Aack!

I'm waking up at 6:40 in the morning for the next three days. Aack!! Dance hell week has begun....

So Close

Another day spent in the library.....The end of the year is beginning to creep up on me! Eep!

I have never been to a gym.

That is, I had not until today. I am (almost) 19 years old, I've lived my whole life in one of the fitness capitals of the world, and I'm a proud vegetarian, but I had never participated in an honest-to-goodness "work out" until today. That is not because I'm lazy, uninterested in fitness, or even abnormally adverse to sweaty people...quite the opposite, actually, I've been an extremely active person since I was little. The only difference between me and the gym rats, then, is the fact that they use weights, treadmills, and ellipticals whereas I have spent my lifetime of fitness using only a sprung floor and a wooden ballet bar. Dancing has served me extremely well; I'm healthy, happy, and pretty strong for a small girl, but thats not the only reason I've stayed in the studio.
Truth be told, I have been scared to death of the gym.
I can't tell a rep from a set or a BMI from an RPM, not to mention all those machines and contraptions.... One for your inner thighs, one for your outer thighs, one for your biceps, one for your triceps, one for your upper back and one for your lower back, one for your lats, abs, delts, pecs, quads, calves, this muscle, that muscle....ho.ly.crap.! Yeah, it freaked me out. Not only did I have no idea which machine to choose or how to use it, but I was scared to death that the jocks and regulars would immediately make me for a "newb."
So, when I hurt my back a bit in dance practice the other day and the trainer recommended a regimen of light weight training and cardio, I realized I had to suck it up and hit the gym. Lucky for me, Ratna, one of my friends in the hall, goes to the gym pretty much every day and offered to show me the ropes (Proof of how much I needed the help, I was literally about to leave my room wearing flip-flops with my dance shoes in hand). She set me up on a stationary bike and later with some machines in the weight room. And, truth be told, I actually had a good time! I guess those endorphins are there for a reason, because I'm going back tomorrow!

Pandas Make You Smile

OMG. PANDAS.

The Monk

I'm reading this for my English class. This book is crazy. It's like the original "horror-porn," complete with incest, rape, murder, and a litany of other things that would freak you right out of your 18th century pants. I mean, look at this cover...If that doesn't say "Romantic-era Divinci Code" I don't know what does....

Home Sweet Home

I got my housing for next year and I'm soooo excited. I'm living in the same hall I am in now, but a couple doors down in a single. Also really great is the fact that my boyfriend is living just downstairs! I'm part of a program next year called the sponsor program. Basically, its like this: Freshmen are divided into groups of 10-20 guys and girls who live next to each other throughout the year, this is the "sponsor group." Leading each sponsor group are the two sponsors, one male and one female Sophomore who guide their sponsees through their first year in college. It's kind of like being an big brother or sister to (in my case) 10 Freshmen. We live in the hall with our sponsor group, do activities with them, help them with their classes, etc. My co-sponsor is an Australian guy named Cosi and he seems really cool. I didn't really know him before the process of being assinged to your "co-spo" started, but I'm sure we're going to get along great. We had to write own four facts about ourselves to share with our "co-spo" upon meeting them. Just for fun, here are mine:

1. I am obsessed with my two pugs, Won Ton and Mu Shu.
2. I work at a sleepaway camp, and this summer with be my 13th year going there.
3. I took 6th place in my college's crossword puzzle competition...which means I am better at crosswords than 9 other people...
4. I am surprisingly competitive at silly board games.

That's all for now. Take care.

More Passover

I had a wonderful first night Seder. I took a bunch of my friends from school to my house for the night where we joined my mom, dad, brother, grandpa, aunt, cousins, my dad's co-worker and her boyfriend for what turned out to be a fabulous Seder meal. It was so much fun sharing that part of my culture with my friends, seeing my dogs again, getting to hang out with my family, and just generally having a completely happy evening.

That being said, the other 7 days of Passover were bound to follow. I'm already getting a bit sick of looking longingly at the pasta and cookies in the dining hall and siting next to people whose plates are pilled high with what can only be called carb-o-rama while I munch away on my salad. But, its ok. I believe in the tradition, so I will gladly go through a bit of annoyance for it any day.

Until next time!

