NYRR BKLYN HALF MARATHON 2016 OCEAN PARKWAY, BROOKLYN

    Every year Midwood , Brooklyn is treated to the  Brooklyn Half Marathon. Its a 12 mile marathon that starts at the Brooklyn Museum and ends in Coney Island. It runs down Ocean Parkway which is blocked off for the runners. It is always on Shabbos. It was today and I passed by it . It was fun to watch all of the surprised frum Jews crossing through the runners on Ocean Parkway on their way to shul. This video did not capture that , but I saw it. It was especially fun to see the reaction of little kids who once they had made their mad dash through the runners wanted to do it again. 

A Fire Among Us

      There was a devastating fire in Brooklyn on Friday  night that left seven children from one family dead . Two other family members were severely injured. I do not think that I can add anything more that has not been already said. I do not know all of the details nor do I want to . When people get all of the the details they start making judgements and thats where all of the trouble  begins.
       Naturally, instead of dwelling on the details of this shattered family I will give my own thoughts.
       Lately I have noticed more sirens than usual in Midwood, especially on shabbos. Every time I hear sirens I hope that I do not know the victims. This shabbos was really no different. I heard a lot of sirens and hoped I would not get to hear why they went off. This time I heard the story behind some of the sirens. Very upsetting. Fortunately I did not find out until after Shabbos.
        When I turned on the radio (I know I'm old school) after shabbos I heard the story. They did not mention that they were frum, but I knew they were  since they mentioned 7 children. I think what hit me most was the fact that someone had 7 children and I have none . No, this is not a pity party. Let me explain. I always fear being old and childless. When something like this happens it put things in perspective. Just because someone has something does not mean someone will always have it. This goes both ways. Life can change in a moment. The same way one can seemingly have it all one moment and then in another moment lose it all, one can have nothing and it can change. I have a friend who had lots of kids, but she unfortunately passed on at a young age and will not see her children grow up. I have other friends who married divorced or widowed men, One person's tragedy ends up with a simcha for someone else.
        The other thing that I took notice of when I heard of this fire is the fact that this family had lived in Israel for many years yet this tragedy occurred in the United States.
         The scariest part of parents losing children is that parents can't always withstand the pain. It can cause divorce.
        One thing about life that one can count on is that it is always changing.Sometimes one can feel so paralysed from the sadness of life that you just don't feel like leaving the comfort of one's home. I guess  a tragedy like this can help the get up and go because tragedy can chas v'shalom occur anywhere so one may as well do whatever one needs to do in the home or outside of the home. Life is precious and its meant to be lived.
          That said, in memory of the seven children who lost their lives this shabbos, everyone needs to make sure their homes are fire proof and make sure they have working smoke alarms.

Is this the UWS?

     Occasionally throughout the years people would comment after I told them where I live and say "Oh, the singles building" I of course would look at them like they had 3 heads because  what I notice about my apartment building is all of the young couples.  Others have called it the kollel building or the yeshiva, which I would call more accurate.  Fast forward to this week. I have noticed that there are more single people on my floor than couples. To say there are more singles than couples is an understatement. There are three apartments with couples and seven apartments with singles. Oy . The singles are taking over in Brooklyn . Now we know there is a single's crisis. That or perhaps the city is getting so pricey that the single and frum have deserted to Midwood. A  sad state of affairs.

     

out of towner

     I have lived in New York for more years than I would like to admit to but I still consider myself an out of towner. Some of my friends find this funny because I have lived in New York longer than I have lived outside of New York. They just don't understand. When someone is Israeli , even if they have lived in the United States longer than they had in Israel we still call them Israeli. When someone came to the United states from Russia as a child and they still  have the accent we call them Russian.                                                                                                                                                When people meet me  especially Brooklynites, they always ask me where I am from even after I have told them that I live in Midwood. My accent betrays me. My outlook on life has been shaped by the place I spent my formative years. Its not that New York hasn't changed me, it has. I am single and child free. My family does not live near me. I have friends, but not roots in New York. To me New York is a place, not a home.

     I do not plan on moving to Israel as a single person, but I might consider it if I married someone who has family in Israel. When I  have been in Israel it did seem like home. I felt homesick for my family when I was there, but I did feel at home there. If I made aliyah I would call myself an Israeli.
     Israel would feel like home in a way New York never has.

personal space (or lack there of)

i am someone who needs a lot of personal space. it is somewhat difficult to be this way in a city that is full of physically and verbally pushy people. the worst offenders are frum people . they think that they can stand really close to you because they don't think you will beat them up because you are frum as well. i usually avoid stores in midwood during the busiest hours because i do not like the invasion of my space. i also try to go to personal space friendly stores such as any trader joe's , duane reade and cvs.
it is most awful entering certain grocery stores in midwood. people congregate at the doorway and make it difficult to enter the store. when it is time to pay the person behind me always likes to stand close enough to me so my elbow jabs them when i am reaching into my wallet. they are in that much of a hurry. i always wonder what kind of married life these people have if they feel the need to stand that close to me in line at the supermarket. must not be too great.

