theyellowhobbit

Mom made my pictures into a CD [I have almost 70]. Of course, she titled it "Ralphi and Dassi."

Once upon a time someone addressed an e-mail to Raphi and spelled his name as "Ralphi." and then I started to call him Ralphi, and then he said he wouldn't respond to e-mails that called him Ralphi, so I stopped. But now if my mom calls him Ralphi, maybe it's a family minhag, and I have a chiuv to call him Ralphi.

-I asked Raphi for a "Shomer bracha" (everyone else asking him was either related to him, male, or both) which he gave me. I'm not sure what he said. But he seemed so spiritual, it was amazing.

-Part of the shtick involved people dancing with the letters D T R. Josh Schainker gave me the R, which I wore around my neck for a bit, then hung on my chair, then brought it home. Meira gave me a lei, which actually belonged to Yosef, so I gave it back to him.

-Dave & Beth Perkel were at the wedding, as was Stu. Also Professor Hellerstein was there with her son (David Stern, her husband, was not, because he had surgery, I'm not sure for what) which I didn't expect. Neither Raphi nor Dassi are Jewish studies majors, and neither is from Philly/Lower Merion. So it was random, but random in a cool kind of way.

-I still remember middle school and high school dances, with all the teachers chaperoning, and feeling very inhibited since they were there watching us. Or maybe I was inhibited because it was mixed dancing. I definitely like this kind of dancing better, except that no one at Penn knows Israeli dances, and they played Al ha nisim, and I felt a pang of regret that I wasn't with NFTYites then. rachinisrael probably knows what I mean. I miss doing the actual dances instead of just running around in a circle.

-After the wedding Bryna had a chanukkah party, which originally was gonna be 403 and 407 and then got ginormous. But Bryna considered me part of that original list. Maybe I'm an official unofficial member of 403 now.

So yesterday I went to visit Dassi [partially for her awesomeness, and partially because she has something useful in her room I like to borrow, only it can't leave her apartment.] Raphi came in and out. Dassi decided that I was clever. So I asked her what "clever" meant in her vocabulary, because it's a word she uses a lot. She said it meant someone who was smart in many ways, and always knew what questions to ask.

During this same visit, I asked her if she was planning on having all the male members of the wedding party wear matching kippot. She said yes, and she was planning on making some of them, so I volunteered to help. There are only 5 for her side of the family [father and 4 brothers] and 5 kippot is like nothing, so I said that I could make all of them [I'd actually make a 6th for Raphi]. The only problem is that then this would be my wedding present, and I wouldn't be making a blanket. According to Yosef it's a nice wedding, since in theory each kippah is worth 15-20$, so 6 would be 90-120$. But that's retail value. They don't take half as much time, effort, or materials to make as would a blanket. And besides, they would go to the wedding party, so even if one went to Raphi, it's not like they would own the rest of them, so this isn't even something they could keep. Though Dassi really doesn't ahve time to make them, considering she still has to singlehandedly plan a wedding and attend Penn classes. Maybe I'll also make a blanket for them, and if I don't have time to finish it by the wedding, I'll have another semester to work on it.

I offered Dassi my 2 kippah books [well, one is mine and one is on load from Tova] so she could choose a pattern. I had them with me last night and Raphi was in 403, so I gave them to him so he could give them to her.

I saw Raphi today and asked if he had given the books to Dassi. He said. "Yes, I did, and she was very happy. To quote Dassi. 'I love Rachel.' I might have to knock you off!"

I'm actually in Dassi's room now. There's wireless throughout the highrise. Yay!