highrise living for a joke like me

Heh, sorry about the April Fools' Day joke, all. I don't usually do that kind of thing, but starkravingsane leaned on me, and it was just too good to pass up. That being said, I really do appreciate the well-wishes for my non-existent baby. :)

Seder with the friends of the family last night was horrible. The food wasn't very good, and I actually came back to the dorm hungry, believe it or not. Tonight it's just the family, so it should be much better. Potato kugel and meringues (that I made) and matzah balls the size of your head, oh my!

April is National Poetry Month, and I'm going to use it to complete 008 on my Mission 101 list. I'll be posting two poems today and tomorrow, and then one a day through April and into the beginning of May.

First, one of my personal favorite. I love Frost, and this poem really makes me happy.

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Today's second poem will go up later today.

Wow, it's been ages since I posted something of substance.

Break is, sadly, over, but fun while it lasted. Spent a good part of it setting up the new laptop (hereby called Fifth*) after moving everything onto it from the old one (hereby called Harlan*). Vista is evil, but I can deal, and so far it's doing what I want. Harlan presumably got mailed back to the mothership today, and they should be giving us money back. And then I'm paying for the rest...so my mother will stop trying to take the poor thing away. :(

Rest of break was spent doing tea with Mum, visiting the Folger with Da, and pestering the brat. Tea = awesome, Folger = slightly disappointing, brat = the usual. Wish break had been longer, I guess, but more time at home would have been deadly.

Interesting thing on Sunday, though, before I went back to school. Evil shul has commissioned three new Torah scrolls, since the ones they have are apparently no longer kosher because they're faded and falling apart. The first two scrolls were paid for by individual families, but the third is being paid for by the whole congregation, $18** a letter. And, because mitzvah*** 613 (the last one, natch) is to create a Torah, the scribe is coming to the shul a couple of days so that everyone can trace the letters they bought into the scroll, thus letting us complete said miztvah. Family bought two letters, and we went to the shul on Sunday to write them in. It was kind of cool, actually. Da took lots of pictures, naturally (for his class :P).

And now, some amusing things!

( Sinfest from a few weeks back )

Fun metaquotes about dorm life and rules geeks should follow.

Oh, and there was fic, too (and it's original fic!):

written for the Slashers Dionysia 2007, under the category of satyr play.

This fic includes an f/f relationship and my usual brand of fast-and-loose mythology (of the Greek kind only this time). You don't like, don't read. You've been warned.

Thanks to triannamaxwell and velvetcherri for the beta.

“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before,” Eros bitched, right wing twitching idly.

(Galatea | PG-13 | 1300 words | complete)

Feedback is better than chocolate.

* 2 geek points if you get one of those references, 4 if you get both, 10 if you can guess the name of my iPod based on the two names you've been given
** 18 is a significant number in Judaism, as well as multiples of it; each Hebrew letter has a numerical value assigned, and the letters that spell 18 spell read "life" when read as a word
*** a good deed; there are 613 listed in the Torah (Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)

Wow, I should come with subtitles.

Well, that went better than expected. You all know my dislike for rehashing tests, so I'm not going to natter on about it now.

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday. Having dinner with three Catholics on Shrove Tuesday? Really amusing.

Goal for today: one of the two picfor1000 stories. Cheer me on!

Oh, and I want one of these. So awesome!

Totally loving FreeMind. It's really making it easier to map out An Apple a Day. I've got days 2 and 20 totally planned, 3-4 and 19 mostly planned, and an amorphous blob in the middle. I've really got to decide which prompts go in which order.

Work Christmas party was...interesting. It seems like getting drunk and being stupid isn't just a college party thing (note: 80% of us were 17-25, so it's still sorta college in some ways). Being the only sober one is both amusing and awful. That's all I really need to say about that.

Hanukkah haul (speaking of holidays) has been amusing so far: a Cadbury Aero-type bar the first night, a sweatshirt (Schrodinger's Cat, Wanted: Quantum Indeterminacy, Dead or Alive) the second, and a plaque that says "Beyond this point there be dragons" on the third. We didn't light candles tonight, so no gifts, but that's fine. Da's trading the sweatshirt for a smaller one since it was much too big (I've never been a large in my life) and the plaque is totally going up in the dorm.

