The Rachel Chronicles

Jello moving champion of camp!

Tonight was a great camp-wide program, that MAGSHIMIM WON!!!
You can read most of the details here.

I neglected to toot my own horn TOO much, and saved that for this blog. The final event of the night was a physical challenge, asking the roshim to transfer the contents of a pie-plate full of red jello into an empty pie plate. The full pie-plate was placed on a table. The empty pie-plate was on the floor. We were only allowed to use our mouths.

At first I thought I would actually have to pick up all the jello in my mouth, but then I quickly realized that if I moved the empty plate closer to the table, I could dump the full plate into the empty one - still only using my mouth.

Like this:

Yes, I AM covered with garbage bags and a shower cap.
No, I am not sure my edah was properly impressed by my skills...which won them the entire competition! (ok, tied with Amitzim)

Irony...

... is that it is due to stop raining by the time my rain boots arrive (I ordered them online last night).

... that Tamiflu, the medicine I'm taking to help me not get sick from the flu, has side-effects that wipe me out for multiple hours every day.

that is all.
have a good day.

Where'd the snack go??

For the record, I do regularly forget to pick up the night-time snack for my edah (unit). Dinner ends around 8pm and snack would be approximately an hour later - and since my stomach isn't growling by then, sometimes I just forget. So sometimes when there is no snack, it is truly my fault....

That said, sometimes its not!

Here is a picture I took the other day. Next time a camper asks me where the snack is, this is what I am showing them:

That is an entire apple in the hands of the squirrel! (and yes, he is totally watching me take this picture....)

To Purell oneself

With Camp Ramah Darom's swine flu epidemic looming in our minds, we have put a strong emphasis on hand-washing this summer. And while cleanliness has always been a virtue that we've promoted, this summer we are being a bit more....particular about it.

We even invented a new Hebrew word. להתפרל l'hitpurel, to use Purell on one's hands. Common useage might be, "כולם צריכים להתפרל לפני הארוכה" (everyone needs to Purell oneself before the meal).

As a side note, for you Hebrew grammarians out there, there WAS a discussion about which בנין to use – and it was determined that one Purells oneself, therefore it was reflexive, a התפעל verb.

Don't you think the Academy for the Hebrew Language would be proud? 

Speaking of proud people....I think my Ulpan teacher Ada would be proud of this sentence construct:  התפרלתי הרבה. למרות זות, אני חולה

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there - to the soon-to-be dads, the grandfathers, and of course, to my Dad. 

 

This is from my parents trip to visit me in Israel. I think the bridge was a wishing bridge - or something like that. I don't remember exactly...

 

This is Grampa, and the picture was taken about a month ago at the Memorial Day BBQ.

 

This picture was taken in January, in Florida - the day he was diagnosed with cancer. This is the first Father's Day without Papa. As we celebrate fathers, it is a bittersweet day to think of the people we are missing. 

Happy Father's Day.

Introducing...ROSH...MAGSHIMIM???

Look, I'm famous.

Twilight

I consciously didn't title this post "Rachel Reads...Twilight" as I have done with other book reviews.

Mostly because I'm slightly embarrassed that I've been reading these books... And because I'm not sure the speed with which I have been flying through them qualifies as "reading", so much as "devouring". 

And "Rachel Devours Twilight" didn't really seem like a good post title.

This four book series is a teenage phenomenon, and as a soon-to-be unit head of 14-year-olds (just as soon as they show up at camp in a few days), I figured I ought to be up on the trend. Its important to pretend you understand teens, you know. Keeps you looking cool. Not. At. All.

Here's what I have to say about the book.

Why didn't I have a vampire fall in love with me when I was in High School?!?!? It sure seems like I missed out on something...

Really, that was all I had to say about the book. Except that I might succumb and buy the last two books in hardcover because I don't want to wait any longer for them to come out in paperback!

Its summer time! Treat yourself like the kid at heart that you are, and go buy these books. They're cute, they're enagaging, and they'll leave you wondering who might want to drink your blood....