16 handles on avenue j

for months now i have been anticipating the opening of 16 handles, a frozen yogurt place that is now on avenue j - the heart of jewish midwood. there has not been a kosher non-cholov yisroel ice cream store in the area since carvel has closed , except for baskin robbins, which is now part of dunkin donuts.
when i walked into 16 handles last night i felt as though i was in manhattan or at least park slope.
blueberry on avenue m does have good frozen yogurt . most flavors are not cholov yisroel.16 handles has more variety . blueberry has some real food on the menu while 16 handles is strictly frozen yogurt. 16 handles does have some pareve selections, but i have not yet tasted them.
it is quite a shame that though there are some strictly cholov yisroel ice cream places in the area but their ice cream does not taste as good as the non-cholov yisroel ice cream
anyway, check out 16 handles on avenue j and see what you think.

the highest shelf

on sunday i wanted to buy some napkins. you would think that would be simple. guess again. not on avenue m. modern chemist was closed so i went to glatt mart. all of their paper goods are kept on a seven foot high shelf above the meat case instead of in the aisle with the paper plates. im not sure why. is it because no one uses napkins so they figure they will keep them on a high shelf ? there were some tall people around who could have helped me reach them but they were all holding raw meat. i know im neurotic, but i like to keep raw meat packages away from my napkins so i figured i would skip the napkins.
today i went to anteli's pharmacy to buy paper goods and was able to buy paper towels and tissues, but alas not napkins. they usually do have napkins so perhaps they ran out.
after anteli's i went to the news stand store that sometimes has paper goods. they always have paper goods on high shelves due to limited space. i asked the clerk to get me some napkins and they were so high up that when he reached for them the whole shelf fell down. i felt so bad. all i wanted was napkins.
once i was on a quest for dish washing liquid after a late workday. it was in the days before 7-11 was on avenue m. i found a store that had it, but again it was on the highest shelf. .after that anytime i went into that store the dish washing liquid was on a lower shelf because the clerk was an older man and he didn't want to have to climb .
why is it that so  many staples are kept on the highest shelves? is it just me? does anyone else who goes to mom and pop stores on avenue m use napkins or dish washing liquid?

snow day

friday was a snowy day in new york. it was fun to see all of the kids outside shoveling and making snowmen. a bunch of little girls told me that they wanted to have their snowperson put in hamodia. i guess they will have to settle for this blog....

pre-purim in midwood

the best hamantashen of midwood 2010 award in my humble opinion goes to ostrovitsky's bakery on avenue j. my favorite is poppy seed, but im sure the other flavors are good too.

the store with the most purim spirit is pomegranate. they have all of their cashiers wearing purim hats. some are wearing jester hats while others are wearing crowns and cowboy hats. none of them seem to be jewish so im not sure how much fun they are having wearing these get ups, but i can say that im enjoying it.

i really want to get some cute purim boxes or bags with an actual purim design on them . amazing savings probably has some but im dreading the crowds of other last minuters who are searching for the perfect shalach manos supplies.

the frum singles community

as a frum single i have never felt a part of the community at large. i live in midwood, but that's about it. the more i think about it the more i realize that this is not true. im not part of the greater frum community of brooklyn , but i am a member of the frum singles community of the new york . not exactly the community i would have chosen, but its my community nonetheless.

because the orthodox community is really the smug marrieds community i will never in my current state mesh. i will however fit seamlessly in the frum singles community.

the frum singles community is full of never marrieds , divorced and a few widowed. the most frightening part is how i know so many members of this community and yet i am still single. as the saying goes its not how many you know its who you know. quality over quantity. and let me tell you my community has lots of quantity but is lacking in quality.

some people will never leave my community because they are too scared , too mentally challenged , too comfortable or are having too much comfortable fun. i hope i will be one of those fortunate enough to leave this smothering busybody community of singles and actually get married. of course when i leave the singles community there will be plenty more bloodsucking busybodies who are married to make me feel at home, but i still would like to have the opportunity to reach the next step.

