Me being a geek

I met with the last professor today about my independent studies in the fall. Everything's coming together! I'll be taking one course in Ritual Studies, one in Liberalism (a philosophy course), and one on writing my own high-school curriculum on body image.

Work is awesome - today Dan the librarian pulled me aside, asked if I had a minute, then told me to go wash my hands. I went to his corner and he put a book from the year 1240 in front of me. It was Rashi's commentary on the Bible, on the most ancient parchment I've ever seen. Many pages were missing the bottom section below where the words ended (strips of the bottom part of the page were literally cut out). Dan said that this was most likely because the owner of the book reused the parchment and cut out the strips for the purpose of making the prayers that go into mezuzot. At the end of the book of Genesis there was this amazing illustration of the High Priest's breastplate, in vibrant reds and greens. But most of the green was cut away - I thought that someone had taken scissors to the page. No, Dan said, whatever was in the green ink was more acidic, and over the years ate away at the paper. Then at the end of Deuteronomy the scribe had made the words into a diamond-shaped pattern on the page. It was beautiful. The whole thing was beyond fascinating. I couldn't believe I was actually turning the pages of a book from before the time of the printing press!

Then, to make the day complete, after I finished tutoring my Bar Mitzvah student I went to Half-Price Books, and they had the exact book I had been planning on ordering from amazon.com! It's on hypnobirthing, a way to relax yourself to make childbirth easier (since we're doing a homebirth, I've been reading up on all possible natural childbirth methods). I also picked up a few other fun historical novels for the weekend.

And when I came home, Jonathan told me that we now have Fourth of July plans with our nice neighbors across the street. Yay for neighbors and for plans. We even picked up some legal fireworks, so we can make noise and light up the sky in style.

Now it's off to PACK!! We're taking the scenic route to our B&B. What a weekend of simchas and fun times this is turning out to be - my sister just got out of the Israeli army, Ruthie's having her Bat Mitzvah, and both Sheryl and Jane and Sylvan's son are getting married. Mazel tov to everyone!