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I spent Thursday through this morning (well, more like until this morning- my plane left at 7:50am) in Florida visiting my paternal grandmother and her gentleman friend. It was the first time I've been down there to visit- and it really is like a different world. It's incredibly flat, and warm, and spread out. Thursday we went out for lunch, went back to their apartment/condo, and then did some shopping.
Friday morning we did some more shopping, picked up the food for Saturday lunch (the classic bagels and cream cheese and salad platters thing), and after bringing it back, went for a walk in a local park/resevoir with the fabulous name of Wakodahatchee, where I did indeed see a number of very cool birds of some sort, some really cute turtles (is there something wrong that I think turtles are kind of cute animals?), and one very deeply sleeping aligator. Friday night one of my great-uncles came over, and we had a classic Shabbos dinner (really- gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzah balls, chicken, a little tzimmes- you just Can't get more stereotypically Shabbos dinner). It was nice to get one of the great-uncles on his own first...
Saturday morning I got up on the early side and walked to the nearest shul, two miles away. My grandmother's gentleman friend drove, but stopped occasionally and waited for me to catch up- it was sort of funny. And he waited for me to go in, which might have been a good thing- I don't know if I could have found him if he'd already been in the sanctuary when I arrived. The place was huge, and packed to the gills- and a couple having their aufruf there were the only other two people there under the age of 50, I think. And services lasted what seemed like forever and a day. Services started at 8:30am (no typo) and lasted until 12:15. For a regular shabbos. This was apparently a little long- but only by about 15 minutes. The cantor lead both Shacharit and Musaf, and there was Tons of hazzanut. Much of it was rather nice hazzanut- but there was no sense of moderation, and the nusakh itself kind of got lost. And well, 3 hours and 45 minutes for Shabbos morning davenen seems a little bit over-the-top... The torah reader went kind of slowly too- and unfortunately he wasn't so good: the first and last words were usually quite clear, but the middle of Every Single Pasuk (Verse) was mumbled and quiet. It was incredibly frustrating. And the cantor gave some very nice drashot and pieces of midrash about most of the aliyot- and then a retired rabbi gave a d'var torah too, which was like 25 minutes long. Phew.
So I walked home, and the great-uncles and aunts came over for lunch. It was great to see them, although I spent most of the meal listening to their conversation and sort of getting a window into their world more than really talking to them. And one of my great-aunts showed me a double crochet, which of course I couldn't try, because it was Shabbos, but maybe if I find a diagram or something online I can figure it out for myself, which would be really cool.
Saturday night we stayed in and watched some British comedy stuff on TV, and then Inherit the Wing, which I'd been meaning to see for a while. It was great- I really enjoyed it.
Today I was up at 4:30 to get ready and go to the airport. When I got in, Steve (friend from dancing, and my first boyfriend) called to say he was in NYC and to make plans, so rather than my original plan of napping in the afternoon, I met him to hang out and then we went to the Guggenheim Museum with his family, and we went out to some sort of lunch/dinner meal- and even lucked into finding a kosher restaurant, which was pleasant. And then he and his mom came back with me to my place briefly, and the three of us went dancing, where there were a solid 2 hours of teaching from a teacher I think is fabulous. However, he started with basic steps and so it was sort of slow for a while. Still, I really learned one dance I'd been following (Al Sadeinu), reviewed a dance I love (Anavai), and learned a dance I think I like (Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh). And I got to dance with Steve, which was a lot of fun and in general refreshing, comfortable and just a good time. (And it's really funny- I slipped right back into an interaction pattern that I used a lot more of a few years ago. Perfectly comfortably. It felt good.) And Steve2 was there as usual, with his parents, whom I ought to have spent more time with. Oh well... It was a really good night. And I have absolutely no idea how I'm still awake now.
Friday morning we did some more shopping, picked up the food for Saturday lunch (the classic bagels and cream cheese and salad platters thing), and after bringing it back, went for a walk in a local park/resevoir with the fabulous name of Wakodahatchee, where I did indeed see a number of very cool birds of some sort, some really cute turtles (is there something wrong that I think turtles are kind of cute animals?), and one very deeply sleeping aligator. Friday night one of my great-uncles came over, and we had a classic Shabbos dinner (really- gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzah balls, chicken, a little tzimmes- you just Can't get more stereotypically Shabbos dinner). It was nice to get one of the great-uncles on his own first...
Saturday morning I got up on the early side and walked to the nearest shul, two miles away. My grandmother's gentleman friend drove, but stopped occasionally and waited for me to catch up- it was sort of funny. And he waited for me to go in, which might have been a good thing- I don't know if I could have found him if he'd already been in the sanctuary when I arrived. The place was huge, and packed to the gills- and a couple having their aufruf there were the only other two people there under the age of 50, I think. And services lasted what seemed like forever and a day. Services started at 8:30am (no typo) and lasted until 12:15. For a regular shabbos. This was apparently a little long- but only by about 15 minutes. The cantor lead both Shacharit and Musaf, and there was Tons of hazzanut. Much of it was rather nice hazzanut- but there was no sense of moderation, and the nusakh itself kind of got lost. And well, 3 hours and 45 minutes for Shabbos morning davenen seems a little bit over-the-top... The torah reader went kind of slowly too- and unfortunately he wasn't so good: the first and last words were usually quite clear, but the middle of Every Single Pasuk (Verse) was mumbled and quiet. It was incredibly frustrating. And the cantor gave some very nice drashot and pieces of midrash about most of the aliyot- and then a retired rabbi gave a d'var torah too, which was like 25 minutes long. Phew.
So I walked home, and the great-uncles and aunts came over for lunch. It was great to see them, although I spent most of the meal listening to their conversation and sort of getting a window into their world more than really talking to them. And one of my great-aunts showed me a double crochet, which of course I couldn't try, because it was Shabbos, but maybe if I find a diagram or something online I can figure it out for myself, which would be really cool.
Saturday night we stayed in and watched some British comedy stuff on TV, and then Inherit the Wing, which I'd been meaning to see for a while. It was great- I really enjoyed it.
Today I was up at 4:30 to get ready and go to the airport. When I got in, Steve (friend from dancing, and my first boyfriend) called to say he was in NYC and to make plans, so rather than my original plan of napping in the afternoon, I met him to hang out and then we went to the Guggenheim Museum with his family, and we went out to some sort of lunch/dinner meal- and even lucked into finding a kosher restaurant, which was pleasant. And then he and his mom came back with me to my place briefly, and the three of us went dancing, where there were a solid 2 hours of teaching from a teacher I think is fabulous. However, he started with basic steps and so it was sort of slow for a while. Still, I really learned one dance I'd been following (Al Sadeinu), reviewed a dance I love (Anavai), and learned a dance I think I like (Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh). And I got to dance with Steve, which was a lot of fun and in general refreshing, comfortable and just a good time. (And it's really funny- I slipped right back into an interaction pattern that I used a lot more of a few years ago. Perfectly comfortably. It felt good.) And Steve2 was there as usual, with his parents, whom I ought to have spent more time with. Oh well... It was a really good night. And I have absolutely no idea how I'm still awake now.