This is a picture of the printing press at my office. It's a press that prints books. If I was better at taking pictures with my blackberry, you'd be able to see that right now, the press is printing my book.
It's called God: Jewish Choices for Struggling with the Ultimate. It's a book on theology for teenagers. I edited it and wrote all the educational pieces. A group of 17 other people wrote the rest of it.
And it will be out in a matter of days.
Sara and I went to New Orleans last weekend for Ben and Amanda's wedding. Ben and Amanda used to be my roommates.
Usually, when you go to a wedding, there are a few people there that you know, mostly because they know the bride and/or groom the same way you do. This wedding was no different. Amanda and I went to school together, so a good group of our classmates were there. What made this wedding weird was that I used to live with Ben and Amanda, who had frequent houseguests from all over the country (though mostly from the South). So there were lots of people at the wedding who had slept on my couch on one occasion or another. It was a very surreal experience... all these people coming up to me and saying, "Hey! You used to live with them, right? Remember me?" (There was also the friend of Amanda's who came up to me and was like, "Do you know who I am?", and I had no idea because she had straightened her hair, and I had always remembered her as Amanda's curly-haired friend.)
The highlight of the wedding -- besides all the delicious New Orleans food I at over the course of the weekend -- was the parade that we were in. Apparently, it's some sort of New Orleans custom to have parades in honor of weddings and funerals. So when the wedding and the reception were over, all the guests gathered outside the hotel to meet a brass band and a police escort (!) who led us through the French Quarter. We basically sang and danced and talked and drank the whole way. (I even had my beer refilled by some lady with a pitcher standing outside a bar.) People on the streets cheered for us (well, really for Ben and Amanda), and we waved these white handkerchiefs in the air. It was very very cool. Ben and Amanda led the parade, holding umbrellas (this is apparently part of the tradition).
So that's how I got to be in my first parade.
Also, I love suspenders. They keep your pants up, which is kind of important when you're in a parade.
Don't leave your GPS unit in the car. Someone could shatter your driver's side window, reach in, and take it out.
Then the window won't be covered by insurance because it will be less than your deductible. So you'll be out $208 for a window, and you will no longer have a GPS.
Trust me on this.
Went to the Dave Matthews Band concert tonight with Jason and Stephanie. It was a pretty awesome show. Here's the setlist:
Monday Oct 1 2007
Hollywood Bowl
Update: Stephanie emailed me to tell me that the night after we went (Dave played two shows at the Bowl), John Mayer joined the band on stage. This called for serious analysis. Did we go to the right show?
On one hand, by going to the first show, we missed john mayer, and we also missed DMB playing with Stephen and Ziggy Marley (they played Exodus, one of my favorite Bob songs). We also missed four of my favorite songs (Crush, Two Step, Warehouse, and Grey Street).
On the other hand, on the second night they played a lot more unfamiliar stuff (five unreleased songs), and Mayer only played on one song (#41, which I think is always way too long and isn't that awesome of a song in the first place). It also sounds like it was just a much mellower concert... in addition to #41, they also played #34 and Crush... and their pre-encore finale was Stay, which i guess is upbeat, but doesn't compare to Too Much. We also got a longer encore our night, and lots and lots of upbeat stuff (Ants, Jimi Thing, So Much to Say, Too Much, Tripping Billies!), and we were one of the only shows on the whole tour where they played Satellite. Also, we got four more songs on our night.
So in the end, I'm glad we went on the night we did. If you'd shown me both setlists beforehand, and said, "Pick one show to go to...", I would have chosen Monday over Tuesday.
I think.
What's Josh's is now mine, and what's mine is now Josh's. That means that now I get to write on the blog :) hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha!
As you may have heard, or simply now just figured out, this week Josh asked me to marry him. We're very excited to share the news, but you're gonna have to call or email to get the whole story (or check the eventually forthcoming knot.com website).
Suffice it to say that you know you watch too much TV when your engagement story is best told over a round of appletinis.
Engagement High Five!
"Your child has exhibited no signs of a personality this semester."
"You child is about as useless as a poop-flavored lolly pop."
