Make your own happiness!
No more zman simchateinu, season of our happiness - time to make our own happiness as we all head into the darkness of Northern Hemisphere fall/winter. Rain has descended upon us here in British Columbia; I managed to get Sunday, Monday and Tuesday meals in my sukkah, but was rained out of almost all the rest of it. It's actually a bit sunny today, so I'm hopeful I might be able to take down my schach, the roof of my sukkah. The bamboo mats probably need to dry a bit further before I roll them up and store them for next year; roll them up wet, they rot, and that would be unfortunate. The palm leaves I stuck in under the cross-pieces all stayed up, which was fun, so I'll definitely do that again next year. (We have a small palm tree at our front door, so it was very easy to pick a whole bunch of those that were big and put them up as decoration as well as roof.)
I made it through the holiday in various levels of wellness: I think I was fine on Monday and Tuesday - yes, etrog and lulav for Hallel was fine. By Wednesday, I started being very congested, painfully congested by Thursday, and Friday morning I woke up with painful throat, definitely from post-nasal drip. Saturday was a little better, and Sunday morning I woke up with no pain, which was nearly surreal in its relief. I'm still a bit congested, but it's well within acceptable parameters now. Benito has been congested for what seems like weeks, but mostly not productively, and never got a headache or fever or body ache, so that's fantastic.
Simchat Torah was very joyous indeed: Monday night we came to synagogue and I mostly sang and did a little dancing, but my primary job was leading the singing as everyone circled and danced with Torah scrolls. My voice came through; I'm told I sounded mostly normal but it sounded really abnormal to me - plugged ears from the inside. *sigh* I do wish more people came for the event! There were what I would call the standard families (myself, 3 families of Bergers, the Felgars, the Halperins, the co-president of the congregation and her family) plus a number of other older-generation regulars. I wish more Hebrew school families took the time for it. It started at 7, and we were done by 8:30. I would call it quite short, and our congregation doesn't do anything on the actual 8th day. We planned it last year, but cancelled because we know we wouldn't have enough people to make it work. I decided to bring Benito to Sukkot camp (activities for the kids who would otherwise be at the Richmond Jewish Day School, or whose parents decided to bring them) for the 3 days it ran, including the day with no services. He had a good time once he let himself participate. I think it was worth it for him.
I invited the Felgars over for dinner on Thursday night. I made lasagna, which everyone loved last year, but not so much this year. I'll make a different comfort food next year - I'm thinking two different versions of mac&cheese, one for kids and one for adults. *grin* A good time was had by all; Benito got to play with his age-mate with trains and Lego and Minecraft critters, while Rick talked about his Minecraft stuff with the 9-year-old. I got to talk with my friends the parents. }:- >
Thanks to a rather lazy day on Tuesday, I don't feel bad today. I did an hour of chores and then a lot of hours of lounging. I haven't had a vacation day like that in ... a very very long time.
Now it's back to work, back to reality: lots of documents to process, exemptions, requests from chairs or instructors, plus appointments, plus on Friday I'll be working the Open House on the Richmond campus, and next Monday I'm taking a day trip to another university to train for how we're working together on the Prior Learning and Recognition (PLAR) process for our students here. It's complicated, hence the need for training. Registration for our "spring" semester starts November 12th, so we'll be flooded with appointments before that, and we're still training the new part-time advisor. We're carving pumpkins on Oct. 30th, but I didn't realize I have my next periodontist appointment at that time (where I might be getting my abutment onto which the crown is attached?), so I'll be buying the pumkins, setting up the room, and then leaving. ~/wa waa/~ I guess I'll have to carve some pumpkins on my own time this year.
This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/725220.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I made it through the holiday in various levels of wellness: I think I was fine on Monday and Tuesday - yes, etrog and lulav for Hallel was fine. By Wednesday, I started being very congested, painfully congested by Thursday, and Friday morning I woke up with painful throat, definitely from post-nasal drip. Saturday was a little better, and Sunday morning I woke up with no pain, which was nearly surreal in its relief. I'm still a bit congested, but it's well within acceptable parameters now. Benito has been congested for what seems like weeks, but mostly not productively, and never got a headache or fever or body ache, so that's fantastic.
Simchat Torah was very joyous indeed: Monday night we came to synagogue and I mostly sang and did a little dancing, but my primary job was leading the singing as everyone circled and danced with Torah scrolls. My voice came through; I'm told I sounded mostly normal but it sounded really abnormal to me - plugged ears from the inside. *sigh* I do wish more people came for the event! There were what I would call the standard families (myself, 3 families of Bergers, the Felgars, the Halperins, the co-president of the congregation and her family) plus a number of other older-generation regulars. I wish more Hebrew school families took the time for it. It started at 7, and we were done by 8:30. I would call it quite short, and our congregation doesn't do anything on the actual 8th day. We planned it last year, but cancelled because we know we wouldn't have enough people to make it work. I decided to bring Benito to Sukkot camp (activities for the kids who would otherwise be at the Richmond Jewish Day School, or whose parents decided to bring them) for the 3 days it ran, including the day with no services. He had a good time once he let himself participate. I think it was worth it for him.
I invited the Felgars over for dinner on Thursday night. I made lasagna, which everyone loved last year, but not so much this year. I'll make a different comfort food next year - I'm thinking two different versions of mac&cheese, one for kids and one for adults. *grin* A good time was had by all; Benito got to play with his age-mate with trains and Lego and Minecraft critters, while Rick talked about his Minecraft stuff with the 9-year-old. I got to talk with my friends the parents. }:- >
Thanks to a rather lazy day on Tuesday, I don't feel bad today. I did an hour of chores and then a lot of hours of lounging. I haven't had a vacation day like that in ... a very very long time.
Now it's back to work, back to reality: lots of documents to process, exemptions, requests from chairs or instructors, plus appointments, plus on Friday I'll be working the Open House on the Richmond campus, and next Monday I'm taking a day trip to another university to train for how we're working together on the Prior Learning and Recognition (PLAR) process for our students here. It's complicated, hence the need for training. Registration for our "spring" semester starts November 12th, so we'll be flooded with appointments before that, and we're still training the new part-time advisor. We're carving pumpkins on Oct. 30th, but I didn't realize I have my next periodontist appointment at that time (where I might be getting my abutment onto which the crown is attached?), so I'll be buying the pumkins, setting up the room, and then leaving. ~/wa waa/~ I guess I'll have to carve some pumpkins on my own time this year.
This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/725220.html. Please comment there using OpenID.