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with
personalized fitness

(248) 848-9710

27873 Orchard Lake Road • ORCHARD 12 PLAZA

AN AEROBICS AND FITNESS STUDIO OFFERING:

• Aerobic/Step/Muscle
Toning Classes
• Personal Training
• Nutrition Assessments
• Weight Management
• Juice Bar
• Cardiovascular Equipment

• Weight Equipment
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• Vitamins & Supplements
• Health Library

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Bodywear

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VALID FOR:

3 FREE Aerobic Classes &

1 Personal Training Visit

L For 1st time clients

Exp. 6-15--97

OPEN SEVEN DAYS_ Mon-Thurs: 5 am-9 pm • Fri: 5 am-7 pm

Sat: 7 am-1 pm • Sun: 7 am-1 pm

, c ,

nci vita' i ,

A bold exploration
of Judaism's
relevance and
vitality.

. •

______W,y
Stinc , a4a
,y
. 18th

oration
of
. .

,

JUDAISM'

•

1J .r.),r,,72

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.

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at Hadassah House

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9:00a.m.-5:00 p.m.

experienced one of my most
intense moments of female
bonding on a plane flying from
Detroit to Baltimore.
Five minutes into the flight the
woman in the next seat, mother
of 3-year-old Kelsey, revealed the
secret to toilet training.
"Use Barbie potty training
pants," she said. "They don't
want to pee in their pants when
they're wearing Barbie."
Although I doubt my son
would appreciate having Barbie
on the front of his underwear as
much as Barney, I gained some-
thing more than a new friend
with toilet training expertise in

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,

.

ico'el-. 'employs Psycho!. -!
Science, Philosophy and History
a compelling case for the oath- -
and relevance of Jewish c3elief. ,

52

;,,.

,

Sunday, May 18th at Hadassah House in West
Bloomfield. 9a.m.-5p.m. Call 737-0400 to register.

America's premier
Jewish educational
experience!

(-/

Funny how your friends change as you
fall in love, get married, have a baby

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

Call 737-0400 to re b aister

bet that I realized I was not the
only single person at the party.
I was still convinced, however,
that I was the only single per-
son who wouldn't have any fun.
Still sulking, I was offered a sec-
ond serving of sorbet which I
graciously accepted.
Now completely sugared up,
with confidence, I left my inhi-
bitions at the table and ap-
proached the other dateless
members of the looking glass.
Recognizing their empty ex-
pressions as testimony to how I
felt, I quickly realized we must
band together. For the next
three hours I interacted with my
new friends, talking about
everything from work and school
to dates and weddings to, yes,
the Jewish mothers staring from
the corner.
Although I'd like to say I
stayed up all night talking to a
particular someone and that
we're still talking today, I can't,
because it wouldn't be true.
However, I did leave that
night with something nice — a
new understanding of what it's
like to overcome my fears.
What I learned about dealing
with uncomfortable situations
has meaning in every aspect of
life. Whether it's anxiety over a
job interview or a simple fear
that you're being looked at, you
just need the right strategy to
survive. Sometimes, thrusting
yourself at adversity is the eas-
iest way to get through it. Think
about it: The worst thing that
can happen is you fall flat on
your face and have to limp back
to standing up straight.
Then again, if you've got
ankles like mine, you might
have to do that tomorrow morn-
ing. ❑

Twentysomething
Cycles Of Life

(5030 Orchard Lake Road)

,

1

1

Five of them. But there were
also three high school juniors in-
volved in the questioning, all of
whom, because of their age,
should have been more nervous
about the process than I.
Reality: The first minutes of
the interview proved the most
damaging to my chances of land-
ing that job. Bright lights beat
my brow, causing a thin veil of
sweat. And the broken leg of my
chair made me sway so ner-
vously that I looked like I was
going to fall to the floor any mo-
ment. I knew it was over. That
job was not going to be mine.
I was so out of place in that
room because I was unprepared
for the situation. Knowing that
there were people younger than
I who had a say in my future
employment made me uncom-
fortable to the point that I could
think of nothing else. So, I blew
the interview.
About a month later, I went
solo to a friend's wedding. The
minute I sat down at what I
thought would be a singles table,
the disheartening chatter began.
Already self-conscious, I imme-
diately assumed all the whis-
pering between the couples at
the table was about me. Not to
mention my fears of what the
Jewish mothers huddled in the
corner were talking about. All I
could hear was "there must be
something wrong with that
young man if he's here all
alone."
I was out of place, and I knew
it. But unlike the job interview,
this time I was going to do some-
thing about it. I decided to turn
that evening into a learning ex-
perience.
I guess it was sometime
around the first serving of sor-

I

that moment. During that short
flight, I realized how vastly dif-
ferent my friends are now than
they were a little over three years
ago.
Then, I was young, free, single
and my friends shared those
qualities. We spent our days
working and our nights partying
or dating.
In our free time, we did almost
everything and just about any-
thing on the spur of the moment. '--
We went skydiving on sunny
summer weekdays (I, deathly
afraid of heights, remained on
the ground) and spent warm
weekend nights on the shore of