the problem is that ive been a singleton for so long that im not sure that i would really fit into the smug marrieds community even if i would be married. ive been through too much that they just take for granted. and given my age, it will be harder for me to achieve some of those cherished rites of the general smug marrieds society. i still would like to get married, but i know that even being married wont be the golden ticket to being accepted .

i suppose the best would be to create a frum community where everyone could be accepted regardless of marital status. i know that this is expecting too much, but it would be nice.

the barnes and noble date

one thing i hate about midwood is that there are no secular bookstores here. on the weekends i often frequent park slope where there is a barnes and noble bookstore. one would think that frum jews do not frequent secular bookstores given the desert of secular bookstores in midwood and dare i say boro park or crown heights. well.... EVERY time i go to the barnes and noble in park slope i am always in good frum company. today was no exception. however today there was a special treat. the frum barnes and noble date. this is a welcome update on the lounge date.
at first i wasnt sure what i was seeing. i saw one very decked out ultra frum bais yaakov type girl sitting by herself at a table at the cafe. a few tables over i saw another very dressed up bais yaakov type girl. eventually i saw their dates sitting with them.
i have always thought that a bookstore is a good site for a frum date. we are the people of the book for heaven's sake!
aside from the dates there were several woman with sheitels and men with yarmulkes reading books at several tables in the cafe.
half the fun of going to the barnes and noble in park slope is having an excuse to frequent the hip park slope. if there was a barnes and noble in midwood i probably wouldn't go to park slope all that often.

midwood memories

i like to kvetch about midwood as much as the best of them, but not today. i dont go to shul for shacharis every morning, but this year since elul, as ive been running to work every morning ive heard the shofar blowing from the shuls i pass by . no im not hearing things. this is midwood after all! im not sure why i hadnt noticed it before other years. i find it really cool.

another monday night of take out

i know ive made this rant before, but tonight it warrants repeating. i just cant take it. since i live in midwood where mountain fruit and glatt mart close before i get home from work on monday nights i spent twenty minutes waiting in line at jerusalem steakhouse for my dinner. apparently everyone but me eats cholent leftovers on mondays because the stores close before eight o'clock which is when i get home on mondays. the five others who ran out of leftover cholent were at jerusalem steakhouse on avenue m waiting for their dinners. i gotta get a job where i get home at six o'clock so i dont have to buy take out on mondays. either that or i have to cut out some of my sunday fun and make sure i have enough food for dinner on monday night. sheesh. the life of a single person.

summer

my most favorite part of summer in midwood is sitting on ocean parkway on shabbos. for those of you who do not live in midwood, ocean parkway is a street lined with benches. its a very busy street, but its the closest one can get to sitting in a park on shabbos in urban midwood. there are a few concrete jungle parks in midwood but they are quite depressing . they are more like a place to put a few swing sets and slides . they arent real parks. a real park has grass and trees. these concrete jungles have neither. this is why i prefer the benches on ocean parkway. ocean parkway has two sides. one side has benches and a divider where on one side people can walk and the other side people can bike. on the other side ocean parkway there are benches and its a bike-free zone. only walkers are allowed. last year the walking only side was closed off so they could redo the sidewalk and some of the benches. it was a nightmare. everyone had to sit or walk on the biker friendly zone. this year it will be different. the bike-free zone is open. i know this sounds trivial, but there isnt alot i like about midwood and i was deprived of my only midwood pleasure last year. thankfully this year will be different.

hamantashen

ive been rather disappointed this year, not as many midwood bakeries have poppy seed /moon hamantashen which are my favorite. i went to isaacs bakery and ostrovitky's on avenue j . ostravitsky's tried to pass off a poppy seed pastry as a hamantashen instead of admitting all they had was prune and apricot. weiss's bakery on m only had small poppy seed hamantashen, not the large ones. schrieber's on avenue m had small poppy seed hamantashen , but they didnt have any large hamantashen when i was in their store today. ostrovitsky's hamantashen are some of the best in midwood in my opinion, but they only get half a vote because i had to have a prune one instead of a poppy one this year. i dont especially like apricot hamantashen, but every bakery seems to carry them.

i ended up getting hamantashen from schrieber's . i actually bought the less desirable apricot as well as my favorite poppy ones. i need some shalach manos supplies that i wont be tempted to eat before purim. i DEFINITELY wont be eating the apricot ones.

more flatbush folly

well... it seems the infamous sheitle store across the street from chaim berlin has re- opened for business . this time the photos in the storefront are much smaller and the mannequins have shorter collarbones. this is alot of old news, but i found it to be a great photo-op, so im including my fabulous photos. enj0y!