Story of the Day 7/ 29/ 2013

.


At least she told us at the end of dinner.
Sarah, you see, used Aaron's toothbrush.
She told him that he would notice when he went into the bathroom.
That is because there are these "threads" on the bottom of it.
Well , they look like threads.

Aaron's current toothbrush stands on the counter in the bathroom. It was a "special" kiddie-interest toothbrush that I got in a two pack at the dollar store.
It stands on the counter, instead of in the toothbrush holder.
The bottom of it is a bit larger in diameter than a standard toothbrush, and it is flat, or mostly flat, along its bottom.
This is very handy, if you do not have a stand for the toothbrushes- which we actually do have.
This was also very handy, in an emergency, which is what Sarah decided it was.

When she saw the spider.

Those "threads " are its legs.

Sarah was rather proud of herself.
You see, I am the family exterminator. I kill the wasps, mosquitos, moths.
And the spiders.
I do not flinch.
In this family that makes me brave.

What can I say? We have very low standards.

I know this because my 6'3" son and my 5'10" daughter scream for me to come when they see an insect. Sometimes, my husband does this, as well.

So, Sarah, felt rather proud of herself.

And I felt rather glad that she had waited until the very end of dinner to share this.

And Aaron felt....

Well, being the compassionate mother that I am , I told him, "Don't' worry, I have a new toothbrush for you!"

After all, it was a two-pack

And , having read this story, you are probably feeling thankful that the picture was a bit out of focus.

Story of the day 7/ 7/ 2013

My son, Ely, is visiting from Syracuse.
We took our dear friend, Anne, out for breakfast; and over breakfast Anne asked a lot of questions about shared housing.
She wanted to know how they split things like cooking and purchasing groceries and household items.

In the telling of how things worked, Ely explained about the toilet paper-
how he had realized,that he was the only one of the 4 housemates who ever bought any.
And how he would wait until they were down to 2 rolls, and then one roll, and then no rolls,for days, before buying more, just to see if anyone else would.

And I interjected explaining how I had told him to keep a roll hidden in his room during these experiments into the purchasing habits of people who had allowed the toilet paper to run out......

During the entire year, only twice has anyone else bought toilet paper.
The first time that someone other than Ely bought toilet paper, they bought one roll.
One roll?
One roll.

Worse, Ely had a friend visit , shortly after that roll appeared.
A friend who works at the same place as the roommate who bought it.

Ely's friend exclaimed, "Hey, that is the same toilet paper from work!"

Story of the Day 7/ 3/ 2013

Apparently, July can be a tough month for kids heading off to college for the first time.
That is becasue they are learning who their assigned roommate is.

For one young man that we know, it inspired several long moments of panic.
He texted my daughter and said , "I think he is a Muslim!"

Now, we are Jewish and can be a bit nervous regarding being put with people of different religions.

You can end up with a religious evangelical Christian who keeps telling you that you are going to Hell, but he/she will keep praying for you.

Or you could end up with someone who is a religious Christian from a rural area who is so thrilled to meet a real live Jew that they have to call home and tell their Aunt Sue and their cousin Joe and everyone else they can think of- who all then want to meet the real-live Jew.

Or you can end up with a Muslim who may be very anti-Israel to the point of believing in following the admonishment by some Arab nation leaders to push all the Jews into the sea, and telling you that this is his goal, at least 5 times every day.

And, in case you want to know, I have a friend who had one of those experiences, and a family member who had one, I and had one , as well; so those things can happen.

But they usually don't.

Because you can also end up with people from a variety of different religions, including those mentioned above, who are totally fine and with whom you will end up having a rather good freshman year. And going over to stay at their home for Thanksgiving break.
In fact, this is the most likely thing to happen, unless your roommate, for no reason connected to his or her religion, is a jerk.


But, to get back to the current issue, this young man was ...scared.
He also isn't Jewish. In fact, worse than that, in case he gets a fundamentalist Muslim, he belongs to a different minority ( in America) religious group that is targetted for violence by extremist Muslims , in his parents' area of the world.

Sarah, at any rate, texted him saying, " Not all Muslims are bad." And she told him that the kid might be a good roommate.

She also asked him why he thought the boy was a Muslim.

"His name is Ben Worthington.*"


Let me see.....

Bin Laden.
Ben Ahmed.
Ben Worthington.


_________
*slight name change to protect the kid's privacy.