I finally did it!

I plucked up the courage to meet with the rabbi of the synagogue I've been attending for the past 5 months to talk about conversion. We talked about the long, slow process of disconnection that I've had with certain aspects of Christianity over the past few years, how I started getting interested in Judaism, how I see Torah and the Law fitting in with my everyday life, and my opinions on the roles assigned to men and women in Judaism (because boy, do I have opinions on gender equality!)

Conversion classes don't officially start until late winter/early spring, but I've got a great reading list to get started on and I've ordered the Torah and commentary that the rabbi recommended (which will quite conveniently arrive the week of Simchat Torah, so I can start from the beginning with everyone else).

I'm so relieved that this first official step is taken care of!

Wow, I feel like a normal person!

Tonight I finally got to go see the latest Harry Potter movie. In the movie theater. Like a normal person. It's the first non-doctor-related outing I've had in a whole week! It is, however, the first time I've gone to the movies and not eaten popcorn -- I can't taste it. So I snuck in a chocolate bar instead. ;)

Cool mural

Mom never did make it inside the UN, but we really liked the mural outside...

On my own again

I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning. It's hard to believe she's been here for 7 weeks... in the beginning it was weird to have her here in my world, and now it's weird to have her gone. No more late night giggling, squeezing past two beds stuck in a 6-foot-wide room, yummy homemade meals, lost slippers...

So now it's gross and grey and rainy outside, and I've gone through all my school folders and tossed a bazillion files in the recycling and read the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and eaten a whole box of lemon cookies.

Gotta find something else to do. Maybe photo editing...

What I did today

(minus the dancing. Dancing would have been better than taking 20 different photos before getting one that was acceptable for the new non-EU foreigner cards they're giving us.)




I was number 279 today. Two-and-a-half-hour wait... average, I guess. But I have been in the OCP waaaaaaaaay too much this year.

On hold

I had a whole bunch of projects for this summer. Finish thesis. (Man, how I would like for that thesis to be finished!) Prepare presentation and defend thesis. Check out the kosher butcher and baker in town, as well as the kosher aisles in the grocery store. Start observing basic kosher rules. Start observing Shabbat (and find someone to observe with!) Talk to the rabbi (probably several times, knowing how those things go) to get set to start conversion classes.

But first I had to spend two weeks in the hospital (got out the day I was supposed to defend my thesis) and I'm working on getting better at home now. And very soon I'll be put on a medicine whose most common side effect is extreme feelings of fatigue, which make it hard to do just about anything. So I don't know how to plan anymore. And I'm the sort of person who insists on having a plan. Guess I'll have to work on that some.

Gotta get used to being on hold...

Pli interfessaire

Seriously. That's the most awesome word I've learned in a long time. It's the way the hospital refers to what is commonly known as a buttcrack. Literally, it means "inter-buttock fold". I love that. ;)