Relay for חי

You may remember that my mom decided to do the Relay for Life, in honor and in memory of my grandfather, Dick Silver. Before reading any further, click on the link above - or this one - and take a look at her page. If you haven't already made a donation, now is as good a time as any.

The relay was last night in Mansfield. The synagogue's team name was "Relay for חי" because the word חי (chai, pronounced with a gutteral H, not like the tea that Starbucks sells) means "life". Mom's team raised over $5000! But they could raise more....

Are you getting my hint? My mom won't ask anyone for money any more - she figures her two email requests were enough. So I figured I could do my part and ask the blogging community to step up and make small donations.

I rarely get excited that Shabbat starts so late, because I usually hate when it ends so late on Saturday night. But this weekend I was happy about it. It was my last Shabbat in Brighton for a few months (I leave for camp tomorrow) and I just wasn't done packing, cleaning, preparing, etc. so I really didn't want to spend Shabbat anywhere but my own apartment. That said, I also wanted to join my mom for part of the relay.....

LUCKILY...Shabbat didn't start until WAY late last night. I went to opening ceremonies, we walked the track and found Papa's luminary bag, stayed for part of the synagogue's services, and drove home = all before Shabbat! I should find things to do on Friday nights like this more often!

 

This is the bag that my mom made for Papa. The track was lined with bags. The entire inside circle was filled with bags, and about half the outside circle too. It was an overwhelming number of bags.

 

The stadium seats were filled with bags too. They were all the same and had a picture of a little kid on it. Can you tell their formation? It spells out HOPE.

 

While the point of the relay is to not have everyone walking at the same time, but to have someone from your team walking for 18 hours straight (18 = life), they started the relay by asking all the purple-shirted-survivors to walk a lap around the track.

 

It was an emotional event. For some people it was a freedom walk of sorts, a walk to represent their victory in the fight against cancer. For others, it was a sad memorial walk, remembering someone they love who lost the battle with cancer. I felt like the emotions were hard to balance. I wanted to applaud the people in purple shirts, but I was jealous that my grandfather wasn't one of them.

Addendum x2

Addendum #1
159 people - ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINE people have read my blog today!

There is a site that collects recently updated blogs, and I guess if no one posts immediately after I do, mine stays up there longer - and more people read it.

Wow. 159. Thats cool.

Addendum #2
I neglected to mention this in the last post. I'm hooked on Twilight. Its a silly series, but I thought I should read it before I went to camp and all my kids were talking about it. Its really good. And really addictive. I read the entire first book last night and this morning. I should've been packing. I was reading instead.

Fastest update I've ever written

My facebook status reads: "Rachel [is] supremely stressed about the amount of things that need to happen between now and Sunday".

I'm not convinced blogging about it will alleviate that stress, but I felt guilty that my last post was 2 weeks ago....and that it was about What Not To Wear, particularly when I'm wearing a jean skirt that my mother would hate (its too long for her tastes, but Meg approved it and its comfortable. So there).

I leave for camp on Sunday. Holy crap. Here's what has to happen between now and then:

* Wrap up my work at Gann.
* Start my work in Andover, even though the job doesn't technically start until the end of the summer.
* Continue my work at TAS, a wonderful congregation that, now that it has a rabbi to deal with things, has things it needs the rabbi to deal with. Good for them, typically excellent for me, just temporarily stressful.
* Figure out each institution's calendar for next year.
* PACK for camp....cause I figure it would go over better with the parents if I had clothes to wear.
* Clean my apartment so that I don't return to find that bugs have overtaken it.
* Deal with the fact that my management company wants to get new windows (yay!) but will probably give me very little notice to move everything "6 feet from the window" and cover it in plastic (boo....)
* PLAN for camp....cause I figure my staff would prefer if I come prepared for staff week. [Don't worry, it really is mostly done.]
* Reply to, like, 50 billion emails.

Ok, the last one isn't true. It was only about 50, and I did it last night. Thats what happens when you write to each kid (and their parents) in your unit at camp...not surprisingly, you get replies....

I wrote this post in less than 3 minutes. How's my spelling?

Now, time to put the contacts in, jacket on, pack up the computer, and bolt out the door!!!

Stress much?