Category: 400 thoughts
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This is why we can’t have nice things.
Really universe? Really? I have a follow-up job interview today. I’m doing my best to Sheryl Sandberg this shit and last night attempted an early bedtime. Sheryl, is this how it’s supposed to work? Because I think I broke it. I was up twice before 1am feeding the infant. At some point after that, not one…
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Not normal (part 2)
It’s day 3. When it comes to processing, sometimes it takes a while. I think the closer to home it is, the slower it goes. To put it another way: maybe it’s a bit too twisted that I’m reading the insanity playing out in Iraq in an effort to not read the no-news from back…
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5 ways #KahenaCon got me pumped to go back to work
I signed up for KahenaCon soon after registration opened. Maybe even the day it opened. I really enjoy this conference for getting inspired in the kind of work I do, by hearing from others doing it and by the atmosphere we create when we get together. It’s a gathering of marketing professionals within the kind of environment…
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10 things about turning ten (celebrating a decade of lizrael update)
Where’s my cake? lizrael update turns ten-years-old today! That’s six months longer than I’ve lived here. That’s two more years than I’ve been married. That’s five more years than I’ve been a parent. That’s as long as I’ve been out of my first university. It’s the longest-running project I’ve ever undertaken, with no deadline or end in sight.…
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Yom Haaztmaut 5774: Three reasons why
‘Why did you move to Israel?’ We get asked that a lot, don’t we? Here’s my #1 reason 9 years ago, and my #1 reason now: Children who know no differently… The list of reasons for living in Israel grows each year I live and learn here. This year it grew by way of another…
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Yom HaZicaron 5774: A little boy asking questions
This evening at the Yom HaZicaron memorial service, my son asked a lot of questions. ‘Who is that boy?’ ‘Who is he talking about?’ ‘His older brother died?’ He asked me to explain what every speaker was talking about. I did. It made me strongly consider how I’ll look back fondly in thirteen years at…
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Workshop in Advanced Citizenship
There’s nothing to make you feel more a part of a society’s special mosaic than to find yourself arriving at the sealed entrance of the Unemployment Office, joining a small mob of people across all of Israeli demographics, all staring at the printout sloppily taped to the heavy doors… …that the ministry is on strike.
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13 life lessons my kids taught me in 2013
Though I’m not really one for the Gregorian calendar’s drunken marking of a new set of 365 days, I am one for lists. (They are a relatively inexpensive way to help keep me sane.) As far as this list goes: Whether they mean to or not, my kids have plenty of life lessons to offer…
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Why is it still ok to call yourself retarded? To call your friends gay?
Are you, indeed, retarded? Are you “less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual” for your age? Do you have a mental handicap that requires you to be treated with a different sort of care? That makes certain life tasks more difficult? Are your friends being silly/dumb/foolish/loving actually gay? Are they attracted to…
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Of life in the shtetl; Tevye had a point
A fiddler on the roof… it sounds crazy. But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us… is a fiddler on the roof. Before I lived here in Israel, I lived in a tight-knit Jewish shtetl called New York. Trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking…
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lizrael update: the expat-makes-a-visit edition
Living in Israel (and probably many other countries as an American expat) is an exercise in being happy with what you have, and I feel lucky to have even scratched the surface of that sentiment. Occasionally the conversation comes up with fellow expats here and I’m no longer surprised to admit that I’m happier here…