Two things to recap for April: the eclipse & Passover
Our area had a complete solar eclipse earlier this month. A lot of businesses shut down for the day of it, but mine was open. We all had lunch outside while it was happening. My managers bought a big tray of pulled pork and hamburger buns, and everybody else brought sides or desserts. I bought strawberries and moon pies that I found on an eclipse-themed endcap in the grocery store. (They were actually not that good.) One of my coworkers played an eclipse-themed playlist on Spotify on her phone, and it was a fun time eating and talking and watching it get darker.
We were in totality for a just few minutes around 2pm. My coworker L----- thought it would get as black as midnight, which it didn't, but it did get about as dark as twilight, which was very weird and cool to see in the afternoon. Totality is the only time that you can safely take off the glasses and look at the sun, and it really did look just like eclipses that you see in movies. The temperature cooled off quite a bit (which I wasn't expecting), and the insects started humming like they do at twilight. The birds got quiet and the streetlights came on. I wouldn't have traveled much out of my way for it like some people did, but I am glad that I got to experience it. I had never been through an eclipse before.
Everybody here had been talking about the eclipse nonstop leading up to it, so afterwards, there was kinda this "what now?" feeling that was almost funny. One dumb coworker thought we should be off work that day in case the roads were shut down (there were all kind of crazy rumors about traffic and everything else). She looked absolutely stunned when A--- said that we would be open as usual, and I was tempted to laugh at her. The morning of the eclipse, my manager texted us all after he got to work, "And by the way, there was no traffic AT ALL." Haha.
My temple's congregational Passover seder was at the end of the month, and that was a good time, too. I wound up sitting next to our current temple president and a family that I'd never met who had never been to a seder before. Rabbi B---- hosts every year, and he usually walks around the room with a microphone, handing it off to people and asking them to read pieces from the haggadah so that everyone can participate. This year was a little different because his microphone was tethered to the speaker, so we had to get up and go to him instead. When he called me up, I told him, "This year tethered, next year free, Rabbi," and he about died laughing! The caterers once again served chicken instead of brisket for dinner, but I wasn't quite as disappointed since I knew about it ahead of time this year. Last year was the first year they'd done that, and happening right after the tornado when I was already crazy-stressed, I almost had a breakdown! I also ate a ton of charoset and matzoh (I can eat my weight in charoset), and between that and the dinner and dessert food, I was really stuffed when I got home. Best of all, I got to play Miriam by hiding the afikommen in my purse, which I'd never done before!
We were in totality for a just few minutes around 2pm. My coworker L----- thought it would get as black as midnight, which it didn't, but it did get about as dark as twilight, which was very weird and cool to see in the afternoon. Totality is the only time that you can safely take off the glasses and look at the sun, and it really did look just like eclipses that you see in movies. The temperature cooled off quite a bit (which I wasn't expecting), and the insects started humming like they do at twilight. The birds got quiet and the streetlights came on. I wouldn't have traveled much out of my way for it like some people did, but I am glad that I got to experience it. I had never been through an eclipse before.
Everybody here had been talking about the eclipse nonstop leading up to it, so afterwards, there was kinda this "what now?" feeling that was almost funny. One dumb coworker thought we should be off work that day in case the roads were shut down (there were all kind of crazy rumors about traffic and everything else). She looked absolutely stunned when A--- said that we would be open as usual, and I was tempted to laugh at her. The morning of the eclipse, my manager texted us all after he got to work, "And by the way, there was no traffic AT ALL." Haha.
My temple's congregational Passover seder was at the end of the month, and that was a good time, too. I wound up sitting next to our current temple president and a family that I'd never met who had never been to a seder before. Rabbi B---- hosts every year, and he usually walks around the room with a microphone, handing it off to people and asking them to read pieces from the haggadah so that everyone can participate. This year was a little different because his microphone was tethered to the speaker, so we had to get up and go to him instead. When he called me up, I told him, "This year tethered, next year free, Rabbi," and he about died laughing! The caterers once again served chicken instead of brisket for dinner, but I wasn't quite as disappointed since I knew about it ahead of time this year. Last year was the first year they'd done that, and happening right after the tornado when I was already crazy-stressed, I almost had a breakdown! I also ate a ton of charoset and matzoh (I can eat my weight in charoset), and between that and the dinner and dessert food, I was really stuffed when I got home. Best of all, I got to play Miriam by hiding the afikommen in my purse, which I'd never done before!