Book blog

I finally started a blog to post chapters of my young adult novel. If this sort of thing interests you, feel free to check it out and leave (or not leave) your comments there.

www.midrian.blogspot.com

The Princess Takes a Walk

Pup on walkway.

Pup on walkway from afar.
Pup on stairs

Pup on deck

More Adventures in Maine

Daniel and Chavi are off to Maine with baby Elish and Leba, the puppy. Check out their blog for up-to-the-minute photo coverage. I'm extremely jealous - I'd love to see Maine in the fall!

I'm up north for the weekend - a dual Grandma's 80th birthday and step-grandma's memorial service visit. It was beautiful yesterday (Shabbos) as I walked to the restaurant to be with the family at the brunch event after the service (please keep halachic commentary on this choice to yourself). The town I grew up in, Petoskey, Michigan, is on Little Traverse Bay in northern Michigan and the whole walk was along the blue, blue shoreline. Sigh. As I was walking, I was imagining how one might live a frum life up here. The only problem I ran into was the mikveh question - not a problem in the summer as lakes are plentiful. I don't particularily fancy polar bear swims, however. I wonder if there is a mikveh in Traverse City an hour and a half away? Hmm.

Anyway, will post pictures if it manages to stop raining for a few minutes so that I can take some.

Communication Blackout

I know what you're thinking. No, he's about the only person I have heard from.

This isn't a complaint. I occasionally experience days where I am in some kind of cosmic communication blackout. No one calls. I receive no emails (not even for Viagra or larger breasts!). It's weird that it happens all at once. Sometimes I can tie it to an upcoming or ongoing event - everyone is out Xmas shopping (a reality among my friends and family members) or everyone has left early for Labor Day weekend. But, sometimes these days occur on random Mondays in the middle of September for no identifiable reason other than people are trying to come to grips with the suddenly cool weather that leaves no doubt that fall is sweeping in.

Or, perhaps everyone is just consumed with the idea of the new TV season that starts this week. I'll be checking out Martha Stewart's "Apprentice" (yes, I'm a closet Martha fan, much to my mother's chagrin) tomorrow night. Sunday, since I'll be up north for the combination memorial service/80th birthday fiasco (on different sides of the family), I'll set my VCR to tape the new "West Wing" and "Grey's Anatomy".

Fall makes TV look GOOD. I'm ready for a little chilly weather - I love my sweaters and tights. I can't wait to go apple picking or start cooking for yom tov. It's been a great summer full of discoveries and long hot days. But, for now, I'll content myself with a little leaf-raking and TV watching, curled up with the Stinky Dog as the days grow shorter and shorter.

Weary

I'm weary - but it's a pleasant water-logged and sun-drenched day-at-the-beach weary.

He responded. It was very sweet (are you surprised?). He said he had to stay at home until after yom tov because they need him to make a minyan in his tiny community. I find this adorable and endearing. So, we'll start looking for cheap plane tickets and planning the other details. I would like him to come here and will eventually suggest so unless he comes up with a better idea (say, meeting in Paris, or something). Wow. That would certainly be something. Paris. Hmm. Food for thought.

Anyway, I have approximately six weeks to lose 20 lbs. This may be just the kick-in-the-ass that I need after a summer spent gaining and losing the same 2 lbs. over and over again. I usually try to be internally motivated in my weight-loss endeavors - the logic that the loss won't stick keeps me from pinning my hopes on others. But, perhaps the impending visit will help motivate me a little more than I have been. Size 14 here I come! Ha. (We all have to have goals in life, after all.)

My new favorite band? Great Big Sea. Check them out if you like funky Celtic/folk/rock/drinking song fusion.

At this point in the dating proceedings, I usually feel nervous and the initial bloom has slipped off the rose. This time, however, I feel this serene calm - as if I can't possibly do anything to screw it up. Daniel, maybe this is what your wife meant when she told you she knew from your first date that you would get married?

I went back to read my poem "You" that I posted in May. He's in there. It's him. He fits exactly into every single image that came to me when I wrote it last summer. At that time, I couldn't imagine a Jewish man fitting into my vision, but it appears that he does exist.

Now I have to wait and see if his vision matches mine.

I did it.

I did it.

When M.H. spoke with one of his references, she (the reference) mentioned that for some reason he isn't proactive. Everything else sounded beyond great, so I decided to go for it.

I was very pareve and nonchalant - suggesting that we begin to think about meeting in person since the details would likely take a while to work out, especially with the chagim on the way.

Small Jewish world example of the day: M.H. was one of his rebbetzin's teachers in high school.

No reply. Will keep you posted.

Quick Blog

Ugh.

We had Parent Night at school last night. Ugh. Why is it that some parents have no concept that while they have one child to look after, we have SIXTY? "No, Mrs. X, I will not call you each time your child is missing an assignment." My favorite was this one: "Um, sometimes we have a lot going on in the evenings and we don't have time to help the kids with their homework, but I see that you take 10% off the final grade for each day a paper is late. I don't think that's fair. Will you accept late papers from my child with no penalty?

M.H. called for Soulmate's references. Apparently he really is that cool (are you sick of hearing that, yet?). In fact, she wouldn't tell me everything - she wanted to wait so she could tell me in person.

