happy Tishrei y'all
God, the holidays this year have been a blessing and a curse. A blessing because - so. Many. Days. Off. Rosh Hashana gave me a five-day holiday weekend; the next week was split in two due to two days off in the middle for Yom Kippur; the weekend following was a four-day holiday weekend, ending tomorrow, and the immediately following weekend will also be a four-day holiday weekend. I can't remember the last time the holidays fell so close to weekends and gave me so much time off. It's been so incredibly amazing to just have so much vacation.
A curse because, first of all, the holidays will end and even tomorrow I have no idea how I'm going to bring myself to go to work. And also because having so much time off has had me just reveling in it and not doing any of the actual reading or writing I WANT to do. All I've been doing is watching TV and movies - so many TV shows omg - and, okay, meeting family and friends, which is important, but like, I also have about a million fic tabs open, plus yuletide canon I need to review, plus recs I wanted to make, plus photos I wanted to edit, and my mind just kind of glazes over them and then goes back to "hey but this is the perfect time to watch the pilot of a show that was recommended to me five years ago why not give it a shot."
***
To wit: I wrote the first part of this post last night, and then I was like, well, I could go on writing, but I could also watch an episode of Killjoys and then be too tired to do anything else and then go to sleep. And now it is tomorrow.
*
The holidays themselves this year were, all told, pretty marvelous and mostly a whole lot of relaxing. I spent most of Rosh Hashana at home, hanging out with family. I watched a local, utterly charming, production of the musical Ordinary Days. I spent Yom Kippur at my folks' place with my mom and sister - we put together 500 pieces of my (GODDAMN) 9000-piece puzzle from China, and watched some movies, including a rewatch of Top Secret - how was Val Kilmer ever that young, Jesus - and Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was interesting: less political than I'd thought it would be, very much an imperfect directorial debut, but the historical reconstruction of British-Mandate-era Israel/Palestine was well done, and it's always interesting to see her speaking Hebrew.
In between watching new TV shows, I was satisfactorily social in Sukkot: Friday morning, I met a friend for breakfast and brainstormed the "Bucky's grandchildren" MCU AU that I will never write but want to exist. In the afternoon I met friends I haven't seen for a long, long time, who had the most enchanting baby I can remember meeting in the past few years (and the past few years have been filled with meeting babies, which I guess is what happens in your thirties.) This kid is 11 months old, and we'd never met. So his dad opens the door, holding him, and the baby just smiles at me, looks directly into my eyes, and holds his hands out for me to pick him up. Just like that! So I picked him up and he was just happy to be held and stared at my face, fascinated the entire time I was holding him. I am not used to babied looking into my eyes so closely and for so long. Like, I myself barely look people in the actual eyes when I talk to them. But this baby was like, seriously, flattering. He was very cute, bonus points he didn't cry, bonus bonus point the entire discussion with his parents did not revolve around 100% baby, so win for all.
On Saturday I spent a nice afternoon with a friend visiting from the States, who took it upon herself to deliver five boxes of Pop Tarts of which I am now the owner. And Sunday was Sukkot Eve, which ended up being great: my parents and middle sister are all abroad for the holidays this year, so baby sis and I did some errands, dropped by my grandmother's to say happy holiday, and then drove up to my cousins in the kibbutz to spend the evening with them.
The kibbutz is always such a great place to visit. First of all, because my aunt and cousins there, though I don't keep in touch regularly and usually don't see them more than maybe twice a year, are all wonderful people, and all of them have miraculously adorable (and friendly!) children.
Second, because hearing stories about the kibbutz is just such a fascinating anthropological experience. More than anything, it always reminds me of Gilmore Girls town hall politics with bonus communal services. Stories from this week included learning about the three marriages who, over the years, kind of rotated their couples so that everyone's biological children are also the others' step-children and not everyone is exactly cool with each other, which makes seating arrangements in the communal dining hall a mess. Or: the fact that the pool manager announced unilaterally that this year the pool would be closed for Yom Kippur, which caused an outrage in the kibbutz, whose secular identity is very important to it, and who did not vote on this decision, even though the same issue arose last year and apparently just no one bothered to handle it in time and make sure there was an available lifeguard for the holiday. Or the big dramatic politics over who would be the VIP ceremonial guests (in ushpizzin) at the kibbutz's sukkah this yeah, and the subtly worded arguments about it in their weekly newsletter. It's just a... slice of life I am not used to, ha.
We watched the kibbutz's annual Sukkot performance, which included various family members sprinkled throughout the ceremony; in the first-graders' dance and the fifth-graders' dance and the retired ladies dance and the cool parents' song. There were rhymes poems and readings about the kibbutz's produce this year (apparently they closed their cowshed! And also grew many tons of almonds this year. I didn't even know they farmed almonds.)