Speaking of Hanukkah, do any of you goyishe types want one of my totally blasphemous but totally true retellings?

Um, I think I had other things in mind to mention, but I'm just going to post meme things instead.

( two under the cut )

Ugh, coding html makes me dizzy.

I am so glad I'm done with the double-dose Tenormin. Sleeping 12+ hours a day and still being sleepy really sucks. Two days and counting.

ResLife really fucked up this time: they updated the list, but didn't acknowledge that I had submitted a housing agreement in November. I sent them a starchy e-mail, but I'm not expecting a response any time soon. Dumb bastards.

Concert was very good. Mum and I had fun, even though she was on a college kick. I just ignored it, wisely, and she let it go. She's such a stereotypical bully.

And yes, I did post fic last night, I'm just too braindead to do the code to post them here and all the other places they need to go. I'll do it tomorrow. You can go over to the writing journal if you want to see it beforehand.

Oh, and this is yesterday's news, but Conservative Judaism has decided that same-sex marriages are ok, at the individual rabbi's perogative, of course. They're also going to start ordaining gay/lesbian rabbis. Of course, it's more complicated, but that's the gist of it. Article is here, but ( I'm archiving it here, as well. )

Am also amused by this related post on metaquotes:

So gay guys can have all the boy-on-boy blowjobs they want to, and if I'm not mistaken, rimming and fisting are A-OK as well. But anal sex is a no-no. Well, you know, that does have its own interior logic. Sorta. (Lesbians, as usual, are ignored. I can picture the conversation the panel had: "Hey. Psssst.. Do you know what lesbians do in bed?" "...No. How about you? Do you know?" "No clue. Anyone?" ::silence falls:: "Well, you know, Leviticus doesn't say anything about women lying with women anyway... so... uh... okay!") ~ slammerkinbabe

So very true. No one has a clue what to do with lesbians. Alright, done now.

So Mum and the brat are diseased, so they didn't go to shul. And Da and I are a-religious at the best of times, but we've got ushing duty, so we went over there for about two hours, and then went out for breakfast and talking about school and things. It felt delightfully blasphemous to eat ham and cheese bagel sandwiches on Yom Kippur, which is a fast day.

More real postage later.

...but Rosh Hashanah (and year 5767) began Friday at sundown. I'm not going to services tomorrow, and I'm too whatevered to write something new, so I'll just recopy what I posted for Rosh Hashanah last year.

Continuing on a Jewish vein, I'm going to have a moment of religious thought: to all who read this, please forgive me for any cruel/thoughtless/rude I have done to you during the past year. According to Jewish law, the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are to be spent in reflection over the past year, including tying up any loose ends and making amends for mistakes made. We're supposed to ask people for forgivness for anything we might have done to them and if they refuse three times, we are forgiven by God because we've made an effort. I don't really believe that God is sitting up there keeping track, but I'd like to know that I've been forgiven for stupid things I've done, rather than letting them fester. I'd like to know if you have forgiven me, but it's not a huge deal, as long as you have.

(Also, to my Muslim friends, happy beginning of Ramadan, I suppose. For Jewish fast days, we wish each other an "easy fast", so I send that sentiment to those of you observing.)

Happy autumn, everyone. Let the Christmas shopping begin!

Family gave away 8 bags of clothes to NAMI, so you can almost navigate the upstairs landing now. I still walk into the bags of toys when I go to the bathroom at 3a, but at least I don't walk into the bags of shorts on the way back.

Mum and Da will be home cooking tomorrow, so I'll hopefully be able to hide upstairs and clean things instead. Blech, either way. Though the house smelling like chicken soup all day will be nice.

Mum thinks she saw two managerial types at my branch of the Yuppie Temple today. Are they firing my boss? Oh, I hope so.

Most importantly, though, I think I'll be starting the process to apply for readmission soon. I'm ready to go back!

And a bit of local humor, ( thought I should share with those of you who've escaped. )

And now, to write!

