Four Weeks and a Day

Today, it has been four weeks and one day since a tragedy occurred. My beloved Mamusta S. was killed by a student who then committed suicide. Now, the mention of a handgun, suicide, someone dying, or praying in school are far more serious to me. The grieving process has been going well. From time to time, I cry over the loss. Sometimes I pretend that S. is with me, that we can still converse. It helps me think through things, because he liked to ask a lot of questions. Sometimes just pretending his presence is there helps to make the day brighter. Unfortunately, sometimes it has the opposite effect. For example, yesterday I went on a hike with my Health class, and on the way back, I thought to myself, "S. would have enjoyed a hike like this." Then, when I tried to imagine him walking with us, I couldn't picture him, and it brought me down. I suppose having people all about put it in perspective, which made it more difficult to allow imagination to have its way. Ah, well, life goes on.

Hopefully, in all this, my memories of S. will motivate me.

Kosher

For Lent, I decided to eat kosher. However, as Lent technically ends on Resurrection Day, I decided to extend my kosher eating until after Passover, since this year Passover falls after Resurrection Day. I know, odd. It didn't seem right to quit eating kosher right before Passover. Anyway, I've found that my diet has changed far more significantly than I thought it would. To eat kosher, there are three main things that have to be followed:

1) Only meat from an animal the chews the cud and has a cleaved hoof. Basically, that means no pig or equine animal. I highly doubt that they'll be serving horse or donkey in food service, though.

2) No shellfish or bottom-feeding fish. That's been pretty easy.

3) Don't mix dairy with meat. This means no meat and cheese sandwiches, no sour cream and shredded cheese in chili, no alfredo sauce with meat in it, etc.
Now, all of these sounded really simple to me, and they are. The elimination process is very easy to follow. However, because of this, I eat a lot more vegetables. On top of this, I've been under the weather with some sort of congestion illness that's been going around. So, guess what I've been drinking a lot of? Orange juice. So, with the combination of lots of vegetables and orange juice, I have to relieve myself far more often than I used to.

I have a Messianic Judaic friend who, upon hearing that I was eating kosher until after Passover, told me that I ought to go kosher full-time. I don't think I will, because I like having sour cream and shredded cheese in my chili, and one of my favorite sandwiches is ham and swiss.

I didn't succeed in coming across as mad today; however, I did succeed in spending most of the day speaking with a British accent. I've realized that my problem is that I need to have a reason to go mad, something like a bump on the head or a tragedy. That is how Hamlet was able to begin; there was a basis for people to give cause to his madness. We'll see what comes my way (ex. an injury or a nightmare), made up or no.

If no one reads these, then thus shall it be.

As I've found that no one appears to read this blog, I thought I'd disclose some information since none but I shall read it. For the next few days, I am going to feign madness. I saw a film RTC production of Hamlet starring David McDonald (also known by his stage name, David Tennant). Hamlet appeared to be having such fun feigning his madness that I thought I'd try it. The only difficulty is how far I take it. Do I allow my roommate to believe my madness? We shall see. I shan't allow the madness to affect my work or academics; however, once outside the workplace or the classroom, I shall be an absolute loon. I shall call the annoying young man who haunts me a fishmonger, the pagan who avoids me a gravedigger, and so on and so forth. If someone reminds me the slightest bit of Captain Hook, I shall call them a codfish. What fun this shall be!

Blessed With a Friend

I recently rediscovered a private blog from a few years ago, and it reminded me of the passion I had for my overseas home. It's been rekindled to at least some degree, which I needed.
Due to missing my overseas home, I called one of the young ladies at my college who also lived overseas, saying that I was having an "mk moment". It turned out to be a real blessing. We discovered that we had both needed someone we could talk to about our past adventures who would understand the perspective behind it. It was wonderful.

Most Americans don't understand that once one has been overseas for an extended period of time, it completely changes one's perspective of the world. The American dream comes across as boring. One wishes (especially at our age) that more time were spent on talking about things not nearly so meaningless as video games and television shows. (Now, there is a time and a place for such things, but at our age, people talk about such things far too often.) One finds small reminders of past experiences much more meaningful. One's whole worldview is affected. That is why my friend and I feel very blessed to have found one another.