Yesterday was a Great Day All Around

Walking down Fifth after leaving the offive for the day, I noticed a familiar head of hair bobing up and down ahead of me. Could it be, I thought, could it actually be Professor Benjamin? I took her for Jewish American Literature and Multi-Cultural American Lit and really loved her. She did this thing where she'd meet with each student individually in her offive to discuss what kind of paper they wanted to write (for Multi-Cult. we were allowed to write an informal essay about anything we wanted as long as we could relate it to something we learned or a piece by a writer we read). Her office was small and cozy, illuminated by just a couple of lamps. We didn't have much to discuss because she already knew me from Jewish-American Lit. (which I LOVED) but still, she was incredible.
I checked out her face out of the corner of my eye to confirm that it was her. It was. As I was about to turn to say hello, the little boy whose hand she was holding said, "Grandma, Grandma!"
"Yes?"
"In the winter, it gets very cold and then when it's wet in the sky it gets too cold so it becomes snow."
They were walking so slowly and deliberately, one of her hands holding his and her other holding his tiny backpack, that I couldn't interrupt. It was just too cute. Well, she's more dignified than cute, but her gorgeous grandson made up enough cuteness for everything. Also, I always wonder about older people and hope they don't live alone and even if she doesn't live with her grandchildren, at least she has (ADORABLE!) family. I just thought of a much better way of writing this but I haven't written in forever so excuse me.

Ice Cream Soup

So get this--I don't do poetry. But I'm taking this poetry course hoping that I'll break out of that and find a hidden ability buried deep in my writing skills. No such luck so far, but I did write this for class and I like it. Have a great Shabbos.

1988
late afternoon
on a breezy May day
mommy and me
the house to ourselves
at my feet--my open knapsack
leftover potato chip crumbs
oiling the bottom
shiny tile floor
and light wallpaper
this is my white and pink house
my 932 East 28th Street
between I and J
this is my mother,
her funny round belly
surrounding my new baby.
we sit at the kitchen table
mommy and me
she smiles
I smile back
between spoonfuls of cookies 'n cream
she asks, "How was your day?
What did you learn?"
and takes a sip
of her afternoon coffee
I say, "Blah, blah, blah"
and take another gulp
of what is fast becoming
ice cream soup
my mother tightens her lips,
opens her eyes,
moves her face in close--
and like a small animal sensing a stampede,
I know a tickle attack is coming.
closing my eyes and squirming in my seat
I laugh before her wiggling fingers get to me
this is my mommy and me
this is a cookie bit
in my vanilla cream life.

This Day is Bananas! B A N A N A S!

I have so much to say recently that my writing abilities shut down. Oddly, I started this so that even when I'd have too much to get down I'd be able to. So I'm going to free-write rant this one. Without going into detail, someone I know got suspended from school for a day for hurting another kid in his class' feelings. In addition to that, the kid with the hurt feelings punched another kid and gave him a bloody nose, but he wasn't even asked to apologize. Which is what the kid who hurt his feelings should have been asked to do instead of being suspended. Sounds ridiculous enough to not believe, doesn't it? But it is true. And I've been obsessed with this story since it happened because if the suspended kid wouldn't have parents as great as he has, I'd be giving him a few years before he learns how to add up the hypocrisies and goes "off the derech" as they say. What does it take to get qualified educators to run yeshivot? In addition to that, now the kid who punched the other kid knows that if anything happens to him, all he has to do is run to the Principal's office and tattle and the kid who hurt him will get into big, fat trouble. And no one likes a tattle-tale, so he'll be even less tolerable to his classmates than he was beforehand. Basically, this solution solved nothing at all and aggravated more than it should have. Speaking of tattlers, there's a certain unspoken alliance peers have and once someone goes to an authority figure and tells, they lose the respect and trust of the others. Which happened to me once and I'm still not really fully able to trust the girl who did it. Weird how trust works. Saturday night at about 3:30am, two cars crashed on my cousin's corner. We opened her roommate's window (I was using her roommate's bed) as far as we could and leaned out to see what had happened. There had been at least two people in each car and they were all shouting at each other. We felt bad for them and discussed calling the cops (they were seriously loud) but decided it wasn't necessary unless they started fighting and Zahava started to get off the bed but toppled down and fell off the bed on the side where her roommate keeps a stack of containers with hair accessories and such and it was hilarious, but she got very hurt. We sat on her bed with ice on her bump talking about the weekend when we heard, "Your ankle hurts? HURTS? YOU WALKED ALL THE WAY OVER HERE WITH IT HURTING? I WORK IN THE HOSPITAL AND I..."

Happy Two Year Anniversary!

It occurred to me at some point today that I completely missed Cinnamon Rugelach and Other Junk's two year anniversary. After looking through my archives to see if I commemorated its first anniversary last year, I noticed that last year I missed it too and posted a special index of my favorite posts from that year a few days late. I'm even later this year, but better that than never, I guess. (Which isn't really my fault, I'm just not big on giving significance to many days other than birthdays.)
I made an index of 22 posts that I liked because I'm turning 22 in 10 days. Just kidding. It happens to be that I just liked 22 of them. Some are long posts while some are short, some are about The Offive, some about my old car, some about the downfall of America, and some about my love for German words.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy whichever you choose to read.

Consensus is Probably Not Even the Right Word
Yes, That's a K.
Cars Can Get Really Dirty
I Need to Wear Braids
I Don't Do Social in the Morning
Oh, The Joys of Being Awesome
No...You Wake Her
You Say Tomato, I Say Potato
Except Of Course Medical Emergency
The Distance of the Sun to the Earth is Called an Astronomical Unit
Good-Bye America, said The Old Man
I Got These Old Walkin' Blues
I Do, However, Own a Yoga Mat
I'm From Here! I'm From new York!
No, We Do Not
THEY ARE SO DISGUSTING
Tomorrow I'm Going to School in Lederhosen
I Got Forty Red, White, and Blue Shoe Strings
I Swiveled My Ankle
That's Crazy.
Guten Morgen
I Would Have Had to Fill Something Out Because THERE COULD HAVE BEEN DRUGS...Which Might Have Been Why She Needed To Carry Food Around With Her, Too