A delayed posting

SO, I spent Shabbat through Sunday morning (aka this morning) at Beth's house in lower New York state. That was pleasant, but quiet. I found her shul interesting- the closest thing I've seen, Conservative shul-wise to my parents' shul here at home: even though the cantor wasn't there, there was a general performance atmosphere ot the singing. People sang along- but it was quiet, and not all quite together. They have 3 rabbis, and that sort of dominated the structure of the shul's make-up. Funny, how the administrative structure can be so critical (I don't know if it's formative for the social structure/concept, reflective of it, or both- probably both) to how a shul is viewed. When I've talked to people in very participatory shuls, they talk about this one in the leadership, or that one who reads a lot of Torah. Beth talked mostly about the assorted rabbis. They also did the Friedman Mi Sheberach, which I haven't heard outside of the reform circuit before, not that I've seen all that much. The more I see, the more interested I get- it's fascinating how you can take pretty much the same thing, and make it seem so different.
The same goes for assorted home-based rituals. Ritual in general interests me- enough to make up for my ritual-disliking grandmother and then some, I guess. I've been collecting ritual ideas that I like more and less, over the last while. I really like one I picked up from Nathan's family- giving everyone a little bit of wine to smell after the blessing on wine during Havdalla, and then to drink at the end. I like things that keep people involved, I think, but that aren't reading things out loud together, which I generally dispise. Shabbat dinner stuff is a lot more varied- I havne't had any break throughs, except that for all my study, I'm not too set one way or the other about Eshet Chayil, besides finding it a motivating model for myself on occasion.

Today was kind of packed full of different stuff. I got home, had a snack. qianian was supposed to show up at about 11:30, according ot my mom, who ended up serving as go-between, since I was at Beth's when she called. Well, with her sense of vagueness in timing- she called at 2, and finally came just as my folks were taking Em to the airport to go back to school, at about 4:30. I was a bit frustrated at first, but there isn't much I can do about it. It did give me a new appreciation for formally-made plans though. Not that I'm That good at them myself. So maybe I'm being hypocritical. I don't know. I suppose it's a matter of being pickest in others about what one dislikes in oneself. So it was a quiet afternoon, mostly, and then she and her boyfriend came over. He kind of reminded me of certain traits about one of her previous boyfriends, but not Jewish, and sort of lighter in impression. I don't know how else to describe it. A nice guy, and well- interested in Arabic, which did give us something to talk about. Between the three of us, we managed a fairly cohesive conversation, which is often an accomplishment in that sort of company. They eventually departed to have hot liquids with some folks whom I vaguely know from high school, but don't get great vibes from. This evening, I got Mom to give me a nice review of the IPA (international Phonetic Alphabet), actually in a more comprehensive structure than last time, which was when she was teaching a phonetics course. And then we went to look for a chart with some sounds that aren't in English but are in Arabic and/or Hebrew, discovered that there were several different symbols used for some of them, and that emphatic letters are really Hard to classify, and I spent the rest of the evenign reading the articles in one of the books and getting excited over random bits of them. It was a real pleasure. I love my usual fields of study, but linguistic stuff is a lot of fun for a change of pace, especially when it relates to stuff I do more regularly.

I had another dream last night that was kind of forced-movement in nature. I had to pack up all my things, along with most other people I knew, and move into the high school here at home, although it was, when I got there, much the worse for wear. I was forced to go without much of the stuff I'd packed hastily into large boxes (although they didn't seem to weigh anything: I rememeber lifting on that was twice my widst and as tall as me from waist to top of head with one hand), but when I got there and was being distressed over it to zachkessin (don't know how he got all the way to Hamden High School- go figure, with dreams), anotehr truck arrived with all the other stuff I'd packed, and more. But the whole tone of things was kind of distressed and worried. I'd never had that sort of dream before, but this is the second I've had in the last month or so. It sounds like a long time, but since I remember dreams in bursts of sort- I'd connect these two. I don't know what they're about at all though. Go figure.

