insurance is over 23%.

If you haven't yet taken the survey, please do! The more people that take it, the better and more useful the data will be. And pass it along. :)

How To Deal With Unemployed People

Jewboy has a fantastic post about unemployment and the assumptions people make about those who have graduated law school. First, let me excerpt a bit:

First example of people being out of touch with reality: "Oh, is your wife going to stop working now that you finished law school?" Well, number one, I don't have a full time job. Number two, do you know what kind of costs a frum family faces? I have bills to pay that I don't even want to talk about, and I haven't even hit the big tuitions yet. G-d help me when that happens. So no, even when I get a full time job, my wife will not be retiring from the workplace. I'd give anything if she could, but that is simply not a reality, not if my family wants to be self sufficient.

Secondly, it's rather annoying when I tell people I'm applying for a certain job, and they respond by saying things like, "Oh, but doesn't pay very well." People seem to assume that because you went to law school you can automatically make a lot of money. Yes, some lawyers can make a good living right out of school. But especially in the worst economy since the Depression, several of my colleagues and I are struggling just to find hourly pay that pays more than a grocery clerk.

While there are a couple of caveats to what he's pointed out, all in all he's right on point. There is a very common, unrealistic idea of what different jobs make, what things cost, and how much people need to live within the Orthodox community. (Easy survey plug!) Far too often, the assumptions people make include but are not limited to:

• People are always able to pay their bills... and often, someone else helps pay those bills.
• Even if a family pays their own bills, if they couldn't for some reason, someone else will help them do so.
• Certain jobs are immune from economic downturns.
• That a person is better off taking a lower-paying job than remaining unemployed.
• That a person is better off remaining unemployed than taking a lower-paying job.
  

There seems to be an all too often lack of sensitivity in the Orthodox community to any number of people: Singles; childless couples; people who are depressed; people who are sick; poor people; etc. etc. Add unemployed people to the list. I am certainly not saying that we should all go walking around on eggshells around everyone to avoid being insensitive - in fact, please don't, it's far more annoying. Just use your brain. Much like all the other examples, being unemployed is not a badge of shame to the person, and they'd rather not be treated as such.

Certainly, everyone is different in their approach. I'm of the more "open" type; I'll openly discuss certain aspects of our situation with friends and family, if not others. Many people are less open, and that's obviously understandable. Perhaps one of the reasons I've actually not faced most of what I described above, and have not heard many insensitive comments, is because I've given people a better understanding of our situation; this does not mean that others should do the same, but it does mean that if you are going to comment on someone's unemployment or job search, you should know whether or not what you're about to say makes any sense. As an easy example, before you say something like "is your wife going to quit her job now that you've finished law school", think if that makes sense. Perhaps ask if she is going to be able to stop working once the lawyer finds a job. Before you comment on a job not paying so well, perhaps it's worthwhile to ask if the person has the luxury of waiting it out for a better job - not to mention gauging what they think of the job in the first place.

I will be quick to admit that I've probably messed up the above on occasion. We all make assumptions, and sometimes those assumptions are wrong. Nevertheless, this is something I need to improve upon, and something to think about.

Depression in the Frum Community

With special thanks to AlanLaz for pointing out the follow-up to the story to me, and to many friends, family, and others for all they've shared over the years.

A young man from Toronto, studying in Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Ner Yisroel) in Baltimore, died yesterday. He was 24 years old; married; and according to all those who knew him, an incredibly wonderful young man.

According to the policeman who witnessed the event, he died when he jumped off the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on I-95 into the Susquehanna River.

This post is not to talk about his tragic death, but the immediate aftermath. Nearly every Jewish website that reported on the story claimed at the time that the young man had been in a one car crash on the windy bridge and been thrown from his vehicle into the water.*

Phil Jacobs of the Baltimore Jewish Times says it perfectly, and please read his whole piece, as it's so important:

What concerned me the most was the initial public comment that this couldn’t possibly have been a suicide, that it was an accident.
What concerns me is this propensity to cover up.
Because what this does is it discourages others who could be suffering from chronic depression from seeking help. No, not the help that their rav can give them, but the help that a licensed clinical social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist could help them with. Or stated differently, the best help the rav could give a troubled soul is a referral to a trained professional.
It is one thing to be sad, but quite another to be depressed. It is one thing to say, “I feel like killing myself,” but it’s quite another to actually find that dark place where a realization that this is “for keeps” still isn’t enough to stop one from ending his life.
There is such a daunting list of reasons why a person living in an insular life wouldn’t seek treatment. I guess going to a “shrink” could end up impacting a relative’s shidduch (dating ability). I guess getting psychological help carries with it a stigma that connects to words such as “weakness” or “instability.”
But then there is the possibility of our old friend arrogance holding power over accountability. If this was, indeed, a suicide, I fear that it was arrogance taking a troubled soul away from us. It’s the same cover, the same hurt that keeps some of us from asking for help we desperately need for ourselves or our loved ones who have been sexually molested, verbally or physically assaulted.
Our rabbis can offer up Rashi or Rambam. But we some need are therapy and yes even medications. That’s not a weakness, that’s a strength that makes sense.

Look around your table this Shabbos. How many people are there? 4? 8? Statistically, slightly over one in four people in this country suffer (about 58 million) from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. This rate is not lower in the Orthodox Jewish community. The odds are that around a given Shabbos table, either the person sitting on your right, on your left, across from you, or you yourself, suffer from something like depression**.

I still recall a meal we had once at someone else's house, with a number of others. It might have been a simcha of some sort, I can't recall. The topic of depression came up, and one close friend spoke out against the stigmatizing of it, noting the number just cited of 1 in 4, and then raised their hand stating openly, "Hey, I suffer from depression. I'm also doing what I can to take care of it properly." This was in front of their spouse, family members, and friends. Nobody in the family even blinked - for them, this wasn't a stigma, or "shameful". It was part of life - as with anything, you find someone who can help you and you work at it, whether with therapy, medication, exercise, or something else. I thought this was incredible, and something that is sorely lacking among far too many of us. We stigmatize so much - why? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if all those who needed help felt comfortable seeking it?

A large part of our automatic stigmatizing seems to come from lack of education and fear. We don't understand things like depression, so we're scared of it. Some people think that if someone is depressed they must be somehow "dangerous". Others think that if someone is considered depressed, they must be unhappy, and "who would want to be married to such a person". Sometimes people seem to think that it's "difficult" to deal with someone who suffers from depression. Well, maybe it can be sometimes, and certainly not everyone is equipped to deal with someone who is. Then again, after 4-1/2 years [today!], Serach will tell you that I'm pretty difficult sometimes, and I don't suffer from any mental disorders that I am aware of, and I'm sure that not everyone would be a good match for me, either. (This brings to mind this excellent old post by Pobody's Nerfect - read through the comments.) There's a profound lack of knowledge about depression and an amazing amount of misinformation. I know that I have been corrected many times in the past, and surely I still have much to learn - despite many conversations and having read plenty of material on the subject. The more we know, the easier it is to understand, help, and avoid these stigmas.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but I guess it's to repeat what Mr. Jacobs is emphasizing in his article. We need to stop stigmatizing mental illnesses, we need to be encouraging to each other who need it to seek the help they need.

Mental illness needs the same sort of tender loving care. It is not intangible, it hurts. Depression has physical pain in many instances connected to it. It shouldn’t be treated with shame nor embarrassment. Because if it is treated as a stigma, more “amazing, kind, gentle learned men,” could look for bridges to stop their pain instead of seeking our help.

And that cannot be.

* For what it's worth, VIN has since apologized and corrected the story; YeshivaWorld has not.
** I'm picking depression only because it's more common and I'm most familiar with it.

Ramblings from a Travel-Logged Mind

This past weekend we drove from Baltimore to Chicago for my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah. When I say weekend, I literally mean weekend—as in three days.

Because of issues with my husband’s job, we didn’t get to leave Baltimore until after 11:00 PM Thursday night. Unfortunately, neither one of us had a chance to take a short nap during the day (in addition to packing, I had to deal with a four-hour car emergency when my tire got a nail in it, and then the tire couldn’t be repaired because of the location of the nail and instead had to be replaced entirely), so we were both bombed by the time was started the trip. Between stopping every hour or so to rest, get coffee, close our eyes “for just a minute,” and/or to switch drivers, it ultimately took us about 15 hours to reach our destination.

We arrived in Chicago a few hours before Shabbos and began packing to leave as soon as Shabbos was over. Two hours after that we were in the car on our way back to Baltimore—once again with multiple stops because we were tired and hadn’t slept much that weekend. All in all, we figured that we spent about as much time traveling TO the Bar Mitzvah as we spent in Chicago AT the Bar Mitzvah itself! (We had to leave Saturday night because of work-related issues that necessitated my husband to be at work bright and early Monday AM.)