***
To wit, ahaha, I actually stopped writing mid post again yesterday, for it is now Wednesday, three days after I began to write this post. So you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and hit post now, and then next time I can focus on squeeing (squeeing! I'm BRINGING IT BACK) about Pitch and Supergirl and many other wonderful shows gracing my TV screen these day.
Happy holidays, all who celebrate <3
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A curse because, first of all, the holidays will end and even tomorrow I have no idea how I'm going to bring myself to go to work. And also because having so much time off has had me just reveling in it and not doing any of the actual reading or writing I WANT to do. All I've been doing is watching TV and movies - so many TV shows omg - and, okay, meeting family and friends, which is important, but like, I also have about a million fic tabs open, plus yuletide canon I need to review, plus recs I wanted to make, plus photos I wanted to edit, and my mind just kind of glazes over them and then goes back to "hey but this is the perfect time to watch the pilot of a show that was recommended to me five years ago why not give it a shot."
***
To wit: I wrote the first part of this post last night, and then I was like, well, I could go on writing, but I could also watch an episode of Killjoys and then be too tired to do anything else and then go to sleep. And now it is tomorrow.
*
The holidays themselves this year were, all told, pretty marvelous and mostly a whole lot of relaxing. I spent most of Rosh Hashana at home, hanging out with family. I watched a local, utterly charming, production of the musical Ordinary Days. I spent Yom Kippur at my folks' place with my mom and sister - we put together 500 pieces of my (GODDAMN) 9000-piece puzzle from China, and watched some movies, including a rewatch of Top Secret - how was Val Kilmer ever that young, Jesus - and Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was interesting: less political than I'd thought it would be, very much an imperfect directorial debut, but the historical reconstruction of British-Mandate-era Israel/Palestine was well done, and it's always interesting to see her speaking Hebrew.
In between watching new TV shows, I was satisfactorily social in Sukkot: Friday morning, I met a friend for breakfast and brainstormed the "Bucky's grandchildren" MCU AU that I will never write but want to exist. In the afternoon I met friends I haven't seen for a long, long time, who had the most enchanting baby I can remember meeting in the past few years (and the past few years have been filled with meeting babies, which I guess is what happens in your thirties.) This kid is 11 months old, and we'd never met. So his dad opens the door, holding him, and the baby just smiles at me, looks directly into my eyes, and holds his hands out for me to pick him up. Just like that! So I picked him up and he was just happy to be held and stared at my face, fascinated the entire time I was holding him. I am not used to babied looking into my eyes so closely and for so long. Like, I myself barely look people in the actual eyes when I talk to them. But this baby was like, seriously, flattering. He was very cute, bonus points he didn't cry, bonus bonus point the entire discussion with his parents did not revolve around 100% baby, so win for all.
On Saturday I spent a nice afternoon with a friend visiting from the States, who took it upon herself to deliver five boxes of Pop Tarts of which I am now the owner. And Sunday was Sukkot Eve, which ended up being great: my parents and middle sister are all abroad for the holidays this year, so baby sis and I did some errands, dropped by my grandmother's to say happy holiday, and then drove up to my cousins in the kibbutz to spend the evening with them.
The kibbutz is always such a great place to visit. First of all, because my aunt and cousins there, though I don't keep in touch regularly and usually don't see them more than maybe twice a year, are all wonderful people, and all of them have miraculously adorable (and friendly!) children.
Second, because hearing stories about the kibbutz is just such a fascinating anthropological experience. More than anything, it always reminds me of Gilmore Girls town hall politics with bonus communal services. Stories from this week included learning about the three marriages who, over the years, kind of rotated their couples so that everyone's biological children are also the others' step-children and not everyone is exactly cool with each other, which makes seating arrangements in the communal dining hall a mess. Or: the fact that the pool manager announced unilaterally that this year the pool would be closed for Yom Kippur, which caused an outrage in the kibbutz, whose secular identity is very important to it, and who did not vote on this decision, even though the same issue arose last year and apparently just no one bothered to handle it in time and make sure there was an available lifeguard for the holiday. Or the big dramatic politics over who would be the VIP ceremonial guests (in ushpizzin) at the kibbutz's sukkah this yeah, and the subtly worded arguments about it in their weekly newsletter. It's just a... slice of life I am not used to, ha.
We watched the kibbutz's annual Sukkot performance, which included various family members sprinkled throughout the ceremony; in the first-graders' dance and the fifth-graders' dance and the retired ladies dance and the cool parents' song. There were rhymes poems and readings about the kibbutz's produce this year (apparently they closed their cowshed! And also grew many tons of almonds this year. I didn't even know they farmed almonds.)
***
To wit, ahaha, I actually stopped writing mid post again yesterday, for it is now Wednesday, three days after I began to write this post. So you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and hit post now, and then next time I can focus on squeeing (squeeing! I'm BRINGING IT BACK) about Pitch and Supergirl and many other wonderful shows gracing my TV screen these day.
Happy holidays, all who celebrate <3
comments on Dreamwidth.