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Last night I made an Ethiopian soup and bread for dinner- the soup came out quite well (and I'm not usually a huge fan of lentils), but the bread was if not a disaster, not a real success. It was pan-bread, and making it was like making blintzes (an art I've yet to perfect, but which I'm learning), but significantly harder, as they were larger, thicker, and didn't seem to cook at any predictable rate. They came out sort of bland and sticky. I forget the soup name, but the bread was injera.
After dinner, I got Mom to sing with me, which was a lot of fun, in a peaceful way- we just took out my bentcher and started going through the short songs, looking for ones we knew, or one I knew to sing for her, at least. And then we sang a song she learned from a record as a kid that she'd done once with choir, but which the cantor had stopped them from actually learning and singing, because it was of the "may all our enemies perish" school of Prophetic exerpts (Something from Jeremiah). But the tune was pretty darn neat. The combination of having someone to sing with on Shabbat at home, and having somethign special to do with Mom was a very nice one. Afterwards we looked at an old photo album from when I was a toddler. Overall, it was a better set of shabbosdik activities for home than I've managed in a while- I hope I can repeat it.
I somehow slept through almost all of this afternoon- not sure why I've been sleeping so much: I guess I need to catch up on more sleep from this semester than I thought. This evening my folks went out for Chinese food (both then and earlier, they tried to persuade me to come with them, but it lacked much spirit, so it doesn't bother me much), and I hung around and read, and sang to myself. I usually think of singing alone as a pretty depressing thing, and sort of weird- but it gave me a chance to really hear myself, without being self-conscious. That's actually a really bad description of it. But it wasn't depressing, it was just sort of surreal.
Speaking of music, I keep getting this semi-finished tune for one of those Halleluyah psalms in my head. (The last one in the series of them in Pesukei D'Zimra, that ends with "kol hanshama t'halel yah, halleluyah".) I don't Think it's something I learned, I think it just sort of popped up in my head, which is Darn unusual for me- I did some composing back in middle school and the beginning of high school, but I haven't done any since then, or even really thought about it. I'm not a serious musician of any sort. But if it sticks around much longer, I'm likely to try to write it down, because like my dreams, these thigns tend to hang around until I write them, and then they stop bugging me. On the other hand, I have this unrealistic dream that it might actually turn out to be something good that I could actually use and sing with people.
And of course, this evening was full of interesting, if likely tacky, ideas that I couldn't write down and now can't remember. That is quite likely for the best, although I thoguht they were pretty interesting at the time. I just started reading Jewish Reneral by Michael Lerner, which is coming across as a bit tacky and new age-y for my tastes, but with the occasional really interesting idea. But focusing on it isn't so easy- it sends me off on daydreams really frequently. But I think I'll give it a shot anyways- it's an itneresting idea that I ought to know more about, and the book must have some value- I bought it for a paper for Professor Kimmelman, although I ended up doing the other option for that paper, and thus not reading it then.
After dinner, I got Mom to sing with me, which was a lot of fun, in a peaceful way- we just took out my bentcher and started going through the short songs, looking for ones we knew, or one I knew to sing for her, at least. And then we sang a song she learned from a record as a kid that she'd done once with choir, but which the cantor had stopped them from actually learning and singing, because it was of the "may all our enemies perish" school of Prophetic exerpts (Something from Jeremiah). But the tune was pretty darn neat. The combination of having someone to sing with on Shabbat at home, and having somethign special to do with Mom was a very nice one. Afterwards we looked at an old photo album from when I was a toddler. Overall, it was a better set of shabbosdik activities for home than I've managed in a while- I hope I can repeat it.
I somehow slept through almost all of this afternoon- not sure why I've been sleeping so much: I guess I need to catch up on more sleep from this semester than I thought. This evening my folks went out for Chinese food (both then and earlier, they tried to persuade me to come with them, but it lacked much spirit, so it doesn't bother me much), and I hung around and read, and sang to myself. I usually think of singing alone as a pretty depressing thing, and sort of weird- but it gave me a chance to really hear myself, without being self-conscious. That's actually a really bad description of it. But it wasn't depressing, it was just sort of surreal.
Speaking of music, I keep getting this semi-finished tune for one of those Halleluyah psalms in my head. (The last one in the series of them in Pesukei D'Zimra, that ends with "kol hanshama t'halel yah, halleluyah".) I don't Think it's something I learned, I think it just sort of popped up in my head, which is Darn unusual for me- I did some composing back in middle school and the beginning of high school, but I haven't done any since then, or even really thought about it. I'm not a serious musician of any sort. But if it sticks around much longer, I'm likely to try to write it down, because like my dreams, these thigns tend to hang around until I write them, and then they stop bugging me. On the other hand, I have this unrealistic dream that it might actually turn out to be something good that I could actually use and sing with people.
And of course, this evening was full of interesting, if likely tacky, ideas that I couldn't write down and now can't remember. That is quite likely for the best, although I thoguht they were pretty interesting at the time. I just started reading Jewish Reneral by Michael Lerner, which is coming across as a bit tacky and new age-y for my tastes, but with the occasional really interesting idea. But focusing on it isn't so easy- it sends me off on daydreams really frequently. But I think I'll give it a shot anyways- it's an itneresting idea that I ought to know more about, and the book must have some value- I bought it for a paper for Professor Kimmelman, although I ended up doing the other option for that paper, and thus not reading it then.