The White Elephant

Often, while pondering my monthly blog quota, I find that I have run dry of ideas for a fifth and final post while the deadline is close at hand. I stay up late thinking, and work hard in the afternoons scrambling to patch together little films or picture collections or ANYTHING to substitute for my lack of verbal inspiration.
Oh well, I think. Guess that's done for then.
I sigh as I picture my disappointed subscribers refreshing the page on the final day of a given month, only to confirm my lack of  competence as a deadline blogger. I feel the guilt heavily on my strained and burdened shoulders and I yearn for a source of compensation.
I feel I owe it to my readers to commemorate my failure - to commemorate their belief and support in a trend that failed. I feel I ought to acknowledge how much I regret this tragedy, how I promise to do better in the future. I must communicate all my sorrows.
And there's only one way a blogger lament about one's blog.
Blogging.
I feel this urge to write a memorial post, revisiting that which was lost. A closure. A promise of a new beginning. I turnover to a fresh start. Something deep and sincere, to mark the junction between two eras of my personal blogging.
I plot it out in my mind. "Well, I suppose this is it. My failure. This time  I have finally let you guys down. You can see I have failed to meet the pattern that I myself initiated by chance. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but I won't let myself deceive you again. Hopefully we can find a way..."
It's all very moving and honest and well written, I can assure you.
Even as this idea occurs to me, however, I see the obvious flaw that you guys have all noticed by now (and already inferred that this is the topic my blog post is going to address, I presume) - if I post this... If I post anything about this... if I even only post two words of apology....
Then I immediately destroy the core of the post. For this post of failure, of not enough, of only four, then BECOMES the fifth post. That is all nice and fun and one might think "Oh yay! Now I don't even have to write the apology post!"- in fact, it would no longer be logical to do so - which as you guys have already figured out, is the problem.
This post cannot exist without eliminating the possibility of its existence! This does not need to become a paradox, however - for there is no contributing element forcing the post to exist at all! When we simply forget about the initial existence of my apology, the whole dilemma vanishes!
This leaves me back where I started - four posts only. Not enough.
Actually, it leaves me off even worse than where I was - not only have I failed my readers, I can't even apologize. I can't even say sorry. I can't even honor my blog's lucky trend in all its glory.
You could argue this point. You could say "Surely it is not to much trouble to simply post a notice of regret the following day?"
To me an apology for the collapse of a month, stated in the beginning of a new month (which should be filled with visions for the future and optimistic views on new endeavors) is something hollow and lonely and sad. The old month is now a thing of the past. It has crumpled into memory and is already drifting away, not to be called to mind. It will remain empty and unfinished and purposeless forever more in my blog archive. A ghost.
No, the apology must not only be made to the readers, but to the month itself. Within the month. A warm spot in a place of shady remembrance where the month can lie, consoled.
Each time this spot of awkward desperation roles around on the monthly calendar, it is this thought of what I owe that forces me to find something to contribute. To me this post should not be thought of as one of the ghost posts I mentioned earlier - a superficial excuse for scraping along the deadline, but a post just as thoughtful, truthful, and worthwhile as if it had been the first post of this fine month. This post is a reminder to me, as my blog's first anniversary roles around the corner, of the dedication I must maintain.
I hope you all have a wonderful October. Enjoy the lovely weather!
~Julia

Huzzah

Today is my Dad's birthday! For once it does not coincide with a Jewish holiday, so that's a relaxing change. Yay! I bought him a little bamboo plant. I also gave  him a muffin recipe.

The cats loved the presents :) - Sasha would climb into the boxes we opened before we could even see what was inside! Mom went to a farmers marker in Decatur today and bought a bunch of raspberries and figs and pineapple and stuff, so that's good too! Since it's Dad's birthday, we bought a cake from Alon's, instead of having Dad make one. It's called a truffle cake.

Truffle cakes are really good! They have three thin layers of chocolatey cake stuff in creamy mousse with glossy chocolate coating around the top and edge. It's not to rich, and is very tasty! Dad is going out with Mom tonight, so we had cake in the afternoon.

Normally we would give the kittens some wet food to celebrate, but they just had wet food yesterday for Shabbot (we forgot Friday), and we really are trying to get them on a diet.

What's the deal with that???

Sasha's the deal with that! When Sasha is hungry, sometimes it's hard for her to stop eating - she doesn't realize that she's full. They've actually done a lot of tests about this sort of thing with people. Sasha isn't unhealthy or anything, just a little bit plumper than one might expect from a kitten her age.

What we've done so far with the kittens is to keep the food bowl full at all times. This is what you should do with young kittens - they are growing and developing so fast and burn so much energy that they need a constant supply. Our kittens are older now, though, and don't need as much food. Being spayed actually lowered their metabolism by 30%. We had been advised to start a feeding schedule when they were one year old, but since Sasha needs more defined meals, we're starting that earlier. (They are currently 8 months old.)

What we did with Lili is that she would get two scoops of food in the morning, to eat throughout the day. With our two kittens, the current plan is a scoop in the morning and a scoop at about five in the afternoon. Hopefully we can keep Sasha as stable as she is now, weight-wise.

We haven't actually been able to start this - if the kittens are without food and hungry, they will probably try to attack the bag of cat food. Although we're sure they'll adjust with time, we want to find a separate container for the cat food to avoid temptation.

