Story of the Day 11/ 16/ 2015

“Mom, did I get in trouble before?"

I got this text from my daughter, late this evening.
It made me worry about what she had done that I had not yet been made aware of....She doesn't drive, so I know she had not put a dent in the car. She is not spendthrift and I can't imagine her charging $200 on a pair of boots, so what could it be? She doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke...I can't think of what this could be about.

I texted her, and she sent me this, to calm my fears:

"I just want to make sure I didn't do anything criminal in the past."

Only, now I am more worried. Criminal? Is this my daughter, or has someone stolen her cell phone and thinks they are texting their mother?

I text back, "What do you mean?"

It turns out that my daughter is applying for a summer internship with the government, and she wants to make sure that she properly discloses everything wrong that she might have done. I text her back and ask what in the heck she thinks she might have done that was criminal.

It turns out there are two things of concern.

The first is that she threw a snowball at a car. The car was driving down our residential street and she was in the front yard. She was about 5 at the time. A young five, as still in preschool. The woman stopped the car and got out and yelled at her about the awful thing she had done, so my daughter is worried that she did something criminal.

I also yelled at her, and told her never to throw snowballs at cars. Since I do not yell, often, at least not at kids, this also impacted her memory of this.

The second incident involved her being stopped by the police when she was driving.

She was 15 years old and she was practicing parking in the Foxhole Elementary school parking lot on a Sunday in the summer. The school was closed, and my husband was seated beside her in the passenger seat. He drove her down to the school, to the parking lot, and she was practicing starting and stopping the car, and then he planned to drive them home, but, apparently, a police officer noticed them and thought it was a highly suspicious activity to be engaged in on a summer day at about 3 PM, and he stopped her.

It actually turned out that we should not have been letting her practice, because she did not yet have her learner's permit. We erroneously assumed that it was okay to practice in the empty lot, since it wasn't a street, and we wanted her to get used to the standard transmission in our Honda, before getting her permit...and my father had let me do the same thing, some 35 years earlier, in the empty school parking lot in Ohio, so I had assumed it was okay...but it was not.

My poor husband was totally innocent in this. His parents had never taken him anywhere to practice driving; he had learned to drive all on his own, as an adult, so it was entirely my bad advice.

At any rate, Sarah was admonished by the officer, although he did not issue her a ticket. And she never drove again until AFTER she had the permit...at which point we went back to the empty parking lot on Sundays for a few weeks before letting her out on the road. But this incident, too, seems to have scarred her.

I explained that neither incident was criminal, and that she had nothing to disclose, but she was still worried.

You see, apparently, for this position, this question will be asked of her during polygraph test.

So, I told Sarah to tell them that she was involved in two questionable activities and to provide the interviewer with all of the embarrassing details.

We should all live so dangerously, or criminally, or……..

Story of the Day 11/ 12/2015

I was on my way to Trader Joe's when I decided to take a detour.
In the very same strip mall , just a few storefronts to the east is a Pier One. Over the years, I have spent a decent amount go money in Pier One buying things for Hanukkah. Things meaning dreidels and candles and menorahs.
But, I didn't even look at their selection, last year, because they didn't have one. Well, they did, if you lived somewhere else, but someone in the corporate office had decided that this Indianapolis location didn't sell enough; so when I went inside, last year, to see what they had, they had " nothing".

The saleswoman was very apologetic, but there was nothing that she could do.

I expected a repeat of last year's experience, because, believe it or not, not a whole lot has changed here in Indianapolis, this past year, with regards to the Jewish population. Individually, yes.
There have been deaths, there have been births, but the Jewish community did not , during the past 12 months, grow by 2,000 all of whom are out shopping.
So,I went in thinking I would be wasting two or three minutes asking about something they didn't have.

But, when I told the woman who greeted me within 30 seconds of my entering the store what i was looking for , she took me right over to a Hanukkah display.

On the table, amidst a slew of other sparkly things, was a very beautiful dreidel. I reached down, wondering what it was made of and then recoiled , as soon as my fingers touched it.

"It's beautiful, isn't it" chipped the saleswoman.

"It is a Christmas tree ornament," I replied.
In fact, it was a blown glass tree ornament complete with a little gold braid loop on one end for hanging on your tree.

The woman reached over and picked it up.

"Oh my!"

I looked at the rest of the display.....there was a lovely table runner....in a package. But when I picked it up, I realized that it was a mantle cover and the illustration showed it hanging above a fireplace just set for the stockings to fill.

And then there were the wreaths. Blue and silver wreaths, to hang on your door and let everyone know that you were celebrating Christmas.
But ever mindful of the Jew-colors!

There was a menorah and candles, but they had been relegated to a dark area under the table- one of those square wooden box, almost shelf things.
Their placement was enough of an insult that I would not have considered spending money at the store, even if they were the only bona-fide Hanukkah candles in town.

As I turned to leave, the saleswoman, who was now wandering round the display, picking things up and realizing what they were actually showing, was very apologetic.
This was without my even needing to explain to her what was wrong with the rest of the display.
I assured her that I knew it was not her doing, and I was also aware that the display is made to conform to directions sent by the corporation. They actually lay out in a photo of what goes were, so sticking the menorah and candles in the dark, hard to reach spot was a corporate decision.

An hour later, at home, after putting away my groceries, I located a comment form , on line, and sent Pier One my opinion of their display.

It was a nice display for Christians wanting to stick some token Hanukkah decor up on their trees for their significant others, spouses, roommates, or whatever. Then theyr token Jews could thank them for their thoughtfulness, I suppose, if not for their sensitivity.

No, I did not say that , but I thought it. I was actually very polite.
Even by other people's standards.

If I had seen the Pier One ad, before sending it, though, I might not have been.
he one detail I semi to have missed was the trees. They had a nice pair of blue and white Christmas trees for us Jews to decorate with......

I have attached the photo , so that you can enjoy how they think I should be decorating my home for Hanukkah, this year...