But Mama, it is not like the pilgrim in the book

A birthday shout out is in order for my long time friend, Cindy, in Israel.

In one of those weird twists of fate, we first befriended each other in the second grade. I moved away, then we wound up going to the same high school, and becoming best friends. Then she went away to college and two years later, transferred to NYU where I was a student. Now she’s been living in Israel, but who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be crossing the Sahara and we’ll bump into each other at the local oasis. Life is weird like that.

Anyway, first and foremost, a big birthday holla from our favorite boy band way back when. Yes, I know this hurts what little street cred I have left. But these were the ones who gave us reason to practice our “concert faces” and seriously contemplate our outfits for the hard-hitting impressions we wanted to make, over the heads of thousands of other screaming 15-year old girls….

Donnie and the boys say: "Woah-ohhh-ohhh-ohhh, happy birthday!"

And let’s not forget Camp Monroe – the Jewish summer camp where we violated kosher dietary laws by trying to sneak a pepperoni pizza in. Only to have the pizza truck jingle jangle right in front of the office, forcing Stanley the owner to read us the riot act and make us it eat in the parking lot, like we were second class citizens.

And the kids from Degrassi Junior High would like to thank you for your support, during the many hours we were supposed to be studying and not practicing our Russian accents out of sheer boredom:

"Yo, what's that?"

"It's a birthday card for Cindy."

"With a smoove gesture like that, she'll be digging your Garfunkel 'fro for sure!"

And in closing, I would be posting a matzo ball, if only Blogger would let me, to represent the various Matzo Balls we attended. That would represent the numerous times spent at China Club, Au Bar, and the like, fending off advances from Woody Allen types looking for their Annie Halls.

Happy Birthday, shayna maidel!