theyellowhobbit

I was feeling okay by the time I got back to Techiya, and thought my fever was gone, but when I tried eating the PB&J sandwich I had made myself for lunch, it was taking forever, and then the idea of even heating up some pasta nauseated me, and then I started shaking. So I took my temperature- 100.1 And I'm coughing a little. And very afraid it's mono, and I can't get tested for that until Wednesday. [Expletive, or perhaps even creative string of expletives.]

I'll put on my sweatshirt, move to the couch, and watch some Buffy if currentlee isn't planning on watching something else downstairs.

I'm still sick. I finished the midterm a half hour ago, and submitted it. I also managed to do my massive loads of laundry.

I'm going to student health services tomorrow.

And I'm going to bed now.

And I'm not going to minyan.

My mom sent me a link to the Providence Journal which has information about the election, and what the ballot will be.

http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/include.pl/extra/election/2008/general/town_barrington.htm

So I know how I'm voting for most of it, but I have no clue about town council and school committee. Do I vote straight party line? Is there a difference in the different candidates and their positions? Do I know anything about them?

Part of me says that maybe I should skip voting in those races, since I no longer live in Barrington and I have no intention of moving back and if I have kids they will not be going to Barrington public schools.

The other part of me thinks it's important to think about the people who are in the school system, and how funding can make a difference in terms of having different extracurricular programs, paying teachers a decent wage, etc.

But I don't even know which people would do that and which people would not.

Though the school budget actually gets voted on every year in a town meeting which is open to everyone, and every registered person in Barrington gets to vote in it. I went once when I was in high school since I was curious about it, and there are a few people who are characters and do amusing things.

I guess I'll keep searching the internets until I get an answer.

In my Early Christianity class we're currently reading Lucian, who was a satirist who lived in the 2nd century CE, and a critic of religion. One of the readings by him is a debate between Zeus and this dude Cyniscus, about whether or not the gods have power over humanity, and whether or not we're ruled by the Fates. At a certain point he mentions not wanting to be the Fates, and to "twirl a spindle freighted with so many events, watching each carefully." So apparently the Fates had spindles and spun the thread of life, though I don't know much about this myth.

Anyways, how crazy would it be to bring my drop spindle to class and/or section? Should I ask Dr. Nasrallah if she'd like me to bring it in? Am I just being a huge nerd?

I've hit the point in my sickness where I'm really tired even from things like putting away dishes. I'm not hungry. My taste buds are off. And I have the awful taste in my mouth, the one you get when you're sick and not eating. I'm not sure how to get rid of it. Drinking a glass of water didn't help.

Brushed my teeth again. That should at least mask it for a little bit. Still doesn't make me want to eat. I know that I probably should eat considering I had breakfast around 10ish and it's almost 4:30, but I'm not sure what I could eat that would be good for me and not taste horrible and not require effort to make. Maybe I'll just wait for currentlee to get back and ask him to make me something. We have no bread, so I can't have toast. We don't really have much cereal that isn't special gluten-free stuff for adlight. Cranberry juice tastes awful right now. We have no OJ. We only have 1 egg left. I suppose there's quinoa...

And I don't even want tea with honey right now! Or honey with tea! How crazy is that? I always want tea with honey when I'm sick. I'm too sick for tea!

sparkleycricket and lonelypencil are off in Harvard square with another friend of theirs. I was supposed to meet with timmypowg to go over music at 3:00, but I'm in no condition to sing. I've been taking lots of naps. I'm not sure what else to do. There's homework I should be doing, but I'm having trouble even reading. Maybe I'll watch Buffy. Maybe I'll make myself eat popcorn while doing so.

Being sick is not fun, especially when you're already behind on work and are about to start another round of Jewish holidays. This could not have come at a worse possible time.

Yom Kippur was amazing, despite the fact that they used a different tune for Marei Cohen which was slow and not happy, when Marei Cohen is supposed to be the climax of the service, and is my favorite part, except that they sorta ruined that this year. But the rest of it was amazing.

