that aha moment

a big part of my  day job is teaching a specific skill.. sometimes people get the hang of things right away and others need further training. sometimes at the beginning it seems as though some students will never catch on . after much experience i have learned that so long as a person is motivated and persistant  he or she will eventually  be successful. it is  most incredible to watch a student experience that "aha" moment when everything clicks .this is  what makes teaching so rewarding. that  "aha" moment and the fact that every person takes a different road toward achievement and the challenge of figuring out which route of learning will guide each  student most efficiently toward  achievement.

chinese rosh hashana parade

i went to the chinese new year parade on sunday. though i have been in chinatown many times  this parade is truly an experience to witness. the parade color scheme was right out of  hello kitty.  the floats were sponsored by many popular businesses like macy's and american airlines and had a chinese flair. there were a lot of dragon floats. since i was born the year of the dragon i especially like the dragon floats. this year however is the year of the rabbit. (in case anyone was curious) . the music on the floats was very cool too. everyone was shooting off confetti bombs even as the floats passed by. the ground was covered in confetti. i feel sorry for whoever had  to clean up.
it was interesting to see a minority other than jews celebrating their new year. its always nice to think of another new year because it always means a chance for another fresh start.
there is a custom to give single people red envelopes of money on chinese new year. i guess judaism can't do this on rosh hashana (or actually right before  rosha hashanna so its not yom tov) then the shidduch crisis would never end! but it wouldnt be a bad idea because then i would be compensated in some way for being single. maybe the rule would be that shadchanim have to give red envelopes of money to jewish singles right before rosh hashanna  as an insentive for the shadchanim to marry off the singles so they don't have to give them a  red envelope of money the next year on the day before rosh hashanna..  the red envelope would have to be given the day before rosh hashanna since no one is allowed to handle money on  rosh hashanna.

i couldn't get any good pictures of the actual parade because i wasn't standing in the front . so im just posting some photos of chinatown .

hechsherim

the newly proposed charedi hechsherim on women's clothing in israel is beyond me. i feel like the chumrahs that have been imposed lately have turned frum life into a tragic comedy. tragic for those who might try to adhere to these chumrahs and comedy for those of us who sit on the sidelines.
there are laws of modesty in judaism. if there are actual hechsherim on clothing this means that frum women can only shop in certain clothing stores that carry clothing with hechsherim. a savvy move for clothing store owners, not so nice for the rest of us.
what i want know is what will be included in this hechsher. i don't think that a sleeveless vest could be included in the hechsher. if it  was then women may think that they can wear this sleeveless vest alone. a short sleeved t shirt would not be kosher because someone might think that this could be worn alone. only long sleeved shirts or dresses could be included in this hechsher to avoid confusion.
putting a hechsher on clothing is kind of like forcing people to recycle. we know we should be worried about these issues and the government  or local businesses would like to profit from our lack of conscientiousness.
modesty is important, but i think that the rabbis who have conceived this folly would be better serving the jewish community if they were thinking of less ways to scam other jews and more time thinking of how to encourage jews to employ more kosher business practises. if not we will all be in trouble

the wisdom of the flintstones

there was an episode of the flintstones where the rubbles  were having a plumbing problem and asked the flinstones if they could stay over for a few days. wilma was leery because she said that there are always problems when friends live together. as a kid this baffled  me . now i totally understand.
i like having guests over , just not sleep over guests. sleep over guests can really be too much of a good thing . its nice to have guests, but its even nicer when they go home.

eat until you are satisfied

there were two  weight loss systems when i  was doing the weight watchers program a few years ago. there was the points system and then there was the core system. the points system meant that every food was assigned a points value and each person was only allowed to eat a certain amount of points per day according to their height and starting weight. the core program had certain guidelines as to which foods you consume but it did not put a concrete limit to how much you could eat it just said that you should eat until you were satisfied.  i found this  ironic. i was already eating until i was satisfied. this was why i was overweight! granted i was also eating junk food to achieve this satisfaction but still! even if i was eating just regular food if i would eat until i was satisfied i still would not lose weight. unless it meant eating as much free vegetables until i was satisfied it really is not valid .
i think  that there is a mindset behind a person's weight situation. i eat less when i am busy with non-stressful life issues. when i am stressed i eat more. when i spend time with people with poor eating habits i cave to the peer pressure. when i am unbearably overwrought with emotions of  9/11 proportions i eat nothing.
a man named peter walsh  wrote a book called does this clutter make my butt look big suggests writing a  food feelings diary. that is a diary of one's emotional state when one has eaten what one has eaten during the course of the day. i think that this is on the money. weight loss is still a lot of work, but its not just about the food. its about the emotions that drive one to this weight gain. peter walsh also does the show called  clean sweep where he helps people with hoarding issues clean their homes and deal with the issues that turned their home into a big mess. he also believes that a cluttered home can make someone eat too much. this isn't always true, but in my case it is. when my home is more cluttered so are my eating habits. the same issues that clutter my home clutter my eating . then again when one is busy organizing one's home one usually isn't snacking.
even jillian michaels of biggest loser fame says that in order to stay thin one should clear the clutter in one's home at least fifteen minutes a day.
i think that adhering to the weight watchers points system and  keeping track and managing the emotions that lead to my weight issues will help me find a happier weight. battling daily physical clutter will help me have a larger living space to share with my eventually smaller size.

fleeting beauty

its amazing how looks can go. we all realize this on some level but when you actually see it happen in real time it is truly mind boggling. even when you see it you can almost not believe its for real.
i have a college friend who married a guy who was cute as a button. they got married  at 23. at about 26 his looks began to fade. at 26 he didn't even look like he could possibly have been as cute as he once was.
i have another friend whose husband was also quite handsome when they married. he also had a slightly snarky personality. now that his looks have turned into just okay all one notices is the snarky attitude.
ive been to school reunions where you see how everyone has aged. some look good, some not so good. it really puts things in perspective. the guy who may have snubbed me in high school because he thought he was g-ds gift now looks like an demystyfied magic trick. the looks are no longer hiding his vile  personality.
even when someone does maintain external beauty  at 50 or 60 it is still not that vibrant beauty of 20 or 30. when i see relatives that i knew when they were in their prime and now they are not its disarming.
it actually better to end up with the guy with the good personality and the more average looks because in the end  its the personality one ends up with not the looks.

no regrets

no one knows how long we have to mend broken relationships that we have in our lives. life and death happens and we have no control over either. sometimes we are fortunate to fix things and other times we aren't. i admit that i haven't always been lucky enough to beat the clock in these situations but in others , by the mercy of h-shem i have been.
unfortunately we don't  know how much time we have with people and unless we are clairvoyant we probably would not  act any differently given a second chance at the same situation. we would still  think that we would  have forever to change things.
its best to move forward and try not to wallow in the could haves and the should haves . best to learn from the past , but also realize that as much as we must employ our best  efforts,  no one is perfect.