EDIT: Make that A HALF game out!!!!

“Messianic Judaism is supposed to be a bridge. A bridge is only effective when it’s being walked on.” -Rabbi Jamie Cowen

“Sarah!!” How Elisha Chernoff greeted me the second time we met

“When I get married I’M going to be the something old.” -A girl at the conference

“Is this really a productive use of your time?…in bed.” -Facebook fortune cookie

The conference is over. It was nothing like I expected. First of all the 20s program was the suck. We had only three workshops and they were like nothing. Friday night we were invited to worship with the high schoolers and I realised why most of the 20s had been attending their sessions instead of ours. Second of all, pretty much everyone knew each other already and seemed pretty set on only talking to their friends. I only had a handful of people go out of their way to talk to me, and two of them because I’m Miri’s ex wife. I thought I would come out of this with some new friends, but apparently I was wrong. I did make one new friend, who actually lives here…and goes to B’nai. So there is one person my age there haha. We went out to dinner last night. We tried to go to Big Bowl but there was a 40 minute wait and we only had an hour, so we went to Red Robin. I had a half Cobb salad (no bacon…or tomatoes or olives) and it was amazing, but I realised I should only eat there when I get my discount. It really wasn’t worth $10. It was also my first time eating eggs since that fateful morn on May 4. And I didn’t even think to ask how much Nikki left for Molly…oops. Hopefully it was a good tip.

Anyway I hope the 20s conference will be different.

Also I sat through the longest torah service of my life on Saturday. English should be read and not chanted.

We had karaoke last night. I sang “I got You Babe” with Noam. Had free pizza from the hotel (FYI all the food at this hotel is awful) then got bored so Nikki and I left.

Oh and Wednesday night they had a little bit of dessert for the 20s. They had chocolate covered strawberries, which had been the Facebook gift of the day the day before and I had wanted one since. Yay!

I was told I should come visit San Diego several times before I move, but I can’t, and that just made me sad.

I’m really happy Yachad is having a Birthright in two years. They told me they’ve already had a sizeable donation. it’s not enough to make the trip free, but it will be very inexpensive. Plus they still have two more years to somehow get money. They said there will be a couple hundred people on this trip. Yay!

Cubs = 1.5 games out.

Messianic Birthright trip. Summer 2009. Heck yes.

So Whirlyballing fell through, but we will be going during the 20s conference…supposedly. Instead we are going to rob a convenience store to help finance the Messianic birthright.

I’ve met several people who have gone on birthright…with Shorashim. What the crap? Seriously. One of them was even a leader. He told me I should try with a different program. He asked me which program turned me down and I said Shorashim. He then proceeded to tell me if Shorashim turned me down he has no advice for me.

I also met someone who couldn’t tell I was Jewish, but could tell I’m Russian. ???

Also it turns out all the information I was given about the 20s conference before is FALSE. The officialy information is that it’s in Skokie at the Double Tree (I know exactly where that is) and while 40 minutes away from here, still close enough to commute. I may be super tired, but I won’t have to pay for a room. Also, it’s not the first weekend in January, it’s February 22-24. Nice birthday present!

Cubbies = 2.0 games out!

Last night I slept for eight hours straight without waking up. It’s been three years since I slept for longer than five hours without waking up.

I also made my own Very Berry Raspberry Limeade before I left work last night. And it tasted like it should. I can now make Freckled Lemonade and Very Berry Raspberry Limeade. Go me!

Whirlyballing tomorrow night! Woo! I mean…the conference starts tonight. We have 70 people registered for the 20s track. Yay excitement!

Some pink or no pink?

Can someone please explain this to me? After a month i still don’t understand.

Our computer system at Red Robin is great, because there are buttons for everything on the menu. When you order a burger there are three options for how the burger gets cooked. The buttons are: some pink, no pink, well done. So when people order a burger you ask them if they want their burger cooked SOME PINK or NO PINK. At first I thought it was stupid but then I realised it’s great, because it’s so clear and there’s no way people can be upset about how it is cooked because it’s clear and simple…some pink or no pink. I ask people some pink or no pink and sometimes I get people who don’t understand and will say medium rare or medium well, which is fine, because medium rare is obviously some pink and medium well is obviously no pink. But I also get geniuses who tell me they want their burger cooked MEDIUM even AFTER I ask them SOME PINK or NO PINK. This is usually what happens, and I wish I was kidding…

Jami: Would you like your burger cooked SOME PINK or NO PINK?
Guest: Ummm…medium.
Jami: ….some pink or no pink?
Guest: Medium.
Jami: …some pink or no pink?

People seriously don’t understand that question? It’s not like I’m asking which shade of pink they want. Welcome to Lake County, Illinois, where geniuses run rampant.

I saw Hairpsray last night ($6.50 tix from Red Robin, baby!!!). My review will be at the end.

The UMJC conference is this week. The 20s are going WHIRLYBALLING!!!

Friday morning I opened at work. This means I had to cut the lemons. I cut 86 lemons. It should have been 88, but apparently I can’t count. So to make it faster, you use The Wedgemaster. No, there is no number after it, it is just plan old Wedgemaster, though I think it would be better if it were Wedgemaster 2000 or something. Anyway, i was thinking “Man it would suck if I cut myself on this thing” (mostly because you really can’t) and the next thing I know the thing bites me. I think I part of my hand got pinched in it or something. But I now have a blood blister. I’m very lucky it hasn’t bled yet, especially at that time. If it bleeds I have to wear a bandaid at work which means I have to wear a glove and I don’t want that. I wear a bandaid not at work, but I can get away with not wearing one too.

Friday night I drove out to the city for a Mishpocago pot luck Shabbat dinner. I made mandel bread and received lots of compliments on it. I served myself some salad and right after it was on my plate I noticed little specs of dark red/brown…could it be…could it really be…YES! BACON! BACON IN MY SALAD! AT A SHABBAT DINNER!! Seriously??? Who does that??? It was very clear that whoever made it had gone out of their way to put bacon bits in the salad. So I had to transfer my other food onto a different plate then throw that plate out. I’m lucky it didn’t touch my other food. Jeez. So then I tell a couple people there’s bacon in the salad and word gets around and the girl who brought the salad came up to me and said she’s sorry and she should have announced there was bacon in the salad. Ya think??!?! Seriously, who does that? We also played telephone charades and now I want to play chain murder mystery but it’s too hard to teach to beginners.

*At work a few days ago someone had a “Peach Pleasure” drink from Jamba Juice*
Female Coworker: I’ll be needing some of your peach pleasure.
Male coworker: That’s what she said.

I feel bad for Rob Bowen. I haven’t been able to watch many gamnes since we got him (other than occasionally walking over to a TV at work to check the score), but what little I have seen of him he just looks so sad. I understand, being ripped away from San Diego and forced to move to Chicago, not to mention a new team. Takes a lot of adjustment. And now we’ve traded him already. I mean, he sucks and it’s no wonder he’s been opn four teams in four years, but I still feel bad for him.

But now we have Jason Kendall and we’re about to trade Cesar Izturis and possibly Jacque Jones. Then we just need to get rid of Rich Hill and our entire bullpen and we’re in business. BTW do we really need three catchers? As of today, we’ve had six different catchers all season.

I also got my Cubs credit card. If I spend enough money I get tickets! It also has 0% APR for 11 months and I am going to transfer my balance from my othere card onto this one, because, even after the 0% is up, it’s over 3% less than the other one.

I had a rough week last week. Especially all that crap on Monday night. I survived waiting on a party of 13. The only thing I was worried about with a big party was getting their drinks, but with such a big party half of the drinks come from the bar, so I don’t have to make them. I also survived secret shoppers. And I’ve learned that people are cheap and it’s not my fault, though I still take it personally. It is one thing to be an idiot teenager and leave a crappy tip, it is another to be an idiot teenager and go out of your way to tell me you are leaving me a ‘nice fat tip’ and then leave me $5 on a $55 bill. And they had their parents’ credit cards, so it’s not like it was even their own money. And one of them asked me to get change for a $50 bill. I know they had money. I also enjoy people who camp out. Especially when they camp out at my only table that is bigger than a two top. Especially the party that split their check four ways and each left me a crappy tip, then camped out for nearly two hours.

