Challah!

We made it ourselves last night, in our breadmaker. And it actually came out pretty well! Jonathan worked from home yesterday, so he was with me to prep Shabbat.

Other than that... lesson plans for Sunday school, catching up on school reading, and prepping for next week's service/sermon/Torah portion in Mattoon. There's no rest for the wicked.

P stands for Personal in PDA (confessions of a computer geek)

PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant. This is the descriptor for those wonderful hand-held gadgets that keep track of all your appointment and contacts (and their detailed contact info), allow you to access email remotely, and some even can let you call people (cell-phone integrated). What they really are are little computers that are hand-sized. They used to be only for rich business people, but now most middle class people are getting them with their phone. They will eventually be as common as IPods. What is surprising is how PERSONAL they become.


I have one. It looks just like the one in the picture, except, being the geek that I am, I have modified the software that runs it (to an extreme measure). I got it about 5 years ago because I suffer from a severe case of CRS and am ADD. This means I need something to yell at me 10 minutes before I need to do it or it never gets done. Some people marry for that feature, but I thought people may look at me funny if I took my wife with me into meetings.

So, after a few years I have really become dependent on it. It's like my little friend. The only problem is that after a number of years a little part broke inside it and it would lose all its information every so often. Not a good thing, but what was I to do?

One of my very cool coworkers had one he wasn't using and very generously let me use it for a while to see if I would want it. In trying it I realized how in love I was with my own PDA. My PDA seemed to do everything better. Even though my coworker's PDA was a newer version with more features, mine just seemed better to me. I finally had to give his back; I just couldn't give up my own.

This left me no option but to fix my PDA. Now for some people this wouldn't be an option, but as an UBERgeek I knew that if it could be fixed, I could fix it. My first stab at the problem was to call Dell (who made my PDA) to see if I could get the part. They were not very nice. They told me that the part wasn't fixable and I had to replace the whole thing. After arguing with them for an hour I hung up the phone and yelled a defiant "PASHAW!!!" very loudly at it.

So I called on my SUPER ubergeek buddy Jeffery, who will attempt to fix anything with wires, no matter how foolish the attempt may be. I like him in part because he never thinks he can't do it. I knew that if anyone would have an idea, he would.

Can you believe that resourceful bastard found the exact part I needed on E-Bay? I don't know how he pulls this stuff off, but he sent me a link to the holy grail of my PDA dilemma. I had the part ordered in no time.

The next problem was installing it. It was very technical, and I can see that Dell really didn't want me to work on this PDA myself as they went to great lengths to hide all the screws. It was very complicated, and a little scary. I was operating on my little friend after all. It was like doing heart surgery on your best buddy!!!

So, after digging deep into the bowls of my PDA I pulled out the defective part and inserted the new one. I sewed it all up and, in a moment of truth, turned it on. My heart quickened as I waited to see if that beautiful "today" screen would ever appear again on its shiny screen.

It did! It worked! I then spent all night restoring its memory and testing it. Indeed, it seemed as good as new. It was only then, while cleaning up all my tools and readying myself for bed, that I found a screw. Yes, a screw. And it clearly belonged somewhere in the recesses of my PDA. I looked at my PDA, then back at the screw again. I went back and forth for like 10 minutes.

The PDA worked wonderfully without it, and I knew that to put it back in I would have to take it all apart again. Taking it apart the first time had been risky, and I would likely just do more damage than I would fix if I put that screw back in. So I did nothing. But I hated that I had erred in this manner, and the extra screw kept bothering me until I talked to Jeffery again.

He has a great philosophy that made me feel so much better: If there's a piece missing when you reassemble something, but the device still works, then don't worry. You just made it more efficient! So now I think, my PDA works better than it ever did and is now one screw lighter. Go ME!!!

A more personal picture post

Me on the bima.

Us in white. Would you believe I had on heels too?



Simcha and the new toy we got for them to play with while we were away.

Jonathan and Osher relaxing at home.

More pictures of the drive, Mattoon, and the kitties can be found here.

To and from Mattoon

All right, so I lied. There won't be a longer post about the HHD later this week. The HHD were great, but I really don't think most people care about the specifics. If you're interested in my sermons or anything, ask and I'll email you. Instead, I'll share more about our trip. It's slowly sinking in that CA and the midwest aren't apples and oranges. They're more like apples and guavas.

- The freeways (highways?) criss-crossing Indiana and Illinois look very much the same. The part we saw was either very lush with trees and creeks, or was this:

Did you know that most of the corn grown here isn't for human consumption, but is either cattle feed or made into seemingly random things, like pantyhose or explosives?

