Archives for January 2015

I grew up in the late 80’s/early 90’s in New York City. In my entire NYC public school career I had a total of one snow day. It was in 1996 and I was a sophomore at F.H. Laguardia High School. We took the opportunity to go sledding in Riverside Park on the lids of garbage cans.

The truth was no matter what the weather conditions were outside, the New York City public school system did not care. We had to go to school no matter what. So this impromptu snow day in 1996 was quite a shock.

Fast forward to 2015. My son is in the first grade at a New York City public school. Rumor was going around that schools were going to close on Tuesday. Whenever this came up I laughed my ass off.

“There’s no way in hell they’re closing New York City public schools. That shit is not happening.”

When I got a text from Wil with a screenshot of the announcement that New York City public schools were closed for a snow day I almost fainted. Frankly, I think we’ve gone soft. No matter what the weather conditions were, when I was a child you got your ass to school.

These NYC kids in 2015 do not understand how good they have it. When kids upstate in Albany, Buffalo and Rochester were getting snow days left and right we were miserable trudging through snow piles to get ourselves to school.

I don’t know what to say. I guess pigs can fly because New York City public schools closed today for a snow day.

Four

Four years of life.

Four years of laughs.

Four years of tantrums.

Four years of being a small human.

Four years of learning.

Four years of exploring.

Four years of thought.

Four years of challenges.

Four years of joy.

Four years of being…

Samara.

Happy Birthday! I love you!

My friend Allie’s cat, Ella, loves Oreos. Original, Double Stuff, whatever the variety of cookie, this cat is into Oreos. It’s her thing, okay? Don’t judge her. We all have a favorite pastry. Wait, I’m not even sure Oreos are considered a pastry. But I digress.

I came up with a brilliant idea today. I decided that I would buy some Oreos and send them to Ella as a care package.

She’s exhausted because she hasn’t had Oreos in days. This feline is in need of a fix.

I am ready to provide cookies for her. I am going to take a box of Oreos to the post office…I was about to write hospital for some reason, I have no idea why, anyway…I am taking the Oreos to the post office and sending them to this cat. She is hungry…I think.

I just know she’s dreaming about Oreos.

Ella, don’t worry! I am here for you girl. Check the mailbox soon.

Many of you know that I experienced an Internet debacle involving my name on Facebook. As a joke, I changed my name from Sarah Fader to Phayder Fader on Facebook, not knowing that I wouldn’t be allowed to change it back for 60 days. You can read the entire story here.

I don’t want you to have to experience the same level of bureaucracy that I experienced. Instead of the 60 days they quoted me, after I made several YouTube videos and a blog post, Facebook listened and changed my name back.

Here is where YOU have to go to get your name changed on Facebook if you run into this problem:

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/245617802141709

Thank you to Adam Roberts for that link!

And now a video

Bonus! More videos

I was on Facebook on day perusing the names of my blogging friends. It occurred to me that many of them use aliases online. I am not one to use a pen name. My name is Sarah Fader and that’s that…until it wasn’t.

One day, I thought, it would be amusing to change my name on Facebook to an alias. I posted this status:

So I went under settings and I changed my name to “Phayder Fader.” It was just for fun. I thought I could change it back in a couple of days. Little did I know that I would be stuck with this moniker for 60 days.

Wow, okay…that seems a bit extreme. I mean, 60 days? Come on, Facebook. Had I known your policy, I wouldn’t have bothered changing my name as a joke. This is overkill.

So I decided, like the ambitious Jewish single mother that I am, I would go directly to the Facebook corporate office and take care of this matter in person. That might sound a bit extremist, however, when I attempted to email Facebook about this name change situation, there was no point of contact. So I did what I felt I needed to do to accomplish my goal.

I hopped on the train to 770 Broadway in Manhattan and asked the front desk of the building what floor I should go to for Facebook corporate.

I rode the elevator up and was greeted by two very lovely receptionists. Mr. Sanchez was particularly kind. Though he was unable to help me change my name back, he offered me some chocolate at the front desk and gave me a form to fill out to fax over to the California office. He was also quite impressed with my ability to come to the Facebook office without an appointment, which is required. I had no idea.

Mr. Sanchez even took a picture of me because he is kind like that.

In closing I’d like to say this: please help me to change my name back. I am a professional writer. I blog for Psychology Today and The Huffington Post. I need to be Sarah Fader again.

Thank you.

LOVE,

Sarah Fader aka Phayder Fader

P.S. Here is a video: