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Recap of the Recent Past:
I've spent the last few weeks first hanging around the apartment in a sort of trance-like state, reading and relaxing, and being enthusiastic about Doctor Who. (See what a couple of episodes watched with <lj user="jakal88"> over Christmas, as part of our attempt to fulfill the classic "chinese food and a movie" came to- the CHinese food was homemade chicken fried rice (excellent), and the movie was a mix of ice-skating, Star Trek, and Doctor Who.)
Then last week, there was minimester, which was surprisingly good, and full of nice school folks. Given last year's minimester, I was pretty iffy about this one, in advance, but it turned out to be quite a good program. Certainly, the day we spent visiting a mosque contained a lot of stuff that I knew already, given the stuff that I did in college on Arabic, women in Islam/Muslim countries, etc. However, it was still quite pleasant. Also, seeing the school associated with this mosque was fascinating- first off, they charge extremely little, especially compared to Jewish private schools (admittedly, it was also an Extremely different population and neighborhood than where you'd find a Jewish school these days), and secondly, I realized that for all I've been told about Jewish day schools, I've never actually watched a class at one (and the only reason I'd been at one at all was to take some friends there for minyan to daven and see some high school friends of theirs)... That's a gap I need to fill in at some point. The program certainly had some better points and some less worthwhile ones, but for the first time it was being run, I thought it was pretty nearly excellent. It was a lovely surprise, and amidst it, I did a great deal of crocheting. However, trying to adjust back from a rather irregular sleep schedule back to one that was closer to a school schedule, combined with going various places and the awkwardness that comes from being in foreign worship spaces left me quite exhausted all week.
Then as soon as that was done, my computer started acting up, and parts of Thursday, Friday and much of today have been spent dealing with trying to make it functional, trying to remove viruses that the scans didn't catch at first, etc. Today I've been home and Dad has been doing a lot of the computer wrangling, for which I am extremely grateful- he has patience for this that I often don't, in my anxiety. So, it's an ongoing process, and if I don't show up online quite as much, or if I do so mostly through LJ posts (i.e. things done in periods of time when the computer lab is open) for a bit, it'll be because of computer issues, unfortunately. Hopefully things are on the mend, but one never knows... It's certainly an unfortunately anxious and awkward way to begin a semester.
Being at my folks' house today has been lovely though- a few home-cooked meals, the chance to go buy socks easily, and actually getting a haircut have made today both practical and really relaxing. The haircut wasn't all that much- 2-3 inches, which given the length of my hair oughtn't be much of a difference. Nevertheless, my hair feels almost traumatically short to me. I imagine that rather like last time, no one who doesn't already know to look for the difference will notice, which always feels odd to me: it's a major change for me, and yet no one even notices to comment, which makes the whole thing feel like I'm going through this mildly trying experience for no social benefit. I guess it's no wonder that I tend to put it off again and again. On the other hand, I'm told that if I trim it more regularly, it might actually slowly grow past the point where it tends to stop when I don't trim it, since the ends will be healthier and not keep breaking off. It's funny and probably rather shallow that I'm so attached to my hair, but it's been a constant since I was fairly little, and very much a part of my concept of my own image. Doesn't make it any less shallow, but I guess having a few shallow things about oneself is not the worst thing in the world...
I've spent the last few weeks first hanging around the apartment in a sort of trance-like state, reading and relaxing, and being enthusiastic about Doctor Who. (See what a couple of episodes watched with <lj user="jakal88"> over Christmas, as part of our attempt to fulfill the classic "chinese food and a movie" came to- the CHinese food was homemade chicken fried rice (excellent), and the movie was a mix of ice-skating, Star Trek, and Doctor Who.)
Then last week, there was minimester, which was surprisingly good, and full of nice school folks. Given last year's minimester, I was pretty iffy about this one, in advance, but it turned out to be quite a good program. Certainly, the day we spent visiting a mosque contained a lot of stuff that I knew already, given the stuff that I did in college on Arabic, women in Islam/Muslim countries, etc. However, it was still quite pleasant. Also, seeing the school associated with this mosque was fascinating- first off, they charge extremely little, especially compared to Jewish private schools (admittedly, it was also an Extremely different population and neighborhood than where you'd find a Jewish school these days), and secondly, I realized that for all I've been told about Jewish day schools, I've never actually watched a class at one (and the only reason I'd been at one at all was to take some friends there for minyan to daven and see some high school friends of theirs)... That's a gap I need to fill in at some point. The program certainly had some better points and some less worthwhile ones, but for the first time it was being run, I thought it was pretty nearly excellent. It was a lovely surprise, and amidst it, I did a great deal of crocheting. However, trying to adjust back from a rather irregular sleep schedule back to one that was closer to a school schedule, combined with going various places and the awkwardness that comes from being in foreign worship spaces left me quite exhausted all week.
Then as soon as that was done, my computer started acting up, and parts of Thursday, Friday and much of today have been spent dealing with trying to make it functional, trying to remove viruses that the scans didn't catch at first, etc. Today I've been home and Dad has been doing a lot of the computer wrangling, for which I am extremely grateful- he has patience for this that I often don't, in my anxiety. So, it's an ongoing process, and if I don't show up online quite as much, or if I do so mostly through LJ posts (i.e. things done in periods of time when the computer lab is open) for a bit, it'll be because of computer issues, unfortunately. Hopefully things are on the mend, but one never knows... It's certainly an unfortunately anxious and awkward way to begin a semester.
Being at my folks' house today has been lovely though- a few home-cooked meals, the chance to go buy socks easily, and actually getting a haircut have made today both practical and really relaxing. The haircut wasn't all that much- 2-3 inches, which given the length of my hair oughtn't be much of a difference. Nevertheless, my hair feels almost traumatically short to me. I imagine that rather like last time, no one who doesn't already know to look for the difference will notice, which always feels odd to me: it's a major change for me, and yet no one even notices to comment, which makes the whole thing feel like I'm going through this mildly trying experience for no social benefit. I guess it's no wonder that I tend to put it off again and again. On the other hand, I'm told that if I trim it more regularly, it might actually slowly grow past the point where it tends to stop when I don't trim it, since the ends will be healthier and not keep breaking off. It's funny and probably rather shallow that I'm so attached to my hair, but it's been a constant since I was fairly little, and very much a part of my concept of my own image. Doesn't make it any less shallow, but I guess having a few shallow things about oneself is not the worst thing in the world...