Category Archives: Personal Reflections

Be a GREAT Shabbat Dinner Guest!

How brilliantly useful!

rabbiadar's avatarCoffee Shop Rabbi

You’re going to your first Shabbat [Sabbath] dinner.  Perhaps you are worried: what’s expected?  Here are five suggestions to help you be a great Shabbat dinner guest:

1.  ASK QUESTIONS:  Every family has their own customs about Shabbat dinner.  Some are very formal, some equally informal.  Asking a few questions ahead of time is essential.

What should I wear?  Dress will differ from household to household, so ask.  You don’t want to be the only one at the table in blue jeans, or in pearls, for that matter!

May I bring anything?  The answer to that may be “Yes, bring —-” or it may be “just yourself!”  If you are asked to bring something, be sure and ask if they would like it to be kosher, or if there are any restrictions you should know about:  allergies, etc.  Better to ask than to show up with something lethal, right?  And…

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Nomination for Sunshine Blogger Award and tag! Give me more!

I was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by the lovely Lady Blogger @https://findmeatthelibrary.wordpress.com/ My favorite word in the world, after “book” of course, is the library and it’s in her blog title! So check her out!

For this award, your tagger gives you eleven questions to answer, and then you give 11 questions for the people you tag! Let’s get started with her questions!

HER QUESTIONS

  1. How would you describe your taste in music? Well, that’s an unusual one. I’ve never had anyone ask me that question. I wouldn’t really describe it as anything other than my own. It’s not too eclectic or predictable. I tend to drift more towards pop music and at one point in my life, I was much more a rock music fan probably because I wasn’t really all that happy in my life then.
  2. Have you ever turned down a recommended book because it looked bad, but read it years later and loved it? Absolutely. Harry Potter would be a great example of that. All throughout college, several of my friends kept telling me how fun it was and I just kept brushing them off thinking that it was basically a kid’s book and I didn’t read such things. In my late 20s, I finally decided to read it and to my own surprise enjoyed it quite a great deal. Let’s be clear though, I didn’t LOVE it, but I enjoyed it very much.
  3. Rank the holidays from most to least favorite. Well, I am Jewish so the holidays to me are those that are practiced in my faith or those of my country of residence, United States. Hannukah has always been my favorite because I love candles and chocolate and little presents you receive. It’s closely followed by New Year’s but the way it was celebrated in Ukraine where I grew up: with a tree, decorations, party food, and of course presents-this might remind some people of American Christmas. I also really enjoy Thanksgiving because of all the yummy food and the day off from work. I enjoy Valentine’s because of the amount of thought that Ken always puts into celebrating us. And I think I would have loved Halloween if I had grown up with it because dressing up in costumes was always one of my favorite things to do, yeah I ransacked my mom’s closet when she was at work. Who didn’t do that?
  4. What are you looking forward to most in the last half of 2015? I look forward to having less work and being less stressed out. I also hope to be more accepting of the changes in my life and to become more hopeful for the future.
  5. Of all the holidays, which one is your favorite? Well this is just another version of #3 but ok. My favorite holiday is my birthday. Sorry but I am at least honest 🙂
  6. How do you pick the next book to read? It really depends on the state of mind I am in. When I was younger and got my books more so from the library, I would come in and roam the stacks looking for an interesting looking binding which I would then pick up and read the back off. I did that forever. Still do it actually. But these days since I read e-books a lot more, I rely on the recommendations from my friends a lot. Meaning if they’ve read it and liked or they think I would like it, I am quite often willing to give it a read.
  7. What is the first book that comes to mind when you hear “romance?” Anything written by Danielle Steel
  8. Do you have a favorite tv show that you could watch over and over? Yep, Sex and the City and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sometimes Law and Order SVU.
  9. Where do you get most of your books? Still the library but it’s mostly through e-loans
  10. What song best describes you? Um…that one I have no idea. Sorry.
  11. Are you excited for Autumn? Eh, not really. It’s not all that different from summer in the Bay Area these days. It’s all very pretty of course but life doesn’t vary a whole lot season to season here.

MY QUESTIONS

  1. What is your favorite brunch food? Sorry, writing this during breakfast time while waiting for waffles.
  2. Is there anything about the library you don’t like?
  3. Do you have any bedtime rituals?
  4. What’s your favorite game, board, computer or video?
  5. What’s the one movie that will always, without fail lift your mood?
  6. Have you ever played the lottery?
  7. How do you feel about pets?
  8. What’s your favorite caffenated drink?
  9. If you could be an extra in any movie adaptation of a book, which would it be?
  10. Did you keep diaries when you were younger? Do you still?
  11. What is your not so guilty pleasure book?

