Semi-Charmed Life

Wednesday was not my most blogworthy of days so I will begin with Thursday:

First, a victory for all mankind! And by that I mean, only for me and not for anyone else on my curve in bio; I went to a tutoring session and aced a unit test! It felt great, and I was so excited to learn about cloning of animals and such things-the possibilities are truly endless! I can't wait to see where the world goes...

Next, Adina and I went to see The Laramie Project at the Community School of Music and Arts in downtown Ithaca (ooh la la, the real world!). Jesse was in it, which is why I knew about it initially, but also many other students and members of the community. It was an incredible staged reading, complete with two folk guitars and some singing. The play is about Matthew Shepherd, who was brutally killed in Laramie, Wyoming, over ten years ago because he was gay. The play brought up a lot of gay issues, hate crime issues, and things like that. But the message was a universal one, of love vs. hate, acceptance vs. discrimination and intolerance, understanding vs. ignorance. I choked up a bit but that was nothing compared to some of the people in the audience. There were a lot of people from the LGBT community there, and I think it really hit home. Amazing show.

Friday was glorious. I hopped up outta bed, turned my swag on. Then I was ready to read for Gerontology, go to Gerontology section, do my calc homework, go to Calc, and go to an assembly for new members of the Greek system.

Between all that, I went to lunch with Ranan and it was so nice to talk to someone who has had the Israel gap year experience and is going through the Greek initiation process and is meeting people all the time at parties who have never existed before. It's an interesting thing to think about, how we make friends at college. Within the Jewish community, it's not like that. You meet at services, events, programs, Shabbat dinner (sup Josh Markovic). There's more than a black hole behind them, stretching back before you met them. With other people, at frats or classes, these people are totally new, they have no origin, they have no parents, they have no development. They were born the way you met them, six feet tall, wearing a backwards baseball cap, and holding a red cup of beer. It was good to talk to Ranan, and he also introduced me to a great youtube video and Blue Planet, which I've already begun to watch on instant play!

Shabbat services were lovely in the chapel. Then we all went down to dinner and I sat with Keren, Adina, and Ben. What an ace gang! We had such good discussions and I was so happy to be at Shabbat. It was Jewish Greek Council Shabbat so there were a few new faces there too, which was nice. After dinner, we all went next door for LChaims, and we stayed to talk to Matt and Dara for a while. Then the four of us, Adina/Matt/Dara/me, all went to Dara's house to "pre-game" (quotes because her housemates were watching Guys and Dolls which really set the tone--Adina and Matt had both been in the show before so the pre-game was more of a musical than an alcoholic experience). Then we hiked back up the hill. I was excited to be walking around Collegetown with cool upper classmen, and then Adina reminded me I was still wearing my backpack. Oh well.

The Sammy Annex took a while to get started but eventually everyone we've ever known (yayyyy Gil!) came to party. We danced the night away and I got to see old friends and new friends and we stayed pretty late because it was so fun and comfortable. I even took over the iPod for a while and played Ratatat (it didn't go over well with everyone else but I was really happy to dance to it by myself).

On the walk home, Adina and I saw two bunny rabbits, and the person walking behind us stopped to look at them with us. It was a SIGN! In contrast to the October night that was marked by the evil signs of: scary limping man in wolf mask and suit, camera mysteriously not working, and a fire alarm (even the building just wanted us to leave!! we got the message...), this night was filled with bunnies and friends, and we were welcomed by the cozy--nay, hoogly--annex all the live-long night.

Yesterday was less charmed. I babysat in the morning and whilst on our traditional walk for bagels, L decided to poop her pants. I came prepared with an extra diaper, but since she's been so good lately, her parents hadn't put her in a diaper to begin with. I scoopered with a plastic bag and threw out the necessary items. As I was in the stall with her, exasperated, I said "PLEASE don't put your hands in it!" and the woman in the stall next door piped in with "don't you just hate it when that happens? Worst of all is when it happens at the State Fair...you need some wipes? I got 'em." Yeah, so we peaced out pretty quickly. Oooooh, Ithaca.

I tried to eat lunch when I got back but in fact, there are some things that make me a little nauseous and scooping human feces with my hands is one of them. Instead I took a long nap and woke up just in time for Mincha, Seudah Shlishit, and Maariv with Koach. There was great attendance, great food, great people, songs, everything. I was so happy and laughy. It was wonderful. And on the way out, as an extra treat, I ran into Dan and we sang an obscure excerpt of Slow Motion by Third Eye Blind. What more could a person want?

After all this, I went to Habachi with my sorority! Marlena was my date and she's the prettiest date in the whole world so I was pretty excited. I taught my table how to play Standing Ovation (a group chooses a dance move while one person is out of hearing range, then that person returns and does random dance moves to try to guess the chosen action, the group claps as the moves get closer). I just sat with some really nice people and there was a man making fire at the table next door to us, so I count that as a pretty successful night.

Getting home was a challenge, but we packed 11 girls into a van-cab and made it back all right. Then I went to Sammy with Rachel and Gil and danced around and played until the wee hours of the morning (well like 1am but that's pretty late for me).

Today has already been great. I dreamt about Rachel the First and it was a happy dream, I woke up without an alarm clock at 9 am, and I am blogging! On the agenda for today: meeting for Meinig, meeting for Banquets, International Ethnic Dance, a bit of homework and.....

I will do the unthinkable:

Laundry.