Category — Show and Tell

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

So, it was a pretty rockin’ week. We got a new president and the ChickieNob got a new obsession; the bra I went to purchase today was so deeply on sale that I ended up with three of them; and…oh…wait…did I mention that Lindsay matched with a baby? Who is being born right now?

If you’re not having a good day, you may want to stop right here. I say this as a warning because there is a lot of baby stuff in this post and it may be difficult to read.

We were leaving this morning to go to the mall (to purchase said bra) and as I walked to the door, I saw an email pop up on my computer. And I swear to haShem, I knew in that moment that I had to go look at what it was because it was going to be something important. And it was Lindsay.

We got in the car and I immediately called her and she promised to call me back the moment she heard definitively. I clutched the phone (which, for those who know my dislike of cell phones, was a HUGE deal) the whole ride and only noticed when we reached the mall that I was dressed in all black but wearing furry brown shoes.

She called as we were nearing the Apple Store with the good news. I shared the news sentence by sentence with Josh as she filled me in on the details. The Wolvog sighed, “I am going to make that baby laugh” while the ChickieNob informed me that she was going to teach the baby how to swim.

I went to purchase the bra and discovered it was on sale. The saleslady went back to the rack to help me find two more in my size so I could have three for the price of one. She was this elderly lady and she was squinting at all of the tags with me and I just grabbed her and said, “this is the best week ever. We have a new president, my bra is on sale, and my friend just became a mother today!” This elderly saleswoman and I had an emotional outburst of tears–right amongst the push-up bras. I just wanted to add that in case years down the road, this post is still up and the baby is a middle schooler and reads it. I just want them to know that I shared the news of their birth with a random stranger amongst push-up bras.

Not to embarrass them, or anything.

I met up with Lindsay and some friends at the baby store. You know how sometimes you go to a wedding and you’re happy and all for the person but it isn’t really your happiness? Well, my sister’s wedding this summer was one of those events where everyone was happy. Literally. Every guest was grinning through the ceremony. And that’s what today was like. It was Lindsay’s happiness and we were all just along for the ride, but damn, we were a pretty joyous group.

Paying for a shitload of stuff

Hells yeah, throw another stuffed animal on the pile

If Mr. Badger had his way, it would be three-piece suits all the time

Clothes!

The first of many bottles of Dreft she’ll buy this year

Wait, you want to see that happiness one last time?

Adoption match bumped sugar flowers down the queue!

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

I had my feelings hurt by Facebook. Namely, a friend request I sent out this week. I will preface this by saying that I have no problem with someone not accepting my friend request–after all, I don’t accept a friend request if I can’t identify the person and they haven’t given me anything to go on such as their blog name–OR asking me how we know each other when I haven’t sent an additional message with the friend request. People get married and change their name, people need their memory jogged–I’m happy to do that.

But.

This week I added someone that I was friends with for six years and when I say “friends” I mean that he is in every damn photo album I own from 1992–1998. I even spent my very last night at college with him (okay, and with a large group of other people, but his arm is around me in dozens of pictures from that night). And the kicker was that once I added him, I told Josh this story about how he frustrates me and Josh asked why I added him and I admitted that I saw he lived near another friend of mine and I wanted to introduce them and this seemed like the easiest way.

So I sent the friend request along with a short note stating that it’s me, Melissa, from college. My maiden name and the college we attended. And he writes back, “how do we know each other?” How do we know each other? I yanked out a bunch of photo albums and showed them to the twins, placing Dan the Forgetful Man on trial. “Evidence A: my 21st birthday! Evidence B: some random night at Canterburys! Evidence C: somewhere on State Street!” At the end of presenting my evidence, I asked the twins if he was guilty of being a jerk and they replied yes. So, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.

Seriously, I can understand a person I dated for three months my freshman year forgetting me, but someone that I saw daily for four years and kept in touch with for several years post college? I’ve been to more schools than him–that means I have more people to juggle in my head. And I can remember him.

I would have been totally fine if he had just ignored the friend request and we both went on our merry way. Admittedly, I probably wouldn’t remember after a day or two that I sent it so we all could have walked away happy. But now he has made me wonder why someone is so sticky for me when I am so forgettable to them–and how you can be that forgettable after spending six years of your life being friends with someone. Sniff.

I wrote him back and said, “my mistake.” Even though I knew it wasn’t a mistake because I could see quite clearly from his icon picture that it is him.

So my Show and Tell this week are some pictures of me from back in college and grad school because I thought I should probably put them on Facebook and rotate them as my profile picture to jog the spotty memories of people like Dan the Forgetful Man.* My apologies–they are photographs of photographs because I don’t have access to a scanner today.

From college–as you can see, the squash blossoms were a hairstyle I enjoyed back then as well. When the twins saw this picture they said, “oh! That’s Lollipop Goldstein!”

In one of my offices during grad school. I somehow ended up with three offices–one that I requested in the library, and two that I was assigned in separate buildings. This was my least favourite one, but I really like this photo because it was taken on the day that I discovered the Catholic center on campus served vegetarian corn chowder daily and I began getting it for lunch several times a week. The chowder is not visible in this photo, but it still remains in my heart and probably my arteries. I didn’t have short hair, but it was tied back in a bun in this picture. But I like that it looked like I had short hair. Does that make sense?

