cellio | interviewed by alienor

1. You seem to be more observant than Dani. Does this create any tension in your relationship? How do you deal with it (if yes)?

It creates challenges -- mostly not between us directly, but in matters involving his family. Their expectations of the Passover seder are rather different from mine, for instance, but they really want everyone to be together. We're still working that one out. And when we visit, their intentions are good for accommodating my Shabbat/holiday needs, but they don't have the habits and sometimes there are awkward moments as a result. For example, they'll plan to go to a restaurant on Saturday before sundown, not because they're rude but because they just don't automatically check sun times when making plans, and then I'll have to ask them to modify the plans or go without me, and then we work it out 'cause they're good people who want to be inclusive. (Well, there's one exception, but she's not a significant factor.)

With Dani himself, there have been some strains as he's gotten used to observance and I've gotten used to what he doesn't instinctively know, but I think we're in pretty good shape now. We just have to educate each other and never assume negative motives. During the early years he didn't grok some of the Shabbat issues, for instance, but he does now. We are not yet on the same page with respect to kashrut, but we've also agreed that he won't cook without my supervision, so that's fine. (Mostly he's not inclined to cook, and we have some non-kosher utensils in the basement that he's free to go wild with if he wants to make something problematic. The last time he wanted to do something that required them was for an SCA project several years ago.)

2. You and Dani have two Cruise tickets for anywhere. Where do you go?

Well, I'd discuss it with him, but my vote is going to be for someplace with ice (Alaska, Antarctica, Iceland...) or waterfalls. They're pretty, and I'm not much of a beach person (which seems to be the other common motif).

3. If you could start over fresh out of high school (but knowing what you know now), would you go to school (not sure what they call it) to be a rabbi instead of programming?

I would almost certainly go to seminary, yes. The ones I'm familiar with (that would teach women) require a bachelor's degree first to get in and don't seem to be picky about what that degree is in, so I suppose I could do both. I think there are some similarities between the studies of computer science and Jewish law, actually. :-) (I actually made almost that argument in my application to the para-rabbinic program...)

4. Is there a part of the SCA that you wish you could keep, if the bureaucracy and scheduling conflicts weren't an issue?

I'm not dumping the SCA, though I'm certainly scaling way back. If not for the scheduling issues and bureacracy/politics, I would like to cook more feasts. I never really got a long run at that, so I never had the chance to overdo it. :-) (Contrast with autocratting, which I'm not likely to go back to.)

If we weren't all so busy, and we had performance opportunities (that now would tend to pose Shabbat issues), I would also enjoy getting my music ensemble back together.

5. What little (almost inconsequential) part of your day do you enjoy the most? (like maybe the first spray of your morning shower, hug from your sweetie after a long day, whatever).

Two: the good-night kiss, and petting the cats when they hop up on the bed in the morning before I get up.