When we moved into our new apartment about a month ago we couldn’t find the key to the deadbolt on the front door. (The front door to our apartment, not the building). When we asked the landlord about it, she said she wasn’t sure which key was to our deadbolt (she had a lot of keys), but the next time they were in the area they’d bring them all and firue out which one it was. She was around on Saturday with her husband, while we were with my parents for shabbat. (Some family who I haven’t seen in years was coming in to town so we had a mini family reunion). When we went back Saturday night we discovered that the deadbolt was locked, and the landlord hadn’t left the key for us anywhere. In other words: we’re now locked out of our apartment and have to wait for the landlord to return from Gaithersburg MD (which she promises to do early today) before we can get in.

Microsoft announced the new name for their new portable music player. (Think an iPod made by microsoft – the screen will be too small to even notice the blue screen of death!) They’ve decided to call it the Zune. Now, I want everyone here who speaks Hebrew to think about how to transliterate that into Hebrew. Let’s see….ן…ו…י…ז. In other words, זיון. (Which, although they never taught us this word in Hebrew school, apparently translates to fuck).

The best thing about being in Pleasanton this week is that we’re 3 hours behind the east coast and I have cable TV in my room which gets OLN. This means that when I wake up, I can turn on the Tour De France and watch it while I get ready to leave. (I explained my great love of the tour in a post about 2 years ago). Usually I have to settle for the text updates on my computer while I work. The only down side is that I usually have to head out the door before the stage is over, meaning I miss the final 20 kilometers or so (and the ultimate result), leaving me in suspense until we break for lunch and I can check the computer.

Every year.

Every single year.
Every year since baseball realigned the divisions in 1994, Atlanta has won the NL east. (The exception is actually 1994 itself since it was a strike year and no one won). Many people point to the Braves as winning even more division titles than that, but before 1994 it was a different division so it doesn’t really count. The point is, the Braves just keep winning the division. It doesn’t matter who their big hitters are, who their closer is, who their starters are, or who the other good teams in the division are. They always freakin win.

In the last few years they’ve gotten sloppy – they start the year slow and just wake up late, go on a tear, and win the division late. Every year another team has hope of winning the division. Last year was the Nats and Phillies, before that the Mets have had hope, the Phillies, the Marlins, and even the Expos saw a brief glimmer of hope, but it doesn’t matter. The Braves always squash it in the end. This year, like all other years, someone else thought they could win the division (in this case the Mets tried to win by buying all the good free agents for two straight off-seasons). The pundits were all talking about how the Braves were farther back than they’d even been, and the Mets rent-a-team might actually end their reign. Well since July began the Braves have been on a tear. They’ve only lost 3 games in July, and have won 11 of their last 13.

Sorry Mets, you had your glimmer of hope, and you’ll still have it for another month or so, but it looks like the rent-a-team Mets may have to settle for either a wild card or next year.

Just in time to wake me up from my previous “America is great” post, I am reminded of one of the things that drives me nuts about America – we somehow have people like this making crucial decisions about something they know nothing about.

I just arrived in Pleasanton California for a week long training class. Normally I would be asleep since my body thinkis it’s 1:30AM, but my addiction to blogging every interesting thing that happens to me just couldn’t wait.

On the hour long cab ride over here from the SF airport, I chatted with my cab driver, who, it turns out, is a Ukranian Jew who immigrated to the states after the downfall of the USSR. Before that downfall he apparently ran an underground Jewish school while trying to dodge the KGB. After the breakup of the USSR he ran a Jewish television program in the Ukraine funded by federation. He later moved to the bay area, where he now has 3 children, one of which will be Bar-mitzvah’d soon. He runs a pottery studio and a Judaica store, speaks highly of the local chabad house, and helps his brother with his limo company two days a week. (Which is why I met him of course).

As a child I remember Soviet Jewry being one of the biggest and first causes that I could become motivated for, and one of the few things all of my elders seemed to agree on. I remember participating in the march on Washington for Soviet Jewry when I was 8 years old. I remember my father going over to the USSR in 1988 to provide Jewish items to the local Jewish population. It was awesome to meet him now sort of like a “where are they now” episode on Entertainment tonight. Just sitting in a car with a former refusenik as we crossed the San Fransisco bay while he extolled the virtues of America was a minor experience in and of itself. At the very least it reminded me of something else. Although we are taught from a very young age the America is the best country on earth, I don’t think any of us native-born people really appreciate everything America is. It’s onlt when you meet someone who fled an oppresive regime that you realize just what a unique and special place it is.

I was going to complain about Philly’s woefull public transit system, but one of the training classes I was at recently told me to always start with a positive, so here it is:

positive: Philly has really mastered the use of underground space and connections. You can actually walk all the way from 9th street to 18th street entirely underground using the various train stations, subway platforms, and part of the mall. They also have many underground stores and shops, and a lot of things which connect to the tunnels directly. In addition to the aforementioned mall, a lot of downtown office buildings connect directly to the tunnels, so when it’s raining or snowing, you don’t have to go outside to catch a train home.

negative: They smell like urine

positive: All the subway systems are brightly lit.
negativeI see rodents running around in the subway tunnels.

positive You can buy tokens at major stations for $1.35.

negative: You can’t buy tokens elsewhere, and are forced to purchase them for $1.50 from the guy on the corner selling counterfeit designer sunglasses from his card table.

So I mentioned in the previous post that I had a long post about leaving DC which I had typed up, at least partly, as I was leaving. Although I have finished the post, I’ve decided not to post it. Perhaps I’m just being the stereotypical guy, but the writing was somewhat emotional, and although I did find the process itself to be cathartic, I just don’t feel comfortable posting my deepest feelings on the Internet for all who wander past. I will however post my main conclusion which was this:

I feel that I never said goodbye to a lot of people in DC, and I couldn’t figure out why. I think it’s simply because it would have been too hard to. Despite my usual inadequacies at keping in touch with people who I’m close with, I know that the Kesher community simply means too much to me – that it has affected me too much to simply be left behind. Saying goodbye would simply feel like a betrayal. Although the question of whether or not we will return is still an open one (and will likely remain so for the next 2 years), in my mind it was just too hard to do anything which felt like I was actually leaving.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, you can look forward to coming posts on the subject of public transit (sucks), my job (love it), and the nearby compost experiment (smells like manure).

I haven’t posted in a little while, and a million people are asking (or perhaps silently wondering) how the move went, how I like Philly so far, etc. etc. Well the short answer thus far is twofold: busy and internet-less. I’ve actually got a fairly long post on the other computer that I typed up on the train as I left DC, which I’ll have to get up here as soon as I can, but internet access is currently very limited (which is why I’m also not answering all your emails). I promise I’ll catch up soon.