Living in Australia, I miss being around Judaism and Judaica more than I ever would have thought possible. I'm not a Jew, but I went to a secular Jewish school and most of my friends growing up were Jews, to varying degrees of observancy. Perhaps for those reasons, Judaism is the only culture of faith to which I have ever felt close. I do have Jews in my recent ancestry, but I have Lutherans in my living family and I couldn't feel further away from Lutheranism and the Christian faith in general. Here, there are so few Jews it blows my mind. I could count on one hand the number I've met. And there is nothing of Judaism, not anywhere. I adore the social and ritual trappings that accompany Judaism, and just so sorely miss it all. It's really sad for me. I think about it more and more.

That's all.

it's amazing the difference a couple of months of rainfall make in australia. ( warning, sizeable photos )

jackson and anna got engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so, my parents' visit is drawing to a close. they've been here for just over two weeks. i'm quite torn -- i'm very ready for them to go home, and have been for over a week, but i'm also not eager for them to go back to being so very far away. parents are best, i think, when they are situated just offscreen.

the highlight of their visit, by a long shot, was sitting down tonight, on the eve of their departure, and watching the first episode of Generation Kill (deftly pir8d by stuart), with live annotations by my stepdad. god, it's going to be good.

it's weird. i live in a foreign country. my parents, having visited me here in that foreign country, are going home, back to their -- my -- country. but i'm home already. right? i think i feel that adelaide is my home, but really, still and always, when i say the word "home," the first image that comes to mind is that of baltimore. will that ever change? and do i want it to? even though when i reach way down deep and ask myself, "would i rather live in baltimore," the answer is actually a resounding no, i still consciously hang onto, and cherish, the thought of it being my home. not just my childhood home, but my true home. what does that mean?

my hairdryer broke this morning. and my sister's getting a divorce.

arse.

today, for no reason i can surmise, "Highway to the Danger Zone" came into my head and i started singing it theatrically (as you do) while i was going about my business around the classroom.

caelan started singing along, real seriously and studiously. "hiiiiiii... waaaaaay... dooooooo... juhhh... jayyyja day"

kids are fucking excellent

today madeleine, age 3.25, shat herself violently. all down her pink-and-darker-pink striped stockings, all through her "ballerina shoes." she's one of those very princely children. she's got that type of utterly symmetrical, miraculously perfect attractiveness that you generally only see on television or in comic books: creamy, naturally-tanned skin, pink lips, rosy cheeks, bright blue eyes, and the frosty-flaxen-accents-over-honey-blonde hair that people pay so much for. all of this comes together in a totally organic way, such that rather than looking cheap, common, or banal, she looks quite angelic. perhaps in part because of that fact, she's treated like a tiny but powerful monarch by her family.

limping inside to the bathroom from the playground, dripping with her own shit, i felt SO sorry for her, because even at such a young age, she was clearly uncomfortable with admitting to another human, face to face, that poop comes out of her in the first place, much less such disastrously messy poop. princesses just do not poop. i can tell that that's the type of message she gets.

i got some poop on my shoulder. meh.

look, let's face it, as totally over as rickrolling should be by now, it's not yet, and the fact of the matter is, we have all been rickrolled. maybe only once, maybe only twice, but nobody is immune. i am willing to bet, however, that i might be one of an incredibly tiny number of people who actually sits and watches the entire "never gonna give you up" video every time i am rickrolled. don't get me wrong -- it's lame as fuck. i hate falling for a rickroll.

i just really love rick astley.

oy. okay

friday

homemade iced tea, sugar, milk
hazelnut brunch bar
kidfood: 1 egg salad kidwrap plus two more bites of another egg salad kidwrap
special imported jam biscuit from some special place in melbourne that imports italian things
ham and cheese danish square
can of coke
150 g peanut m&ms
vegetarian sandwich with bocconcini
some of adrian's chips, that fucker


saturday

one bowl of honey nut cheerios with milk
one cup drip coffee, milk, sugar
ham cheese & tomato croissant, toasted, at millie's
can coke zero
does sheep shit dust have calories? if yes, lots of sheep shit dust as i cleaned dried sheep shit out of the shed. do your lungs process calories? i bet not so maybe this doesn't count
reward-for-hard-labour dinner: 400g rump steak, of which i ate less than half (new steak rule: when i have my once-monthly red meat, always, always, always order filet mignon. australia has a thing where every steak meal costs $28 unless it's like 600g. for that amount, i could get a 400g rump steak and eat half, and have it be only sort of delicious, or i could get a 250g filet mignon and eat it all, and have it be delicious). also a few steamed veggies, a few scalloped potatoes, and shared a bowl of pumpkin soup
a sip of adrian's beer
a mug of hot chocolate
two mugs of rooibos tea with honey
hell of vitamins

sunday

1 berocca
lemon croissant
raspberry muffin
2 cups drip coffee
sudafed and vitamins
1 cup rooibos tea with milk and honey
water crackers, tzatziki, basil cashew pesto, and sliced kabana (about a dozen crackers with various combinations of the above)
a glass of too-diluted ribena
vitamins
peanut butter and jam sandwich on wholemeal
mug of milk

does rooibos tea have something in it that causes slight euphoria? i feel wicked laid back and awesome right now after two mugs of it.

i had a really bad couple of days at work and just couldn't be fucked even looking at the internet long enough to post about what i ate, even if i had been paying attention. sorry, PEYEIYBM. i guess i'll stop calculating the cost of things, since it's a failed experiment by virtue of my lack of energy. i really do want to do PEYEIYBM, though. i will do better.

today's food eet:

11.5am: Brezel's Bakery just reopened after over a month of holiday closure, and in honour of this glorious occasion i bought one of their baguettes, which rivals any i've had in france or anywhere else. so: half a baguette with 1/4 small wheel tasmanian double brie, light spreading of margarine, and a big old blob of raspberry jam. if you, like me, are me, this is one of the best things to eat in the whole world. there are two things you should know about this video. the first is that i'm sick, puffy, and a mess. the second is that at 0:06, adrian farts from all the way across the room and is still able to be heard quite clearly. he's a legend.


also consumed in that sitting, one mug of drip coffee with milk and sugar, and two glasses of apple strawberry juice.


6pm:
regular size takeaway penne with chicken and spinach in a tomato-with-splash-of-cream sauce from Pasta Go-Go, which sounds (and looks) like a chain but is actually an italian-immigrant-family owned and operated hole in the wall which only does take-away pastas, that's their only fare. it comes in chinese-takeout-style containers and is fucking delicious.
3/4 of a can of coca cola.

8pm:
four tootsie rolls.
two mugs of rooibos tea with milk and honey.

11pm:
shared a "margarita" (in fact just a glass of tequila cut with a modest amount of the sickly cuervo mix) with adrian to help me get sleepy