Mazel Tov Jenny & Brian on their engagement!!!
Sooo excited for them, but still strange that it's gotten to the point where more of my friends are engaged/married than single. Ridiculous. When did everyone grow up? And then there's me, with my perpetual "Peter Pan Syndrome," living in a house with all college students. As much as I'm not really in any rush to grow up, I have to admit that it's getting a little hard.
Anyways, I leave for the airport in a little over 3 hours, so I should probably pack and take a quick nap (can't really consider it going to bed at this point, can I?). Chag Sameach, and to those of you in Boston/New York, I'll see you soon!
So I hope everyone had a meaningful Yom Kippur, and an easy fast. Surprisingly my fast went by super quick--didn't even get sick. Spent many hours in shul, contemplating the whole premise behind Yom Kippur. G-d judges us, decides who lives, who dies, who is "successful", who is not... If you believe it, it can be both frightening and upsetting. Frightening in the sense of how will I be judged. As Roth put it, "will I make it out on the other end?" Upsetting thinking about life in those terms. Someone dies, how can you possibly sit there and think that it was as a result of something they did? First half of services were tough for me. Kept thinking about Kenny. It hasn't even been a year since he passed away, and it definitely still doesn't seem real.
Something Roth said helped a lot, made me able to continue with services, rather than sitting outside crying and trying not to think. She told this story about when a baby in her community passed away. Totally tragic, a 7 month-old. How could a baby so young, who had barely lived done something that would merit its death? Her Rabbi offered a Kabbalistic interpretation to help people understand. He said that people are here to fulfill a specific task, and that's it. That task could be curing cancer, or it could be something as seemingly "small" as impacting someone who impacts someone else. Still a bit hard for me to swallow, but it helps. Made praying easier. And then I read the part about dying "before their time" or "at their time." Putting that together made so much more sense. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but it helps. It's going to take time. Sometimes I feel like it just happened, sometimes it feels like its been ages.
On a completely different note, Roth invited me to come to her parents' house in Boston for Succot. Spur of the moment, I went online and booked myself a ticket. And while i'm going out East, I'm going to go to New York for a couple days. Meaning if you'll be in Boston or New York for the beginning of Succot, we need to play! Shavua Tov!
So the JN finally posted my
article from last week. The more I read it over, the more I realize how horribly written it is, but it's still cool to see my name in print.
Spent all day today working on an article for the Jewish News. Started off fine, I just sat down and wrote the article. I was almost done, and then I went to campus to take some pictures and finish writing the article. Things were fine, right on schedule. Then I opened up the file to find my article was gone. We're talking hours of work, completely down the drain. Had to start totally over from the beginning. Ridiculous.
Roth's away message:
"If a crust of bread is better than nothing,
and Nothing is better than true love,
then by the transitive property, a crust of bread is better than true love."
Ah, philosophy at its best...
Rachel & I went to the WB today to visit David and go out on his boat. She skiied for the first time, and I went wakeboarding. Totally awesome. It still hasn't lost its thrill even though I've been a bunch of times now. I'm definitely going to feel it in the morning--a couple of rough spills.
Been playing tons of guitar. Found my favorite new site for
chords. Not that I can really play most of the songs on there, but I almost can play F which is super exciting, and my fingers are all calloused--love it.
Comcast comes in the morning to install our cable/internet. Definitely exciting, since now I'm just tapping into our neighbors' wireless and it's not too reliable. All for now...
So my pneumonia is getting better, enough that I started moving some (emphasis on some) stuff into my house in Ann Arbor. My room is so fun, my roommates seem great--I'm excited. Now if only I could take a deep breath without bursting out in a coughing fit and having to lie down for half an hour...
Detroiters, check out page 24 of the Detroit Jewish News. Yup, my first article, including pictures taken by yours truly!! It's this little nothing article, and yet I'm super excited about it. I'll post a link, if the
JN ever puts it online.
It's going to be interesting being in Ann Arbor again. I'm really excited about it, but it is kinda weird being here not as a student. I almost want to just tell people I'm in grad school just so they're not quite as confused about why I'm in Ann Arbor, living in a house with all students, going to Hillel, etc.
Shabbat Shalom!