I tag everyone!!!!!

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Still not back on the wagon but

Please Tag Me!

I can definitely handle that kind of thing right now 🙂

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Shabbat

https://jewishbooksareawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/70fce-shabbatshalombible.jpg

From the fingertips of Eugenia S

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The Whole Orthodox World Is Complicit in Faigy Mayer’s Death – Opinion – Forward.com

http://forward.com/opinion/312449/the-whole-orthodox-world-is-complicit-in-faigy-mayers-death/

From the fingertips of Eugenia S

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The fearful ten minute challenge

The lovely Writestuff! (why don’t I know your name?) tagged me in a challenge, and holy crap, why would you do this to me? I am no writer! But….challenge….accepted!

The Rules for the Freestyle Writing Challenge:

1. Open an MS Word document.
–2. Set a stop watch or your mobile to 5 minutes or 10 minutes whichever challenge you think you can beat.
–3. You topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH A TIMER.
4. Fill the word doc with as many words as you want.
5. Once you began writing do not stop even to turn.
6. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spellings and grammar with spell check in MS WORD (it is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write the right spelling and stick to grammar rules)
7. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation and CAPITALS.
8. However if you do, it would be best. At the end of your post write down No. of words =_____’ so that we would have an idea of how much you can write within the time frame.
9. Do not forget to copy paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new Topic for your nominees and copy paste these rules with your nominations (at least 3 bloggers).

The five minute challenge felt too short so instead here is the ten minute challenge with the word fear.

I don’t think I knew the meaning of the word fear until two months ago. For majority of my life, the things that I “feared” were mostly mundane things: what would my hair look like, was this dress making me look fat, would I make it to work on time, would I get a ticket if I was speeding, and so on. I lived to the ripe adult age of 32 without experiencing fear until May 14th, 2015 when I learned that my mother had lymphoma. It was then when fear struck me more than through my body. It struck me through my every cell. My mother’s older sister passed away in 2005 at the age of 59, three months after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. My maternal grandmother passed away in 1959 when she was 43 from stomach cancer after suffering for what I’ve been told, a year. With the specters of one woman who I never met and one woman who I loved like a second mother, I was terrified that despite my prayers over the years, death was after all coming for my beloved mother. And sadly, my fear turned out to be a reality. And now I am afraid all the time. For myself, for my fiancé, for my father, for my brother, for the rest of my family, for my friends. I am not consumed by fear because I am trying to stay sane through this ordeal. But even so I am deeply afraid. There are suddenly so many clichés that are true, so many existential thoughts and fears. How do I stop myself from blame? How do I stop fearing my future when my present has changed inevitably? I don’t have any answers but on the 1st month anniversary of my mother’s early passing, I try to tell myself that she is with so I need not be afraid that she is gone. I light a candle and remind myself that she is in my heart, in my mind and in every cell of my body and fear has no place in me because my mother is there to protect me from the monsters. At least that’s what I am telling myself. She is always going to protect me like she did when I was nine and refused to sleep alone.

No. of words= 390

My nominees are:

 Whoever finds this interesting.

Your word is also fear. 

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It’s hard to enjoy my first love

My first love and eternal salvation has been reading. It’s the thing I could always turn to when I was sad or sick, bored or silly. The measure of how down I am right now is the fact that no book is really grabbing me. In the last two weeks I’ve barely been able to crack a spine of a book, much less shore up desire to even read. All I can seem to do is be mindless. Play Candy Crash. Scour People.com. I miss my books. I miss having the connection to a story. It’s something I always connected to my mom. After all she is the done who helped me make the connection between letters when I was 6. I hope that the letter bridge comes back soon so I can have my first love back. My books and my mom.

From the fingertips of Eugenia S

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I am sorry all I do is speak in memea.

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I am starting to be able to go about my days but the mom-sized hole inside is always there. Tears well up suddenly. Memories pop in. Grieving. Regrets. Sadness. Things should have been said. Hugs. Smells. Kisses. Never saying goodbye.

From the fingertips of Eugenia S

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Back home

First day back to my own home in two weeks. I miss mom. That’s all I can think about.253159_610575439999_6901097_n

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My silly wonderful mom

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I miss you oh so much….

From the fingertips of Eugenia S

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