Also not about sex

[theyellowhobbit]

I finished the paper yesterday at around 4:15, which is when candlelighting was. I think I printed it out within the 18 minutes, and then a classmate was in the library with me so he handed in the paper for me. I actually had to break Shabbat to leave the library, since the door is electric. And the paper still did not get any, even when it was 15 pages long.

(navelofwine- Thank you so much for your editing. I ended up not implementing all of the elaboration changes as fully as I could or should have because I ran out of time, but you were definitely right that all those places needed elaboration. I'll send you the final paper if you want to read it for fun. Hopefully the rest isn't too atrocious.)

Then I led Kaballat Shabbat,¹ which was fine except for the part where I hadn't picked out my Lecha Dodi tunes² until right before we sang Lecha Dodi. Usually I plan this weeks in advance because I have to wait weeks until I can lead it, and thus am thinking of the tunes I want to use. But in this case I had the paper of doom. There was a slight pause in between the 2 tunes, where I couldn't figure out a good starting pitch for the 2nd tune and then did something else instead.

Then there was dinner and gaming. Dinner had food in it, which was good because I hadn't eaten since 11:30 AM. So I ate.

Gaming was somewhat made of win and somewhat not. There were 2 goals I had; one of which I achieved and one of which I didn't. Goal 1 was to win a green card in Apples to Apples, which hadn't happened for me yet, though admittedly I hadn't been in that many games. Goal 2 was to win at Settlers, since although I can win when I'm elsewhere (I think I won Settlers the first time I went to stone_ and galads_forest's for Shabbat), I can't win with HRSFA. This might have something to do with the fact that brokenwndw usually is playing when I am. And by "usually" I mean "always." He happens to be probably the best Settlers player I've played against. People usually say (sometimes jokingly, sometimes seriously) "Don't trade with brokenwndw." I usually say "Steal from brokenwndw and not me because he's scary and I'm not. He has 2 cities!" Or something like that. Depending on the person being addressed and the status of the game, they may or may not steal from me, but he always is scariest and always wins. (Except when JLR does.)

Anyways, I got green cards in Apples because I took MB's spot and his green cards attracted more to them. Actually I got quite a bunch. It was shiny.

And I lost Settlers twice. Maybe the goal isn't to win at HRSFA per-se, but to beat brokenwndw. One of these days I'm going to win. And I'll gloat for a bit. And then you can go back to winning every game. I'm not fiercely competitive, it's just more that I'd like to prove to myself that I really am a good Settlers player. And it's also nothing personal; if anything it's a compliment, because it means I think you're one of the best Settlers players I've played against.

I was at gaming until 3. I was staying at pastwatcher's that night, and JLR was chivalrous and walked us back and carried my suitcase (a rolly suitcase, but still it was chivalrous). pastwatcher and I ended up talking until really, really late, but it was a good conversation.

Then we went to breakfast at pastwatcher's dorm's dining hall and I had cold cereal and chocolate milk.

I got to minyan right before the Torah reading. I was reading the 3rd aliyah, so I had a tiny bit of time to finish learning the last 2 verses and to practice the whole thing. It was only 9 verses total, and I think I might have chanted it last year as well. I only made one mistake! w00t!

Then we had kiddush and by the time lunch came around I wasn't that hungry, though I still ate lunch. Afterwards I took a much needed nap.

Shabbat ended. I led Havdallah. I went home.

You'd think that would be the end of the story, except I came home to a missing ball of yarn that I need for my project. Luckily I can pick up a new one tomorrow, but until then my llama scarf is on hold. I put it on other needles (size 8, as opposed to size 9) so I can use the size 9 needles from it to start hatam_soferet's scarf, since the size 8 ones failed because the yarn was too wide for it. I'm making an Irish Hiking Scarf, though I wanted to do the Palindrome but realized it would eat up too much yarn and the yarn might be too thick to do it anyways. The latter is almost the same as the former, except the latter is double-sided as opposed to there being a right and wrong side. Hence the name "Palindrome."

And now I have to study for my Jewish History final and write the Stone vessels paper. I'm going to reverse what I did last time and study first and then work on the rest of the paper. There's also some exam issues I'm having in terms of my ability to use a laptop for the giant 3-hour essay exam: FAS student disabilities services did not contact me until yesterday to tell me they needed my documentation from Div School disabilities. Unfortunately I got this e-mail as I was finishing the Machinist Paper of Doom and did not have the time to go to the Div School disabilities and then to FAS disabilities to give them paperwork. I forwarded the Div School the FAS e-mail, but the exam is on Monday morning at 9:15. It's their fault for not contacting me sooner when they said they would contact me, but now I'm screwed. I won't die if I take the exam by hand, but it will be very painful and I shouldn't have to. Maybe I'll bring the wrist brace to look more sad and pathetic and the FAS proctor dude will take pity on me. If it were either my Prof or TF who was administering the exam I would be fine (or if they had gone through HDS to give the exam) but since FAS is doing it, I'm a lot less fine.

Now to studying. I'll exist briefly tomorrow for brokenwndw's birthday celebration and the Vericon meeting, but I should be studying/papering all day beyond that. Hopefully I'll be productive.


¹The first of the 2 Friday night services, literally "welcoming Shabbat," where we welcome in Shabbat. It consists almost entirely of singing, when done correctly. It could also entirely consist of quiet mumbling, which is a really sad occurrence. I feel like when it isn't sung, it's a horrible waste of a perfectly good service, and I feel I've been robbed of an essential Shabbat experience. Strangely enough, if I just don't go to kabbalat Shabbat period, I don't mind as much, since I'm not having the non-singingness shoved in my face.It's my favorite service.

²Lecha Dodi is one of the prayers in kabbalat Shabbat, probably the climax of the service. It has verses and a chorus, and pretty much any standard tune in 4/4 time can be used for it. Since it's a long song, people often use 2 tunes, which is a good thing since if you only get one Lecha Dodi a week, you want to maximize the tunes you can use. I also am a fan of varying the tunes and not using the same one every week. This is why Conservative kabbalat Shabbat at Penn had the potential to annoy me, though at least they usually sang everything, which cannot be said of the Orthodox minyan there.

Comments

[superducky1.livejournal.com]

Bad Rachel-- no cookie! Friday afternoon is for prepping for shabbat so such things need not occur. I should take some of my own advice :-P

In any case, finish ye papers on time!