the Z room works

I felt kind of crappy when I woke up this morning. (Can't tell, but it's possible I'm catching a cold.) Things got better after I got moving (and drank large quantities of water and a quart of OJ). But I also haven't been sleeping well, because Dani's snoring has gotten worse and he keeps waking me up (or delaying my getting to sleep in the first place). Mid-afternoon, I was feeling pretty cruddy and was contemplating just going home.

But we have a magic room at MAYA, so I tried that first. It's a small room with a "Z" on the door. It contains a bed, comfy pillows, an alarm clock, and a "do not disturb until <time>" sign to hang on the door. It's an interior room, so almost no daylight gets in.

Half an hour in the Z room made an enormous difference!

I know that's what it's there for (and it's HR-endorsed, not a clandestine engineering-group thing), but I still felt kind of sheepish using it -- I scouted the hallway when entering and leaving, etc. Maybe what I'm waiting for is evidence that other people actually use it too.

services and stuff

Our Thursday-evening service (I won't use the word "minyan" because it usually isn't) is usually small. Tonight when I got there the chapel was dark and no one else was around, but I'd seen no notice of cancellation. So I turned on the lights and sat there until a couple minutes past the start time, at which point I figured that *I* would daven even if no one else came. About 10 minutes later the associate rabbi walked in about two sentences before the shift from comfortable Hebrew to uncomfortable Hebrew. I complimented him on his timing and suggested he take over. :-) (And hey, I got my own private mini-sermon!)

I talked to Rabbi Berkun this morning. My next time there for Shabbat evening will be January 4. Maybe I'll learn another psalm by then.

Tomorrow Susan (the friend from the net who came for Shabbat dinner a couple weeks ago) is converting. She invited me to a ceremony and then a party. (Well, there will be services in there, but Rodef's are short. And early.) I don't want to miss services at Sinai for a third week in a row (which would make four because of a conflict next weekend), and the congregational choir will be participating there tomorrow night and I like to be there for those. So what I'm going to do is to go to the ceremony and Rodef's services, then go to the party (across the street) until half an hour before Sinai's services, and then walk to Sinai. (It's about a mile, with some hill-climbing.) Rodef is about two miles away, but the ceremony starts around the time Shabbat does, so I can hop a bus down there. I should get to spend about an hour and a half at the party (and meet Susan's family). I hope this plan works as well in practice as it does in my mind. :-) But hey, conversions are cause for celebration, and this is actually the first such that I've been invited to. I'm looking forward to it.