More productive stalking
So the internet, it fuels my need to stalk people from the past and I’ve become expert at it. I can usually find out where people got married, how much they paid for their house, and what kind of music they like listening to provided their names aren’t so common. It gets tricky when I go hunting for the guy I dated briefly my senior year in high school (Mike Thomas) or the second guy I ever kissed (Jim Smith).
I found one of the kids I grew up babysitting after figuring out she changed her last name when she got married. (Although I struggle to deny it, the baby I used to babysit is indeed old enough to be married AND old enough that nobody would say, “What?! Why’s that child getting married so young???”) She looks hale and hearty and oh so happy and I’ll admit to wiping away a tear when I fumbled my way through her Facebook.
I babysat these kids from the time I was about 12 until I was at least 21 because I know I brought Brett along to see Kohli in Annie as produced by Grove City’s Little Theater Off Broadway. Her dad was Daddy Warbucks and she had the lead. For those of you who know my Annie obsession, which ran deep in my youth, you will appreciate that this was a heady moment for me.
People are far-flung these days. Thank god for the interwebz miracle that lets me find folks I used know and who still matter to me. It’s a gift to discover them again.
(By the way, being the inadequate Jew that I am, the kids are doing their homeschool activities today even though it’s pretty much the holiest day of the year. I know. I know. I can’t get it together Jewishness-wise. It’s harder than you think to be a Jew-by-choice and culturally by birth so she thought she was Jewish all her life and yet never observed any of the holidays so had to convert an who is living in an interfaith family. I keep thinking that when the kids are grown and I have more time…)
Hey, we’re assholes who scheduled a panel meeting for today. Yoinks.
Strict religious observation can be terribly inconvenient. Maybe that’s why I stick with the whole “I’m more spiritual than religious” theory. It really does offer a near perfect excuse when matters such as these arise. lol
“Thank god for the interwebz miracle that lets me find folks I used know and who still matter to me. It’s a gift to discover them again.”
I feel the same way. It’s a beautiful thing.
sounds like you’ve got the guilt of yom kippur down pat. and the “vidui” (”confession”) part - here you put it out there on the web for everyone!
wishing you and your family a happy and healthy new year.
it just so happens that i learned today that jews are frums or freis. the frum is a religious jew and a frei is a nonreligious one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frum
i guess you and i are freis.
So, for the first time in weeks I looked at my blogroll and say your post and one on jewschool about this magazine http://www.newvoices.org/ and, you know, it’s a good reminder that there are a lot of ways to be a Jew.
May you be sealed for a good and sweet new year.