Roommates and such!

Alright!!! I got an email from JTS giving me my residence hall number, new mailing address, email for the school, AND three new roommates! Two of the girls are Jewish but do not strictly follow kashrut laws for cooking and such, and the other girl isn't Jewish, so we don't need to worry too much about keeping a kosher kitchen. Unless we have friends come over who DO follow kashrut...and then the one girl suggested we just go to the nearest michvah and have our dishes cleansed! haha.

They sound really great: all three have some kind of degree in history and two have degrees in Anthropology, so it sounds like we all have thoroughly similar interests of study. We've already emailed each other a million times to figure out who's bringing what and it's all pretty much entirely figured out. Sweet! Also, I won't be the oldest. One of the girls graduated in 2007, the other two just graduated this year. Weird, I'll be with students who would have been in my brother's class! haha. They all sound really nice and we all have similar extracurriculars and life styles, it sounds. Good job, JTS Res Life! I am getting SO excited about move-in day (which has apparently changed again to Sunday, August 29th). I'd really like to know which day I'm actually supposed to be there because arriving earlier means I have to wait in a hotel because they don't let people in early. :/ The calendar on the website says August 31st for grad students...

Oh wells. We'll see. Today is Eric's grad party and I don't get to help set up beforehand because I have to work 8-4! boo. And it's been pouring rain ever since I got up. Great. Well, we'll see how this goes!

Trying out a new template...

I had a lovely time out with Kimmie last night. That is until the mussels caught up with me. Kimmie, I hope you didn't have the troubles I did last night because I wouldn't wish it upon anybody. I was in so much pain and was so sick that I woke up my mom to ask her for her nursely advice. We decided to see if I could wait it out, but if it got worse that then we'd go to the ER. Thank God it did go away. Omg, I didn't feel that bad when I had the FLU. Anyway, it's over, and I'm still recovering. I'm skipping out on our family Reading Philies game because I don't want to push my luck. I went to set up the tent to see if anything was needed before camping with Stuart, and that was enough to bring on a wave of nausea and I had to lay down to 30 minutes before I felt revived enough to continue with my next thing. There's no way I could survive a baseball game.

So now I'm trying to work myself up to a point where I feel comfortable driving to the store to get some more camping supplies. I need to go through the shed and get a pot and a pan and other cooking supplies we have stashed away for camping. At some point I also need to take the tent back down, but I may make my brothers do that. I need to clean my fish tank too! Crap! Man, I don't feel like doing any of this...

To top of the plans for camping, though, the weather forecast calls for chance of thunderstorms ALL WEEK. However, it's only "scattered" or "isolated" or "intermittent", meaning there will be a t-storm for 10 minutes and then everything will be perfect again (a.k.a. sunny and 90). :) I'm really excited about this! My dad gave me a good idea to go buy a large wagon to help bring everything onto the beach. That way there's a lot less we need to carry. ooo...I should call them and make sure that's ok to bring onto the ferry or something...hmmmm.

Well, I'll be MIA for a week online. Hope everyone else has a good week and I'll see you next week!

A Sad Loss

Tonight Fatty is going to be put down. :'( My fat cuddle cat that we've had for 10 years. He has kidney failure and the only thing that can be done is to prolong his life and nothing can be done to heal him. I'm glad he'll be put down before he really gets bad. I don't want to see him suffer. It's hard enough seeing him walk around really weak, getting thin, and not eating for over 48 hours. Fatty's been our longest living cat. It's going to be weird coming home and not having a horrendously large orange blob pop it's head out the cat door to our basement and emit his raspy, piercing meow to ask for food; not hearing the ridiculously loud and constant purring, or the strange grunts he makes when he gets annoyed or scared; not being greeted by the hard head rub demanding undivided and infinite attention; or never again seeing that funny face he makes when you scratch just the right spot behind his ears - the one where one eyes pops out real big and the other goes into a miniscule squint, makes a little snarl lip, and digs his claws into whatever material happens to be beneath him.

My poor Fatty.

The decision is final...

After a short visit to the Jewish Theological Seminary, my decision was made: I'm going to JTS! I was leaning heavily towards them before visiting just because they gave me so much financial aid, but I wanted to make sure they'd be a good fit. I knew the instant I walked through those doors.

The area of Manhattan is just perfect: produce markets, coffee shops, falafel places, and green green green. The Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University are withing walking distance, and so is Central Park. Not to mention, I was told, it is the safest area of NYC. The campus is intimate and cozy with a tiny enrollment size (there are only 55 undergrads graduating this weekend!). I felt so comfortable and was warmly welcomed by everyone I met, and they were all so willing to go out of their way to help me get to where I needed to be or what I needed to know. AND there is housing a-plenty for me to live on-campus! The lady I met in financial aid even told me to make sure I put in for "entertainment expenses" when I anticipate how much of a loan to get! haha. Everyone had something wonderful to say about the area and the great things that are provided for students and anyone working at the school. I was told that I'd know every student by the end of my first semester.

I think I've made the right decision. :) Now to do the paperwork and formally notify them of my decision!

And so begins May...

Well May is finally here and it is SUPER busy! I'm not going to get in teaching everything that needs to be taught to the 7th grade. When I mentioned it to the other teachers they said, "Oh well, teach them off the exam because we get that soon." Well alrighty then. May is just packed full of field trips and play practices and concerts! phew! I get to go to the zoo on Friday with preschool and kindergarten! yay! I'm really excited about that.

I now have a summer job working with the same company only a different house for their summer camp! That should be fun! Unfortunately I need to put in for a house transfer and can't get a hold of my house because they have the fax set up. All I get when I call is SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!! Deafening.

Did you know that my automatic spell checker says that the word scrapple doesn't exist? Weird.

Next week I'm going to see the Jewish Theological Seminary! woot! I received an email from them last night saying they'd have all my "meeting times" set up by tomorrow and were wondering if I wanted a tour of the graduate housing. SHA-WING! I hope that means they have space available and I don't have to look for an apartment in Manhattan!

My little brother is now home from college too! I missed my widdle brova. ;) His graduation is this weekend and we're all going up to Jordan's cabin for a party celebration!!! I'm excited. Then my dear little brother will be home for....a really really long time! Just like me! haha.

Well, time to try the house again and then back to work for the afterschool program! Today was payday, too! I'm only $100 away from my new laptop now!!!! I hope I can get it by the end of June so I can start learning how to use a Mac. lol.