New post...but not here

I have been honored by Jameel with an invitation to guest post at his blog, The Muqata, as he takes two weeks off to prepare for his son's upcoming bar mitzvah. Thus, I have posted on his blog a post which I call "Where do you call 'home'?"

Happy reading!

Fade: A vision in memories

Scene:

A girl is walking.
She sees another girl approach from the other direction--
an acquaintance, now, but someone she used to call "friend".
Still, she smiles, hoping for a wave, or maybe a smile in return.
But the other girl walks right past her,
without even a glance.
Her smile fades.

Fade to:

Loud, happy music is playing in the background
as a girl enters the wedding hall.
She sees many people she knows, but no one greets her.
She goes to wish the kallah well,
but she can tell that the bride is more excited to see
the people behind her in line,
so she murmers, "Mazel tov,"
and leaves.

Fade to:

A girl is alone in her darkened room.
Her eyes are red from crying, but she is too tired to cry now.
Exhausted, physically and emotionally spent,
she whispers into the darkness,
"Would anybody miss me?
G-d, why am I even here?"
But there are no answers.

Fade to black.

Disclaimer: These are not recent memories, nor did they happen in chronological order. I simply grouped them together because of the common theme.

Ice cream trips, coffee breaks and more

I like ice cream. I really, really do. So of course, it's a wonderful thing that there's a 24-hour ice cream store right near my place, and that I have friends who are fellow insomniacs and up for late-night trips. Last night was one such trip, and I got my favorite--Pralines 'n' Cream on a sugar cone--and my friend got a shake. We were walking and talking, and we didn't want to stop in the middle of the sidewalk to talk and finish our ice cream, so we sat down on the stairs of a public building and continued to chat. The conversation was...interesting. A different friend of mine used to say that you didn't need to bother getting her drunk to talk too much about herself; get her when she's tired and she's as good as drunk. I've noticed I'm very similar; it's much easier for me to talk at night than it is during the day. What is it about talking late at night that makes us so much more open?

In other news, this morning there was a Starbucks Iced Coffee Break ( = free Iced Coffee from Starbucks, for those who don't know), which was especially wonderful in light of the fact that I didn't go to sleep until about 2:00 AM (we were talking until about 1:30). As is my habit when such things occur (such as previous Starbucks Coffee Breaks, Dunkin Donuts free iced coffee day, Baskin Robbins 31-cent scoop day, etc.), I told anyone and everyone in the office who I thought would care. I made some people very happy today. :)

I like making people happy. Sometimes too much. I know I can't make everyone happy all the time, but knowing doesn't always keep me from trying anyway. And of course, in the pecking order of who gets made happy, I usually put myself last on the list. Why?