- Not five minutes past the Ohio/Indiana state border was a huge billboard proclaiming that "Abortion stops a heartbeat." At least there was no picture of a fetus, only a flat EKG diagram. Then again, it's not Indiana but Ohio that has the 62-foot "touchdown Jesus." It's visible right off the freeway when you come to Cincinnati from Dayton. No lies.

Also known as "drowning Jesus," it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is in front of a megachurch. I won't comment on what Jesus might think of his statue in lieu of using the money to feed starving children...

- Another five minutes past the border is the biggest fireworks warehouse that I've ever seen. Though admittedly I haven't seen many, seeing as I come from a state where they're mostly illegal. Every Friday and Saturday night here I can see some through my window, the college frat houses the next block over go crazy.



- The motel in Mattoon, IL has both a Gideon Bible *and* a Book of Mormon in its nightstand tables. I was impressed.

- When we stopped at a gas station on Sunday night after break-the-fast before going back to the motel, some random guy stopped us at the door and asked, "do you know if they sell beer here?" I said no, I didn't know. As Jonathan and I walked away, the guy's friend noticed our all-white clothes and said "dude, I think they just got back from church!" I wonder what he thought of our kippot.

- I want to visit Amish country. There are Amish-style restaurants everywhere off the freeway, and I saw lots of ads for Amish furniture stores. I think we'll visit when Becca comes next month.

- I have never seen so many red barns in my life. Or so many tractors. Or so many horses. I also learned something new about the post office. When I asked a congregant what "R.R. 82" meant in her address, she replied, "rural road 82." Then she looked surprised that I hadn't heard of it. Sigh. I should really just start to guess these things.

- And last but not least, on the way back home I saw the big signs for the Creation museum in Kentucky. You think I can convince HUC to take us there as a field trip? :)

Thunderstorms

The house just literally shook from lightning. It was probably less than a mile away. I've never seen a cat cower before! I picked up Simcha, since Osher is plastered to the window, and I started singing "Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on Simchas." It may not have done anything for him, but Jonathan at least laughed. :)

THEY'RE OVER!

The High Holidays are behind us. Jonathan came down with me to Mattoon on Friday night, and with him beaming at me from the front row, I led Kol Nidre on Friday night and morning and Yizkor/Neilah (mourner's/closing) services on Saturday. I got good feedback on the sermons and the music, and think it was successful overall. One woman said that she got goosebumps when I read a certain section! I have much more to say, and lots of pictures to post, but I'm actually really behind on schoolwork. Watch for a longer post later this week.

Mornings

It's now 7:30am, and I've been up for over an hour. I'm online, reading blogs, checking email, but I still feel too sleepy to do real work. Do other people have this problem? I'm in bed by 10:30pm every night, up at 6:30am... and I still can't seem to do anything productive, even laundry or school reading, until 9 or 10. It's frustrating, I feel like I should be able to get so much done in the mornings, and it just never happens. People always joke about being a "morning person" or a "night person," but I wonder, is it really physiological? Hmm. Well, at least this gives me something to Google til I wake up properly.

Oh, and as a request, and at risk of sounding old... may I ask that no one call us past 9pm (meaning 6pm PST). On the other hand, you can call in the morning practically at the crack of dawn PST... do you know that when we get up in the morning here it's still dark?!

Rosh Hashanah

I have now officially led Rosh Hashanah services! It went really well, I think - or at least people seemed happy. When I arrived on Tuesday I checked into the motel, had dinner with the president of the congregation and his wife, and then we went over to the Center. It's a house, a little run-down on the outside but absolutely beautiful on the inside, with Judaica everywhere, chairs set up in the living room and the ark in an adjoining room. There are two classrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, very homey overall.

I had done a lot of prep for what to actually read from the prayerbook, but as the both services wore on I found that I was a bit short in time, so I improvised some extra readings to make the services last until they were supposed to (about an hour for Erev RH, an hour and a half for RH day). I still have lots of bugs to work out, like the Torah service choreography, and I forgot to tell people to sit down a couple of times (oops!). But everyone was very nice, completely welcoming, and as non-intimidating as you could get. There were about 20 people there at night, and 10 people exactly in the day, and for Tashlich at the lake.

Rolling the Torah by myself was hard, as it was in Deuteronomy and I needed it to be in Genesis - but I managed. My sermons went over well, and my shofar-blowing was actually a little better than I had expected. I was especially happy with my new suit, bought last week, for a grand total of $22! I love consignment stores.

