On Turning 21

Having not posted since the 9th, I feel that this is a good time to post. Oh, and this is my 600th post on this blog. Yay? ... Better reason to say "Yay!": I celebrated my 21st.
As I've become accustomed to the college way of life over the last two and a half semesters, I've kept my birthdays relatively low-key: go out for dinner with some friends, come back to the dorm, have cake, play Apples to Apples ... well, this year, things changed a bit. I still brought a cake up, I still had friends over (to the apartment this time), but there was no dinner out (probably later in the week) and there was no Apples to Apples ... just talking for about 2 or 3 hours. And it was ... well, nice. It usually is. Maybe it was nicer because I didn't have any classes today. ... Yes, the semester started on my birthday. If I did have classes ... well, they'd be syllabus review, most likely.
Turning 21 ... feels like a milestone, yet it doesn't at the same time. I've lived mostly a dry life. I've only had some wine here and there at family gatherings or holiday dinners and some sips of champagne at New Year's. I'm not one to dive right into alcohol. Binge drinking isn't my thing. The idea of a drink with dinner or out with friends is right up my alley ... but I don't know my preferences or my limits so I don't know where to start. I guess slow yet safe experimentation is the way to go. Hell, my new license hasn't even arrived yet.
***
I've received 193 wall posts on Facebook. I've received 8 @replies with birthday well-wishes. I've received 2 very nice videos, one from Danielle (and some assorted web friends) and a short one from Mike. I've received 3 cards from family members. I've received a number of well-wishes in person. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy (21st) birthday. I'm so glad that I know so many people who make an effort to send annual well-wishes my way, to someone who had a chance of not being here now if things had gone awry.
Thank you all <3

Pre-Israel Thoughts

I'm leaving for Israel tomorrow night with my campus's Hillel program for Birthright. 10 days, with peers, mostly Kosher food ... wonderful. I was thinking about bringing a ham sandwich to the airport with me to eat while waiting in the terminal ... but that would probably be un-Kosher ... yeah.
I mean, I can deal with the food. I was in Israel for two weeks in the summer of 2008 for a family bar/bat mitzvah trip and I got accustomed to the food rather quickly ... especially shwarma ... oh, shwarma ... :)




Now, where was I? Yes, right, Israel. 10 days, 2 (maybe 3) books ... yes, books. Big books. Justin Cronin's The Passage (a 700 pager, roughly) and Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors. The flights are going to be long, of course ... and we're going to have downtime in the hotels and on the bus ... we'll see what I can get done. And I might also bring Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture for a quick read to knock it off my reading queue.
***
But what else is there to talk about? I've been to Israel once before. I've seen a large portion of the sights and sounds ... but that's because I was there for a few more days and we went up and down the country. On this tour, we won't be going too far into the Negev ... and on the Margaret Morse tour, we went as far south as Eilat. Well ... we'll see what the trip shall hold.

Until next post! Allons-y!