I've been quite busy the past week. Finals and studying for finals definitely took their toll, as did Shavuos and participating in Torah Tours (in a good way, it was a lot of fun), so I haven't really had time to write/complete any posts. So while I still hammer away at the books for my remaining finals, I threw together a few interesting things to create this post.
First, Torah Tours was a blast! We ran a very successful program, with shiurim, kids activities and divrei Torah, and the community we were sent to absolutely loved us. I highly recommend participating in Torah Tours to any Yeshiva/Stern student, especially those currently dating. You might just meet your bashert, as one of my friends did a few years ago (and they weren't even in the same group, he just gave her a ride to the other shul near where he was stationed). Or, if you're otherwise occupied (like I was) you have the opportunity to meet some really great people of the opposite gender and can practice your social interaction skills. All, or I should say almost all, awkwardness of inter-gender communication, etc. was non-existent (or went away over the course of yom tov) and we all banded together to form a really cohesive team. Someone asked me toward the end of Thursday if we had ever met before a week or two ago when we had the big organizational meeting - and was shocked when I said no. They commented that it seemed like we were all best buddies since high school.
Oh, and there were a TON of in-jokes being born and flying back and forth all weekend, which was all part of the fun. A friend who also went on Torah Tours for Shavuos told me the following story:
Their plane had landed and he was busily texting his girlfriend as he approached the exit door. He thanked the stewardess (who was in her early 30's), and she promptly asked him "Why aren't you texting me?" He replied, innocently enough, "How could I text you when I don't have your number?" The stewardess thought this was a pick-up line and gave him a sassed-up response (complete with side-to-side neck motions).
In Summary: Torah Tours gets two big thumbs up from me.
While looking for a different shidduch-related video on Youtube, I came across this little gem: It's a parody of "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha called "Oy Vey (The Shidduch Crisis)." The lyrics are quite funny, and the overall production is a very on-target critique of "The System." The video has a fairly low number of hits - I'm surprised no one has discovered it before.
As a caveat, the video does feature women singing - though there are no pictures of the artist herself (themselves?). So that means there is a technical heter to view/listen, since the real issur is putting a voice together with a face, which could then produced bad thoughts (I learned an Igros Moshe that discussed this point with my madrich when I was on NCSY Kollel, though I can't seem to find it at the moment). Plus, it's also "auto-tuned" so it isn't exactly the artist's real voice at any rate...
Perhaps this should be included in Bad4's Shidduchim: The Musical?
Lastly, for a preview of posts yet to be completed/published:
A review of "I Only Want To Get Married Once" by Chana Levitan (a great book!). They even have a Kindle version (does anyone have one?).
A Dating Case Study of Barnes and Noble, akin to the one I did about Dave and Buster's.
Based on a post at Bad For Shidduchim, I'm going to write up a fake version of a realistically informative profile using a template a friend gave me (which also serves as the format for my own profile).
In short: The whole debate over the usefulness of "profiles" or *shudder* "resumes" is getting really annoying, in my opinion. If daters want profiles to be worthwhile, then WRITE SOMETHING on them!!! The same thing goes for the YUConnects/Saw You at Sinai profiles, where people write all of 2-3 sentences about who they are and what they're looking for. Everyone always complains how it's so hard to concisely write these things down, so I say: write MORE. Give the shadchan/friend/potential date something that is worth reading and will actually tell them something about you and what you want our of a marriage partner. I honestly never seriously consider someone who tells me so little about herself on her profile. Why even send me the profile when I can get the same information in a 5 minute phone conversation with your reference? In my view, the profile should be the best possible presentation of who you really are, with lots of details. After reading a profile, the interested party should legitimately know to a reasonable degree if a date is shayach or not, rather than Bad4's dilemma from the above post.
Anyway, that's all for now!
P.S. (added at 4:40 PM): It turns out that another girl I went out with got engaged recently! I think that's #3. Mazal Tov!
Torah Tours is awesome! Sounds like you had a lot of fun. I never did Torah Tours for Shavuos, but when I went on Torah Tours for Simchat Torah it was amazing, a really great experience.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about people who only write 2-3 sentences on their profiles. I actually thought this was just a guy thing, until I read your post, since the girls I know write a lot and guys seem to have half that amount. Some guys don't even bother writing full sentences and just write something to the extent of "nice, friendly, learns torah." I always think, "Wow, that was helpful."
That song would never make the musical for one simple reason: I absolutely abhor (with a seething passion) the song it's based on. But as a song in its own right it's quite good.
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