Tag Archives: vacation

Vacation Recharge

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St. Louis on the Mississippi river by night. J...

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Usually after a vacation I feel overwhelmed and out-of-sync.  There’s unpacking, laundry. shopping, cleaning to do and I’m all off-schedule, and also tired from all the mandatory socializing I had to do while visiting wherever-it-was.

So imagine my surprise when I realized that I’ve been on a productivity spree since returning from my recent excursion to St. Louis.  What was different this time?

  • I didn’t try to see everyone.  I saw who I saw and those I didn’t, I didn’t.  It helped that there were a lot of people out of town.  Sad that I didn’t get to see some dear friends, but it was much less stressful.
  • I actually relaxed.  I let my parents take care of the baby (when the baby let them, that is).
  • Perhaps most importantly, I was disconnected from the computer (and therefore, my bad online habits) for a whole week and so the lure of internet wasn’t as strong.  I was able to resist and therefore, be more productive.

Yes, it is hopefully a sustainable trend.  That said, I’m off to make more food for Shabbos!  Whee!

 

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It’s Hollywood, baby!

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My husband was kind enough to let me go to L.A. for six days last week, starting with erev Shabbos and ending with Thursday. I was able to attend the Shabbos Kallah and Chasunah of Maya Davidovici, which were both fabulous. I even got to help out and be a co-shomeret along the way. It was wonderful. A little weird being in 80+ degree weather in late October (I’m used to a more, um, traditional winter), but nice to not have to wear a coat and to see the sunshine so much!

It was lovely seeing Maya, Yocheved (Jackie) Engel and Sharone Reiner, three great girls I lived with at Neve and hadn’t seen since I left in June 2007. There was a certain level of surreality seeing these girls, who I strongly associate with Yerushalayim, in L.A. It was the wrong context. It was also interesting interacting as a married lady; I really noticed a difference in myself. Not anything fundamentally different, just a heightened level of contentedness, or settledness. I suppose that’s the best way to put it.

Before I left for Cali, a friend in Cleveland told me that I would be eating my way through L.A. I told her, “no, no, we don’t have money for that.” I was wrong. Well, not about the money part, but about the eating part. I ate out generally twice a day, if not more. Such good food!





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Shanah Tovah!

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Well, Rosh Hashanah has come and gone, once again. Now we are in the Ten Days of Repentance, and then there’s Yom Kippur next Wednesday night/Thursday day. Today is the Fast of Gedalia (who was a king for a very brief period of time during the first Temple Period. He was assassinated on Rosh Hashanah, and we commemorate that today with a fast). Sukkos (That’s the “Festival of Booths,” in the English lexicon, I believe) begins on the Tuesday evening following Yom Kippur. After Sukkos is finished (it lasts a week), I’m going to L.A. for six days, for a friend’s wedding. It’s a jam-packed period.

We’re coming to Memphis for the first days of Sukkos and St. Louis for Chol HaMoed/Shabbos. Then we’ll be back in Cleveland for the last days. It’s going to be fun, but I think by the time everything’s over, I’ll be ready to stay put for a little bit. I also get to prepare our house for guests, since my in-laws and grandparents-in-law are staying in our house while we’re in St. Louis (yeah, we’re visiting them on the first days, and then they’re coming to Cleveland to visit my brother- and sister-in-law during Chol HaMoed/Shabbos). I’m glad to do it, because then it means my house will be really clean. But it’s still work, so I need to get on it!

Understandably, I feel a little bit like I’m on the top of a slide and I won’t be on the bottom of the slide until the first week of November. And then we vote, so things will also be a little crazy, regardless of who is elected.

I don’t have much else to say, except that I’m holding on until everything’s finished!

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