Welcome to November!

I’m not going to start this post with an apology for the length of time that it’s been since I have written a post, because I really feel that true apologies can only be shown through action.  So, I’m going work harder to find a couple minutes a night to sit down and get a type up a blog post.  I honestly find it quite weird that I recently haven’t made it such a priority, because quite frankly I don’t view blogging as any sort of burden or anything like that.  I really enjoy the whole experience, and even more than that I take pleasure from it because any time that I spend writing is time that I’m taking for myself.  Regardless, the point is that I’m going to put more effort into spitting out a blog post more often. 

For today’s post, instead of recapping day by day I’m just going to give a little bit of a summary.  In ESPN/sports terms, I’m going to give the Top 10 Plays as opposed to the Game Replay.  So here we go.

For the past week or two, my Av and Em Bayit (the Mernicks) have been expecting the birth of their second child.  On Tuesday morning, in the middle of one of my Judaic classes, Michal Bayla was born! So, I just want to say Mazal Tov and that I’m excited to play with her and watch her grow as the year goes on.

Another very exciting thing I’d like to share is that we have entered the month of November.  For those of you who remember, I’m pretty sure I said that I couldn’t buy my membership to the on-campus workout gym until it was November.  Thankfully the clock struck November and I bought the membership as soon as possible!  I went to the gym before school, at 6, on November 1^st and had a beautiful boxing-style workout.  I should mention that throughout my life I have always had an issue with working out early in the morning. The issue being that I get at least super nauseated.  So, let’s talk about what happened… I had a great workout, which was my first in way too long, it was 6:45ish in the morning, and I was walking back to my apartment.  Anyone want to guess what happened? I’ll tell you.  I puked.  It was really yucky, and it came after a good five minutes of serious nausea.  Unfortunately I still had to shower and get to school so I tried to get everything done as quickly and with the least amount of nauseating movement as possible, but that was a little bit of a difficult task.  I made it happen, though, and I have got to the bus on time! Hurray! What’s the moral of the story? Some have said that it’s to not work out in the morning.  I’m not so sure that I’d jump straight to that because, after all, I did go to a 6:15 boxing class many mornings a week this summer without nausea.  So I know that it’s possible.  I think it’s about getting enough sleep the night before, eating appropriately between waking up and working out, and drinking enough water throughout the workout.  I’m definitely going to try the early morning workout thing again, I’m just not quite yet sure how soon that will be.  For now, I’m going to stick to the after school time slot.  

Continuing on the same topic of keeping myself healthy over here, let’s talk about what a successful weekend I had in terms of making food.  Right now I have so much good food in my fridge that it’s something along the lines of a miracle.  I made a fat Tupperware of quinoa, I made a foil pan of whole wheat pasta, I made challot for Shabbat with the help of Ayelet Yablok (we had a Thursday night challah-making program), and I took a couple pieces of leftover chicken from our on-campus Shabbaton this past Shabbat.  

I want to expand, for a second, on the fact that I took a couple pieces of leftover chicken.  Okay.  To put it simply, I’m pretty sure that in my childhood I promised myself I would never be that person who takes a plate of food home from a Kiddush table, buffet line, or public gathering with food.  As one of our Rabbis said that we had total permission to take home any un-eaten food I thought about this promise to myself and was totally not going to take any food.  But then I had another thought: Why would I deny myself the opportunity to eat real food for a meal in my near future?  For a couple of seconds I debated heavily between picking the desire to not be that person and my desire to partake in a healthier couple of meals.  Oh, the dilemma it was.  In the end I decided to take a couple pieces of chicken because I figured that saving money and eating more healthfully were more important.  I also wasn’t so clear that this specific instance fell under the exact definition of the terms of my promise to myself- but that might just be justification. Haha.  

Another thing I’d like to share is that since yesterday was Sunday I had my Magen David Adom (E.M.T.) training course from 1:00-7:00.  We spent the first two hours reviewing and practicing both CPR with two people working out of an ambulance and street CPR for one person.  I just want to mention that I did CPR with two people working out of an ambulance with my friend Mendy, and we totally kicked butt.  We saved our patient with little to no assistance from our instructor, and we did it much faster than most every other group.  Hurray for saving lives! It’s obviously going to be a whole different story when we are doing CPR on real people, but until then I’m happy with Mendy and my ability to rescue the dummy.  

Today is Monday.  Mondays are annoying because I have the least number of classes, and I don’t like that.  I would totally take more classes but there’s quite simply not options for me.  It’s quite lame.  On the positive side, I’ll be home today by 4ish, and I’ll have a good chunk of time to work out before it gets too late.  We also have some programming options tonight, which should be fun.

Let’s talk about how a piano was discovered in the building where all of my Judaic classes take place… What. A. Discovery.  I’ve been kind of on the tired out side of things lately (that’s not a cue for any of you worriers to worry about me, because I’m totally fine), but I took the liberty of partaking in the piano experience during my break today which cured me right up.  I sat at the piano for about five minutes, because that’s all the time that I had until a woman walked in with a super musically-inspired, excited look on her face wanting to play it herself.  So I gave it to her.  But I am about to go back there and enjoy the beauty of music.  It’s funny because it’s not like I ever learned how to play piano.  I just kinda figured some things about through trial-and-error on the piano at Yeshiva.  

Okay, it’s time to go enjoy the piano.  Have a wonderful night if you’re in America, and have a great afternoon and evening if you’re in Israel! Hopefully I’ll write another post really soon.  But until then, adios amigos!

Oh, wait. I feel that it is only appropriate to publicly wish my one and only Garci Warci Garcipoozle Garcel (Grace Almo) a very Happy 18th Birthday! If you see her today, give her a hug for me!!