New Thing #21: Lekhaim! (To Long Life in Yiddish)

A light in my lamp went out, so I took it on our patio, put it in a paper sack and tried to step on it. It shot out of the open end of the bag the first time but I got it on the second try. I broke a light bulb by stepping on it with a very satisfying POP and I took out the bulb element to examine it closely. As a Jewish wedding custom, a light bulb or glass cup is crushed by the groom's foot following a ceremonial drinking of wine. This custom is shrouded in mystery but many theories exist. The definition from wikipedia.org states: "The breaking of the glass represents the Jewish community's continuing sorrow over the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem; no celebration is totally complete without the temple." (Historically, two jewish temples were destroyed: first by the Babylonians in 587 BCE and second by the Romans in 70 CE). I prefer jen365's definition of "let this be the only thing that breaks between you."


Traditionally, it is actually supposed to be a glass cup that is crushed by the foot, but a light bulb has been substituted. Reasoning? I have no idea. Here are some guesses: It's cheaper, less likely to do real damage to the person stepping on it, and since it's pressurized it makes a nice "pop" so everyone can hear it.

New Thing #20: Ducks Signage

Kevin and I drove down for the Ducks vs. Huskies game. It was a 7 p.m. kickoff and we were meeting his parents down there before the game. We drove into town, parked at his friend's house and walked to Autzen. On the way to the stadium, we found a decent size piece of cardboard that was an old garage sale sign. We took it with us and bought a sharpie at the Duck Shop for $1.50 and wrote in GIANT letters:

NEWS FLASH: (other side)

DAWGS EAT POOP

We got tons of big laughs from it. Even from the University of Washington fans. It was my first time making a sign for a University of Oregon football game-- go ducks! I also want to take this time to say hello to Kimmy, who I ran into at the stadium. I was very honored to hear that she enjoys reading my new things blog---thank you very much Kimmy for the invitation to your home following the game, I'm so happy the ducks won! I bet you had a wonderful evening! Ciao!

New Thing #19: JOB JOB JOB

This isn't the first time this has happened but it's the best exciting thing that's happened to me since I got back from Europe:

Dramatic pause...

I got a job!

I start the week after next. It's at the YMCA corporate office as a part-time administrative assistant, a company I am quite familiar with but have never worked for. Limited hours means that I will still have to pair it with a second part-time job but that's also exciting. I feel very proud of myself and I think this will be a good fit for me and my ideals and my employer's needs! 

New Thing #18: My Future Self and Me

I had a job interview today. I think it went really well. We will see if I get the call back. While I was waiting for the interview to come around, I was reading in my "Get A Hobby!" book about blogging and about this service by http://www.futureme.org/ that will send an e-mail to yourself in the future to be delivered on any date that you see fit! I got home from the interview and I wrote an e-mail to my Future Self to be delivered on this same day, Aug 2009. I talked about many things (things to bring myself joy and encourage me if I am struggling with life) but most of the things I wrote just for my own eyes-- sorry guys! I did something similar to this in high school where we wrote something as seniors and my teacher snail-mailed it to us spring term of our first year in college to our parent's house. It was a neat thing then (especially seeing your own hand writing--- it made it more real somehow) and I think taking advantage of a free online service that will do it for you is just fantastic!

New Thing #17: Daquiri goodness

Though not my brightest idea, I drank a strawberry daquiri while applying for a job. Little did the job people know because it was in a hot-drink to-go cup. I thought I was LL Cool all right.

New Thing #16: Taxi chat

Return from Klamath Falls. I had to call a cab to drop me off at Amtrak because Ader had to work. I sat in the front seat of a cab when no other passengers were in the car. Everyone might think that has happened to me in NYC, but really, unless the cab was packed and I had to navigate, I generally found excuses not to sit up front-- I'd be on my phone or reading...or really just sit in the back and ignore the driver completely only to tell him where to go. I know--It's rude but sometimes I didn't feel like chatting or the taxi driver looked a little... sketchy. So today, I sat up in the front and chatted away and told him where the best places were to park in Portland for his spanish class, etc. When I was at the station a circus train went by. I saw the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus Train and I made a comment of "Why aren't the giraffe's heads poking out of the top of the railroad car?" to a neighbor who just stared at me. Then I realized I was getting confused with the movie "Dumbo" and I shuffled off quietly.

New Thing #15: Downtown KF

Day Five: Klamath Falls explored. My cousin had to go to work today until 4 p.m. and I decided to use my day to explore downtown Klamath Falls. The highlight was definitely the cafe: The Daily Bagel. They had amazing hand-made bagels including the scrumptious sun-dried tomato variety. That's what I had with cream cheese--yummy! All their lunch sandwiches had daily papers names like "The New York Times," which was a salmon, cream cheese, capers and bagel-of-your-choice sandwich.