I don’t blog much when I’m busy

Apparently it is NaBoloPoMo, yeah, I didn’t know what that meant either until I looked it up. National Blog Posting Month, where folks challenge themselves to blog everyday to get [back] into the habit of it. I’m not sure I can come up with something worth sharing EVERYDAY, but I can go for 2-3x week (at most).

Between my new job, (which I started after returning from Labor Day/Rosh Hashanah week Boulder, during in the middle of the High Holidays), commuting, and general house chores I am exhausted most of the time. Thankfully the major holidays are over and things have settled down to our new normal. We attend Segulah Minyan every other week, and blob out at home and maybe stock up on local produce and other items at the farmers market on the alternate weeks. Ben has been keeping me sane by packing my lunch every morning, otherwise I’d be spending all my hard-earned on lunches (plus I’d be breaking my personal policy of not eating out more than 1x week).

Here are a few photos from our week in Boulder. It was SO nice to spend time with friends (and their baby bellies and babies), as well as have some time with Ben where I didn’t feel like I was keeping him from work or where either of us were competing with a laptop for the others attention. Sometimes we have trouble putting our gadgets down, it’s a work-in-progress.

squash from Robyn and Mark’s garden

BUTTES in Golden, CO

crazy topography in Golden, CO

sunset in Boulder, CO

overheated Dan and sassy Ronya

Miri and King-of-the-rock Danny

Yom Kippur was a Segulah Minyan event, at a rented church social hall in Sheppard Park/Silver Spring. Services were great and I actually felt present for most of them, but it really punctuated how much we miss CBS in Boulder. Speaking of Congregation Bonai Shalom, the synagogue was CRIPPLED by the flooding in Boulder in mid-September (it started 2 days before Yom Kippur, which was thankfully held at nearby Naropa University’s East Campus). Reading the news out of Boulder in mid-September was terrifying and sad. If you have any pennies to share, I’m sure Bonai would appreciate them (instructions on how to donate via email or phone are on their website).

You’ve already seen our photos of the AMAZING sukkah Ben built on the patio, and my friend Jennifer came down from NY for the day for the first day of sukkot (we dwelled with dinner, brunch over the news paper in the AM, and general lazy lounging in the afternoon after a nice walk exploring my neighborhoof) before she had to head back to the city for work the next day. Boo. We don’t see each other enough. I guess I need to take a turn and go to New York again!

What else is going on….

Weight Watchers as a program is great, but my progress has been glacially slow. lately I’ve either hit a plateau or gotten lazier at tracking than I thought. Blergh. Soon it will be cold enough to blame it on heavy winter clothes, but that trick only works once!

Now that we’ve moved past the craziness of ALL the Jewish holidays feeling like they are ALL AT ONCE (it always feels like that when they swallow Shabbat whole, or turn it into a virtual 3-day chag), and I’ve gotten more used to my 8 hour + lunch day, things are settling down.

In more upbeat news:

In late September we helped my friend Andrea, from way-back-when at IAC, move from her temporary furnished apartment into a gorgeous flat in Adams Morgan. She’s pregnant and her husband was traveling for work and Ben and I didn’t want her trying to unpack without help! We also explored her neighborhood a little (all new to all of us) and ate some awesome falafel and fries for lunch and pizza for dinner, YUM! It was the first real fall-weather day we’d had and it was crisp and beautiful. It was a bit of a shame we spent it unpacking, washing bedding, installing a new printer, and buying what felt like ALL THE THINGS at Target, but it showed off how great her apartment is that the windows really let in the light and air and it was still nice and quiet even though she’s 1/2 a block from a major urban shopping/dining area (think Pearl Street in Boulder). I’m kinda jealous.

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getting ready for Rosh Hashana

Image by miheco via Flickr

I should, um, do stuff to get ready for the chaggim other than stock the fridge, right? Yeah. Last year I felt pretty much the same way, but tried to have strong intentions of staying spiritual through the holidays and all the way through our wedding (the second of Cheshvan, the week after Simcha Torah). It worked! minus a few minor blips that I blogged about.

Anyway, I’ve been reading up on being a Jewish wife because I’m realizing how little I know. A friend of mine is frum (shomer negia, shomer shabbos, and modest), and I have a general idea of what this means to me but we’ve been talking about what it means to her and I’ve been seeking out other people’s opinions as well. I”m just curious. Side note: tomorrow, I’m going to the local university Chabad to help cook for Rosh Hashana and maybe to pick Leah’s (the rebitzen’s) brain if the opportunity arises.

This was set off by my going to my first Rosh Chodesh women’s group last month (and being disappointed that there isn’t one this month). The topic was quite racy, “Becoming One Flesh: Physically, Emotionally, Spiritually — A How To Guide.” Yeah, it was a loaded evening! There was a lady torah scholar from Denver and a sex therapist dueling for our beliefs at times. The lady torah scholar (I can’t recall her name) was very Kabalistic and the sex therapist quite liberal. Shechina and kosher sex vs. kink and fantasy are encouraged kind of sparring. It was interesting, to say the least. The big takeaway: sex is not a ladder to climb to orgasm (kissing, caressing, petting, sex, orgasm) but a cheesecake sampler platter of verbs to take nibbles of as needed (kissing, spanking, hugging, licking, petting, massaging, etc.) as desired. Both women agreed though that sex doesn’t always have to be a part of intimacy (unless you’re strictly following the halacha of using the mikvah in marriage).

I hope next month’s Rosh Chodesh group is as interesting! I’m really glad I went (even if I was the only child-less woman my age there). It was nice to see some of the ladies from synagogue not herding kids around and being themselves; blurting stuff out and giggling when I’m used to seeing them in matron-mode at kiddish.

Time to get back to chores so that I can have the house ready for Rosh Hashana. Having the house in order helps my spirit be in order!

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