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.

I Still Lost with 332 Points

I scored 123 points in Scrabble with the word "equator." That's right, folks, I am a genius. Q on the triple letter score, the whole word on a double word score, and using every single letter I had on my rack equals 123 points. I'm also a nerd.

Calm! I'm Calm! I'm Always Calm!

The guy who works at the garage came around to the driver's side to give me my ticket.
"I'll be here around 5:30," I said.
"Okay...what's your name?"
"Dina."
"Are you always calm like this? You're always so calm."
I smiled.
"Well, it's the morning...calm's the best way to start your day."
He laughed and got into my car as I walked outside to buy a coffee.

I Finished 0-4

We had an Arm Wrestling Tournament over Shabbos. In the first round, my brother Ari beat my sister 2-0 and Josh beat her 1-0. For the second round, Ari changed the rules to: "if I get your arm down in under two seconds, you have to use two hands." After beating me in under one second, he beat me again even though I used both hands. Josh beat me too.
The standings were: Ari: 4-0, Josh: 2-0, Dasa: 0-3, Dina: 0-3 (I know that seems inconsistent, but bear with me).
It was time for the final round: Dasa vs. Dina.
The crowd gathered around the corner of the kitchen table, ready to see if our claim that Das is really strong was true. The wrestle started and when both arms were still up after two seconds, it appeared that I might have had a chance at winning. At three seconds, Das had my arm 45* from the table and when I realized she was winning, I started to scream. This happened about the same time she realized she was winning, and started to scream. She got my arm down on the table to a duet of, "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" and when we were done and laughing, my brothers had nothing to say but, "wow."

Did You Know the Song "Levon" is Named After Levon Helms?

I realized I was up when I realized the light was coming from the hallway light I left on before going to sleep. I realized it was 3-something am when I realized I didn't know why I was up. And let me tell you--of all the nights to not sleep, this is quite a surprise for me. I did a ridiculous amount of relaxing things today (yoga class, pedicure, etc.). But no. No, I can't sleep. After fighting reality for twenty minutes, I started coming up with ideas. Perhaps the air conditioner is too loud and I keep waking up when it goes into power save cycles. Lower went the air conditioner setting. Perhaps I need music to calm me. I put my ipod on and found myself having thoughts such as, "you sing it, Elton!" Clearly, I was well beyond the hope of intervention. Plus, every time he says, "frozen here on the ladder of my life" I laugh. Something having to do with frozen hairs on a ladder...long story.
On another vaguely related note, I'm experiencing sharp hunger pains. But it's 4 am and I'm not eating now. Why can't a 9 pm falafel tide me over at least until morning? I'll just have to sit these pains out.
So this morning, a woman wheeling a double stroller nearly ran me over. I know they're hard to handle, but seriously, I was walking in a straight line at an 8:15 am pace (read: slow). Really, that was my first thought. My second thought was more along the lines of, "how did I miss a double stroller barreling across the park directly across my path?" and then I felt bad. Later when I was walking down 5th I sneezed. The only person who offered her blessing was a woman wheeling her toddler in a stroller. So you see? Moms are awesome.
In other news, I'm never going to rid my habit of walking in on people in the bathroom at work until said people learn to use the little lock. You're not the only one privy to knowing the code to get into the women's bathroom. Hence, the little lock. I'd love it if you could please lock me out when you go in there.
It has now officially been an hour since I woke up for good this morning. It wasn't all that great a sleep to begin with and I'm starting to fantasize about ice cream sandwiches. But I hate eating in the middle of my sleep; it's so disruptive. Remember when Steve used 78 semi-colons in one paper and got a C for making the teacher laugh?
I wanna have a baby.

What Can I Say?

Sometimes, you get a song stuck in your head. You sing it walking down the street. You sing it when you're alone. You even find yourself singing it when other songs are playing on the radio. A sad situation, yes, but not as sad as when you get just a line or two of a song stuck in your head. Then it's "you told me good-bye, how was I to know you didn't mean good-bye, you meant please don't let me go? I was having a high time, living the good life" all day long. Even more unfortunate, if you can stand to hear this, is when you get a word stuck in your head. Over and over the word twirls around your mind dancing with different meanings that you're not sure but think it could possibly work with. Then it settles on your tongue and you find yourself mouthing the word 3600 times an hour.
The last time I was afflicted with single word lodging was when I was doing a two-hour drive home from New Jersey. Gubernatorial somehow popped into my brain and I couldn't figure out what it meant. The more I mouthed it the more I realized how poppy and exciting it was to say. Gubernatorial stuck. Luckily, that was only a two hour affair--something I can't say about today's word.
Today's word was Schlumberger. Schlumberger Limited, the oilfield service company. You see, one Friday about a month ago, I traded some Schlumberger. That night my grandfather mentioned the company. Only, he pronounced the French owned and operated company "Schlumber-jhay," a far-cry from my American-sounding pronunciation: Schlumberger. And so all today whenever I had a free moment to think or wonder or daydream, all my brain would produce was, "Schlumberger, Schlumber-jhay, Schlumber-jhay? Schlumber-jhay...Schlumberger!" Etc.
It's been a long day.