On Friday morning I proved (mostly to myself) that I can handle five tables at a time. Though part of it was that I didn’t get double sat.

Friday night Miri and I went out with Noam, his little brother, and his friend from Israel and we went to get Israeli food for my first time! Oh man I am so in love with Moroccan Cigars, especially dipped in hot salsa!!! I told Noam he has to make them next time he cooks for us haha. Then we called Beth to meet up with us and we went to see someone form Devar play at a blues club and I had a very expensive mediocre virgin piña colada. I think singing a song called “You Sexy Mother F*cker” is a nice Messianic song and a nice example to be setting for people. The club was near where CSz used to be. We drove past it so I got to see the condos that are now there in its place. So sad. And Tippling House is now a realty place too. We stayed out way later than I wanted to, because Miri wanted to. I figured I would take a nap after services. I would have been wrong, since SOMEONE decided to stay at services for an extra TWO HOURS after I wanted to to stay and talk to people she didn’t know. So I didn’t get my nap and had to work and I was so freaking tired, since before we even went to dinner the night before. So I wound up stopping at Jamba Juice on the way home, knowing I had no time to rest even for 10 minutes…especially since I wound up having to look for my work shirt, which was buried) (and yes I realise Jamba Juice is in the same strip mall as Red Robin) to get a drink with an energy boost in it. I had never tried it before, so all I could do was pray it would work. I didn’t want to get pomegranate because putting a boost in it only makes it taste bad. I asked them about their underground flavours, but wasn’t feeling brave enough to try any of them. I wound up trying the Acai Supercharger and it was pretty good. I could feel the energy boost working within the first sip.

So I went to work really angry because I was so tired and upset that someone else had deprived me of so much sleep, or even resting. The only thing in my favour was that I hadn’t seen Paco in a week and a half and it has been so nice. So I walk into work and who is there but my good friend Paco. Fantastic. He poked me and said hi. I felt obligated to ask him how he was feeling. Anyway, I spent all night being angry. I usually just let things like this get past me, but for some reason I just felt like staying angry all night. It definitely made me feel better to get a $1 tip on a $33 bill. So I was angry all night I thought it was pretty obvious. The only person who asked me what was wrong was Paco, but he walked away before I could answer him. That was about all he said to me for the rest of the night. I noticed a couple weeks ago he doesn’t pay attention to me when other people are around. So yeah I was having a really good weekend. I also forgot to mention that the day before I wound up missing a test for my class because someone went on a power trip at work and I got out an hour later than I should have and wound up getting to the testing center right after they closed. Fortunately my teacher said I could make it up. Anyway, so at the end of the night (Sat night) I was in the kitchen waiting for the silverware to be washed and in comes Paco. He stood next to me for several minutes and didn’t say a word until he asked if I wanted to roll with him and where I wanted to sit, etc. I’m sure if I asked him about it he would say he wasn’t talking because his throat hurt. Yeah okay. Well I don’t care anyway. So we sit down to roll silverware and he offers to roll ALL of mine for me. And by offered I mean DEMANDED. He literally grabbed the napkins away from me and wouldn’t give them back and he got really mad when I tried to take them back. It’s hard for me to trust him and I don’t want to get in trouble. he called the closer over and said he was going to roll my silverware for me so the closer signed my sheet saying I did it. Apparently our managers think Paco doesn’t roll his silverware and signs himself out (which is not true, as I have rolled with him a couple times), so to prove them wrong, he rolled all of mine and I think someone else’s too. So yeah, whatever the reason I was appreciative that I did not have to roll my own. Not that I mind doing my own, especially since I needed to cool off.