A delayed posting

SO, I spent Shabbat through Sunday morning (aka this morning) at Beth's house in lower New York state. That was pleasant, but quiet. I found her shul interesting- the closest thing I've seen, Conservative shul-wise to my parents' shul here at home: even though the cantor wasn't there, there was a general performance atmosphere ot the singing. People sang along- but it was quiet, and not all quite together. They have 3 rabbis, and that sort of dominated the structure of the shul's make-up. Funny, how the administrative structure can be so critical (I don't know if it's formative for the social structure/concept, reflective of it, or both- probably both) to how a shul is viewed. When I've talked to people in very participatory shuls, they talk about this one in the leadership, or that one who reads a lot of Torah. Beth talked mostly about the assorted rabbis. They also did the Friedman Mi Sheberach, which I haven't heard outside of the reform circuit before, not that I've seen all that much. The more I see, the more interested I get- it's fascinating how you can take pretty much the same thing, and make it seem so different.
The same goes for assorted home-based rituals. Ritual in general interests me- enough to make up for my ritual-disliking grandmother and then some, I guess. I've been collecting ritual ideas that I like more and less, over the last while. I really like one I picked up from Nathan's family- giving everyone a little bit of wine to smell after the blessing on wine during Havdalla, and then to drink at the end. I like things that keep people involved, I think, but that aren't reading things out loud together, which I generally dispise. Shabbat dinner stuff is a lot more varied- I havne't had any break throughs, except that for all my study, I'm not too set one way or the other about Eshet Chayil, besides finding it a motivating model for myself on occasion.

Today was kind of packed full of different stuff. I got home, had a snack. qianian was supposed to show up at about 11:30, according ot my mom, who ended up serving as go-between, since I was at Beth's when she called. Well, with her sense of vagueness in timing- she called at 2, and finally came just as my folks were taking Em to the airport to go back to school, at about 4:30. I was a bit frustrated at first, but there isn't much I can do about it. It did give me a new appreciation for formally-made plans though. Not that I'm That good at them myself. So maybe I'm being hypocritical. I don't know. I suppose it's a matter of being pickest in others about what one dislikes in oneself. So it was a quiet afternoon, mostly, and then she and her boyfriend came over. He kind of reminded me of certain traits about one of her previous boyfriends, but not Jewish, and sort of lighter in impression. I don't know how else to describe it. A nice guy, and well- interested in Arabic, which did give us something to talk about. Between the three of us, we managed a fairly cohesive conversation, which is often an accomplishment in that sort of company. They eventually departed to have hot liquids with some folks whom I vaguely know from high school, but don't get great vibes from. This evening, I got Mom to give me a nice review of the IPA (international Phonetic Alphabet), actually in a more comprehensive structure than last time, which was when she was teaching a phonetics course. And then we went to look for a chart with some sounds that aren't in English but are in Arabic and/or Hebrew, discovered that there were several different symbols used for some of them, and that emphatic letters are really Hard to classify, and I spent the rest of the evenign reading the articles in one of the books and getting excited over random bits of them. It was a real pleasure. I love my usual fields of study, but linguistic stuff is a lot of fun for a change of pace, especially when it relates to stuff I do more regularly.

I had another dream last night that was kind of forced-movement in nature. I had to pack up all my things, along with most other people I knew, and move into the high school here at home, although it was, when I got there, much the worse for wear. I was forced to go without much of the stuff I'd packed hastily into large boxes (although they didn't seem to weigh anything: I rememeber lifting on that was twice my widst and as tall as me from waist to top of head with one hand), but when I got there and was being distressed over it to zachkessin (don't know how he got all the way to Hamden High School- go figure, with dreams), anotehr truck arrived with all the other stuff I'd packed, and more. But the whole tone of things was kind of distressed and worried. I'd never had that sort of dream before, but this is the second I've had in the last month or so. It sounds like a long time, but since I remember dreams in bursts of sort- I'd connect these two. I don't know what they're about at all though. Go figure.