Mazal tov to my amazing friend Sarah, who got a part in Fiddler on the Roof!! I totally knew she could do it, and the fact that she even tried out is but one piece of evidence that she is the coolest person in the world. BFFD is also going to be performing in a musical-type thing soon, which should come as a surprise to no one who has ever heard her sing (like, wow). It’s so nice to have such talented friends. Makes me feel proud. 
Sarah also was kind enough to provide me with a link, which probably means I got a whole horde of hits the way I did the last time she provided me with a link, but I’m too tired to check my statcounter, and anyway I’ve been scared to check it ever since I checked it and somehow ended up ticking someone off. Heh. Anyway, if you’re visiting via Chayyei Sarah, welcome to iMiriam, and feel free to visit, like, every day, because that way I can convince myself that there are millions of people out there who are fascinated by my life.
So guess what. I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep I can’t sleep I can’t sleep. Oh, so take your sleeping pill, Miriam; ah, but I did, and you know what? I couldn’t sleep! Ah, so take Melatonin, Miriam; ah, but I did, and you know what? I couldn’t sleep! Ah, so take them both, Miriam, the way you were before the stroke last summer as part of an effort to change your body clock (it was working, by the way); ah, but I did, and you know what? I slept, a little, by which I mean I only woke up like 3 times instead of the usual 10, and I only stayed awake for a few minutes each of those times instead of an hour, but you know what else? I couldn’t wake up in the morning, and G ended up going to work an hour late, and Babysitter Allison had to come over to watch the Boy. Oops. Know what time I took the Melatonin? 6:30 PM. Know what time I took the sleeping pill? 8:30 PM. And I was still in a drug-induced state at 8:30 AM. Feh. What am I supposed to do??
I know, I know, I’ll keep trying, and I’ll try different things, and this week is actually a good week to do that, since the twins have vacation which means G does not have to leave the house at 7:30 AM to drive them to Manhattan, but hello? Why can’t I sleep??
Yes, I do know the answer(s) to that.
Hey, speaking of things that are stressing me out, remember the MA I was supposed to get in January (like now, I mean) since I passed my French exam last July? Well I finally got myself to start trudging through the paperwork, and guess what? It appears there’s another requirement I’ve been missing, one which my dearly beloved professor had told me, explicitly, on more than one occasion over the last 7 or so years, that I would not have to fulfill. But guess what? Apparently, I was drunk and imagined him saying this, or HE was drunk and/or just pulling my leg when he said it, because guess what? According to everything and everybody under the University sun, I DO have to fulfill that requirement!! Woohoo!
So I emailed my professor and found a very diplomatic and respectful way to say “YO DUDE, WERE YOU DRUNK WHEN YOU TOLD ME THIS, OR WHAT??” (actually, what I did was ask whether he remembers having told me this), and he replied that he just doesn’t know. So maybe he said this, and maybe he didn’t, and I have no proof that he did (he did!!). So where does this leave me? Well, I’ll give you a hint: neither the department nor the University give two hoots if I ever graduate or not. By which I mean, they don’t need me. I’m the one who needs them. So I can stamp my feet and insist that this isn’t right and isn’t fair, etc., but at the end of the day, they have no reason to honor a policy they apparently never had, especially when I can’t produce any evidence that I was misinformed. Heh.
In addition to that, my being approved for graduation is going to require some gracious legwork on their part, for which they will receive nothing in return, and people don’t generally feel gracious towards people who stamp their feet at them. So I’m still trying a few things to see if I can get out of this, but it isn’t looking good. Excuse me while I say the following: Damn. (I’ll explain what the requirement is once I get some more information.)
So, that’s not great. But the good news is that I have one of these:
I know, you probably think that’s a whisk, or some other sort of kitchen tool, but you are grossly mistaken. It is in fact this awesome thing that you use to massage your scalp. I think perhaps they call it a “scalp tingler”? Well whatever they call it, may I say, mmmm. I love it. BFFD gave it to me, the same Shabbos that she taught me to play gin, and rummy (I ended up beating her at both at least once ), and Texas Hold’Em (I caught on extremely quickly, and did very well, and I heartily enjoyed it), and most importantly, BananaGrams. If you aren’t familiar with that game, get familiar with it, now. She totally killed me at BananaGrams, but I didn’t mind, and we later decided to abandon childish competition and instead work together, and we managed, as a team, to construct this:
And it was, arguably, the most fun I ever had. Though you know what else would be fun? Sleeping. Wish me luck.
Tags: Friends, Nothingness
I love Bananagrams! You get better with practice, FYI. There are two tricks to improvement:
1- don’t be shy about “dumping” your tiles, but don’t do it too often. Instead:
2- Don’t be shy about scrapping your grid and starting over with all your tiles. With more tiles you can create longer words and use up your vowels, or create words around your Q’s and J’s. And then keep going. Takes a few minutes but saves a lot of anguish about what to do with that lonely K or with a string of O’s and I’s.
Ah, nerfarious taciturn. We knew ye when. I just had an entirely lovely shabbos that you’d get a big kick out of. But not as lovely as that one. Thanks, on so many levels. So excited you’re liking the head tingly thingie.