Musings about this week
I miss color. I just realized this on Friday when I walked out of the house without my glasses, for the first time in many years. After walking for a few minutes, I put a strand of hair behind my ear and realized that something was weird, but it hadn't really occured to me before then. I don't need glasses that much, except for distance, but I'm too lazy to be taking them off and putting them on every few minutes so I usually keep them on all the time.
It's strange though, colors are so much more vibrant with them off. Vivid greens and blacks pop out of the landscape, and reds oranges yellows vie for attention. Everything looks so much more real and alive. I could have turned around and gone back home, but I didn't want to be late for my class, so I went through my day without them. It was weird. Everyone and everything was no longer behind a barrier. It was harder to focus, because I remind myself to focus by pushing my glasses further up my nose.
Interesting that it was also the first day I've been really relaxed in a long time. I didn't have homework due, and I only had a recitation, a celebratory lunch, TAing for a lab, an info session for a club, and Hillel. While it was busy, I really wasn't on the spot for anything. Maybe it helps that it was the day after Yom Kippur, when I spent all day at Hillel, worrying about nothing more than making sure people were properly cued for readings and whether or not to change the printed "King" to "Sovereign" and "Lord" to "God". Okay, so the leather sandal debate did get rather heated at times :)
Yom Kippur was amazing. We stayed in the lounge for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, since we didn't get over 120 people for any given service. I didn't mind, it was nice and cozy, and the way we had it set up, the covered pool table was a big lectern with the Torah covered with a tallis on one side. The rabbinical student stood on one side, with chairs set up on two others, and a bench on the third where those of us who were helping with the service sat. In the end, we were all seated in a circle around the Torah, so when we bowed, we were all bowing toward the center. What a difference from sitting way back where you can barely hear the rabbi, nevermind see the Torah!
Also, because we were such a small group (and didn't have a choir!) everyone who wanted to could sing along with most melodies. I particularly enjoyed that, since at home I will sing along with the choir anyway :)
Anyway, something about Yom Kippur finally seems to have broken the most recent buildup of stress. Maybe it was the long walk in the park with two friends and the rabbinical student, putting her on the spot with the Ten Top Questions in Reform Judaism Today while she was fasting. Or maybe not just not thinking about homework. I don't know. It worked. I'm so glad that the major High Holidays are over though, since I've been working on planning them since the summer. Also, effective the day after Yom Kippur, I am no longer Shabbat and Holidays co-chair at Hillel, which should take a lot of stress out of my life. I love helping out with Shabbat, but it's a big job, and it was becoming more work than fun, especially since the Shabbat dinners are getting to be 180-200 people every Friday!
Other than that, this weekend I've been procrastinating. Yesterday I repotted my garden into two window boxes, so now the basil plants have more room to grow. Should last them a few months at least, they grow so fast!! And today I cleaned my room, and have gotten basically no homework done, but I do feel a lot better about the state of my room. Sometimes I just can't work when it is messy. Or when I'm procrastinating by writing a journal entry. Hmm. Okay, off to do work.
It's strange though, colors are so much more vibrant with them off. Vivid greens and blacks pop out of the landscape, and reds oranges yellows vie for attention. Everything looks so much more real and alive. I could have turned around and gone back home, but I didn't want to be late for my class, so I went through my day without them. It was weird. Everyone and everything was no longer behind a barrier. It was harder to focus, because I remind myself to focus by pushing my glasses further up my nose.
Interesting that it was also the first day I've been really relaxed in a long time. I didn't have homework due, and I only had a recitation, a celebratory lunch, TAing for a lab, an info session for a club, and Hillel. While it was busy, I really wasn't on the spot for anything. Maybe it helps that it was the day after Yom Kippur, when I spent all day at Hillel, worrying about nothing more than making sure people were properly cued for readings and whether or not to change the printed "King" to "Sovereign" and "Lord" to "God". Okay, so the leather sandal debate did get rather heated at times :)
Yom Kippur was amazing. We stayed in the lounge for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, since we didn't get over 120 people for any given service. I didn't mind, it was nice and cozy, and the way we had it set up, the covered pool table was a big lectern with the Torah covered with a tallis on one side. The rabbinical student stood on one side, with chairs set up on two others, and a bench on the third where those of us who were helping with the service sat. In the end, we were all seated in a circle around the Torah, so when we bowed, we were all bowing toward the center. What a difference from sitting way back where you can barely hear the rabbi, nevermind see the Torah!
Also, because we were such a small group (and didn't have a choir!) everyone who wanted to could sing along with most melodies. I particularly enjoyed that, since at home I will sing along with the choir anyway :)
Anyway, something about Yom Kippur finally seems to have broken the most recent buildup of stress. Maybe it was the long walk in the park with two friends and the rabbinical student, putting her on the spot with the Ten Top Questions in Reform Judaism Today while she was fasting. Or maybe not just not thinking about homework. I don't know. It worked. I'm so glad that the major High Holidays are over though, since I've been working on planning them since the summer. Also, effective the day after Yom Kippur, I am no longer Shabbat and Holidays co-chair at Hillel, which should take a lot of stress out of my life. I love helping out with Shabbat, but it's a big job, and it was becoming more work than fun, especially since the Shabbat dinners are getting to be 180-200 people every Friday!
Other than that, this weekend I've been procrastinating. Yesterday I repotted my garden into two window boxes, so now the basil plants have more room to grow. Should last them a few months at least, they grow so fast!! And today I cleaned my room, and have gotten basically no homework done, but I do feel a lot better about the state of my room. Sometimes I just can't work when it is messy. Or when I'm procrastinating by writing a journal entry. Hmm. Okay, off to do work.