Weekend Round Up

So this weekend went by especially fast. I think the fact that I was holed up in bed for most of it helped it go back so speedily. I have come to cherish my weekends and respect them for the peace that they offer from the usual Monday-Friday grind. Especially Fridays. I love my Fridays.

This is how they usually look every morning...

My Fridays start out obnoxiously early: around 6:30. I turn off my alarm and flip on MSNBC (OK, let's be real- MSNBC is already on because I stayed up til some ridiculous hour watching Lock Up). I watch the horrible things that happened in the world while I was sleeping and listen to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski argue about the appropriateness of Lindsay Lohan's outfit choices. I somehow make it to the shower, manage to properly dress myself (Friday means casual wear at the office which basically means jeans and some shirt that manages to not have some form of spilled beverage or food on it) and head out the door. Work consists of me sitting and trolling Craigslist for funny Missed Connections stories for 8 hours. Then I get to walk home and watch the sun go down. This is my favorite part of my week: the walk home. It's a good 30 minutes and it takes me past the White House where I always get that feeling of "I can't believe this is my commute home". It's really an incredible feeling. It's also usually ruined in about five minutes when a a some gaggle of Asian tourists come crashing down upon the White House in a flurry of Segways. 

Superbowl!

So in my twenty-two years of existence on this earth, I have never- not once- watched the Superbowl. Until last night. And it only took me about three minutes of my entire twenty-two years of existence on earth to know why I had never watched a Superbowl (or football match, for that matter) in my life: the game is idiotic. 

I miss the days of wardrobe malfunctions

It's basically a game of pushing people around until they fall. Yeah, that sounds awesome. And there is absolutely no athleticism required to play this game. And the fact that the game is paused every five seconds drives me absolutely insane. Get on with the damn game!

Anyways, the only reason I actually did watch the game this year was to introduce the wonderful sport of football to our Chilean friends who are studying in DC for the semester. Obviously they do not watch football in Chile. It might be for the lack of obese men in their country or for the fact that Americans are the only people who seem to derive pleasure from watching grown men run literally run into each other and then later slap each other's asses (seriously... why?) Naturally, when watching football- and especially the Superbowl- it is necessary to have a spread of beer, chips, salsa and other fried delicacies. Thanks to my lovely friend Jenn and her slight OCD, we had an amazing spread. There also was a mild chicken genocide in the kitchen, but no biggie. 

I do have to say my favorite part of the night was picking up on the sexual puns with my friend, Brad and reading the Onion tweets about the game. Favorite of the night is definitely "Roethlisberger needs to get it up now!" (Um.. isn't that what got him in trouble the last time?... Too soon?) Favorite tweet of the night is courtesy of OnionSports: "#Steelers: Roethlisberger should do what he does best: take advantage of young, vulnerable defense #SuperBowl" Basically it was a shit on Roethlisberger while sipping out of our Heineken mini keg kind of night.

Obviously the best part of the Superbowl were the commercials. My personal favorite was Groupon. Sure it's all controversial- but they were really the only ones that actually delivered. The rest were... megh. Almost as megh as this blog post. Seriously, I've lost my pizazz. I have a post coming up about the protests in Egypt (I was at a rally outside the Egyptian embassy on Saturday) but until then I'll just bore you with this incredibly dry and mundane entry. 

In other news, however, I found out that the 5k I had registered for is actually a 5 mile run. So I need to really pick up my training on that. And I need to start searching around for some half-marathon races in Boston over the summer- so if anyone has any recommendations post 'em here!

Until my next super exciting entry! Stay classy! 

Breaking the Silence

Last night I ended up at a J-Street sponsored event that highlighted the work and celebrated the book release of an organization in Israel called Breaking the Silence. The organization has collected testimonies from Israeli soldiers since 2004. Their information is open sourced and has been used by a variety of sources- including political platforms. The organization themselves, however, have just recently published their material in a book, in which I also received a copy. The aim of their organization is to offer transparency to the IDF and raise awareness about the reality facing Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories. 

I decided to attend the event rather spontaneously and was glad that I did. I find the organization compelling, especially since I have both known and currently know people serving in the Gaza and the West Bank. 

Reading through the book also reminded me of a conversation that I recently had with a friend who is dating a post-army Israeli. We were discussing the issue of PTSD and how it is so often ignored and undiagnosed in Israeli society. I remember particularly a boy I went out with who had recently finished his service in Gaza and was telling me stories of his day-to-day life. He was re-telling his stories with the distinct purpose of showing off (and let's face it- trying to get into my pants) and I could not help but be completely mortified. Every story he told me had me seriously concerned that I would be one day called as a witness in a war crimes tribunal. The things he had done were so wrong and so strikingly inhumane.