the voice of israel in brooklyn

one evening i was flipping the dial of my completely low tech ecologically sound wind up radio and i happend upon kol yisrael the voice of israel on 88 fm . at first i thought it was in honor of yom haatzmaut, but now i realize that its not a fluke because for the last week ive been listening to kol yisrael. they must be broadcasting somewhere in brooklyn, because im not sure how else im getting it. i tried looking it up online but it mostly lists ways one can listen online. anyone else know about this? i know im living in an alternative reality, but this has really been confirming my suspicions. but seriously, anyone know where this is being broadcast from?

mother's day

i have something rather offbeat to say about mother's day after reading this post by webgirl. in addition to honoring our mothers on mother's day i think that its important for people to thank hashem for being a mother. that is if one is a mother. i know that if/when i get to be a mother i will be very thankful and grateful. i bet hallmark hasnt created a card for this.

to all those who are mothers today have a happy mothers day.

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.

good friends

to have a good friend is so important. knay lecha chaver. buy yourself a friend. interesting.

its so important to have a friend that the torah even tells us to buy one. that said , a true friend is hard to find and even harder to buy.

on facebook one could have five hundred friends and what does that all mean? NADA! how many of these so-called friends would you really want to spend time with? how many of these folks would you even be in contact if not for facebook? on the one hand its nice to be in touch with alot of friends from the past, but really? where is the substance?

some friends are situational friends. when the situation is over you are no longer friends. no longer single no longer friends. no longer in high school/college/neighborhood no longer friends. its not a bad thing. there isnt enough time in the day to keep up with so many people.

how many people do you think really know who you are? not how many people think they know you.

how many people really know you and like you for who you are? probably not many. i know there arent many who really know me. there are a few. but not alot. alot of people are too selfish to really get to know anyone besides themselves. alot of people dont really care. others arent capable of understanding another person. no frame of reference. if you arent exactly like them they cant understand you.

thankfully i do have several people who do really know me. and that actually is alot. its not often to have even one person who really knows you. fortunately i have several . life is good.

so much for technology....

i remember eight years ago one of my brothers was really excited about the conversion of analog to digital tv. come to think of it my 96 year old great uncle was also looking forward to it. as for me... ive been dreading it. a year ago i got the darn government issue $40 coupon so i bought the $65 gadget for $25. i had tried to hook it up at the time, but it was more complicated than i had anticipated. i was able to hook it up to my tv but not my vcr. yes i know im living in the dark ages. i dont have cable or tivo. i do have a dvd player.
anyway, today i decided to suck it up and try to hook up the tv/digital converter/vcr. what a debacle. it took me several hours to do so. finally i looked in my low tech circa 2004 vcr manual which told me how to record with a vcr if you have a cable box. success! i did a test run and was able to record. yes i know i can watch missed shows online , but its much more fun to watch tv on an actual tv.
i was perfectly happy with my analog tv. ive always had a good antenna on my tv.sometimes the upgrades of technology arent really better. i like the fact dvds are smaller than videos, but i like how you can pause a video and come back to it a few days later without the hassle of a dvd. i prefer the reception of a landline phone over a cell phone and books over the kindle. i do admit that i like reserving and renewing library books online. to me it is just on e of life's little pleasures. i cant imagine typing with an old fashioned manual typewriter instead of a computer.
well, i think im safe technologically for a little while now.... until they think of something new EVERYONE just has to have.

black

black is the "in" color for new yorkers. black looks sheik. black is slimming. black goes with everything. black is the favorite color of many frum women. i think that this is because everyone is so weight conscious in this community. black is slimming.

black is part of my wardrobe. black is not my whole wardrobe. i love colors and i love wearing colored clothing. i guess i dont weigh enough for black to be my only wardrobe color. bh. they say black is beautiful, but it accentuates any dandruff flake that might be peppering ones shoulders. not a good color for a psoriasis sufferer like myself.

ive met new york men who wear the "uniform" of black from head to toe as well. some men wear black to appear slim and others are simply trying to be cool.

magicians wear black . so do witches. hmmm. .... .....

the upside

the upside of having a stressful job is that in my real life i have begun to cut off those who only an infinite amount of patience on my part would deem them unannoying. i just dont have time for that. i need to surround myself with those who emote good karma instead of those who require so much patience and energy that they suck the life out of me.

wishing everyone a calm and restful shabbos.