“Ladies and Gentleman, children of all ages — it is my pleasure to welcome you tonight to the circus!”

"I’m really gonna miss you boys over Pesach vacation,” said Rebbi. “Just to make sure you keep your heads in the sugya, we’re going to arrange chavrusas over the break and have a little quiz when we return…”

“You’re gonna be my chavrusa, Seffie, right?” I turned to the desk behind me and tried to snag Yosef Shwartz — one of the best learners in my class, as my vacation chavrusa.

“Huh?” Seffie looked away from rebbi and looked at me. I also noticed Rebbi giving me a look. I have this little problem — I sometimes interrupt people.

“I asked,” I repeated, turning to Seffie again, now that Rebbi had stopped talking, “if you could be my chavrusa over Pesach vacation?”

“Sure. I’d love to. If you could just tell me which material the quiz is going to be on,” Seffie said with a note of irritation in his voice. “Someone was talking to me when Rebbi said what it would be.”

Oh, I guess that would be me. We found out which material the test was going to be on from another boy in our class and agreed to learn every day right after Shacharis.

When I got home, Ima and Abba were sitting at the kitchen table discussing something that looked very important, because they were leaning forward and talking quietly. I bet they’re discussing our Chol Hamoed surprise trip, I thought to myself.

Every year we spend Chol Hamoed visiting relatives, but my parents always choose one day to take us on a trip. To add to the fun, they never tell us which day, or where we’re going.

I walked up to my parents. “I know the Chol Hamoed trip is usually a surprise, but I have a chavrusa every day with Seffie Shwartz, so I need to tell him which day we can’t learn.”

Both my parents looked up at me, surprised. “Oh, we didn’t notice you come home, Eli. We were just in the middle of discussing something,” Ima said.

She didn’t say anything else, but I could tell she was disappointed I’d interrupted again. Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing. I’m not a little kid anymore. I know it’s rude. I don’t mean to interrupt; I just somehow end up doing it over and over again.

My parents assured me I would still have time for my chavrusa before we needed to leave on the day of our surprise trip. Wednesday of Chol Hamoed we found ourselves pulling up in front of a big circus tent!

After we found our seats, the ringmaster — a man in a sparkly black tuxedo and tall black hat — walked out in front of the audience holding a microphone in one hand and a baton in the other.

“Ladies and Gentleman, children of all ages — it is my pleasure to welcome you tonight to the circus!”