Engagement Parties

The other day I went to an engagement party and here's a quick summary. Almost all of the guests were wearing black ( men and women). A party planner was involved as there were cookies, cakes, flowers, tablecloths, etc. with the same theme/color scheme. There were quite a few beautiful flower arrangements and presents on display in the corner.

Apparently, this was not unique to this engagement party as I've attended another one a few months ago which had similar characteristics ( except there were more colorful clothing choices as it was in the summer). So there is the l'chaim for the family/close friends, the engagement party, the shower, and the wedding. Apparently, if anybody is anybody they are expected to bring ( chip in for) a gift at each step of the way.

When did this become a norm? Is there a trend to give a smaller gift at the wedding which necessitated all the gift giving prior to the happy event? Or was I living in a cave and this has been happening for ages?

How quickly we forget

A week ago (7/7/09 to be exact) one of my relatives returned to the States after long 'religious' travels all over the world, the last stop of which was the great country of Ukraine.
It's possible that one of the few readers that I may have actually hails from that great country and still has lots of fond memories associated with it.

My relative and family had lots of fond memories of that great country, too. However, as they observed strict dietary laws even in Ukraine, they seem to be delighted by things and foods that stopped exciting me looooong time ago (can it be 20 years?).

For one thing, they couldn't get enough of those mediocre tasting chocolate vanilla ice cream, aka Dixie Cups. Naively I asked them if they like such ice cream. They just said that in Ukraine, they used to get dairy ( chalav israel) ice cream one a year, for Shavuot ( holiday) and to eat ice cream whenever was a real treat! A real treat to eat Klein's Dixie Cups!

How many times did I pass by Dixie Cups without even thinking of them as Ice Cream? I'd be embarrassed to admit. However, the Dixie Cups are my new symbol of how quickly we get used to something that's good and forget how good we have it.

Shabbat guests aka the tales from CNN

Last week we had to guests on shabbat lunch - a wholesale distributor (wh) and a financial analyst (fa).

B'H, no one was allergic to the first course, the salads also went with moderate success, and even cholent didn't disappoint.

Naturally, the conversation drifted to the economy. And all the money flushed down the toilet (the process euphemistically called 'the bailout'). I think I mentioned that some of these companies should file for bankruptcy. FA agreed, WH started to protest saying that it would be unfair to millions of people who'd become unemployed if a company like GM would go bankrupt.
FA politely tried to explain the process of how a corporation files for bankruptcy. WH again expressed his concern for the working class. FA politely pointed out that a big corporation like GM should not be confused with a local bakery. Local bakery goes out of business - people lose jobs; GM files for bankruptcy - restructuring happens, most people keep their jobs.

WH: But CNN says that if GM would go bankrupt millions of people would lose their jobs.

Here even I couldn't take it and politely pointed out to WH that just because CNN reports something, that something does not become absolute or even vague truth.

The conversation became a bit heated ( and unshabosdik) after that. Neither FA, a subject matter expert, nor I, an observer who pointed out that just because a story is reported doesn't make the story true, can stand in a way of a CNN chasid's economics.

In the end we agreed to disagree. And five days later I still wonder why anyone still perceives CNN as a source of useful information.

The simple truth

Today, while I was desperately attempting to catch up on some documentation politely left for me by my assistant who left for greener pastures during my vacation, my collegues were discussing our gym's politics. In a subdepartment of 7 it was quite an amuzing discussion.
It basically evolved around one person- who was nice to her, to whom she wasn't nice, retaliations, counter retaliations, etc, etc, etc. Naturally, the person who was discussed wasn't in the gym, but that's besides the point.

I told the general public my opinion on the matter. Then I said that I don't believe people should confuse coworkers and friends, especially if there is some inequality in rank. Be polite and friendly with everyone and stop there. Not much room would be left for hurt feeling that would interfere with job performance, etc.

Then the subject shifted to odnoklasniki.ru and one of my collegues husband's finding me there
-> my ambivalence about being 'friends' with people whom I used to know in my social-butterfly-days with whom I pretty much lost all contact -> the public admission ( though I've never kept it a secret). I can pretty much count my friends on the fingers of my hand. Though the 'admission language was 'I don't have friends' after which I realize I should probably elaborate.

--I only make phone calls on my way to and from work (even lunch time is phone free), my mailbox if frequently full ( because 1-I save messages from friends and think that in this way I'd call them back faster, and 2- I check my messages ~1x/wk or when someone sends me a text saying that my mailbox is full), I don't check my email as religiously as I used to, etc.

But I also admitted that after a while I decided to try to be ' friends' on these social sites with all the people that I used to know. I honestly tell them that I 'collect' friends- what the heck, one never knows where an opportunity for a rekindled friendship or a personal reform may come from.

PS It's 12:50AM now and I'm too lazy to check if this post is intelligible. Life.

Shoes and socks!

How can I forget this one! For about a month, Eh's been successfully donning all sorts of shoes. And for a good couple of weeks, socks joined the shoes!
As I'm writing this, I can't help the feeling that somehow life is happening and I periodically get glimpses of it and then go back into oblivion...

On living in a cave

I think it was a couple of years after college that I found myself an inexpensive cave and lived there a few days a week. Since those days, the cave's become my permanent residence and I get out of there a couple of times a month ( give or take a few).
Luckily for me I work in a facility which has TVs on every floor and most of them are on all the time. That's how I get to watch the early show, racheal ray show, the view, the price is right, 12p news, millionaire, all my children, days of our lives, one life to live, general hospital, oprah, 5p news, occasional ellen, and occasional cnn.
I sometimes used to buy a newspaper from a nice indian guy on Jamaica Avenue, if I was waiting by the light. But I pretty much stopped that- there is no point in bringing in recycable material into the house, keep it my desk for a few days, forget to recycle it on the designated day and then keep it in recycling pile for another week. And all that in hopes of reading some headlines, to get out of the cave.
Sometimes, my coworkers have newspapers on their desks- I'll read those even if they are a few days old - to me they are usually still news.
There is also they 10p news- but the anchors are too enthusiastic for that time of day for me to watch the whole hour. And, often I find better things to do with my time.
Yahoo news (most often in headline form) is one of my sources of information but lately I don't get too much web time.
My sister periodically sends me links and articles but because of my limited web time, I get to about 5% of that stuff.
I DO pretty religiously listen to bloomberg radio with includes world news , muse news, and lots of fun market information. BUT, with all these sources of my information, I somehow missed Dumbledore's eulogy and all that followed.
I even discussed it with Barb C yesterday (it seems like she gave me a verbal report of it when it happened- the verbal reports, btw, are yet another source of my current events) and why the world was better off without the above mentioned eulogy.
Maybe I should be more thankful to my cave for my general state of content. And maybe I've been feeling so blah in the last few days because one of my coworkers early Mon morning gave me a verbal report of some local dentist's shooting right before his 4 year old daughter. (And, I've been hearing about it from many people since. Those who have heard the story, may realize why some think I should know about, too).
Anywho, must go to post office and mail a time sensitive package before it becomes a bunch of clothes of useless sizes in a recycled box.