Oli came to visit me for Yom Kippur, which was awesome. As we walked through Case on our way to dinner, Liz asked, "Are you guys coming to the SAFER meeting?"
"Uh, we're gonna be in services."
". . . oh, right. I'm a bad Jew."
Dinner was a lot of fun, we just sat at a table by ourselves and cracked each other up. Unfortunately, I ate chicken, because the vegetarian option was eggplant. (I'm allergic.)
Later that night we stopped by the coffee house/open mic event on the Gender and Orientation Safe Living Floor. Tiphony was doing an awesome job as MC. Loe Lee and some dude I don't know performed songs with guitars, another dude read a poem in tribute to Phillip Eckstein. Then Jacob read a really long poem from my Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Poetry, and Tiph read some comedy from a book she has. Everyone enjoyed the desserts Andrew drove me over to Price Chopper to buy -- except Oli and me, of course, 'cause we were fasting.
We hung out with Ezra late into the night and slept so late the next day that we missed morning services. Instead, we went for a walk on the North Woods path right around the edge of campus. Back at Tower we discussed the meaning of tshuva and wow I left all my Jew books at home.
That evening, thanks to the rabbis of Temple Sinai, I got to blow a shofar! There was a whole crowd of shofar-blowers. All of them were male except for me. (Isn't that weird? I've never thought about shofar-blowing as some masculine thing.) We met right outside of the theater doors to strategize about where each of us would stand. The boy was going to start off because he was nervous about missing his cue, I would go next, and then everyone else, in a domino effect around the room. At the last minute, a middle aged woman who hadn't been at the meeting joined us, standing between me and the boy. She was supposed to go after him, but faltered, so I was still next. I did a really good job, and let me tell you, fasting + shofar = big adrenaline rush!
We broke fast with bagels and brownies, then made an appearance at Trembling Before G-d. I dragged Sabrina in to watch with us, and Ez came to meet us, too. We made jokes during the movie -- because otherwise it's too depressing. Oli and I hung out with Amanda and Ez for a bit, then Oli left. I always miss that kid so much. I went back to have Ezra kick my ass in Super Mario.
The next night was a very friendly Shabbat! And I felt like I knew people, like Dave and um now I know more people because we all introduced ourselves. I made the Minyan. And what else. So much Jew-ing. At Gayme night, I taught Mariel to play DDR, played Boggle with Danny S. and a ton more people. I love playing Boggle with Danny, Ultimate Boggle Master!
Saturday I bought a lot of crap at the mall, got back to school and ate meal exchange with Julio while watching . . . something weird, then socialized @ the SAGA house. Fuckin WEIRD experience, watching 'Trannyfags' (the porn) with all these random people, who were all very confused and asking questions like, "So wait, are they women or men?"
After the event crowd left, we watched
Spirited Away, a movie so heartwarming that it's cheesey. Amanda is super generous and bought everyone food.
