Pesach 2008

I'd like to say that I haven't posted since I've been too busy scrubbing my house for Pesach and being insane like I usually am at this time of year. That, however, would be a lie. I am THRILLED to say that we are closing our house and going away for ALL of Pesach (eat your heart out)! We are going to New York/New Jersey for the very looonnnngggg chag (and 2 sedarim - ugh). We will start out at my friend Melissa in NJ since my Brooklyn relatives did not want me and we love spending time with Melissa and family (I've known her and her husband since high school and that's a long time!). We have convinced my family to endure us for the second days so we will spend some time in the holy land of Flatbush. Arthur has once again managed to organize things so he will not fly with us to NY or back home to California. Since he has to work on Thursday, he'll come on Friday morning and immediately afterwards he going to North Carolina for work.
I'm trying to keep on top of my schoolwork, especially since I still have assignments due and final projects as the semester winds down. It's a bit stressful.
Other than that, nothing too exciting to share at the moment. We don't have summer plans yet so you'll have to keep reading to find out what we're doing.
So to all our friends and family (and anyone else doing me the honor of reading my blog) wishing you a chag kasher ve'sameach! To those of you in Israel, I'm insanely jealous of you since you have only one seder and a 2 day chag as opposed to a 3 day chag. To those of you in galut, misery loves company.
And for all, check out this entertaining video: are you smarter than a 10 year old: Pesach edition.

A time to weep and a time to laugh

I posted last week after the pigua in Merkaz Harav that I had wanted to post some funny videos by Billy Ray Sheet telling the story of Purim. Well, I wanted to wait for the shiva to be over and although life is certainly not back to normal for the wounded and families of the victims, as Kohelet says, to everything there is a season, and the season of Adar is for happiness.
The Ballad of Purim chapters 1-2

The Ballad of Purim chapters 3-4

The Ballad of Purim chapters 5-6

The Ballad of Purim chapters 7-10

Intersecting worlds

Since I am going to school for a degree in library and information science, I read many blogs related to libraries and web 2.0, along with all the other blogs in my blogroll. Sometimes, out of nowhere, your disparate worlds seem to collide. The American Library Association posted about the massacre of the eight students at Merkaz Harav in Yerushalyaim because the attack took place in the library. Eight Students Killed at Jerusalem Religious School Library is a factual accounting of the events, no politicizing in any way.
I like the fact that perhaps people who aren't aware of what happenned are exposed to it. Will it change the way they think or feel? I don't know but at least they are reading about it.
In February the ALA posted about the arrest of Hamas suspects in the destruction of the library in Gaza.

Mishenichnas Adar...משנכנס אדר

For weeks, I've known what I was going to post for Rosh Chodesh Adar. Ever since Billy Ray Sheet left a message on my blog that he prepared 4 videos telling the story of Megillat Esther and I watched them and laughed and laughed, I just waited for Rosh Chodesh Adar to post them . After all, when Adar comes joy is increased - משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה.
And then, I saw the news that 2 terrorists entered Yeshivat Merkaz Harav in Yerushalayim, killed 8 students, and wounded 10 others. Seven of the dead are teenagers, ranging in age from 15-19; the oldest casualty was 26. Suddenly, I don't feel like laughing anymore.
For most of us, life will go on as usual. We'll rant for a while, complain about the uselessness of the government, shed a tear at the heartbreaking pictures of funerals and choke up when we hear the hespedim. But eventually we'll continue to live our lives because what else can we do? Life goes on. Except for those 8 families. And ten others in limbo.
I feel like anything I say will be trite but I just felt the need to reach out.
May we know better days than these.

So, what's new with you?

Wow, 3 posts in one day! What some people will do to avoid doing their schoolwork!

Seriously, though, haven't filled you in for a while so thought I'd whip up a quick post.

A week and a half ago was Presidents Day Weekend when Americans celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. Why only those 2 presidents? Or as someone in my office said, "Let's celebrate ALL the presidents' birthdays. Then we can start on the vice presidents." Well, apparently, it's still called Washington's Birthday, at least as far as the Federal government is concerned.

Anyway, we wanted to go away for the weekend - Arthur wanted to go to Northern California and I wanted to go to Los Angeles (you know me, always cold and looking for warmer places to be) but Maor vetoed both ideas. I believe her words were something like "I am NOT sitting in a car with you guys for 5 hours." She had already made plans with 2 friends to go see a movie on Sunday. So we compromised and Sunday afternoon after doing homework she went to see Definitely, Maybe and Monday we went out with friends, a couple with 2 sons. We drove up to Calistoga to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California, which is an underground river that erupts at regular intervals when the water is heated by hot molten rock underground. To get there we drove through Napa and passed beautiful wineries which of course we couldn't check out.


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Afterwards, we headed over to The Petrified Forest, where we got to see... petrified trees (duh). Over 3 million years ago a volcano erupted and the force of it knocks down the trees and covers them with lava and ash. The trees remain buried and over time minerals and silica in the ash replace the living molecules in the trees turning them into rock. Eventually the ash erodes and the now petrified trees are discovered. Pretty cool. Below are some pictures from our day out.

Other than that, life is routine. Arthur is traveling (currently in North Dakota), Maor is doing okay in school except for one teacher who all the kids hate, and I am having a good semester in school. I am taking a class in medical informatics through the University of Pittsburgh which is really interesting and the teacher is great. I am also taking a class in web design which is tons of work but also a lot of fun and also with an exellent instructor. My third class is in reference librarianship which I think is important for any type of librarian although I don't think I'll actually work as a reference librarian. My instructor in this class is also terrific - I had her for a previous class so I knew she's good.

Yesterday in the supermarket I saw them unpacking and setting up the matzoh display which always makes me so happy knowing that Pesach is getting close. We're not sure yet what we're doing for Pesach. Besides suffering through 2 more 3 day yomtovs. Why didn't I check the calendar before I agreed to come here? I totally forgot about this awful phenomenon. If ever there was a reason to make aliyah, besides the cost of Jewish day school tuition, that would have to be it.

Do you blog? Do you love coffee?

If you answered yes to both those questions then Joffrey's Java Beta Test is for you. I found this via Mashable, one of the many (too many?) blogs I read. You sign up to be a beta tester and Joffrey's will send you their new flavored coffee, Jamaican Me Crazy, to try. Plus they'll post a link to your blog on their page.

I must admit that in my excitement for free coffee, I didn't even think about whether it's kosher. So I sent off an e-mail asking them but haven't heard back yet. Of course, I already signed up to get the coffee. I cannot resist coffee, especially if it's free.

UPDATE: According to the e-mail I received back from Joffrey's ALL (emphasis theirs) their coffees and teas (wimps) are kosher! Yeah, I'm psyched!

Art in unexpected places

One day as I was walking from my office in downtown San Jose to the nearby King Library, I was stopped in my tracks by these beautiful gates. Since I am not like Batya walking around with my camera (or so it seems from her blog) I had to go back another day. But I really wanted to share this unique and interesting work which i came across unexpectedly almost hidden in a passageway. They were created by Bill Gould for The Globe, a new condominium community.
You can also view these images on Flickr.