Sunday, November 4, 2007

And the winner is...

This is what happens when you promise to post every day for a month; you yell down to your kids, who are tired and whose bodies say it's really 10 o'clock, even if the hands are pointing to the 9 and the 12, "Well, you're just going to have to wait a few minutes! I have to finish this post!"

Email me for the address to which to ship my Mother of the Year award, OK?

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Today was Mitzvah Day at our temple and about two or three dozen others in the area. (And by area, I mean all of Los Angeles County. Because, trust me, where I live? Not even two or three dozen JEWS.) And although there were wonderful projects galore--making blankets for the homeless, putting together care packages for the servicemen in Iraq, rolling the change the families collected over the year to be sent to the charity chosen by the congregation (and I wish I could remember its name, but the money is ultimately bound to Darfur), making frozen casseroles for temple members who are sick or in need--I ultimately wound up spending almost my entire time in one corner of the room, surrounded by donated books.

And here is what I learned: Never let the two biggest bibliophiles be in charge of the sorting of books. For one thing, it took us FOREVER to get through them all, because we had to open each one, and browse through it, and talk about the author, and read parts out loud and...you get my point. For another...well, let's just say that I didn't ACTUALLY take any of the books out of the boxes and sneak them home with me, despite my many cries of, "Oh, but I've been WANTING to read this one!" and "Oh, I remember this one from when I was a kid! I would love to read it to Em and N!" But let's also just say that it was really, really close. Really close. So close that the words, "Um, TC, you do remember why people donated these right?" and "Uh, TC, you could probably just take that one out of the library if you really want to read it..." had to be uttered on more than one occasion. And I should also point out that while all of the books will be making it to their final destination, some of them are slightly sodden due to having had me and my book-y comrade-in-arms drool all over them.

You might as well send my Volunteer of the Year award along with the Mother of the Year award. Shipping is probably cheaper that way, anyway.

1 comment:

Green said...

Dumb question: are there jewish soldiers in Iraq? I mean, there must be, right? But any time I look at those "adopt a soldier" things, I try to find a jewish one, and never can.