That's basically all the cat news right now. I'm sorry to have missed school this past week, although I've made up most of my homework, I think. I'm actually thinking my history paper will be postponed till next week, as I didn't really have any time to learn much these past few days (aside from several facts I scrapped together on the internet).

I'll of course be returning to school Monday, and hopefully this week will be more productive.

Thanks for tuning in!
~Julia

Highlights of Year 5772

- I break my arm.
- I go to Jekyll Island on a school trip (with a broken arm).

Notice the purple bandage on my left arm...

- I do a cool science musicy sound project with Lena for the math fair.

- I audition for Allstate (with a broken arm).

- I don't play Kol Nidre at High Holidays (due to a broken arm).
- I play viola in the school orchestra.
- I start this blog :)
- I make my debut as an artichoke on Halloween.
- I volunteer regularly at the Furkids Petsmart location.

- I can't remember Thanksgiving at all, which is really weird...
- Matter a fact, I can't remember like ANYTHING from November at all, which is bizarre.. and kind of scary... and I feel guilty, because I berate my future self for forgetting this moment of my existence all the time... so it's pretty likely that I was thinking that some time in November... and I've forgotten... oops...
- I have my first AJCO concert.

- I introduce myself to Selena Gomez.













- Tropetropetropetropetrope...













- I cut my haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair!

- I have my period... (I can say stuff like that cuz this is a PRIVATE BLOG)
- I come out to immediate friends and family. (Again... private blog!)

- I miss school on Wednesday... due to fever.
- I miss school on my birthday... due to fever. :( (Thus delaying the arrival of a most wonderful birthday octopus drawing by Emma!)
- I attend my Bat Mitzvah rehearsal on my birthday... despite fever.
- I miss school on Friday... due to "religious observance".
- I watch a Very Pottery Musical (despite "religious observance") and deny it for months...
- I have my Bat Mitzvah... woop!
- I zip to a second Allstate audition (despite Bat Mitzvah)... and fail horribly at sight reading.
- I have my Bat Mitzvah party... woop!
- No Hebrew School the day after my Bat Mitzvah, cuz it's MLK weekend or whatever! Which sucks! Cuz I didn't even need to have my Bat Mitzvah for that!
- No school the day after my Bat Mitzvah... cuz it's MLK weekend! :)
- All four of us kids take the SATS! Yaaaaay! Hope we ruled out any irregularities ;)! (Thanks for the reminder, Emma!)
- I get an iPod... and an iTunes account... woop!
- I introduce myself to the kpop group 'Sistar'.

- Clarissa introduces herself to the kpop group 'Sistar' and I deny association.

- I confess to Clarissa like a week later.

- I don't get kittens.
- I don't get kittens again.

- And again.

- And again.

- I fly alone to New York City for a week long vacation with grandparents! Woop!
- I don't get kittens.
- ...
- KITTEEEEEEEEEENS!!!!

- Kitten insaneness... aaaaaah....
- Inman Eagle Orchestra attends Festival.
- Inman Eagle end of year concert.
- I graduate seventh grade, and officially leave Inman.
- I go to Yosemite and it is AMAZING.
- Other places in California are also cool!
- I go to Colorado and it is awesome.
- I blow glass with Emma, which is the most epic thing ever.
- I start Little Middle School.

...

Yeah... So I know I forgot like 50 different things... so contribute your own lists and I will add them! Woop!
Shana Tova!
~Julia

P.S. Seriously, comment whatever comes to your mind as important!

September Fish

Yaaaaaay...

The Shattering of August

You know, you'd think August would be like, THE month to post. Everything's starting. School, hebrew school, violin lessons. Sleepovers are being crammed in. Teachers are being met. School supplies are being bought.
So much material for potential blogging! It's unbelievable what I could have done if I had tried.
But August came and went and not a single post came through.
I could probably come up with an excuse. That those same things that gave me writing material crammed my schedule with other work. All though I was busy, I could have managed five posts.
Here's a list of what I didn't post:
1) School Supplies
2) Pictures of my Glass Fish
3) School Starts
4) Fashionable Me
5) Student Teacher at Hebrew School
or Making Portal Levels
or Clarissa Gets Kittens
or ANYTHING

Bam bam bam bam bam done. Those weren't very time consuming topics, and yet I FAILED.

Sob sob.

So, I am sorry about that. I'll post fish pictures tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a belated fashion post up.
And more things will come. The good news is, if you ignore this hole, the 5 pattern will still be consistent. I will make it up to my blog. Hopefully.
If anyone has an idea for a post, feel free to post it in the comments for this post... I will try to get them done! I've decided not to go over five unless I have enough drafts to jump to ten the following week within that month, so I would still have something resembling a pattern.

The annoying thing is, if I have four posts and I can't think of a five, I want to be able to go "Ah well, this is the month that broke the pattern!" but then it would be five and it would be irrelevant so I would have to come up with a different post entirely, but we've already established that isn't happening......
PARADOX!!!
This always bugs me every time I feel uninspired and I just want to give some recognition and/or apology for the break in routine.

Anyways, apologies!
Better luck this month!

~Julia

P.S. Yesterday was a Blue Moon! Yay.