Saturday, February 21, 2015

Lightning, Fire, Action!

This weekend the whole mishpucha gathered to celebrate The Crazy Lady's twenty-something-th birthday. We were all very excited to celebrate the special occasion and combined with the crazy weather, things got a little bit out of control.

In typical Polly style, the festivities were heavily focused on food. We kicked off the weekend with a big bagel brunch on Friday morning. After brunch we split up and headed to our respective kitchens where we turned out tray after tray of mouthwatering delicacies. 

Due to the crazy weather we all opted to squish into the Fambily house to avoid having to walk home in the rain. We sat down to dinner accompanied by a symphony of pouring rain and rolling thunder. Throughout the meal we commented on the thunder and occasionally stopped to watch bolts of lightning flash through the sky. 

We were eating our main course when there was a particularly bright bolt of lightning immediately followed by a loud crack of thunder that made the walls shake. Everyone looked around in awe as rain and hail pounded on the windows. I looked out the window and noticed that something looked a little off. Closer inspection revealed that the lightning had struck a nearby palm tree, causing it to go up in flames. 

Everyone panicked and crowded around the window to watch the palm tree blazing in all its glory as the rain and hail whipped around it. A firetruck passed by as fiery chunks of the tree came loose and floated across the street. The firemen didn't seem to find the matter overly pressing and continued down the street to respond to some other call that they had gotten. 

We continued to watch the trees demise as the top of the tree cracked off and tumbled to the ground where it was drenched by the rain and finally went out. The firetruck came back around and stopped by the still smoldering tree. They unpacked their hose and somehow managed to miss the tree on their first try. They made a few more attempts to put out the already extinguished tree before packing up their equipment to head back to the fire station after a job well done.

Lunch was infinitely less exciting than the previous meals spectacular light show, but there was loads of delicious food and birthday festivities to compensate. We napped, played and ate lots of deserts until shabbos came to an end. 

We ended the weekend with a pizza party before saying goodbye to The Freddie's and Nemdy's. 

I think I might be in a pizza coma after volunteering to eat all of the leftover pizza. It was delicious and I have only minor regrets about my selfless decision.

All in all, a typical family get together. 

Sunday, February 15, 2015

The Five Stages Of Finals

Finals are a rough time. This is something that I had always been aware of (having watched many of my friends and family grapple with the harsh and unforgiving time) but had never experienced first hand, until recently. 

The last few weeks have taught me that the best way to survive finals is to tackle it in stages. These stages are remarkably similar to the five stages of grief. 

Overly optimistic and wildly unprepared, I approached finals with a big cheery smile and what I hoped was a positive attitude. This was the first stage, denial. 

Denial can affect us each in different ways. For me there was a resounding sense of invincibility. I was positive that I could do anything, that I could not fail. The first test was a breeze, I marked down the answers that I knew and then confidently guessed the rest of them. I was sure that the mere fact that I had marked down a certain answer, would lead to it being right.

We got our grades from the first test back and I was unsure how I felt about it. Next up was psychology, I knew the teacher was a little off but I figured the test couldn't be too bad. Turns out I was way off about the test not being "too bad" the questions were vague and the answers, ambiguous at best.

Upset and frustrated I walked out of that test in a rage. Thus making a seamless segue into the second stage, anger.  The second stage didn't last long as, prior to the next test, I immediately transitioned into the bargaining stage.  

I soon realized that bargaining wasn't really helping matters. Things took a turn for the worst when I noticed that the hose in my shower had a crack in it. The rational part of my brain said "Be a big girl and call your land lord" but the less rational and over stressed part of my brain reasoned that no showering = less time to get ready in the morning = more time for sleeping.

The sudden turn of events, combined with the sheer exhaustion and an overpowering sense of doom, nudged me into the fourth stage. Nothing really mattered anymore so why bother studying or showering. I could fail my tests smelling like a hobo just as well as I would being clean and well dressed. 

Almost as if to fit my mood, there was a drastic change in weather. The temperature dropped and big gloomy rain clouds rolled in to drench the city in icy rains. I sought refuge from the rains in my apartment. I spent a good couple of hours glaring at my notes with as much contempt as I could muster.

I had given up on passing my finals but I hadn't given up on everything. I knew I had eaten far too many cookies and that I couldn't avoid going to the gym forever. I walked into the gym and saw that it was pretty full. As I was standing in the middle of the big room I noticed some people giving me funny looks. 

