Jew in the City
So I decided to play the good little Jewish boy routine today since it's shabbat and I haven't been to synagogue in forever. I got all decked out and went to the closest synagogue because it was raining and I didn't feel like hiking forever while getting soaked. I knew it was an orthodox synagogue but I carried an umbrella anyway, gambling that the upper west side probably has an eruv. Turns out I was right. I got there a little early and it took a while for things to get started but I did ok following along in the art scroll. Thank goodness for all the practice I got at chabad in Davis and Sacramento. I felt pretty good about being at the service since I was really starting to miss some semblance of Judaism in my life lately. It was good to get connected again. Being observant in the city makes a lot of sense now, since life is so crazy during the week that it feels right to take a day of rest. It isn't like California where nothing is happening except on weekends. Anyway, I went to one of the service leaders after davening and asked if anyone might be able to take me in for shabbat dinner. I was surprised when he asked half a dozen people and they all said no. Finally an elderly Russian woman named Nina agreed to take me in. She lived very nearby and we walked to her apartment with a younger friend of hers who was in the process of converting. Dinner was nothing extravagant but it was homey and we kept up a good conversation. I was the only male so I was asked to lead kiddush and again thanks to my Hillel days, I pulled it off without embarrassing myself. I was doing a great job of passing myself off as orthodox until two girls from Seattle arrived who were staying with Nina and had been further downtown for services. I think they figured out I'm conservative somehow, but they were very nice and invited me to lunch at some Rabbi's house tomorrow. The girls were pretty frum and had New York accents in spite of being from the west coast. Maybe I'll keep this up, moonlighting as an observant Jew. It's sort of fun. Oh, I totally forgot to mention the rest of my day. I had the maid come and it took her 4.5 hours to clean up this sty. It also set me back $81 but my roommates are supposed to be reimbursing me. While she cleaned I did my laundry and tidied my room. I tried to go to the gym where I ot a free subscription, but it turned out to be all the way on the other side of town and I wasn't willing to try to get to the East side and back before shabbat. I managed to break a cuff link while putting on a new shirt with french sleeves which was sad, because not only do I have to get the cuff link fixed, I also couldn't wear the shirt. I guess that's about it for today, I'd better get some sleep so I'm up in time for services, or at least for that luncheon!
