Sunday, July 17, 2005

Travel Advisory

This blog is currently enjoying the heat and humidity of Florida. Today it's Miami. Tomorrow, it's off to Orlando to hang out with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.

For those who are interested (and did not see me on shabbos), I did indeed donate my hair. The new 'do is short, sassy, and takes a bit of getting used to...kind of like me.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Big Deep Breath

I just made an appointment to finally cut my hair. Over 10 inches of hair. The last time I cut off that much at once was when I donated my hair in November 2002, right after my grandmother, a"h, passed away. I've been letting it grow so that I can donate it again, and now that time has come.

I hate getting my hair cut. I dread it. I dread it so much that I almost hung up the phone in the middle of dialing the salon. Now there's no turning back. Unless, I "accidentally" "forget" to show up for my appointment.

At least I know that some little girl somewhere will be able to enjoy my hair as much as I have. Now all I need is someone to come to the salon with me and hold my hand while they hack it off (my hair, that is. They're not going to hack my hand off. I don't think).

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

A Very Special Guest Post

Liz's parents, aka Jon and Veronica, aka Mom and Dad S, have asked me to post the following on their behalf:

It has been a little over two months since Liz died. We still cannot believe that our precious, loving daughter is no longer with us. There remain many things we do not understand, but there are at least two that we do. First, our daughter was blessed to have known each and every one of you. Second, we are happy that we had the opportunity to be with many of you at her funeral, some of you for the first time, even under those circumstances. Each of you has a strength of character and a moral grounding that will guide you through life well and true.

We know that from time to time you will remember Liz. When you do, we hope that a smile will come to your face and a warmth will enter your heart as you remember the good times with her and the special person she was. Through remembrance, Liz will always be with us. We hope that your memory of Liz will serve, in some measure, as an inspiration to each of you.

You have been kind and generous to our family. We hope you will stay close to each other and that you will have the opportunity to share many joyous times. If from time to time any of you would like to tell us what's going on in your lives, or if we can ever be of help to you, we would be happy and honored to hear from you. Our new email address is:(Management edit: ask me for it- if I post it here, they'll get lots and lots of spam.)

Be safe.

Love,

Jon and Veronica Schmerling


If anyone would like their new email address, regular address or phone number, just drop me a line.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me In

Back in my college days, when 90% of my closest friends were male, I never felt that my guy friends were not open with me. We talked about everything. Some of them told me way too much. But I don't remember feeling like they were holding back or keeping a certain emotional distance from me.

Out in the real world, the opposite seems true. While my guy friends from college are still open and honest with me, guy friends that I have made since them don't seem to be. I haven't quite figured out why this is. Is it that we were spending time together around the clock in college, making emotional distance more difficult? Have I changed? Do my newer guy friends think of me differently than my college friends? Is there something that I'm missing.

When a friend continues to keep you at an emotional distance, you start to wonder 1)whether you really know this person at all, and 2)why they won't let you in. At what point do you say, "Hey, we've been friends for [insert period of time]. If he's not opening up to me by now, he never will"?

This isn't a question of romantic involvement. There is a particular friend I have in mind while writing this, but there is nothing romantic between us. Besides, if there ever had been potential, it's been completely starved to death by lack of emotional sustenance. I just can't sustain an interest in a guy who shuts me out. This is a question of friendship and communication, and what you do when you start to wonder how much is really there after all.