One guy was making this weird gesture towards my legs. I had on a relatively new pair of leggings and wondered how he had known. The weird gestures continued and I looked down to discover that my leggings were on inside out. 

Trying to keep my cool I nonchalantly nodded and said "They're supposed to be like that, it's called fashion...". For a second there I thought he might have bought it but then he pointed to the not so conspicuous tags on display and then went back to working out. 

Standing in the middle of the gym with my leggings on inside out, I decided that it was time to make a change. After slipping into the bathroom for a minute to fix the leggings situation and working out I headed home to call my landlord about the shower situation. 

Unfortunately, my landlord had a slipped disk and was unable to come fix the shower but I did take advantage of the country clubs free water and showered there. 

Acceptance, who knows? All I know is that no matter how hopeless and despairing finals may seem, you have to remember that there is always moed bet.

I still have one last test left and I'm really not sure how that's gonna go but I'm hoping for the best. It would probably go better if I stopped procrastinating and actually studied but that's not really my style.... 

Monday, February 2, 2015

To Don't List

Today, I had plans. My plans did not go exactly the way I thought they would.

Last night I made a "To Do List" because my unsurpassable procrastination skills have been making it exceedingly difficult to focus on studying for my exams. 

I started it off with some easy tasks to get the ball rolling because mornings are hard and to be completely honest, I'm not very good at them.

Here's a look at my super exciting To Do List that I wrote sometime very late last night when I was feeling exceptionally ambitious.


Just in case it's hard to read....

Things You Should Probably Do:
  • Get out of bed 
  • food
  • Gym
  • More food
  • Shower!!!
  • Chemistry
  • More chemistry
  • Food 
  • even more chemistry
  • (study w/ people?)
  • Dinner
  • CHEMISTRY (no TV)
  • k fine, TV
  • food/Sleep? (you'll figure it out)
Not too crazy and definitely some attainable goals. 

I woke up to the patronizing sound of my alarm clock, immediately hit snooze and did my best to fall back asleep. 

Remember when I said that I wasn't great at mornings? Well, some time between hitting snooze and trying to fall back asleep I lost my phone amidst my warm and cozy blankets. 

The alarm rang again and I reached over to snooze it only to discover that I had no clue where the phone had gone. I frantically began to search for it as the volume increased, alerting everyone in the neighborhood to the fact that I had failed at the first task on my list.

Pillows and blankets went flying as I continued the search for my phone. I got out of bed and desperately started to shake out my blankets. My phone landed on the rug just as the alarm stopped ringing. I quickly shut off the alarm and then begrudgingly checked off the fist thing on my list.

Not in the best of moods but most certainly out of bed, I grabbed a granola bar and headed for the gym. 

My workout was pretty uneventful but on the way home I saw my landlord who informed me that she was on her way to find some kumquats so that she could make kumquat jam. According to her, kumquat jam is delicious and I really should try it some time. I promised that I would try and taste some jam and then wished her much luck on her quest for kumquats. 

Feeling pumped up from the gym and my exhilarating conversation about kumquats, I decided that I was ready to do something. I took a look at my list and was delighted to discover that the next task included food. 

I ate, showered, did laundry, painted my nails, ate some more and then remembered that I was supposed to be studying chemistry. 

There were some pitiful attempts to study and when I'd had quite enough of that, I decided that it was time for dinner.

I stuck my dinner into the toaster oven and while I was waiting for it to be ready, I figured I'd make a salad. I went to the fridge to get the lettuce where I noticed a box of cream sitting on the top shelf. There was a moment of internal debate as I reasoned that eating something covered in cream was ultimately healthier than eating salad. 

My mind made up I put water up to boil so that I could make rice pasta. While I was waiting for the water to boil I found a bar of chocolate that I had procured from The Freddie's on my last visit there. 

A few minutes later I sat down at the table with a mug of hot chocolate, picked up my fork and then realized that something wasn't right. 

The smell of slightly overcooked fish hung in the air as the timer on the toaster oven went "ding!".  I rescued the fish which as you may have guessed, was a tad "well done" but edible nonetheless. 

I finished my dinner and took a look at my list. I'm pleased to note that I was able to check off a lot of the things on my list. Most of which involved food and had little to do with studying.

Regardless, I will consider this a small victory on my journey to learning how to check things off of lists.