Adventures in Rochester
OK, this is likely to ramble. Short version: bus, new friend, old friends, new circumstances, some dancing, long time at diner with bad service, sleep, dancing, car.
Longer version: The bus trip up was timeless and not bad- I slept a lot, met a girl from U of Harford who was going to Rochester to meet her boyfriend's parents, and so I had someone to swap luggage-watching with, and to sit with while we ate lunch at the bus station in Albany. Much better than last year, where the people I met were seriously on the low-intelligence side and one of them, kind of obnoxious (and at least somewhat MR, so I oughtn't blame her too much for it). Not a lot of conversation, but a smile on occasion was pleasant. Also got a couple of compliments on the tallit-to-be from some older ladies sitting nearby.
Spent Shabbat with Steve and Lisa (yes, his name is Really Steve- which will get even funnier soon), and their other guest, Nadene. Steve and Lisa I know because they danced with us at home on occasion when Steve was working in New London, CT. I think on my own things would have been a little awkward, but Nadene, who is a good handful of years older than my folks, but generally doesn't look it, really smoothed things out- I really liked her. Steve and Lisa had a Bar mitzvah celebration to go to after shul in the morning, so Nadene and I got to go back and find lunch in their fridge, which was an amusing adventure, since a. Steve and Lisa have two spoiled and adventurous cats/kittens, and b. the only hechshered cheese was shredded and half of it was moldy. We managed, but it was adventurous. On the other hand, I didn't think I'd ever feel pleased at hearing someone say "I need to get going and feed this young lady" with me as the referenced young lady, and I didn't mind it. Saturday mornign I also learned that Max has a nice singing voice- but that the shul there davens at light-speed too. Why Must Conservative shuls daven faster than my lips can move? Always?
While at Steve and Lisa's, I met a rather odd gentleman who seemed to do nothing but confuse me. From what I eventually gathered, he was born Muslim, and spent a good amount of his life as a way right-wing Republican, found his way to Judaism via the Reform movement first, and is now on the observant side of Conservative in some things, but not in others, and thinks Reform is rather silly but is in a relationship with a non-Jew (yes, I know these things aren't actually related, but in my mind they are, a little- just because So many folks at the Reform shul here are intermarried, and rather fewer of the Conservative folks are). And he's a gay very liberal Democrat alcoholic. Definitely my quirky new acquiantance for the weekend.
Got to dancing after Shabbos, learned that Simeon had just adopted Shmirat negiah- from Efi. Simeon didn't bother telling many folks himself, something which irks me. One should do one's own dirty work in that regard- especially if one disapproves of gossip as strongly as he does. Sounds like it's something he's not sure he'll stick with- we'll see. But that definitely changed the tone of some things over the weekend. Still ended up spending most of my time with him and Efi, or rather, as the intermediate in between the two: kept ending up standing in between the two of them and trying to split my attention appropriately. I don't understand such dynamics.
Ad the diner, those of us with religious preferences for head coverings sort of congregated, and spent entirely too long talking about kosher restaurants and related matters, considering we were in a non-kosher diner. It seems to happen every year though. And service took Forever and a day- yes there were 19 of us, but we also came in at 2+ in the small hours of the night: it Definitely oughtn't have taken an hour for our food to be ready. But oh well, I enjoyed the company.
More dancing Sunday, and drove back starting mid/late afternoon, which made the whole event feel Very short, sadly. We drove Steve (also his real name, and a different Steve from above) home as well- which was perfectly pleasant. What was funny was that while my folks had given Steve a ride up- he'd stayed with the other Steve Saturday night, since I stayed with my folks at the hotel. Talk about humor for all involved, since that's a crowd that's rather well aware of Simeon's and my running joke there.
Came home and pretty much crashed. Had a miserable morning today, although I managed my first shot that I handled fairly decently Without my mom in the room (I Hate shots). Once I got to work, life got better. Then I came home and crashed- slept from 5pm until almost 8. Now to return to that state.
Longer version: The bus trip up was timeless and not bad- I slept a lot, met a girl from U of Harford who was going to Rochester to meet her boyfriend's parents, and so I had someone to swap luggage-watching with, and to sit with while we ate lunch at the bus station in Albany. Much better than last year, where the people I met were seriously on the low-intelligence side and one of them, kind of obnoxious (and at least somewhat MR, so I oughtn't blame her too much for it). Not a lot of conversation, but a smile on occasion was pleasant. Also got a couple of compliments on the tallit-to-be from some older ladies sitting nearby.
Spent Shabbat with Steve and Lisa (yes, his name is Really Steve- which will get even funnier soon), and their other guest, Nadene. Steve and Lisa I know because they danced with us at home on occasion when Steve was working in New London, CT. I think on my own things would have been a little awkward, but Nadene, who is a good handful of years older than my folks, but generally doesn't look it, really smoothed things out- I really liked her. Steve and Lisa had a Bar mitzvah celebration to go to after shul in the morning, so Nadene and I got to go back and find lunch in their fridge, which was an amusing adventure, since a. Steve and Lisa have two spoiled and adventurous cats/kittens, and b. the only hechshered cheese was shredded and half of it was moldy. We managed, but it was adventurous. On the other hand, I didn't think I'd ever feel pleased at hearing someone say "I need to get going and feed this young lady" with me as the referenced young lady, and I didn't mind it. Saturday mornign I also learned that Max has a nice singing voice- but that the shul there davens at light-speed too. Why Must Conservative shuls daven faster than my lips can move? Always?
While at Steve and Lisa's, I met a rather odd gentleman who seemed to do nothing but confuse me. From what I eventually gathered, he was born Muslim, and spent a good amount of his life as a way right-wing Republican, found his way to Judaism via the Reform movement first, and is now on the observant side of Conservative in some things, but not in others, and thinks Reform is rather silly but is in a relationship with a non-Jew (yes, I know these things aren't actually related, but in my mind they are, a little- just because So many folks at the Reform shul here are intermarried, and rather fewer of the Conservative folks are). And he's a gay very liberal Democrat alcoholic. Definitely my quirky new acquiantance for the weekend.
Got to dancing after Shabbos, learned that Simeon had just adopted Shmirat negiah- from Efi. Simeon didn't bother telling many folks himself, something which irks me. One should do one's own dirty work in that regard- especially if one disapproves of gossip as strongly as he does. Sounds like it's something he's not sure he'll stick with- we'll see. But that definitely changed the tone of some things over the weekend. Still ended up spending most of my time with him and Efi, or rather, as the intermediate in between the two: kept ending up standing in between the two of them and trying to split my attention appropriately. I don't understand such dynamics.
Ad the diner, those of us with religious preferences for head coverings sort of congregated, and spent entirely too long talking about kosher restaurants and related matters, considering we were in a non-kosher diner. It seems to happen every year though. And service took Forever and a day- yes there were 19 of us, but we also came in at 2+ in the small hours of the night: it Definitely oughtn't have taken an hour for our food to be ready. But oh well, I enjoyed the company.
More dancing Sunday, and drove back starting mid/late afternoon, which made the whole event feel Very short, sadly. We drove Steve (also his real name, and a different Steve from above) home as well- which was perfectly pleasant. What was funny was that while my folks had given Steve a ride up- he'd stayed with the other Steve Saturday night, since I stayed with my folks at the hotel. Talk about humor for all involved, since that's a crowd that's rather well aware of Simeon's and my running joke there.
Came home and pretty much crashed. Had a miserable morning today, although I managed my first shot that I handled fairly decently Without my mom in the room (I Hate shots). Once I got to work, life got better. Then I came home and crashed- slept from 5pm until almost 8. Now to return to that state.