Shanukah 2009

Next year:

7:30pm
June 19, 2010
Somewhere in Baltimore

Also and mostly...

Go green.

You all get that fundraising email from Obama and the DNC?

Instead of just deleting it, I unsubscribed with this message:

Get to work or GET LOST. You will get no more money from this "second class citizen," whose 15-year relationship your administration compares to an uncle marrying his niece. I'm organizing, all right, but I'm organizing to make you KEEP your promises to LGBT Americans.

We've been used as political pawns for so long - I don't know why it still hurts so much.

Keeping flowers...

I haven't been that good at planting a cutting garden. In fact, I didn't consider it at all when I picked out potentials at the nursery.

But, even so, there are interesting things to bring in for my desk -- never quite a typical bouquet, but lovely nonetheless.



Pictured here:
Two of the three types of roses in the rose hedge
Coral Bells
A giant tripartite leaf of Jack in the Pulpit, which grows wild in the shady garden areas. It took me years to figure out what I was looking at, since most of the Jack in the Pulpit leaves I'd seen in the woods were about 1.5 inches or so. But, this Jack is high on compost - leaves are about 9-10 inches each.

Something amazing...

What's amazing is not that this shit existed - and existed as recently as the 1970s.

What's really amazing is that in the course of a few decades, our mothers remade the world for us.

Thanks, mom.

35 Things on a 35th Birthday

1. I am officially in my mid-thirties.

2. Things are pretty damn good.

3. I am also pretty damn tired.

4. I have, like, the cutest nephew ever.

5. I need a vacation of some sort.

6. I have recently discovered the wonder of the eliptical machine - I go for about an hour, as many times a week as I can manage, and time my sessions so I can watch "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

7. I have also been known to spend my hour watching the Ann Arbor Planning Commission meetings.

8. These meetings often infuriate me so much I scream out loud and point.

9. I have pointed so hard I almost fell off the machine.

10. Also, around minute 45, I begin to develop a line of chafing at the very edge of my butt cheeks.

11. So, I lube up before my work out - yes, that's right...lubricated butt cheeks.

12. I have a long, long slog of a summer before me.

13. I have five incompletes that I need to finish before the end of July.

14. These incompletes have made my advisor very, very nervous. Me? Not so much.

15. In the past year, I have been diagnosed with both Depression and ADHD. I have taken medication for both.

16. Turns out, some drugs are good drugs and some drugs are bad drugs.

17. ADHD medication is a good drug.

18. I have slowly come to feel that I would be very, very happy staying snugly in the Ivory Tower of academia.

19. In the past year, I lost my sweet/mean bunny.

20. I miss him more than I thought you could miss something that weighed 900 Grams.

21. When we settle again, Alexis will allow me to fulfill my dream of having a bonded pair of Welsh Giant rabbits. They are about 15 pounds each.

22. We are moving to Baltimore. Did you know?

23. I am so unbelievably excited to be moving back to the East Coast.

24. Baltimore is a cool, rag-tag kinda place, and I bet we could fall hard for the Charm City.

25. I'll be here all Fall semester - I'm TAing a course, so Alexis and I will be living some type of bachelor lifestyles.

26. My bachelor lifestyle will involve a lot of writing, a lot of pinball, and a lot of accordion.

27. In the past year (as of August, really), I have taken up accordion.

28. I had always enjoyed the accordion, but I LOVE it now that I'm playing it.

29. When I first began playing, I had a strange familiarity with the spatial relations of the keys, so much so that my teacher asked if I had played before.

30. I think I must have played accordion in a past life.

31. I'll be playing an accordion duet in the Winter concert at my music school - me and a bunch of twelve year olds.

32. I can't WAIT for KlezKanada this year. I'm actually going to be able to play stuff, and I can't wait to hang out and play with my accordion buddy.

33. Speaking of buddies - I am excited about moving, but am HEARTBROKEN about leaving some of my friends here. I am going to miss Carole so much, it'll be like losing a finger. And what'll we do without Mir and Lisa (though, they're officially leaving us first, so I take less responsibility for the break up).

34. I grow more and more grateful for my family - my incredible mom, my lovely dad, and my sisters who I love and miss so much it's actually making me cry as I write this.

35. I also grow more and more grateful for my partner and partnership. As time passes, I become more aware of the treasure I hold - and it in turn becomes more and more precious to me. I can't believe I'm so lucky. How did I get so lucky?

This is what 35 looks like:

Funny things your advisor says to you:

"Is there something wrong with your back?"

He says pointing to the wide belt you've fastened around an open cardigan, a la Michelle Obama.

"Oh, sorry, it's a very nice belt!"

Orange you glad?

Three hours of sleep in as many days, but went to Pavel's to celebrate the re-opening of his studio.

While there, I tried a few songs on a little girl's Acmette.


Cute, but broken and the straps were so tiny! I'm hunched over because I can't wear it (so I hold it still with my chin while I play).


Me and Pavel, my snarky, rude, hysterical, ridiculous, amazing accordion teacher. Man, I just love this guy...to think, when I first saw his name I figured I'd be working with some 92-year-old Polish guy in a polyester suit from his glory days on the Polka circuit. Shows what I know!


I'm so freaked out about losing him that I'm upping my lessons to twice a week for the summer. I came to learn the accordion, but I stay for the well-crafted insults.

Sultry Bulgarian. Angry Jew.

Detritus

3 days,
3 hours of sleep,
14 boxes of raspberries.