it’s fall so it’s raining

Last week we had the remains of Gustav, now it’s just raining for raining’s sake.

I had a pretty good weekend.  I was able to run errands and discovered a near-ish by home depot and Whole Foods.  The Whole Foods is good because I can buy cases of soy milk  boxes (individual sized) for cheaper. I also managed to stock up at Trader Joes and visit a nice Borders (just to kill time).

Dinner was with friends in Lakeview at Pompeii Bakery. The restaurant hearkens back to the day when there was only 1 in Little Italy. It’s a nice place but their speed of service (for an order-at-the counter type) is pretty irregular. Allison and I went to the original in Little Italy a couple of years ago (when we saw Wicked). After dinner we wandered around the neighborhood, stopping in at both Borders and Barnes and Noble. What can I say, we like books! It was startling to realize that instead of the requisite Badger gear that I’m used to seeing around there was Cubs gear! Strange…

Sunday was a busy day. I had religious school orientation in the Gold Coast, so I took the bus and El from Hyde Park for the first time. I got down there on a Sunday in 45 minutes, which was quite encouraging. The orientation was fun. I liked that it included all the madrichim (high school aides) and the teachers. The teachers were all friendly and interesting. It was a much more social experience than I had in Madison. We did ice breakers and broke off into our teaching teams. I have 4 madrichim for my 24 kids, but only 2 were there. They’re both basketball players! so, in our “team” photo, I said that they should stand on each side of me like tall bookends. They probably thought I was weird. During the orientation, it was emphasized repeatedly that kids come to this congregation with varying degrees of Jewish experience and have so many different family structures (both dual/single parent/lgbt/adopted homes but also varying types of interfaith and nationalities). I really liked that emphasis. And there were role-plays done to illustrate what kids might think from what you might say. Good reminders all around. And, before going to orientation, I had already planned on making my first lesson about the diversity of observance/practice in Reform Judaism (the first denomination on our comparative journey). So, that was fun and the bagels/food spread were amazing.

At 5 (busy day!) I had my first rehearsal with Lakeside Pride (yay!) It was so nice to be cheerfully welcomed back. The band has changed so much, especially since they’re involved in search for a new conductor. I really liked the old one, but I understand that he needed to do other things with his time. The conductor team seemed to run smoothly and I got to talk to people I should have met before. My whole section changed while I was gone. Mostly, because people now have kids and are too busy for band. I like the guys in my section, they seem very nice and fun. The organization has more men than women, unfortunately, that’s the way it’s always been. There’s an “ok” amount of ethnic diversity, but the gender balance leans towards the men. My section used to have 3 women, not it’s just me! And the Trombones are currently even…tubas just guys. It’s fun to sit on the top of the risers and look down….

This week is more Hebrew and prep for my first religious school class. Now,if it would only stop raining…