Vastrawesome

I don't celebrate Christmas. I celebrate Doctor Who Day. And I watched the special, and this is my favorite line EVER:

"Good evening, I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time. And this is my wife."
- Madam Vastra

And then the maid screams uncontrollably.

Seeing

I think it must have been February of last year or something.

We were in Haifa, on Mount Carmel. My grandparents took my parents and my cousins and me to see the sunset.

We passed behind backyards through a narrow path. Behind one abandoned building that had once been beautiful but had been taken by weeds and moss, tarnishing the characteristic Israeli white-painted walls. Through streets, to an empty lot. You could see the valley, and where the gravel ended there was a steep grassy drop.

All the while my younger cousins chattered about anything and everything. The sunset was beautiful over the city and the sea.

My middle cousin, aged seven, peered up at the sky. "I see God," he said. "Shira, I see God."

And though I fancy myself as one who doesn't, can't, or won't believe, he said it so innocently. So sweetly. I know him to be a trickster, but who am I to say what he did or didn't see?

Who knows, maybe there was something more in that sunset. I'm not one to tell.

Photos, etc.

I was looking through old photos to see what I might put on my iPod for nostalgia, etcetera. The thing about that is - it gives me nostalgia, etcetera.

So I look at these photos. And obviously iPhoto organizes them in chronological order, so looking at the "last 12 months" section is quite literally like seeing the past year scroll before me.

I'm not really that sad about it, for a change. Well, I am. But I'm also not.

I look at them and the way things were, how wonderfully carefree and simply unlike real life they were. In a way I'm glad my friends were here and I was there, because that gave me a reason to document my life, and thus to now look back.

It feels strange, but it's helpful. I think I should do this more often - look at that year. Yeah, it was hard and horrible sometimes, but at least I can look and remember and probably sugarcoat it to a certain extent. And yeah, I miss it. But how could I not?

One of the things I learned last year was to use what you have. I could have moped for the entire six months. I could have disregarded everything good around me. But I didn't, and it got better, because as it turns out, life is pretty nice when you use it. I think sometimes I need a reminder.

Blub blub

Me: Bleh.
Mom: That's how you say "blue" in French.
Me: No, that's bleu.
Brother: Not very different.
Mom: Then "bleh" is "white."
Me: No, that's blanc.
Brother: Still not very different.
Mom: That's what you'll have to learn next year if you take French.
Brother: Okay!
Me: Bleu blanc bleh.
Brother: What's "bleh?"
Me: Not a word.

Too Much

I have lately come to a realization.

But first, as always - backstory.

Yesterday I got an iPod touch. 64 gigabytes, which now I have no idea what to do with.

I want to go to this summer program. Which costs $7000 or so.

So now is the time when I realize that I cost too much. I feel as though all I do costs something. Every activity in which I engage takes money. And it adds up to too much.

Confused, etc.

This is an angsty post. You have been warned.

I'm still thinking a lot about Israel. Especially today.

I have this thing where music makes me feel different things, not necessarily because of the way it is, but more because of when I first heard it or when I was listening to it a lot.

So there are some songs that are Israel Songs. Songs that I would listen to and would make me feel all of the feels.

And some of those songs are ones that I haven't heard in a very long while.

So I had Spotify on and was listening to one of them and BAM. The feels. I felt like I had in Israel, and suddenly I realize that I just don't feel like that anymore, and I remembered.

How much I missed my friends. How confusing it was to have two homes. How different my outlook was, how I felt about different people back then. How I felt about myself.

And I'm still thinking about it, and I'm still sad.

And also - I missed my friends here so much. How is it that after nearly six months here, I don't miss Israel so much? Was it all really that fleeting? Were my friendships too hastily built to last?

And now I miss them. And I miss the apartment. And school.

Something about my geography teacher in Israel came up during lunch. And I realized - I had never really told my friends here that much about my actual life in Israel. I talked about feelings, about homework, about general things - a bit about a few classes. But there wasn't much.

And now I remember everything.

How did I survive for so long without my friends? How am I surviving now, without my friends in Israel?

How?

Today

So I got out of school at 11, got home at 11:20, and then my friend and I headed off to the Prudential Center in search of a suit for her.

We got off at Copley, and I had misremembered the map so we headed off in the wrong direction and then turned around and went back.

Then we went through Copley Place and took the walkways to the Prudential. We went through a few stores, not really finding much in the price range we wanted. Then we ate Indian food and got chocolate and went to Loft and somehow ended up trying on a lot of clothes. One was one of those dresses that only looks good with a belt, which we didn't have, so it looked like a sack.

Her: I am a potato. Don't look at me, I'm a potato. In a sack. With cats on it.

Then we rushed through Barnes and Noble (this was the B&N of In Your Pants Nerdfighter Meetup infamy) and then rushed through Lord and Taylor, and then we passed through Teavana and got some delicious tea. We ended up boarding the T at 4:15 or so.

And then I noticed that someone from the Nerdfighter meetup was there.

Me: DFTBA?
Her: Yep.

And so we rode some more, and at Fenway my friend noticed that my girlfriend was just getting on the T. So we talked and laughed and stuff and then she got off at her stop. Oh, beautiful coincidences.

So, as days go, today was pretty awesome.

Nerdfighters, Nerdfighters everywhere

On Sunday, I went to a Nerdfighter gathering at the Prudential Center in Boston.

I arrived shortly after 2 with my ukulele, etc. and some Nerdfighters had already taken over one corner of the food court. They had already hijacked a lot of tables and made them into an L-shape. I helped more people (because more and more were arriving) make a little island in the middle of the L. We talked about fandoms and ages and things we'd done, tried to play Munchkin Space, tried to play Bang, and then I migrated to another corner. Then my girlfriend and her friends arrived and then we played a game with a beach ball covered with questions that somebody had ingeniously created. Then we took a group photo and thoroughly freaked out the rest of the food court by shouting, "DFTBA!"

Then we migrated to Barnes & Noble and played the "In Your Pants" game. If you're not familiar with it, it's the theory that if you add "In Your Pants" to any book title, it instantly becomes hilarious. Some of the best selections include:

That's the Way I Blow

Justin Bieber

Katy Perry

The Dust Bowl

Fire

World War II

The Casual Vacancy

You've Gotta Have Balls

and more, which I can't remember just now. We looked around for a while before finding "Must-Read Books by John Green."

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

And Harry Potter.

Worship at the altar, worship at the altar.

Then we went and looked at books and the rack of hand puppets which included a Hedwig-style snowy owl and a puffy hedgehog and a dog and a squirrel.

After the Barnes and Noble people were well and thoroughly freaked-out (and a lot of Nerdfighters had started to leave), we went and sat in a corner and played more beach ball question game. Then I had to leave, and everyone exchanged hugs.

I think it was one of the best days I've had lately. I've been told how lucky I am to have Nerdfighteria, and I really am. I think the whole world is lucky to have such a beautiful community. There are so many bad things in the world, so many people who say that we're only getting worse, that we're getting more and more apathetic. But then there's Nerdfighteria. And just as one lamp can light a room, Nerdfighteria gives hope where there might not be as much.

DFTBA!