Went to neighbor's confirmation (read: graduation from Hebrew high school, the post-b'nai mitzvah classes) this morning. Service was some four hours long, and very strange. Note: the girl and her family go to a very Reform shul. ( This rant has been cut because very few of you much care about Jewish theology and cultural study, and it's going to be a bit long. Feel free to read if it interests you at all; it should be intelligible to you goyishe types. )

Please note that the above rant is not against the Reform movement, or Judaism itself, but rather my own personal thoughts about the service, in comparison to the way I was raised, which was in a backwards, old-fashioned synagogue that was much more Orthodox than either my or my 'rents' beliefs (let me again remind you that I was the first woman to carry a Torah scroll during services only six years ago, I was not allowed to read Torah at my bat mitzvah, and women are still not allowed to read Torah). I'm slightly confused at how much my mother liked the service, as (politically and socially) conservative as she is; I think she's looking for another shul now that Evan's bar mitzvah, and I shudder to think that she's considering there. A more Reform shul would be fantastic, but not one with a tenor hazzan, an aggressively soprano "songleader", and guitars on the bimah. Thankfully, Temple Shalom is far from the only Reform shul in MoCo.

Totally unrelated, I hooked up the hard drive yesterday, and it works like a charm. I've already moved all the Stargate episodes to it, and the older school work I'm keeping on file, and will probably be backing up much of my writing on it. *pets it*

Worked on bar for four of the five hours of my shift last night, all by myself, during two rushes, including the closing rush, so each serving of milk had to be steamed and foamed individually. Shit, that's tiring. It's also proof that I'm insane; it was nerve-wracking and I loved it. Last night's Good Customer Award goes to the motorcycle-riding gent who, after his drink was miscalled, told me to go ahead and remake his drink last, he had plenty of time. It was such a simple thing, but it was so helpful. I was mildly annoyed at the lady who ordered the macchiatto (espresso shots poured over a cup of foam; not a caramel macchiatto, which is espresso shots poured over a cup of milk containing an inch-thick layer of foam on top, so the shots form an almost heart-shaped hole in the foam, and caramel sauce in quantity on top) and then got pissy at me when the drink was not made quickly, despite the backlog of almost 20 drinks, especially when I had to check how to make the drink, since macchiattos are not often ordered. She was a little nicer when I rebrewed her espresso shots and made the drink as she watched, but it was a little thoughtless of her. I work eight hours tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be bar-certified soon.

Bat mitzvah was fun, as these things usually are. Bat mitzvah girl not a singer, but she did alright anyway. Party was loads of fun. I got placed at the "older than b'nai mitzvah but not a grown-up" table and wound up seated between two cousins, a pretty high school junior who kept dragging me off to the dance floor, and one of the Aussies. Had a *facepalm* moment when I asked what year the latter was in and he told me he was 25 and a school teacher. Oh, well. Mom told me to ask him to dance in apology, but she's nuts.

Finally picked up the carpet and 'fridge from the (evil) ex-roommate (from hell) on Monday. Pick-up went down without a hitch; she was entertainingly civil, but I think that was partially because she was finally going to be rid of me and partially because Da was trying to be threatening. He mostly manages it when he wears his sunglasses and growls a bit; he just needed his leather jacket.

Grand'rents are in town, on their semiannual visit as they snowbird, this time north for the summer. Grandmum chatted my ear off this morning about politics and news about all her neighbors in her apartment building in the Bronx and all kinds of other stuff. The grand'rents really want me to learn how to drive; they plan on giving me their car (silver Sable, only a couple years old) at some point. Mum is not happy about this, of course, but it's hella incentive to finally learn. I guess it's nice having them around, but I think a week is a bit much.

Went to the brat's band concert tonight. They perform at some competition thing in Pittsburg this weekend, so Mum and Da are frantically trying to figure out how to pack a tuxedo and a broad-shouldered marching band uniform (up, Gladiators!) into the smallest possible suitcase, while still allowing it to be something the brat can repack himself. The performances, by concert band, orchestra, and jazz band, were so-so: the jazz band was very good (though I wanted to shoot the bassist) and the concert band was ok, but the orchestra was awful. Part and parcel of having a violin:everthing else ratio of almost 2:1, but that's grade school ensembles for you, esp. at a school with only two grades in it.

There's an original ficathon I'm considering getting involved in. Sign-ups end on Friday, assignments go out a week after, and it's due the end of June. I'm currently involved in three fanficathons, one with one longish story due 6 June, two more with a drabble or flopsy due each week for the next five and seven, respectively. Should I do it?

( Meme: Twelve Fictional Characters I Would Shag )