So it's summer

I ran into Jacob Da Jew today who gave me a reprimand for being so conspicuously absent. I have been doing some work for an online company and it's taken much of my time. Sorry.
Some points I've been meaning to write about:
1. Mrs. LakewoodFallingDown and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary!
2. Two weeks ago's Daf talks about having a Sela coin that gets rubbed out. The Gemorah tells us an appropriate way to get damaged coinage off of the market is to make a hole in it an give to to your son or daughter to wear. So jewelry for men (and boys) was promoted. It made me feel good, because I am the only one in m Shul that wears a ring.
3. I had the foresight to buy sand toys for a beach wedding we attended, and my kids, nieces and nephews had a blast digging by the Chuppah.
4. I love when everyone empties out to the mountains. I can find parking in Brooklyn.
5. I did Monster Island for this years cultural fair in public school. Give things a latitude and longitude, add some pictures, and anything can be believed (the native food was Soylent Green).
6. Our tuition bill for next year included an $800.00 "family assessment" fee. What the heck does that mean?!
7. I discovered that Treppinwitz and I both love root beer.
8. We painted our apartment, and made our bathroom dark blue (looks good)!
9. Paperwork stinks.
10. I don't have a facebook or twitter account. Someone set up a facebook account with my name, but it does not lik to me nor does it exsist anywhere I can find.
More updates when I have time!

Hallo-what?

In public school, we're not allowed to celebrate holidays in the school, but we are permitted to teach about them if we include all holidays. My principal, who is a very unreadable and weird lady announced on the PA that tomorrow will be "dress up as a storybook character day". On my way out the door, she happened to ask me who I was dressing up as. I looked her straight in the eye and said "Shylock". I also advised my staff to ask the principal if she was dresing up as Ms. Trunchbowl !(Don't worry they're used to my warped sense of humor)

Foot in my mouth

Reading the Jpost article posted by Lion of Zion, I felt it necessary to relate this story. Last week, one of the girls who works in my school building comes to ask me a question, as she needs help with a school assignment. FYI, she is a really nice and black girl from Jamaica. Her assignment was to write a report on, in her opinion, which Jew had the most impact on Israeli culture (attending Touro, why Stillwell Ave gave this assignment I don't know). Now I have a blanket rule because I wear my yarmulke and want to keep in a friendly environment. My rule is I refuse to talk about politics or religion at work. I ask her stupidly on my part if she means Jews or Israeli's. What I was thinking was historic Jews vs. contemporary Jews, but it just came out like that. She asked me if there was a difference between an Israeli and a Jew. I carefully back tracked and said I didn't want to talk politics, and she knows my rule. She was respectful about it, but I saw she understood I was uncomfortable talking about it. Articles like this are a part of the reason why.

First day back

Well, today was the day the students came back to public school. My class has 4 "crisis" students, all with their own behavior management paras. My staff is overall very good this year, and I am told that one of my most difficult "crisis" kids is not coming back. My new principal is an interesting lady. She painted her office bright purple. I have not had any direct dealings with her to make a decision if I like her or not. Wish me luck!