Cafe au lait avec glace?

This past week I went to London and Paris and had a number of fun language experiences. However, the best language experience was the one waiting for me when I got home. There, sitting on the kitchen counter were some signs my brother made to welcome all of us home (he was the only one around this week).
One sign read:

Cheerio, mite

and another read:

bon sowr (boon swah)
and
madam, madam roselle (or something like that)

I love them.

Rainy Day Adventures Vol. 2

This morning I had one of those rare moments when you do something so embarrassing you can't help but not be embarrassed. Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about because you definitely do. In a move to trump stepping straight out of my shoe last week when it was rainy, I stepped directly on someone else's shoe--not someone else's foot--someone else's shoes. You see, after putting my coffee down on the counter, I tried explaining to the woman that I was also going to get a water, a sports bottle, a sport water, a water, she wasn't getting it. So I left my coffee on the counter and just went to get the water. When I came back, I placed my water on the counter (which was now crowded by two other people) and my foot on something squishy.
"That's my shoe," the man next to me said.
I looked down and sure enough, there was his flip-flop in all its lonesome glory and his naked foot hovering somewhere between 5 and 6 inches above it. With a look of wide-eyed alarm, I stared at him not knowing what to do or say. Why wasn't his shoe on? Did he see my foot inching closer and immediately slide out of his shoe to avoid my stomp? Did he slide out of his shoe because it was too wet to hold his foot like I had done only a week ago? Did he take his foot out of his flip-flop to scratch his other leg with his toes? The questions were just burning inside of me. And then my mouth opened and an overly apologetic, urgently pleading voice came out a tad too loud shouting, "I'm so sorry. SO, SO sorry!"
When I realized how exaggerated my reaction was and how calmly he just looked at me, we both started laughing and he told me it was fine.
I think I should rename the blog Rainy Day Adventures with Dina.

Ooh, Ooh, Can I Be Rainy Day Woman #35?

The rain was coming down hard but I didn't really mind because I had an umbrella. It would have been nice to be in rain boots, but I left those at home and had to make do with what I had at the apartment. Plus, we always used jellies for the pool so it wasn't that bad. And they could be washed off and dried, something I planned to do as soon as I'd get to the offive. Nearing the offive, I crossed the street. This was a careful one step at a time kind of day because the rain kept making the inside of my jellies slippery. I wasn't at risk of slipping on the sidewalk; I was at risk of slipping clear out of my shoes. Which I did when trying to get from the street onto the sidewalk. Putting one foot firmly on the sidewalk, I lifted the other and realized the ease with which it happened was too smooth. My shoe was still sitting in the puddle that gathered against the wall of the sidewalk. I turned around to get a better look at the situation and found myself making straight eye contact with a very attractive laughing 20-something guy. He was standing in the street about a foot behind my swimming shoe waiting for me to figure out what to do. I leaned down and slipped my foot into the shoe, still keeping eye-contact. (No really, he was very cute.)
"Well, at least your shoes are plastic!"
"That's why I've got them!" I said and walked down the rest of the block wondering why at 22 I still can't make myself seem cool.

Incredible.

Today, July 16th, 2007 at 11:53 AM I fell in love. Mark that date down in your calendars because I will be accepting anniversary gifts for our 3rd month, 1 yr., and 5 yr. anniversaries. With whom did I fall in love, you ask? How did it happen, you want to know? Can I tell you everything including the juicy details?!!? Ask no more, my fellow friends, ask no more.
I was doing nothing more than my average everyday doings on this balmy Monday morning. There I was, just sitting quietly at my desk, keeping an eye on my charts and reading the paper online when I first laid eyes on him. Crisp and clean in black on white. German in origin. 13 letters long. Simply wonderful in sound. I'd keep this love private but for my immense generosity so now join me in the following exercise. First, say "shah" as in sha-la-la. Next, add a "d" sound. Shahd. In. Say, "in." Shahd-in. Now make your lips into a circle and say, "froi." Froi. Shahd-in-froi. Can you say "duh?" Shahd-in-froi-duh. Once you've got that, add a slight German lilt. Schadenfreude!
Dare I say it's better than lederhosen?