Baseball on the Second Floor

This evening, the Second Floor Hallway of the CJL was turned into a baseball diamond, complete with a home plate, strike zone, fielding positions and spectators. There was much excitement, a charging of the mound, countless contestations, batter pegging and even some spectacular fielding. While it is awkward playing Second Floor Hallway Ball with a plush ball and a banister railing acting as the bat, it made for a night of relaxation in preparation for the serious amount of snow falling outside in Ithaca right now.
Adam and Chad discuss the game dynamics

Tamar takes aim, but falls short of a hit

Adam takes aim, but fails to find his mark (with closed eyes)

Black Sock Night

In the aftermath of a heated CJL board meeting we all went into the house to just hang out, catch our breaths, and relax before another wonderful day.  In addition, over the past few days we’ve been having Internet trouble … not the kind of thing you want on a collage campus (or in a student dormitory) where Internet is the life blood of the modern collage student.  Jared, one of the CJL House Managers has been fiddling with our network set up for the past week and it still seems flaky.

Anyhow, one of the best ways to cool down is to hang dark socks, that have been ruined due to bleach exposure, on door knobs.  Why does this let out aggression?  Hmmm…

Jared futzes with the network.  He had earlier taken out his frustration by hanging the dark sock on the door knob.

 
Dark socks pervade the second floor hallway.

Birthday of the 21st

 Today was my former roommate’s 21st birthday.  As is customary in the CJL, we all went out to the local supermarket (Wegmans) to get ice cream cakes for a midnight birthday ice cream party.  Aside from those festivities which accompany nearly every CJL birthday, a 21st birthday requires something a bit more special.  To that end a number of us went out with him to The Chapter House, which is a local bar.  It’s relatively upscale, and it was generally a good atmousphere.  Joining us were a few members of the 104 West! kitchen staff, which awarded Stuart the “Dining Hall Jew of the Month Award”.  After a shot or two, a few drinks and a number of games of pool, we called it a night.  To round out the evening, the rabbi joined us.

Note (Courtesey of Nosson): When seeing naked frat boys run around the block as part of a hazing ceremony, not only remember to take pictures, but thank HaShem that you were born Jewish (she’lo asa’ni goy).

 
Stu cuts the cake

The celebration … CJL style!
Back Row (LTR): Adina, Asher, Michael, Ronn, Dan, Etan, Adam
Front Row: Lily, Greg, Tamar, Stu, Faye, Elysia

 
Lily instructs Stu in the art of pool

Birthday at the Bar
(LTR): Stu, Michael, Etan, (Rabbi) Chilik, Nosson

CJL Composite Night

One thing that we at the CJL do that is comparable to all of the various other house like living environments (read: frat houses) is a composite.  A composite is a list of people who were members of that house that year, and their photographs.  It signifies your involvement and the fact that you care about the orgranization.  With the CJL, there is an added significance of being on the composite, and that is caring about observant life at Cornell as the CJL is the cornerstone of that.  Not that much excitement was generated by the event, but there were a number of intense moments as each member tried to choose his or her photo.  The most memorable photo of the evening was when we photographed a fake tree at Mike Wine’s request.

Lauren selects her photo

 

Jessica and Adamhold up last year’s composite as they mull over the layout

 
Adina and Danny Sabba help Elysia make up her mind

Sledding the Slope

 This past Saturday night, after watching a movie that depicted the sad story of an individual that was unable to differentiate between the real world and his own dream world, we found it to be snowing.  It was perfect snow for a snowball fight, perfect packing snow.  While snow fights are fun, tradition at Cornell dictates that tray-ing (using a dining hall tray as a sled) down the slope is one of the mandatory activities that an undergraduate must perform while at Cornell.  While tray-ing didn’t really work for us (we tried snowboarding using a tray, but quickly lost our balance) we did have a number of sleds and we put them to good use.  The one thing about walking up the slope is that it looks deceivingly simple.

Note: I risked my life to get these pictures, I was almost run over by multiple sleds.

Faye and Naomi gearing up.

