An Oh-My-Gosh Day: The Boston Festival

Today started at 5:25 am. I got myself to sleep last night just after midnight, after a lovely Shabbos, including a guest (my friend Ari A, to distinguish from the other Ari's- arib, and Ari T, who is Felicia's husband.), decent amounts of sleep, and a really nice quiet Shabbat dinner: just four folks, one a last minute addition as Alexis had originally planned to join us, but her other plans got rescheduled, so she and Ari and I visited earlier (a good thing, as I barely saw her at the festival at all). But well, I got myself out of the room at 6am to meet zodiacmg and head to the bus, leaving Ari sleeping in the spare bed. We got going, somewhat moodily, as both of us had mildly annoyed stomachs for some reason, and he managed to step in a Large puddle almost as soon as we left his dorm- even before we left campus. Then the bus was late. However, by some miracle, we still managed to get to the auditorium by 8, to find a rehearsal already occuring, but not one we seemed to need to be part of.

Finale rehearsal actually went decently by some surprise, although we were certainly tired and bored. Parparim had one person there for the whole rehearsal- the rest of the group learned it later. Judith and Jorge got there late, but learned the thing. However (to go out of chronilogical order) this turned out to be somewhat irrelevant for Jorge, who did something quite unpleasant to his ankle almost as soon as we started performing. He made it through the performance, somehow, but he was white as a ghost, and obviously-to-me hobbling. Afterwards he told us it felt like the stage had broken through at first, and then like he couldn't support his weight on that foot. I somehow found out what was wrong while we were performing- which no one else knew. I don't actually remember deciding to ask him what was wrong, or when I did so- just that I know I did, and he answered. Not sure when in the dance I asked, or how it didn't look obvious... I have no idea.

The whole thing seemed to have gone off quite well over a whole slew of odds against it: Anna wasn't feeling so great, Judith's chronic illness was acting up, Matt and I had issues with the public transit, Felicia had to coordinate performing and nursing and her husband forgot to call her to deal with that, Jorge hurt his foot. But somehow it worked. And even the finale worked, minus a bit of a mess up near the end. And after it, I just feel incredibly drained.

One rather exciting little moment of the day was zodiacmg's noticing some of the folks from Shalhevet (the Columbia/JTS/Barnard group) were obviously observant, and our decision to see if we could pull together a minyan- and succeeding. We grabbed two or three folks from SHalhevet, 4 or 5 girls from the local Schechter high school, and Jorge and Felicia from our own group. And somehow I ended up leading. It was kind of nerve wracking- it was only the second time I've lead weekday mincha, or a weekday service at all. But it worked. And we put together an egal minyan randomly out of the folks in our backstage space, without a problem. It was just awfully cool. First minyan I've davened at in costume, too. It must have been quite a sight- we had colored skirts, tied white shirts and scarves on (substitute black pants and white kippot for the guys, as appropriate), the folks from the Schechter had black leotards and baggy harem-pants like things, and the JTS folks were eitherin all black or with orange patterned shirts. It was colorful- all in this grey concrete hallway.

Afterwards we went out to dinner: my parents, zodiacmg, myself, Felicia, Ari (her husband, not my friend Ari who had to set out to get back to school), their two kids (age 4 years and 5 1/2 months), and her cousin. It was a decent meal, and a lot of fun. Her baby's just turned into one of those butterball babies who just sort of beams out "hold me, play with me" vibes, and the whole dynamic worked well and pretty comfortably for all involved, even the cousin who kept complaining about Boston versus the wonders of New York.

Sorry this is probably incomprehensible- I'm really beat.

An Oh-My-Gosh Day: The Boston Festival

Today started at 5:25 am. I got myself to sleep last night just after midnight, after a lovely Shabbos, including a guest (my friend Ari A, to distinguish from the other Ari's- arib, and Ari T, who is Felicia's husband.), decent amounts of sleep, and a really nice quiet Shabbat dinner: just four folks, one a last minute addition as Alexis had originally planned to join us, but her other plans got rescheduled, so she and Ari and I visited earlier (a good thing, as I barely saw her at the festival at all). But well, I got myself out of the room at 6am to meet zodiacmg and head to the bus, leaving Ari sleeping in the spare bed. We got going, somewhat moodily, as both of us had mildly annoyed stomachs for some reason, and he managed to step in a Large puddle almost as soon as we left his dorm- even before we left campus. Then the bus was late. However, by some miracle, we still managed to get to the auditorium by 8, to find a rehearsal already occuring, but not one we seemed to need to be part of.

Finale rehearsal actually went decently by some surprise, although we were certainly tired and bored. Parparim had one person there for the whole rehearsal- the rest of the group learned it later. Judith and Jorge got there late, but learned the thing. However (to go out of chronilogical order) this turned out to be somewhat irrelevant for Jorge, who did something quite unpleasant to his ankle almost as soon as we started performing. He made it through the performance, somehow, but he was white as a ghost, and obviously-to-me hobbling. Afterwards he told us it felt like the stage had broken through at first, and then like he couldn't support his weight on that foot. I somehow found out what was wrong while we were performing- which no one else knew. I don't actually remember deciding to ask him what was wrong, or when I did so- just that I know I did, and he answered. Not sure when in the dance I asked, or how it didn't look obvious... I have no idea.

The whole thing seemed to have gone off quite well over a whole slew of odds against it: Anna wasn't feeling so great, Judith's chronic illness was acting up, Matt and I had issues with the public transit, Felicia had to coordinate performing and nursing and her husband forgot to call her to deal with that, Jorge hurt his foot. But somehow it worked. And even the finale worked, minus a bit of a mess up near the end. And after it, I just feel incredibly drained.

One rather exciting little moment of the day was zodiacmg's noticing some of the folks from Shalhevet (the Columbia/JTS/Barnard group) were obviously observant, and our decision to see if we could pull together a minyan- and succeeding. We grabbed two or three folks from SHalhevet, 4 or 5 girls from the local Schechter high school, and Jorge and Felicia from our own group. And somehow I ended up leading. It was kind of nerve wracking- it was only the second time I've lead weekday mincha, or a weekday service at all. But it worked. And we put together an egal minyan randomly out of the folks in our backstage space, without a problem. It was just awfully cool. First minyan I've davened at in costume, too. It must have been quite a sight- we had colored skirts, tied white shirts and scarves on (substitute black pants and white kippot for the guys, as appropriate), the folks from the Schechter had black leotards and baggy harem-pants like things, and the JTS folks were eitherin all black or with orange patterned shirts. It was colorful- all in this grey concrete hallway.

Afterwards we went out to dinner: my parents, zodiacmg, myself, Felicia, Ari (her husband, not my friend Ari who had to set out to get back to school), their two kids (age 4 years and 5 1/2 months), and her cousin. It was a decent meal, and a lot of fun. Her baby's just turned into one of those butterball babies who just sort of beams out "hold me, play with me" vibes, and the whole dynamic worked well and pretty comfortably for all involved, even the cousin who kept complaining about Boston versus the wonders of New York.

Sorry this is probably incomprehensible- I'm really beat.