Tonight my vacation ends.

well technically it ends tomorrow at 2pm when my class starts, but as of tomorrow morning I'll be in "school mode"

i know some people are bored by the end of their vacations, and ready to go back to school, but i for one could do with another two or three days of vacation. above all, i love having the free feeling of no obligations, and not always hearing my conscience nag me about studying, or reviewing.

my resolutions for the upcoming semester:

learn all the skills within the first month, and get tested right away

read a little bit every day so Shabbos afternoon can be reserved for sleeping

talk to my friends once a week so they don't feel like I've abandoned them

make sure to stay ahead of my class so i won't fall that far behind over Pesach

not use class as an excuse to miss weddings that i just don't feel like going to (unless it's a legitimate reason)

more from the auto show

blogging from the North American International Auto Show

when i saw the sign that said Blogger's Lounge, i just couldn't stay away. there was a big counter with big gorgeous iMacs that said "log into your blog and post what you've seen today" how could i resist an invitation like that?

so far Aunt Far Away and i have checked out all the Ford cars, entered a drawing for a free MP3 player, practiced virtual driving with a cardboard steering wheel, and sat in the driver's seat of the new Lincoln MKX. by far its coolest feature is a double mirror which enables you to see your blind spot without having to check over your shoulder.

i really wanted to practice the virtual parking assist but you only get to ride shotgun to an attendant, which isn't nearly as cool as sitting in the driver's seat and watch the wheel move on its own.

that's all for now. i have to go check out more cool cars and see if i can get a free t-shirt

today the Far Away Cousins came home from school and told my aunt that not a single one of their teachers discussed or even mentioned Martin Luther King today. coming from a New York high school, i wasn't that surprised, because they never mentioned MLK day, September 11th, Kristallnacht, Pearl Harbor Day. i'm not putting all those days in the same category, or listing them based on importance, those were just things that were never discussed in my school. (I was actually the only one who even knew what and when Pearl Harbor Day was because i did a report on Hawaii and the U.S.S. Arizona when i was in fifth grade)

But for an out-of-town school, i was mildly surprised that they didn't discuss it. perhaps even more surprising, was that some girls in high school didn't even know that it was a legal holiday (i think the district doesn't have buses)

so in my own way i'm commemorating the man who gave one of the most powerful speeches i've ever heard, and perhaps the largest demonstration for civil rights in the history of the United States.

Let freedom ring.

part of being a faithful Jew is about not questioning what happens, because we have no way of knowing what G-d's plan is. so when it looks like there's no way things are "fair" we have to realize that we're only seeing a thin slice of the master plan.

but it doesn't make it any easier when we're witness to a tragedy.

last night, a man was taken from this world. a man who lived his life as a generous individual, who loved people. a man who was not fortunate to walk the path of a religious Jew, but nevertheless lived a life of simchat hachaim. a man who worked hard to provide for his family, and the people who he knew. a man who always had a smile, and a joke ready, even when he was suffering and sick. a man who was loved by a lot of people, and will be missed by everyone who knew him.

i used to think i had brown eyes.

or maybe i used to have brown eyes. in any case, it made shopping for clothing very easy, because i knew i looked good in purples and grays. it made makeup easy too, because i used brown eyeliner and brown mascara.

but lately I've noticed that my eyes are not looking so brown. in fact, there are some days that they look downright green. which got me thinking; my eyes are a little less brown and a little more hazel lately. i hate hazel. it's like a wimpy excuse for an eye color because your eyes can't decide what color they want to be, so they wait to see what the weather's going to be, or maybe what color shirt you're going to be wearing, before they decide which pigment they're going to be showing to the world.

hello, you can't be lazy if you're an eye color! just make up your mind and stick with it!

in any event, now i have to find a good green eyeliner, and new eye shadow. and besides, i liked having brown eyes. and I'm not loving the hazel all that much.

whoever said that ice cream is a summer food obviously grew up way to quickly. and I'm willing to bet you'll find those people drinking coffee in the summer.

there's something about ice cream that's an all-weather, all-occasion food. the only time that's not optimal for eating ice cream is when you're actually thirsty, because it does nothing to quench your thirst, and will only make you thirstier. this probably a result of the salt that's found in ice cream, in addition to all the other solutes (sugars, fats, amino acids) that make your blood more concentrated and giving your hypothalamus the signal of dehydration.

in any event, ice cream is good a boredom buster, tastes good with waffles, and comes in white to minimize stains. what more could you want out of food?

when you go to an ice cream store you'll find two different kinds of ice cream eaters. the first category are those who are willing to try anything. every time they order ice cream they'll try out a different flavor. pistachio, chocolate chip mint, rose petals, garlic, grass, kishka...you name it. I've seen every single one of those flavors. the only one I've tried is mint chocolate chip. the reason why i don't take risks when it comes to ice cream is because i love plain vanilla ice cream, or cookie dough, and hate the thought of "wasting" an order of ice cream for something i won't be able to finish. take caramel or peanut butter for instance. I've tried the free samples and they were delicious. but it's very hard to finish a whole cone of caramel flavored ice cream. it's just too much. so i stick with the flavors i know i like.