I know three people who have had babies in the last month who are my age or younger, including a certain old best friend of mine, who shall remain nameless. And Dani had a baby but supposedly had no idea she was pregnant until she went into labour, which is crazy.

Kate and I are going to Olandos for dinner tonight!! Woo!!

I’m not big on buying CDs, as I usually just download music from Limewire, however I have bought two CDs in the last month: Kelly Clarkson’s new CD and the Hairspray musical movie soundtrack. As I figured, Brittany Snow doesn’t sing. Amanda Bynes has a way better voice than I assumed, however I don’t like the way she sings. She does have a good voice though. And Ricki lake is a good singer too, but I forgot I had heard her sing before in “Cry Baby.”

And the movie opens on Friday!!! Woo!!

I also found out the UMJC 20s conference in January will be at the Lincolnshire Marriott, so once again, I do not have to worry about paying for a hotel room yay!

Please pray for this person, he needs it. He really freaking needs it. More than anybody else I know.

Jami86e (11:57:54 PM): i have a proposition
Jami86e (11:58:04 PM): and you don’t have to say yes
***** (11:58:13 PM): ok whats up
Jami86e (11:58:27 PM): i would like you to come to synagogue with me, even if it’s just once
***** (11:59:01 PM): um weird but why
Jami86e (11:59:10 PM): because i think it would be good for you
Jami86e (11:59:18 PM): and you’re jewish, you should at least go once ya know?
***** (11:59:27 PM): why are you asking me now
***** (11:59:33 PM): are YOU drunk
Jami86e (11:59:33 PM): i dunno, why not?
Jami86e (11:59:36 PM): i don’t drink
Jami86e (12:00:02 AM): i was just thinking about it this morning i dunno why
Jami86e (12:00:42 AM): you get free lunch if you go haha
***** (12:00:55 AM): lol when
Jami86e (12:01:00 AM): saturday morning
Jami86e (12:01:02 AM): i’ll even drive
***** (12:01:06 AM): next sat?
Jami86e (12:01:14 AM): well it’s every saturday
Jami86e (12:01:28 AM): except two weeks form today because we have a conference
Jami86e (12:01:30 AM): from*
***** (12:02:20 AM): i dont think so i dunno i just dont know really
Jami86e (12:02:28 AM): why not?
***** (12:03:20 AM): um i dont want to
Jami86e (12:03:24 AM): why not?
***** (12:03:30 AM): becuase i dont want to
Jami86e (12:03:38 AM): you don’t have a reason you just don’t want to
Jami86e (12:03:46 AM): would you go if *** **** was there?
***** (12:03:49 AM): no
***** (12:03:51 AM): i love ***
***** (12:03:52 AM): but no
Jami86e (12:03:57 AM): i don’t understand why not
Jami86e (12:04:02 AM): i want a reason
Jami86e (12:04:08 AM): and don’t yell at me cuz i’ll yell right back
***** (12:04:26 AM): i dont owe you an explanation
***** (12:04:27 AM): thats ridiculous
Jami86e (12:04:35 AM): you don’t but i’m asking
***** (12:04:41 AM): and i gave you mine
***** (12:04:44 AM): saying i dont want to go
Jami86e (12:04:52 AM): that’s not a reason
Jami86e (12:05:16 AM): if you asked me why i didn’t wanna do something and i gave you that answer you wouldn’t accept that
Jami86e (12:05:20 AM): i know you wouldn’t
***** (12:05:50 AM): yeah but not about that its my damn business not yours
Jami86e (12:05:58 AM): k whatever
Jami86e (12:06:05 AM): i’ll pray for you
***** (12:06:49 AM): stop it with the guilty crap seriously your gonna really make me mad
***** (12:06:54 AM): and im not gonna talk to you
Jami86e (12:06:58 AM): i’m not trying to make you feel guilty
***** (12:07:04 AM): dont say another word about this
Jami86e (12:07:13 AM): okay

What I texted to Kate: “I was on LSD and didn’t see the palm trees.”

What I SHOULD have texted to Kate: “I was on Lake Shore Drive and forgot to look for the palm trees.”