![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This weekend turned out to be quite a nice one. The trip to Brandeis was quiet and uneventful, except that I was tired enough by the end of it that I left my lulav on the commuter rail when I finally arrived. It was a little ironic, since I'd put a good bit of effort into shlepping the thing around to that point so that I'd have it for Friday morning. As things turned out, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zodiacmg lent me his for the majority of the hoshanot (I tried to give it back so he could use it more, but he wouldn't take it back). (And I led one of the paragraphs, which was the first time I'd done so- it was at others' encouragement, but I think I did so competently enough, which was a rewarding experience- competence tends to be.) And then we had a quiet day of cooking and eating meals in the sukkah and in general just taking our time with life, which was very nice, if over much too quickly.
Shemini Atzeret was quiet and generally pleasant- we had a very nice dinner with one ofzodiacmg's apartmentmates, his girlfriend and his mother and sister, and lunch with about the same folks- it was nicely social without being huge and overly-energetic. Considering all the energy- religious and social involved over Simchat Torah the following evening and day, having quieter meals was quite pleasant. It worked out to be a very good weekend for me: it was very nice to be so appreciated by the general set of folks and friends at Brandeis, and to spend time with zodaicmg. And the holiday celebratiosn went well- there have been years where I've danced more, but I feel like I really was emotionally and spiritually involved this year and not overly self-conscious, and that I really got a lot out of the experience this year.
The trip back was rather an adventure- I took a very late bus out of Boston in hopes of arriving early morning here, rather than getting in at a late and strange hour of the night- except that the bus got in significantly earlier than scheduled because there's no traffic at that time of night. So I found someone to walk with to the subway tracks- a nice older lady who lives in Brooklyn with not-terribly-good English, and then waited a while for my train, and eventually arrived back at JTS after a slightly nervous but quite uneventful trip. While it isn't something I'd really love to do again any time soon it also wasn't so unpleasant or nervewracking that I would never-ever do so again. It accomplished its purpose though, and so it was worthwhile I think. And then today I was quite, quite tired in class. But I'll get a reasonable night of sleep tonight and then things will be back to normal, more or less, I think.
zodiacmg lent me his for the majority of the hoshanot (I tried to give it back so he could use it more, but he wouldn't take it back). (And I led one of the paragraphs, which was the first time I'd done so- it was at others' encouragement, but I think I did so competently enough, which was a rewarding experience- competence tends to be.) And then we had a quiet day of cooking and eating meals in the sukkah and in general just taking our time with life, which was very nice, if over much too quickly. Shemini Atzeret was quiet and generally pleasant- we had a very nice dinner with one of
zodiacmg's apartmentmates, his girlfriend and his mother and sister, and lunch with about the same folks- it was nicely social without being huge and overly-energetic. Considering all the energy- religious and social involved over Simchat Torah the following evening and day, having quieter meals was quite pleasant. It worked out to be a very good weekend for me: it was very nice to be so appreciated by the general set of folks and friends at Brandeis, and to spend time with zodaicmg. And the holiday celebratiosn went well- there have been years where I've danced more, but I feel like I really was emotionally and spiritually involved this year and not overly self-conscious, and that I really got a lot out of the experience this year. The trip back was rather an adventure- I took a very late bus out of Boston in hopes of arriving early morning here, rather than getting in at a late and strange hour of the night- except that the bus got in significantly earlier than scheduled because there's no traffic at that time of night. So I found someone to walk with to the subway tracks- a nice older lady who lives in Brooklyn with not-terribly-good English, and then waited a while for my train, and eventually arrived back at JTS after a slightly nervous but quite uneventful trip. While it isn't something I'd really love to do again any time soon it also wasn't so unpleasant or nervewracking that I would never-ever do so again. It accomplished its purpose though, and so it was worthwhile I think. And then today I was quite, quite tired in class. But I'll get a reasonable night of sleep tonight and then things will be back to normal, more or less, I think.