We’re not sure exactly how long the return trip lasted; between the time zone difference of EST and CST, and then with the clock change early Sunday AM, we were having major time/clock/accounting issues!

Despite the travel issue, we had a great time at the Bar Mitzvah. It was so nice to see and spend time with the family—albeit briefly. It was also great to see my niece, the Bar Mitzvah boy’s younger sister who, as I told you two weeks ago on this blog, was recently diagnosed with leukemia (please continue to daven for her: Dina Sora bas Shayna Mira. . .thanks!). It’s hard to be in Baltimore while our family is struggling to deal with this difficult situation in Chicago. We are very, very close with this part of the family and hate that there isn’t more that we can do to help on a daily basis.

Before I sign off, I’m wondering if anyone knows what the point is of having the large green signs on the side of the roads in PA that say “FALLING ROCK.” Yes, I understand that the roads are surrounded by mountains and cliffs on either side. But if a rock falls down on your car, the bottom line is that nothing could be done about it. And being a wary driver wouldn’t help the matter—even if you were to see the rock falling, there’s no way you could get out of its way fast enough!

A few months ago, I was driving on a two-lane main street near my home. The car next to me swerved onto the shoulder, and I saw some pebbles fly up from behind that car’s rear left wheel. One second later, one of those pebbles hit my windshield and made a tiny crack in it. There was no way that I could do anything about that tiny pebble, so how on earth would I be able to do anything about a large rock falling from a cliff???

Any suggestions or logical reasons for this would be greatly appreciated.

A Thousand Miles

Over the eleven days ending Wednesday night, we'd driven over a thousand miles at night*, taken down and then put back up bamboo sticks that held some raccoon droppings and a couple ant colonies, decorated a sukkah [hut], undecorated and dismantled another, had five days where no work could be done but much eating and walking was, watched a Presidential debate (pretty decent), a spoof of a debate (pretty funny), a football game (not so good), took Elianna bowling for the first time (44!), had some Shannon Road Ice Cream (awesome), attended a panel on Iran (pretty good), and listened to a couple panelists afterward (very good).

Seeing Elianna play with her cousins lets us see just how old, big, and mature she's gotten. Full sentences, a really clean grasp of what's going on, a sharp understanding of how to do things... it's amazing. Throw in how she is with Kayla (who enjoyed having a cousin her age around and is laughing like crazy at Elianna when she plays with her), and it's really something.

How was your Yom Tov?

* New York to Cleveland: 473 miles. Sat. night, 11:20pm-6:20am, Pobody's Nerfect in the front, Serach and the girls in the back, twice stopped for gas, once stopped for a cop [no ticket, just a warning].

Cleveland to Baltimore: 370 miles. Sat. night, 1:17am-6:45am, girl who needed a ride in front, Serach and the girls in the back, once stopped for gas.

Baltimore to New York: 206 miles. Wed. night, 11:12am - 2:15am. No stops.

Sheitel (and Tichel) Sales in Queens and Baltimore this Sunday

*sticky post* scroll down for the latest; hit expand to see post

This Sunday, September 14th, there will be two sheitel (wig) sales in the Queens area for Michal Wigs. The times and locations are:

• 4:00-6:30pm 69-92 137th St., 2nd floor, Kew Gardens Hills, 11367
• 8:00-9:30pm 84-25 112th St., Kew Gardens, 11418
  

I believe Serach will be selling tichels (scarves) from her SerachScarves business at both.* Both sales are very easy to get to from anywhere nearby, such as Far Rockaway or the Five Towns.

From the ad:

MICHAL WIG SALE MICHAL WIGS SEMI ANNUAL SALE... Long piece (MID BACK/22 INCH) $575!!! Custom Wigs at Unaccustomed Prices, Michal Wigs features out of the box customs that are multi-directional, no knotting with a 6 month guarantee. Come join our list of satisfied customers! Hat falls $290, Falls $365-$415, Sheitels $475-$575. Sales will be on Sunday, September 14th. 430-630 PM at 69-92 137th St SECOND FLOOR, KEW GARDENS HILLS, NY 11367 and 8-930 PM at 84-25 112th St KEW GARDENS, NY 11418 Tichels will also be sold at both sales.

There is also a sheitl sale for Michal Wigs in Baltimore, 11am-1pm, at 3504 Slade Ave.