*I know this is the first time it happened and more often than not, I reconnect with the person and we both exchange a few emails and are happy to catch up. But still, this one hurt. Especially because he also ate my bowl of green tea ice cream at my 21st birthday. Bastard.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

Actually, wait, before we begin, you voted for Stirrup Queens in the Weblog Awards, right? You haven’t? Go over and vote and then come back. It’s two clicks.

Okay, now let’s begin.

On Tuesday night, we lost power around 2 a.m. and for the first time ever, the twins came into our bed. I didn’t sleep at all on Tuesday night because the Wolvog wanted to play with my hair. All night. He wanted to tell me that he thought the grey was beautiful and that my hair smelled good and that he loved it. All from 2 a.m. until about 7 a.m.

In the morning, Josh got out of bed and the alarm went off. And the alarm could not be shut off. Even when wires were ripped out of the wall. It would wear itself out after 10 minutes of buzzing and then start all over again once someone moved and the sensor detected motion. A home security person came to the house and fixed it, but that was only after everyone’s nerves were fried.

Well, imagine our happy surprise when we lost power again the next night. We set up the twins with Plan A (sleep with the flashlights on until we’re ready for bed and then they can come into our room) and lit some candles downstairs so we could have a romantic dinner of cold cereal. “I’m going to read every Harry Potter book tonight,” I announced. It seemed like a great project. Josh pointed out that it would take a long time to read that many pages and I probably didn’t need to bring all seven books upstairs. But I disagreed.

We read and did crossword puzzles by candlelight until the lights came back on at ten and we thanked the gods for electricity and made hot tea and read blogs.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

If you’re here for the Creme de la Creme, it’s the post below this one. I also have a hotlinked icon on the right sidebar with the date and time of the last update. Entries are still coming in and the list will continue to be updated as new ones are added. Check back frequently…

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

What is the most delightful sound known to man? Yes, you guessed correctly, the Irish Penny Whistle.

I ended up with this beauty of an instrument because I had to live up to my moniker at school which was “the teacher who teases too much.” While in Galway on a school field trip (just in case you did a double take with that sentence, it was an experiential education school that had field trips each spring for everywhere from Ireland to Morocco to even Cuba, boycott be damned!), I told the children that I was going to treat them to a true Irish experience.

While they excitedly debated what this experience would be (remembering fondly the day I took them to tea at Bewley’s and promised the host my life if they so much as dropped a crumb on the floor and begged and begged and begged until he allowed me to bring 18 middle schoolers in to suck down clotted cream until their heart’s content), I picked up the whistle at a music store and tucked it into my bag.

Once back on the bus, I told them that I was now going to treat them to a live show of Irish music. Someone commented that they didn’t know that I played an instrument and I responded, “I don’t.” They were trapped on a bus with this for a solid hour. One of the high points of my trip.

For those who saw my earlier Facebook crowing about playing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and thought they were going to get to hear that treat, I apologize. That was a special on-command performance for Josh and the dryer repairman. But I’m happy to take requests for future installments of my new online show–The Irish Penny Whistle Hour.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s
name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

During my sophomore year of college, I started going abroad–usually to Europe–once a year. Most of the time, I was meeting someone over there that I knew and for some reason, they believed that I would enjoy hanging out in a Jewish section of town rather than experience the other 99.9% of the city. Fine, fine, I actually really enjoyed attending shul in Rome and hanging out at the Jewish nursing home in Oslo. But still–I’m not sure it was really necessary to walk several miles to see a sign in Hebrew that a friend found in Barcelona.

With that first trip, I started purchasing a dreidel wherever I went. I don’t really love Chanukkah but dreidels are small and inexpensive and can be thrown into a sock at the bottom of a bag and make it back to America in one piece. So we now have this incredibly large dreidel collection (most of the unbreakable ones have the commandeered by the ChickieNob and hidden around the house in small nooks that she refers to as her “snuvs”–I have only found two of her snuvs therefore, I’m not entirely sure where most of the dreidels are currently hidden).

Below are three of my favourites. The metal one is a gift from a friend who brought it back from Jerusalem (people know that I collect dreidels so I now end up with one when friends travel as well). The blue one in the center comes from Venice, Italy from the island of Murano. I ended up with this dreidel because while we were in a store, I spun a huge glass dreidel to show my friend how they work and it ended up spinning off the shelf and bounced off four cardboard boxes until it hit the floor completely in tact. Everyone in the store was silent and staring at me and I was so embarrassed that I picked it off the floor, grabbed that blue dreidel and said, “I’d like to buy this, please.” The last dreidel also comes from Israel and it is the one I purchased instead of the “one that got away”–a gorgeous metal dreidel that opened up like a locket. When I returned to the store, it was gone. I purchased this one because I loved the font used for the letters. And it says “nes gadol ha’ya po” (a great miracle happened here) instead of “nes gadol ha’ya sham” (a great miracle happened there) as all dreidels do outside of Israel.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.