"Your kid might actually learn something if you stopped picking him up an hour early to take him to baseball practice."
"There isn't enough ritalin in the world."
"Your kid is very social. Too social. Please advise him that he may not remove his pants during Hebrew school."
"Your child can't read Hebrew, doesn't know Abraham the patriarch from Abraham Lincoln, and doesn't know any of the prayers. But it's ok... He'll have his bar mitzvah, and you'll feel like you got your money's worth."
"What's more important: your Lakers season tickets or your kids Jewish education? Nevermind. Don't answer that."
I teach an 8th grade Hebrew school class on Tuesday nights.
Tonight, I was teaching about generosity and tzedakah. After discussing some text, I split the class into three teams. Each team was given a hypothetical $100. I asked them to, as a team, figure out a way to spend their $100 that would most help the world.
One group was discussing whether or not to donate some of their money to (in their words) "save Darfur." One of the girls in the group asked, "What's 'save Darfur'?" Another girl answers, "It's for black people far away."
Thank God another of the kids in the group was able to give a real explanation.
Two crazy things happened at lunch today.
I was walking through University Village, which is a giant strip-mall with a food court adjacent to the USC campus. They have a bathroom there. I needed to use the bathroom. So I entered.
I'm standing at the urinal, doing my business, and a woman walks out of a stall. Now, I'm sure I was in the right bathroom (it says "Men" on the door and it has urinals). I do a double take.
The woman is holding a bucket, cleaning supplies, and a mop. She is there in order to clean the bathroom
I say, "Excuse me."
She says, "No problem. Do what you gotta do."
She then continues to clean, as if it would not be bothersome to someone that a woman is hanging out in the men's bathroom while he's trying to, you know, do what he went there to do.
Thankfully, I have no problem using the facilities while there's someone in the room. So I went ahead and did what I had to do.
Then...
I went to Subway to get a sandwich for lunch.
I had never been to the Subway at University Village before. This is a giant Subway. It has two counters, arranged perpendicular to each other. One is a normal Subway counter, where you go up and make your sandwich and then watch them make it.
The other counter is magical. It looks like a normal counter, except it has these touch-screen kiosks in front of it, kind of like the self-serve kiosks at the airport.
You order your sandwich from the kiosk. They make your sandwich. Then they call your number, you grab your sandwich, and you leave. The kiosks let you do all the customization -- for any vegetable or condiment you can tell it to put on less or more -- and it even lets you add things like avocado or bacon, or have your sandwich toasted. This is the coolest technology I've ever seen.
According to a press-release from Pro-Tech Kiosks, the company that makes these technological wonders,
The Kiosks provide an intuitive touchscreen interface with large buttons, enticing graphics/photos of the food options; from fresh subs to salads, as well as a full array of toppings and assorted condiments. A pleasant, and encouraging, voiceover assists the customer with the ordering process, each step of the way.
Customers are able to order quicker, minimize order errors from poor communication, choose from a number of upgrade options (value meal, double meat, extra cheese) and to be able to pay at the Kiosk with their credit or debit card. In addition, the software, text and voiceovers are able to switch to a different language, such as Spanish, with the touch of a single button such that Subway can better serve different demographic markets.
So I ordered my sandwich at the kiosk. The voice was pleasant. The interface was easy to use. Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds (I checked) later, my order was ready. Wow.
Oct. 4, 2006 • Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, Calif.
(Went to the show with Sara, Ben, and Amanda; rode there with Josh W. and Mich.)
Set List:
Gumboots
Boy in the Bubble
Outrageous
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Slip Sliding Away
You're the One
Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard
How Can You Live in the Northeast
Mrs. Robinson
Loves Me Like a Rock
That Was Your Mother
Duncan
Graceland
Father & Daughter
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
The Only Living Boy in New York
Cecilia
Encore:
Call Me Al
Still Crazy After All These Years
The Boxer
Second Encore:
Wartime Prayers
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Third Encore:
Late in the Evening
I'm in Germany right now on a trip with the Jewish communal service program.
They have a lot of Germans in Germany, most of whom speak German.
Also, it turns out that wursts are awesome.
More to follow, when I have a second to actually write something.
