Dreidels and Junk

She’s giving me dreidels but I’m not Jewish.

Maybe she’s been telling people that I’m Jewish? But no, why would she do that? That’s silly.

My best friend has given me a dreidel for Christmas. She can’t think I’m actually Jewish, but she has given me a dreidel. It’s not the first time, either—she gave me a whole pack of them early in December. Then she got upset with me when I gave them to an actual Jewish kid in my class, Sleepy Tommy. He seemed to enjoy them. He spun them around on his desk a bit.

Anyway.

So there are little squiggly figures on all of the sides-- nun, gimel, he, and shin, apparently, letters from the Jewish alphabet—except I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean, so my friend Sarah and I came up with new meanings.

The first one looks a little like some kind of wonky crown, so we interpreted it as meaning, “You’re the queen!”

The next one looks a little like the symbol for pi. So it means that we’re going to eat pie. Yum.

Sarah said that the next one looked like a person raising their arms above their head, so it means that we’ve got to dance.

The last one looks a bit like me, lying out flat on my bed with my legs propped up and my hands holding a book in front of my face. Sort of, anyway. If you turn it sideways. So it means that I’ve got to read a book. I like that one.

More Helpful Suggestions on Avoiding Reality:

--Hairspray. This is a really amazing musical. Zefron is beautiful here; I’m sorry, but he IS. You’ll want to get up and dance. Actually, you should probably stand up while you watch it so you can easily dance. It’s a riot.

-- Spirited Away. You’ve probably should’ve seen this already. In fact, if you haven’t, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Get moving!

--The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. This follows the adventures of Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, descendants of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The two girls have moved in with their grandmother to Fairyport Landing, where various fairytale creatures are trapped, so long as a member of the Grimm family survives. My favorite character is definitely Puck. He’s a hilarious little delinquent.

In other news, Greece’s economy has been downgraded to bat mucus. (Just passing on the news; this is not an original statement.)