Done Atoned for those sins
Yom Kippur means simply the day of atonement – atone for your sins. Check. I woke up pleasantly without the barrage of consumer electronics – blackberry, instant message, cell phone, home phone – and the day unraveled in a good way – I think everyone needs to take at least one of these days a year – look back over your year, figure out what went wrong and what went right, and make some personal goals for the new year. Fasting crystalizes this purpose – quite differently than the calendar new year where on its eve you are usually tying one on and on the day itself you are most likely watching football – because you know me – it’s all football, all the time.
I wrote a lot – read a lot – went for a long swim in the pool here at the Can – I was all alone and it was nice and relaxing – I washed my hair and deep conditioned it – and around 4ish – still fasting – I went uptown to pick up a pair of jeans for my trip out West. While I was in the dressing room I heard a bunch of women outside talking and one said why aren’t you in shule today, and the other said, my husband and his buddies are out on a boat instead of at the synagogue – the other said my daughter is only half Jewish so I made her go to school since she’s at Franklin and she absolutely could not miss school. Then as I was walking out the one woman said I’m Sepharadic and I said, really?, so am I. Turns out she is one year younger than me and her sister went out with my brother many moons ago. I didn’t want to tell her he is now in prison serving pretty much a life sentence. She said, so you are not observing either and I said well I’m still fasting, but I waited till after 4 to become mercantile.
I then stopped into see C and bought a purse from her – she’s 5 months pregnant and looks radiant – big denim blue eyes and a beach ball belly. I’ve now become the documenter of her pregnancy in all its glory.
Picked up a Saints onesie for Abby and headed to Metairie for a visit. She’s a doll! And since she is only a few weeks old but owns 7 LSU outfits, a Saints outfit was just what was needed. It was good to catch up with L one on one too – in the small town that this is and has become even more so – she knows some of the people I have just met via their spouses and had interesting stories to tell. Ah, yes, small town stories, the best kind.