I tell you why I hate Mondays

Not only Mondays, but every day that I have to go to work and can't take care of stuff. You see I needed one week for doing fuck-all and the next week would be for errands and things that need to be taken care of. That isn't asking for too much, is it? Instead, I returned to work to find all sorts of things going awry. For one, I was called into the local religious junior high school for an interview.

"Bring your son" was what they told me. So I put on my modest dress, and we both trekked down to this school. That morning I got mail from them about next year - with a blue card

*how many times this week did you pray in a minyan (a quorum of 10 Jewish men)
*how many times this week did you study Bible

Shit. None actually. I actually felt relieved when the principal told me that he wasn't about to accept my son into the school (he wanted to go because his friends were going there). He scored low on his knowledge of basic laws of Judaism (duh) and they probably guessed that we weren't the epitomy of religious observance. I think THAT is the main reason for their decision. My son felt bad about not being accepted into the 2nd school in our white-picket-fence suburb of Jerusalem, but I told him that it would be great for me not spending hours trying to buy him the right kind of clothing for the school (they don't want any t-shirts with printed stuff on it, no shorts, no nothing exciting - really). It's tough to find teen clothes without numbers or cartoons or graphic stuff on it. Plus they were learning until 5:00 pm, which would have been a bit too much. Plus, he'd have the only mother in the entire school who goes to interfaith gatherings and socializes with Arabs. That, in itself, would cause a big ruckus - had the administration ever found out. So it all is really a blessing.

In the end I decided on the secular local junior high school because this way he won't have to hide from his teachers when he sees them in the supermarket or in the mall, when he is not wearing his yarmulke (head covering), they can mousse their hair, they can wear shorts, sandals, printed t-shirts and earrings.