* She's been a bit low on inventory lately, as her supplier was out of a few types, but she got a few this week and should be getting a lot more in the next week. So, even if you don't see what you want there, you can always order on the website and she'll hopefully have them very soon. Note: She also has now a number of tichels that are not on the website. Feel free to e-mail her at info@serachscarves.com to ask her any questions.

Swinging in the Sun

I've long felt that one of the most relaxing, enjoyable, putting-one's-mind-at-ease things to do in the world is to get on a swing and just swing back and forth... back and forth.

We can all use a break now and then... sometime this morning, this blog will record its 300,000th hit, for which I am thankful to all of you readers and of course to the friends and family who contribute so much to this blog. I'm going to continue taking it easy until probably early next week in terms of blogging; for the time being, enjoy Serach & Elianna swinging in a nice little playground in Baltimore where we went with my parents, grandparents, and sister's family. And yes, that's my 62-year old dad in the background talking about going down the slide.

What I'm Busy With

• Celebrating good times with friends and family.
• Getting ready for this weekend's trip to Baltimore, by van, with grandparents, to... see directly above.
• Trying to figure out why our internet connection is so slow.
• Working on three fantasy football teams (two drafts completed). So far, so good.
• Trying to salvage my recently ignored fantasy baseball team. Hopefully it's not too little, too late.
  
• Getting my 2008 NFL Pool up, running, and more full. Why oh why does everyone always wait until the last second? Sigh. At least I've already gotten the money from a bunch of people.
  
• Selling my tickets to Sunday's season opener for the Cleveland Browns against the Dallas Cowboys. [Note to self: Steal Dad's tickets.]
  
• Celebrating Sarah Palin's nomination for Vice President.
• Actually doing important things that matter and do not involve sports (I know, rare, right?), most of which I can't or won't post on a public blog.
  

The Perfect III

Well, if everyone else is doing it...

While working at a job that made me a bit miserable (or a lot miserable), I found this car parked facing mine when I got to the parking lot on my way home from work one day.

I assigned it as the picture ID for the office and my boss's cell. Watching it flash when my co-workers and/or boss would call made life a little brighter :)

What About ALL Of Us?!

After spending the last couple of hours watching the latest Nefesh B'Nefesh flight (and occasionally commenting back and forth with Erachet, who relived Camp Moshava watching the goings-on), which included the best friends and neighbors of my sister and brother-in-law, I was a bit overwhelmed and posted at the Muqata:

We just spent the last two hours watching [also known as crying while watching] the latest NBN flight arrive, including my sister and brother-in-law's best friends and neighbors from Baltimore. Apparently my nieces cried the whole Sunday night... but they'll be using their webcam to stay in touch all the time.

A former co-worker of mine is going next month (maybe Jameel will help him pack!), too. Actually, our whole lives, close family and friends have been taking that leap and making Aliyah... if you're from Cleveland, you know what I'm talking about. Hopefully soon my sister's family will be able to fulfill their dreams and make Aliyah.

...and then us, too. Hopefully soon...

Wherever I am, my HEART turns towards Eretz Yisrael

We miss it sooo much.

Yeshivat Rambam Auction

In one of our favorite cities of Baltimore, MD, there is a wonderful Jewish day school called Yeshivat Rambam (with kids from Early Childhood through 12th grade). My sister has worked there for 6 years, has 2 kids enrolled, another starting next year, and really loves it - both for herself, but more importantly, her kids.

This year, on June 15th, from 6:00-9:00pm, they are holding their first auction in an effort to raise funds for the school, in addition to a very nice blood drive earlier in the day. They'll be having an auction for adults in the evening and a kids' centered auction (for little kids and teens) in the afternoon, which will also feature a magic show for the kids. This is the first time in Baltimore that they had an auction geared just for kids with prizes that they are interested in winning and are very low cost tickets ($2, $4, $6, $8, $10). The larger, regular auction also has low price tickets with the tickets ranging from $5 - $30 a ticket. It will be at the Park Heights JCC with great food in the evening: Sushi bar, potato bar and smoothies to name just a few.

If you're not in Baltimore, you can go online and order easily at www.bayitauction.org. The prizes are really impressive, with a lot of support from the Baltimore community in making this auction possible and open to people from everywhere to take part in and help support the school. One great supporter even started a Facebook page about it. The support and appreciation people have for the school is wonderful, and they now need more support to continue to grow and bring the school to an even higher level.

