weekend round-up
Mar. 18th, 2002 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioIn this issue: visit with Seth and Karen; Ralph's and Lori's party; Shabbat roundup.
But first...
Thursday night Dani and I went to see a "financial coach" (someone I
know through a coworker connection). This was a second meeting. He
says he's not a "planner" or a "broker"; he just helps you get information
and points you in directions you might not have thought of. At the first
meeting I asked "so how exactly do you make money?" (we pay no fees)
and he was kind of vague; I gather that some of it comes from commissions
through referrals and stuff. For example, if we didn't already have a
broker he'd help us get one; when we do wills he'll get us a lawyer; and
so on. It feels a little strange, but so far it hasn't cost us anything
and the information coming out is good, so ok.
The downside this time was that a meeting that I thought would take about an hour and a half ended up taking three (!) hours, which complicated my Shabbat pre-cook. Note to self: no more Thursday meetings with this guy; he's long-winded.
Fortunately, I had made the kugel and lentils earlier in the week, which just left the meat. I had planned to be fancier with the roast for Saturday, but ended up just rubbing it with garlic and pepper. (I cooked it in the crock pot with the lentils -- so cook for the meat and reheat for the lentils. Crock pots on timers are handy. Too bad I overcooked the roast a bit; I checked at one point and it was very rare, and then less than an hour later it was throughly medium on the way to well done and a bit tough. Oops.) I ended up making Friday's chicken on Friday after work instead of Thursday night, which worked out ok. I finished a few minutes after Seth and Karen arrived.
Spending the weekend with Seth and Karen was great fun. They got delayed on the way in (long traffic snarl -- probably an accident), but still made it about 10 minutes before candle-lighting time. This was just enough time to show them where they'd be sleeping, let them adjust lights if they wanted, and so on. (Oops, forgot to turn the electric blanket on for them.)
Lori had planned to come with us to services, and then it was going to be Ralph and Lori, and then getting their house clean for the party took longer than they thought so it ended up being neither of them. They did join us for dinner afterwards, though, which made me happy. Lori can satisfy her curiosity about services any time, but opportunities for the two of them to visit with Seth and Karen are infrequent. They did get a bit of an education about Shabbat by coming to dinner (we translated kiddush for them and stuff like that), which I think was fine with them.
I had been trying to figure out which shul to take Seth and Karen to. They belong to a Conservative shul back home, and we've got a few of those, but in the end Karen said "take us where you'd normally go" so I did. Somehow I had it in my head that they'd been to Reform services a few times before, but this turned out to be wrong. Oops. So there were some things I could have given them a heads-up about if I'd known or thought it through, but it worked out ok. It also turned out to be not a typical service for our congregation, though I didn't know that in advance. More of the music was new (and sometimes less accessible) than the norm. Rabbi Gibson bentched gomel because he just returned from Israel, and he talked a lot about things he experienced in Jerusalem (including a near miss at the cafe' that got blown up), which all added a somber tone to the evening.
Interesting comment from Rabbi Freedman, who continues to surprise me (in a good way): ok, fine, we say of the sacrifice system "we don't do that any more", but what do we do? Reform isn't about choosing whether to keep Shabbat, for example, but about choosing how. (And similarly for mitzvot in general.) I've been saying that for a few years, but I thought I was a mutant or something.
Several of the regulars who I would have liked to introduce Seth and Karen to weren't there on Friday; oh well. We hung out at the oneg for a while, and I did get to introduce them to Rabbi Gibson, at least. Then we walked home and had dinner.
We decided to go to Temple Sinai's informal service in the morning. I was worried that this might weird them out, but it seemed like it would probably be ok. What finally pushed me in this direction was the realization that if the situation were reversed, I would want them to take me to their synagogue -- or otherwise show me something unfamiliar -- rather than having them try to find a Reform shul that would be "like back home". I'd rather experience something new; it's only one week, after all. So on that basis we went to my favorite Shabbat service. They seemed to enjoy it, and I was relieved that the "goofy question" was something light rather than something profound. (Every week we go around the circle and say our names, and at the same time answer some question that Rabbi Gibson poses. That question has run the gamut from "what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?" to "where, other than the synagogue, do you connect with God?".) Torah study was interesting, and actually coincided with the parsha. :-)
Karen and I spent the afternoon talking about all sorts of things. Seth took a nap and Dani had wandered off somewhere. I had meant to go take a nap (we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before), but the conversation was interesting and I never pulled myself away from it. Then it was time for havdalah and the party.
Ralph and Lori's party was lots of fun. I got to see some Claritech folks who I hadn't seen in a while (Deirdre, Larry, Dennis, Laura, Carl), and spent some time chatting with Gregleg (NetBill coworker and all-around cool person). I played one game of Karabunde, at which I suck royally, but it was fun anyway. I heard people playing music in the family room but never quite made it in there.
We hosted Sunday dinner this week. It was small (us, Ralph and Lori, Deanna and Eli) but went well for the most part. We had lasagna and played Settlers of Katan afterward.
Re: shul density
Date: 2002-03-26 08:16 am (UTC)I haven't even considered anything on the east side of the park, and there are a lot of informal havurot, some of which probably identify themselves as Conservative...