The Rachel Chronicles

National Pancake Day = Tomorrow!

Did you know that tomorrow is National Pancake Day? You can be sure that I'll be stopping at a diner tomorrow night for dinner (on my way home from New York)!

A classmate of mine who writes a wonderful blog called Baking and Books posted a recipe and a gorgeous picture of pancakes that she made. Take a look over there - and if you feel like making me some pancakes, know that I won't object! (but prefer chocolate chips to blueberries, in case you were wondering)

Remembering

A year ago tonight, by the Jewish calendar, children at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem were massacred in a terrorist act.

I think it is important to spend a few minutes remembering. Here is what I wrote last year.

Your prayers

I've put off writing this post because it is a hard one to write. How much do I share with the world-wide-web and how much do I keep private, within the family? How much do I air our laundry and how much do I let you share in the doing of the laundry? (to keep with the metaphor)

On the day of the Israel Bonds Dinner last month, my grandfather was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread to other organs. Between then and now, he has gone to a number of different doctors, switched internists (you wouldn't believe the will power it took on my part not to write horrible things here about the first doctor), and had a number of tests. Tomorrow he is meeting with the oncologist for the first time - and we're all hoping that we'll have some better answers afterwards.

My family believes in the power of prayer. It does not matter what your religion or belief, nor who or what you might direct that prayer to, but we would like to ask for your help in prayer. Papa's name is Richard Silver, and in Hebrew that is  ירחמאל צלל בן שפרה, Yerachmiel Tchallel Ben Shifra.

Thank you.

National Condom Week

Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Red Day!  יום אהבה שמח and....Happy National Condom Week! 

(yes, I'm sure that it was deliberately placed on the calendar)

Planned Parenthood has generously shared a couple of fabulous videos worth watching. I might even have to use them next time I teach sex ed. I'm not sure which one I like better, the Golden Girls episode or "the greatest condom commercial ever". (although I did almost fall off my seat laughing at the Golden Girls episode!)

Take your pick, they're both fabulous:

The Greatest Condom Commercial Ever

"Condoms, Rose. Condoms!"

You're not YOU!

That's what burst out of my mouth tonight, at the driver of a car that I had just gotten into...a car that wasn't the one that I was supposed to have gotten into!

I'm actually not sure what I meant by "you're not you!", I think I meant to say  "You're not Meg!", I don't know why "you" came out instead. Try to imagine the shock and look of horror on my face (and the driver's!) when I jumped into a stranger's car.

If you're done laughing at me, want to hear the story?

Meg and I had dinner plans, and she called to say that she was 3 minutes away, so I went downstairs to wait for her to pick me up. Then a car pulled up, looking just like her car, and pulled over to the side walk. There was a long line of cars behind this one, so I ran over, opened the passenger door, noticed that she hadn't bothered to clear off the front seat for me (messy girl!) and hopped in...

Then I looked over and panicked! It wasn't Meg!!!!! I had just invaded some poor woman's car! (and insulted her cleanliness in my head!)

I bolted out of there faster than the speed of light, my heart pounding and my cheeks burning with embarrassment.

The people in the car behind her laughed at me.

But its ok, I laughed at me too. (once I stopped feeling stupid and panicky). And now you can laugh with me.

How's your geography?

Nothing like a distracting game to waste time and take your mind off other things, right?

Click here and test your geography skills. Yes, Mom and Meg - two of my favorite (middle school) teachers - I want to know how well you do on this!

I got an 86%, with 43 out of the 50 states placed perfectly. Of course, the further along on the game I went, the easier it become. By the end, it was just a matter of putting puzzle pieces together (one of which I accidentally "dropped" a few miles away, so that lowered my score).

Popping In To Say Hello

I don't have anything to say.

I'm immersing myself in the start of a new semester at JTS, the continuation of projects that I've been working on at Gann, and finishing my thesis (due, in completed but draft form, in two weeks).

I miss posting. I'll try to get back in the swing of it.

Now I'm going back to my thesis....

All from a little test...

I saw a friend's result and took this test, and discovered my personality and relationship type. It was featured on 20/20 a few weeks ago, I think. It turns out that I am a "builder/explorer". If you want to know what that actually means....

This is what the test results say about me:

You are popular, trustworthy and dependable. People like you for many reasons; among them you tend to be stable, loyal and caring and you have a wonderful knack for common sense.

You are a guardian. Your relationships with friends, kin and colleagues are important to you. So you spend time and energy developing and nurturing these social networks.

You are a good executive and manager. People almost instinctively feel you can supervise financial, business and social issues effectively. And because you are sensible, factual, affable and socially savvy, you can. You work hard. You like plans and schedules. You are detail oriented. You follow the rules. And you tend to respect customs and traditions.

You have an impetuous, spontaneous, fun loving side, however. You like novelty-with in limits. And you have a lot of interests. This impetuous spirit adds energy and freshness to your sensible temperament, catches your friends off guard and makes you both dependable and exciting.

What do you think? I'm mostly impressed with the depth of information it gathered about me. There was more, but I didn't want you to get bored with it.

Go take the test and see what it knows about you!
(then obviously come back and share the results with me) ;)