We had a lay leader at Shabbat services tonight, and only a very small crowd turned out. (And guess what? Our social hall still smells like pickles!) While we were all leaving, Maggie decided to climb up on my bike seat -- which isn't easy when you have such short legs -- and I pushed her around. I was impressed, because I tried to get her to sit ( Read more... )

You all know where Rebecca's priorities lie -- in her stomach! These are three recently-discovered foods that I'm thankful for:

1) Sweet and salty peanut granola bars. The perfect snack to eat at work.
2) Blueberry waffles. I don't really like blueberries by themselves, but put them in waffles, pancakes, or muffins, and they're my new best friends.
3 ( Read more... )

I got the call from my mom about an hour ago. My grandma died about two hours ago.

"We do best homage to our dead when we live our lives most fully, even in the shadow of our loss." This is a line from The Blessing of Memory, one of the prayers we read before Kaddish in our siddur. It always reminds me of this scene between Ponette and her mother at ( Read more... )

What a weekend! I was off work, but I feel like I hardly slowed down at all. I spent Saturday evening with some friends from temple, Cheryl and her little girl, Maggie. We went out and all ate breakfast foods for dinner, then browsed in a lovely store that was all decked out for the holidays. Seriously, I should've taken a picture of all the ( Read more... )

My first High Holy Days as an official Jew are still rolling on. After the Rosh Hashanah morning services, a very small group of us met at the lake for a tashlich, a Jewish ritual of going to a body of water and throwing bread to the ducks or seagulls. (That's right, the Jews have a name for that.) We couldn't stay for long before a fierce ( Read more... )

Between becoming a Jew, celebrating it, working the back-to-school season, and trying to finish my ficathon, Rebecca's been pretty busy these past few days. I'm off work today, so I'm going to try to recap what's been happening.

( Official Conversion, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 )

Rebecca had her first Purim celebration this weekend. It was held at the temple in Lafayette, and folks from the temples here and in New Iberia all drove there for it. (What does it say about Jews in Acadiana that people had to come from three different cities to get a decent Purim crowd?) I was in a van with two grown-ups and six kids, ranging in ( Read more... )

I didn't see too many Oscar movies this year, so on Saturday night, I did my laundry and watched Inception with Adam. It has the amazing Marion Cotillard in it, so I'd been meaning to see it forever, and I'm so glad I finally did. I had expected it to be confusing and weird, but it was confusing and awesome! I was on the edge of my seat for much of ( Read more... )

Sara is still in North Carolina. Rather than postcards, she's been sending me text messages:

Sara: Going to a restaurant that serves goat cheese pizza. Wish I could bring some back to you.
Me: She out there eating my goat cheese and having a fine time and I'm stuck here with these lousy music lessons and I hate them! (A parody of "The Parent Trap.")

( Read more... )

In all the complaining I did yesterday, I forgot to mention two awesome things that happened on Monday. I went by the house to drop off two movies of Adam's, and as I was walking up the driveway, the cutest little puppies came running up like they'd been expecting me. They were poodles, I think, and the sweetest little balls of fur you ever saw. ( ( Read more... )