Shabbat in Monsey

Shabbat in Monsey with kressel and rebmotcha was an amazing experience. They are an amazing couple. I'm a bit overwhelmed by life in general and my ordeal of getting back from Shavuot in Baltimore, so for now I'm not going into details about shabbat, also, kressel wrote it in her journal, and basically what I would say wouldn't be any different, other than adding that she's a great cook, and that her husband is very well learned. And the kids are cute, even if they're a bit of a handful. [Kressel, I admire your patience with them.]

Shavuot in Baltimore

I was a bit hesitant about Shavuot, since this was my second repeat holiday, and passover ended up being just as fun as last year, but I was afraid what if Shavuot wasn't. Although I didn't get the spiritual high I got last year being in Yerushalayim, I did end up having the awesomest time ever.

I went with Sarah and Rebecca [Sarah's twin] Meyers to Yaakov and Deedee's house. They're a young couple who decided to host over 20 people for the all night learning, and around 15 for sleeping over and the rest of yom tov. They are insanely cool. I hope someday when I have a house of my own I can host something like this.

Sarah and Rebecca have lots of friends in UMaryland, and they're a really cool group of people. Pretty much everyone who was staying over knew everyone else, except me, but I became friends with all of them.

In general they're a bit more left wing and hippieish than I am [ok, waaaay more] and carlbachy. But they're a chill grup of people.

So the first night was all-night learning, which was rather fun, though not much learning was accomplished. Baruch, Adam, Yosef, Casey, and I had a big discussion about the meaning of life for a few hours, while everyone else was in a shiur given by a Rabbi that apparantly everyone nodded off during. And then Aaron and I learned a bit of Brachot.

During services I was dead tired, so me, Sarah, and Ana decided to walk back. I said to myself "I wonder if I'll see Avidan this weekend." Ana was like "which Avidan?" "Ackerson." "He lives right near Ami, who we're eating by tomorrow for lunch. we were going to go visit the ackerson's house afterwards. want to come?" And thus I got a free trip to Avidan-land.

After our walk back from services we all crashed for a few hours, until lunch, which consisted of mainly leftovers. Then Aaron, Sarah, and I went for a walk [I was barefoot, as I had been the night before while walking with Rebecca. I want hobbit-feet!] Then we chilled under a tree for a while, basking in the beautiful shade. Though once we got back into the apartment it was air-conditionally cold. W00t.

It was a long time to dinner, sadly. Although I had ice cream around 6, it wasn't really sufficient when dinner was at 11:30. Granted, afetr the walk all I did was lie down on the couch and chill with everyone, but still, 5.5 hours is a long time. I got to make kiddush [on an empty stomach!] and all was cool. And we made our own pizza, which was also cool.

I went to sleep around 12:30, while others were having a shuir. I needed the sleep.

Next morning I woke up at 10:30. Sweet, beautiful 10:30. Though I missed davening. Oh well. I don't think I would have wanted to daven at that shul. they gave one girl, Sherry [or Cheri. however you spell it] a hard time and made her leave for wearing a kippah and tallis. I can understand people saying it's not halachically correct [even though I don't think there are any issues] but that was sinat hinam, needless hate.

Lunch at Ami's was fun. Food was good [lots of leftover pizza] and we did a bit of singing. And it was nice chilling with everyone.

Then Ana, Charlie, Jose and I went to Avidan land. {I expected more rides}** Ariela just informed me that this sentence was prutzah. I really didn't mean it that way. Seriously, some people have perverted minds...**. Avidan has a crazy dog named Ellie who I think they feed crack. We hung out for a bit over an hour, and then walked all the way back [40 minutes] and got in around 6ish.

Most people were sleeping or chilling, which seemed to be the theme of the weekend. Baruch had some cool stories about his time in Israel, and how this crazy right wing dude, Yoel Lerner, was his next-door neighbor. They were pretty tight, even though Baruch is a hippie, and Yoel Lerner had a picture of Dr. Baruch Goldstein on his wall [he was the man who killed 35 Arabs praying in Hebron].

And then sadly, Yom Tov ended, and we made havdallah. I ended up spending the night at Sarah and Rebecca's [since the bus back would have gotten in at 2am] and missing Drisha today.

Tales of an idiot frummie

So today at Drisha they had a luncheon where food was served. It consisted of salad and pita and hummus. The salad had an unusually large amount of tomatoes, which I was trying to avoid, so I was picking up small pieces. Unfortnately, plastic tongs do not close tightly. They snapped, and I cut my thumb, which hurt at first, was fine for the rest of the day, and started hurting now when I was making deli roll [deli roll!!!!]

Ow.