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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G’mar Chatima Tova

It is a beautiful fall day here in Boulder and I wanted to wish that you are all sealed in the book of life for another year and that you have an easy fast tomorrow. If you are completely lost and have no idea what I’m talking I’ve done my best blogging yet: cutting and pasting from another website. Woohoo! Anyway, I ask for forgiveness for any transgressions of mine and forgive you all for yours. G’mar Chatima Tova, may you be sealed in the book of life.

From Hillel’s Yom Kippur Fact Sheet:

Yom Kippur Fact Sheet Yom Kippur is a holiday that raises many questions. Numerous rituals, prayers, and themes are unique to this holiest day of the Jewish year. This fact sheet will provide an introduction to the practices of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is one of the most widely observed holidays on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur marks the highest synagogue attendance rate of any other day in the year. To afflict ourselves for our sins, the Talmud requires that we practice “self denial.”  Thus, we abstain from eating, drinking, bathing, sexual relations, using bath oils and lotions, etc., and wearing leather shoes. It is traditional to wear white on Yom Kippur as a sign of purity. Yom Kippur, the 10th of Tishrei, is the day that Moses came down from Sinai with the second set of the tablets of the Ten Commandments, to replace the original set that he broke upon witnessing the children of Israel worshipping the Golden Calf. On Yom Kippur, it’s traditional not to wear gold or other jewelry so as not to remind God of the sin of the Golden Calf. Yom Kippur is the only day where a tallit, the four cornered prayer shawl with fringes that symbolize the 613 commandments, is worn in the evening. Kol Nidrei (meaning “our vows”), the service on the eve of Yom Kippur, is a communal supplication asking God to view all vows made under duress as null and void. In Biblical and Rabbinic times, Temple rituals and sacrifices were the focus of the holiday. Among the highlights of the day was the scapegoat ceremony during which lots would be placed on two goats. One goat would be offered as a sacrifice in the Temple, in the Holy of Holies; and the second would be thrown into the wilderness. Once the Temples were destroyed, prayer and return, i.e. repentance, are the focus while the Temple ritual is recounted as part of the Yom Kippur liturgy. Today, in addition to the traditional three prayer services (morning, afternoon, and evening), Yom Kippur includes a special Musaf (additional) service, Yizkor (memorial service), the Avodah service (a symbolic reenactment of the ancient priestly ritual for Yom Kippur), Viddui (the communal confession of sin), and Neiliah (the concluding service). During the afternoon service, we read the story of Jonah and the whale. During the Viddui, the communal confession of sin, it is customary to beat one’s chest. The Neiliah service marks the end of Yom Kippur and concludes with the blowing of the shofar, a sign of redemption. It is said, “On Rosh Hashana, it is written.  On Yom Kippur, it is sealed.” Thus, the traditional Yom Kippur salutation is “G’mar Tov” (finish well) or “G’mar Chatima Tova” (may you be sealed in the book of life).

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