Here's more information about Yeshivat Rambam; and here is all the ordering info for tickets, including the discounts available the earlier you buy tickets online. And of course, here is a list of the frequently asked questions. If you're still looking for more information, you can contact Rambam directly:

Via Phone: 410-358-6091 x206
Via Email: questions@bayitauction.org

Finally, here's the link with all the info. Please support this very worthy institution, and have fun!

Matzah & Guns

If you can make sense of this, you can see how we spent a couple of our hours over the last days of Yom Tov. It was a lot of fun, and probably most interesting for us, since it was the first time I've ever really had a chance to shmooze with a number of the people there.

In addition, I ran into a whole bunch of other J-bloggers in different places, with the notable exception being our good friend G. I think Baltimore has the highest number of J-bloggers per capita, which is, in an odd way, an interesting strength of its community.

Please Help - Need Copy of The Baltimore Sun

A client of mine (who lives in California) was featured in an article from the "Health Today" section of The Baltimore Sun this past Thursday, 4/17/08. I was supposed to send her a copy of it, but a certain someone in my household didn't realize that I had set the newspaper aside for a specific purpose and, unfortunately, that person threw it out.

Therefore, if anyone still has a copy of this newspaper lying around, I would really appreciate it if you would let me know. Just send me an e-mail (jstein at bookendsconsulting dot com) or call me on my cell, 410.935.5337, and I'll come pick it up from you.

(Yes, I do know that I may order a copy directly from The Baltimore Sun, but that would take a few days and cost $$, so I'd like to see if anyone has a copy for me first before going that route.)

Thanks so much!

stam a post

Ezzie: post the story
Stam: why
Ezzie: why not? duh.

Wednesday, March 26th


Early this morning, i grabbed my coffee, abnormally large bag, outgoing
mail, and keys and left my apartment. I got to my car and unlocked it, threw in
my bag, sat down, put my coffee in the cup holder, mail on the dashboard, and
the keys in the ignition. Then i looked down.

Unexplainably, my skirt was dirty. I guess these things can go
unnoticed when you're getting dressed in the dark at 6:30 in the morning.
Frustrated and running late, i climbed out of the car and ran back up the front
steps. Something caught my eye.

Laying on the ground next to my neighbors Acura (why she drives an
acura and lives in my building i'll never know) was a bright green 'alligator
skin' wallet. I opened it up to check if it belonged to the girl next door. Out
of state address, don't we all have one? I checked the picture, but I've never
really seen the neighbors. My husband and I have no idea what her name is. My
husband has seen her coming and going to dance class, and she once asked for
help with her car. To us she is just "Dancer Girl".

We also have "Smokey Smokerson" (smokes in the building), "Crazy Paranoid
Guy" from downstairs who now lives in our walls (that's another story) and was
recently replaced by "Temple Convert" (he heard our zemiros one week and told us
he's converting through the Temple across the street), "The 4AM-ers" upstairs
(one of them always wakes up at four in the morning, walks around, and makes
coffee. We hear the spoon stirring. I don't know why. We hear coughing and
people blowing their noses also!), Lady with a Cat (the hair is everywhere,
including the laundry room*), and the Dumb Barking Dog (scares the daylights out
of me everytime i pass their door). Of course Cat, Dog, and Smoker could be
other people too, or the same person. Like i said, we never see these
people.

Anyway, I ran into the building with the wallet and into my apartment. My
husband heard me come in and came to see why I was back. I asked if he knew what
DG's name was, and he had no idea. I handed him the wallet and asked if that's
what she looked like, and he said it was her (pre-blonde, apparently). I found a
clean skirt and went to return the wallet.

What's the point? I don't know.

Maybe that it just goes to show what a small town place this is. In
previous cities i've lived in, you couldn't leave as much as a slurpee in a
*locked* car without a window getting smashed. Here a wallet can sit on the
ground all night and won't get touched. Or that in a place like Pickwick we'd
know everyone in our building and who the wallet belonged to, but here we have
to give the neighbors nicknames instead.

Maybe that was the reason that my skirt was unexplainably dirty. So i'd
have to go back inside, notice the wallet and return it to the owner.

Maybe by returning her wallet we left a good impression on her. Score
one for the Jews.

Maybe I felt like writing.

*yes, communal laundry room, this ain't
pickwick.

posted by stam :)

Justice?

(via Diana) Either way, oy.

What's in There & Woo!

Mazel tov to our longtime family friends on the engagement of their daughter "C!" whose l'chaim we are about to attend! Woo! (Finally!!)

And check out my niece Dassi's wonderful comment to me from earlier tonight. :P