Bad Blogger

I know, I know, don't give me grief about it. I haven't updated in a while. I like to take time to reflect and write once a day, but that hasn't happened lately.

After listening to some of my very wise friends who left comments for me, I decided that now is not the best time to attempt life without my medicinal help, so I went back on the pills. The nauseua, vertigo, and general nasty feeling went away by the next day. What a relief! I had done some research on line and found that it takes about a month for the withdrawal symptoms to totally go away. I didn't think I could handle feeling like that for a month!

Last week I saw Barbra in concert. By the time it actually started I thought I might start hyperventilating with anticipation. When she actually appeared for the first time, rising from underneath the stage, I cried. I couldn't believe that I was actually seeing her live after having grown up with her incredible voice. I have always felt a connection to her. When I was younger and still dreaming of becoming a professional performer, I often compared myself to Barbra (I know, big ego back then!) thinking if she could do it being able to sing and act but NOT dance (it's hard doing a musical with little dancing ability!), then maybe so could I. And then I saw Yentl and could almost feel her love for Judaism, which made me feel even more connected. All in all, the concert was incredible, when she sang. She decided to do some political stuff, which was funny for alittle bit but than got a little much. She is touring with a group of incredible singers named Il Divo (I think - I'd never heard of them before). As good as they were, I was very disappointed when they took the stage alone and Barbra went off to rest. I paid all this money for Barbra, not them, even if they were great! Bottom line, I'm SO glad DH and I went - it was incredible!

One of the Hebrew School classes that I'm teaching this year is level "Hay", kids that will be having their Bar and Bat Mitzvah this year. There is no real curriculum, they don't even HAVE to be there as a requirement, so I have a lot of flexibility with what we do together, especially since these are obviously motivated kids. I decided to start each class with reading the current week's "parsha" or Torah portion (in English) and discussing it. Then we go into the Hebrew and read that, focusing on what words we can interpret. I've never read the Torah all the way through; I've only focused on "important" stories, so I'm really interested in doing this. I also bought myself a book called the Bedside Torah which has three different commentaries for each parsha. Traditionally you read the Torah three times a week, so there are three different "takes" on the portion to read, one for each time you read it. I just started that book last night, but since we're at the last reading of the Torah since Friday night ends Sukkot with Simchat Torah (when we finish reading the Torah and start all over again), there wasn't too much commentary. Can't wait to start at the beginning and work my way through! Now I just wish I could find a Jewish Torah study group I could join. Oh well, I recommitted to going to services on Friday nights after Shabbat dinner, that's a good first step.

And that's it for now. It's Thursday morning so four of the five are at preschool, so I was planning on getting a lot accomplished, but Baby J is not cooperating. She's been up from her nap since 10. I did have time to fold the laundry and balance the checkbook. Now I think I'll just leave the rest of the paperwork I was planning to do for later and focus on her.