Yom Kippur is my favorite holiday. It's also currentlee's favorite holiday. adlight thinks we're both weird. We probably are. I'm not sure if there's anyone else in the world who has Yom Kippur as their favorite Jewish holiday. But at least Tisha B'Av isn't our favorite holiday. That would just be wrong.

Actually, it was also a fun Yom Kippur. Fun. Even though I was fasting and atoning, it was fun. Which seems a little wrong. Then again, it's probably not so reverent to sit in the back and spend all of services talking about how horrible the Silverman translation is, or how annoying it is when the chazzan draws things out unnecessarily, especially during ma'ariv after the holiday is over and you just want to eat and the darn thing is supposed to be said as fast as possible and what kind of crazy person sings Mi Chamocha or Aleinu when they've been fasting for 25 hours?!?!?! I might volunteer to lead that service next year just so I can ensure it will be quick. (I love how now that I'm religious and in grad school I've turned into one of those people who sits in the back and talks during services,, when I never would have gotten away with that growing up. Though we're talking about the davening. It's more like MST3King the davening. Yeah. That's what we do. And I can get away with it, since I'm always doing stuff for the minyan. And no one cares.)

But there was atoning involved somewhere in there. Actual atonement. And I also had some really good conversations last night, with cool people. And staying over at NM's was like a HRSFA sleepover party. On Yom Kippur.

And I was surprised to learn that hKC also fasts on Yom Kippur. Not that it's that hard for him to fast considering he never eats anyways. But yay for fasting HRSFen! There's also JB, who called it Atonement SIG, or rather called the breaking of the fast Atonement SIG. Whee!

Ok. Bedtime.

I just learned my Rosh Hashana Torah reading in the span of about 10 minutes. Mostly it consisted of me going back to the leining I did 2 years ago and rereading that in order to get the high holiday trope, and then putting that on top of this leining. Granted, it's only 6 lines long. And there are no pazers, which is a shame, because I have a really awesome RH pazer. (It's the little symbol that looks like a "4." One of the less common ones, but by no means a rare symbol.) And no tlisha gedolahs, which is also a shame for the same reason. There are a couple of darga-tvirs, which are shiny, so I guess it makes up for it. Also, being able to learn my leining in 10 minutes probably makes it worth it, considering all the other things I still need to do.

Like ma'ariv. I just learned the festival kiddush, so now I can do that if we do it (I guess it's a matter of SCM tradition). Also, it's a good thing to know, because it's useful for things like meals. I guess it's not that obscure. (But it does mean I could make kiddush at our meal tomorrow night if you don't know it and need me to do so, currentlee.)

I guess the rest of the service isn't so hard, but I haven't had the chance to go through it more than 2 or 3 times, and I really need to polish it.

In other singing news, ( long rant on my loss of vocal ability, or alternatively Techiya Thinks I'm a Mezzo! (They'll learn better) )

Help?

I'm sitting at a table in front of Lehman Hall, and the girls women who are sitting at the next table over were talking about LotR and how different people are hobbits. I felt a little tempted to say "I'm a hobbit, too!" Though then I'd be creepy. And I have no desire to be creepy.

Tonight we're deciding what songs we're going to sing this semester. Since I joined the group, I've been trying to think of all the beautiful Jewish music I know that I would like to sing. And then I remembered this:

http://www.we7.com/public/trackDetails/Elohai-Ntzor?trackId=472066

It's Elohai N'tzor, words from a part of prayer services (the end of the amidah), music by Danny Maseng. Once upon a time we sang this at Kutz. Or rather the staff choir got to sing it, so I myself only sung it when I was in Avodah. I love it.

Now I'm wondering if there's any other songs from Reform-land that are really good that I forgot about.

Earlier I came up with a few other ideas, one being Darkeinu, which is sung by every Jewish acapella group but I really would love to be able to sing, the other is Shir Ha'asavim, which I need to find a recording of that actually reflects how I would like to hear it sung.

And there's the yismechu round, though I don't know if we sing rounds. Probably not.

Why is my mind blanking on music? Why can't I think of songs with shiny harmonies?

Here's the yarn I've spun from the alpaca, and the scarf of awesome thus far. And the HRSFA yarn that I gave to landofnowhere(made from roving from poppyflowerfibr)

( shiny things )