Will update you as soon as I find out what the scoop is.

Technical Problems

I started to panic. I reminded myself that I am happy with my existence. A situation that seemed so promising last week was crumbling before my eyes.

Then, he emailed.

He asked if I had received his email from the weekend. I hadn't. Technical problems. He thought I was ignoring him and I was here thinking he was ignoring me. I was determined not to seem desperate by sending him a "where are you?" email. The waiting, for once, paid off.

Problem solved.

Will let him suggest a meeting. Please don't write and give me advice about this.

He's only getting cooler, by the way. He took a vacation this weekend solo - had a picnic, swam with leaping salmon, and wants to go back there soon to take a moonlight kayak trip.

I'll be brief.

Driving home tonight after spending the weekend at my grandparents' house on the lake, I got to thinking about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The unspeakable tragedy had started to seep in somewhat, but after a lifetime of emotionally overreacting to huge human events, I knew better than to let myself get carried away.

However, that's exactly what I did. I started to imagine my house flooding. What if I had gone to the second floor with my dog and the water kept rising? What if I managed to slip out a window into the fetid water, but I couldn't get myself and the puppy to safety? What if, when we finally were able to claw our way onto someone's roof, it took days before someone came to rescue us? All that time we had to watch other people suffering in the same circumstances with nothing to drink or eat, nowhere to shelter or go to the bathroom? What if bodies floated by in the water?

Yes, my imagination got the better of me. As the National Guard, Army, and various police and rescue forces recover Katrina's dead over the next few days, they will undoubtedly encounter people who suffered as much or worse than I described.

Then, I started to wonder what I would do if disaster hit the area where I live and I was forced to flee for some reason. Thank God I have credit cards, a vehicle, and family to go to far from here. I would make it out somehow, even if I had to buy my way there. Thousands in the Gulf Coast area don't have those advantages. They had no transportation to leave when the evacuation was ordered. They had no credit cards to buy an emergency plane or bus ticket to safety. Now, they are told they will not be able to return to their homes for months. How are they supposed to live between now and then? Most were barely eking out a living before. Where will their children go to school?

For the first time in my memory, the United States has a considerable population of American refugees on its hands. Some of them will be sheltered beginning this week at Fort Custer - a little used Army post two hours from here. I don't know what plans the government and relief agencies have for them. People will need counseling, schools, clothing, laundry facilities, food, and a purpose.

That is why I am asking you to join me in giving. Every dollar we give will help comfort someone or rebuild their life. Many of the refugees who were the last out of New Orleans were black. They must've felt in the first few days, as the wheels of the government failed to respond, that they were forgotten. In a certain sense, they were. Let's show them now that we won't forget them, or any victim of tragedy, ever again.

CTFO

This is in response to several folks who have written comments giving me various word's of advice - including "slow down".

Wow. I'm really not overthinking things, honest. You have to remember that reading this blog is like slicing off a portion of my head and peering inside.
As far as just going out with him already, he lives a three-hour plane ride away. Until I become independently wealthy, I'd like us to have as much information as possible about each other before either of us makes a multi-hundred dollar commitment to fly anywhere for a date. It's the polite and responsible thing to do.

For everyone who commented on my last post and on the post where I mentioned I was Googling him, think of it this way: when a girl really likes a guy, she spends hours thinking about him. I'm an information junkie, so, for me, this adolescent obsessiveness manifests itself in the form of Googling him.

Take a deep breath, folks, and remember that I am: a)relatively well-adjusted, b) a responsible teacher, c) a contributing member of society, d) completely sane in all the ways that count and happy to be insane in all the ways that don't count!

Who knew?

Ok, countless emails later, he gets cooler and cooler. He taught accupressure to Mexican midwives. Groovy.

We also keep finding things that we have in common - we both have dogs that came from a rescue organization. We both fostered dogs for a rescue organization for awhile. We both mostly dislike Celine Dion, but we both like her French stuff. We seemingly both have a passion for living off the frum grid, so-to-speak - he lives in a teeny frum community so he can be closer to the outdoors.

And handy. Did I mention he's handy? A prime qualification since I've had it with DIY home repairs. I fixed my disgusting garbage disposal last week all by myself. I was pretty much willing to marry anyone for the first hour after that just so I wouldn't have to do it again. He's building his own bed.

So, I emailed M.H. and asked her if she'd call to check his references. I also asked her if he had filled out the personality survey portion of the SYAS profile - it's optional, so most people haven't. Turns out he's the same personality type as me: INFP. M.H. thinks this may be a clue to why our (mine and his) lives are so freakishly similar.

I got paranoid for about thirty minutes while I surfed the internet looking to see if two INFPs were really compatible. Then, I remembered that people have been getting married for a long time without the benefit of personality typing and I should really just chill out about all of it. Besides, if I were to marry him, at least I would have a basis for understanding him a little more. Maybe?

Plus, it would be a bonus to marry someone who actually got my hermit tendancies.

Now I'm just waiting for the results of the reference check. Hopefully he's not really a psychopath and is just a genuinely nice and interesting guy.