Self-Esteem

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for their participation in the now infamous poll on the left-hand side of your page. Time to shore up some very valid concerns: 1) No, I do not own more than one vote. I wish I did, but the service only allows the creator of such polls a singular vote. So the breakdown of percentages reflect only what the readership intends 2) To answer a frequently asked question - my vote went to the 'creative writing ability', I mean, c'mon. If I didn't answer that, why would I continue to do this stuff every other night anyhow? 3) A valuable gem of advice, from me to you: If you ever are feeling down, make a survey such as I did with answers that could only make you feel better. After sifting through all the hate emails ("How brazen are you!?", "You egotistical pig!", "Why didn't we get the none of the above option?!?"), I'm feeling pretty good right now considering that as of 11:36 pm, 34% of you think I'm hot. Not too shabby. Props to the poll.

Sometimes we are just on the short end of things. Consider my luck, for example: After it eventually stopped snowing (please excuse my French) a couple days ago, I decided to write about my hatred for the little white crystal formations. So what happens next? Of course, it begins to snow again. It's like clockwork. Reminds me of the time I drove four hours to sit next to my brother for game 7 of last year's NLCS - and the Astros lost, emphatically mind you. And the time my fabled Titans finally reached the Super Bowl after a 40 year absence (yes, just like the Jews in the desert), except they actually never reached the promise land, falling literally just one yard short. Some may call these occurrences random and natural. But eventually it all just keeps piling up and up, like the friggin snow, until your stuck with no where to go.

Hadn't seen the girlfriend in a week in a half. Hitherto (gotta love that word..what does it mean though??), I tried to be a great significant other so I planned out a very romantic evening. What ended up happening: I watched The Italian Job with a few overweight YU guys, myself not-withstanding, and she caught up on some King of Queens reruns at home before turning in early. Sometimes it's just not your day. That being said, I did get to run through the isles of the sefarim sale to be stopped by a complete stranger (seemingly) holding an Avraham Fried CD - Her: "Hey Jason!" Me: Heyyyy..." Her: "Remember, 10th grade, Miami Shabbaton, Maya Tansky!" Me: "Yahhhh..how are you..?" Alert: The second best thing to making a poll with only praiseworthy answers is having a complete stranger remember exactly who you are and exactly where they met you while you just nod your head and smile. Seriously, it's a winner. The only better happenstance is finding a 10$ bill in your old jeans pocket once a year rather than those stupid notebook paper edges. Effing Five-Star.

But I don't want anyone to worry about me. I'm going to sleep with a smile on my face seeing that tomorrow’s forecast entails "Highs in the lower 30s. North winds 10 to 20 mph...becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon" next to a picture of a sun behind a little cloud. Maybe I should just change my alarm ringer from "Scotty Doesn't Know" to the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun". Hey, it might just change my luck. But if not, I've always got the poll results to lean on. Have an awesome Shabbos.