Faye get’s a snowball hurled at her on the slope (the instigator: Adam)

Don’t forget to top off a hard night of sledding with hot chocolate! (LTR: Faye, Naomi, Greg, Chad, Adam)

The New Noyes — Part 1

 After a very long spring break, members of the CJL community have been steadily trickling back over the past week.  We arrived to notice that West Campus was nearly completely overhauled.  Over the past semester, new dormitories have been erected, and older ones have been slated for demolition.  We focused on the once centerpiece of West Campus, Noyes.  While it is no longer there, a new building (also called Noyes), is now catering to the needs of West Campus students, including  convenience shopping, and gymnasium and basketball courts.

In order to promote the new center, there was a promotion giving out Cornell Wear and other types of sports memorabilia.  The catch however was that you had to participate in a number of relatively childish activities such as hoola hooping, shooting hoops, and potato sack races.  Of particular note was the “Hopitie Hop”, which is a round rubber ball that one sits on, with a handle on top.  While straddling the handle, the idea is to “hop” your way around the cones and make it back to where you started before your opponent.  While this description may not sound that funny, seeing is believing, below are a number of photos taken of CJL members playing the “Hopitie Hop”.

Greg Starr Vs. Dan Kohn doing the “Hopitie Hop”

Elie and the Library (well almost)

So last night (12/11) Elie, also known as “Former President Gold” to those who know him best, took over the CJL library for a very special activity.  While I’d love to blog about a powwow or a séance, I’m going to have to make do with a public display of affection between members of the opposite gender.  As is classic in these kind of encounters, or meetings, the setting and mood are critical.

Setting the Mood:

The mood was to be “pirates”, just pirates!  In fact, in our CJL program: Disney Thursdays – Now on Saturday Nights’, we watched Sinbad (which isn’t even a Disney movie) in honor of Elie’s graduation and the fact that he won’t be with us next semester.  Getting back to the mood, the lights were turned out, a fire was set in the fireplace for the first time in years, candles were lit, incense was burning and the movie was playing.  As the centerpiece for the mood … the twin bed was prepared and ready for it all.

 
The peanut gallery in the room before hand (notice the fire)

The mood (notice the CJL champagne glasses

Jared unscrews a lightbulb to enhance the scary and private atmosphere.

The bed (enough said)

The lead in … the precursor to the event.

Note: The entire CJL community congratulates Elie on his graduation and hopes that he has a wonderful Yeshiva experience next semester in Efrat.

CJL House Elections … and knitting (again?)

As we recall from last post, CJL House politics, while usually brutal, was relatively subdued this year.  In fact, relaxing is a good thing, especially as finals begin tonight (good luck everyone).  Anyhow, getting back on topic, the “in” thing to do at this year’s election meeting was not voting, getting involved, angry screaming matches, hurling grenades or even supped up flame throwing war mongerers.  It was however … a continuation of another recent CJL program … knitting.

 
The 104 West! Mashgiach, knitting away.

Jared getting knitting assistance from Becky

Jessica (CJL Co-VP Chessed) models in her recently completed scarf.

The freshmen girls (Becky and Isabella)

 
A chill moment, where the girls sip coffee and knit.

CJL House Election Politics

Unlike in years past, where there has been significant fighting, bickering and even all out wars over CJL Politics, this year’s elections were relatively subdued.  In fact, everyone is on speaking terms and everyone remained friends throughout the whole procedure.  It was really a true display of Achdus (unity) at the CJL, truly something special.

Nevertheless, there always exists slight differences of opinion.  Here are two photos showing those representing those very slight differing viewpoints:

- VERSUS -

In all it was a very productive elections.  Here is s photo of the two candidates in the only contested election after the results were announced:

Caption: Greg and Stuart (the only two candidates running in a contested election) are still friends after the results are read.

Everyone’s just one big happy family!!!

CJL (Wo)Manliness — CJL Hippie Night (Part 3)

This past Friday was the last day of classes, and generally meant that all final projects were due at the end of last week, and consequently led to a drop off in the number of blog posts.  Anyhow, this is the last post about CJL Knitting Night.

While in the past two posts I insinuated that only guys were there, there was definitely a sizeable number (better yet, a majority of) girls.  Here are a few of the fun moments from that event.

 
Caption: Dan … scared by a little knitting

Caption: Girls knit also (LTR: Ariella, Isabella, Adina)

Though not evident from the photograph, Isabella is actually unbelievable at crocheting.  While none of us even came close to completing our scarves, she finished a very well made scarf.

Caption: Scarves for everyone!