Duncan's Doodles

Duncan likes to doodle. He occasionally puts them up on my door, to make me smile. This one greeted me today:


Oh, happy day.

Check out this and more at duncansdoodles.blogspot.com

Passover Shopping

I loaded up on Passover food at Trader Joe's today.

Things I am very happy I can have on Passover:

• Trader Joe's brand white cheddar cheese popcorn. If you've never had this stuff, you are missing out. I could eat the whole bag in one sitting...not that I have...i mean...umm...yeah.
• Trail mix. This round features super-tart dried cherries.
• Rice. Thank god for Sephardim.
• Instant-Thai tuna stuff, also from Trader Joe's. That's at least two Passover meals right there.
• Fruit. Lots and lots and lots of fruit.

Bad things about Passover:

• The fact that Trader Joe's had not bothered to order Matzah. Lame. Are there no Jews in Claremont?
• The fact that the other 357 days of the year I am known by some (my parents) as the carbohydrate queen. Passover is quite a change.

I am, however, super-excited about going home for the first night of Passover to spend the Seder with my family. I'm bringing about 10 Pomona kids with me, too, some of whom have never been to a Seder, so that should be tons of fun.

Until then, its bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. :-)

I don't know if you guys look at cuteoverload.com, but this ridiculous adorableness was on their homepage today. Ho-ly- shit, these guys are cute.

In other news, I'm super busy, but feeling good about at least one of my final papers. Lots of dance rehearsal tonight, and still a bit of homework to get done. Back to the trenches!

What I'm Reading

I just started reading The Politics of Lust by John Ince. Parts of it are on the required reading for the Pomona Human Sexuality course that I'm auditing, but I'm pretty much just reading it for fun. I haven't done pure reading for pleasure in a helluva long time, so I'm pretty excited. So far, it looks incredibly fascinating. Can't wait to learn more.

Professional Jive

This is the kind of dance I'm doing in my Latin class these days. *pant*pant* It is so tiring! Super fun, though.

My Father’s Humor

In reading my most recent homework assignment for my Modern Jewish Experience class (Michael Wex’s Discouraging Words: Yiddish and the Forces of Darkness), I couldn’t help but see my father and my grandfather around every turn. My grandfather, whose parents came straight from “the old country” of Germany, Russia, and Romania, and my father, his son, have both long participated in what we in my family have deemed “dad humor.” Dad humor, I have so naively thought for so many years, was a particular brand of humor unique to the Kinrich family male. (My brother, I fear, is being groomed to continue the tradition) I now realize, however, that Dad humor is undeniably born out of the irony, “doublethink,” and sarcasm that characterizes Yiddish speak. Dad humor is an ironic, dry form of comedy that consists of ridiculous puns, plays on words, and an uncanny ability to make present company groan with simultaneous admiration and disapproval. Such in-the-moment jokes make the present company (usually my mother, sister, or myself, who, suffering from that pesky extra X chromosome, are incapable of understanding the “true wit” of such jokes) roll their eyes and mutter “there you go again!” all the while acknowledging, but never letting my dad know!, that the joke was, truly, funny.

Until I read Wex’s chapter on this subject, I had not known that the irony, “doublethink” and sarcasm that so characterize the Yiddish language were born out of a fear of the evil eye or evil spirits that “lies at the root of…a niggardliness with compliments and pleasant remarks” (Wex, 111). Before being so enlightened, I would have chalked up a response to “How are you?” such as “How am I? How should I be?” to the crotchetiness and sarcasm often associated with old Jewish men. Now, however, I am aware that such a response is meant, at its historical core, to guard the answerer from being targeted by the evil eye, that ever-opportunistic spirit that preys upon the admittedly healthy and happy. Dare I say this knowledge has given me a new respect for my father’s brand of groan-worthy humor? Yes, I think it has, but that won’t stop me from continuing to roll my eyes each night at the dinner table.

My first post

So, I've decided to start my blog. Why? Well, I've been feeling pretty out-of-touch with a lot of people lately, and I'd like to keep my friends and family better updated in regards to what's going on in my life. So, here it is! This will mostly be random essays, pictures, the occasional video, and links to sites I like and things I think are cool. Count on numerous "omg, thats so cute!!! posts" and just general updates on my goings-on. I really hope you keep reading and I hope it keeps us all in better touch!