when i was a kid i truly believed that ice cream was supposed to be eaten in a cone the same way soup was to be eaten with a spoon-i wouldn't have dreamed of eating it any other way. when i say cone i mean obviously mean sugar cone and not those awful fake waffle Styrofoam things. now i never eat ice cream in a cone, because i find that i end up with one big sticky mess.

so i just stick to vanilla ice cream in a bowl, and that makes me very very happy :)

3:30pm

Today I experienced a first at the airport-the first time I flew without checking in any luggage. I don’t think it’s even possible to fly to Israel with only carry-on luggage, and since I’m only flying to the Midwest I managed to pack two weeks worth of clothing into an overnight bag. I know, impressive.

I learned a lesson when going through security-it’s not good to wear a sweatshirt and scarf under your coat. Because they’ll make you take everything off. And people behind you can get annoyed. Especially when they’re juggling a lot of bags, three cranky kids and one unhelpful husband. But as I waited, I watched a guy get detained in those glass holding cells. I was hoping for something interesting to happen, while feeling a little anxious, because my bags were next to his, but fortunately nothing happened. After a few minutes a security guard came and let him out.

I’m wondering if the airline was trying to be funny when they put my flight at the same gate as the flight to Fort Lauderdale, like their way of saying “ha, stupid people, why would you want to fly from Cold New York to Freezing Michigan?” at least that’s what people have been saying to me for the past two weeks. But at least I know I’m going somewhere cold. All the people who are bound for Florida think they’re getting nice weather and are in for a bit of a shock. I heard the temperatures in Florida reached as low as 30 degrees this week.

So now I’m sitting at the gate and hoping that I’ll be able to pass my very compactly-packed overnight bag through the last hurdle so I can bring it on to the plane and shove it in the overhead bulk and spend the entire time worrying that I’ll forget to take it off the plane with me. But it’s all worth it, because when I get off the plane, I won’t have to wait around for luggage.

6:53pm

Well my flight was quick and uneventful. I always like to keep my phone on for as long as possible, and see how high up in the air I can still get cell service. Since I refuse to pay an extra fee for my seat, I’m subjected to whichever seat is randomly assigned to me by the airline. Middle seat in the second-to-last row. I thought the situation could not have been any worse until I saw my seatmate who was taking up all of his seat and just a little bit of mine. Not enough to actually request a switch (especially since the flight was totally full) but just enough to be marginally uncomfortable. Thankfully my other seatmate was slightly undersized, so I sat as far to the left as possible. The entire flight was spent my music on a little louder than usual to drown out the screaming baby sitting one row over. It seems like I've traded in one snowy landscape for another. If I thought I was escaping the white outdoors of New York, I was wrong. It’s snowing here and the ground is already covered with about two inches of snow. Still, the cold will not deter me. Vacation is about taking it easy and sleeping late and I can still do that with frigid temperatures of 15 degrees.

i hate the game of Clue.

it's the only game that my father refuses to play with my little brother, who loves it. my mother has no problems playing the game, and tonight i got roped (no pun intended) into playing with them.

for starters, i never remember the actual logistics of the game, and i need a little refresher course each time i play. the first round was over in about four seconds when i (unknowingly) gave away the answer. I'm still not sure how i managed that.

in addition, i kept accidentally leaving my top card face up, causing my mother, brother2, and sister2 to dive for the pens and start scratching off their paper.

while venting my frustration, sister1 announced that the "only way to play this game, like any other strategy game, is to cheat" but even with her looking at the other players' cards and texting me, i still couldn't' manage to win.

it's hard enough trying to remember who showed me which cards, i can't sit trying to figure out which card my sister is showing my brother, and what he's crossing off. I'm just as happy to let Col. Mustard get away with murder. but don't bother asking me where or how he did it. because i have no clue.

Blogger is reunited with missing ipod after three weeks

last night in an astounding turn of events, a local blogger's missing ipod turned out, seemingly out of nowhere. sister1 was sitting on the couch and noticed a baseball card sticking up between the cushions. she dug into the couch and flicked a handful of cards onto FCG's lap.

"oh, look what's here!" she exclaimed, and the ipod landed on FCG'S lap. there were exclamations of surprise and delight all around.

"i know that FCG has been very worried about her ipod. she called me every two days to see if it had turned up in my apartment" commented a friend

so far the ipod has not yet spoken about what it was doing in the couch or how it got down there.

"I'm just very happy to have it back" said FCG in a statement to the press "right now I'm just going to spend time recharging and reconnecting with my ipod"