happy yom kippur?

I've never really been tuned in to Jewish holidays, except Hanukkah.  Not that I don't appreciate all that God's chosen people have offered (hello Jesus!), I just never encountered much more than a distant knowledge of their important and sacred traditions.

So now we live on Long Island, and even live in close proximity to a town called Mount Sinai, and it shouldn't surprise me that now all Jewish feasts will be honored in this area.  Case in point - schools are closed today for Yom Kippur.  Who knew?! ;)

Anyway, I'm living the single life for the next two weeks because Kamil will be staying with his parents while he works at the VA hospital.  It's only 20-25 minutes from their house, as opposed to about twice that from our place, so alas.  I'll be heading over to his parents' for dinner tonight to get some time with my hubby. 

It's strange how it shifts my entire day.  Yesterday I found myself not knowing what to do with myself, so I bested my FitBit goal and got over 15,000 steps!  Hips... so... sore...

Chick fil A training starts this weekend, so that should be exciting.  I even got to try out my new uniform, and let's just say I'm glad I'm not planning to pick up any guys while working there ;) At least it's modest, haha.

The big news of course out here is Papa Francis's trip in the U.S.  Little neat fact is that he will be staying in a townhouse in Manhattan that was once the private home of the woman who donated the funds to establish Kamil's high school.

In the spirit of the trip, here's a pretty good piece from The Atlantic on the Pope.  What I would love to happen is he reinforce things like Humanae Vitae during this meeting on marriage and the family.  So I guess we'll see.

Speaking of interesting articles, on a completely separate note, here's a fun piece about how my alma mater is not considered a valid institution of higher education according to the Department of Education (please please why is removing the DOE no longer on the GOP platform?!??).  Umm...yeah, I can promise I spent more time working on my degree (not "certificate") during those four years than anything else so...yeah. 

Fall is bringing us some beautiful weather so I'm off to enjoy it.  Toodles! ;)

xoxo,

LL

The big 3-0

Two posts within a week?!  Let's not jinx it... ;)


My birthday this year was absolutely wonderful.  Let's back up to the previous weekend when Mom & Dad came for an early birthday celebration, now that I have a few photos uploaded from their trip:

with the Woman in Gold! well, not the real one, but a nice big replica for photos by the bathrooms ;)

very squinty, but it's the only one I have of us BOTH looking at the camera ;)  this is outside of the restaurant where we ate with our families

As a result of the early presents I got from my parents and in-laws, I bought myself a FitBit at Costco last Tuesday. It is appropriately kicking my butt!  I am enjoying reaching for the 10,000-step goal, and think this will get me to be more careful in my eating habits.  My one complaint is that since it only tracks "steps", I don't think it's giving me as much credit for my Jazzercise classes, since those involve more than just stepping (think ab routines and light weight exercises).  So I feel a little gypped only getting about 4,000 steps for my hour-long classes... ;)

Overall I highly recommend it.  It was under $100 at Costco, and took me no time to set it up on-line, which is a big deal for me.  I also use it for tracking my sleep patterns, which has been interesting as well.

So on my actual birth day, the stars aligned and Kamil had the day off so we got to spend the whole day together.  We had breakfast and went for a nice long walk.  I took a nap in the afternoon and when I awoke he had gotten a hair cut (I love him having shorter hair) and gave me a sweet sweet card.  Then he took me to dinner at lovely little family Italian restaurant and I got amazing fettuccine.

After dinner we watched TV and then around 9pm I met up with his mom, who was gracious enough to drive me into Manhattan and pick up my dear friend Deidre.  Deidre spent the weekend with me and it was awesome to have her hear!  Unfortunately, I just realized we never took a photo of the two of us to commemorate the occasion :(

Saturday we had an educational morning by getting a tour of the grounds of Nikola Tesla's lab here on Long Island.

This property was built for his lab back in 1903 and then due to Tesla's financial issues, was sold in the mid-20th century.  A photography company used the land for production starting in the '60s and unfortunately dumped chemical waste into the soil for many years, so the land couldn't be used much after they left in the 1980s.  In recent years, there has been a movement to restore the original laboratory building, and the Serbian government even donated a statue for them to have.

The original lab building.  Can't you imagine a bolt of lightening hitting it?

Tesla had built a tower that he hoped to use for generating electricity and telecommunications across the Atlantic.  The tower went deep into the ground to use the earth's energy for this project.  Here is the site for that tower:

the original tower

I think the group now working to restore the property hopes to build a replica, and I guess some folks in Russia have almost completed one out there as well.  All very informational!

Finally, on Sunday morning, Deidre and I walked around Port Jefferson, which is a cute cute waterfront town.  It's where a ferry to Connecticut leaves, but it's not as congested as you might think.  Here's the waterfront, which had a MUCH higher tide when Deidre & I were there, compared to when we showed our parents!

Looks almost surreal how high the water is, and how peaceful it seems. It was nice to be there earlier before the hustle & bustle of a Sunday by the water began.

So now it's back to the quiet of life.  Fall arrived yesterday with a chilly morning, which I loved.  I'm looking forward to training in a week with Chick fil A, and having that to keep me busy.

Until then,

Loves,

LL

Three Week Recap?

Well well well.  How is it already September 9th?!?

I can't decide if I'm happy or sad about fall quickly approaching.  On the one hand, I'm relieved that summer is over because it was a tough one, and very hot, and I'll welcome the cool weather and being able to open windows and enjoy soft fall breezes.  On the other hand, it went by awfully fast, and I regret a little how hard the summer was, and how much I was consumed by the negativity.  Although, it was my life at the time, and it was hard, so I can't dismiss the effect it had on me.  On the other hand, I'm so excited about fall "things" (i.e. apples, pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, beautiful leaves...), yet nervous that the fall will fly by, especially if the weather stays like it has.  Yesterday was apparently the hottest it's been in Bridgeport, CT, just across the Sound from us.

Okay, I've run out of hands. ;)

For a re-cap of the past 3 weeks, here are a few highlights:

- Kamil worked night shifts for 2 weeks, which sucked for both of us
- I found out I am still not pregnant, which also was sad
- We had our 1-year anniversary, and I tried to compose a reflective post about what one year of marriage really means given today's lack of proper understanding of the word "marriage", but I couldn't do so without going on and on.  So I'll just link to Jenny's awesome writing on the subject.

Then, things started looking up as I prepared for my parents' visit over Labor Day weekend.  Though not before Kamil and I got sick again, as apparently what we didn't know about Intern year is that he would be exposed to every germ known to man in the hospital, and would bring it home with him. :P  So now echinacea is making its way into my daily routine ;)

A few other exciting things have been going on, such as...

- My parents and I got to explore NYC and saw this, because of this.
- I got a JOB!! :)  Guess where...

I'm excited about getting out of the house and getting paid for it, and I hope I can make a few friends through it.

- Also, Deidre is coming to visit!

yey! :)

Overall the name of the game this summer has been patience, which I find to be one of the most annoying virtues to cultivate.  You pray for it, and it doesn't seem to ever come fast enough (duh), and then you get to have fun little tests to grow in it, and then one day you look back and sigh with relief that maybe you're a little wiser than you were.

Just in time for my 30th birthday ;)