As far as getting there and back, the drive was beautiful. Four and a half hours on a 4-lane highway through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. I only got lost at the end, amongst the cornfields, and at one point I even had to stop on the gravel road, lest I run over the family of deer in my way! I wish I had brought my camera. Jonathan's going to come with me for Yom Kippur, and we'll take pictures of the scenery then.

When I got home we celebrated in style, with Haagen Daaz. Yesterday, for Shabbat, we had four people over and watched this awful, historically inaccurate, gory movie (300, about the battle of Thermopylae – you can tell it was Jonathan’s turn to pick!). But the conversation afterwards about what makes “democracy” was highly stimulating, and one can never go wrong with good desserts. The only bad thing was that Jonathan had to be part of a conference call at work at 11pm, for a computer update thing that they do in low volume times. He was up til 4am, I passed out at about 3.

Now it’s off to clean up a little and start thinking about Yom Kippur!

Me in front of the ark. I read from the yellow Torah (it was smaller and I could lift it better). I wore Zadie's tallit from Romania (Zadie is Yiddish for grandfather, my father's father), Jonathan's tallit clip, and a beaded kippah that a friend made, courtesy of my mother. So everyone from all sides of my family was with me in spirit. :)

Weekend

In honor of our addiction to the HBO series "Rome," courtesy of Netflix, I'm wearing my "SPQR" shirt today. One of the graduate students stopped me in the hall to say - "Okay, I just have to ask - why are you wearing 'Property of the Roman Senate' on your chest?" I looked down at said chest; there really was no good answer. :)

School is going very well. In my Life Cycles class, in which we're still on funerals, we had a reading on pet loss. I love that! The article talked all about the different roles that pets provide in a person's life, and how and why Judaism needs to respond to that loss, albeit in a different fashion than the death of a human. I had no idea there were official rituals for it.

Yesterday was the first day of Sunday school. I had such mixed feelings - everyone was so nice, and the community was very inclusive. But it just wasn't Temple Israel. The kids (3rd graders) were great, but a bit quiet. Though I guess it's all in what you're used to - my main experience is with junior high school kids, and getting them to sit down and listen is a feat in itself.

Last but not least, I was just told that the motel in Mattoon has free wireless. This is exciting! I'm now planning on bringing my laptop with me on Wednesday.

Shanah tovah u'metukah! (Literally translated, "good and sweet new year." In common parlance, "have a great Rosh Hashanah, blow the shofar, and eat lots of apples and honey.")

Yay!

I just finished writing my second sermon! Rosh Hashanah is now covered. Now onto the ones for Yom Kippur...

Library loveliness

Remember last year when I complained about the HUC-Jerusalem library, saying its collection wasn't very impressive?

It's the exact opposite at HUC-Cincinnati, which is known for having the best Judaica library in the world outside of one in Israel. First thing this morning in my Rabbinics class we took a trip to the Rare Book Room. 8am and I was as wide awake as I'll ever get. I touched the pages of one of the very first Mishnahs printed in 1492. It's printed on handmade linen paper and feels almost like cloth. I held a Talmud printed in the 1500s with a pigskin binding. I lifted up the tissue paper to examine the red, yellow, and blue illustrations on a handwritten manuscript from the 1400s. And for the crowning touch, I saw a leaf of the GUTENBERG BIBLE! (read here for info). Were it not for the presence of so many other people, I would have squeed like a fangirl.

But, oh, how wonderful, I get to do research here! I browsed the stacks today in search of information for my High Holiday sermons and got a bit lost, to tell the truth. There's more Hebrew books than I could ever begin to understand, and German, and French, and Italian, and reprints of things in Latin and Greek, and I'm sure many other languages I didn't even see. Lo and behold, I came home with a very heavy backpack and plenty of "light" reading material for later. Hermione cracks, begin now...

Fondue shout-out

In a much-needed break from school, Carri and Scott came over for chocolate fondue. It was the first time we'd used the fondue pot we'd gotten from Becca. I may have actually OD'd on chocolate, between the dipped bananas, strawberries, dried apricots, cranberries, cake, and graham crackers and marshmellows (which actually made pretty good s'mores). We watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, and waxed nostalgic about pretty Leo and getting married at 14. Though, as Carri pointed out, when your life expectancy was barely 40, it doesn't seem so young. The cats couldn't care less about the fondue or the movie, but they were fascinated by 3-month old Joseph, who gurgled and cooed throughout.