Shabbat Adventures- for a very open definition of adventures

This shabbat got a re-working of plans about a day beforehand. Originally, the plan was to have an early dinner with a few friends, go to bed early, and then get up in the wee small hours of the night to go to Bakashot (a Mizrahi custom of getting up in the middle of the night in order to sing various devotional poetry, etc, leading into an early shacharit). I then had a lunch invite from someone I met at a friend's birthday party a while ago, and rather firmly expected never to actually get in touch, although he'd asked for my contact info.

So the lunch plans stayed, but the friend hosting dinner and who was going to be the local guide/company walking to bakashot was not feeling well. So instead I hit a minyan-and-potluck combination instead, which was a bit adventurous for my current norms, as it was a service using drums on Shabbat- something that I'm rather iffy about. After the experience- it was alright, and a nice way of getting people excited, but I'm not sure that it was worth it, in terms of my discomfort, halakhically. It made it feel more like a really fun and inspiring sing-a-long than Shabbat davening for me. Now that could be because I'm not used to it. Nevertheless- well, mostly I was glad that it gave me someplace to be and eat with people, which turned out to be a rather interesting combination of folks.

Lunch was quite pleasant- a small meal (which I tend to prefer), with interesting company, and then we went to the park and read a few scenes of Merchant of Venice. Not at all what I expected of my Shabbat afternoon, but a good time.